Infinite Evolution: My Idle Evolution System

Flora faintly recalled the last time they dueled. It happened a few months ago, before summer break began. At the time, they were dueling each other for the chance to ask her out. But in the end, no victor could be determined, and a deeply rooted rivalry was created. Over time, they forgot all about why they hated each other so much—and also forgot about her. This was good for her, as she heavily disliked both of them.

However, that didn't mean she could deny their strength.

Although they were nothing more than ants in her eyes, she could recognize that to the citizens of Hoshito, they were considered extremely powerful. The C-Rank, on a national scale, was still quite good and was what many saw as the backbone of a country, so even outside Hoshito, the two dunderheads would have a decent chance of succeeding.

'Still trash…'

That was the limit of Flora's interest. She could feel no aura from the new guy, and the challengers weren't worth her while. With that said, she returned to being bored while watching tweetie birds soar outside one of the classroom windows.

Cassius, on the other hand, tilted his head in bewilderment.

"Duels? You can have duels in a school?"

He had no recollection of this nonsensical notion from either this life or his previous one. It was silly—

"Of course you can, you bumpkin!" Arthur mocked. "Now, do you accept the duel or not!?"

"Yeah, do you accept, you bastard!?" Alex added, feeling that he ought to not be outshined by the blonde-haired boy beside him.

Cassius exchanged a look with the short silver-haired girl, where he saw her eyes crease upward in amusement. She also had no idea about school duels, but seeing him struggle with himself like that made her heart flutter a bit.

She liked this part of him a lot… He was so vulnerable…

"Heh…"

"What was that?" Cassius whispered under the livid stares of the blonde and red badgers.

"What? Oh! It… It was nothing…" Stella covered herself as best she could, trying her utmost to hide the goofy grin creeping up her magnetic features.

Cassius raised a brow in suspicion, yet thought no more on the subject. He was used to all the 'oddities' that surrounded him; it was better not to overthink matters centered around any of them.

Multiple girls in several different locations all felt something puncture their hearts and mercilessly tear at their insides. For some reason, they felt like they were being repeatedly shanked…

—Back at Hoshito High School—

Cassius glanced between all of the eager students, then looked to the teacher for help. However, she couldn't care less about what was occurring in her own classroom. His lips spasmed a bit as he realized he was all alone on this one.

An irritating laugh resounded.

"Ha! Are you really so scared to fight us!? You must be terrified! But don't worry! We'll duel you one by one, so you won't get beaten to a pummel all at once!"

It was Arthur who recited those conceited words, but Alex wasn't one to fall too far behind as he added, "Right now! Do you dare or do you not dare!?"

Cassius blankly stared at these clowns, finding it increasingly more difficult not to soccer-punch them in their annoying smirks.

Stella noticed this annoyance and giggled even more than before, to which she received a tickle to her side. Cassius's finger moved like lightning, then left even faster.

'Y-You…! Hahah~!'

Stella struggled with all her might not to embarrass herself in public. Her face turned a dark shade of red as she clenched onto the hem of his uniform and keeled over a little. While steadying her breath and holding back the laughter, she aggrievedly glared at him.

Cassius smugly ignored the cute expression she was making and revisited the sudden proposal to duel by the young male students fiercely glaring at him. He didn't want to have to do this so soon, but in a way, it might just help speed up the process of acquiring a peaceful school life for his last year of high school.

As for why he wished for this—even despite the fact that he could do just about anything he wanted in this world—was because of reasons unknown to even himself.

Perhaps he wanted to savor the mundane while it lasted because he wouldn't get another chance…? Perhaps a part of him felt suffocated by all the pain and death he forced himself to go through, making him subconsciously feel inclined to revert to the simpler things in life…? This could also explain why he always wound up coming back to family at the end of the day…

Cassius's thoughts uselessly swirled before he noticed the growing impatience of the idiots. Sighing, he shook his head and said, "Fine. Let's do this duel."

Arthur and Alex inwardly grinned as they managed to get him ensnared in their trap. Though, outwardly, they showed a bit of false compassion and motioned to an open window. Outside that window were many faculty buildings and activity areas, but what they were truly referencing was the forcefield-like bubble located just a few dozen feet away from the building they were in.

This bubble was an isolated area spanning dozens of meters in all directions and was enveloped in a powerful formation spell that prevented all attacks released inside the bubble from coming out. It could even withstand a couple of skills from the weakest of B-Rank Hunters, which was insane for a backwater city like Hoshito!

"Am I really doing this…?" Cassius asked himself in exasperation.

Stella tickled his sides as a form of revenge and teasingly said, "Good luck, you dummy."

She didn't receive quite the laughing reaction she expected, but seeing his expression morph a little in disgruntlement was very pleasing to the eye.

—A few seconds later—

Cassius nonchalantly stood on one side of the bubble fighting ring.

Alex stood on the other side, his smirk curving up in derision.

Arthur, the blonde-haired student, waited outside the ring. His mood was soured over not winning the rock-paper-scissors match to decide who would be the first to beat up the overly handsome aura-less loser, but he still wanted to watch…