Punishment for the Student Who Started It
"Me? Close with Yupi?"
I played dumb at her words. "You're imagining things. Instructor and student, that's all. We've barely known each other a few weeks."
I gave a dismissive sniff and shrugged. If excuses could get me out of trouble, then all was right with the world.
Thwip!
Ter answered with her bowstring instead of words. Shiiing! A blue arrow tore through the air, streaking straight for the bridge of my nose.
'Ah. Can't dodge this one.'
I pressed a hand over my heart and surged my mana output. Dazzling light burst forth, and flame bloomed like heat haze. The incoming arrow was swallowed by the scorching sunlight, its molten fragments scattering across the open air.
"Mind explaining why you're shooting arrows at someone you've only just met?"
"I saw you chatting with my sister earlier. All lovey-dovey. So sickeningly sweet it embarrassed me just watching."
Ter raised a hand to her mouth and let out a chuckle. The corners of her lips curled upward. There was an aristocrat's particular brand of arrogance laced through her every gesture.
"Jealous, are we? This is why being a popular man is so exhausting."
"It's not that, obviously? Delusion has its limits. What part of your face is even supposed to be handsome?"
"I'd say I'm at least decent-looking, no?"
"That snout jutting out like a beast's? And those eyes slit straight back like—"
"Stop! Not like that, you lunatic! Shut your mouth!"
This—this bitch! Is she trying to get the novel banned? Just spewing whatever pops into her head.
Do you really need to be that sensitive? If the whole novel collapses over one little remark, that'd be pretty hilarious in its own right, you know.
"That's the kind of thing I'd rather never create controversy about, as a policy."
In a webnovel scene where people reincarnate as someone's panties as a fetish, scream "squishy-yet-firm" at gender-bent kids while emphasizing their tadpole bellies, turn into a you-fucking-racist the instant they see dark skin, and think nothing of blaspheming gods from real-world religions — why act all scandalized about it NOW of all times?
"Writer, what on earth have you been reading with your life..."
The Writer's chat window kept pouring out knowledge from the abyss(?). I forced myself to ignore it and turned my attention back to Ter.
"So that's what it is, then. You're upset that I'm getting friendly with your beloved sister. You're jealous."
"Ha. Love? Friendly?"
The smile drained from her face. A twisted corner of the mouth, eyes gone razor-sharp.
"Could you not say things like that, even as a joke? It makes me sick."
"She's my sister. You don't get to say such vile things about my family."
"I can, though. I have the right to."
Pit!
The bowstring drew taut once more. Rippling water mana hardened into shape — a rain of blue arrowheads spread like a storm and swallowed my field of view.
I didn't dodge. I knew her arrows were aimed at me alone, and that they wouldn't truly reach me. With one small oversight, that is.
Shaaaa—
'Cold.'
The oversight being that her arrows were made of water. She had flooded me with sheer volume; I melted their forms with sunlight, but couldn't vaporize them — so I was drenched through.
Click!
Ter snapped her fingers instantly. The water soaking my body froze solid, binding me in place.
"Bye-bye~"
Crack!
The moment her words ended, a pillar of ice erupted from the ground. Its razor-sharp point drove into my back and hoisted me up into the air.
Reader!
"I'm fine. Melted it before it could pierce me."
The pressure pushing against my back had vanished long ago. The ice spike had gone dull, and not a single drop of blood had been spilled.
"Oh my? You're not dead. I was so sure you'd be skewered on that pillar and die on the spot."
"Someone like me can block more than enough."
I rose to my feet, shook the water from my clothes, and stepped down off the pillar of ice.
"If you'd done that to another student, they'd be badly hurt. Watch yourself."
"That was the point. Did I really not know that, I wonder?"
There was genuine sincerity woven into those words. She truly was that kind of person.
'She was like this in the original, too.'
The chapter where Chloe rescued Eva and came out of the dungeon. The crowd in an uproar. The protagonist's party had pushed in to see what was happening, and through the throng I'd watched Yupi and Ter square off over a bloodied student. Yupi declaring she had committed an unforgivable act; Ter snapping back that she was hardly one to talk. It had all ended with Ter being hauled away by the dispatched police.
Ter had meant to tarnish Yupi's achievements, to expose her incompetence to the world. A psychopath's temperament — the kind that had readers asking, this is a heroine? Everyone cursed her back then. And then, the moment the author's illustration dropped, everyone forgave her. That was the punchline.
An enormous chest, and an arrogant smile to match. A beautiful girl with platinum blonde hair and blue eyes. On looks alone, a character that could not fail.
'Not that I'm any different.'
In any case, as a devoted reader who had pored over the novel countless times, I remembered that incident well. I hadn't been aiming for it, but I'd apparently stolen an extra's role without meaning to.
"You know you'll get an earful for sure if this reaches Yupi's ears, right?"
"Her? Her conscience wouldn't let her."
"Know why Instructor Yupi never shows up even when students are brawling? Because she believes her students would never fight each other. You included."
That person — Yupi — trusts you.
At those words, Ter's expression warped. Her eyes narrowed further, her lips twisted. A shadow fell across her face, as if she were looking at a rotting worm.
"What a joke."
"The proof is that her detection net never catches us. You hate to admit it, but Yupi is—"
"You covering for her now? You brown-nose that woman so hard it's actually disgusting. I'm the one getting jealous here."
Ter released her grip on the bow. The fallen equipment dissolved into water, soaking into the dirt below.
Molding Art. The technique of creating weapons from one's own mana and drawing out performance beyond that of the original. It was because of this art that Ter was rated as more talented in the Armament track than even Chloe.
"So that woman thinks that way about me? Fine. That settles it, then."
BOOM!
The instant Ter finished speaking, a bolt of lightning split a cloudless sky.
"I'll pulp you into paste right here — and then I'll shatter every expectation that woman placed in me."
Reader, that's—!
"Did I scratch the pot too hard? She's really decided to kill me."
Just as I'd said, her skill in the Armament arts was superb. And yet for all that, she wasn't in Class A but Class D — chosen as the top student of the Exploration track instead. Had she fled from Chloe out of fear? No. Academy classes were decided by Academy officials; not something the students could game by scheming together. Her talent for exploration had simply been the greater, so she had entered Class D — and become its top student.
And she possessed a power that made even that rank of top student look like nothing.
"It's far too good for trash like you, but go ahead — block it if you can."
'Time to get serious, then.'
Divine Artifacts were the legacy of the God King — the strongest weapons in the world of Academy Yuri Princess. Incomplete, and wielded by someone other than its original owner, but a Divine Artifact was a Divine Artifact.
'I doubt the Solar War Body could hold against that.'
I had no certainty I could block it. One mistake, and I could lose my life.
'Thank God I possessed Solis's body, honestly.'
This place was an artificial dungeon. According to what the original novel described, even the headmaster, who could sense the mana of all of Dilmun, could not read the flows within the dungeon's special space.
'Now is the only chance to bring it out.'
BOOM!
Lightning poured down. The gathered light condensed into a single point and locked onto me. God's verdict had pointed its finger my way. It was, exactly as the saying went, a judgment delivered from on high.
'One strike is all I need.'
I dumped out every last drop of mana and sharpened my senses to their limit. Time crawled. The thunder was already at the tip of my nose. I drew my arm back.
A ring of light rose from my back — a halo embracing the sun. Searing agony surged, and furious flame engulfed my entire body.
FWOOSH!
Gathering all of that fire into the tip of my fist, I hurled it — and met the onrushing lightning head-on.
KRA-BOOM!
A detonation loud enough to herald the end of the world. Light and flame collided, electric current devoured — and in the end, the flames that swallowed everything in their path roared on toward Ter.
"Huh?"
Before she could even react, the fire swallowed her whole.
"Whew. There's finally a reaction."
Reader, are you al..—no, more importantly, TER—!
"Whoa, whoa, calm down."
I hushed the rambling Writer. I knew exactly what she was worried about. Ter was a central figure of Academy Yuri Princess — a person who must not die. And that attack a moment ago had carried more than enough power to inflict fatal damage on her.
B-but Reader! Ter—!
"Just watch. Take a good look at the state Ter's in."
The smoke cleared, and out from the blazing flames she walked, completely unharmed. Not a single burn — only her breathing a little ragged. Perfectly safe.
But I had made certain she would pay, in full, the price for pulling this stunt. With that body of hers, no less.
"Oh my?"
Ter's pristine uniform. The clothes that had covered her had burned away to ash, leaving her utterly naked.
Plump breasts that sagged not one bit despite their considerable weight. At their peaks — stiff and protruding exactly as brazen as her personality — her nipples stood shamelessly exposed. And between her legs, a pussy firmly closed and untouched by any hand. I let out a whistle.
"Phew. That's a lovely view."
A truth I had only realized today: the hair down there follows the color on top.
Excellent intel. Thank you very much for the information.