The Ascension Age

However, Aire noticed a glaring problem when he came out of the transportation. Everyone around them began to look in his direction. Well, to be more precise, everyone looked in Altina's direction.

'Fuck! Am I an idiot? With how famous this girl is, she would obviously attract everyone's attention. Why did I come together with her?'

Aire tried to sneak out of there, but Kymei immediately put his arm around Aire's shoulder as he said, "Brother, that's the wrong path. Our seats are in that direction."

Aire felt like crying as he whispered to Kymei, "You just don't want to be sacrificed alone."

Kymei smiled as he dragged Aire along. After all, Kymei was also in a higher stage of the Stellar Body Transformation than Aire.

"Hehe! You think so?" he whispered back. "Don't worry. If you get hurt, you can just use your skill to heal yourself."

"You know very well that I won't use it. Why the hell do you think I'm still using these bandages on the head? First of all, there's no way that it'll get physical with the school's rules."

"Is everything fine, Aire?" Altina noticed that Aire and Kymei were acting strange and couldn't help but feel a little worried. "Could it be that your head's still bothering you? If you need to, I can give an excuse to the teachers later."

"Eh?" Aire was taken aback as he replied, "Errr...No, I'm fine..."

With how worried Altina seemed to be about him, how could he say that he wanted to stay away from her? He lost to her caring in an instant.

Seeing that, Kymei playfully smiled before saying, "The truth is that he thinks-"

*Pow!*

Out of nowhere, Aire punched Kymei in the stomach, making the guy kneel on the ground as he coughed. He might be stronger than Aire, but that didn't mean he was made of metal. A well-delivered punch would still hurt a lot. Obviously, that only made Altina even more puzzled as she asked, "This...What's happening between you two?"

Aire laughed as he helped Kymei up back to his feet. "Hahaha! It's nothing, just some joke between old friends. Right, 'Little Mei?'"

A vein popped out of Kymei's head.

*Pah!*

In retaliation, he slapped Aire's back with so much strength that Aire even felt dizzy. After that, he replied, "Hahaha! Aire's right. It's just a joke between old bros. There's no malice behind our actions. See? I just did the same thing."

Aire felt like crying. Kymei didn't hold back at all, so it really hurt like hell, especially since his Stellar Riser level was higher than his.

Altina's worry finally disappeared as she giggled a little. "You two look like some idiots. Anyway, stop playing, and let's keep going."

Aire and Kymei continued ahead as they said to each other while keeping their voices down.

"Did you need to slap me that hard?"

"That's your fault for calling me by that name."

"Hey, Altina called you that. How come you didn't do anything?"

"She's terrifying when she's angry...you aren't."

"What kind of reasoning is that?!"

They quickly caught up to Altina after that.

Sure enough, Aire could see all the eyes were focused on them. Those people didn't conceal their words either.

"Hey, isn't that the guy Altina attacked in the clinic?"

"It's really him! Holy shit! Is he crazy?"

"Well, he was hit in the head, so he might really have gone crazy."

"Hahaha! That would be a good pair. A crazy guy with Crazy Bitch Altina. Isn't that hilarious?"

"So much for a hero, now he's a slave..."

Altina narrowed her eyes as she tried to ignore all of them. With a single glance, she knew that the ones bad-mouthing her were part of the group that had been spreading the news all year long. Unfortunately, she understood that trying to refute them would lead to nowhere, so she didn't talk back. However, a certain someone couldn't hold it.

"Hahaha! The sound of the losers' dogs is really something else! I wonder if they know that it sounds like music to my ears. In the end, they can only send someone else to make a fuss. Truly, what a bunch of idiots. No wonder they lost. Since they waste their time with such actions, it's obvious that they never had any hope of winning. Come on, dogs! Bark louder! I still can't hear you! The louder you bark, the worse your owners probably are. Isn't that great?!"

Altina was taken aback as they looked at Aire. Is this guy an idiot? It was apparent that the real perpetrators were observing them close by. Doesn't he understand that he would also buy a fight against those people like that?

The one most shocked was obviously Kymei. He knew very well how much Aire hated to attract attention, so he couldn't understand why he was doing that. The old Aire would definitely stay quiet, pretending to not exist until everyone forgot about him.

"What did you say, trash?!"

"I dare you to say that again."

"Aren't you the real dog here? Crazy Bitch Altina's Dog!"

Altina and Kymei quickly pushed Aire to their side and hastened their pace, leaving those people behind. Of course, there were more people ahead who also were looking at them. It's just that the hired bad-mouthing personnel stayed back there.

After they distanced themselves away from them, Altina then looked at Aire and asked, "What are you thinking?! Do you have any idea how your life will be like if you do that?"

Kymei nodded as he said, "That's right. They're already annoying as they are, and you just added oil to the flames. Are you really Aire?"

Aire was the one who wanted to ask that question here. The problem was...he also didn't know! For a moment, anger overcame his reason, and Aire acted on impulse. He couldn't understand why. It's as Kymei said, the real him would never do such a thing.

Of course, it only took a moment for Aire to understand why that happened. That's because he saw a very angry image of his 'Little Sister' in that mind world created by Stella. Stella was furious at how the others were talking about Altina.

"They are despicable! Just you wait! My Aire will trash all of you!"

Aire felt like crying but had no tears. Only now did he remember that Stella's emotions affected his own. When she saw how Altina was being treated, her anger became his anger.

Aire bitterly smiled as he looked at Altina. Since it came to this, he could only keep up the play as he replied, "Sorry...it's just that I couldn't hold myself back after seeing that."

Altina quickly looked away as she said, "Idiot." She couldn't help but become a little red with such a straight answer.

Kymei couldn't care less, though.

"I'm starting to think that you really are as crazy as they said. Alright, forget it. We already left that group behind. But be aware, Aire. Although no one will touch you due to the rules, I'm pretty sure those dogs' owners will take action. I wouldn't be impressed if the news board included you with Altina from now on."

Aire's face went gloomy after hearing that. Soon after, he once again turned his attention to his mind world and Stella as he said, "First of all, I'm not your Aire! Second, is there a way to stop your emotions from affecting me?"

Stella looked at Aire from puzzlement as she asked, "Since when did my emotions affect you?"

Aire almost vomited blood after hearing that. It turns out that Stella didn't even know it!

"Alright. I'm definitely dead."