Chapter 5
As Belver pushed through the commotion, he got a clear view of what was happening.
One male student was bullying another.
He knew both the bully and the one being bullied.
He couldn't not know them; the bully was an extra villain who first demonstrated the protagonist's genius.
If the bully was an extra villain, then naturally the one being bullied was the protagonist.
Bellatrix, whose rank normally put her so far above him that she wouldn't even meet his eyes, was being toyed with.
Though she'd never trained her body before, she was quickly adapting to the attacks and improving thanks to her physical talent—but that was all.
There was a gap that a little growth couldn't make up for.
“How did someone like you even get in here? Did you cheat or something?”
“You sure talk a lot.”
“What? I was going to go easy on you, but now you've asked for it.”
Bellatrix was in a bind.
She hadn't expected some arrogant punk to pick a fight for no reason on the very first day.
In her original body, this situation could never have happened, but now she was inside Belver's.
So she'd been doing her best to block his attacks without leaving too many marks on his body.
Fortunately, she could feel herself improving.
“You're good at blocking. Been hit a lot, huh?”
“Shut up.”
Bellatrix realized she was still far too weak, even as she improved in real time.
Her opponent was a lower-ranking noble who'd spent his whole life training to become a knight.
She could feel his attacks growing stronger and faster.
She knew that at this rate, she'd soon take a serious hit.
Belver watched Bellatrix struggle with her specialty—magic—effectively sealed off, and wondered what to do.
In the original story, a professor would soon arrive, recognize the protagonist's talent, and take her under his wing.
If he wanted her to save the world in his place, it seemed more sensible to watch a little longer.
But he didn't want to do that.
The situation itself was unfair, and he didn't want to keep watching her get toyed with so helplessly.
She was the person closest to a friend he'd ever had.
Ping. As he kept watching, he heard something snap in his mind.
He felt mana gathering around the extra villain.
Even with a wooden sword, Bellatrix wouldn't be able to block it.
She wouldn't even notice it.
She still couldn't handle mana in Belver's body.
She'd be badly hurt.
All his doubts vanished, and a chill of revulsion crept through his entire body.
His thoughts turned cold, and he stepped forward.
He moved forward and, just before the mana-infused wooden sword swung, spoke in an icy voice.
“What do you think you're doing?”
With just a single sentence, for one fleeting instant the entire world froze.
It was so chilling that if Belver had heard his own voice, he'd have been shocked he could sound like that.
But he couldn't hear himself now.
All he could see was the extra villain who'd stopped at his words and Bellatrix staring wide-eyed in shock.
Had the bully not expected Belver to intervene?
Or had he not even realized Belver was watching?
“I asked what you think you're doing. Do I have to ask again?”
Belver asked again.
The extra villain broke into a cold sweat at his sudden appearance.
Then, all at once, he broke into a bright, vicious grin.
“There was an insolent commoner, so I was teaching him a lesson! Just look at that insolent stare! I was going to put him in his place for good!”
The extra villain spoke boastfully, as though proud of himself.
He must have recognized who had interrupted his game.
Bellatrix was famous for treating non-nobles as lowly things, so he thought she'd take his side.
If it had been her, she definitely wouldn't have seen anything wrong with this situation.
But the Bellatrix here wasn't her. It was Belver.
The extra villain seemed to mistake the silence, as Belver collected himself in the face of his overwhelming disgust, for tacit approval, and kept babbling on.
Belver wondered how to shut that unpleasant mouth, every word of which irritated him.
The idea that educating commoners was a noble's virtue didn't resonate with him.
If anything, it made him even more resentful.
To him, all people were equal.
“Shut your mouth and get lost. This is your last chance. You, come with me.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Belver decided he didn't want to hear any more, gave his order, and grabbed Bellatrix's wrist as she caught her breath.
With the commotion behind them, he led her out of Training Ground No. 5—though this time for a very different reason.
He decided that didn't matter for now.
As Bellatrix meekly let him lead her away, she wondered if the person in front of her could really be the same Belver who'd been on the verge of tears just an hour ago.
What he'd just shown was completely different from his imitation of her.
She knew well how she came across.
The version of herself she'd seen wasn't so cold that it made you imagine frost forming on your bones.
Meanwhile, Bellatrix was certain she'd made the right choice.
Right after they switched bodies yesterday, she'd wondered if she should resort to illegal measures to get Belver out of her body.
Then, after thinking it over, she'd decided the swap wasn't so bad and chose to cooperate.
If she'd thrown everything into finding a way back, she wouldn't have experienced this fascinating situation.
“This should be far enough, right? There's a bench nearby, too. Let's sit.”
“Are you okay…? Are you hurt anywhere…?”
At Bellatrix's words, Belver turned, eyes damp, and checked her over for injuries.
He worried she might have been hit and hurt somewhere.
Even though he knew she hadn't been hit hard enough to get hurt, he still felt uneasy.
Bellatrix swallowed a laugh at Belver's sudden change in attitude.
Still, she thought he looked even better fussing over her with such concern.
Why had he grown so attached to someone he'd known for less than a day?
It made it even clearer how innocent and pure he was.
Seeing him like this made her want to tease him more and more.
His reactions were so cute and satisfying, she couldn't stop.
“I'm feeling really miserable and down. Could you do me a favor?”
“What is it? Tell me.”
“They say men feel better after touching a woman's breasts. Can I touch yours?”
“What?! No pervy stuff! And that's not a favor!”
Whoosh! Belver covered his chest with both arms so quickly it seemed he heard them slice through the air.
He felt his face grow hotter and hotter.
Here he was genuinely worried, and she was making this awful sexual-harassment joke.
He felt shame, embarrassment, and irritation all mixed together, and barely stopped himself from letting out a shrill yell.
He was aware there were quite a few people around.
He tried to take a deep breath and calm down.
That is, if Bellatrix hadn't said one more thing.
“Then I'll just touch them.”
“That's sexual harassment!!”
In the end, he couldn't hold back and let out a loud shriek.
Now he couldn't even see the people around him.
He was aggrieved, embarrassed, annoyed, and mortified; all he could see was Bellatrix grinning slyly right in front of him.
Belver saw her utterly unrepentant expression, as if she were about to do it again, and tried to shout once more to nip it in the bud.
That is, until she suddenly pulled him in and held him against her.
He was so startled by her sudden action that he stiffened in her arms, unable to move.
“How much more are you going to ruin my image, huh? Is this how you're getting back at me?”
“I'm not?! And don't say it like that…! That's cheating…! It makes me feel weird…!”
“Mm-hm. I know. I do it on purpose. I'm sensitive around my ears. Now, hush. Don't raise your voice, and don't lift your face. I'm keeping it covered so nobody realizes it's me.”
Belver was about to shriek again, but clamped his mouth shut when he heard what followed.
He too had realized there were quite a few people nearby.
In the middle of all that, he'd been unable to hold back and shouted something terribly embarrassing at the top of his lungs.
Of course, everyone would be paying a lot of attention.
Belver had to endure this embarrassing pose and the whisper brushing his ear until everyone had passed by.
Fortunately, perhaps because she was satisfied, Bellatrix stopped making embarrassing sexual-harassment comments.
All he had to do was endure the pose.
“All right, that's enough. You can come out now. Or stay if you want.”
“I'm coming out. Let go.”
“Okay.”
Belver sat beside her again and caught his breath.
He hadn't known Bellatrix was this kind of person.
The Bellatrix he knew was serious about everything, someone who'd given up everything and worked hard just to defeat one person.
She wasn't this frivolous, crass person who went around sexually harassing people.
He felt betrayed.
Maybe he should be grateful she at least knew when to stop.
Belver sighed inwardly.
He couldn't see how he was supposed to get a happy ending with a Bellatrix like this.
Still, he had to.
He resolved to try his hardest.
She was much more frivolous than he'd expected, but she could be serious, too.
“What a shame. You should've stayed in my arms. You were soft, and fun to touch.”
“Please control yourself!!”
Bellatrix's lament as she stared at the hand she'd had around Belver's waist was too much for him.
His vision really did go dark.