Public Apology
Even after I entered the classroom and took my seat, every pair of eyes followed me.
Ah. It stung.
The whispering felt louder than usual today. Which, considering what I’d done, was fair enough.
A little while later, Leo’s lot came in. I glanced his way. Predictably, he looked like death.
Once the entire class had arrived, Swordsmanship Professor Ian Dexter—the duel’s official observer—walked in with Magic Professor Henry Willston, who taught first period.
Apparently they’d cleared it ahead of time, because Professor Willston started explaining.
“I trust you’ve all been well. Leo Epsilt, Louis Wallenstein. Both of you, come forward.”
I strolled up lightly. Leo trudged forward like a cow being led to slaughter.
“I assume you all saw the recent duel. The public apology that was one of the conditions of that duel will take place now. Does anyone object? Anyone who insists on covering the lesson material instead…?”
Of course no one raised a hand. Suggesting we just push through the syllabus with this kind of entertainment waiting would get you genuinely strung up by the rest of the class later.
“…No one?”
Professor Willston asked again, looking faintly displeased. The man taught every single day without fail—right up through the day before vacation—so this little interruption clearly didn’t sit well with him.
In any case, he stepped back with a sour expression, and Professor Dexter approached me. Glancing at the paper in his hand, he asked in a voice that made it clear he’d rather be doing anything else:
“Right… Cadet Louis Wallenstein. You claimed that Leo and the rest of your former party members attempted to expel you without cause, and that…” He read from the duel application I’d submitted earlier. “…that their stated reasons—that you were negligent in party activities and that your inferior skill was a hindrance—damaged your honor.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“And you further claimed that all of those accusations were lies, and that the truth was, in fact, the opposite.”
“Yes.”
I nodded with the most serious face I’d ever worn.
I thought I was finally about to receive the apology. Then Dexter kept talking.
“Cadet Louis Wallenstein. Don’t you think the conditions of the duel were a bit… harsh? As the victor, showing magnanimity would be—”
Excuse me, Professor?
Why are you suddenly spouting nonsense?
Did the Epsilt family slip you a little something?
This was exactly why I hadn’t made Leo’s expulsion one of the conditions. Even if I’d been dead set on kicking him out for real, someone higher up would have blocked it somehow. A public apology and the family heirloom sword, though—those fell inside the acceptable range. Not that either was exactly light.
A few students in the class started murmuring agreement with Dexter. That I was going too far, or whatever.
Not a chance.
“Professor. Right up until the duel itself, Cadet Leo publicly spread the falsehood that I was negligent in party activities and that my skill was inferior.”
That part was pure fact. I’d been furious about it.
“The rumor has already spread throughout the Academy. To correct it, a public apology is absolutely necessary.”
Dexter fell silent for a moment after my answer. Then, a little more pitifully:
“Ahem… Even so, the family heirloom sword—”
“Everyone already knows that the heirloom sword was one of the conditions of the duel,” I said. “If Cadet Leo still has that sword after this, the rumor will spread that he failed to honor the terms—and that will damage his honor instead.”
Dexter finally shut his mouth. He still looked unwilling; Leo must have begged him hard.
At last, the professor called my former party members forward.
“Cadet Esther Kalt, Cadet Veronica Eltwin, Cadet Elin Nidia, Cadet Aine—step forward.”
It was a little disappointing that Felice wasn’t there, but this was still a more-than-satisfactory stage.
The first to apologize to me was the Saintess.
Esther bit her lip hard, trembling as she stood in front of me.
“…Why do I have to… to the likes of you…”
She muttered resentfully.
I gave her a broad smile and deliberately raised my voice.
“Don’t tell me that was the apology just now?”
“…I’m sorry.”
Her face flushed as she forced the words out, swallowing her rage. Then she started to turn and walk back to her seat.
Not a chance.
After everything they’d put me through, she thought a single “I’m sorry” would cut it?
“Hmm… That’s it? Didn’t anyone teach you proper manners?”
For the record, the place that had raised and educated the Saintess was the Church.
She snapped.
“Y-You—! What did you just—”
“No, Esther. An apology means, at minimum, stating clearly what you actually did wrong, doesn’t it?”
I said it while glancing meaningfully at Leo. If you don’t do this properly, it’s Leo’s honor that takes the hit.
“Kh…”
Whether she understood the implication or not, Esther planted herself in front of me again.
“…I apologize… for spreading l-lies about you…”
Her voice shook with fury.
“What kind of lies?”
“You… that’s enough—”
“What was that?”
“…That you weren’t properly participating in party activities… and that your skill was inferior and you were a hindrance… those lies…”
I smiled.
“Right. So those were lies. Good girl.”
I spoke to her the way you’d praise a well-behaved puppy.
The Saintess’s eyes finally welled with tears of pure rage.
“You can go back now.”
At my permission, she returned to her seat, her whole body trembling.
Next was Elin Nidia.
Apparently she’d learned something from Esther’s humiliation, because she finished it in one clean pass.
“Louis Wallenstein… I a-apologize for spreading the lie that you weren’t properly participating in party activities and that your skill was inferior…”
I nodded.
Hearing it again still made my blood boil.
The “inferior skill” part I could live with—everyone had just seen my skill in the duel. But negligent in party activities? Me? The one who’d worked himself raw trying to save them and stop the Demon King?
Anger surged from somewhere deep. I forced it down and waited for the next one.
Next was Veronica Eltwin.
I looked at her with complicated eyes. After the duel we’d already had another full-blown shouting match.
She avoided my gaze as she apologized.
“Louis… I’m sorry for lying about you, for kicking you out of the party, for treating you so badly all this time. All of it. I mean it.”
She kept her head bowed low, voice shrinking smaller and smaller. Both of her ears were as red as her hair.
Is apologizing to me that humiliating and mortifying?
Given her personality, it probably was.
Strangely, though, her apology felt different from the others. Anyone who didn’t know our history might have genuinely believed she meant every word.
I wondered why for a second—then the answer hit me.
Ah. Because I kept making Esther redo it when she half-assed it.
Veronica’s pride would never let her suffer the same spectacle. Better to swallow the shame and finish it cleanly in one go.
She returned to her seat as well, and Aine came forward to apologize.
Aine also couldn’t meet my eyes. She must have been feeling the guilt too.
Of all of them, I’d trusted her the most—and of all of them, her betrayal had cut the deepest. What I felt toward the others was rage. Thinking of Aine just made me a little sad.
But I’d already decided I was done caring about any of them. I wasn’t going to go crawling after them asking why they’d betrayed me. No pathetic clinging.
While I was thinking that, Aine apologized.
“Louis-nim… I’m truly sorry. For k-kicking you out of the party without permission… I’m really… really sorry…”
Something about the apology felt slightly off. She was supposed to be apologizing for damaging my honor, not for expelling me from the party.
Anyway, I sent her back too.
Even if Aine’s was the only apology that had felt even halfway sincere, the goal had never been to receive genuine remorse. It was to humiliate them. And on that front, it had been a complete success.
Just look at the students’ faces. And at the Saintess, still trembling in her seat.
That alone was enough to put me in a good mood—but we weren’t finished.
The main course remained: Leo Epsilt.
He stepped in front of me.
“…Sorry.”
He spat it out short.
As expected, Leo was an idiot. He’d watched the whole Esther spectacle and learned absolutely nothing.
“That’s it?”
“…You bastard, I swear I’ll k—”
“Want another duel? I’m pretty sure the result would be the same…”
“Haa… I apologize for spreading the lie that you weren’t properly participating in party activities and that your skill was inferior and you were a hindrance.”
He forced the words out.
“Right. If my skill was so inferior I was a hindrance—then what the hell does that make you?”
I sneered at him. He couldn’t even manage a comeback. Just like the Saintess, he trembled all over as he turned and headed back to his seat.
…He headed back.
Huh?
It had looked so natural I’d almost forgotten.
“Hey.”
Leo turned his head.
“The sword. Hand it over.”
I grinned.