CH 20

"Fueeeh~...."

Charlotte let out a pitiful voice at the sound of water leaking out from under her skirt.

Suddenly, she was relieved to be free of the fear of death, so her emotional brakes ceased to be effective.

(..... What am I going to do now?!!!!!)

This is all my fault.

Lucius feels bad that Charlotte is in a situation like this.

For now, no one has noticed since they all have their eyes on me because of what I just did, but as soon as everyone sees Charlotte, they will notice this accident.

If something like this happens... She will be humiliated by the whole school.

They'll start calling her the 'Leaking Hero' or the 'Puddle Hero' or something like that.

If Charlotte had remained in her right mind, she would still have been able to do something about it, but she's in a state of shock, having done something so shameful in public.

(I can't let that happen. I have to do something about it...).

Suddenly a great idea occurred to him, and he began to prepare his magic at high speed.

"Dark Magic, prison of silence!"

When Lucius used his spell, a huge square black structure appeared and enveloped Lucius and Charlotte.

"W-What the hell is that!?"

The people around were puzzled, so they decide not to approach the mysterious dark box. So no one knows what's going on inside.

And within that box, Charlotte comes to her senses.

"Eh....?! Where am I?! Why is everything black?!"

Even though the walls were black, there was plenty of light inside.

Not only that, but it also isolated the sound from the outside, so it was just the two of them in absolute silence.

"Don't worry, I just used my magic to hide us in this place alone."

Charlotte is startled by the sudden situation, but as Lucius speaks calmly she starts to relax.

"I've never seen magic like this before... But now that I think about it, I'm not entirely surprised that you can use something like this."

Charlotte says as if she's convinced.

Seems she's tired of being surprised.

"Wait a minute, I'll help you out."

With that said, Lucius combines wind magic and fire magic to create hot air, then blows it on Charlotte's wet clothes and starts to dry them.

"Hey.. W-Wai...!"

Charlotte wants to ask Lucious to stop but she couldn't say such words as she didn't want to disrespect the boy who is helping her with all his strength.

Instead, she blushes up to her ears and tears come to her eyes, but Lucius is so focused on drying her clothes that she doesn't notice.

"Okay, now all I have to do is magically deodorize and...... Done! Now you're clean!"

"Um.. Thanks for your help..."

Charlotte thanked him as she struggled to hide her embarrassment at how she was about to cry in shame.

Lucius, seeing that his job was done, decides it's time to undo the black box he and Charlotte were locked in, but before he does, the girl stops him.

"Wait! Why are you helping me? I did and said terrible things to you."

Lucius, upon hearing such a question, answered calmly and with a gentle tone.

"Because it's natural to want to help people who are in trouble, isn't it?"

When Charlotte heard those words, she was shocked as if struck by lightning.

Helping people is an act of necessity that Charlotte does out of nature, but as soon as she had heard the rumors about Lucius, she became so jealous that she tried to bring him down instead of wanting to help him.

Lucius is not a bad guy, but is someone who aspires to help people, just like heroes do.

"Fufu, I just suffered a massive defeat."

Charlotte realized that she had lost not only her ability but also her heart, but she felt strangely refreshed.

In fact, she felt that she could now be stronger than before, because she now had a new goal, and that was to surpass Lucius.

"Forgive me for being so rude to you, I'm sorry."

Charlotte bowed her head and continued speaking.

"I admit that you are stronger than me, both in mind and body."

"Not at all, you're underestimating yourself, Charlotte. You're also very strong!"

The two young adults blush as they praise each other.

It's hard to believe that until a moment ago they were dueling each other.

"Well, it's time to undo this magic."

"Yes."

As Lucious breaks the spell, the dark box begins to crumble.

At the same time, Charlotte looks at Lucius and speaks quietly.

"Um, people who are close to me call me 'Char'."

"Really?"

Lucious asked, not understanding the point of the conversation.

Charlotte's face turns red as she continues talking.

"Yes... That's why... I want Lucius to call me that too!"

After hearing those words, Lucius got a little embarrassed as he replied; "Well, nice to meet you, Char!"