Chapter 127 Volume III - Chapter 48: Victims Turned Bullies
"It's this building, Adrian."
Benjamin and I walked up the stairs through a dormitory building that we had entered. In the process, I reviewed everything I had heard from him.
In short, after the incident, when the nobles started pulling their children out of the academy, the 'powerful' bullies lost many of their members. As a result, the commoners who had stayed at the academy were suddenly emboldened and formed a group, and since the other students who had the power to stop them, like Julian and Lucia, were with their families, the academy was left to... this group.
The group was primarily a benevolent one, a group whose purpose was to support others, but with the change of a few people who could be called the head of this group, this purpose slowly began to change.
As the group continued to grow on its own, a few people suddenly expressed a desire to take a role in the leadership of the group, which the group leaders did not take kindly to. Even if their sole purpose was to help people, these people they were talking to gave them a sense of extreme ulterior motives. So the leaders were wary of them, but what happened was only three days after the leaders had rejected their offer.
The guys who wanted to be part of the leadership of the group had secretly recruited a lot of students to their side within the group. Their method of doing this was simply to get the students fired up. They were also very good liars. They managed to convince a few of the students that the leaders had gone astray by showing them false evidence, and so an internal conflict broke out among the group. The winner of this internal conflict was the group that had started it in the first place. And the leader of this group was James, the illegitimate son of a noble family.
After this successful rebellion, this grouping of ordinary people suddenly began to change. The students who supported each other pushed the weaker ones away as a burden and started to behave like the tyrant nobles they had previously hated. It was easy for them to suffer from power poisoning, along with their weak mentality.
Now, one by one, this boy named James and his gang were hunting down the nobles who had made a name for themselves at the academy. They didn't harm them much, in fact, they did their work so cleanly and instilled fear in the people they encountered so effectively that none of the nobles they had harmed had ever been able to stand up to them. James' reputation within the academy continued to grow.
Their next target, according to Benjamin, was me.
While I was thinking about this, Benjamin suddenly stopped walking when we reached the fifth floor and I paused. Benjamin then turned around timidly.
"Well... Our group might treat you with some contempt, I hope you don't mind. We have some trust issues..."
"No problem."
He smiled sheepishly again and moved along the corridor of the fifth floor. When we reached the room almost at the end of the corridor, he simply knocked on the door. About ten seconds later the door slowly opened.
The person who opened the door was a girl my age, with dark hair that was fading to purple and light blue eyes. When she turned to me, she suddenly became serious.
"So, can we assume that you have accepted the offer, Adrian Caleo?"
"Yes."
The girl exhaled a deep breath. She looked relieved and stepped aside so that we could go inside.
"Come in, please, so we can talk more freely."
Benjamin went in first, followed by me.
It was very tidy inside. In fact, it was one of the most organized rooms I had ever seen. The shoe rack, the coat rack, the tops of the drawers, the order of things, the atmosphere of the room, and so on... So much so that I couldn't help but admire it.
So we finally went to the part where the living room was, and when we did, I saw that there were three other people in there besides us.
Two of them were boys and one was a girl. They looked quite ordinary.
The girl who opened the door, who looked like a leader, pointed to an empty single seat and I quietly took it. The other girl and Benjamin followed me and found a seat too. Then, the purple-haired girl turned her eyes back to me and began to speak.
"My name is Risa. You've already met Benjamin. The others are Prim, Cato, and Cecil. There are actually a few other people who think like us, but we don't meet very actively."
Risa took a deep breath. Thinking that Benjamin had told me most of it, she started to tell me more recent things.
"James is planning to blackmail all the nobles one by one, but he still needs more power, he's not strong enough to go head to head with all the nobles. That's why he's started meeting with people like you. He will probably make you an offer soon. 'Join me and we'll live like kings in the academy' or something like that, but there are too many people who will crawl while he lives like a king. And he's not a very friendly guy, he'll probably stab you in the back after using you for a while. He already blackmailed a noble or two."
"So, what exactly do you want from me?"
As if expecting this question, she lowered her eyes slightly and continued speaking without waiting.
"You're ranked first in the academy, you're extremely powerful, and you're friends with most of the people at the top of the ranks. Lucia Quie is one of them, there's also Julian Virhen, who used to be a bully, but he doesn't give anyone any trouble lately. Aiden Tenebra, who I'm sure will be in the top ten, even though he's not ranked yet... You are the only people in the Academy who can stand up to James. That's why we need you to help us before he makes things worse."
She paused for a moment.
"No... You won't just be helping us, you'll be helping almost the whole academy."
She stared at me again, her expression pleading.
"Can you convince them and stop James?"
Not only her, but everyone in the room was looking at me. They were making me feel a bit pressured.
I realize they weren't doing it consciously, so I didn't mind. Besides... I had already made up my mind before I came here.
"Sure."
I put a smile on my face.
"You don't need to be afraid of me, I would like to help you. The peace of mind of the students at the academy is a matter of concern to me as the first in the ranking, but there is only one problem."
Risa's eyebrows raised in concern when I said these words.
"Neither Aiden, Julian, Lucia nor Celine are in a position to help me right now. Aiden went out of the academy saying it was a very important matter for him and he will be back in five days. Julian and Lucia are with their families and will only be back when classes start again. You already know Celine's situation... So I'm on my own."
Risa's expression suddenly darkened.
"James will meet you tomorrow night at worst, and if he doesn't get an answer, he will wait three days at most to prepare something for you..."
She put her hand to her lip and pinched her lower lip between her index finger and thumb. She continued to think broodingly. With each passing second, her expression grew more and more desperate.
"Why didn't you present this to the academy before, I am asking out of curiosity."
"It's not that we don't. We've asked the academy to help with bullying by nobles before, but because they are nobles, they couldn't do much. Also, usually these things don't even reach the academy administration. Now... the last time we went to someone to report it, they ignored us, they have so much to deal with after the last incident that they ignore 'minor' arguments between students. The last time James found out we were doing this kind of thing, it wasn't very nice. So we... don't dare..."
Her body trembled for a very brief moment, her expression turned ugly and I frowned when I saw it.
Whoever this James was, I didn't like the way he was acting toward people who had nothing to do with him.
"Don't worry, James can't do anything to me."
Risa frowned.
"I know you're confident, I know how strong you are, but don't underestimate him. He may not be very strong, but he's ranked somewhere around forty. On top of that, he has a literal army behind him. And even if they can't beat you, they can blackmail you."
"As I said, you have nothing to worry about. I can take care of myself. Besides... I won't be alone."
Risa quickly shook her head from side to side, thinking I was talking about them.
"I suggest you don't expect too much from us, that would be the biggest mistake you could make."
"I don't expect anything from you. I mean... Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to offend you. It's just that there is someone who is still at the academy and who I believe will help me in some way, even if I'm not sure if she will help me."
Risa fixed her eyes on the floor, thought for a moment, and then turned to me in resignation. She tried to understand who I was talking about, but she couldn't. I just smiled and opened my watch and started texting someone.
If everything turns out the way I think it will, I can do this in one night- No... I would be too hasty if I did that.
Tomorrow night I think I can put an end to this little dictatorship that James has set up.
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