My face was hurting all over, but I couldn't be more satisfied with myself. After beating the hell out of that annoying kid, I felt more refreshed than ever.
He was a follower of one of the traitorous families; even if his family was well-off, they had lost most of their prestige.
His name is Angelo, son of a well-known musician; the rest of his family was in charge of managing many tech stores once owned by the Bai family.
However, disaster struck their once prestigious family; the Bai family bared their fangs against the Jittermeist.
They sided with the Staffen family, and because of that, they were exterminated. Most of the people involved in the scheme were also killed, while the remaining ones lost all their prestige.
Had I punched anyone else, I would be severely punished for acting out in this way, but now, because his family had fallen out of favor, this counted as an act of loyalty.
Moreover, since my family had always been loyal to the Jittermeist, the likelihood of me facing any punishment was near zero.
It truly was like my father said, with the right connections, you become immune to punishments.
Life had finally begun smiling at us.
I couldn't have been happier when I heard the news of the fall of so many higher families. This meant that it was finally our time to shine; the spotlight was now ours. The few ones that remained loyal to the Jittermeist, even after their fall.
Once the argument came to a conclusion, the parents dragged their son away, sparing a single glance at me. Even my parents were disappointed by my behavior, but I didn't care.
As expected, no punishment. I'm sorry, but it looks like you're not going to live for much longer at this rate.
I'm sure some folk would probably be desperate enough to even kill them just to garner some favor from the Jittermeist or Lumine families. After all, a lot of families had lost their prestige and, most important of all, their protection.
"Ow!" I screamed as my mother pulled me by the ears.
Unlike my father, she was pissed at me.
"You shouldn't pick on them just because they fell off recently. How will you face them if they rise up again?" My mother scolded me with a sharp tone.
"What? Is that what you're worried about?" I asked her.
"No! You should be more empathetic to your classmates!" She kept pulling the year more and more as I didn't react the way she wanted.
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Come on! It's not like I was wrong in this instance.
"At his age it's fine… it'll help him grow thicker skin. " I repeated the words my father often said to me back whenever I got into a fight.
"Still, you shouldn't be so quick to jump on them; they might retaliate with whatever they have left." My mother warned me once more, this time with a much softer tone after she released my ears.
"They won't." I ignored my mother's warning.
"You never know." My father suggested.
"We're next in line to join the dome; they would be purged if they even tried to inconvenience us." I pointed out.
"That may be true, but still, that doesn't give you the right to beat them! They'll remember it; maybe they won't attack you, but surely, in the future, they won't help you when you need it the most. No, they'll be the first ones dancing on your grave." My father finally conceded my point but still refused to completely support my argument.
"It sucks for them; they should've chosen—"
This time it was him that stopped me; he pinched my cheeks so, so hard I thought he wanted to tear them.
"Ow!!"
"Watch your mouth; that's not how you should behave. If you keep it that way, you're going to end up just like them one day." My mother warned me.
Before I could come up with a witty response, my father gave me a light smack on the back of my head, not strong enough to hurt but just enough to send the message across.
Stop letting your mouth run wild.
Right, alright, you win… I'll back off for now. I already proved my loyalty, and that's all that matters at the end of the day.
I could tell my father secretly approved of this action; it was obvious. He would've been a lot more stern and serious had he truly been offended or disappointed by my actions. Since everyone was under constant scrutiny, we needed to show off our blind loyalty, all in order to rise in the ranks.
After all, I was the one who instigated the fight.
Provoking a reaction out of Angelo was easy; he was stressed enough as it is after hearing about the betrayal and consequent execution of the Bai family. I just threw some baseless accusation, and he jumped at me with clenched fists.
Thankfully I was able to put him in his place; if I had lost to that, not only would I have looked pathetic, but my chances at joining the invisible guard would've dropped to 0.
"You should take some time to really think about what you did." My mother insisted.
"Yeah, I was wrong, I won't—"
"I'm no imbecile, William!" My mother warned me, ready to smack me in the face if I kept lying to her.
Fine, fine, you're so annoying today.
"In a way you can better understand, a bodyguard would never start up a fight; this case may be an exception, but if you make it a common occurrence, then you can say goodbye to that dream of yours." My father explained.
"Hey! This and that are very different; there is no reason to compare them out loud." I complained to him.
"Are you really still hung up on that?" My mother asked me, surprised.
"It's the quickest path to success." I replied.
"The most dangerous one." She corrected my statement.
"It's a risk I'm willing to make," I replied.
"You don't even know what you're giving up; you should reconsider things since you're still young. Once you get there, there is no coming back." She tried to warn me, but her words fell on deaf ears.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure to take time off to visit you during the holiday." I assured her as I gave her a few light taps on her shoulders.
"Try to not get into trouble; I don't want to hear a second call from the principal." My father asked.
By then we had already reached my classroom; the professor didn't look ecstatic to have the lesson interrupted by me. He rolled his eyes with annoyance as he quickly fixated his gaze back on the whiteboard.
The gazes of the other students were suffocating, to say the least; none of them looked at me favorably for one reason or another.
Is it envy? No, I doubt it's just that… I don't like this; maybe I should've just… done this after school, but that would've meant not being seen by the staff. Maybe in front of school… no, too many chances for someone to interfere.
As I pulled my chair aside, I had a strange feeling, so I placed my foot behind the leg of the chair, stopping my deskmate from kicking the seat away while I was sitting down.
He looked pretty panicked to see that I had predicted his intentions, and I, in return, almost punched him in the face. I stopped the fist inches away from his face because I didn't want to get in trouble; I just wanted to scare him a bit.
As expected, he panicked; he flinched, and as he was trying to get away, he fell on his back.
"William!" the professor, annoyed, called me to attention.
"What? I didn't touch him." I said to defend myself.
He simply rolled his eyes and continued with the lecture.
Hah! I'm fucking untouchable right now.