Demon Legacy

Inside of a restroom on the third year student's floor.

Raphael and his cronies were currently hiding here. After the embarrassing moment they had fled here to get away from the contempt in peoples eyes. Being identified as bumpkins and having everyone turn on them was really too shameful.

"Hey boss it doesn't matter what those rich kids say."

"Yeah fuck it, we don't need to worry about them."

The three boys were squatting in the middle of the restroom. Raphael's friends were trying to calm him down, but he wasn't listening to anything they said.

"Just wait, just wait… I'll teach him a lesson." Raphael was seething with anger, clenching his fists tight. Somehow he ended up blaming Kaden for the crowds ridicule, even though Kaden hadn't been there.

He could've let it all go, but instead he doubled down and pushed all of the blame onto Kaden.

"Hey boss, you sure about this?" One of Raphael's friends tried to persuade him. At this moment they still didn't have any enmity with Kaden, there was no reason to start a conflict.

"It's not like that guy has actually done anything to us—"

"Shut up." Raphael glared at them, immediately shutting them up. In Raphael's mind it was starting to feel like even his friends were turning against him.

His two friends read the mood and decided to keep quiet for now. It was obvious Raphael wasn't going to listen to them at the moment.

"Everyone is looking down on us. Can you two really live with that? We have to do something to about it, don't you agree?" Raphael watched his two friends, waiting for their response.

"I mean… If you say so boss." Neither of them seemed very sure about it. But they didn't really have any choice but to agree.

"Good." Raphael was satisfied with their agreement, "We'll wait until the midterms. All I have to do is defeat him in front of everyone, then his reputation will be the one shattered."

The two friends looked at each other and hesitated for a bit. On one hand they were relieved that Raphael wasn't planning on doing something stupid right away, but on the other hand the plan was still idiotic. They weren't sure if they should say something.

"But boss, what if you can't defeat him?" One of them reluctantly spoke up first.

"He did beat you in the rankings after all."

"Are you two idiots?" Raphael got heated. He didn't understand why his friends kept defending that spoiled rich kid, "I told you that test was all about cultivation, it doesn't prove anything. Do you really think someone who grew up in this fancy environment can fight?"

Before his friends could respond, the door suddenly opened and two third years walked in.

"What are you doing here?" One of the third years was visibly confused as he saw three first years squatting in the middle of the restroom.

"Uhh using the bathroom?" Raphael and his friends were taken by surprise. The third years were intimidating and they couldn't come up with a good excuse to be in one of the third year bathrooms.

"You guys first years? Get out of here, go use your own bathroom."

Raphael was arrogant, but in front of the third years even he didn't dare misbehave.

"Sorry sorry, we'll leave right now." The boys quickly got up from the floor, apologizing and lowering their heads on their way out.

…

At the same time in the cafeteria.

Kaden had met Chet's friend Damien and they were getting along well.

Damien was very much alike Chet and Kaden in the regard that he didn't score well in other subjects. He'd placed 15th on the martial arts rankings and had only made it into one of the Special classes.

Both Chet and Damien were from somewhat well off families. It was easy for them to relate to each other, born into rich families they had all gone through the same kind of experiences. Just like Kaden, Chet and Damien had also dealt with tutors who chastised them for their lack of attention to their studies.

"Hey Kaden what does your father do?" Damien asked. The Arkatal family was one of the four most influential families in the Federation, everyone would be a bit curious.

"I'm not exactly sure to be honest, all I know is that he takes care of the family business. My grandfather holds some administrative post within the military though." Kaden wasn't very informed regarding the family business. Since he wasn't going to inherit it, there was no point in learning about it. Zander was the one who had to deal with that.

"Oh I think my father works in your grandfather's department. His name is Merlin right?" Damien had heard his father mention that Merlin Arkatal was his boss.

"Yeah it is." Kaden thought it was a funny coincidence.

The boys continued talking about various things they had in common. Since that turned out to be a lot, they bonded quickly and became good friends.

"Have you been to the virtual world yet?" Ever since Chet and Damien turned seven, they would go to the virtual world everyday to play games.

"Yeah, I've tried some of the games." Kaden had only turned seven last month. His schedule had been extra busy lately because Burcham wanted to ensure he had the best results possible for the entrance test. He didn't really have time to spend on games. Luckily that would change now that he had started school and Burcham was cutting back on his training.

"Cool, have you tried Mecha Battle? Chet and I play it all the time." Damien's eyes lit up. He spent so much time on Mecha Battle that he would often forgo his training. That was why he ended up placing so low even though his genetic potential was the same as Chet's.

"Nahhh, I kind of skipped that one. Since mecha are useless and all." When Kaden had seen a game with Mecha, he'd just entirely disregarded it.

Ever since the first human awakened to Aether, mecha had become obsolete. They couldn't compete with even the weakest awakened human and would be destroyed in a one-on-one battle.

The only ones who became mecha pilots were the ones who didn't awaken and thus became stuck in the Body Tempering realm. In a war between the universe's powers, they were mere cannon fodder.

Both Chet and Damien were fully aware of this, they just took it was a game to play and have fun in.

"Even if mecha are useless it's pretty fun, you should give it a try. If you add me we can play after school, we can help you get started. Right?" Damien looked to Chet for confirmation.

"Of course." Chet nodded.

"Sure I'll add you. Let's link coms." Kaden looked forward to spending some time in the virtual world now that he was a bit more free.

He added Chet and Damien to his contact list so they could meet up later. Since the com had to be used to connect to the virtual world, the contact list carried over.