My next class was Psychic Control.
With this I couldn’t help but be sure.
“Charlotte de Gardias.”
“Yes.”
Charlotte had a supernatural power. What kind of ability did she possess?
“..… Reinhardt. ”
“Yes.”
As they called my attendance, the supernatural power teacher looked at me confused.
“This was Mr. Epinhauser’s request, so I accepted it, but…. You don’t have any supernatural abilities, do you?”
“Yes.”
“I heard that your aptitudes were very multi-faceted…. I don’t know how I could teach you…. How to awaken a supernatural ability….”
The teacher looked perplexed and the other students also looked at me strangely. It was as if an herbivore came to an all-you-can-eat meat buffet.
“It’ll work out somehow.”
“Huh…”
Including the Teacher and Charlotte…
Everyone was looking at me, dumbfounded.
* * *
-Bzzzt! Crackle!
“Excellent, Miss Grantz. You have the best control out of everyone in class.”
“Thank you.”
“Try to increase your power output in that state little by little.”
Liana de Grantz sighed in relief as she succeeded to let sparks bounce between the index fingers of both her hands.
Unpredictable things could happen in the supernatural power control class so the teachers were teaching the students one on one.
-Flaaare!
“Good. Now let’s see how long you can maintain it.”
“Yes.”
Heinrich von Schwartz, who succeeded in lighting a fire on sand, was sweating profusely trying to maintain his concentration.
-Wo, woah! Don’t look!
-I’m not seeing anything. Anything at all. Lint. Get dressed.
And I could hear Kono Lint’s screams coming not from the classroom, but the containment room, followed by the teacher’s fed up voice.
Kono Lint.
Although he was a total playboy, he had a pretty fraudulent ability, that is, the ability to teleport his body.
But his biggest problem was that he couldn’t teleport his clothes as well. So the biggest side effect of his power was that every time he used it, he’d end up naked.
He was often teased that his ability could only be used in public baths.
Naked Teleportation. I kind of wanted it, but on the other hand, not at all.
It wasn’t a bad ability to have.
“You’re going to go to Main Street to have crepe for lunch today. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to go outside now. Try it again then.””
“Yes.”
And B-7 Ibia was using her telepathic abilities. The ability to send her own thoughts into the mind of an opponent. They seemed to be doing a range test at the moment.
“Reinhardt…”
“Yes. Teacher.”
“What do we do now?”
My teacher had a perplexed look on his face as if he didn’t know what to do with me who didn’t have a supernatural power at all.
I would find it weird as well if I were in his shoes. This was a place where supernatural ability users were trying to control and improve their abilities, not to awaken them. So my teacher was at a loss.
“Please put me under extreme psychological pressure.”
“Pardon?”
“One might awaken a supernatural power in an emergency, right?”
“Wha, what?”
“So, you don’t have to actually try to kill me, just push me to the brink of death and…?”
“Don’t ask for something so strange!”
The teacher freaked out, as if I was saying something completely outlandish.
That teacher straight up refused, saying that he couldn’t torture a student like that. He also added that there were times when one awakened to a supernatural power in such situations, but that wasn’t always the case. If that were the case, the world would be full of supernatural power users.
No.
I know that.
Actually, I did have a supernatural power.
No matter how hard I tried to persuade them, they didn’t seem to want to listen to me, so I just observed the class.
And.
Charlotte.
“…….”
Charlotte was taken somewhere by her dedicated teacher after the class started. Were they doing an ability check in the containment room like they did with Kono Lint? Was it a type of ability that should not be seen by others? I looked at the teacher and asked.
“What type of supernatural ability does the Princess have?”
I was just asking. Casually. You could ask such things out of curiosity, right? That’s what I thought anyway.
“I don’t know.”
However, the teacher just shrugged.
“It’s a secret or something….”
Confidential.
It was then that I understood why no one was talking about Charlotte’s ability.
Charlotte had awakened to a supernatural ability.
And no one knew what type it was, except a few teachers.
* * *
I had no other option but to silently wait until the class was over. Charlotte, who went somewhere and returned shortly before the class ended, looked tired.
The Princess’ ability was confidential. Maybe her classmates didn’t know either. For some reason they treated her abilities like some state secret….
Mr. Mustrang and the teacher in charge of her ability training were probably in the know.
Did Mr. Epinhauser know?
Charlotte was a supernatural ability user, and any talk about her abilities was under lock and key.
If so, I should also consider the possibility that she didn’t actually have one.
There was also the possibility that she may have faked powers she didn’t have in order to get into Temple as a member of the Royal Class. Well, whether that was possible or not is another question.
So, did Bertus know what ability the Princess held? It was getting more and more troublesome. If the Princess didn’t have any abilities and Bertus knew, then he wouldn’t have a reason to stay silent about that. So, by that we can conclude that Bertus either also knew the Princess’ supernatural power or he didn’t know yet, no matter if the Princess had one or not.
As the class was over, the teacher called me over.
“Reinhardt.”
“Yes.”
“I will allow you to join the class for now, but keep in mind that you will receive failing marks if you decide to continue.”
“Yeah, well, there’s nothing I can do about that.”
There was no way a person without a supernatural ability could be given any kind of grade in a class focused on supernatural abilities.
When I nodded my head gently, everyone was looking at me as if I was crazy. No, well, I did get that they wouldn’t have any other choice but to fail me like this.
I had no intentions of failing though.
After class everyone left the classroom.
“Hey, No. 11.”
And then, someone called out to me.
“Huh, what?”
It was A-6 Heinrich von Schwarz who called me. I could see at first glance that he wore a bad kind of expression on his face and everyone started to stand by and decided to watch what was going on. Charlotte was already gone though. She seemed tired after all.
“Is Temple a joke to you?”
He looked pretty uncomfortable, even if I pretended not to notice. It was the same for the others who gave me dirty looks.
“No?”
“Then why does a person who doesn’t have supernatural abilities worm their way into classes for supernatural ability users?”
Why was that bastard asking something so obvious right now?
“Because I want to awaken one.”
At those words, the expressions of the other kids, including Heinrich’s, changed drastically as if they just heard something absurd.
“Do you seriously think that’s possible?”
“What’s the big deal? You never know if you don’t try.”
Heinrich frowned as if he couldn’t stand it any longer.
“I heard you’re attending all major’s lectures, right?”
“That I do.”
“Do you seriously think you could do anything just because of your infinite aptitudes? You really believe that? Huh? You want to be a supernatural power user. Hah! Do you think you can be a Swordmaster or Wizard just because you want to?”
The other students looked uncomfortable as well. Yeah, it did look somewhat bad, huh?
“I’m just doing this because I think I might get something out of it.”
“Haah….”
He looked exasperated.
“Never mind, just don’t come to the supernatural power lectures anymore. If you come again, I’ll grill you, you know?”
It seemed like he didn’t like the fact that I was taking the supernatural power classes. It looked like Heinrich tried to intimidate me by telling me he’d grill me.
“Grill what? You wouldn’t even be able to grill a potato.”
“What?”
“That’s my estimate after watching the size of your flame. Don’t you agree?”
He did make some fire burn in the sand, but it was definitely not as good as a bonfire.
Heinrich turned red at my words.
“What a great ability you have. If all you can do is make your eye color change and make a somewhat big fire with your arms trembling, wouldn’t a flint be much more useful than you?”
“Wha, wha…. What? Thi, this….”
“Would you like to compete with it? You or a flint? Which one would be better? I expect a landslide victory for the flint. Flints don’t run their smelly mouths like you do.”
Heinrich, whom I compared to a flint, was stammering, probably never having imagined to get insulted like that.
“N, n, now…. D, do…. Do you, even… know who you are in, insulting right now?”
That guy eventually said some words that should never be said in here after getting pushed a little.
“The one I’m insulting is A-6 Heinrich von Schwarz. No matter how much you are of some fucking noble family, who’d care about that in Temple?”
“How dare you insult the royalty of the First Principality, subject to the Heave-….”
I raised my hand as I watched him chatter on.
“Ah, you should apologize to me.”
“Wha, what…?”
“You’re not supposed to mention your status in Temple. Did you forget that rule?”
I looked around at the spectators watching us with stunned expressions.
Everyone who took the class, except Charlotte, were here. Kono Lint, Liana de Grantz, and even Ibia, were watching from afar.
“We have witnesses here. Did you hear everything?”
Heinrich’s face turned blue as he realized that he had just broken that rule in his excitement. Everyone suddenly looked away and frowned, when I was asking for witnesses.
“If you don’t apologize to me in three seconds, I’ll report it to the student council.”
“Ooone.”
“Twooo.”
“Threeee.”
I turned around with that momentum. One more rule violated.
“Sorry.…I was acting too reckless.”
He was a little late, but I smiled at him as he did give me an answer straight out.
Why would you start an argument if you can’t even finish it?
“Watch your mouth next time, buddy.”
I tapped his shoulder and whispered.
“This is a place where royals wouldn’t be able to complain, even if they get beat up by a commoner.”
“Wha…. What?”
“That means, if you do, things will be turned right back at you regardless of your status.”
No matter what status he held, he wasn’t even good enough to be a portable lighter here. Just when I was about to go past him, I heard him hitting the back of my head.
“How dare you, you cheeky bastard!”
“Ah, what now?”
The color in his eyes was getting more saturated.
He looked like he was turning on a faucet. It seemed like he was trying to use his power.
“Frickin hell.”
-Slap!
“Ugh!”
I casually walked over to him and hit his forehead with my palm. Of course, he staggered and was unable to use his ability like he intended to. I disturbed his concentration after all.
“Ah…? Huh?”
He looked like he didn’t understand what happened just now. It was like something that shouldn’t have happened, had happened and he couldn’t even articulate properly.
It almost looked like he had question marks in his eyes.
“I’m gonna give it to you, you fucktard.”
Didn’t these kids know that a fist would be way faster? Everyone was watching me blackly as I casually smacked the Prince of the First Principality. He seemed astonished beyond absurdity.
“Ho, how… How dare that bastard touch my body!”
“It was legitimate self-defence. Weren’t you trying to burn me just now?”
He stared at me trembling while I just stood there nonchalantly.
“Hey, didn’t you want to grill me? Huh? Go ahead. Try.”
“I will kill you!”
The color in his eyes got more saturated again.
-Smack!
“Urgh!”
“Did you think I would wait for you to charge up, you idiot?”
Was he stupid?
“Every time you try to use your ability, you’ll get a smack in the face. Okay? I’m nice, so I’ll keep it a secret that my dear classmate tried to attack me with his ability. Huh? You do know what a pain it’ll be if I report this, right?”
“I, I, Iiiiiiirrrrrk!”
“What are you doing? Didn’t you want to kill me? Come on.”
“Huup!”
As soon as I raised my hand, he started holding his breath and pulled his head back.
“What a little coward.”
“Y, yo…. You dog-like bastard….”
Heinrich’s face was flushed red. It seemed like he was terribly embarrassed by the fact that he got scared.
Eventually, he couldn’t endure his anger anymore and rushed at me.
-Crash!
“Ugh!”
I smoothly took that childish rush of his and threw him off.
There was no way that a well-bred royal knew how to fight. He was also a supernatural power user.
“Well, you think you can manage with your body alone?”
– Stomp!
“Hey, hey! How about trying to get rid of these dirty feet of mine, huh?”
I turned to the spectators who didn’t even have time to close their mouths as I stepped on Heinrich’s head.
“You guys clearly saw him trying to use his power on me, didn’t you? Huh?”
Liana de Grantz was staring blankly. Kono Lint was almost trembling.
They never imagined seeing such a scoundrel in this place.
Anyway, that was that, but having a fight with a classmate and using their powers on a classmate were two crimes of very different magnitudes.
“I know you have a lot of pride, but do it in moderation, you hear?”
I mumbled coldly as I stepped on his head.
“Was I hurting you? I was just quietly taking this class. So why did you have to pick a fight with someone who was just staying quiet? The way I see it, shouldn’t you be grateful to me? As I don’t have any supernatural powers, aren’t I laying the groundwork here?”
I squatted down, grabbed Heinrich’s hair and whispered into his ear.
“Your ability’s range currently is 5 meters across, it takes 10 seconds of preparation time and its firepower is less than a bonfire.”
“!”
I observed today’s class. So, as Heinrich and Liana continued to learn how to use their abilities, I practically had no other choice but to figure out the extent of their abilities.
As I accurately gasped the extent of his powers, he opened his eyes wide, almost tearing them apart.
“If you try to use your powers on me one more time in the future…”
How could I stay still when I had nothing. If someone would stand completely still in front of someone who clearly despised you while not possessing anything, that would be asking to get yourself killed.
“At that time, if I don’t suddenly change my mind in those 10 second, I might as well rip out your eyeballs.”
Only
“……!”
“Didn’t Mr. Epinhauser say it before? Huh? Let’s be careful of each other.”
If you didn’t do anything and just endured it, you will be looked down upon.
Being a fool was acceptable, but one should never be a pushover.
