Divine Celebrity 52 (Patreon)

Compared to the extra training in the morning, the evening training held no surprises, pleasant or nasty. 

Well, almost no surprises, as Coach Bill occasionally popped next to me during the training, questioning me about the formations he had taught the day before, making sure I remembered all of them accurately.

Which was surprisingly challenging the exhaustion started to build up, each breath burning my lungs. 

Luckily, the benefits of Strategy and Tactics Traits were too amazing to be stumped by something as simple as exhaustion. 

And, Coach Bill might be an old curmudgeon, but his strict reputation about playing only the ones that were having a good training week was clearly accurate, because, toward the end of the training, he let me take the mike position for the practice game, much to the shocked gazes of the rest of the team, bouncing between me and Carter. 

Despite starting to lose his position, Carter didn’t have a reaction to that. 

Naturally so, as it was what he was fighting for, but the rest didn’t know that. 

The shock of the people resulted in a nice flood of Intent, quickening the recovery of my guide. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for me to split the flow sufficiently to feed the System, so it didn’t give me any nifty Traits that would help me to reinforce my abilities.  

The training only ended when it was time for the class. A few of the players stayed for extra practice, and, noticing the subtle gaze of Coach Bill, I decided to stay in as well. 

If it wasn’t for my traits, doing that much extra training would certainly be harmful, but such ‘dedication’ would certainly impress the old-school coach. 

And, I needed to impress him to play. There was no substitute for a stadium full of people, watching me as they cheered as their lives depended on it to farm some intent. 

I stayed in the stadium until ten, pushing more than every other player was willing to, which, as an added benefit, gave me some reproachful looks from the rest of the defensive players. 

They were jealous, but their gaze was also tinged with respect. 

Their thought process was rather clear. Losing a starter spot to a newcomer was certainly not a happy occasion for the other hopefuls, but if that player increased the chances of victory even marginally… Playing football was good, challenging, and fun at the same time. 

Winning football games was the best.  

After the training, I was planning to go back to my room for a quick nap, but after the shower, I found a message on my phone. 

It was from the coordinator of the Chess team, calling me for a team meeting at nine-thirty. 

Meaning, that I was already half an hour late, a fact that was not appreciated by him if the five unanswered calls were any indicator. I wrote a quick message, telling him that the football training extended and I would drop by. 

It was his fault for calling for a meeting without a warning, of course, but I was not in a position to raise that point and annoy someone that had a right to make decisions about my scholarship. 

At least, not before I actually played in a couple games to strengthen my place on the team and convince the football team that gave me a full scholarship was preferable to splitting my time with the chess team. 

I drove to the building that held the headquarters for the chess team, even though calling it headquarters gave it an unjustified grandiose. 

Unlike the football stadium, filled with the state of the art equipment, the modified classroom was barely enough to host a dozen people, the only decoration other than the chairs and table was a large bookcase filled with chess books — most of them outdated to the point of complete uselessness. 

Interestingly, seven people were already there, working hard. 

Six of them were familiar faces. They were members of the chess team. I had a passing familiarity with them, but nothing more. 

Unlike me, they were not scholarship students. It was an important detail for me, because their college attendance was not dependent on their success. 

I wouldn’t have bothered about that if that fact didn’t show itself in their studying schedule. 

The seventh person in the class was certainly a surprise though. A certain raven-haired girl, carefully explained a complicated pattern to the other six. 

“Long time no see, Lauren,” I said as I walked toward them and pulled a chair. “Tell me, what made you decide to waste your time in this horrible place.” 

Her expression of annoyance was cute enough to put a smile on my face. “You’re already late, why don’t you respect the rest of the team and stay silent until I finish teaching.” 

Her attitude was much sharper than I was normally used to, which was a nice exception to her usual attitude. “Harsh. I like it,” I said as I caught her gaze and hit her with a beautiful smirk, enjoying the way a blush invaded her face instantly, demolishing her earlier confidence.

The improvement in Seduction was no joke. 

“I-I’m simply being fair,” she stammered as she tried to recover himself. 

Then, one of the other players turned his gaze at me, his courage bolstered. 

I recognized the nature of his sudden courage. Lauren was a beautiful girl, and he wanted not to miss the opportunity to play the heroic prince. “Hey, be respectful to our new tutor. Just because you joined the football team—“ he started. 

That was all he was able to say before my fist landed on the table, my gaze pinning him down. “Who are you to talk to me,” I growled, not even bothering to use the full impact of the Intimidation trait to optimize my move. 

Just my gaze would have been enough to silence him. My words were enough to make him lean back fearfully, making me wonder whether he would fall down the chair. 

To test that, I took a step forward, but before I could bring that to completion, Lauren intercepted. 

“Enough, don’t bully the other students,” she said, her tone sharper. “You’re all members of the same team, you need to get along.” 

“Who would get along with this thug,” the boy who just challenged me murmured, encouraged by the sudden intervention. 

I thought about turning my attention to him and teaching him a small lesson about talking back, but I decided to ignore him. Instead, I turned my attention to Lauren. “So, you’re the new tutor for our chess team?” I asked. 

“Yes, I decided to volunteer to thank the school for giving me the opportunity,” she said. 

I shook my head, enjoying her naivety. She didn’t need to pay back, as her hiring was clearly about her family pulling the strings, but clearly, the coordinator decided to leverage her naivety to get some free work from a player of her caliber. 

“You’re wasting your time with them,” I said dismissively. 

“Hey—“ one of them started, only to fall silent when I caught his gaze and made a zipping motion. 

My reputation had already been set in the team long before I had received the System, and while they had been momentarily encouraged by the inclusion of a tutor, hoping that an authority figure would limit my action, their hopes were short-lived. 

“What do you mean?” Lauren asked before her expression stiffened. “And, don’t talk disrespectfully about your teammates.” 

I sighed. Unlike the others, I liked Lauren due to her courage to actually cut off her family to focus on her dreams — even though I knew that it was little more than polite fiction, her family humoring her rebellion, Lauren didn’t know that, which was enough to earn a modicum of respect for me. 

And, if I was being honest, her innocent beauty and fun personality helped to magnify that effect. 

So, I decided to explain. “You’re wasting your time with them,” I repeated, and when I gestured for her to stop when she opened her mouth. “You’re wasting your time, because none of them puts enough time to actually study the game, so they are just going to waste your time while you try to explain the same concepts again and again.”

“Hey, we study,” interjected one of them. 

“For how long?” I asked. 

“At least five hours,” he answered. 

“You see,” Lauren interjected, happy to find an opportunity to invalidate what I told her. “They are studying more than enough, and they just need someone to guide them properly. If you bothered to mentor them rather than wrestling with grown men, maybe you would have a proper team.” 

Coming from someone else, that statement annoyed me. But Lauren had a certain aura of cuteness radiating off her, somehow making her even more fun. 

I turned my attention to the guy who spoke. “Five hours per…” I murmured, letting him complete. 

“Per week, of course,” he said, looking around confused. 

I didn’t say anything, just caught Lauren’s gaze, enjoying her blush. The boy — whose name I didn’t bother to learn despite being in the same team for almost two years — looked at Lauren, realizing the sudden shift in her attitude. 

“That’s not exactly sufficient to improve,” she admitted softly, not willing to defend them after realizing that what they meant with serious work was not five hours a day. 

“But, we have classes and other clubs—“ the boy started, only for me to slam my fist once more. 

“New team rule,” I said. “You guys are going to study at least three hours a day before bothering Lauren about teaching.” 

“We can’t—“ one of the others started, only for me to gesture them to silence. 

“This is not a debate. That’s the new team rule. Either quit, so she can pick new team members, or you start studying hard. And if you stay on the team and don’t work…” My smirk widened. “I wonder how many players I could convince to torture you guys for laziness. If there’s one thing they hate more than nerds, it’s the lazy nerds that ruin the name of our school.” Their expression was simply beautiful. 

“Now, get out,” I growled, tapping into Intimidation for the first time since I entered the room. 

The speed they escaped was impressive. Maybe I should bring them to running back selections.