Chapter 126: Sob-sob
"Wh-what are you talking about?" Vlad gasped, turning his guilty gaze sideways.
"You definitely saw everything," she whimpered, her eyes moist as she launched a barrage of fists at him. None of them carried any strength behind them. "Forget it. Erase it from your memory."
"Hey, stop already," Vlad said, grabbing her wrists. "It’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before."
He tried to shrug it off but his words only embarrassed her further. The poor girl was on the verge of tears with shame.
Now he felt bad for her. Her sulking face was so adorable that it made him feel he should cheer her up immediately.
"You know you should not feel embarrassed," he murmured, still holding her wrists. "You have a beautiful body."
Boom!
Something inside Chloe exploded. It was definitely a critical hit, sending blood rushing to her whole face, her cold facade completely broken, revealing only a young girl with widened eyes and parted lips as if Vlad had turned her entire world upside down with that statement.
"Pervert Vlad!!!" she shouted, squeezing her eyes shut, her broken voice echoing through the dense forest.
After resting for a few minutes, they returned to the academy. Strangely, Chloe went straight to the training hall instead of the dormitory. She did not say it but Vlad understood how much this mission had affected her. She was blaming herself for not being strong enough to defeat Tobias. After all that talk about protecting Vlad, in the end, she had again become the one being saved by him.
On that day, she made a promise to herself. She would use the talent she possessed to its full potential and grow stronger and stronger until she became someone who could support Vlad on his journey instead of being a burden to him.
As for Vlad and Noah, they were summoned by Aldric, the vice principal, to his secondary office in the main building. Noah had already relayed that the difficulty of the quest was clearly higher than B-Rank, even demanding compensation for the mishap.
Aldric, the one responsible for ranking quests according to their difficulty, accepted the blame, even though it was caused by one of his subordinates who had not investigated the bandit camp properly. He issued a formal apology, offering five thousand credits to Vlad’s party on top of the rewards they had received for finishing the quest.
Noah was obviously pleased with the compensation. He would not need to work for a whole year with the amount of credits he received. He was already regretting signing up for the other B-Ranked quests with Vlad’s party. With a bittersweet smile on his face, he left the office.
As for Vlad...
"Professor Aldric, this was my first mission and I nearly lost my life due to the academy’s blunder," Vlad said, his tone low, hands trembling on the armrest of the chair as he sat opposite Aldric with a mahogany office table between them. "I understand the risks and unforeseen variables that come along with a mission, but facing a one-star knight while at Squire Grade?"
His lips shivered, his voice slightly breaking as he continued, "My mother is a housewife and my father is an old lumberjack. He can barely lift his axe anymore. If I had died today, not because I lacked training or skill but because of the academy’s carelessness... sniff-sniff... who would have fed my poor parents? You think a mere five thousand credits is enough to compensate for the life of a son you almost took from a poor peasant family? But then again... sob-sob... commoners are always treated as expendable everywhere. I thought Arcane Academy was different. But it is the same."
Vlad’s hands reached his face as he began sobbing, his cries filling the room.
There were many inconsistencies in Vlad’s words. The five thousand credits that Vlad dismissed as "merely" was a huge sum, one that could only be accumulated by finishing multiple A-Ranked quests. Moreover, where did this claim of unfairness toward commoners come from? Noah, also in the party, was anything but a commoner, yet he had received the same compensation and was completely pleased with the amount.
Still, Aldric did not point out these inconsistencies. He was uptight but not heartless enough to lecture a terrified teenager before him who had suffered trauma because of the academy’s blunder.
"I am truly disheartened by what you have gone through, Mr. Vlad," Aldric said in a polite but professional tone. "You did well sharing what you felt instead of keeping it hidden within you. Arcane Academy puts the growth and safety of its students as the utmost priority, whether they are the children of a king or a farmer. Let me know if you need anything that could help ease your trauma. As the academy’s representative, I will approve it, if it is a reasonable request."
"Restore the function of contacting the Principal on my phone... sob-sob."
"..."
"..."
"..."
After an awkward silence of a few seconds, Aldric said, shaking his head, "This is not something I can do. I need to discuss it with the Principal."
"Y-you said you are currently representing the academy... sob-sob."
Aldric released a sigh, adjusting his spectacles. For some reason, the antlers felt heavier on his head.
He pulled out his phone and navigated through it with a few taps.
"I have reactivated the feature. You can contact the Principal one more time."
"Do you think my trauma can be fixed by just one session?... sob-sob."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Aldric’s jaw tightened. In his many years at the academy, he had never seen a student as shameless as this one. Yet his tears felt so genuinely true that he would feel like a monster if he denied his request.
He tapped on his phone screen a few more times and said, struggling to keep his tone even.
"I have increased the sessions to ten."
’Got you, idiot,’ Vlad snickered inwardly, his face, hidden behind his palms, carrying a wide smirk. ’I have finally cleared the first step to take revenge on that plushie principal.’