"Now, tell me something. Can this innocent little girl have a personal or blood relationship with all of you at the same time? I am impressed. You must all have been one big happy family. Otherwise you wouldn't have come running to the rescue of your precious Lulu with such a huge force. Blood really is thicker than water." Zavier's tone had turned into a light one but his words were still laced with poison.
Sometimes poison is the only remedy for a malady. Zavier was using such words to rile them up so as to help them shatter the illusion that the girl had caught them in.
"You girls gave me a really hard time. I might look tough on the outside but I am a weak person at heart. My quick wits really saved me today or I would have ended up as mincemeat on the side of the road thanks to you all. The worst of it all would have been that you wouldn't even have remembered taking care of me afterwards since you were being manipulated by a hormonal and jealous bitch." Zavier looked towards Lulu towards the end.
"Damn it. I feel like vomiting after having been manipulated by this bitch." said one of the bold girls.
"That evil witch made me think that she was my precious little sister. I even tried to protect her behind me." The big sister who had tried to hide Lulu behind her earlier was incensed at the thought that her precious memories with her little sister had been tarnished by Lulu.
Even though the group had met not very long ago, there was a sense of mutual trust among the girls and all of them still looked up to Melissa. At least that much had been true even without the illusion.
Melissa had been the real leader of the dormitory since she had helped them all actively during the first round of the entrance examination.
Melissa came forward at this time and bowed towards Zavier as a token of thanks.
"Thank you for helping us today. I will be sure to return the favor if there is a chance."
Zavier didn't think much of it since his battles had gone beyond the point where a normal student could help him out.
"No need to be too polite. I just couldn't stand her awful acting so I decided to expose her in front of you. As to what to do with her, I shall leave that up to you since she took the place of the most precious person in your heart."
Zavier didn't stay around any longer after he witnessed two to three girls in the back successfully grabbing Lulu who was trying to make a run for it.
He turned around and walked back towards his own residence since Nadia and Kacie were nowhere to be found.
The walk back wasn't without any incident either. Midway between his residence and the girls' dormitory, he heard someone constantly calling out to someone from behind him.
Zavier didn't bother looking back since all the girl yelled was "HEYYY" and nothing else. Nobody here knew him so he didn't think someone would call out to him so fervently.
After having ignored the voice for a while, Zavier finally turned around to see who was making so much fuss.
Looking back, he found Melissa waving at him from afar.
"What does she want with me now? It hasn't been that long since we parted."
Zavier waved back in response since he didn't have any particular grudge against the girl and waited for her in place so she could catch up with him.
"What do you want?" Zavier asked as soon as she was within hearing distance.
"Do you have to act like that? I can tell that you are a good person otherwise you wouldn't have bothered to help us back there." said Melissa who hadn't had a chance to thank him earlier.
"I am not such a good person. You see, I am too weak to protect myself from an angry mob of super violent girls. Figuring out the trick behind the farce was the only way out for me. So, don't feel burdened or obligated to thank me since I didn't do it for you, I did it for me. You coming back to your senses and not beating me up is thanks enough." Zavier acted nonchalant as he hadn't expected anything from them in the first place.
"No matter what your reason might have been, you have done all of us girls a favor. As their representative, I want to sincerely offer our thanks for your help today."
Melissa proved to be even more stubborn than she looked.
"Can you tell me your name at least?"
Zavier had thought that Melissa already knew who he was but it seemed that it was not the case.
"Are you sure you haven't heard of me? I have become pretty famous recently."
Melissa couldn't understand why Zavier had suddenly started to put on airs. She revealed a blank look on her face that made Zavier laugh a little in a good natured manner.
"Haven't you heard of the student who won the entrance exam finals using his family's connections and money?" said Zavier mysteriously while raising his eyebrows inquisitively.
"You mean…You are…" stuttered Melissa as she fumbled for words to handle the situation amicably.
The stories she had heard about the finalist had portrayed him as a shameless rascal without any sense of remorse or guilt who lacked even the slightest combat potential.
Zavier looked at her panicked expression and spread his arms wide from the elbow onwards as if saying, "Here I am in the flesh".
Melissa had lost her mind for a moment there and had forgotten how to speak but it didn't take her very long to get accustomed to the truth.
"I don't believe that. But if you really are that 'Zavier Adam', then you must be very strong. Strong enough to look weak when fighting an expert." Melissa uttered confidently as she looked in his eyes.
Zavier was taken aback. He had not expected her to say something like that at all.
"What did you say?" Zavier asked dumbfounded.
"I don't think you are weak. I think you are playing the pig to eat the tiger. I don't know what your circumstances are but I will help you keep the secret. Don't worry." Melissa muttered nonstop without giving Zavier a chance to speak.
"What makes you think that? Everyone else seems to believe that I have come this far due to my team and my family connections and not because of my own strength." Zavier was interested to hear her answer. He had been careful and had not revealed any of his strength earlier so he was confident that he hadn't left any breadcrumbs.
"The way you handled the earlier situation. You were calm throughout it all. Without combat experience no one can remain calm in the face of a mob that is out for blood. You not only figured out a way to break us out of the situation but also managed to do it in a cool manner. So, I don't believe that you are ordinary at all."
Zavier let out a sigh of relief once he was sure that Melissa was just acting like a fangirl. She hadn't found any actual proof and was only fumbling around in the dark based on her personal beliefs.
"Everyone is free to think whatever they want. I won't stop you from thinking this way though. It makes me feel better about myself. Help me spread it to your friends. I might be able to live a comfortable life if people think I am some hotshot…hehe." Zavier said in a joking manner with a dastardly expression on his face.
Melissa scoffed at the way he was acting but didn't back down either. She thanked him wholeheartedly and told him that she would try to return the favor if she could since they were both going to be in the same university in the future.
Zavier was unable to understand where her belief stemmed from.
"She is the true weird one." thought Zavier as he briskly started walking back to his dormitories.
Boys dormitories, unlike the girls' dormitory, didn't have many rules because this society, like the one in his previous life, was similar in the way that it differentiated men and women.
Women were treated as inherently weaker compared to men. The only way to break the cliche was neither wealth nor family connections, but rather magical capability.
Becoming a mage was the only way to discard such meaningless discrimination.
Mages were a step higher than the normal population and could not be judged based on normal perception.
Traditions and common sense became meaningless when encountering magic.
For example, Valerie who was considered to be the closest A rank mage to becoming an S rank mage was actually a woman.
"The essence of human nature hasn't changed a bit, whether it's this world or the previous one. The basic rules are still the same." Zavier talked to himself as he carefully analyzed the similarities between both worlds.
"I will just do my best to live a good life this time no matter what. Let's just think about that for the time being." Zavier shook his head and put his head back in the game.
Zavier had his own enemies to beat but no way of figuring out who they were or what they wanted from him.
Sometimes just the very existence of an enemy in the dark can bring down a person. That kind of psychological pressure alone is enough to destroy someone.
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