Chapter 53
“You orphan bitch, if you’ve got a problem, how about we throw down?”
The bombshell remark I finally let fly.
At that moment, everyone in the auditorium turned their eyes toward me.
Shock. Looks of disbelief, as though they doubted their own ears. Everyone’s eyes were wide with astonishment.
Regardless, I blandly spat out the remaining words—‘Thank you’—and stepped down from the podium.
““······.””
A silence that seemed to drift in a daze.
I calmly returned to the Class E waiting seats and sat down.
When I glanced over, the Class B top student was glaring at me.
She had looked dumbfounded from the podium, but it seemed to have taken her several seconds to grasp what had happened.
“Hehe.”
I gave her a light wink and waved.
Of course, the wink probably didn’t get through because I was wearing a mask.
As the silence grew more oppressive, the professor acting as emcee hurriedly wrapped things up.
[Th-then, with that, we’ll conclude the ceremony.]
[All students may leave now.]
The emcee was cleaning up after my rampage.
I wondered if I should feel sorry for them, but decided not to think about it.
Because right now, I was spitefulness itself.
Spiteful mode.
I was Spiteful Victor.
In this state, I often bit people’s heads off.
‘They drag someone who’s exhausted out here, then don’t even teach the students to watch their mouths.’
I had been trying to let it go, thinking I should just endure it, but that thought twisted my fuse.
They had dragged me out when I should have been one with my blanket.
Yet if this was what I had to hear in return, of course my temper was bound to snap.
‘Serves them right.’
It wasn’t that I was angry or felt wronged.
I was merely bothered enough for it to grate on my ears.
Surely I wouldn’t get drawn into such a basic provocation.
I had merely been a little spiteful.
“Ahem.”
I felt a little better.
Afterward, once the ceremony ended, the students began filing out of the auditorium one after another.
Everyone gave me a sidelong glance as they passed.
“······.”
“······Hm?”
One person in particular.
The Class A top student had been staring this way for quite some time.
Deeply colored pupils blinked between strands of fallen blue hair.
‘What? Why is she being weird too?’
Rin Glacia.
A girl currently reigning as the overwhelming top student of the first year.
“······.”
“······.”
Had my speech really been that impressive?
She stared at me from a distance.
So I stared blankly back at her.
The staring contest ended when Rin turned her back.
‘Yes, I won.’
The back of her blue-haired head grew farther away.
I too quietly made my way outside the auditorium.
As I crossed the long corridor, two voices soon reached my ears.
“Sir Victor!”
“L-Lord Victor···.”
A blonde girl and a black-haired girl.
I greeted the two of them with a light smile.
“Miss Lanne. Miss Alice.”
Had they both been waiting for me?
The two of them came scampering over.
Come to think of it, this was the first time I had seen them since they were discharged from the infirmary.
There had been plenty to deal with outside, and after returning to the academy, I had spent all my time sprawled out in bed.
‘Of course, it had only been a few days···.’
I put those miscellaneous thoughts aside and greeted them.
“Did you enjoy your holidays?”
“Mm! There were no problems.”
“I-I did too···.”
Lanne was as spirited as ever, while Alice answered timidly.
We paused for a moment and chatted.
Then, a group of students approached us through the crowd.
“Hey.”
Her voice was brimming with hostility.
When I turned my head, bright yellow hair entered my field of vision.
Just as she had looked from the podium, she was a delinquent girl with copper-colored skin and a fierce expression.
“Fuck, what the hell are you?”
She was the Class B top student.
I think her name was Kaitlyn—or Gaytlyn, or something like that.
The girl approached me, scattering a menacing aura.
I tilted my head at her imposing appearance.
‘What is this? Is she confessing in public?’
A fairly reasonable guess.
I skimmed through the girl’s profile in my memory.
Well, calling it a profile was a bit much; it wasn’t much different from her appearance.
Her name was Kaitlyn Letus, the first-year Class B top student, and her defining trait was being a delinquent girl.
“I said, what the fuck are you, you bastard.”
The girl looked furious.
This was the first time I had properly faced her, so why was she so hostile toward me?
I rested a hand on my chin as though pondering, but soon figured out the answer.
Apparently, my provocation during the speech had rubbed her the wrong way.
‘I was a bit much.’
I opened my mouth to apologize.
“The Class B top student··· Miss Kaitlyn, was it?”
“Yeah. That’s me. Answer the question.”
“I’m sorry. About what I said during the speech. I called you an orphan bitch, didn’t I?”
“Ha, what a funny bastard. Why? Are you so scared you’re shaking···?”
“I overlooked the fact that you really don’t have any.”
“······What?”
“No, honestly. I··· I didn’t know you really had none.”
“W-What···.”
“Parents, I mean. Most people have one of each, you see···. But I hear Miss Kaitlyn is missing one. It’s quite something—when a set menu is missing one item, should I call it a defect in the merchandise···?”
Kaitlyn had probably approached me to engage in a battle of nerves.
If it wasn’t that, she must have come to trample me outright.
Her rough, overbearing aura was rather intimidating.
Especially among the students, her presence must have earned her respect, allowing her to seize the initiative with ease.
‘But.’
Kaitlyn had overlooked one thing.
My origins.
A beautiful land surrounded by picturesque mountains and sea.
Yet it was also a place steeped in gloom, where battles of nerve were practically an everyday occurrence.
Children born there were given a calling to clutch in their tiny hands.
‘We···.’
From a very young age, we received an early education.
Years of war in front of a smoke-filled idiot box, all to defend our honor.
And we fought all the harder because the owners of that honor were not ourselves, but our parents.
At times, we fought middle-aged men, boys and girls our age, younger children, and, on occasion, foreign invaders—Japanese, northern barbarians, Western devils, and assorted barbarians—trading guns, blades, and magic.
We had held the front line with our voices and fingers.
That was the spirit and fervor our land and people had preserved.
Yes.
Back then, we were all child soldiers.
Clutching guns to protect our fathers and mothers.
‘And.’
Knowing how to protect meant knowing how to attack as well.
Underground. You who know nothing of the wars inside a 24-inch frame.
We had killed things you could never even imagine.
Our threshold had risen with the rings of our lives, until there was nothing left that we couldn’t kill.
And this was the most basic one among them.
When provoking an opponent, the first thing you kill.
‘Parents (父母).’
The country’s official name: the Republic of Korea.
We were children raised in the land of parent-insult trash talk.
“Anyway, if I’d known that beforehand, I wouldn’t have committed defamation by stating such a fact···. I’m truly sorry. What should I do···?”
“You, you··· Fuck, you little···!”
Squeeze—.
Kaitlyn eventually clenched her fist and charged at me.
Her classmates moved to restrain her.
“Kaitlyn, enough. The professors are watching.”
“Ah, let go! The way that bastard talks···!”
“You can do it next time. Officially.”
“Fuck···!”
“Endure it. There have always been rumors that the Class E top student isn’t right in the head.”
It took four Class B students piling onto her before they could barely stop the girl from throwing a punch.
Even then, it didn’t seem as though she had been subdued; she appeared to have backed down of her own accord.
The professors watching from a distance must have been bothering her.
Kaitlyn forcibly swallowed down her anger.
“Haa··· Just some Class E bug.”
Sparks were even flying between her bright yellow locks.
Her ability, Electric Shock (電擊), was leaking out unconsciously.
The sound of electricity crackling rang in my ears.
Bzzt, bzzt—.
“You··· Just wait.”
Kaitlyn shot me one murderous glare.
Then, leading her classmates, she strode out of the auditorium.
‘You’re the one who picked a fight.’
I shrugged.
And so, the ceremony in the auditorium came to a grand conclusion.
***
Several more days passed, and the roughly week-long suspension of classes came to an end.
It was time for ordinary academy life to resume.
Nothing particularly notable had happened during that short period.
‘Kaitlyn··· She does concern me a bit.’
In any case, Class B was a class I would have to clash with sooner or later.
In the original work, she often engaged in villainous acts and would frequently become an enemy.
It might not be a bad idea to establish discipline there, as I had with Class C.
‘I probably don’t need to seek her out first.’
The Class B top student, Kaitlyn Letus.
She possessed an exceptionally rotten temperament.
It wouldn’t suit her nature to sit still after being insulted so badly.
‘If she’s quick, two days; if late, within a week.’
She was bound to come.
I could teach Class B their lesson then.
I settled my thoughts and decided to focus on what needed to be done first.
‘I’ll put that off for now···.’
I peeked toward the entrance of the lecture room.
Several Class E students had already taken their seats.
In my mind, I recalled the promise I had received from Jaber the other day.
-I also promise compensation for this surveillance matter.
-If there is anything you want during your academy life, just tell me one thing you wish for.
The wish ticket I had received from her.
I intended to use it without hesitation.
When I entered the classroom, I saw the professor organizing materials atop the podium.
Her loosely tied red hair and green eyes resembled stems nestled among flower petals.
“Professor Jaber.”
“······Ah. Student Victor.”
Her eyes were as impassive as ever.
I approached the woman with a foolish grin.
Once I was close enough, I reached out my hand.
“······?”
“Professor.”
Slowly—.
With my outstretched hand, I gently enclosed both of Jaber’s hands.
Professor Jaber raised a question mark as though asking what I was suddenly doing.
I asked the woman whose defining trait was her monochrome air in a playful voice.
“You remember, don’t you? You said you’d grant one request—anything I asked.”
“Of course. It’s not as though I’d forget a promise after only a few days.”
“Ahem, I wanted to make that request right away.”
“You mean now?”
Jaber tilted her head.
I tilted mine in turn and asked.
“Is that not allowed?”
“No. There’s no reason it wouldn’t be.”
Jaber leaned closer, as though willing to hear me out.
The Class E students who had been chatting among themselves were also looking this way.
They seemed curious about what was happening.
“Hehe, my request is simple.”
I subtly moved my fingers.
They slipped between the woman’s rough hands and interlaced with them.
A rose-like scent briefly settled over the bridge of my nose.
Her usually impassive eyes trembled for a moment.
Without letting that moment pass, I looked straight at her and spoke.
“Professor Jaber.”
“······.”
“Would you go out with me?”
The classroom.
And not just that—the declaration had been made publicly, with all the other Class E students watching.
““······?””
Everyone went blank for an instant.
The next moment, the reaction in the classroom was bound to turn completely upside down.