Chapter 5 - If You're Upset, Try Fighting

Thud.

In the classroom where a heavy silence had settled, only the sound of hitting a desk was heard. The few gazes that were present all converged on one spot in the classroom.

Where? On me, of course.

"Didn't you say she wasn't your companion?"

"She is my companion. This trash of a human. He ran away alone without telling me anything!"

Blue eyes and black eyes look down at me. I looked up at them, cold sweat trickling down.

I am trash, but it hurts a little when you look at me like that.

"It seems there's some misunderstanding—"

"Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding? If it's the misunderstanding that Sunghoon-ssi wasn't trash, that was cleared up long ago, so just accept it!"

I wish she would just stay quiet. It's already hard enough to make excuses, but this damn blonde is on the offensive, attacking me.

No matter how I think about it, they assigned the wrong guide. She's not a guide, she's a hindrance. Yellow hindrance.

"You know, at first I was going to apologize. I thought I might have been too rude to someone I just met."

Ishia glared with wide eyes. Her glaring gaze was scary.

"But you really are trash."

Ishia looks down on me, and Raphael glares at me. Murmurs could be heard from around.

— How could he do that to such a small girl.

— He's trash. Really.

— But she's really pretty. He abandoned a girl like that?

Ah. I can hear it. I can hear it. I can hear familiar sounds. Sounds similar to what I heard in high school and university.

I can hear the sound of my school life crumbling!

"From the start, isn't your mindset as a hero candidate all wrong? How could you—"

I listened to Ishia's words, which were all correct, with one ear and looked at the root cause of this situation. If you were saved, you should just say thank you and come out, not bring her all the way here.

"What?"

I really like how confident she is. I like it. That expression of not knowing what she's done, I clenched my fist under the desk.

"Are you listening? You're not suited for Justitia—"

If this continues, I'll be branded as trash (which is true) and not only will I fail to interfere, but my school life will become difficult, I could see it clearly.

Ishia has quite a self-righteous sense of justice. It's the result of growing up pampered as the Association President's daughter.

What I mean is, she forces her thoughts on others. It's a characteristic of people who grew up sheltered, the type who think only their words are justice without considering others.

For Ishia, it's even worse because of her great talent.

In the end, she'll keep bothering me until I either drop out or completely reform. I, who created her, know this best.

Here, for now, it's best to pretend to reflect, even halfheartedly, to avoid the situation. If I don't want to get involved with Ishia, if I don't want to ruin my school life. There's no choice.

I quietly opened my mouth.

"Sor—"

"Sor? Sor what? Don't tell me you're trying to apologize now? Sunghoon-ssi. If you're going to apologize, at least get on your knees. That's the only way I might forgive you. No, even that's not enough. Add 'Great Archangel Raphael-nim. This lowly one has done wrong. Please forgive me just this once.' and I might consider it. Come on, repeat after me. Great Raphael-nim~"

Seeing Raphael making a fuss by herself, a different word came out of my mouth instead of what I was about to say. I just couldn't say that.

"You, you..."

"Yes?"

"You crazy bitch, if you're upset, try fighting."

Ah. Goodbye, my school life.

Bye-bye.

＊＊＊

As you go through life, there are times when you feel like your life is ruined. When cold sweat runs down your whole body, and thoughts of 'Can't I turn back time?' dominate your brain.

I'm experiencing that spectacularly right now.

My clothes are damp with cold sweat, I can feel my face turning pale, my legs are shaking uncontrollably.

Is this what they call diminished capacity?

"Pfft... hehe... sniff... hehe... sniff..."

"..."

And the one mocking me beside me, finding something funny, has been trying to hold back laughter for a while now.

"You like it? You enjoying this?"

"Yes... sniff... Do you know the word 'you reap what you sow'? Accept it... sniff!! Hehe... hehe..."

I want to tell her to just laugh out loud, but I couldn't. Because the homeroom teacher in front is saying something. The standoff between me and Ishia was also interrupted by that man's intrusion.

"I'm Shinkiha, your homeroom teacher for the next 3 years!"

Shinkiha. A supporting character who occasionally appears as Kim Taehyun's teacher in Justitia, where classes don't change for 3 years.

I remember setting him up to be quite strong, maybe around 5000th in the world rankings. He was a minor character I used quite often.

But that's not the problem. The problem is his personality. In a word, he's a passionate teacher. An idiot with a muscle brain who believes that anyone can become close if they physically clash.

That's why this result came about.

"A friendly match will be fun!"

In a space that's not a classroom, where dim lighting softly shines, eight iron cages can be seen. Iron cages surrounding the ring to prevent escape, named the Octagon. Shinkiha is smiling in front of it.

I lowered my head. Then I noticed the strange clothes I was wearing. Black clothes that could be called skintight. It's a sparring uniform made directly by Justitia to increase magic and physical resistance, but whoever designed it, it's really embarrassing.

"Well then, let's make the match-ups!! Anyone who's decided on an opponent?"

Shinkiha asked, waving his hands around. At that sound, I started to break out in cold sweat again. Because I remembered my situation. Thanks to the damn blonde desperately trying to hold back laughter beside me, it hadn't even been 10 minutes since I picked a fight with Ishia.

Which means—

"Teacher."

"Hm? What is it?"

"I want to spar with Lee Sunghoon."

This is how it turns out. As I turned my head to look behind, my eyes met with the black-haired girl glaring at me as if she wanted to kill me.

Once our eyes met, I couldn't turn away. A staring contest is not child's play. Once eyes meet and the battle begins, you absolutely can't lose.

"This guy's at it again."

Shut up.

After glaring at each other for a while, Ishia turned her head with a "Hmph!" I won.

"Alright. Is that okay with you, Sunghoon?"

Shinkiha looked at me. I couldn't say no here, so I nodded. He had a somewhat pitiful expression, probably because of my ranking.

"But are you really okay with this?"

Raphael, who seemed to have finished laughing and was wiping tears with her sleeve, asked. What's with this one's clothes? This uniform is supposed to adjust to fit the wearer's body. Yet her sleeves were too long, hiding her white hands.

"Why don't you just apologize to me and that person and end it? Don't be reckless? If you die, I can't return to the celestial realm, you know?"

"Why is my death a premise?"

"Then do you have some kind of strategy?"

"Of course not."

There really isn't one. It was just done in the heat of the moment, how could there be?

"Then what are you going to do? Your physical abilities are worse than mine, you have no magic power. You can't use magic. All you can do is annoy people."

"..."

I didn't answer the words that hit the mark. No, I couldn't. But fighting is better than apologizing to Raphael.

If I'm going to fight, it's better to win.

"Alright. Ishia, Sunghoon, come forward."

I got up at the call and headed towards the Octagon. Raphael followed behind, chattering.

"Why are you doing this? Let's just apologize to me. If you do that, I'll end it with just 'Great Raphael-nim, I'm sorry.'"

I didn't answer. Who caused this situation in the first place?

Thinking about it, this might be a good thing. Ishia becomes Kim Taehyun's heroine and teaches him magic. She's central to Kim Taehyun's magical growth.

If I can just win, I can interfere with Kim Taehyun's magical growth.

Nothing is more important than life, but if something like an attack targeting Ishia happens, I can just run away as much as possible, right?

"Ah! Then let's do this! Just surrender as soon as you get up there! Don't fight an opponent you can't beat!"

I pointed at Raphael, who was chattering in front of Shinkiha. It meant 'Please do something about this one,' but the answer I wanted didn't come out of his mouth.

"You're already getting along well, cheering each other on!! You two!"

Does this look like cheering to you? I looked at Shinkiha incredulously, but he continued his words regardless.

"Pick a weapon and get up on the ring. As I said, it's a friendly match. It doesn't count towards your grades, and it's a match to get closer, so you don't have to take it too seriously."

I listened to the explanation with one ear and looked at the weapon storage. From swords, spears, bows, axes to hammers. There was almost everything.

There was almost everything, but there was one problem.

"I don't know how to use any weapon."

"Just shoot a gun. You just have to pull the trigger, right?"

This woman seems to think guns are easy. I didn't even go to the military. I don't know how to shoot a gun, and it's common knowledge that if you shoot poorly, your shoulder gets dislocated at the very least. Posture is important, but I don't know the posture, so guns are the most dangerous.

"You're going to get hit and come down no matter what you pick, so just take a sword or something. Well then."

"I guess I will."

I picked up a sword at random. And its weight was, as expected.

"Heavy!"

It was damn heavy. It's a level that's burdensome to lift with my strength, but I struggled to lift it and headed towards the Octagon. Raphael was looking at me with pitiful eyes, but I wish she wouldn't do that.

"If you can't even lift that, what are you going to do?"

"..."

Without answering, I arrived on top of the Octagon where Ishia was waiting with her arms crossed. She wasn't holding anything in her hands.

Of course she wouldn't. She's a magician after all.

"If I win, apologize to me and that person."

Ishia said, pointing behind me. Looking in that direction, there's Raphael saying, "Don't lose pathetically, just surrender~ If you're going to lose, at least make it interesting!"

Her expression is just dying to laugh, but okay. I'll win even if it kills me.

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

I shook my head at Ishia who was nodding.

"No. If I lose, I'll apologize and even drop out."

"What? No, that's too—"

"But, if I win,"

Ishia. Daughter of the Magic Association President. In a word, rich. In other words, a sucker who doesn't know the ways of the world.

Since we're fighting anyway, I need to suck her dry to the bone. Since we're already involved, I need to suck out as much as possible.

For that, something like 'I'll grant whatever you want' won't do. "A-Anything?!" and flinching like in a romantic comedy would be nice, but that would make the straw disposable. So.

"If I win, you become my maid."

Yeah. This is right.