Because You Won
“W-who called me an idiot?! Seriously!”
“Then, are you a bear who can’t even do homework?”
“W-what bear?!”
Michelle’s face, already flushed crimson from the blood, burned even hotter.
Not a bear, not a cat— a rabbit. A rabbit!
This pervert!
No, wait, since he didn’t see properly, maybe not a pervert. Anyway, I hate the world the most!
My limbs were starting to tingle. The sensation of blood rushing to my face was also unpleasant.
“L-let me down. I… urk?!”
Before Michelle’s words had even finished, the girl’s body began to feel gravity again.
With a thud, she collapsed neatly onto the floor.
“Ouch…! Uwaaaa!”
Frustration boiling over, she immediately pushed herself off the ground and stood up.
Her broken leg throbbed, but her hatred for Adrian burned hotter than ever.
She looked up at the towering Adrian without any support.
“Angry?”
Now asking that? In front of everyone, he had hung her upside down. Would you be fine with that?
Just as Michelle was about to protest by moving her lips.
“Don’t get too angry. I’ll punish you with this instead.”
“Ugh…”
Punishment. The easiest way for a professor to threaten a student.
...Of course, upon closer look, what Adrian was doing couldn’t be called mere intimidation.
Michelle glanced at the fallen Charlotte.
Charlotte, who had taken the full force of her telekinetic power, was groaning in pain. Even though sparring was allowed during self-study, this was clearly classified as assault. Michelle had no choice but to admit her mistake.
“...Hmph.”
While smoothing out her wrinkled clothes with telekinesis, Michelle finally nodded.
She had to avoid punishment. Because she was going to the top rank soon.
“Then, you may go.”
After the small negotiation, Adrian didn’t even glance at Michelle. Instead, he approached Charlotte.
“Can you walk?”
“...”
Charlotte nodded silently. The girl’s face, hit by the concrete, looked more worried than wounded.
“Follow me.”
Tap tap tap-
Adrian’s footsteps, blunt and echoing like his own personality, rang out. Behind him, Charlotte followed quietly.
***
The place they arrived chasing the professor’s broad back was the office.
It might seem out of place. A patient beaten to death finding the professor’s office instead of the infirmary.
It was because of Charlotte. Actually, Adrian had suggested the academy’s infirmary in the middle, but Charlotte had stubbornly shaken her head several times.
The academy’s infirmary was paid, and Charlotte didn’t have that much money. Of course, there was a possibility the professor would pay, but she hated that even more.
“Sit down.”
The professor took out a chair, but Charlotte couldn’t take a comfortable posture.
The girl glanced at the professor’s expression. He maintained his usual blank face.
Was he angry? Probably. It had only been a day since Adrian and Charlotte made their promise.
“You won?”
Even though it was the second question, Adrian didn’t ask the reason for the fight. It was a somewhat out-of-place question.
Charlotte shook her head silently.
The result of this match wasn’t a mystery. In front of everyone, Charlotte had been beaten to death and hadn’t landed a single hit. That alone was sufficient evidence.
Still untreated wounds were throbbing. Charlotte cautiously opened her mouth with a bitter taste.
“As you see.”
“Is that so.”
His tone was also cool.
What would happen from now on? Charlotte was anxious. It felt like she had dropped the straw she had barely caught with her own hands.
Adrian the professor is a person who thoroughly separates work and private life. Just looking at his actions and tone, it’s clear.
How scary an expression would he make to Charlotte who couldn’t keep the conditions? How sharp words would he say?
Or, without any words, would he punish her? In any case, now it was Charlotte’s turn to bear it. This is a story Charlotte started.
“Don’t avoid my eyes.”
Upon hearing that, her mind snapped. The fear made even the pain stop for a moment.
“...Yes.”
She barely answered and lifted her head. She tried not to avoid his gaze as commanded.
And when she met his eyes, something pressed hard on her cheek, a throbbing pain.
“A-ah, it hurts.”
She thought maybe she got slapped, but then she felt wetness. At the same time, the pungent smell of alcohol.
Charlotte’s eyes widened, then she tried to hide her surprised expression.
“Professor... this is...”
“As you see.”
She tried to ask more, but Adrian’s tweezers were busy rubbing the cotton on the wound insistently. Charlotte could only say “it hurts”.
“Charlotte.”
“Y-yes, Professor.”
“You didn’t have to make me go through the trouble of going to the infirmary.”
“...”
“I’m sorry.”
She could only answer that much.
It didn’t take long for the disinfectant and ointment to be applied to the girl’s face.
After placing the cotton soaked with disinfectant and blood and the tweezers down, Adrian offered a pill.
“It will help with recovery.”
Charlotte accepted it but didn’t swallow it.
It wasn’t rebellion. She just felt she didn’t have the right to swallow it.
“You may go.”
Charlotte blinked twice. She looked at Adrian, then at the door, and then back at Adrian.
“W-won’t I be scolded?”
“If you did something to be scolded, you would have been scolded.”
“Then, the punishment...?”
“I didn’t do anything to receive punishment.”
Charlotte was bewildered.
She had broken the promise with Adrian somehow. But the professor was sending her back as if nothing happened.
What was she supposed to do in this situation.
No one had taught her, no one had learned, and she hadn’t experienced such a situation.
“Why...”
She couldn’t decide whether to ask Adrian for the reason or to provoke his anger to make him scold her openly.
“Why... aren’t you scolding me?”
“Because you won.”
At those words, Charlotte’s thoughts raced. She hadn’t thought for even a moment that she had won.
“Even though you broke the promise, you lost... Well, if that were the case, I would definitely have been angry.”
“I lost.”
“You saw, right? I lost miserably.”
“I thought so too.”
Adrian rolled his eyes without any emotion. The professor’s gaze was directed at Charlotte’s palm.
“Until I see your palm.”
Only then did Charlotte hurriedly put her hand in her pocket.
Upon realizing, the spell she had drawn on her palm hadn’t been erased yet. Because it was too painful to care.
“Charlotte.”
“...Yes. Professor.”
“I won’t ask why you fought.”
Why did they fight. When she recalled the reason, Charlotte’s face heated up belatedly.
It must be crazy. Why did she jump in to defend the professor? It was fortunate that Adrian didn’t ask.
“Either one. A reason that was infinitely trivial, or a reason she had to fight.”
Adrian’s gaze turned to Charlotte’s palm again.
“But when I saw your hand, I was certain it was the latter.”
The following conversation kept reminding Charlotte of Adrian’s greatness. He was amazingly penetrating everything.
“What kind of spell did you draw?”
He wasn’t asking because he didn’t know. Charlotte took a deep breath and answered.
“The Silence Spell... is it.”
Silence Spell. It was just a simple spell that only blocked sound. What was drawn on the girl’s palm was nothing more than that.
“A spell that can’t inflict any damage on the opponent. Why did it have to be that?”
“That is...”
Charlotte bit her lower lip and straightened her posture.
She didn’t have the courage to face Adrian yet, but she tried to face him anyway.
“...Because I wanted to keep the fourth condition.”
“That’s right. That’s it.”
Adrian nodded slowly.
“Indeed, you kept the fourth condition to the end.”
Charlotte nodded cautiously.
“Even while keeping the condition, you didn’t run away.”
She nodded cautiously again.
“Just that alone, you won. Clearly.”
But this time, she couldn’t nod.
Adrian’s words were correct, but Charlotte still didn’t think she had won.
I lost. I lost.
Would drawing another attack magic spell make me win? Would I have hit even once...
She felt like she wanted to do confession. She decided to honestly pour out all her feelings.
“...Professor.”
“Are there still questions left?”
Charlotte nodded.
“Am I really that praiseworthy for keeping the conditions?”
“What do you mean?”
“Michelle insulted the person I value. That’s why we fought.”
“However.”
“I might have kept the fourth condition against my will. If I had really tried to fight, even if I had rushed at Michelle, I would have been hit without approaching her at all...”
She had decided not to cry, but somehow the girl was crying again.
“...I wanted to tell Michelle that the person is precious. But I would only get hit to death. In the end, I couldn’t do anything, right? That’s... defeat.”
“Charlotte.”
He called her name softly.
“If you knock down the opponent, does it make your person more precious?”
A sharp remark. Adrian’s voice pierced Charlotte’s words.
“If you make the opponent kneel and repeatedly whisper to their ear that your person is precious, does that make them that much more precious?”
“That’s... no, but...”
“I have no precious person. Even if I did, I lost them all.”
“Ah...”
Charlotte just silently listened to Adrian’s story.
“However, even so, what can be certain is.”
The professor was still staring at Charlotte intently.
“The heart of valuing someone is enough to show without running away.”
It was a shock like being hit on the head.
“The person themselves will be happy. Definitely.”
...Is that possible
It was truly amazing.
She hadn’t hit Michelle, hadn’t reduced the damage even a little.
Just by imagining him happy... the feeling of defeat subtly melts.
“Really... will he really be happy?”
“I don’t promise.”
Strange.
Really strange.
Just imagining him happy... no defeat feeling.
She looks so pathetic, got hit all over. But still...
“...Sniff!”
While desperately suppressing the tears about to flow, Charlotte rubbed her face hard with her sleeve. She had already wiped the tears that had flowed.
“This is why I hate it.”
“Haa.”
Adrian let out a long sigh and placed the first aid kit in Charlotte’s arms.
“Wiping what I applied is bad attitude. Now do it yourself.”
With those words, Adrian stood up from his seat.
“W-wait a minute.”
Courageously, the girl grabbed Adrian’s sleeve.
“Never again...”
Really never again.
“Never again, I won’t cry. I won’t rub my face with my sleeve either. So, so...”
The girl lifted the first aid kit with both hands.
And carefully offered it.
“Please apply it one more time...”
├─ Tier 1:Base ability ✓
├─ Tier 2:Enhanced ability ✓
└─ Tier 3:[New ability — UNLOCKED] ★