Selen stiffly turned around, her expression froze when she saw Lena and Ivan walking over. The surrounding students stopped what they were doing and stood to watch how this would turn out.

"Lena, Ivan...you came just at the right time!" Selen suddenly said. Her frozen expression disappeared and was replaced by an awkward smile.

Juliet’s face paled even more when she heard how Selen called Ivan and Lena, it couldn’t be that they knew each other, right?

The two girls who were with Selen also turned around and offered harmless smiles.

Ivan raised an eyebrow as he looked at Selen. He didn’t know her so why was the other party speaking to him so casually?

Aaron stared at Selen and asked.

"What’s going on here?"

By now, the four of them had arrived in front of Selen and her cohort, Juliet was standing behind them.

"Juliet here has been saying some interesting things and I was just about to teach her a lesson on your behalf," Selen said with an honest smile.

Ivan didn’t reply and just looked at the other party. Meanwhile, Lena’s smile grew wider as she stepped closer to Selen and asked.

"Really, what did she say?"

Selen glanced at Juliet with a mocking grin before looking back at Lena.

"She’s been saying that the reason your squad got first place was because of him!" She said while pointing a finger at Ivan. "And that the rest of you only supported him."

She paused, then smiled faintly as she continued.

"I knew it was fishy so I asked her to explain."

"I-it’s the truth!" Juliet said from behind while clenching her fist.

She felt very nervous right now. After all, she had only known Lena and Ivan for a day but Selen was talking like they already knew each other for a long time.

Plus, they were all from rated noble families, it wasn’t strange for members of noble families to side with one another against those from ordinary families.

She couldn’t tell what Ivan and Lena were going to do about this matter.

Selen just ignored her and continued to speak.

"I mean, think about it. A Paladin who’s good for defence, clearing an orc village with two orc wizards with the assistance of a powerful plant mage and an earth mage who can’t cast range spells.

No offence to Ivan, the Paladin-class is a good ability but it’s not fit for intense combat. And Aaron won’t be able to do much to orcs that are too far away. That leaves just you and her, right?

But she keeps claiming it was because of Ivan and the rest of you only supported him. It doesn’t add up, right?"

The surrounding students started murmuring to one another, and they agreed with what Selena said. They had been surprised when they learned that Ivan’s squad had cleared an orc village with two orc wizards.

Now that Selen said it, it must have been thanks to Lena and Juliet.

Selen smiled and stepped forward.

"So I assumed she was making herself look less...replaceable. After all, it’ll make more sense that the real contributors were you two but she was afraid of taking credit."

Juliet clenched her fists at the back.

"I’m not lying..." she said but her voice lacked confidence.

Selen looked at her with a grin.

"Still lying? You should be very careful, lying against those from noble families won’t end well for you."

Juliet’s body shook and she instinctively looked at Ivan, then Lena, Aaron, and Lucas, waiting for what they were going to say.

At this moment, Ivan finally spoke.

"Are you done?" He asked calmly.

"Eh?" Selen uttered, she didn’t understand Ivan’s question.

"You’ve been talking for a while, so I’m asking if you’re done."

Selen’s expression collapsed.

"I-i was just pointing out the obvio..." She tried to speak but Ivan cut her off.

"Indeed, she wasn’t telling the full truth," he said.

Juliet’s eyes widened, her face twisting in horror. While the faces of Selen and her cohort brightened with wicked smiles.

Looks like Ivan was going to side with them!

However, Ivan’s next words shocked her and the surrounding students.

"I didn’t clear the orc village alone, it was the combined effort of everyone in the squad. Juliet was the one who killed the orc king while Lena and Aaron joined me to kill the rest of the orcs." Ivan said calmly.

The eyes of Juliet, Selen, and the surrounding students, widened when they heard Ivan’s words.

Before they could react. Lena stepped forward and added.

"Mm, that’s true. Ivan fought the orcs directly while I restricted most of them, and Aaron kept changing the structure of the ground to prevent the orcs from teaming up."

"That’s...that’s impossible!" Selen exclaimed.

"Hehehe, I know it sounds impossible, right? We couldn’t believe it even after the first time we saw it either." Lena patted Selen’s shoulder and laughed as if she felt sorry for the other party.

Meanwhile, Lucas and Aaron already went to meet Juliet. Lucas immediately noticed the palm print on Juliet’s face.

Aaron turned to Selen and the other two girls, his tall build towering over them.

"Did you slap her?" He asked coldly. He was from the Baxil family which was a second-rate noble family just like Selen’s family, so he wasn’t afraid of her.

"I-i..." Selen stuttered, not daring to answer that question. The two girls who were with her had silently slipped away, leaving Selen alone to face Ivan’s squad.

"Eh? She slapped Juliet?" Lena exclaimed and immediately went to check on Juliet. Seeing the palm print on Juliet’s face, a look of rage appeared on her face.

She turned to Selen and ordered.

"Apologise right now!"

Selen "..."

"What are you staring at? I said you should apologise to Juliet right now!" Lena spat, her green ponytails bouncing in rage.

Selen looked like a frozen statue, she couldn’t imagine herself apologising to someone from an ordinary family. But the one who was telling her to was Lena, her family couldn’t afford to mess with the Starling family.

"I...I’m sorry," Selen gritted her teeth and said with great difficulty.

Juliet stared at everything with a blank look, not expecting things to turn out like this.

She wasn’t the only one, the rest of the students were also in a state of disbelief. This news would definitely spread around the academy soon.

’Avoid anyone in Ivan’s and Lena’s squad!’ 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Good, if you ever mess with anyone from my squad again, I won’t let you go so easily." Lena snorted before pulling Juliet away. Lucas and Aaron followed behind them.

"Ivan?" Lucas called out when he saw that Ivan was still standing in front of Selen.

"You guys go ahead, I’ll meet up soon." He said without looking back.

The four didn’t stay and left Ivan behind.

After they left, Ivan stepped closer to Selen. For some reason, Selen was even more afraid of Ivan than Lena. She didn’t dare to look up when Ivan stood near her.

Ivan didn’t mind this and proceeded with why he had stayed behind. He gazed down at Selen and opened his mouth.

"You might not do anything to Juliet while in the academy, but if I ever find out that anything happened to her family.

I’ll hold the Monvena family responsible, even if it has nothing to do with you.

You won’t want to see what will happen if I tell my father that someone from the Monvena family tried to kill me." Ivan whispered before walking away, leaving Selen frozen in place.

The reason he had done this was simple. He had seen people like Selen before, a lot of them. Since they couldn’t harm Juliet because of Ivan and Lena, they would go after her family.

This was to make sure that Selen wouldn’t try to use her family to oppress Juliet’s family or hire others to do it since Ivan would come for her family regardless.

She would even start trying to protect Juliet’s family just to save her neck.

Ivan soon caught up with Juliet and the others and met them discussing what had just happened.

"It’s a good thing we decided to come look for you, how dare someone from a second-rate noble family bully my squad member?!" Lena was pissed. She suddenly felt that she shouldn’t have stopped at just asking for an apology, she should have slapped Selen back!

Juliet only smiled in response, not knowing how to reply. But she was really grateful that they came. It turned out that the thirty minutes they agreed on had already passed but she hadn’t appeared, so they came looking for her.

"Next time, if someone messes with you, don’t hesitate to let us know," Aaron said to her.

Juliet nodded before looking at Ivan who had just arrived.

"Thanks," she said shyly.

"Why?" Ivan replied with a blank look. In his opinion, Lena was the one who had made a move in front of Juliet. He only warned Selen after they had already left.

Juliet opened her mouth to speak, then stopped. She pouted, her face flushed and she looked away.

Ivan "..."