MadWhite had always had his eyes on Ryuk.
From when the boy had first appeared in the Hierarchy test, he had been drawn to him, like a moth to a flame.
He had seen his abilities—ones which he felt wouldn’t actually pale in comparison to any of the top ten family geniuses. One might see it as just Ryuk being just another genius, but MadWhite was no fool.
No human genius ever had any hopes of matching the geniuses from the top ten families, and he knew well that one such as Ryuk was incredibly rare.
And to top it all off, Ryuk was unknown.
The most talented human geniuses are very well known throughout the human world, and even the top ten families, but even with all his power, he had only managed to rank 205.
Ryuk was the special anomaly, and with nobody knowing him or him having much fame compared to the top ten family geniuses, he was the perfect hidden powerhouse to raise.
He couldn’t watch Ryuk living a mundane life and going at the training pace of the other students.
For one as talented as he was, that would be a waste, and that was why MadWhite had made up his mind about it.
"Instructors like me aren’t regular instructors that teach students topics and all that.
"We are referred to as Guardian Instructors, and our job?"
"To defend the academy from external threats and sometimes also take on sudden Lord-Level Missions that might be a threat to Endearth."
"But one more thing that we are allowed to do is take a student under our wings and become their personal mentor."
"This will be like the student having a personal teacher—one that watches over their training and also provides guidance or even direct training to our intern.
"There are ten Guardian Instructors, and I am sure they will soon begin approaching the various other highly ranked geniuses."
"Most of them are from the top ten families, so it’s just the perfect combination for them."
"And I’m a human. That’s partly the reason why I decided to choose you, a human."
"So I brought you here today to ask if you’ll become my personal intern…" the man said, finally getting to the core reason why he was here.
Ryuk stared into the distance for a long while, remaining silent as he calmly thought through the man’s words before he finally asked,
"If there was never a human amongst the top ten families, would you have chosen an intern at all? Let’s say I was ranked 204, and there was no human at all above that rank of mine.
"Would you have chosen one from the top ten family geniuses or, say, one from the top ten hierarchy as a personal intern?"
Ryuk asked, and he got his reply pretty quickly.
"I wouldn’t."
"The Newcomer’s Test happens every year, right? And the Guardian Instructors choose geniuses to train every year when they arrive. You’ve obviously been here for more than a year."
"So you mean to tell me you’ve never chosen any genius at all for these past few years while the other Guardians were choosing one? Or was there a human that once caught your eye before?"
Ryuk asked, and Madhwite chuckled.
"None has. There were some human geniuses that even eventually ranked top 105, but still, they couldn’t enter my eyes.
"Most had their wills crumbled to nothing by the top ten family geniuses, and even when their potential stated they were truly talented, it doesn’t mean much with such low will…"
"You’re the first genius I, MadWhite, will be taking in. Feeling prideful, huh?" he said, nudging Ryuk, who surprisingly had a serious expression on his face.
"You don’t fancy the top ten families. To be plain, You hate them."
Ryuk called, and MadWhite paused his laugh.
"Their existence disgusts you so much that, for years, you refused to take in one of their geniuses and tutor them. And even when human geniuses who are talented appear, you still refuse to take them in once they bow to the top ten families."
"This shows how much hatred you have for the top ten families."
"You want to raise a genius. One who has no fear of the top ten families and is talented enough."
"I seem to fit these marks, and that is why you want to tutor me."
"For the bigger reason of there being a powerhouse who can stand against the top ten families in times of humanity’s doom, which you believe will be happening soon."
"In short, you want to raise a hero…"
Ryuk called, and not a single one of his words was wrong to MadWhite.
One could say that right now, MadWhite was one of the strongest human powerhouses, and with his position in the Ascension Academy, he could see that humanity’s future wasn’t looking too good.
For that, he wanted to raise a hero.
One who could change humanity’s path to one more favorable.
That was his goal. To raise a hero.
"I will never be a hero." Ryuk replied, ending MadWhite’s thoughts.
"I do not have that much charisma or loyalty to the human race as you do, nor do I hate the top ten families."
"In fact, I owe two of the families a favour already, and there have been those who have helped me amongst the top ten families."
"I am neutral about the others."
"Just because I have skirmishes with Sanguine and Fenrir doesn’t mean I now hate the Werewolf and Vampiro families.
"And I like to do things my way, not forced by a false sense of righteousness or whatever."
"I react to situations as I see fit."
"When I was weaker, I allowed people to walk over me and order me around, understanding my own weakness, and mostly keeping silence."
"I let them treat me like trash, only fighting back when they reached a level where I couldn’t take it for my pride."
"But then, when I grew stronger, my boldness increased, and I began striking back. I start setting the boundaries."
"But still, If tomorrow, an advanced race of Interdimensional appeared out of nowhere and started killing everybody who refused to bow their heads to them."
"If they were strong enough to subjugate the entirety of Enderath, I would be the first to bow to them and swear fealty."
Ryuk called as MadWhite’s eyes narrowed.
"So you understand now."
"I’m not really as heroic as you think.
"I am a survivor, and if I have to be a coward or abandon my own race to survive, I will do that without thinking twice…"