Chapter 36
Chapter 36
“……?”
When I finished talking with Chris and returned to the classroom, it happened to be break time.
However, when I went back to my usual seat, Alice was nowhere to be seen.
“Ostia.”
Thinking she might have gone to the restroom, I was just about to tidy up my seat when I turned my head at the familiar voice.
“You skipped an entire class. Looks like you got chewed out pretty badly.”
“Kind of…….”
As he patted my shoulder, saying I’d worked hard, I let out a bitter smile.
If all that had happened was getting scolded, it would have been fine.
I’d crossed the line of death a few times.
Honestly, if things hadn’t worked out, I might have been done for without accomplishing anything.
I’d told myself to act cautiously, but as always, reality differed from thought.
“By the way, where’s Alice?”
“She left as soon as class ended. Maybe she went to the restroom?”
“Is that so.”
Since she’d come back before class started anyway, I was about to chat idly with Werner until then when someone spoke to us with a cautious air.
“O, Ostia.”
“Hm?”
It was a female student with short brown hair.
Perhaps she had a timid personality; she held one hand near her chest, avoided my gaze slightly, and approached my seat.
What was her name again? She wasn’t as flashy as Alice or Elysia, but she was a girl with a pure, delicate charm.
“Um, I saw this a little while ago when I was coming back to the classroom…….”
She said she had seen Alice being led somewhere by a group of men who looked like upperclassmen.
The scene was clearly strange, and she had tried to ask others for help, but since she didn’t know anyone, she’d run straight back to the classroom and told me instead.
“…What?”
Werner frowned.
The girl flinched slightly, her face turning pale, and he hurriedly waved his hands, saying he hadn’t meant it at her.
“Ostia.”
Werner looked at me with an urgent expression, as if he might run off at any moment.
‘It’s probably related to what happened in the cafeteria.’
They must have realized that going after me directly would be too much after earlier.
In that case, they would target Alice, who looked close to me and comparatively easier.
“Ostia!”
As I paused to think, Werner shouted in a desperate voice.
“Let’s go.”
If we waited any longer, it looked like he’d lose his breath, so I stood up.
Honestly, I was a bit worried too.
…Mostly about the upperclassmen who went with her.
“Huh?”
Just as I was stepping out of the classroom, I ran into Elysia, who was walking from the opposite direction.
“Class is about to start. Where are you going?”
“It seems Alice has gotten tangled up with some upperclassmen.”
At Werner’s words, Elysia’s face hardened as well.
Then she turned around instead, glanced back at us, and said,
“Let’s hurry.”
I hadn’t expected her to come along too, so I shrugged and practically ran across the hallway.
“If something happens to her…….”
Werner clenched his fist tightly.
This guy wasn’t that weak either.
He was inferior to Elysia, but among the freshmen, he was probably near the top.
Still, Elysia watched his back with a subtle expression.
“I’m more worried about the upperclassmen who went with her than about Alice.”
“I agree.”
We hadn’t known each other that long, but Alice’s personality was rougher than her appearance suggested.
She couldn’t tolerate being picked on, and she wouldn’t be satisfied unless she paid back whatever she’d received.
…Ah, did that apply to me too?
I’d crushed her once in a head-on fight.
Since it was a fairly serious concern, my expression naturally stiffened.
Then, finally, Werner, Elysia, the unknown female student, and I arrived at the place where Alice had been taken.
“This year’s freshmen are pretty cocky.”
“Tell me about it.”
Fortunately, the worst situation I’d feared hadn’t happened.
However, perhaps because Alice was a girl, everyone surrounding her and pressuring her were also female students.
All of them had sharp eyes and looked like they had tempers to match.
At the center, a woman with flashy red hair tapped Alice’s shoulder with a contemptuous expression.
“Hey, why don’t you say something?”
“Are you waiting for your friends to come?”
“But what a shame. Looks like it’ll take a while for them to get here.”
Three men, four women.
A total of seven people were surrounding her and applying pressure.
Yet the person in question looked completely calm.
With an indifferent face, as if no one were in front of her, she stared into empty space.
“Hey!”
Unable to contain her anger at the continued disregard, the red-haired girl swung her hand.
I thought Alice would act immediately.
But contrary to my expectation, a sharp sound rang out across the clearing.
Slap-!
“……!”
At the sight of Alice taking it without resistance, Elysia looked shocked.
I was just as surprised.
Why was she just standing there?
“Hey!”
Only Werner rushed at them, his face filled with indignation.
Then a burly male student standing to the side blocked his way.
“Who are you?”
“I’m her friend. Class is about to start, so I’ll take her with me.”
“Yeah?”
Thud!
With a faint smile at Werner’s words, the male student drove his fist into Werner’s stomach without the slightest hesitation.
Werner, who hadn’t expected such a sudden attack, was caught completely off guard.
He collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
Elysia stepped forward angrily, her eyes blazing.
The male students frowned, grumbling about what she was doing, but when they saw her face, they flinched slightly.
From the looks of it, they were probably minor nobles.
No matter how much they relied on Darius’s backing, it would be burdensome to lay a hand on the duke’s daughter of the Britain Duchy.
“Are you okay?”
I patted Werner’s back and helped him up.
After glaring at the opponent with bloodshot eyes for a moment, Werner spoke in a low voice, still breathing roughly.
“I’m fine, so take care of her.”
“Got it.”
I immediately stepped forward, cutting through the space between them.
I took Alice’s hand and tried to lead her away, but they weren’t about to just let us go.
“You, we’re not done talking yet…….”
The red-haired girl who had slapped Alice seemed to think the matter wasn’t over yet.
She reached out as if to grab Alice’s hair.
I lightly flicked my hand at her with an expression that said not a chance.
Crack.
“Aaah!”
With the sound of bones twisting, the girl screamed and staggered back a few steps before collapsing to the ground.
I stopped walking, looked around at them, and spoke in a cold voice.
“Looks like that warning earlier wasn’t enough?”
“Grr!”
Perhaps because his friend was hurt, the male student who had punched Werner charged at me.
After that, it was the expected pandemonium.
However, Elysia and Werner were, in a sense, outsiders.
So, while keeping them as uninvolved as possible, I quickly dealt with Darius’s lackeys.
“Ugh…….”
All three men lay on the ground without exception, groaning.
As for the women, aside from the one whose hand bone I’d twisted at the start, I didn’t touch them.
Unless they attacked, I had no desire to lay a hand on them.
“If you pull this again next time, it won’t end lightly.”
As a warning, I kicked the body of the guy lying there panting one more time.
He rolled a few times, then lay there writhing, moaning.
Without sparing them another glance, I took Alice’s hand and said,
“Let’s go.”
“…Yeah.”
Since class had already started, I sent Werner and Elysia back first.
I brought Alice to the infirmary to treat her swollen cheek, but unfortunately, the healer seemed to be out, as no one was there.
I rummaged through the drawers, but it seemed things like potions were kept inside that safe.
Since it was locked to prevent outsiders from using it freely, I didn’t bother forcing it and instead made a cold compress using ice from the storage.
“Ah, it’s cold!”
When I brought it up to Alice’s face as she sat blankly, she flinched and shuddered in surprise.
Only then did she seem different from before, like she’d come back to life.
“Why did you just take the hit?”
“…Just because.”
At my words, Alice scratched her cheek awkwardly.
“You’d already caused a scene and gotten dragged off, so I thought it’d be troublesome if I did the same.”
“Such pointless consideration. I thought you’d flatten them all.”
“Patience is the assassin’s aesthetic.”
She shrugged, saying that I’d beaten them all up for her anyway.
Since it felt awkward to say more, I just sat beside her and skipped class together.
There was no one who would scold me anyway.
I’d tipped off Delke, so it would’ve spread among the teachers.
Prince Leios von Ribera was already notorious as a thug.
No one would bother provoking me unnecessarily.
And with Chris, the headmaster, on my side, there was nothing left at the Academy that could catch me.
“Don’t hold back next time.”
“I’ll make a complete mess of things, so don’t worry.”
Alice looked at me and grinned.
Yeah, that smile suits you.
I thought that as I looked at her face.
August von Ribera had lost his confidence.
The root of everything was his defeat in the sparring match held on Founding Day.
A match he had believed he would naturally win.
Even his older brothers had encouraged him from behind, telling him to show Leios what for.
But what was the result? He had dominated throughout, only to reveal an opening at the very end, and that single blunder led directly to defeat.
August could not accept it.
Why, why did he have to be judged as inferior to that guy? If they fought again right now, he was confident he would win.
But no one believed him.
That included his father, the Emperor, and even the two older brothers who, until recently, had looked after him so warmly.
In their eyes, there was now an invisible chill.
August, defeated by the thug prince.
That label followed him relentlessly even within the Imperial Palace.
Still, August believed he could overturn everything.
If he entered the Academy as the top student—or at the very least, if he entered with a higher rank than Leios.
But as if mocking his resolve, the heavens allowed Leios to confidently claim the top spot.
At that moment, August felt as though the ground beneath him had collapsed.
Those who fell behind and were left behind were unnecessary.
It was something he himself had always said.
Now those words became an inescapable shackle, tightening around his neck.
It felt as though everyone in the world was laughing at him, ignoring him, and looking down on him with contempt.
Normally, he would have spread the name Ribera, gathered his own people, and formed a personal guard.
But now, he didn’t even feel like doing that.
He merely repeated each day in silence.
Even when his brothers sent their underlings to harass Leios, or when they asked for his cooperation, he refused, thinking it was meaningless.
No light would ever enter a world that had already collapsed.
Everything had simply become empty to him.
And that was an emotion that certain beings truly loved.