Tailing
It was late afternoon. I had spent the entire moving class slumped over my desk, fast asleep. Only after everyone else had left did I finally drag myself upright.
I was strolling down the hallway on my way back to the classroom when I decided to open my status window, just in case. That was when I noticed the Rape Declaration skill slot sparkling.
Rape Declaration slot is reacting.
A viable target is nearby.
Ever since Anderson had tailed me, I had racked my brain for a countermeasure. The solution I eventually settled on was to use the Rape Declaration. The skill slot only glowed when a suitable target was within range.
I swept my gaze once around the hallway. As expected, I couldn’t sense even the faintest trace of another person nearby.
Don’t tell me…
Was someone tailing me again? The fact that it was happening inside the academy, not outside, was genuinely shocking. No matter how often the academy suffered attacks from the Dark Cult—earning it the nickname “security sieve”—that only happened because the enemy’s power was equally formidable. In other words, the person currently following me was most likely an academy insider.
I refused to even consider the possibility that the mysterious tail had slipped in through the hole the Yellow Magic Tower Master had left behind.
I kept my eyes fixed on the skill window so the tail wouldn’t notice. The range of Rape Declaration is roughly fifty meters. In an open outdoor area that wouldn’t be far, but inside a building surrounded by walls on all sides, it was an absurdly wide net. At this point it could have simply picked up someone passing by on another floor.
Still, something feels off.
At this hour, the only class still in session in this building was first-year Class 3. With everyone else already gone, the mere existence of another person here was suspicious in itself.
As I walked the hallway, I weighed my options. What should I do? Should I pretend I hadn’t noticed and let it slide, or should I expose the tail right now? The first choice would keep me safe for the moment, but I had no idea what price I might pay later. The second was risky, yet it would eliminate an unpredictable variable.
My decision leaned toward confrontation. After all, this was the academy. Harming an academy student inside the academy? That was basically a death wish. Solias Academy received considerable attention from the imperial family; they would never let such an incident slide. The tail would likely spend the rest of their life hounded by the empire’s hunting dogs before being executed in the most brutal way possible.
“Huu…”
I let out a long breath. Now that I had decided, it was time to act. First, I needed to pinpoint the tail’s direction.
Left and right are out. The left side faced the windows, the right held classrooms. The idea of someone clinging to a window to follow me was ridiculous, and hiding inside a classroom made even less sense. How could they know which route I would take and wait in ambush?
That left front or back.
Where are you?
I expanded my senses to the limit, then suddenly hit on an idea.
“Ah! Damn it, I left that behind!”
I let out a deliberately loud groan as if I had just remembered something, spun on my heel, and sprinted back toward the classroom. No matter which side the tail was on, they would be forced to move. Yet even now the person showed no sign of presence, proof their skill far surpassed my own. Still, there was one thing they couldn’t hide.
They were behind me.
They might have perfectly concealed their own aura, but they couldn’t stop the dust on the floor from scattering when they moved. I pretended to rummage through my desk compartment, grabbed a random item, and left the classroom again.
Now it was time to catch the tail.
I retraced my steps, rounded a large corner, and waited.
Three.
Two.
One.
Now!
I channeled power from the Priuli mana cultivation method into my legs and kicked off the floor. The burst of speed was possible only because my mana control had grown noticeably in the past few weeks. My body shot out from behind the corner like a bullet.
The sudden movement triggered a commotion somewhere down the opposite hallway—hurried scrambling as someone tried to hide.
“Kyaa!”
“Ah! S-sorry!”
A collision, a scream, an apology, and then the sound of someone fleeing.
I tilted my head and walked toward the source.
“My lens… my lens…”
“What are you doing down there?”
“Eek!”
What I found was Deborah on her knees, groping across the floor like a blind woman who had lost her cane. Her ash-gray hair swayed as she moved. She reflexively looked up at me, flinched violently, then whipped around to face the window. A moment later her entire body stiffened. She let out a tiny, involuntary moan.
Dangerous.
I understood the situation too late. There was no mistaking those brilliant purple eyes that seemed to hold starlight.
I picked up the transparent lens lying on the floor and held it out to her.
“Here. It’s your lens.”
“Ah, th-thank… thank you.”
With trembling hands Deborah accepted it, instantly cleaned it with magic, and slipped it back in. A heavy silence settled between us.
She must have seen my future.
Deborah had always been the quiet type, but her extreme awkwardness made my suspicion solidify. Just as I was about to press her—
“I-I… I like being raped!”
Deborah blurted out her sexual fantasy in a single breath.
What the hell is this nonsense?
My head spun. After a moment of sorting my thoughts, I realized this was essentially a confession. I leaned in close and whispered.
“You saw it, didn’t you?”
“P-pardon? Saw what?”
“Whatever it was. I don’t know exactly what you saw, but you’d better keep it secret. Understand?”
“Y-yes!”
She must have been truly terrified; her answer came out shaky and she looked on the verge of tears. The gap between her usual elegant, smoky-eyed beauty and this trembling mess was striking. At least her makeup was waterproof—no black streaks ran down her cheeks.
Time for the main topic.
“So. Why were you tailing me?”
“I-I wasn’t tailing you!”
“Hmm… playing innocent? Would you rather end up like what you saw in the future?”
“I-it’s really not true! I just looked around the classroom and you weren’t there, so I came looking! I swear!”
“You were that worried about me? That’s even more suspicious.”
“Ugh… it really isn’t…”
Deborah’s face crumpled in genuine distress. The expression was so sincere that only an Oscar-winning actress could have faked it.
Is she telling the truth?
I lowered my suspicion by half and changed the question.
“Fine, let’s set that aside. Then who was the person with you a moment ago?”
“Um, that’s…”
“Don’t even think about making excuses. I heard everything.”
“It… it was the Saintess.”
“The Saintess?”
“Yes. She was clinging to the window outside. When you came back she tried to jump inside in a hurry and collided with me.”
“Huh…”
I never imagined someone would actually cling to a window to follow me—much less that the culprit would be the Saintess. She had seen how obsessively I reacted to being tailed last time; I never dreamed she would do something like this. Anger began to simmer inside me.
Deborah must have noticed my expression hardening. She started inching backward.
“Th-then… may I leave now?”
“Where do you think you’re going? Stay put.”
“Huh?”
“You might be lying. I need to verify.”
I turned my gaze down the wide hallway. If it was the Saintess, she was almost certainly still somewhere nearby. I took a deep breath.
I poured mana into the shout so it reverberated throughout the entire building. Deborah, already on edge, clapped her hands over her ears and crouched low. After the echoes finally died, a tuft of pink hair cautiously peeked out from around the corner.
“D-did you call?”
“Get over here. Now.”
“Yeees…”
Knowing she was at fault, the Saintess obeyed even my commanding tone. I looked down at the pink head and asked.
“Why did you tail me?”
“I didn’t tail you…”
“Are you lying to my face? I already heard everything.”
When I pointed at Deborah, the Saintess glanced at her, then pouted like she had been wronged.
“It’s really not. It was a coincidence.”
“A coincidence? What kind of coincidence involves clinging to a window to spy on me?”
“Don’t talk about me like I’m some kind of bug! There was a real reason!”
The full story was this: She had come looking for me on some errand and was waiting for the right moment to speak. Then Deborah suddenly appeared, startling her so badly that she hid outside the window. Later, afraid of being discovered, she tried to slip back inside and collided with Deborah who happened to be passing by at that exact moment.
“So what was the errand?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“What do you mean you can’t? Keep acting like this and I’ll get angry.”
I deliberately twisted my face into a menacing scowl and growled. The Saintess’s eyes widened like saucers. She began to tremble.
“S-surely you’re not going to slap me too? Or kick my shins, punch my stomach, and curse at me?”
“Huh? No, of course not. What exactly do you take me for?”
“A scoundrel.”
She wasn’t wrong. I scratched the back of my head awkwardly, then felt a gaze and turned. Deborah was trembling. The Saintess’s terrifying words had clearly frightened her; the moment our eyes met she dropped her gaze like a bullied outcast and seemed unable to breathe.
I sighed at the mounting headache. The Saintess asked carefully.
“Lord Luan. Are you very angry?”
“What if I am?”
“Then…”
After hesitating several times, the Saintess cupped her enormous breasts with both hands and thrust them toward me.
“T-touch my breasts.”
“……Pardon?”
“My breasts. I heard that when men touch breasts, their anger goes away. Isn’t that right?”
She wasn’t wrong. It was common knowledge, and the mere thought of squeezing those soft, bouncy-looking breasts of hers was enough to dissolve any irritation. Still, accepting the offer at face value would damage my dignity as a human being…
Wait, would it?
I had already chosen to become a rapist. Did something like dignity still matter?
The decision came instantly.
“Then I’ll gratefully accept.”
Just as my outstretched hand was about to grasp the Saintess’s lush breasts, a whisper echoed inside my mind.
Does someone like me have the right to touch her?
It was the final cry of my last remaining conscience. The moment I recognized it, my hand froze inches from her chest.
What the hell am I doing…
I had resolved to become a rapist. I would do anything to reach the ending, no matter the sacrifices. I had sworn to endure even the most painful path.
But was touching the Saintess’s breasts truly part of my revenge?
No. Absolutely not. It was nothing more than a vulgar impulse to satisfy my lust.
Could I lay my hands on the Saintess with such a shallow heart? Could I dare defile this pure virgin goddess with the filthy hands of a rapist?
I couldn’t.
After a long silence, the Saintess called my name softly.
“Lord Luan?”
That voice—benevolent, soothing, the kind that worried for others even while in a position to be toyed with. The moment I heard it, I knew I could not touch her breasts.
“I’m sorry. I won’t touch them.”
“Huh? Why? Are my breasts… not to your liking?”
“No. I’ll simply forgive you. You don’t have to go this far.”
“But…”
“It’s really fine.”
The Saintess tilted her head in confusion. The man who had been excited a second ago had suddenly calmed down; it must have looked strange. Just as she opened her mouth to speak again—
Dong— Dong—
The noisy ringing of the clock tower bell echoed across the entire academy. Deborah, who had been blushing furiously while watching the scene, suddenly snapped back to reality and jumped up.
“It’s the dismissal bell! We have to hurry!”
By now the rest of Class 3 was probably fuming, waiting for the unanimously elected class president and the resident scoundrel.
The Saintess, who had been watching me with worry, remembered her own duties and spoke.
“…It’s already this late. Lord Luan, I must take my leave. It’s time for prayers. I’m sorry to you as well, Deborah. Let’s meet again later.”
“Yes, Saintess. See you next time.”
The Saintess kept glancing back at me as she left the building. For some reason the space around me felt even lonelier and colder than before.
I clenched my fist tightly.
This is fine.
I shook off the useless lingering feelings and turned to Deborah.
“Let’s head back to the classroom.”
“Yes!”
We walked side by side. It was common knowledge that Sara would chew me out the moment we returned.