Volume 2 - CH 9

The bullying continued.

In the evening when I was in the study room because the putrid smell of juices that had soaked into the floor of my room was unpleasant, someone took the book I had spread out beside me.

The boy sat on the desk, smiled, and several boys who looked like his friends were seated next to us and staring at us.

Among them was a boy with purple eyes. He glanced at me once in disgust then looked down at his book.

“Give it back.”

I kept my tone as subdued as possible. My expression was blank, and I quietly held my hand towards the boy in front of me.

I’ve recently learnt that I shouldn’t overreact to bullies. It’s more exhausting.

“I left mine in my room. You should be glad that someone as lowly as you can be of use to a noble.”

What the hell is he saying?

Why did you come to the study room empty handed? And stop messing with me.

“I’m fine with being useless. Give it back.”

I stood up and stormed over to him, hoping to end this quickly, but he pushed me away as hard as he could.

He was a mid-teenage boy with a lot of power. I was still too thin and my body was easily knocked over.

Ah, shyt, that hurts. Their laughter is pissing me off.

I don’t care if they throw rubbish at me or push me, but I can’t stay quiet when they disturb my studies. My bully was in front of me this time.

I was about to attack him almost impulsively when a teacher walked by.

The door was opened, so he spotted the commotion inside and came over to tell me off.

“What are you doing? Be quiet.”

“I’ll be quiet as soon as he gives me back my book.”

I was quicker than the boy and made it clear that it was his fault, but…

“I was only borrowing it for a bit, but she began making a fuss as if I were a thief. I guess she only views others with her lowly standards.”

The teacher nodded, but only at the words of the noble boy.

“Be nice and lend him your book.”

The teachers here are not educators.

They are mages from the royal palace who take turns teaching. They have no enthusiasm, no love and no sense of equality.

I knew this, but I couldn’t acknowledge it.

“He can just go back to his room. Why should I lend him my book?”

“You should be aware of your own status.”

There was no use in arguing.

That’s why I hate it. I will never be able to understand someone who isn’t willing to talk.

My book was taken and finally thrown into the trash. I picked it up and returned to my room only to find that a dead rat had been put inside my book. I guess they must have asked the servants to do this.

*Sigh*. Come to think of it, I used to eat rats a long time ago.

On another day while I was away from my seat for a short while to ask questions after class, I found my notebook had disappeared. After searching around, I found the pages floating around in the pond in the courtyard.

All I could do was sigh.

I took off my shoes and robe, rolled up my skirt and entered the stagnant water.  My toes sunk in the mud at the bottom of the pond. It felt disgusting at first, but then felt good once I got used to it.

The pond went up to above my knees, and it wasn’t difficult to retrieve the paper, but I couldn’t read what was written on it anymore.

“Horrible, horrible.”

I heard laughter from behind me and thought it was the bullies, but it wasn’t.

A dark-haired man in a white robe had his windows propped on the window still as he laughed.

“I’m surprised you’re not fed up with this yet.”

This man is Harold-sensei.

He was about 30 years old, tall and lanky with a narrow chin and dirty stubble. He was a strange man who was always grinning as if he was having fun.

Teachers rarely try to engage with students outside of the class because of their work at the palace, but this guy talks to me quite often.

“You can help if you want.”

“Ridiculous. Who would help you?”

Well, he talks to me, but he isn’t very nice.

I kept picking up the notebook pages.

“What are you going to do with that? You can’t read it anymore, can you?”

“Littering is strictly prohibited.”

I can’t help but try to preserve the environment as a graduate of the agriculture department. Or perhaps, this was my attitude as a Japanese person.

“You’re surprisingly doing a good job at putting up with them. I thought people like you would snap at them right away.”

What does he know about me? He’s just saying what he wants. I’m a pacifist by nature.

Besides, it’s not like I don’t understand where they’re coming from.

“It’s the teachers’ fault. They’re putting too much pressure on the students. They’re piling all their frustration and resentment onto me.”

I don’t mean to brag, but I guess they were probably annoyed that I was acting cocky and didn’t like me because I finish my assignments early, go out to town on my days off and seem to have a good time with the Prince and Rock.

The closed environment of the school was also bad.

A group of people who are confined in a closed environment always harass the weak. Even if you get rid of the weakest person, they’ll just victimise the next weakest person. Strength and weakness are relative in value, so there’s no end to it.

“You’re getting your just desserts. What are you going to do with your notebook?”

“I’m going to copy Alec’s.”

I answered without looking at him.

“See, you’re adding fuel to the fire. You’re being disrespectful.”

“He gets really happy when I call him by his nickname. He doesn’t want me to use honorifics either. I’m just doing what he wants.”

“Who would be foolish enough to take them head-on? Those who have nothing act in a clever way.”

“I don’t want to fawn over them.”

“Do you consider yourself inferior to them?”

“What makes me inferior to them?”

I looked up from the pond and straight at Harold-sensei.

He still had that unpleasant smile on his face. If this had been any other teacher, they would tell me not to get cocky.

“I’ll tell you something good. You got the perfect score on the entrance exam. No one has ever gotten a perfect score in the past.”

What he had suddenly said surprised me, but I was satisfied. I was confident that I had gotten the perfect score.

“They say you are more intelligent than any of the students here and yet you are inferior to them. Do you understand what I mean?”

He sounded as if he was teasing me or testing me. I don’t know what he was trying to say.

“I don’t. By the way, did you get where you are because you acted in a clever way?”

It was uncomfortable to get caught up in his pace, so I quickly decided to change the subject.

I’ve also heard rumours about him.

Harold Bluiett has a noble surname, but his blood is that of a commoner, people say.

“Make sure you know who you’re up against and the procedure. It’s not difficult to get ahead if you take small steps. It’s people like you who try to leap ahead who have to suffer unnecessary hardships.”

“Were you adopted by a noble?”

“Because I’m smart.”

Ah, I see. That’s what I thought.

Normally speaking, you have to be in an environment where you could study to get into Magic School, so if you don’t slip into a noble family, you wouldn’t be able to become a mage.

I wonder what kind of dirty tricks this shady person had to use.

Some students despise Harold-sensei, but his firm position was already unshakeable even if they hurled a little abuse at him.

He had already reached the point of safety and was looking down on me, who is in a similar position as the past him, without any intention of helping. Honestly, this person annoyed me the most.

He was still there when I finished collecting my notebook and got myself cleaned up.

“What are you going to do? You won’t yell at them, or just let them bully you nor will you cry to the gentle Prince. It’s only going to keep getting worse if you keep acting this way.”

Then he would say things that made me feel like he was teasing me or stirring me up.

It was getting a bit much, so I said.

“If you change one word in your surname, then it’ll sound like toilet cleaning liquid. The one you leave on the toilet.”

“… What?”

I rushed away while he was still in a daze.