Chapter 51
Harriet started crying.
I realized that while I could handle someone who was trying to pick a fight, I was completely at a loss as to what to do when it came to a crying child.
I took Harriet, who was crying in the hallway, to the dining hall, and handed her a macaron that was in my pocket.
While I offered it to her, I was taken aback by how fumbling and awkward my attempt to console a crying child seemed. It was like something an old person would do.
“I don’t want it, it’s disgusting because you touched it! It’s dirty! Throw it away and get lost, I’m not eating it!”
“It’s not mine. The seniors gave it to me.”
“You touched it, though! That makes it dirty! It’s filthy, throw it away, I won’t eat it!”
Harriet kept on sobbing inconsolably.
‘What should I do? Really, what should I do?’
I felt like a grandfather who had upset a child by excessively teasing them because they were cute. Even if she were cute, I’d definitely gone too far by teasing her too much.
It was a common scenario, where an old person pinched a kid’s cheek because they thought they were cute, and made them cry instead.
I clearly had done something wrong...
No, I had definitely done something extremely wrong.
“Hey... I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry, I went too far. I apologize... so please don’t cry?”
“Go away! Who are you to tease me, calling me Thick-Skull and making fun of me?! Nobody else does that to me—not even my dad, my mom, or my brothers! So why do you, nothing but a beggar from the streets, do that to me?!” Harriet wailed out oud.
I sighed. “Well, you make fun of me by calling me a beggar, too.”
“That’s because you are a beggar! So why would calling you a beggar be considered making fun of you? It’s the truth!”
I really wanted to give a sharp retort, but if I said something like ‘Same goes for me! You really have a thick skull, and that’s why I call you one’, it would only make her cry even more, so I shut my mouth instead.
‘Ah, I see.’
I thought of a different approach.
“Hey, no, I wasn’t teasing you. I only did that because I really thought that you’re cute.”
“Sniff... Huh?”
Finally, a reaction. She looked at me as though I was spouting nonsense out of nowhere.
Well, if I were to be straightforward, her having a thick skull and being cute were both true.
“Think about it. Did I call you Thick-Skull just now? All I said was that I thought you were cute. Being called cute is a compliment, so why would you take it as me insulting you? Huh? You called me a beggar, and I responded by saying you were cute. When did I ever tease you? I didn’t, did I? Is it teasing to call someone cute because they’re cute?”
“You pinched my cheeks and laughed at me!”
“No, I only did that because it seemed like it would make you look even cuter. And it really was very cute.”
“... Hiccup!”
She hiccupped while glaring at me, seeming to ponder over my words. Surely, I hadn’t done anything like calling her by that nickname this time.
“Don’t tell me that you’re going to respond by saying that someone lowly like me isn’t allowed to lay hands on someone of a higher status like you. Remember, we’re classmates, right? Maybe that’s not allowed after graduation when we get out of the Temple, but as long as we are students at the Temple, we’re all the same. Remember?”
“....”
She seemed to struggle to find the right words to put together. Perhaps she was worried that if she said something presumptuous like “You shouldn’t do that to me,” she’d get in trouble with the teacher.
After thinking for a while, she glared at me.
“... From now on, don’t touch me with your dirty hands,” she eventually managed to murmur under her breath.
Was this a sign that her anger had somewhat subsided?
“Okay, I get it. I won’t. I was rude just now. I’m really sorry. So could you please take this and forgive me already?”
As I continued to apologize in a humble tone, her expression seemed to soften.
The fact that a crazy freak like me who did not seem like the type to ever apologize was desperately asking for forgiveness seemed to have improved her mood.
If someone with an incredibly notorious reputation was going to this extent to apologize, it must mean that they were truly sorry.
“Please? You probably haven’t tried this before, but it’ll be good, I promise. Try it.”
I kept offering the macaron to her, and she looked at it in disgust.
“I... I-I don’t want... I won’t eat i—Fine. I’ll eat it! I said I’ll eat it! You’re just like my grandma! So annoying!”
Harriet eventually took the macaron from me reluctantly, munching on it as though she had no other choice.
Ah... I really felt like an old person.
‘Hmm, this is a serious problem. I’m not even that old yet. But... I genuinely can’t think of any other way to console a crying child!’
I felt way too old!
She continued to eat the macaron without looking at me, then said, “A while ago today...”
“Yeah, a while ago?”
“Didn’t it hurt when you were beaten up by that senior?”
“Oh, it hurt like hell.”
I had already recovered, but it really had been terribly painful.
It was common sense that I would have been in extreme pain if someone hit me like that. Why was she asking such an obvious question?
“Why did you fight then, if it hurt that badly? Why didn’t you just surrender? If it weren’t for your lucky burst of supernatural powers, you would have never won.”
“That’s true.”
“Then why didn’t you surrender? You said it hurt like hell.”
It seemed like Harriet couldn’t comprehend why someone would keep getting up just to be beaten again when defeat was inevitable. Of course, I’d had something of a plan myself, since there were supernatural powers and various other factors that allowed me to keep the fight going, but she still was confused as to why.
“You know, sometimes in life, you meet someone you just can’t stand losing to.”
“...?”
“It just turns out that the opponent was that kind of person to me.”
The third-year, almost as if he were trying to educate a junior, had snatched away the position in a duel and, despite the opponent being a first-year, trampled him ruthlessly. What he had done was neither honorable nor cool.
I just didn’t want to lose to that kind of person.
I roughly laid out my thoughts to her in that manner. To be fair, what I said was both close to and yet somewhat different from the truth.
Harriet seemed to ponder for a while before saying abruptly, “You’re gonna die early if you keep that up.”
“Well, I’m not dead yet, am I?”
I gave her another bizarre response, expecting her to snort or make some sarcastic remark, or her usual “Hmph!”
But Harriet, who had been quietly nibbling on the macaron for a while, didn’t offer any cliched response.
“... Actually... Back then, you were kind of....”
‘Kind of what?’
“Kind of...”
Harriet struggled to speak for a while, then suddenly she sprang up from her seat.
“Hmph! I don’t know, you idiot!”
And with that cliched remark, she quickly disappeared from the scene.
‘Yeah, sometimes it’s nice to have these sorts of predictable characters in your story.’
***
Just because I won the duel didn’t mean that everything was settled. My supernatural powers were still at the level of a mere beginner, and I needed to get used to using them. Self-Deception was just the beginning—the real goal was to master verbal dexterity.
So, I headed back to the training grounds.
Two NPCs always frequented the area: Cliffman and Ellen.
I haven’t spoken with Cliffman yet, but I recognized him by sight since we always encountered each other on the training grounds.
Ellen, who was swinging her sword, stopped when she saw me. It seemed like she wanted to say something, but then again, maybe not. She was just staring blankly at me.
‘Should I boast about my victory? Or should I thank her for being willing to stand in as a champion for me?’
As I contemplated what to say to her...
Ellen gestured with her chin.
She was drawing my attention to the racks that held the practice swords.
“That’s not exactly how you should have fought,” She said.
Wait, was she just preparing to roast me with some advice this whole time?
I expected at least some congratulations for winning or questions about my superpowers from her, or even that she would boast about teaching me new swordsmanship techniques.
Ellen’s unchanging attitude deflated my previously-elevated mood somewhat. It felt like a reminder that, despite my victory, there was still a long road ahead for me to go.
Right. I was far from being satisfied.
Grasping the practice sword, I gave a wry smile.
“Well, starting today, things are going to be different,” I said to Ellen.
Or so I thought...
I ended up getting thoroughly beaten up by her.
***
It was Monday, and training never stopped.
I woke up early to do physical training with Adriana. Adriana told me that since we were no longer short on time, she would not be assisting me with her divine power anymore.
As a result, I realized just how comfortably I had been training until now. Every moment felt like I was dying. Truly.
Afterward, my routine was the same.
Before breakfast, I would make a quick snack to eat with Ellen, then eat breakfast again before heading to class.
Since I was no longer receiving a boost from divine power, I wondered if there was a need to eat as much as before. However, considering the excessive amount of exercise I was doing, I still decided to continue snacking between meals.
Above all, there was a very timid part of me that felt the need to get back at Ellen for her nagging in the training ground by doing so in the dining hall’s kitchen.
“Wow.”
Vertus, who hadn’t returned to the Temple but went directly to the classroom block on Monday, couldn’t hide his astonishment after hearing about the outcome of the duel from other students. The one who explained it to him was none other than Kaier.
“Wow, Reinhart, what a surprise!” Vertus exclaimed immediately after hearing the explanation.
“Uh, yeah...”
“I knew you had infinite aptitude, but to acquire a supernatural power among all of the potential talents... that’s truly something.”
Vertus offered a subtle smile, as if apologizing for underestimating my potential.
There were quite a few who were uncomfortable with me becoming a superhuman, and among them, the most uneasy was naturally Heinrich von Schwartz, who had been talking about frying me and whatnot before.
Heinrich seemed unable to comprehend that I had become a superhuman in such an unbelievable way, and he deliberately avoided looking in my direction.
“H-honestly, it was mostly luck...” Kaier muttered timidly to Vertus, who merely shrugged his shoulders.
“Really? I think the truly impressive thing was his decision to keep fighting in that condition, rather than the supernatural power he got.”
“Oh... I-is that so...”
Kaier had painted the story to show that I was miserably losing the fight until I suddenly reversed the situation with a burst of supernatural powers out of nowhere. Basically, he described me as someone who had just got lucky.
However, it seemed Vertus valued my sheer will to continue fighting despite being relentlessly beaten, more so than the fact that it was supernatural powers that led me to victory.
Vertus never really cared about the talents that the members of the Royal Class possessed. Even if the students’ talents were outstanding, he knew that the students themselves were still just kids. So, while he was surprised that I had awakened supernatural powers, he seemed more impressed that I’d kept getting up and fighting against a third-year senior despite getting severely pummeled by him.
He valued intelligence and mental strength over talent and power.
He understood that no matter how extraordinary an ability was, it was useless without the brains to apply it. And even if one had the brains, they were even more useless if they ran away in the face of adversity.
The more I looked at Vertus, the more I wondered if he was actually a good guy.
No, wait. Was I being brainwashed by him? Was all of this part of his plan, making even the author who wrote him genuinely like him, even when I knew full well he was problematic? I knew the outcome, yet I couldn’t imagine it happening. Was I truly becoming a fool?
The creator falling for his own creation, how pathetic is that?
Just as I was about to have a mental breakdown...
Swoosh!
The door had slid open, and someone entered.
It was Ard de Gritis, the other party involved in the duel.
He had come to the very place where he had initially offered his challenge, but this time, as the loser of the duel. Naturally, his expression was downcast. Everyone fell silent and watched the situation closely as he approached me and bowed his head.
“Having lost the duel, I recognize my mistake, Reinhart. From now on, I will not make any unfair demands on the juniors, nor will I engage in verbal or physical abuse against them. I am sorry. I have deeply reflected on my wrongful actions.”
“...”
As I watched him apologize, I felt a surge of anger inside me.
A champion was just a person who fought for the duelist, so they had nothing to do with the consequences of the duel as well.
Thus, Mayaton, who was the one who had beaten me up, did not come to apologize because, in the end, he had only been Ard’s champion.
Perhaps he hadn’t come because of pride, or because it hurt his self-esteem. Maybe he’d brushed Ard off, or maybe Ard couldn’t even consider asking him to come at all.
“Yes, that’s sufficient.”
“I am sorry.”
Ard raised his head and apologized to me once again.
His expression was filled with complex emotions.
He seemed guilty for giving in to a senior’s intense pressure and being forced to choose him as his champion, and then coming to apologize without bringing Mayaton with him.
Just as Adriana and Rudina had said, Ard really wasn’t such a bad person after all.
Rudina seemed to have the image of a lovable peer among the second-year Class A students. One could only imagine the heartache she must have endured, being ordered by upper-years to discipline the juniors like that.
Surely, the third-years must have instructed Rudina to do it alone as well, knowing full well that she would struggle to perform such cruel acts by herself. That, in essence, was bullying.
She must have gone with a heavy heart to do something she didn’t want to do, only to return after getting verbally abused by a freshman—that freshman being me.
From Ard’s perspective, he must have been furious.
Yes, I completely understood. In the end, they were all just kids. I had shown such an ugly attitude and lost my temper with these kids before, but I didn’t want to stoop to the level of a fool who seriously hated children, as loathsome as someone like Mayaton may be.
Ard had every right to be angry. What he did wasn’t right, but it was certainly reasonable. Besides, I had also done plenty of bad things myself.
“I understand. I’ve made many mistakes too. My apologies, senior. I’m sorry,” I said.
Everyone, including Ard, was shocked that I would say such a thing.
Ard looked at me and struggled to speak.
“Looking at you has made me realize how shamefully I have been living until now.”
He had seen someone so powerless and insignificant like me desperately rising to fight a third-year senior with all his might, while he, on the other hand, had given in to the unfair demands from the seniors and had chosen a third-year as his champion to fight me. And in the end, he had witnessed my victory over him.
Perhaps he realized that one needed strength to overcome injustice, but giving into it didn’t require any strength at all. It seemed like he regretted his inability to refuse the unreasonable demands that had been made of him.
After saying that, Ard turned and walked away.
I thought to myself that I definitely had to apologize to Rudina later on as well.
Not long after, Mr. Effenhauser entered the classroom.
“You all know that the improvement festival is scheduled to start next Monday, right?”
Yes.
It was finally coming.
The main event of the very beginning of the story: The Glory Festival.
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