Chapter 108
Chapter 108
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 108
>Chapter Title: The Bastard Who Insulted My Leech
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Jenion Academy.
Having finished dinner, Chenbi sat in the first-year student cafeteria on the first floor, writing a letter.
To my friend Aster, who went far away. This is already the eighteenth letter.
Scritch, scritch.
The nib scratching against the paper. Chenbi felt the sensation and smiled warmly.
‘Already... the eighteenth one.’
After Aster left.
She had started writing them about ten days later.
Letters written to calm her mind.
Before the first letter, those ten days were like jewels. No, they were like hell.
The day you left me with just a note, my hope crumbled.
You know, right? How much I waited for midterms to end. How much I dreamed of the day I’d be free from Damian.
But Aster left before I could even savor that freedom. How could the world be so indifferent?
If there were gods, this couldn’t happen.
‘No, that bastard Aster... Ahem. Aster, if you have any conscience...’
She couldn’t think that. She shouldn’t.
Suddenly.
Rising anger.
“...Hoo.”
Chenbi suppressed the flames. Once more, a warm smile graced her face.
Meanwhile, at the 4th Base Camp.
Thud.
“You little shit... You didn’t even listen to what I had to say.”
Shine casually caught Aster’s fist, then glared at him. After a moment.
“Oh? You caught it? You caught it?”
“You’re not in normal condition, are you?”
Shine tamped down his surging anger. A triumphant smile spread across his face.
“I’ve dreamed of a day like this. Someday, I wanted to beat the crap out of you.”
Honestly, I even thought this: I don’t know where you went, but I hope you run into someone strong there and get your ass kicked.
Well... you’re not the type to go around getting beaten up wherever you end up. Still, just in case...
Crack!
A solid impact rang out, and Aster’s head snapped back. A straight punch right to the nose. But Aster didn’t stay still.
“How’s my fist feel... Gah!”
Aster charged and shoved Shine. Soon, their figures tangled in front of the barracks. Aster looked at Shine, who had staggered back, and grinned.
“You mangy dog, how dare you... Urk!”
Thwack!
This time, it was the solar plexus.
“No matter how good your punches are, you think you can beat this body in a fistfight?”
Thud, crash!
Shine swept Aster’s legs, laid him flat, and mounted him.
If there’s ever a chance...
Crack, crack.
With each swing of his left and right arms, Aster’s face whipped side to side.
I wanted to see you get beat until stars exploded in front of your eyes.
‘You mangy...’
His vision spun wildly.
Where the hell did this guy come from? His punches aren’t amateur. If it were a sloppy mount, I’d shake him off in seconds, but his core balance is insane.
Like a seasoned rider who’s spent a lifetime on horseback.
But really, I didn’t want you to get beat up. We were friends, after all.
What kind of friend hopes to see a friend get beaten?
“I’ve dreamed of this day. I wished for it endlessly.”
Shine grinned like a mischievous kid as he looked down at Aster.
The mask dulled the impact. But that let him swing without holding back.
He wanted to rip off the mask, but he didn’t cross that line.
Instead...
Boom! Boom!
Shine von Leman struck Aster’s forehead with his knuckles as hard as he could.
Aster’s head bounced up like a rubber ball. Thump! Thump! Blood spurted from his nose, soaking the inside of the mask.
Are you doing well?
“You little shit like this!”
Boom!
“And you bashed!”
Boom!
“My head!”
Boom!
I hope you’re doing well.
It was pure agony.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the Moonless Emblem was incredibly tough and didn’t break amid it all.
His occiput just stung a bit.
‘I’ll find a way. There has to be one.’
Aster glared up at Shine with wide eyes.
He could escape easily with mana, but how could he use it when his opponent wasn’t?
At this point, it was a matter of pride.
Honestly, I’m doing well right now...
Damian is a bit, a lot... hard to handle, but I’m used to it now.
Oh, by the way, do you know?
“You get it now, you shit? How I feel?”
Shine panted, stopping his fists.
His body wasn’t in normal condition either.
A vampire’s body. Somehow, the muscles looked perfectly sculpted, but the stamina didn’t match.
A pretty shell with no substance.
That’s why his strength was fading.
‘Damn this body.’
But Shine hid it perfectly, casually disengaging.
Aster didn’t miss the opening.
“I’d love to beat you more, but I’ll let you off. We are... Ack!”
Whoosh!
The moment he loosened the knee pinning Aster’s arm, sand flew!
Shine squeezed his eyes shut. Disrupted posture. Now it was Aster’s turn.
The world is so beautiful.
Crack!
Heads collided. Shine’s head snapped back. Blood sprayed.
Red droplets painting the air.
Whoosh, thud!
Positions switched.
“You sneaky bastard, so cowardly...!”
“You know about leeches?”
Aster pinned Shine’s forearms with his knees and gripped his shoulders hard.
Aster’s boiling eyes. As Shine spat curses...
Boom!
Headbutt.
Boom!
Another headbutt.
I didn’t know, but the world is so beautiful. The only ugly thing is that bastard Damian...
Scribble. A line crossed out over ‘bastard’.
It wasn’t Damian that was ugly. It was my heart looking at Damian.
“If you were a leech!”
Boom!
“I wouldn’t call it cowardly!”
Boom!
“You’d spit blood on my fa—Gah!”
“Enough, you shit?”
Shine spat blood onto Aster’s face.
Blood seeped through the mask’s gap, but Aster couldn’t remove it. If he could just wipe it off...
“Now, back to m—Gah!”
Whoosh, thud.
Shine skillfully escaped the arm lock. But Aster didn’t stay idle.
Sprinkling dirt on that face.
Even the same sight feels comfortable to some hearts, uncomfortable to others.
What’s truly uncomfortable?
Perhaps the heart of the one watching.
From then on, it was a mudslinging brawl.
Look at the lotus. Doesn’t it bloom from the mud?
Aster and Shine. Their grand dogfight. But no lotus bloomed.
Actually, I gained enlightenment.
Realizing that made me feel something.
That’s why I ended up writing these eighteen letters.
The counseling professor said this is the most important time. So, stabilize your mind.
Until the ripples from enlightenment settle, calm your heart.
Writing helps, she said. I tried it, and it really works.
Chenbi smiled warmly and closed her eyes.
After a moment of savoring the world, Chenbi resumed writing.
The world is so beautiful. Can’t you see? The sparkling stars in the sky.
She couldn’t see. Her eyes were closed.
But she could see the stars.
Flash! Flash!
Grabbing each other’s collars, slamming fists with full sincerity. One. One.
Can’t you hear? The beautiful sound of crickets.
“Wizard sir! Dirt! Throw dirt! He won’t open his eyes!”
When had he arrived? Rayleigh’s cheers rang in his ears. But no opening emerged.
The punches were so solid. If he let go of the collar now, he’d be the one done for.
“Argh...!”
Frustrated, Rayleigh scooped dirt and flung it into Shine’s eyes.
“Gah! You pest!”
We must cherish these little things. Feel the beauty.
Great wizard and master knight.
Nothing in the world is insignificant.
It was a truly pathetic fight.
And the result was...
“You bastard! You bastard! How dare you touch the wizard!”
“Right!”
Rayleigh, drunk as a skunk, barged in.
“Aaack!”
Crash!
The bottle smashing into Shine’s occiput shattered, shards flying everywhere.
“Wizard sir, recover while he’s open!”
“D-Do you know who I...!”
“Die! Die, you bastard!”
“I, who am I—Aaack!”
Shine desperately tried to assert himself. But Rayleigh’s kicks were merciless.
“At least listen...!”
Amid Shine’s hollow screams echoing, Aster stepped back, lifted his mask slightly, and rubbed his eyes.
Putting the mask back on, he viewed the world with clear sight once more.
“The bastard who insulted my leech. Stomp him flat.”
“Yes, sir!”
Rayleigh kicked with full enthusiasm. Shine, curled up tightly, looked quite pathetic.
Aster smiled at the sight.
The murderous intent vanished like smoke, leaving only satisfaction.
‘This is our level.’
He’d noticed early on.
In the heat of the fight, he realized. Otherwise, the moment Rayleigh intervened, he’d have crushed Shine’s throat.
“Beat him good.”
“Yes!”
For a while after, solid thuds echoed through the 4th Base Camp.
Aster, I’m happy. You’re doing well there, right?
I hope you’re happy there too.
Chenbi finished the letter with those words.
She used a public spell to summon a gentle breeze, drying the ink, then folded it away.
And so, eighteen unsent letters.
But she’d never send them.
Chenbi gazed quietly at the sky.
“...”
In Chenbi’s heart, Aster was dead.
She couldn’t endure otherwise.
The extreme stress had clearly fried her brain, leaving these as unsendable letters.
You can’t send letters to the dead.
* * *
Rayleigh’s one-sided beating ended only after quite some time had passed.
“Huff, huff, Wizard sir. This guy’s tough as nails. Should we... keep going?”
Rayleigh dripped with sweat. How hard had he gone? Soaked to the bone.
Yet, rather than exhausted, he looked thrilled...
‘This bastard’s enjoying it.’
He tried to hide it, but that slightly upturned lip. His eyes sparkled more than ever.
“You noticed, huh?”
Flinch.
Shaking eyes. He sneaked a glance at the sprawled Shine, then shuddered.
The battered Shine glared up at Rayleigh with axe eyes.
“Got a grudge?”
“N-No, I...”
“Whatever. Wake those guys over there and send them back.”
Not hard to understand.
‘Tch, people. Should’ve kept a kind heart all along.’
Back when Shine was a Death Knight, how he’d bullied Rayleigh.
Practically a punching bag.
One word, and he’d get chewed out as a blabbermouth. Silent, and he’d get hit for being sulky.
Obern was fine—slow-witted but didn’t earn beatings. Rayleigh got fists just for breathing.
“W-Wizard sir, I don’t know what you...”
“Enough. Just wake those guys and send ’em off.”
“...Yes, sir! But really, I...”
“Agh.”
Scared of retaliation? Rayleigh kept making excuses, then slunk toward Fixer.
I left Rayleigh waking the totems and dragged the sprawled Shine inside the barracks.
“Y-You mangy... Clearly, I... I won...”
So frustrated? Barely able to twitch a finger, yet his eyes blazed.
Eyes that could kill a hundred times over if looks could kill.
‘Definitely, he’s a leech through and through.’
Even turned from black armor to flesh-and-blood, far from the Shine von Leman I imagined...
How could I not recognize him?
Once bound by the slave bracelet, our souls linked. Maybe that’s why.
No explanation needed; it hit me ‘bam.’
Still, what can I say.
“You... really a leech?”
“You sneaky shit. Beat me and still not enough?”
Shine glared murderously.
‘Those eyes...’
Struggling just to sit up in the chair, yet his spirit unbroken.
Normally, I’d smack him a couple more. But I settled for one light one.
“...Gah!”
“Didn’t even hit that hard.”
I flicked his forehead and sat across from him.
So wronged by that? He trembled with rage.
“I am Shine von Leman. If not me, who is Shine...”
“Yeah, I get that...”
That’s not my question.
Pale skin for a human. Blood-red pupils. Jet-black hair aside, those beastly fangs weren’t normal.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“...You believe me?”
“Well, I believe you, but...”
His face looked so aggrieved. Those sullen eyes made me think.
‘...Should I beat him more?’
But only for a moment.
I realized there were words I hadn’t said yet.
The fallen one returned alive, so it wasn’t ordinary. But before questioning that, words I wanted to say first.
“Don’t... get cocky.”
“...”
Ah, not that.
“Ahem.”
I cleared my throat and spoke again.
“D-Did you... r-return well? Why’d you charge me?”
“What, you mangy...”
Ah, I charged first?
Anyway, words don’t matter. As long as the feeling gets across.
A leech would understand plenty. Probably... maybe.
If not?
“I’ll kill you today no matter wha—Gah!”
Crack!
Solid impact.
If he doesn’t get it, helping him understand is what comrades do.