Once Human, Now a Parasite 17 Chapter 18 : A Be

"I see that the holy church is searching for that girl but no worries since I said she is a student then I will not go back on my words, plus it was you who interfered and she didn't do anything, as, for you, you would only be staying he as a GUEST!"

She continued to stare at Arthur expecting to see his reacting but to her surprise the man didn't even bulge or seem the least surprised, in fact, he just smiled at her and nodded.

"A guest or whatever, but remember I will not leave my companion's side, so deal with it!"

Arthur didn't particularly care what his status was, guest or student, as long as he could stay here for the time being, it would be enough after all he wants to just get stronger to be able to crush the holy church and when he has that strength staying in this academy would only be meaningless.

Actually it would be a lie to say he wasn't interested in this academy, quite the opposite, in fact, he wanted to learn new ways to use magic since he was still considered inexperienced and he wanted Lucy to get stronger and have fun, she seemed really excited and happy to be here so, of course, he wouldn't take her away from here unless she says so, but seeing the Holy church coming here to look for her, he decided to never leave her side, not even for a second, as they may use underhanded means to take her away and he would not tolerate that.

Which is why the best way to avoid that is by constantly being near her, also, he was sure she would not be bothered if he were to follow her everywhere as he trusted her and he knew she trusted him back too.

Sonia seemed startled by the way he spoke, it seemed like he had zero respect for her nonetheless she didn't mind it for she got used to his cold and shameless behavior and she knew he deeply cared for the girl beside him, she didn't dwell on it any further and spoke

"It's settled then, Zephir would lead you to a room for you 2 to stay together in."

She waved her hand and Zephir nodded as if understanding what she meant, he walked toward Arthur and said calmly but with a cold voice

"Follow me, I will guide you to your room."

To be honest, Zephir didn't like Arthur, in fact he hated him and hated his behavior, he thought he was reckless and a savage especially when he saw how he killed that beastman, even he, someone from the demon race, which is infamous for its brutality, would never do that. Furthermore, he was with demon girl who he wanted to rope under his care but unfortunately, he has seen how powerful Arthur is and how he always sticks close to Lucy which made it difficult for him to try to recruit her.

Arthur and Lucy soon got up from the comfortable sofa and followed Zephir towards their room but of course they never stopped holding hands and Arthur didn't want to let go either, the feeling of her soft but cold white hands was something he would never want to forget and she didn't seem bothered when holding his hands, sometimes she took the initiative to do so and when she did, Arthur would be overjoyed.

Just when Arthur, Lucy, and Zephir were going to leave the room, someone barged into Sonia's office, it was Mary the female beastman, she was still angry about what happened and she held a grudge towards Arthur for what he did to someone from her race.

"Big sister Sonia! why did you stop me earlier! didn't you see what he had done!"

Mary and Sonia were friends since childhood and were very close, whenever they were alone she would always call her 'big sister' rather than principal, when Mary finished speaking she glared with dagger eyes at Arthur who now had his face revealed but she wasn't surprised by his appearance, she just wanted to rip him to shreds.

"Now Mary, if you would be please calm down, he became a guest in our academy so you have to treat him with care"

Sonia replied with a teasing voice, she knew Mary would always act by her emotions and when she saw that beastman killed brutally it hurt her emotionally nonetheless it was careless of Mary to just dive at a participant intending to kill her after all she had to consider her position and act accordingly, The principal stared at the angry Mary then continued speaking

"Plus, didn't you see what that beastman was going to do? even if he was someone from your race, it doesn't change the fact that he was shameless and savage and you attacking out guest here based on emotions is completely disregarding your position as a council member!"

She continued to scold the female beastman for what she did, not only did she attack Arthur she didn't even hurt him which made her lose a lot of faces and force Sonia to make up a fat lie to cover up the Mary's recklessness.

The female beastman didn't talk for some time, she just stood there not knowing what to do, she was angry but what the principal said was true and she shouldn't have done that nonetheless she still couldn't forgive Arthur

"B-but! big sister Sonia, I still can't forgive him for doing that!..."

She dropped her head down while saying that as if showing the principal her pitiful side and maybe changing her mind. Sonia's heart softened as she saw Mary, they were childhood friends and she was older than Mary so she always took care of her and solved her problems, while she was thinking this an idea struck her, a smile soon formed on her breath-taking face and she spoke

"Fine! since you are so persistent, how about we make a bet?"

Hearing this, Mary's eyes sparkled and she could see some hope for revenge so she replied with an excited voice

"Bb-big sister, quick tell me! what sort of bet? as long as you let me kill this bastard! I'll accept any kind of bet"

Seemingly impatient, Mary turned her head towards Arthur and stared at him with killing intent and anger in her eyes, so Arthur couldn't help but think 'what a crazy woman, seriously, the hell is wrong with her?' he just stood there waiting for the principal to speak while being curious as to what this bet was about, since she said he would be a guest, she wouldn't let Mary just kill him or attack him so the idea of a 'bet' intrigued him.

"Haha you will fight against him and if you win you can do whatever you want with him but if you lose then you have to stop nagging and leave him alone.."

The principal made this bet for two reasons, first she wanted to see what this man was about and gauge his power, after all, she didn't see him fight seriously and second she wanted to help Mary even for a little bit

Once Mary heard the bet, she jumped with happiness for she didn't expect her big sister to help her this much 'finally! I will be able to kill this bastard!'

"Thank you big sister Sonia!"

Although she was happy, she looked at Arthur to see his response, after all, a bet has to be accepted by both sides or else it wouldn't be a bet, also he could just reject the bet, the principal stared at Arthur expecting his answer while a meaningful smile was hanging on her face.

Arthur was truly delighted, by quickly winning against this pest he would finally get rid of a nuisance and she would no longer bug him so he just waved his hand while saying

"whatever, tomorrow at noon, how about that?" hearing him speak with a carefree tone, Mary was even more angered but she soon remembered what her big sister said and controlled her emotion she just replied "fine!" and turned around left with a "hmph!".

Arthur and Lucy didn't stay there any longer and proceeded to follow Zephir and surprisingly they didn't leave the building to head toward the dorms instead their room was in the same building that the principal's office was at, a couple of minutes passed and they finally reached their room, Zephir escorted them to the room's door then left after gazing coldly at Arthur.

The room was quite decent, there were 2 beds and also 2 desks, a big veranda and some beautiful paintings hanging on the walls which were also amazingly constructed. Still holding hands, they both went towards a bed and sat on it while still not talking.

He looked at Lucy who was quiet for some time now, he couldn't get enough of her charm and wanted to stare at her all day long but he thought it may be unappropriated so he soon turned his head and let go of her hand while saying

"It's already night, you must be tired after all that happened right? why don't you take some rest and sleep?"

Hearing what he said, Lucy blushed a little and dropped her head down which was completely red, she was alone with him and after what happened today and that kiss she gave him, she couldn't help but feel embarrassed but at the same time happy.

Unlike him who had infinite stamina and didn't need to sleep, she was normal and like anyone else needed some sleep, she wasn't physically tired but she was very exhausted mentally but having him with her calmed her and made her forget about her memories a little.

When she previously slept in his arms, it was really comfortable and warm, it had been a long time since she had that kind of comfortable sleep so after hesitating for a while she spoke with her melodious voice

"W-wait, can l-let me sleep on your shoulder like e-earlier?"

Her ears were bright red and she didn't dare look at him in the eye as she very embarrassed and she couldn't even believe what she just said. Arthur was startled by what he heard for he didn't expect her to say that but nonetheless he smiled and looked at her being embarrassed and fidgeting a little, he approached her once again and gave her a small hug and said

"No need to feel embarrassed Lucy, you can ask me anything."

While saying that he sat next to her and held her pretty white hands.

Lucy couldn't muster the courage to talk to him, her heart was beating madly fast and her face burning up and when he hugged her it only made her even more embarrassed but she felt happy and blessed to have someone like him beside her, her heart was slowly opening up to him and wished for this moment to last forever.

Soon enough both of them laid on the bed and she leaned on his shoulder but was surprised to see Arthur wrap his left hand around her back to let her feel more comfortable, of course she wasn't angered or anything of the sort, instead she just smiled and got closed to him and closed her eyes intending to sleep, it was like heaven to her a warm place to sleep with no worries of someone of the holy church chasing her, she really couldn't think of what would have happened if she didn't meet him.

She first thought he was using her but as the time went on he only showed her what being loved really meant, he even went to such lengths as to kill someone in the academy grounds because he dared touch her, she unconsciously snuggled deep into his arms until her face on his chest but she didn't care and she soundlessly fell asleep.

Arthur was surprised by this turn of events, he didn't think she would get this close to him, hell even when he wrapped his left arm around her back he thought she would be against it but instead she not only accepted that, she also got closer to him, he could feel her cold body and petite white hands on his chests along with her head, he gazed at her enchanting sleeping face. It was truly breath-taking as if a goddess was sleeping and not a demon, he couldn't feel more blessed to have someone like that besides him and love him too, deep in his heart he couldn't help but thank 'X' for giving him this new life, it allowed him to love again and enjoy the warmth of someone for the first time.

It was true he loved his wife, but when he thought about it again, it was not like this one, maybe he was merely attached to his wife for he just wanted someone next to him and when that person betrayed him he finally understood what it was like to be lonely.

When he was a businessman all he did was work and gain money, his friends were only 'friends' for benefits and he was an orphan who got adopted by an old couple, they raised him and took care of him but they soon died of old age and he was left alone, so he just worked until he reached the pinnacle but he felt nothing, just empty, so he sought the warmth of a woman but that ended up badly for him and in contrary to his past life, he now had Lucy with him.

Yes, he didn't have family here and yes, he didn't have friends here, but he got her, and it was more than enough to make him feel relieved. For the first time in ages, he, who had been cold and emotionless had cried, yes, he cried for a very long time.

Lucy was sleeping so she didn't notice him but nonetheless he cried, it was tears of grief but at the same time tears of joy, if he hadn't met Lucy he would have just continued to be alone in this world and be chained with his distrustful heart forever, he would have become a robot rather than a human being. While crying Arthur thought of something he never did in his entire life, he thanked god for what was given to him, though he never believed in god, and never was a religious man, instead he cursed this 'god' for he was given a miserable and lonely life and it only got worse when he was tortured so the idea of a god watching them from above was completly erased from his mind, because if there really was one he wouldn't let people do as they please and give the kind people a miserable lives while the greedy people would have a luxurious and good life.

In fact, the reason behind their very existence crossed mind, more precisely, 'why would this 'god' create such greedy and wicked creatures!' this thought bugged him a lot especially when he was in that desolate room being tortured every day.

Only after a while did he stop crying but his eyes were swollen and his face a bit red, since he got infinite stamina he didn't need to sleep but he wanted to so he just closed his eyes and tried falling asleep.It had been quite a long time since he slept and every time he did he would have nightmares but this time he didn't. He neither had good dreams nor did have nightmares and while sleeping he unconsciously hugged the sleeping Lucy and didn't let go of her as if she would disappear if he let her go.

Morning came and Lucy woke up, but she dumbfounded to feel Arthur hugging her with both his arms and when she lifted her head to look at him she was more astonished to see him sleep nonetheless she noticed his eyes were swollen so she soon guessed he must have cried and hugged her so she didn't mind and stayed in his embrace. She didn't wake him up for she knew he never slept and him actually sleeping is rare, in fact, she never saw him sleep not even once since they met, so, for now, she stayed silent and enjoyed the feeling of being in his embrace, she wrapped her arms around him and smiled while gazing at his sleeping face.

1 hour or so he finally woke up and didn't expect himself to be hugging her he immediately let go of her in panic while saying with an apologetic tone

"S-sorry, I must have done it unconsciously!"

As he let go of her, Lucy hugged him even more tightly as if indicating she didn't mind, she looked at him with those charming eyes, you couldn't even see a tinge of coldness coming from them, she smiled towards him and to be honest, when smiling her face was even more enchanting

"What are you apologizing for? Aren't we lovers?"

Arthur heart softened when he heard that, because he knew she was trying her best and she still had some fear and hatred towards man but nonetheless she hugged him and even didn't mind being hugged by him, so he once again wrapped his arms around her and they started chatting about various things including the Nemia academy.

Lucy talked with excited tone, she was joyful for she finally became a student of Nemia academy and her childhood dream became true and when seeing her cute side Arthur couldn't help but chuckle as she really seemed like a child when talking about the academy, if someone saw her right now they would surely not think she was the same one as yesterday, in public not even a tinge of emotion could be seen on her face, she was like a goddess statue and unapproachable by mere humans.

After talking for some time, they finally separated even though Arthur seemed reluctant to do so as he enjoyed hugging while laying on the bed and didn't want to let go, Lucy seeing the reluctance in his eyes approached her head closer to him and gave him a small kiss on the cheek like yesterday, this caught him by surprise and his ears turned red as he was embarrassed but happy at the same time.

They both adjusted their clothes, Arthur wore something different today, he retrieved new clothes from his storage ring, Zodiak had a lot of clothes and most of them were exceptional, he wore a blue robe which suited him perfectly, it had golden lines on it and the same symbol the black robe had but this symbol was white, he looked even more handsome and charming wearing this robe, as for Lucy she wore a green dress which made her look like a fairy.

Soon they left their room and headed towards outside to tour the academy and go to classes, actually since Lucy is a student now she can attend classes and the principal put her in the magic class. In fact, this academy was divided into 2 classes close-fighting class and magic class and these two in return were divided into several other minor classes, for example, the magic class was divided to mana manipulation class, attribute training class and several other classes.

Since Lucy was put in the magic class she can choose whatever she wanted from the minor classes but there were some restrictions, for example, there are special classes for senior students and these classes are teaching difficult magic tricks which a new student can't possibly do.

Lucy decided to first head to the attribute training class and see what was it about. The principal didn't forget to give them a small map so they can easily find their way in the academy as it was extremely big and one would get lost easily.

While they were walking, they passed by many students, some who were new and others who were old, but every one of them, especially the boys, stared at Lucy who was wearing a green dress with disbelief, you could even see lust in their eyes but of course none of them dared to approach her and speak to her. They also looked at the man beside her with jealousy and envy, he not only was handsome and charming he had a girl like that beside him so wouldn't be jealous of him?

Though none of the boys did dare talk to Lucy, many girls rushed at Arthur and began speaking to him, there were many senior girls and even new ones who joined yesterday.

"Hello handsome, are you new here? how about I show you around ?"

"Let me show you around too.."

"Me too. please."

"Kyaa!! So handsome, I wonder if he is willing to be my boyfriend"

Truthfully, Arthur ignored them at first but they were persistent like cockroaches and he hated that kind of women the most, they were similar to his ex-wife they would cling to someone if he is handsome or seemed wealthy to gain fame or power, if he was ugly or average looking they would not even spare a glance at him.

Lucy who was beside him didn't do anything but he could feel a cold feeling from her gaze as if she was a little jealous and to be honest he felt happy, for her to be jealous is really rare but he was bothered by those girls so he looked at them and lifted his hand as if signaling them to quiet down and when they finally did expect him to speak he just said with a cold voice

"Fuck off!" just as he said that he took Lucy's hand and walked past them ignoring them completely. Some of the girls just shrugged it off as they didn't care, others just seemed little depressed while there is some who snickered and said

"Who does he think he is? just because he is a little handsome he gets to be this bossy? Hmpf just wait and see."

A boy who heard this, approached the girl who said that and mocked "Can't you see he have such a beauty beside him? so why would he bother with ugly girls like you"

"YOU!!!!!!"

Seemingly angry, the girl snapped at the boy and slapped him with all her strength which of course sent him flying a couple of meters and a stream of laughs soon came in from the nearby boys when they saw what happened to their poor 'friend'.

Arthur and Lucy continued heading to where the attribute training class is going to be held in. 20 minutes or so of walking they finally reached their destination, it was a gigantic room, it looked exactly like the conference rooms from the universities in his previous life except this one was much larger, it could hold up to 200 hundred students and in front of the row of seats there was a stage which was where the teacher would probably demonstrate his magic.

When they entered the classroom, there were already a lot of people either chatting or sitting and waiting for the class to begin.

When they saw Lucy they were extremely shocked, one has to know that what happened yesterday became extremely famous and almost everyone knew who this girl was but they didn't expect her to be accepted, instead they thought she was disqualified and when they looked at the man beside her they felt curious.

They knew there was a black-robed man who protected her yesterday but this man beside her now looked completely different from yesterday and didn't have the same cold atmosphere around him nonetheless they just stood there dazed and amazed by the girl's beauty but they didn't have the guts to talk to her for they were afraid of Arthur.

They still didn't know if it was the same person because the black-robed man never showed his face but they knew she only had 1 companion and since today she is with a man and yesterday she also with a man so the natural conclusion would be that it's the same man as yesterday and thinking like that, their body stiffened and even averted their gazes for they knew Arthur was brutal and would kill anyone who would dare harm her.

They soon found a seat in the back of the room and sat there waiting for the class to start but of course they didn't just stay silent, instead they started chatting and Arthur loved the way she acted excitedly as if she couldn't wait anymore, it seems it's her first time being in a classroom and actually learning, all her skills and strength was gaining through combat and she never had the chance to be in an institution such as this one.

It pained Arthur thinking she had gone through all that but that was the past, even though she still kept her cold attitude, her excitement didn't escape Arthur's eyes he could see her eyes sparkling, he could even guess her mood even if she kept her cold attitude for he got used to it and learnt how to differentiate between her moods by looking at her eyes and her movements.

Time passed and finally what appeared to be the teacher finally came, it was a human male who was LVL84, he wore a white robe and some leather pants under it, he looked refined and amiable, when he entered the classroom soon became quiet as the people who were chatting closed their mouth and headed towards their seats. The human male's name was Julian and once he saw all the class quiet and waiting for him to begin he spoke

"Hello there, my name is Julian and I'm your teacher in this class, I hope we can get along."

When he finished, the students applauded but didn't talk, so Julian resumed speaking

"Without further ado, let's start the class, many of you are already in their second or maybe third year and are experienced in attribute training, but some of you are new who joined us yesterday so I'm gonna go through a brief explanation of what this class is exactly about." He took a breath of fresh air then continued

"I am sure that since you are in this class then you must have a good affinity with an attribute, and the goal of this class is to train you in using it, for example, a newbie using a fire attribute can only create a fireball but an expert in fire attribute can create weapons,barriers with fire there is even cases where they invent skills."

Just when he finished, he created a small ball of water which floated on top of his hand

"I am a mage in water attribute, as you can see this is just a small ball of water, it can be used to attack but its power is nothing compared to a fireball or a wind slash or even an earth spike"

He then changed the water ball to a sharp arrow made from water there not even a drop of water that dropped to the ground and the arrow seemed very solid

"What i did here is exert my control of the attribute and changed the water ball to a sharp arrow made from solidified water, the process is not that hard but one has to train to be able to do something like this"

Julian then created a dozen more of water arrows before he resumed speaking again "As all of you may know, we all have a mana pool and every time we use the attribute we excel in we lose quite a bit of mana, for me I can create just 21 water arrows before my mana can be emptied out but don't underestimate those arrows as they can be deadly if it hits any of you."

Some of the new students were astonished but the old one just listened carefully and took some notes, as for Lucy, she listened carefully trying to not miss anything but to be completely honest, she can change her attribute into weapons, she already did that in the tournament.

Nonetheless, she continued to listen while Arthur was just lazing around almost falling asleep, he could create thousands of dark arrows without losing a single point of mana, the same thing for ancient fire so listening this was boring, he can also create weapons and barriers with those attributes.

Truthfully Arthur was interested in mana injection or better say attribute injection, he read it in a book when he was in Willsden town, attribute injection is to use one's attribute internally not externally, for example, your raw physical attacks will contain your attribute, he can do it with void slash but that was only unconsciously so he wanted to learn more about it, it is said that those who do not excel in magic also use attribute injection to strengthen their physical attacks even for a bit.

For example, a close-melee fighter who have a little affinity with the wind attribute can use attribute injection to make himself slightly faster and his attacks would contain a small portion of normal wind slashes.

It was minor change to the power of the attacks but it still was a change so Arthur was interested in it and he wanted to know how exactly can he do it, he tried questioning Lucy about it but she told him she never used it or read about it as she didn't need to attack physically she always used her magic.

He decided to go to the library later, maybe he could find something worth reading, on the map the principal gave him he could see large building which was the library so he was quite excited to go see it, he wasn't much of a reader in his past life but now he quite enjoyed it and wanted to learn more about this world for his knowledge was very limited right now.

Once Julian showed them few more tricks he said "Why don't you try training your attribute now, for all the old students they must form a barrier as for the new one, just try to change the shape of your attribute and create a simple weapon of it"

Actually, creating barriers is much much more complicated than creating a weapon, in fact, even if someone succeeded in creating it, it usually would hold up only for some seconds before disappearing, even Lucy couldn't hold it permanently and hers was weaker too because fire is not used for defense.

Soon enough the students began practicing and there were cries of surprise here and there from those people who succeeded easily in creating a weapon, they had smug smiles hanging on their faces and quite proud of their achievement.

As for Lucy she tried using her new attribute, the magma, firstly she couldn't even create it but after some time concentrating she finally managed to create a strange ball of magma, it really emanated a strong heat and looked like a ball of red liquid with some blackish in it, it's heat was really incredible but compared to Arthur's ancient flames, this heat is considered nothing. The strange ball of magma soon began to change shape, as minutes passed the magma ball changed into some sort of sword or a saber? beads of sweat began forming on Lucy's forehead while her eyes were closed and she seemed to concentrate a lot.

Actually to control an attribute like magma, lightning, ice etc.. it is much harder and complicated but that was to be expected as even though it's hard to control if you manage to do it you would become a legendary figure because those special attributes are way stronger than the normal ones.

10 minutes or so passed and Lucy finally managed to make a weapon of that magma ball, the weapon emanated a small pressure but nevertheless, almost all the students gazed at the weapon in amazement and envy for they wanted to have a special attribute too

Julian who was standing at the stage also saw that scene and was astonished, he heard from his friends that there is a demon girl which rejected Lord Zephyr and didn't want to be his student. He also knew she was a beauty and was a wizard at that with a magma attribute, to have such a student in his class made him proud, he knew she wasn't disqualified for the principal already spread the news to the teachers about Lucy becoming a student, she also said not to bother her in any way or approach the guy with her.

Julian glanced at Arthur who was sitting next to the demon girl, but he noticed him not doing anything not even creating a weapon so he frowned but didn't say anything, he didn't know Arthur was a guest and thought he was just a student.

After 2 hours or so, the class finally ended, they passed almost all of the time practicing except a few times when Julian needed to explain something or correct the mistakes of some student.

In these 2 hours, Lucy improved greatly and was able to create a magma weapon in just 2 minutes, it was considered an amazing feat to do that so Arthur guessed she must be a genius or else how could she improve this fast?

They soon left the classroom and headed toward the building where the principal office was, actually, there was an underground arena under that building and the principal said that the fight would be there for she did not want students to watch the fight. It's almost noon and that's the appointed time for the bet so Arthur was kind of excited to beat the hell out of that female beastman for being that arrogant and persistent

'It sure will be a fun fight! hehe'.....'

Chapter end