Chapter 185

Chapter 185

Erhi was completely frozen and stiff as a statue. After getting beaten by the Orbis Class and complaining about it, his mental state had been shattered by his classmates from the Royal Class.

Considering Erhi had been the ringleader when it came to bullying Scarlett, he had no right to complain even if he ended up as a permanent punching bag. But then it wasn’t really my place to say that.

“Why are you suddenly pretending to worry about him? And I really didn’t hit him!” I explained.

“Sure, sure.”

“I’m telling the truth! I really didn’t hit him!”

No matter how much I insisted, though, no one believed me.

Anyway, I was somewhat dumbfounded because I never expected Harriet to try to stop me after seeing what I was doing. The three hopeless idiots had already sneaked back to their rooms, so it was just Harriet and I left in the lobby.

“Why would I worry about them? I just don’t want to see you acting like that. It’s annoying.” Follow the latest novels at novelhall.com

So it wasn’t about the kids that were being bullied, but about my actions themselves. That was kind of sad in its own way.

Harriet’s personality had changed so much that she couldn’t be compared to her character in the original story. The Harriet who despised commoners and did not consider those of low status as humans seemed to have disappeared completely.

It seemed that being involved with me had forcefully wiped out her passive disdain for commoners.

“What is it this time?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did you act out again? What got on your nerves this time?”

“Oh.”

Harriet seemed genuinely curious about the reason, and believed that I wouldn’t have done it without cause.

“It’s nothing much. I just asked him where he got beaten up and why.”

“... Got beaten up?”

“Yeah! I’m telling you, I didn’t beat him up!”

“You didn’t beat him up?” Her eyes clearly showed that she still didn’t believe me.

She was so sure in her judgment of me. Well, it couldn’t be helped since I was basically the boy who cried wolf. In situations like this, no one would ever believe me no matter how much I tried to explain things.

“It seems like he got into a fight with the Orbis Class and got beaten up. All I did was tell him not to pick fights randomly...”

“... The Orbis Class?”

“Yeah. It seems he lost a practice duel, got annoyed, and picked a fight after class, only to get beaten up by them.”

Harriet seemed a bit dazed, as this was very different from what she had thought was going on.

“Why does he act like that?”

“If you ask a leaky bucket why it’s leaking, it’ll just tell you it’s because it’s leaky. There’s no other reason why.”

“... What does that even mean?”

“It just means he’s that kind of person.”

Harriet seemed to think Erhi was even more pathetic for picking a fight after being beaten and then being beaten again.

A guy who went around getting beaten up and had a terrible personality...

Harriet’s opinion of Erhi seemed to drop even further.

She crossed her arms and glared at me.

“... Come to think of it, you’re the same kind of person.”

“... What?”

“You pick fights anywhere and charge right in if you get annoyed.”

“... So what?”

She seemed convinced that if I ever ran across the Orbis Class, I’d definitely start a fight as well. She believed that, given my personality, I’d end up either beating someone up or getting beaten up, just like Erhi.

“... There was actually a similar incident today,” I said.

“... What? Did you get into a fight already?” Harriet asked.

“Not a fight! Okay, I know I might look like a crazy person who throws punches at the slightest provocation, but we were just having a practice duel this time!”

When I explained how I had already had a practice bout with a member of the Orbis Class and had won an overwhelming victory, Harriet seemed to be taken aback.

“... Alright, I guess it wasn’t really a fight then.”

“See? It might surprise you, but I actually do care about manners and appearances. It’s hard to believe, I know.”

Harriet sighed. “But you didn’t use your abilities from the beginning, lost the first round on purpose, and then used them to win everything else, right? I know you did that out of spite.”

“... That’s not true.”

‘How does she know me so well? She just accurately described how messed up my personality is!’

As Harriet and I continued our conversation in the lobby, someone called out to me from behind.

“Reinhart.”

“Oh, hey.”

It was Ellen, who had changed out of her uniform and into training clothes.

She gestured towards the training ground with her chin, asking me to go train with her.

“You know you only won because you used your abilities, and without them, you’d have been completely beaten, right?”

“I know, alright? I’m not being overconfident.”

“You are overconfident, relying on your powers.”

‘Damn.’

Anyway, it was training time.

“I’m gonna go now, okay?” I told Harriet.

“Hm? Oh... okay,” Harriet said, nodding absentmindedly.

***

The training session did not go on for very long, since I had something I needed to give Ellen that I couldn’t the day before.

“... Are these all gold coins?”

“I do,” Ellen said, pointing to the clothes she was wearing.

Her answer made Riana and Harriet’s faces darken.

“... I meant clothes other than training outfits,” Harriet clarified.

Harriet was right. Ellen had nothing besides her uniform and clothes for training in. I’d never seen her wear anything else. No casual clothes at all. Even right now, Ellen was dressed in a training outfit.

After classes, everyone usually changed into their everyday clothes. Adelia was wearing a gray dress, Harriet was in a lacey, elegant black dress, and Riana was sporting pants with a blouse.

They weren’t dressed extravagantly, just wearing casual outfits. But Ellen always wore training clothes, the designs of which hardly varied.

Realizing this, Riana’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Wait, you don’t even have a single plain dress?”

“... No.”

The only time I’d seen Ellen in anything resembling a skirt was when she wore her uniform.

Riana grabbed Ellen’s hand with a determined look.

“This won’t do. We need to go buy clothes.”

Ellen looked startled at her comment.

Riana had previously bought Ellen a swimsuit because she hadn’t wanted to see Ellen in the standard Temple swimwear. Now, she seemed annoyed at the realization that Ellen didn’t have any proper casual clothes either.

Having resolved to take Ellen shopping, Riana turned her gaze to me. “Hey, you come along too.”

“... What? Why me? I didn’t ask for advice on where to spend my money,” I replied.

Riana frowned deeply. “You’re the same. You’re always in either your uniform or training clothes too, aren’t you?”

Just like Ellen didn’t have a single skirt to her name, I didn’t own a single proper pair of pants aside from those for training.

Gender aside, Ellen and I practically had the same fashion style.

‘I mean, we’re constantly training and exercising—why would we need casual clothes? It’s not like we’d wear them anyway.’

Ellen was probably thinking the same way I was.

“Anyway, after class tomorrow, we’re going shopping. Everyone meet at the dorm.”

Was it just me, or did Riana de Granz seem like the one with the most authority in this group?

***

On Wednesdays, we had Meditation, Supernatural Power Control, and Supernatural Power Practical classes. Meditation and Supernatural Power Control were classes that we had also taken during the first semester.

The previous day’s Swordsmanship Practical class involved summoning dummies via summoning magic and having real combat practice with those dummies. Sometimes, monsters would be summoned, but it was mostly a matter of fighting remote-controlled puppets, like sparring with golems armed with swords.

The class we were at was the supernatural power version of that, and it was exclusive to the Royal Class.

There were six superhumans within the Royal Class: Riana, Connor Lint, Charlotte, Heinrich, Evia, and me.

Only those whose supernatural powers had offensive capabilities attended this class.

Evia from Class B had telepathic abilities, but since her power wasn’t used for offense, she did not attend this class. Her abilities would become capable of offense later on, but of course, at that moment, no one except me was aware of that.

In Connor Lint’s case, with his teleportation ability, it was a bit ambiguous. Depending on how it was used, teleportation could be a powerful offensive skill. However, due to the critical side effect of ending up naked, Connor Lint couldn’t participate in practical sessions.

Still, thanks to the improvements in the skills of the Royal Class’s superhumans, Connor Lint’s abilities had also progressed.

Before the Supernatural Power Practical class, we had a Supernatural Power Control class first.

—Oh... Oh my! Mr. Lint! This is incredible! I can’t believe it! You managed to do it!

—T-Teacher...! I did it! I finally... I finally did it!

—Yes! I-It’s great! But... please don’t come any closer to me in that state!

—Oh... O-Okay...

Connor Lint, who was practicing his abilities in a sealed classroom as usual, was exchanging emotional words with his instructor, who was congratulating him just as excitedly.

Having completed a round of ability tests, Riana noticed the commotion coming from Connor Lint’s side and tilted her head in curiosity.

“... What’s going on?”

“Who knows?”

Charlotte still wasn’t around; it seemed she was attending classes somewhere else entirely.

Bang!

Connor Lint’s training instructor suddenly flung open the door of the sealed room and exclaimed in a delighted tone, “Everyone! Great news! It’s about our fellow colleague Mr. Lint over here! Mr. Lint has finally managed to teleport with his underwear on!”

At these words, everyone’s activities came to a halt, and even the instructors were wide-eyed and speechless. It was a moment of collective shock.

“R-Really?!”

“Absolutely, Ms. Rellin! It’s not a fluke! He succeeded three consecutive times!”

“This... this can’t be!”

The once hopeless superhuman, Connor Lint, had evolved his ability through grueling practice to the point where he could teleport his underwear along with himself.

Sniffle... Sniffle...

Connor Lint, who appeared to have just put his clothes back on, was so overcome with emotions that he was muffling his sobs with his hands, tears of joy streaming down his face.

Heinrich and Evia were also stunned by Connor Lint’s remarkable progress.

The ability that once required him to abandon all of his dignity to use had now evolved to the point where he only had to forfeit about 90% of it.

Riana looked somewhat pale and seemed bewildered.

“It... It sure is incredibly impressive, but... why do I feel so strange...?”

Given that a critical penalty of using his ability had been removed, it was right to congratulate him, yet it still felt a bit awkward.

I distinctly remembered this part. Connor Lint’s ability would continue to evolve. Right now, he could teleport with his underwear, but eventually, he’d be able to teleport with all of his clothes. His ability would improve to the point where he wouldn’t have to sacrifice his dignity at all.

However, the process of getting there was just hopeless...

‘I think the next achievement is him teleporting with his socks or something like that...’

From what I remembered of the original story, after successfully teleporting with both his underwear and socks, Connor Lint decided that it looked too odd. So, even though he did manage to teleport with socks, he ultimately chose not to teleport with both socks and underwear together.

“I... I knew I could do it...!”

We couldn’t help but cheer for the deeply emotional Connor Lint in this captivating moment.

It was a strange moment, filled with both joy and a sense of bittersweet sympathy.

Anyway, the hero of the day was undoubtedly Connor Lint.