Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Damn it.

I had promised to face-plant him, but it was I who had face-planted in the end.

“....”

I remembered hearing Mr. Effenhauser’s declaration of my victory, so the outcome must not have been reversed without my knowledge.

I was probably in an infirmary or some similar kind of space. The curtains were drawn, so I couldn’t see if anyone else was there.

Soon, someone appeared and pulled the curtains open.

“You’re awake.”

“Oh, senior.”

It was Adriana. She approached me and gently placed her hand on my forehead, then slowly nodded as if she judged that I was in an okay condition.

“So, what happened?”

“You won the duel, but then you suddenly collapsed. This is the dormitory’s recovery room.”

Recovery room? I didn’t know there was such a thing. I wondered if Mayaton was here, too.

When I looked around, Adriana shook her head as if she knew what I was searching for.

“That senior is in a different recovery room. You didn’t think they’d put you in the same room, did you?”

Considering I had practically crushed his head, he would probably need rest and care as well.

Adriana sat down by my bedside and sighed.

“Junior, you knew what I was trying to do, right?”

She was probably talking about that look in her eyes before.

“Well, yes...”

“I could have fought for you.”

Her eyes were questioning me, asking me why I’d chosen not to rely on her for help and had done something reckless instead.

“Did you expect your supernatural powers to awaken just in time? Were you hoping for something so unbelievable to happen or something? Was that why you made such an incomprehensible statement earlier on, that you had to take a beating?”

Adriana seemed angry. In any case, she must have already scanned my body once while I was unconscious, and would have figured out that my abnormal strength was due to the influence of sudden supernatural abilities.

“It all worked out in the end. Isn’t that what matters?”

“That’s ridiculous. I mean, I did hear about your unusually-excessive aptitude, but... you still took an incredibly reckless risk.”

I knew that I had latent supernatural powers and had realized how they could be awakened. Nonetheless, what I had done had required immense luck. It was basically equivalent to diving headfirst into the ground, only to find out that the ground had shattered on impact instead of my skull.

“If things hadn’t gone well, what’s the worst that could have happened?”

Adriana seemed lost for words at my nonchalant response.

“Junior, you still have six years left at the Temple, and you’ve only just started your freshman year. It was an incredible coincidence that you were able to use supernatural powers this time. Are you going to keep taking these reckless risks to awaken your other talents in the future?”

“No, I don’t plan to do that again. Not particularly...”

Supernatural powers were a special case, and for the rest, I planned to buy talents with achievement points anyway, so there was no need to continue doing this nonsense any longer...

“Anyway, don’t do anything so reckless again. And don’t start acting all high and mighty with your seniors just because you won this duel as well.”

“I’m afraid it’s going to happen again soon...”

Everyone must have thought my terrible temperament would finally be broken this time. Unfortunately, upon having discovered how to use my supernatural powers, I’d ended up grabbing a third-year senior by the hair and pounding his face into the ground at the sparring hall.

Thanks to that, Reinhart had now become an even crazier individual to others.

“Well, if that’s the case, I’m really going to have to discipline you myself. Got it?”

Adriana was glaring at me menacingly. I wondered what it would be like if she were to discipline me. I wasn’t sure if she meant it verbally or physically.

“Yes, got it. I’ll try to restrain myself.”

The fact of the matter was, I didn’t want to be disciplined by someone who was angry out of concern for me. After all, this anger came from a place of concern, not hatred.

And of course, even if I really fought with this lady, I’d definitely get my ass handed to me. The fight with Mayaton had ended the way it did because of his carelessness; had it been a proper duel, it probably would have been over in less than five seconds.

“Still, I am honestly very grateful to you.”

Even if everyone else saw me as a madman, I knew I had to treat the person who had been willing to fight for me properly.

Adriana sighed.

“I don’t want a junior that I have to fight for. I just want a junior who gets along well with everyone.”

“Then you must be looking for the guy named Ludwig, in Class B.”

“You know that’s not what I mean... Are you seriously going to make me have to say it? I’m saying you should be more like him, junior. “

“I’m afraid it might be a little too late in this life of mine to change.”

“Ugh, seriously.”

Smack!

“Ack!”

I had eventually pissed Adriana off so much that she smacked me on the head.

Maybe my real talent was being able to piss off just about anyone.

“What a poor kid... I heard you’ve had a tough life, is that right?”

“Uh, yeah, well...”

It seemed like the female senior had heard about my background. She suddenly pulled me into a hug and proceeded to stroke my head.

‘No, wait. Hey! This isn’t okay! I’m a seventeen-year-old and in the prime of my youth!’

“I’m so glad that you’ve come to the Temple.”

‘Don’t do this to me! This... Viewed from my side, this would actually be considered a crime!’

As word spread that I was born a beggar and from the streets, people couldn’t help but marvel at how I could have grown up to be so upright in such a harsh environment.

A tremendous misunderstanding about me had unfolded among the seniors, and I couldn’t even get the chance to explain.

I was exhausted now. Truly exhausted.

I had become a star at the Temple, all because of a single duel.

***

Regardless of the seniors’ misunderstandings about me, once the seniors had all left, the way the others looked at me also changed somewhat.

This was probably partly because they knew I had awakened my supernatural powers, and also because they had sensed something in the way I had gritted my teeth and fought back despite the harsh treatment by the senior.

Kaier, Erhi, and Connor Lint, who disliked me, would now look at the ground as they passed by me. It felt as if they’d realized they couldn’t compete with me now, not just in terms of ability, but even in mentality.

It wasn’t because I was good at fighting. Rather, the way I kept getting up no matter how many times I was beaten seemed to instill fear in them. In the end, they were just kids, so it was natural that I appeared peculiar to them all of a sudden.

And then...

“...”

Harriet de Saint-Ouen glanced at me and sharply turned her head away, passing by without even looking at me.

‘Well, that was an unexpected reaction from her. Wasn’t this the moment that she was supposed to say something like, ‘You should’ve been beaten up more’?’

“Hey!”

“Wh-what!”

When I called out to her, she stopped as if she had been waiting for it and reacted sharply. I could see that her face was slightly flushed.

“Don’t you have anything to say to me?” I asked, and Harriet frowned.

“Why would I have anything to say? What could I possibly have to say to someone like you, you gutter child? Oh yeah, there is something. You should’ve been beaten up more instead of winning in such a cowardly manner by using your supernatural powers.”

There it was. The reaction I was expecting.

“Really? For someone who says that, you seemed pretty nervous when I was getting hit by that senior.”

“Wh-what, what are you talking about?!”

Her face reddened even more, as if she hadn’t expected me to notice her during the duel.

“I saw how pale you turned, and how you were hopping from foot to foot anxiously,” I replied with a sinister smile.

I knew that she had been muttering, “What do I do? What do I do?” under her breath, hoping somehow that Mr. Effenhauser would stop the duel, watching anxiously all the while.

Despite the beating I’d been receiving, I saw everything that was going on around me. To be precise, there wasn’t much else to do but observe my surroundings since I had no choice but to take a beating.

Regardless, I saw how she’d fretted even more when Mr. Effenhauser didn’t intervene as she’d hoped he would.

All of that pointed to one conclusion...

“Were you worried about me, by any chance? That’s kind of cute.”

Her face turned beet red and she stuttered, “Absolutely not! N-no, no, not at all! Y-you’re joking, right? Wh-why would I...! I mean... do you think I would worry about some beggar like you? How dare you... I was rather glad that you got a beating!”

That pretty much confirmed that she was worried about me. After all, who wouldn’t feel a bit of sympathy after seeing someone being so pitifully beaten up?

I walked up to her and, without mercy, squeezed and wriggled her reddened cheeks with my palms.

The cheeks of the dignified daughter of the Duchy of Saint-Ouen were now squished like steamed buns.

“!”

She was so shocked that someone would dare do such a thing to her that she couldn’t even scream, and merely looked stunned.

“Mmrph! Mmmrggh!”

Her extremely surprised reaction to being treated so nonsensically was incredibly adorable. When I let go, her face was still scarlet, and her lips quivered as she stood there dumbfounded.

“How dare you... how dare you touch my body? Someone like you? This is absurd. How could... how could... how could a gutter child do this to me...”

She was so angry and flabbergasted that she couldn’t even shout. Her eyes were practically trembling. It seemed I hadn’t triggered mere anger this time, but an overwhelming sense of shock and disbelief.

Not only had I dared to lay hands on her noble self, but I had also squashed her face like a bun and giggled about it.

Moments like these were when she was the cutest.

The moments when her expression screamed a denial of reality, her mind replaying one single thought thinking, “This can’t be happening to me!”

“S-sniff... Sob! Sniff! Ugh!”

But then, contrary to my expectations, she suddenly began to cry.

“Oh, uh, um...”

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Why are you doing this to me!? You slum rat, why do you always only pick on me! Why do you always do this to meee! Stop it! Sob! Sob... sob... sob! Stop teasing meee!”

‘Uh... what do I do now...?’