Kings On The Horizon (Vol. 1-3) ✓

42 | Big Surprise

♜

MAX TAKES A DEEP breath and walks down the hall of J.S High wearing their PE uniform. As for BND's request, Max isn't wearing their famous white uniform since his training will officially start today.

     Another request from the brotherhood is that Max isn't allowed to tell anyone about all this. No one should know that Max is the Mr. Brains and Brawn representative, and that's because it might leak outside their campus, which Max thought was very unlikely considering the fact that even Viktor's identity hasn't been leaked before.

     "Max!" a voice suddenly shouts from behind Max.

     Max stops walking and turns around, surprised to see Rome approaching him. And when the joker got even closer, Max notices that the black on his hands weren't his gloves at all, but black paint instead.

     "What on earth happened to you?" Max asks as he waits for Rome to get closer to him.

     Rome looks back at his hands and laughs at himself after remembering what happened to him earlier. As he stopped in front of Max, he shares, "We received a fool's request from a white uniform. We haven't given anyone a jack-in-a-box ever since you defeated us, so we got too excited. We would usually ask our Jacks to set the pranks for us, but this time we set it up ourselves."

     "Your target must be very lucky then," Max sarcastically says before he started walking again.

     Rome follows Max and casually starts to walk beside him.

     "So, how did it go with BND? Did Hans say anything mean?" Rome asks, and Max couldn't help but release a heavy sigh. Nothing happened yet, but thanks to his conversation with Richard last night, he could already feel the pressure.

     "I was very confident when I got here in J.S High. Even when I was trying to conquer Jokers, I didn't feel pressured or threatened at all. But for some reason, BND makes me feel the opposite," Max suddenly explains, which surprised Rome since he didn't expect the heir to suddenly be so sentimental.

     Rome tries to think of the right words. And when we finally did, he looks at Max and tells him, "I guess the reason is that there's a lot at stake. With Jokers, you weren't really going to lose anything, but with BND, you'll lose a ton of merit points. And the respect of the Dukes - which is honestly much better than our respect - will all go to waste if you fail."

     "That just made me feel worse," Max jokily says, making the two laugh.

     "Maybe you're right, but to correct you on something, gaining your brotherhood's respect is one of my greatest achievements. Whether I was confident or not, losing to you would have been very troublesome to me," Max then adds, and this time, Rome smiles at him.

     The two continue to walk down the hall in silence. And when Max was about to reach the Greenhouse, Rome stops and says, "Hey, Max."

     Max stops walking and looks back at Rome. "What is it?" he asks.

     Rome awkwardly scratches the back of his head, unsure if he should open it up or not. But after debating with himself, he takes a deep breath and says, "Master Joker might not show it, but we know he's been struggling. We're well aware that he and Brave will be graduating this year, and we're not entirely sure if we, the juniors, will be able to keep the Baron position. And ever since his defeat, students have been making fun of us, and our leader is worried. Of course, for us, it's not a big deal, but Master Joker feels like he's obliged to make Jokers a respectable name for our sake, you get me?"

     Max nods his head, completely understanding where Rome is coming from.

     "I know you don't owe us anything, but if you win Mr. Brains and Brawn, it will greatly help our leader. Krist has always looked after us, and it pains us to see how people are laughing at him. I promise we'll give you everything—"