Troubles (2)
Right there. All of you.
Everyone’s eyes in the seats snapped toward a single direction.
The delinquent gang had been rounded up by a tall woman dressed in a tank top and tight athletic pants.
The face was one I knew well.
‘Senior Olga?’
Why is Senior here…
The moment she appeared at Sienna’s boarding house where I was already staying, surprise made my eyes blink rapidly.
The delinquents who had been about to trample me all froze and began whispering among themselves.
“What is she? Do you know who she is?”
“I don’t know.”
“…But she’s kinda pretty, right?”
“Yeah. Her chest is massive…”
Pointless chatter flew back and forth until one of them finally asked Senior Olga directly.
“Who are you, exactly?”
“Your senior.”
“…Senior?”
“Which year?”
“Second-year, obviously. The upper years still have classes going.”
The delinquents continued their chaotic muttering.
They were dumb, brutish demon youths, so even the word “senior” didn’t make them tense up in the least.
One of them asked in a careless tone.
“What business do you have with us?”
“Yes. That boy over there who fell is my junior who lives at the same boarding house as me.”
Senior Olga’s words made the delinquents exchange glances with Kirol.
“I don’t want the fish-eyed one. The cute-looking kid.”
This time every eye turned toward me.
Kirol’s face twisted in disgust as he shot up from his seat.
“Son of a bitch, showing up out of nowhere with some bullshit…”
He stormed over to Senior Olga and shoved his scaly face close to hers in a threatening manner.
“So what? Because you know him you’re just going to take him?”
“Hah, even as a senior you can’t do that.”
“If you’re so bothered, wait until we finish and then take him.”
The delinquents encircled Senior Olga, all of them chuckling.
“Or does the senior want to handle this? Then we can just let this brat go.”
One of them clicked his fists together and laughed mockingly.
My brows furrowed at the mix of provocation and sexual harassment.
Senior Olga simply scratched her head, as if the entire situation was nothing but an annoyance.
“Whatever. Just finish this quickly. I have to head to the gym soon.”
“…This damn bitch.”
The tone dripping with deep annoyance and disdain made Kirol’s eyes bulge.
“If you’re so concerned about being a senior, then just get lost. I can beat women too, you know?”
“……”
Senior Olga’s eyes widened in surprise as she stared at him.
“Getting treated like a woman again. How long has it been?”
“What…?”
Kirol’s words never finished.
SMACK!
His body was sent flying across the floor again.
Already the third time today.
Twitch… twitch…
And unlike when I had hit him, he didn’t even try to stand up this time; he could only convulse.
Senior Olga, who had casually sent away the arrogant first-year junior, slowly rotated her wrist and spoke to the hardened delinquents.
“This batch of first-years are quite something. Worrying about their seniors even.”
“…….”
“Why are you just standing there? Your friend got beaten—don’t just sit around!”
She waved her hand as if inviting them over.
The delinquents began staring at her with serious expressions.
“The crazy bitch is putting on a show.”
“These guys who live together have lost all their balls.”
“Shit, senior or not, no need to hold back.”
“Yeah yeah, whether senior or woman, no need to go easy. Just come at us.”
“……Shit, I’ll fucking crush you all!”
The delinquents rushed at Senior Olga in a group.
And a moment later.
“Hah… please spare us just this once…”
The boys who had been swaggering and attacking all fell to their knees in unison, begging.
“Why? You’re not attacking anymore?”
“N-no! We were wrong, Senior! We misjudged you!”
When they kept trying to continue, the delinquents shook their heads frantically with terrified faces.
Their reaction made perfect sense. Senior Olga had thoroughly trampled them.
‘Being a combat race isn’t just a name.’
Her Barbarian techniques had no mercy.
Even without using mana she had overwhelmed them with sheer overwhelming force, dropping one after another.
If one was knocked out, she would beat another until he fainted, then wake the ones stirring up trouble and knock them out again. If no one was left standing, she would wake the fallen and beat them.
The beaten delinquents gradually realized something was wrong as their minds flickered on and off.
Will to resist vanished until finally they knelt together and begged for mercy.
“Everyone stand up.”
The broken delinquents rose shakily.
Even standing still they trembled. Legs shaking.
“Stop pretending. How hard were you hit?”
She kicked one of their shins as she spoke.
“Khhh—?!”
Was it coincidence?
The one she had kicked this time was again Kirol.
He clutched his leg and rolled across the floor in pain, and the faces of the boys standing beside him paled.
Senior Olga pointed at me with a cold expression.
“Don’t touch him.”
That single casual remark was all it took to confirm the terrified eyes of the delinquents.
***
I followed Senior Olga out the back of the auditorium.
“Senior Olga… I believed in you!”
The moment we were alone I grabbed her arm and clung to her, showering her with flattery.
I had thought she was useless after our past heartbreak, but I had been completely mistaken.
She was an unbelievably reliable demon…
“I owe you my life.”
“Did you pay for those plums you ate before?”
“Hehe, more than enough.”
Her help was far beyond anything as petty as plums.
Senior Olga said, “I see you were harassing some weaklings who followed you around, showing off. How did you get entangled with them?”
“That’s… well…”
I gave her a rough explanation of the grudge with Kirol and told her everything that had happened today.
“Still, I threw two punches right at his face…”
“That’s not how you do it.”
As I was telling her about the brutal beatdown, Senior Olga shook her head.
“Even after landing two clean hits the guy still got back up… Our boarding house members can’t be that weak.”
“Huh?”
“Too sloppy. From today onward you’ll follow me around and train.”
“…Suddenly?”
“When does sudden apply to training? Just shut up and follow.”
I couldn’t possibly refuse after she had already helped me so much.
In the end I changed into gym clothes in the auditorium and was dragged to the strength-training room.
When I arrived at the place equipped with every kind of machine, like a modern Earth gym, I actually felt relieved.
‘Yeah, now that I’m here, I’ll train properly.’
Today had been lucky—I had barely escaped thanks to Senior Olga’s help.
But in the Cradle, anything could happen at any time.
I needed to prepare by properly training my body.
“No need to go too heavy. It’s worse to get injured and miss training for days.”
The Senior Olga I had expected to push me recklessly gave me a surprisingly systematic training method.
“Do several sets of moderate weight.”
Her training focused far more on functional strength and endurance than on sheer muscle size.
“That’s enough for today.”
I followed her instructions and did about an hour of strength training, then returned to the auditorium for a shower.
Senior Olga said, “I have to go to work now.”
“Senior, are you working? Where?”
“The restaurant I used to work at back in my first year. The owner asked me to come back, so I’ve been going in for evenings for the past few days.”
She added that it was convenient and invited me to come along and eat free food together.
“Really? I can go?”
“Of course. I’m close with the owner.”
If that was the case…
I followed her without thinking and headed to the restaurant.
“This is where I work.”
But when we reached the front of the restaurant, my face unconsciously crumpled.
Following Senior Olga had led me to the very place Casher had once taken me to as a “famous restaurant.”
“Why is your face like that all of a sudden?”
“N-no, it’s nothing…”
I answered vaguely and followed her inside.
The muscular male owner who had greeted Olga with obvious familiarity.
“You’re here.”
“Mm.”
Senior Olga answered in the same rough tone the older man expected.
The man didn’t seem to care about her tone either.
“Who’s the kid beside you?”
“Cradle junior. I brought him to eat. Make something for him.”
“Are you paying?”
“Why so stingy? I’m eating too, so prepare two portions.”
“……I understand.”
Was this really the owner and employee talking?
‘More than just friendly…’
“Just sit anywhere.”
Senior Olga said that, then disappeared to change her clothes.
When only the owner and I were left, he looked at me and asked.
“Olga’s junior, huh?”
“Y-yes.”
“She doesn’t harass me just because I’m her senior, does she?”
“No, she’s actually been looking out for me…”
“Really? That’s surprisingly kind.”
He chuckled and told me to wait before heading into the kitchen.
Left alone, I sat at the bar table and waited blankly for Senior Olga.
“……Dorn?”
Startled!
The familiar voice calling my name made my body react instantly.
I turned around and sighed inwardly.
‘What the hell is today?’
Casher stood at the restaurant door with an astonished expression as she looked at me, and beside her was her boyfriend Gail.
Casher asked.
“What are you doing here?”
I desperately explained because I felt like some creepy stalker following her.
“Senior Olga who lives at the same boarding house as me works here. I was told to eat and go…”
“I see.”
She nodded and glanced sideways at her boyfriend, checking the atmosphere.
I had expected Gail to ignore me again, but unexpectedly he spoke.
“You seem to come here often.”
“…Yeah.”
“I’m a regular here. If you’re here for lunch I’ll recommend a menu.”
Menu recommendation out of the blue?
“Just the sausage set here. Everything else is garbage.”
Just then the owner came out from the kitchen and scowled at the words.
“Trying to run the shop into the ground?”
Gail shrugged and rattled on.
“I wasn’t talking to you, Mogen.”
“Tell me what you want to eat. By the way, today’s special is—”
“No, just two sausage sets.”
“……Damn brat.”
The owner grumbled and went back into the kitchen.
After the order was placed, Gail looked at Casher and said.
“Let’s sit over there. You two eat well.”
Gail and Casher moved to a normal table far from the bar where I was sitting.
While they walked, I could still hear their conversation.
“Let’s go to our house after eating. I’ll sleep over tonight—okay?”
“Gail… don’t say things like that so openly…”
Casher covered Gail’s mouth and shot me a glance, but I had already heard it all.
My mouth tasted bitter.
At the same time the painful memory of my childhood friend’s broken confession echoed in my mind.
“……”
I couldn’t stop it from surfacing.
Casher, that slightly arrogant beauty, lying beneath that huge guy—
“Who are they?”
“Ah, Senior…”
The endless imagination in my head was cut short by Senior Olga appearing in her waitress uniform.