Damn it.
I told that guy I would make him see the infirmary’s ceiling, but in the end it was me who woke up to it.
“…….”
It was after Mr. Epinhauser declared my victory, so the results couldn’t have been overturned. This was the infirmary, right? The curtains were drawn so I couldn’t tell if someone was around.
Soon, someone opened the curtains and appeared before me.
“You woke up.”
“Ah, senior.”
It was Adriana. She approached me, put her hand on my forehead and nodded slowly. Did she judge that my condition was okay?
“What happened?”
“You won the duel, junior, but then you suddenly collapsed. This is the dormitory’s recovery room.”
Recovery room? Was there such a thing? Was Mayarton also here? As I looked around, Adriana shook her head as if she knew what I was looking for.
“That senior is in another recovery room. I wouldn’t let both of you use the same room.”
I did hit his head quite a lot, so he would be in need of recuperation. Adriana sat down on the bed next to me and sighed.
“Junior, you knew what I wanted to do, right?”
Maybe she was talking about the look she gave me before.
“Yeah, well….”
“I could have fought for you.”
She was asking me why I still insisted on doing such a reckless thing instead of choosing her.
“Were you expecting such nonsense as suddenly awakening your supernatural power at just the right time? Don’t you understand things unless you get beat up?”
Adriana seemed angry.
By the way, they must have already scanned my body once while I was fainted. So they should already know the reason why I became so strangely powerful was because of my supernatural ability.
“Isn’t it fine as long as the results are good?”
“Nonsense. Of course, I heard about your strange aptitudes, junior, but…. You did something very reckless.”
I knew I had a latent supernatural power and realized how to awaken it just then. However, to others this might have seemed like I was hitting my head against the floor to break it.
“If it didn’t go well, wouldn’t it have been even worse than losing?”
Adriana didn’t seem to know what to say in response to my reaction as if there was something wrong with that.
“Junior, you still have six years to live in Temple. You just started your first year. You were able to awaken a supernatural power through great coincidence this time, but will you continue to do these kinds of reckless things in the future just to turn your other aptitudes into talents?”
“No, not really….”
Supernatural powers were just special cases, and the rest of the talents I wanted I could buy with achievement points, so there wouldn’t be a reason to do these kinds of things anymore.….
“Anyway, don’t do such reckless things anymore. Also don’t be rude to your seniors just because you won that duel.”
“It will probably happen again in the not so far future though….”
I was sure that everyone was wondering if my damn temper would lead me to be cut down this time. Unfortunately for them, I realized how to use my supernatural ability and grabbed the third year senior by his hair and slammed him into the gym floor.
So that would mean for them that Reinhardt has only become more insane.
“Really now. Then I seriously have to scold this junior of mine. Got that?”
Adriana was staring at me terrifyingly. What would happen if this senior scolded me? I didn’t know if that scolding would be in the form of words or in the form of a beating.
“Okay. I’ll try to restrain myself.”
Anyway, I didn’t want to be scolded by someone who was so worried about me to the point that she got angry. Just because she got angry with me about something like this didn’t necessarily mean that she hated me.
Of course, if I really were to fight the seniors I probably wouldn’t get away with it so easily. Mayarton was off guard as well. If that were a real fight, it would have ended in less than 5 seconds.
“But honestly, I’m grateful.”
Even if you’re thought to be crazy by everyone else, you should be nice to the people who would actually stand up for you.
Adriana sighed at my words.
“I really don’t like juniors who go around fighting all the time. I’d rather have a junior that gets along with everyone.”
“Then there’s that guy in Class B called Ludwig.”
“You know, you’re supposed to be that kind of person, so do you really have to say that?”
“I guess I got born into the wrong life then.”
“Oh, is that so.”
-Hits!
“Ouch!”
In the end, the angry Adriana hit my head.
I feel like I could make anyone mad with ease. I think that was my real talent here.
***
I was treated by the teacher designated to be the nurse in the recovery room. It was only natural that I ended up fainting. I forcibly raised my own strength far exceeding what my original body could handle, so it had reached its limits. Of course, I was able to leave the recovery room pretty quickly as there was no further need for me to recuperate there.
Then, to my dismay, I had a consultation with Mr. Epinhauser.
“……Self-Suggestion….”
Mr. Epinhauser seemed worried about my supernatural power’s awakening during the duel.
“It’s interesting, No. 11. You did say that there had to be an aptitude for supernatural powers among your countless ones, so it should be possible to awaken one. It seems to me that you accepted your senior’s challenge out of necessity…. It’s rather ridiculous, but you turned out to be right.”
“Actually, I did this because I wanted something else to happen, but it somehow turned out like this.”
“Luck is also a talent. Just as the other talented students hadn’t necessarily acquired their power through hard work. I do not know if it was mere luck, but you are not allowed to use your ability to attack someone anymore. Unless it’s in special circumstances like a duel. However your ability isn’t an obvious one. The downside to this is that it is hard to recognize and judge. Of course, it might be advantageous for you though.”
Depending on the degree I use my ability at, one might not be able to tell if I strengthened my body or not. It was extremely advantageous for the one who used it, but it was pretty disadvantageous for the teacher who had to make a judgement on it.
“I won’t do anything stupid.”
“Yes, although you seem to be quite violent, I don’t believe you to be an idiot.”
Mr. Epinhauser was still staring at me with his unflinching gaze.
Whenever I met his eyes I always felt like this person’s gaze was utterly terrifying. When he showed me this cold attitude I felt a similar type of fear I felt from Bertus.
“Ms. Rollendria will be quite surprised to hear about you. You can go.”
Ms. Rollandira was referring to the teacher in charge of the supernatural power class.
She’d definitely be surprised as the one who casually said he’d somehow get a supernatrual ability, actually got one.
* * *
Reinhardt awakened his supernatural powers during his duel with his senior.
That rumor seemed to have already spread throughout the class as well as among the seniors. When a first year and a third year fought against each other in a duel, the first year actually awakened their supernatural ability and beat up his senior.
The duel itself probably became the a hot topic around the entire Royal Class before it even started, but now it came out that the first year actually won.
It would have been strange if there weren’t any rumors.
Still.
I didn’t know it would turn out like this..
“Are you Reinhardt?”
“I heard that duel was no joke?”
“Mayarton, that bastard, should’ve been beaten some more.”
“Oh my god. You’re such a little baby! Cute! Can I hug you?”
No, I wasn’t a baby. I was still 17. And no matter how I looked at it, I wasn’t really the cute type, or was I?
“Should this sister buy you something delicious? Do you like macaroons?”
The First Year Class A dormitory was currently crowded with seniors who came down after hearing the rumors about me.
In a way, this might have been a natural conclusion.
In order to defeat a single first year, a third year forced himself into the fight of a second year as his champion.
At this point, Mayarton would have already been imprinted as trash in the minds of those who weren’t all that interested in disciplining the juniors. Not all Class A students were strict about traditions and such.
As soon as they reached their fourth year, many students turned their attention away from such things. So, many of them were already dissatisfied with Mayarton for trying to beat up a first year.
But he even lost.
Therefore, those seniors were bound to develop a certain degree of curiosity and favor towards me, to the same degree they disliked Mayarton.
Also, although I didn’t make Reinhardt look super handsome, he was still good looking enough.
It was understandable that those sisters would go: “You’re such a cute little baby”.
“How can he be so young and already so righteous? You told your seniors not to bully you and your friends anymore if you won, right?”
As the rumor spread around that I participated in duel I was bound to lose anyway to make the seniors stop harrassing my class, it seemed that I now got known as a righteous guy who fought for his friends.
“Ah…Uhm… I did say that…….”
“You’re so nice.”
Of course, my actual classmates who heard the seniors’ fussing seemed to doubt their ears.
The seniors were praising Reinhardt, the crazy dog bastard, as a good and nice guy after all. Their expressions showed that some of them seemed to want to fiercely shout, “No, he isn’t that kind of guy at all!”．
“If anyone comes to bother you again after this, tell me. I’ll scold them for you. See? If you have any problem, come straight to the Fifth Year Class A, okay?”
-Rumble! Rumble!
If she was in the fifth year then she was 21 years old. She was a college student sister.
…Of course, I didn’t actually see her as an older sister, she was still just a child as well.
She was trying to show off and made a small storm appear in her right hand. What? Why was she doing that?
Since they were seniors, their supernatural abilities couldn’t be compared to those of a first year. They told me I should be proud of myself and that there should be more children like me.
My classmates, of course, would never agree to anything they said.
If there were any more children like me, Temple would get destroyed.
Still, if one were to take the rumors at face value, I did seem like just a good little kid.
There were also times when some male seniors would pat my head, saying I did a good job, but there were also some female seniors who simply crossed the line.
“What do I do? I heard you had such a hard life.”
“Ah, yeah, well….”
She seemed to have heard about my origins, so a certain senior girl suddenly hugged me tightly, giving me a headache.
N, no.
Hey!
Don’t do this!
Although my mind was still the same as it was before, my body was currently a healthy 17 year old!
“Oh my, good that you were able to get into Temple.”
Don’t do this! Th, this wasn’t how this was supposed to go!
When they found out that I was actually just a beggar from the streets, they couldn’t help but marvel at how I was able to grow up to be so upright in that kind of environment.
The seniors had that huge misunderstanding about me, to the point where I couldn’t do anything about it anymore.
Tired.
I was really tired.
I ended up becoming a star at Temple just because of one duel.
* * *
Regardless of the misunderstandings the seniors had about me, the looks the others gave me after they returned were a little different from before.
Probably because they knew I awakened my supernatural ability.
They might have also felt something from my actions, fighting so hard even though I was put into such a helpless situation by that senior.
The people who hated me, Cayer, Erich and Kono Lint, looked at me then went past me with their eyes tightly closed. They felt like they were no match for me, not only in terms of skills, but also in terms of mental strength.
It wasn’t because I fought so well, it was because of my mental strength that didn’t allow me to give up no matter how badly I got beaten up. Eventually, they would get more skilled and mentally strong, but right now they were just kids. No wonder I looked weird to them.
And.
“…….”
Harriet de Saint-Owan was looking at me, turned her head and passed by me without giving me a single glance.
Well, that certainly wasn’t what I expected．
Wouldn’t this have been the perfect time to tell me something like: “You should have gotten beat up more”?
“Hey!”
“Wha, what！”
When I called out to her, she stopped as if she was waiting for that, and looked at me angrily. I could see that she was blushing.
“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”
Harriet frowned when I asked her that.
“There’s no such thing though? What would I have to say to a bastard like you? Oh, yes, yes. You should have been hit a bunch more, but then you ended up using that supernatural power of yours like a coward just to win.”
I got the exact response I wanted to hear.
“Really? Weren’t you rather restless when you watched me get beat up though?”
“Wha, what?”
Her face got even redder because she didn’t think I was looking at her before.
“I saw you stamping your feet with a pale face, you know?”
I told her with a grim smile. In fact, she kept looking towards me and Mr. Epinhauser in the hopes that he might stop this fight.
I was able to see all that, even while I was getting beat up. To be exact, that was the only thing I could do at that moment.
Anyway, I saw her getting more and more restless, wanting Mr. Epinhauser to bring an end to all that, but he didn’t.
So there was just one conclusion．
“Were you worried about me? How cute.”
“Absolutely not! Never ever, nope! I, I. Wh, why would I, I be wo, wo, worried about the li, likes of you? Hah! Hah! It was so refreshing!”
Judging by her red hot face, it seemed like she was absolutely worrying about me. In the end, there was not a single person who wouldn’t feel sympathy if someone got beat up so pitifully.
I went up to her and put my hands on her cheeks, squeezing them.
The cheeks of that high-and-mighty princess of a Grand Duchy felt like two steamed buns.
“!”
She wasn’t even able to scream that was how dumbfounded she was. She didn’t even imagine someone would dare do this to her.
“Leeh! Leeh goh! Shto!”
It was really, really cute that she got surprised by me doing something as ridiculous as this. When I let go, this completely red-faced girl started trembling all over her body in total bewilderment.
“Ho, how dare, dare you touch my body! Someone like you? How absurd. How. How. How could a beggar…. How….”
She was so angry and embarrassed that she wasn’t even able to scream properly. Her pupils were shaking very strongly, one might think they were affected by an earthquake or something. This time she didn’t seem that angry, she was more dumbfounded and surprised.
Not only did I dare touch her precious face, but I even squeezed her cheeks and laughed at her.
She was the cutest when she was like this．
It seemed like she was trying to deny reality. She probably was thinking something like: “This can’t be happening to me”, or something.
“Hu, hnnk……Sobsob！ Sniff！ Knnrk！”
However．
Contrary to my expectations, she started to cry．
“Hu, huh·…”
That wasn’t it.
“Why are you doing this to me? You bastard, why are you picking on me? Why do you bully me like this? Stop it! Stop teasing meee!”
Wha, what do I do…?
