All Hell Breaks Loose
The lecture hall building where Mace was happened to be unusually crowded.
It was then that I spotted Mace walking down the hallway from behind.
I witnessed some punk who looked vaguely familiar quietly stick something onto her back and run off.
Seeing as she didn't stop walking, Mace didn't seem to have noticed.
I watched the direction the bastard fled, his figure disappearing past the windows.
He was one of Max's lackeys. Those bastards really don't know when to quit.
I stopped staring after the leech, walked up to Mace, and peeled the note off her back.
"Huh? Ain, when did you get here?"
"Just now. Give me a second, I'm reading something."
"What is that? A love letter? Well, your last confession was a bit half-hearted! If you beg for a chance to do it over, I will sincerely reconsider..."
Mace's babbling barely registered in my ears. It was because of what was written on the note. It read as follows.
Ain and the nun are dating, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.
To summarize it very crudely, it was something like that.
However, the note was crammed with language that was far less refined and much more explicit than my summary.
Even though I'd been sticking close to Mace all day lately, I was sure we had avoided conspicuous places as much as possible.
"Ain?"
"Sorry. I'm skipping class today."
"Oh, uh? I mean, it's fine, but..."
Leaving Mace behind, I walked briskly toward the classroom building.
Was this Max's doing? The face was definitely familiar.
He was one of the guys who always stood among the crowd whenever Max's gang surrounded me.
But fuck, would that bastard really resort to such underhanded, creepy tactics just to torment me?
He hadn't gone this far in my past life.
He was a straightforward guy who preferred talking trash to your face rather than behind your back.
This smelled far more insidious. I knew this scent.
It was the stench that wafted when an anonymous crowd harbored malice—a foul odor that made me want to plug my nose.
Well, if I beat it out of him, he'll spill.
I stood in front of the classroom I frequented and peered through the gap in the door.
I spotted Max and his classmates huddled together, chatting amiably.
How fortunate that they were all gathered so closely and cozily.
What should I do? If I put on a serious face and beat them like rats, would they start blabbing?
Or should I play the clown properly for the first time in a while?
Right, let's go with a cheerful attitude that Mace would like.
Since I'm doing it anyway, let's make it fun and exciting.
Crash!
I kicked the classroom door with all my might, shattering it off its hinges.
"The pride of the family, Ain Magnolia, has arrived. You pathetic commoner bastards, keep your eyes on the floor and crawl."
I offered a boisterous greeting to Max's gang as I stepped inside.
The gang and the majority of the students occupying the classroom froze.
Once they realized the identity of the intruder, they stared at me with even more dumbfounded expressions.
"Hey, Max. It's been a fucking while. How's your mother doing? I haven't had the chance to ask after her until now."
Max looked as if he had been hit by a situation he couldn't have possibly imagined.
Among the gang, I spotted the face of the motherfucker who had stuck that goddamn note on Mace's back and run off.
I beckoned to him with a crook of my finger.
"You know why I'm here, right? Get over here."
"Get... what?"
"I said come over here, you son of a bitch."
I wasn't suddenly inviting him to play Korea's GOAT game by its abbreviation.
Though, to be honest, I had planned on approaching him before he could even take a step.
Leaping across the desks, I kicked the seed of discord right in the neck.
Crack.
"Gah..."
I was worried I might miss because of my useless eye, but cutting back on the booze has paid off.
Grabbing the hair of the bastard who was clutching his neck and flailing, I dragged him down to the floor.
Grinding his face against the desk as if sanding it down, I turned my gaze to Max and asked.
"Max, I'm incredibly disappointed in you. If you wanted to throw hands, you could've just come to me anytime. Instead of sending your little lackey on some fatherless errand."
Max could only watch the scene with his mouth agape.
The gauze wrapped around his mouth caught my eye, a sign that the wounds I had carved into him on that passionate night had not yet fully healed.
Only after wasting several seconds did Max finally manage to answer my question.
"W-what... I haven't even messed with you lately... Why all of a sudden..."
I threw the guy I was holding by the hair toward the front blackboard.
He lay there, gasping for breath, his face covered in scratches.
Enough time had been secured to clear up any misunderstandings between friends.
I pulled the note from my pocket and threw it at Max's face—which, fortunately for him, had inherited his mother's decent features.
Max caught the fluttering paper reluctantly and stared at it for a long moment.
"...What is this?"
"That son of a bitch lying over there stuck it on my wife and ran."
"Wife... Giselle? What, are you two back together?"
For some reason, Max asked back with a strange spark of excitement.
"Uh... *cough*... Congrats... man. Since... when?"
"...? What the hell are you talking about? Do you want to die?"
Annoyed by his blushing, I raised my hand without thinking, but lowered it again when I saw Max flinch.
Seeing him make a pitiful face like a beaten dog, my suspicions melted away.
"...You really don't know?"
"Yeah, seriously... What even is this... Writing such... vulgar things... Ugh, that's a bit much for me..."
Max waved his hand as if he couldn't bear to look at the note's contents.
Fuck, I believed in you, Max.
My bad. The interrogation process was a bit rough.
Even though this bastard always talks like shit and has a single parent so he needs extra care—giving him a slight tendency to be a tattle-tale—he wasn't the type of guy to pull this kind of underhanded stunt behind someone's back.
Max walked over with the note, knelt beside his friend who was crawling on the floor like a wet rag, and asked.
"Did you really do this?"
"..."
Thud!
Max grabbed the guy by the collar and slammed his fist into his face repeatedly and mercilessly.
Max kept punching, ignoring his gang's attempts to pull him away.
"How many. Fucking. Times. Do I. Have to. Tell you. Not to. Do. Embarrassing. Shit. Huh?"
"Hey, you missed a spot on the other side. Beat him evenly so it doesn't look like a gradient."
"Oh, right. Thanks. This son of a bitch... dragging my name... through the mud..."
Watching Max offer such heartfelt advice to his friend, I felt a warm swell in my chest and couldn't help but offer a bit of guidance on his disciplinary methods.
It was still highly suspicious that this was the work of just one guy, but the spectacle before me was simply too entertaining.
I went to cross my arms—ah, right. I can't do that anymore.
I lit a cigarette and waited patiently for Max's fists to stop.
"What do you think you are doing?!"
I was right in the middle of enjoying the show when a shout carrying a familiar authority echoed from the broken doorway.
Tsk. Just when it was getting good.
Iris, maintaining a composed demeanor due to the surrounding eyes, strode over to Max and the human rag.
"Ain Magnolia, can you explain this commotion?"
"Just training a dog. I'll call you when I'm done."
In contrast to her stern voice, Iris discreetly tugged on my sleeve, out of sight of the others.
Leaning in slightly, she mouthed the words, Ain and please.
I patted Max on the shoulder to commend his hard work, then followed Iris out of the classroom.
Even as we walked down the hallway, Iris's stride and expression remained flawless.
My back and shoulders stung under the intense stares of the crowd gathered by the commotion.
Staring only at Iris's stiffly straight back, I walked for a long time until we entered a deserted classroom.
The two or three people who had been inside scrambled to leave the moment they saw Iris and me walk in.
Instantly dropping her facade, Iris's pupils shook as if experiencing an earthquake.
"A-Ain... Why, why... did you... What, what, what..."
"You're going to hyperventilate. Take a deep breath."
I stubbed out my cigarette and sat on a chair in the empty classroom.
Iris stood before me, stomping her feet and biting her nails anxiously.
"Mace, the nun, was being bullied. In a childish, petty way."
"H-her? If it's her, the dismissal process was finalized just a moment ago..."
"...What?"
Any trace of amusement vanished instantly.
I stepped closer to Iris and grabbed her shoulders.
I failed to control my strength, wrinkling her pristine school uniform.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Dismissal? Mace?"
"I-I don't know the details either... The reason... I think it was rumors of an affair with a student and a lax teaching attitude...?"
I felt the world go dark.
In other words, while I was busy looking for the culprit, the higher-ups had already taken care of it in their own way.
Not by addressing the root cause—the unidentified perpetrator—but by kicking out the penniless, useless victim.
As I sat back down and rubbed my face, Iris leaned against the desk in front of me.
Peering into my face with a look full of worry, she spoke.
"T-the rumor of an affair... is it... with you, Ain...?"
"Why even ask..."
My head began to throb, so I pulled out another cigarette and put it between my lips.
Watching my face, Iris conjured a small flame on her fingertip and lit it for me.
Only after exhaling a plume of smoke toward the floor did I ask her.
"Then what about Mace? Where is she now?"
"S-she should still... wouldn't she be where she used to live...? They said they would give her time to pack her things..."
With the cigarette still in my mouth, I bolted out of the classroom.
Shoving past the crowd still lingering outside, I headed toward the Prayer Room, toward Mace.
I no longer saw the stares directed at me. I didn't care anymore.
Paradoxically, the thick smoke drifting before my eyes made my vision clearer.
The thought that I might lose her forever if I was even a moment too late spurred my feet to move faster.
Beads of sweat forming on my forehead rolled down over my permanently closed eye.
The rushing wind extinguished the cherry of my cigarette, and it slipped from my parted lips, falling to the ground.
In front of the Prayer Room, I spotted Mace dragging a bulging, rag-like bag with both hands.
Seeing her grunting as she struggled with the bag caught on the threshold brought a small sense of relief.
Hearing the sound of running footsteps, Mace looked in my direction.
I stopped in front of her, hands on my knees, staring at the floor as I caught my breath.
"Fuck... I really need to cut back on smoking... I can barely even run now..."
"Ain..."
Mace's small hand reached out and touched my sweat-drenched hair.
When I looked up, she brushed away the strands of hair clinging to my face, just like she had when we first met.
I thought the corners of her eyes looked a bit downcast, but Mace quickly returned to her usual cheerful expression and spoke.
"I'm doomed! I've been kicked out!"
"Fucking Academy..."
"But they gave me this as severance pay!"
Resting in the palm she thrust before my eyes were two gold coins.
They really treat her like trash right up to the very end.
A sudden wave of sympathy for the clergy who had martyred themselves in foreign lands welled up inside me.
Taking a deep breath, I asked Mace, my voice slightly steadier.
"Where are you going to go now...?"
"...I can't go anywhere. Nowhere."
Mace's face quickly fell as she stared at the door of the Prayer Room she had just stepped out of.
I never wanted to see that look of deep-seated resignation on her face again.
So, I said the one thing that would wipe that expression clean off her face.
"What do you mean you can't go anywhere? You can just stay at the house of the guy you're supposedly sleeping with."
Hearing my words, Mace's face turned into a giant question mark as she tilted her head.
Even if Iris tried to cover for me, causing a scene of this scale meant a suspension at the very least.
Aside from a bit of gratitude and guilt toward Max, who had gotten dragged into this without knowing what was going on, I had no lingering attachments left.
"Live at my place. Even if it's just for the time being."