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Ruler Vol 1 Chapter 13

Author: Anit666

【Chloe’s POV】

“Hey Chloe! What the hell are you doing?! Pay attention properly!” (Liera)

“Y-Yes!” (Chloe)

I sighed after saying that. I can’t seem to pay attention to today’s training. And the cause for this is Jack.

It’s been a month since I’ve been summoned into this world and made a Hero. But honestly speaking, it’s a pain in the ass. Why should I risk my life for totally unrelated people? It might have been different if I had been filled with a sense of justice or a desire to protect everyone, but unfortunately, I’m not. And that’s how normal humans are.

Back in my world I was something like a school idol. Everyone, regardless of their gender or age, respected and loved me. This was the case in elementary, middle and high school. I was also the class president of my class. And I liked being loved and respected by everyone, it gave meaning to my life.

But it didn’t come for free. I worked hard for it. I worked harder than anyone else, to maintain that perfect Chloe Evans that everyone loved. And frankly speaking that was taking a toll on me. It’s mentally exhausting to be perfect. But I endured.

But in my 2nd year of high school, two boys transferred into my class. Yes, they were Samuel Hayden and Jack Hargreave. Jack, who was basically a pretty boy, became popular among the girls on his first day. He even got called out by some seniors, which is extremely rare, though he ignored them. On the other hand, Sam was average. Truly average. His looks, his intellect, were all average.

But when I first saw him, I felt a sense of nostalgia, as if that wasn’t my first time meeting him. And I don’t know why, but for a moment I also felt happiness welling up inside me after seeing him. But that happiness suddenly vanished, as if it had been squashed by something inside me. I remember these feelings because at that time I had thought about it a lot as these feelings were very out of place, and definitely not something you’d feel for someone you just met.

Jack and Sam are the opposites of each other, but interestingly, they were still best friends with each other. I developed a crush on Jack, like most of the girls, and got closer to him with the excuse of being the class president. Though this garnered the enmity of many of the girls of my class.

But being close to Jack meant being close to Sam, as they were literally always together. And contrary to my expectations, Jack was the one following Sam. Jack, who never paid any attention to the other girls, or students in fact, of the school, followed Sam.

I was always bewildered by it, and never got the answer to it. Those two have a bond that I can never surpass. And although I was able to become good friends with them, I couldn’t woo Jack who was my main target. But there was one thing I liked about them, and that was that they never treated me as someone special.

Jack behaved like a normal classmate, while Sam treated me like a good friend. Sam even occasionally teased me, something which I had never experienced before. And although it was sometimes irritating, I still enjoyed this new experience.

Once, the delinquent boys in my grade, who were all pissed of by how almost every girl was liking Jack, decided to beat up both Sam and Jack to teach them a lesson. But the other girls got in the way. They wanted to so something about me, as I was too close to Jack. The boys opposed that.

So, they compromised and somehow reached a conclusion that they should beat up Sam. The girls wanted to do it because he was too close to Jack, the prince of the school. While the boys wanted to do that because he was too close to me, the idol of this school.

Their plan was something like this. One of the girls would call Sam to the roof of this school through a letter of confession. The boys would be waiting there for him, and then beat him up. They then proceeded through this plan without me or Jack knowing.

Sam was called after school. So he left me and Jack alone. We were in the class, and just as I thought that this was good opportunity, the girl who had called Sam to the rooftop walked into the class along with her friend. They probably hadn’t noticed us, as they were talking and laughing about how Sam was going to be beaten up.

I was shocked. I would never have thought that being my friend would land Sam in trouble. As I was about to wallow in self-loathing, Jack abruptly stood up. The rattling of the chair made the girls notice us. Jack looked at them for a moment, with a dangerous glint in his eyes. But he then made a nauseating face, as if he was looking at filth, and soon turned away. Then he simply walked out of the class and started going towards the rooftop. I hurriedly followed him.

He didn’t speak anything while going up. I wondered at that time: exactly what was he feeling? Was he also loathing himself? Or was he angry? Or both? We reached the rooftop and opened the door. And what filled my vision was………….. carnage. Around 20 boys were lying on the floor, groaning and crying in pain. And the one who stood in the middle of all that was Sam. His face said that he wasn’t feeling anything for this whole situation.

Jack walked up to him. I thought that he would console him, or perhaps ask him what the hell happened here. But all he said was this, “I don’t understand, Lord Hayden. Why are these filths still alive?” What Sam said in return was this, “Huh? I don’t want to dirty my school uniform, ya know.”

And then we came back in the classroom as if nothing had happened. Those girls were still there. Sam looked at them once, and smiled in a way that said, ‘Just as planned.’ And we went home after that.

That’s when I understood it, that those two were in a different world of their own.

Jack… how should I say it, was never interested in the people around him. Sam was the sole exception to this. It seemed that he only talked to me out of courtesy.

On the other hand, Sam who acted like a normal human and treated me like a dear friend, was brutal, and never had any motivation to do anything. He was always sleeping through lectures, and his response whenever I asked him to do something was always, “I’m too lazy to do it so I’ll pass”. But my other friends once told me that when me and Jack were not around, Sam didn’t show any emotions.

To check the authenticity of what my friends told me, I once secretly observed him, and found that his face was apathetic. And in his eyes lied a madness, something which I had never seen. He was lost in his reveries, so he thankfully didn’t notice me.

That was when I got truly interested in Sam. Just who is the real him? The one that he shows to us when we are with him, or the one he shows when we’re not with him? Or is it none of them? Or maybe both of them are a part of the real him?

That’s how I spent my days, trying to woo Jack and trying to learn more about Sam. But then we were summoned here, to act as heroes and defeat the demon king. At first, I was happy about it. Being a hero would make many more people love and respect me. But I was also scared at the fact that I would have to risk my life.

But different from me who was feeling a lot of emotions due to this summoning, Jack and Sam were still their usual self. Sam was laid-back even at a time like this, while Jack didn’t show his emotions. I even thought of asking them if this really was their first time being summoned.

And since it turned out that we won’t be able to go back to our world without defeating the demon king, we decided to help this world as it’s Heroes. And then we were given teachers who would train us to make us the best heroes possible. And our first training session was of magic.

But even though me and Jack were supposed to be the geniuses and Sam was just average, he still showed phenomenal results on his first try. While I was struggling to even feel mana, Sam was able to cast a magic to produce a fire hot enough to melt the very ground, and that too in his first try. What the actual fuck, Sam? I would have actually believed if someone had told me that Sam was in reality a resident of this world.

Then was our second training session of martial arts, and Sam shined there too. And he was strangely enthusiastic when learning about this world. He, who was known in our school for being the epitome of laziness, went as far as to arrange private lectures to learn the language of this world.

And later he spent most of his free time in library. I never knew that he liked books so much. The contrast with his usual self was so large that I even thought that maybe this Sam was a doppelgänger. In the one month after that, Sam always showed outrageous results in the training.

He learned and utilised magics and martial arts that people took more than 10 years to learn. He even started making his own magic, and started developing a way of fighting using both his body and magic, which he then mastered. He even had a gun made for himself, and started fighting in a way that used a gun, a sword and magic.

At the end of one month, he was able fight on even grounds with both Liera and Reygus combined. And even though they weren’t using their full power, neither was Sam. According to them, Sam’s growth was too fast even for a hero. And his battle instincts and way of fighting was something that could never be developed over the course of one month. They said that he reminded them of the first Hero.

That’s why he was sent out of the castle to act as an adventurer and gain practical knowledge, thus leaving me and Jack alone. Although I was a bit worried for Sam, I was also happy that I got to be alone with Jack. I thought that this would help us progress our relationship.

But that was naive of me. Sam left just this morning, but since then me and Jack haven’t even talked to each other properly. Why is that?

Does Jack hate me or something? We are currently in the middle of our martial arts training, but I wasn’t paying attention properly as I was depressed due to being ignored by Jack. Even Sam isn’t here. I hope that he comes back soon.