I Won't Bend My Way
“I'm sorry, Claudia.”
It was true that the poison-ingestion class was difficult and painful.
But Simon had seen Byeolya's skill firsthand in Langestin, and he sympathized with the value she spoke of in class. He didn't think the class needed to be refused simply because it hurt.
“I want to keep trusting Professor Byeolya.”
“…….”
Deep disappointment settled over Claudia's face as she waited for his answer.
“Why? What exactly makes you trust that professor so much?”
“Well—”
Before Simon could even answer, she burst out with the frustration she'd been bottling up.
“I thought you were the thoughtful type! Are you just going to turn a blind eye to the students' rights like this? If the professors told you to die, would you die? The current Kizen system is fundamentally broken! If we fail now, the professors' demands will only get worse from here on—!”
“That's a huge leap, Claudia.”
This time it was Simon who cut her off.
“I respect what you believe. But.”
Rising from his seat, he pushed his chair in and added:
“What you're saying right now isn't a reasoned argument. It's just an emotional plea.”
With those parting words, Simon turned his back and left. Tossing an unsigned blank form at her with a flick of his wrist, Dick followed after him.
“I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!”
Soft-hearted as ever, Camibarez couldn't stop apologizing. She bowed her head again and again before hurrying after them.
“Hey! Wait for me!”
Meilin, who had belatedly gathered her things, tried to follow the three of them, but Claudia grabbed her arm.
“Meilin! You're not like those guys, right? Right? You'll sign, won't you?”
“Are you insane?! Let go!”
Meilin shook her off.
When Claudia drew back her hand with a wounded look, Meilin heaved a long sigh.
“Why are you going this far over this?”
“…….”
“A class boycott has never once happened in Kizen's history. Honestly, I think you guys are going overboard. Go cool your head off.”
Claudia's lips twisted.
“And what difference will cooling my head make?”
The truth was, Claudia had no other choice.
Everything was already in motion, and even if she stopped now, she wouldn't be free of the rumors—that she had turned her back on a Kizen professor.
This was a fight she had picked against a major-subject professor, fully prepared for open hostility, with her entire school life on the line. If she failed, her days at the academy would inevitably spiral into ruin.
“Sorry, but I'm still not signing.”
Meilin turned her back to leave the classroom.
“Meilin.”
Claudia spoke to the back of her head.
“Are your grades really that important to you?”
Meilin's steps stopped dead.
“I get it~ You have to impress the professors, don't you? Suck up a little, kiss a little ass, and your attitude score and grades come out nice and shiny. That's the secret to being second in the whole school, isn't it—”
“Hey.”
The instant Meilin turned around and their eyes met, Claudia felt as though the entire classroom had gone white and frost was creeping up the ceiling in thick patches.
Her body froze over. She couldn't do anything.
“Don't— don't cross the line.”
Overwhelmed in an instant, Claudia felt goosebumps crawl up the back of her neck.
And it seemed that very fact bruised her pride, because her expression hardened further as she snapped:
“Where did I say anything wro—!”
“You know why you poison-obsessed weirdos oppose the Toxicology class?”
Meilin swept the hair falling over her face back and spat out the words.
“Want me to tell you?”
“…….”
“Once we build up poison resistance through Professor Byeolya's class, everything from the duel assessments to the BMATs gets harder for you, right? Isn't that the truth?”
At those words, Claudia felt flames erupt from somewhere deep in her chest.
“Meilin──!”
Jet-Black erupted across her whole body. Her braid came loose, whipping around like loose hair, then knotted itself together and transformed into countless venomous serpents.
“C-clam down, Claudia!”
“Fighting with dark magic in a classroom means major discipline!”
Claudia's friends rushed over, seizing her by both arms and talking her down.
“Wow. Try me, why don't you.”
Meilin was about to release a wave of killing cold with a contemptuous smile when suddenly—whap!—a pair of hands clamped over her mouth from behind.
“Ahaha! Sorry, sorry!”
It was Jamie Victoria, the temporary class president of Class A. Meilin thrashed, waving her arms.
“Mmph! Mmmph! Mmmphmmph!”
“Our Meilin got a little heated! You know how it is—she talks tough but she's soft inside! Anyway, we're heading out! Bye now!”
After Jamie hauled Meilin out of the classroom, a deep silence settled over the room.
Everyone was watching Claudia carefully.
'…….'
Apparently calmed, the serpents in Claudia's hair flowed back into ordinary locks. When she covered her face with both palms, her friends patted her back in consolation.
“She's insane. She's completely lost it!”
Meanwhile, Jamie, who had dragged Meilin forcibly out of the classroom, was swatting her on the backside again and again.
“Ow! Why are you hitting me?!”
Face red, Meilin shoved Jamie away. Jamie pressed her fingertips to her temple and sighed.
“Claudia's already on edge with the boycott coming up, and you both went way too hard. Class A agreed we'd stick together when the BMAT rolls around. Are you seriously never going to look at Claudia's face again?”
“Never!!”
Meilin shrieked at the top of her lungs.
“And that witch Claudia provoked me first! Going on about how I kiss up to the professors for my grades and—”
“There, there~ Our Meilin's so pretty she can let it slide, okay?”
When Jamie wrapped her in a tight hug, Meilin gagged and squirmed to break free.
“Get off me! You're suffocating me!”
“So you'll make up with Claudia later?”
“No way!!”
Claudia's declaration of boycott sent shockwaves through Kizen.
Every student Simon ran into at the cafeteria was talking about nothing else.
“Forcing kids to swallow poison was a bit much, honestly.”
“Still, students boycotting a class? That's just not acceptable. This is a challenge to the authority of the faculty.”
“I don't like it. It feels like piling on a professor who only just arrived. They wouldn't dare make a peep in front of Professor Jane or Professor Bahil.”
“I'm rooting for the boycott~ I'm sick to death of throwing up.”
Simon had no idea how the bread he was chewing made it down his throat. Talk of Byeolya and the boycott was pouring in from every direction.
'Are they really going to do it? A boycott.'
Lost in tangled thoughts, he barely noticed lunch slip by. The four of them left the cafeteria and headed for the Poisonous Magic Hall for Byeolya's class.
“Guys! Look over there!”
Dick pointed at the entrance of the Poisonous Magic Hall.
“Whoa! They said they'd do it and they actually did? The atmosphere is insane!”
And true to his word, a crowd of male and female students stood before the entrance, pickets in hand, demonstrating.
“Stop the outrageous practice of forcing poison on your students!”
“We want to live!”
The students who had declared the boycott were denouncing Byeolya's poison-ingestion class. Their pickets bore slogans like STUDENTS ARE PEOPLE TOO! and WE DIDN'T SIGN UP TO BE POISONED.
'Wh-what a lot of pressure.'
Whenever students entered the Poisonous Magic Hall for class, the picket-wielding protesters would glare at them as if about to shoot lasers from their eyes, shouting even louder.
“Professor Byeolya's class is tyranny!”
“Do not abuse the authority of a Kizen professor!”
By the time the four members of Group 7 reached the building, the students at the entrance raised their voices as if they'd been waiting for them.
Dick kept a blank expression. Frightened, Camibarez gripped the hem of Simon's jacket, and Simon quietly stepped to her side so the protesters couldn't see her face.
“Students are people too! We are not laboratory rats!”
Claudia was among them, waving her picket and shouting more fervently than anyone.
When Meilin spotted her, she snorted a hmph and strode on ahead. Claudia's blazing glare burned into her back.
Only after they were inside the Poisonous Magic Hall did Camibarez and Dick both exhale in relief at the same time.
“Th-that was scary.”
Camibarez hunched her shoulders like a frightened rabbit.
“Did you see the way they were staring? With eyes like they were about to twist your ankles off so you couldn't get inside.”
Dick chimed in.
'Hmm.'
Simon, too, had a feeling this protest wasn't going to die down easily.
“Meilin, are you okay?”
Camibarez came up beside her and asked quietly.
“About what?”
“You fought with Claudia in the classroom.”
“……I've decided not to care about her anymore. Let's hurry upstairs.”
The four of them entered the third-floor classroom.
It was five minutes before class, yet empty seats dotted the room. The students who had filled in were deep in heated conversation about the whole affair.
Dick glanced around at the empty chairs.
“I've been at Kizen a long while, but this is a first even for me. Whew~”
“Hahaha! You mean it feels just like third year, right?”
Dick and Camibarez tried their best to lighten the mood while stealing glances at Meilin, but she sullenly took out her textbook and spread open her notebook without a word.
A short while later, with one minute until class began, Byeolya's TAs filed into the lecture hall and took their positions behind the lectern.
One look at their haggard faces said everything about how much they had suffered. Simon even felt a pang of sympathy for them.
'The people stuck in the middle have it worst, no matter where you go.'
Byeolya wasn't the type to care what others thought; she had her own firm educational philosophy.
The students, for their part, hadn't dared breathe a word in front of a professor for fear it would hurt their grades—so they'd vented all their frustration and resentment on the comparatively defenseless TAs.
It was plain to see just how much the TAs had suffered, caught between Byeolya and the students.
“Haaaaaam.”
It wasn't long before Byeolya herself entered the lecture hall. She sauntered in with both hands shoved into the pockets of her coat and let out a lazy, boneless yawn, without a trace of tension.
A protest was raging directly below the building, and she showed no sign of minding it in the least.
—Do not abuse the authority of a Kizen professor!
Faintly, the voices of the demonstrators outside drifted up.
Byeolya shut the lecture hall door with a bang, sprawled herself across the professor's seat as always, and cracked her fingers.
The Head TA stepped forward and began calling attendance.
'Poor thing.'
'She looks absolutely wrecked.'
The Head TA had likely suffered more than anyone else in this room.
Time and again she had petitioned Byeolya—asking her to lower the poison concentration, or cut the doses students ingested in class down to two or three sets—and every time she'd been refused.
And now things had come to this. She felt responsible.
“Colburn Isle.”
“Here!”
“Dick Hayward.”
“Yep!”
Then the Head TA flinched mid-roll call. She rolled her eyes with a hesitant expression for a moment before finally opening her mouth.
“Claudia Menzies.”
“…….”
A heavy silence fell over the lecture hall. Naturally, no answer came.
Unable to bear the sight of the Head TA awkwardly waiting for a response, Jamie thrust her hand into the air.
“Claudia isn't here, Professor's assistant!”
“Right, then. Next.”
From then on, the pattern repeated—the Head TA calling a name, Jamie calling out not present.
The mood in the classroom sank rapidly. After hearing not present for the very last student, the Head TA shut her eyes tight and closed the attendance book.
“P-Professor. Attendance is finished.”
“Oh. Right.”
Byeolya, who had been idly picking at her ear with a blank face, snapped her fingers. An unidentified substance burst in the air like a firework.
“Absent? Class boycott? You lot are really pushing it. Really pushing it.”
She rose from her seat in one fluid motion and walked to the lectern.
The Head TA stepped back to stand with the other assistants. Her juniors shot her looks of encouragement.
“When class ends today, give those friends of yours out there a message.”
Byeolya opened her mouth, baring her jagged shark-like teeth.
“No matter how much noise you kids kick up, I have no intention of bending my way.”