Chapter 115 : Chapter 115
Volume 2
Chapter 39 : A Blind Alley
“No—I bled for the academy, I sweated for Saint Maria! You can’t treat me like this! I want to see the principal! I want to see Pink Bear!”
On the empty training ground, Koren let out a heart-rending howl.
“See the principal? Fine, I’ll take you to see the principal right now, but I’m afraid Pink Bear can barely save himself at this point!”
With a savage grin, Cade used his superior cultivation to slam Koren to the ground.
A thick rope flew through his hands as he swiftly bound him up.
He tied him into a tight tortoise-shell knot.
And for good measure, he kicked Koren in the backside several more times.
Damn you.
I stood up for you like that just now. I backed you up like that. And you really were a bandit?
You betrayed my feelings!
Cade felt as if he had become a merciless machine, and the next step was to tie up Pink Bear and this bastard together and burn them alive!
“W-Wait, wait, I still have something to say!”
Seeing that Cade had already taken off one of his foul-smelling socks and was about to stuff it into his mouth, Koren let out one last terrified scream:
“Just let me say one final sentence!”
“One final sentence? Very well. Let me hear your last words.” Cade sneered and loosened his grip for the moment.
“I...”
Koren let out a great breath, then looked toward Muen, whose hair was standing on end, and revealed a tragic smile.
“I may have fallen this time, but it doesn’t matter. My beauty, I will definitely come back and marry—”
Crack.
The cold surged explosively.
Brilliant ice crystals instantly condensed, freezing Koren—whose disgusting smile was still on his face—into a human popsicle.
Selicia cast him a cold glance.
“What a pollution of the ears.”
“...”
Standing not far away, Muen silently edged back a little and shrank his neck.
Somehow, Selicia did not seem to be in a very good mood.
“Now that the truth has been made clear...”
Selicia’s cool gaze swept over the “heroes” below, who had been so lively moments ago and were now as silent as could be.
“And seeing as no one seems to have any objections, then... Teacher Cade, I’ll leave the rest to you. I won’t disturb your class any further.”
“No, no, I should be the one saying that. Sorry for the trouble.” Cade forced out a bitter smile.
Ordinarily, he hated other people interrupting his classes, but at a time like this, what else could he say?
Besides, compared to teaching class, what he wanted more right now was to go settle accounts with Pink Bear.
“Then I’ll take my leave first.”
Selicia gave a polite nod, then fixed Muen with another stare.
“Muen Campbell. Come with me.”
“Oh. Right.”
Muen nodded blankly.
He had just started to follow Selicia when Teacher Cade stopped him.
“Um, Muen...”
Muen turned around, only to see that Cade had shed his usual fierce and severe demeanor.
He scratched his head, his expression awkward.
“About just now... I was wrong to blame you. So... sorry.”
“Hm?”
Muen was stunned.
Teacher Cade... was apologizing to him?
He stood there in confusion for a moment, then came back to himself.
Teacher Cade’s temper might be awful, but he really was that kind of straightforward person.
Otherwise, he would not have reacted so intensely earlier.
“It’s all right, Teacher Cade.”
After thinking it over, Muen decided to forgive him.
After all, Cade had only been too quick-tempered and the fact that he had never truly struck Muen showed that he had genuinely been observing the duties of a teacher.
Compared to him, the others...
Muen glanced at the students in the stands, then followed Selicia out.
...
...
Outside the training ground, Muen looked at Selicia’s back as she walked in front of him, but for a while he had no idea what to say, so he could only ask dryly:
“By the way, Selicia, why did you suddenly show up there?”
And with timing that is perfect too.
No matter how he thought about it, it did not seem like she had just happened to pass by.
“Why?”
Selicia stopped, then turned back.
Her slender brows rose high, sharp as drawn blades.
“So what, I should have stayed away and let you die of stupidity?”
“...”
Muen felt as though those words, like a sword devoid of all mercy, had pierced straight through his chest.
But he could not refute them.
Because what he had done really had been the stupidest possible thing.
Investigating afterward would have worked.
Reporting Koren to Professor Prang would have worked too.
There were any number of easy ways to expose Koren’s identity as a bandit, yet he had chosen the stupidest one—attacking him in public. Not only had he thrown himself into the eye of the storm, he might even have ruined the bit of improvement his reputation had only recently begun to make.
“Still, there was nothing wrong with that punch.”
Selicia suddenly said it, and there was even a trace of relief in her tone, the sort of relief a father might feel upon discovering that his son had turned out normal after all.
“If you hadn’t thrown that punch, Duke Campbell might really have had to start considering whether to give up on you as a son.”
“Could you please stop bringing that up?” Muen complained tearfully.
Birds suddenly alighted on the ornamental trees lining the road, but Selicia cast them a cold glance and they flew off in fright at once.
“Ariel was the one who called me here,” Selicia said suddenly.
“Hm?”
“She said a gay man had confessed to you and told me to hurry over if I wanted to watch the show.”
“Damn it.”
The warmth that had just risen in Muen’s heart was instantly snuffed out.
He had almost been touched that Ariel, of all people, had stepped in to help someone she disliked.
But in the end, that girl really did still have designs on Selicia, so she had only wanted to drag her over to watch him make a fool of himself?
Well done indeed, O Soaring Phoenix heroine.
Was she trying to advance both routes at once and capture the two of them simultaneously?
Though it did not feel as though either route had much hope.
“Thank you, Selicia. You helped me again.”
Muen thanked her sincerely.
Now that he thought about it, Selicia always seemed to be helping him.
Even though the one who ought to feel guilty, the one who ought to be making amends, should have been him.
“If you really feel sorry toward me, then stir up less trouble in the future.”
As though she had seen through his thoughts, Selicia spoke coldly.
“Heh...”
Muen could only answer with a bitter smile.
It was not that he wanted to stir up trouble, but trouble kept coming to find him.
Including this time...
“You seem very unhappy.”
“Huh?”
“Everything has been settled. The misunderstanding has been cleared up. That perverted gay man who might have kept harassing you has been caught. Yet you seem very unhappy.”
Selicia tilted her head and studied him before suddenly saying it.
“...Do I?”
“Your face is practically wrinkled up like an old granny’s.”
“So that’s how it is.”
Without realizing it, had he really reached the point where he could not even control his own expression anymore?
“It’s not that I’m unhappy. I just...”
Muen lowered his head and stared at the ground as he spoke softly:
“I just feel a little disappointed.”
He had worked so hard to change himself.
Even Anna had praised his efforts.
He had thought so many things had already become different.
And yet...
At moments like this, there were still people unwilling to believe him.
There were still people unwilling to give him even a little more time.
There were still people...
hiding behind the crowd, showing him malice.
And when that happened...a person could not help beginning to wonder whether everything he had done was really...
“Muen Campbell!”
Selicia suddenly raised her voice, cutting off Muen’s thoughts.
He lifted his head, only to find Selicia staring at him coldly, as though she were looking at a pile of combustible garbage.
“You seem... to be heading down a blind alley.”
“Hm?”
Muen did not quite understand.
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t actually think you can make everyone like you, do you?”
“No. I just don’t want others to keep treating me with malice anymore. I just don’t want them to keep looking at me with prejudice...”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Huh?”
Muen froze.
He had never expected such a crude phrase to come out of Selicia’s mouth.
“What do you think of me?” Selicia suddenly asked.
“You...”
Muen had been about to answer, but suddenly became alert.
When a girl suddenly asks you that kind of question in some deserted place...
you have to answer properly.
“The black stockings suit you perfe—ugh!”
Selicia withdrew her knee strike, her expression icy.
“Answer again.”
“Perfect.”
Curled up like a cooked shrimp and clutching his stomach, Muen lifted a trembling thumbs-up.
“Absolutely perfect.”
“And yet, even I, the so-called perfect me in your eyes—the Empire’s Third Princess, the student council president, someone with countless halos around me, and, I would say, a fairly decent appearance—still have many people who dislike me, even hate me.”
Selicia said:
“For instance, Mingote, the president of the Newspaper Society. He makes straw dolls of me every day and wishes I would fall gravely ill and die on the spot so he can sell more of his scandal sheets.”
“You know about that too?” Muen asked in shock.
“Heh. The confidant he values most joined the student council long ago. He just doesn’t know it.”
“...”
Muen shivered.
How terrifying. This woman was terrifying.
“It is only natural to want to change your outward image and be liked by others, especially for someone like you, Muen Campbell. But you should never put the word ‘everyone’ in front of that.”
Selicia looked at Muen and continued:
“You let a few utterly insignificant little insects bite you once, and now you look so dejected you’re like some brat who just had his candy stolen. Muen Campbell, seeing you like this is even more disgusting than you were a few months ago. At least back then, if someone insulted you, you would have pointed right at his nose and snapped back, ‘My father is the Duke. What are you supposed to be?’”
“...”
Muen opened his mouth soundlessly, like a fish washed ashore.
“Besides, it is not only those who hate you. Your change itself may also become a source of malice.”
“My change itself?”
That sentence from Selicia left Muen even more confused.
He had been a wastrel young master who had done every bad thing imaginable.
If he suddenly turned over a new leaf, should that not be a good thing for everyone?
At least within this academy, it ought to have been.
“I truly cannot tell whether your personality changed completely, or whether you were simply replaced by another person altogether.”
Looking at the bewilderment on Muen’s face, Selicia let out a sigh so faint that it barely showed.
“You have cut yourself too cleanly away from your past, Muen Campbell.”
“Huh?”
Muen was still completely at sea.
But Selicia seemed to have lost patience.
She turned around and continued walking forward.
After a few steps, she suddenly looked back at him.
“Why are you still following me? Do I need you to escort me?”
“Then I...”
“Go do what you’re supposed to do. And do not tell me you’re going to slink away just like this. If you do, I’ll scold you to death.”
“Oh. Right.”
Muen scratched his head foolishly, as though he had finally remembered what he was supposed to do, then turned and headed off in the opposite direction.
But after only a few steps, he suddenly turned around and looked at the silver-haired girl who, as always, was cold on the outside and warm on the inside.
“Selicia.”
“What now?”
“You looked really cool just now.”
“So?”
“I feel like I’m almost falling in love with you.”
“Almost?”
Selicia arched her brow.
“But hadn’t you already said before that you were in love with me?”
“That was...”
Muen laughed awkwardly.
“A little different.”
“But I’m not in love with you.”
“Ah.”
“Now get lost.”
“Right.”
“And do it quickly.”
“Mm-hm.”
...
...
After Muen left,
Veir, the bun-haired student council secretary, popped out from who knew where and asked curiously:
“President, are you really not going to tell him about that?”
“Why should I tell him?”
“But wasn’t that why we came to find him in the first place? To warn him about it?”
“Am I his mother? Do I have to remind him of everything?”
That was what she said, but Selicia’s gaze still rested on the document in her hand.
—《Regarding Aemon Biandi’s Abnormal Behavior Report》
“I had intended to warn him.”
Selicia let out a sigh.
“But looking at how foolish he was, I think it would be better to let him suffer a little first.”
“Huh? But what if he runs into danger...”
“If he dies, he dies. What does it have to do with me?”
Selicia casually tore the report to pieces and threw it into the trash bin.
Then she left without looking back.
But if it has nothing to do with you, then why are you angry?
Watching Selicia’s retreating figure, Veir stuck out her tongue but still swallowed the second half of the sentence that had already reached her lips.
She had the distinct feeling that if she actually said it...the president would become very frightening all of a sudden.