Chapter Chapter 92: 11. Not a myth, but a legend (5) (1/2)

RATH 92

TL: Eevee

11. Not a myth, but a legend (5)

#5 Their story: a certain traitor’s story.

“Piss off, where the hell do you get off crawling your way into?”

“Don’t even think about getting near before you die.”

“That, that’s not it…”

“What’s not it. That’s rich coming from the one who publicly humiliated our vice-president.”

“Heartless asshole.”

“There are things you can do to win, and things you cannot.”

I felt the eyes look down on me as if they were looking at trash, but I could do naught but keep my mouth tightly shut.

Right now, I was trash incarnate.

“Just one… please give me just one chance.”

“Get lost.”

No matter how much I begged or pleaded, the Arucia students refused to allow me onto their grounds.

To be honest even I wouldn’t allow myself in.

Because the only ones who knew the full story were those evil Yugrasia students that had also participated in that event.

The majority of the Yugrasia students that hadn’t participated in that event thought that I had actually said what Risen had said instead.

The female students of my academy were looking at me as if I was trash, and some of the male students were looking at me with respect.

To the girls, I was trash that abandoned his woman for a single victory, to the boys, I was a hero that even gave up his woman in order to win.

And as for Risen, the cause of all this… he was avoiding me as hard as he could using Loki’s full power.

I’d summoned all my elementals and run at him with the resolve to actually kill him, but Risen was taking this just as seriously as I was and easily slipped through my elemental encirclement, dodging in and out and here and there disgustingly easily.

In the end I couldn’t exact the retribution of blood once again…

Even when I’d showed up in the Arucia residence to beg for forgiveness, I was coldly turned away, and could only walk away with lifeless footsteps.

“Is this… really the end?”

I could still hear Ari’s cry ringing in my ears.

The cry that was filled with sorrow and despair… and yet asked me one last time with that final hope.

“Should I just sneak in?”

As Ari’s cry rang through my head, I stopped walking and looked back at Arucia.

Even if the majority of the students bar Mercaria were nobles, even if the equipment they had were the best canvases available, a canvas was still a canvas.

To me, who had experimented and invented all sorts of means and methods to escape from Yugrasia’s night study, there was no way that a couple of magic tools would be able to stop me.

As long as those tents weren’t Made In Black Anvil!

“Alright, I’m just going to gap it and look for Ari!”

Just as I was looking around to determine the most optimal escape route, I heard a familiar voice from behind me.

“…Are you even going to commit a crime now, oppa?”

“Re, Renya?”

Renya ti Silgran.

A childhood friend from a very early age, and the first girl that confessed to me.

She wasn’t jealous of my other childhood friends that also liked me, and on the contrary, helped them to confess themselves. A girl who was that gentle-hearted was now looking up at me with teary eyes.

“Are… are you really going to become a criminal as well now, oppa?”

“N, no… I just wanted to meet Ari… but I couldn’t find a way to meet her, that’s all it was!”

“…But trying to sneak in is still a crime.”

“Kghhh…”

“Oppa… I saw today’s match as well, but you weren’t acting like normal. The oppa I knew would never have done something so filthy just to win!”

Sorry, I’ve fallen so low I actually can do as filthy things as I need to in order to win.

It was just that I was making such a huge fuss about it because it was Ahri we were talking about, to be honest if it was someone else’s problem I’d actually be praising Risen right about now.

Because that was the kind of place Yugrasia was.

Not even the jungle would be this savage!

“It wasn’t me that said those things yesterday…”

Although since I couldn’t say that as is, first I looked away and said so with a regretful voice.

“Really?”

And Renya looked at me with heartrending eyes in response to my much-too practiced acting skills!

“Yes. It was the vice-president Risen that said those things yesterday. You know the Trickster? He used Loki’s ability to change his voice into mine.”

“Really? It really wasn’t oppa that did it?”

“Of course.”

This at least was no lie.

Because of that, I could nod my head with no deceit and when I did, the tears that had gathered in the corners of Renya’s eyes began to flow freely.

“Thank goodness… thank goodness… Unni had worked so hard to get her and oppa recognised by her dad…”

It hurt my heart to see her cry so sorrowfully, but I heard something I couldn’t just gloss over.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Ah…”

At my words Renya’s eyes widened, and her mouth opened slightly.

“Ah, th… that… ah, that’s… if unni does her best at the imperial festival… that’s, uh…. If she does her best… then might unni’s dad not see oppa in a better light?”

Renya can’t lie.

She’s so, so horrible at lying.

To the point where I wondered if I might have to have her enrol in Yugrasia for a short one-month course.

Although of course if she did, the moment Renya met the silver devil would undoubtedly be the moment she’d break up with me so it wasn’t like that would ever happen!

As Renya told me what was definitely a lie, I used the practical acting skills I learned in Yugrasia.

“Renya.”

“M, mm.”

I lowered my voice, and made my eyes look as sad as I could.

Although it wasn’t as good as our abilities to play dead in order to fool the silver devil, but our skills in looking as pitiful as possible to the teachers that stood in our way were good enough for us to be able to survive by begging, even if all our houses were to fall to ruin.

“Is that… really it?”

In a complete turn of events to just before, now I was the one looking at Renya with tears in my eyes.

“Ah… th, that’s…”

Renya couldn’t meet my eyes and turned her head around so I couldn’t make eye contact.

“Renya…”

But it wasn’t like I would allow that.

I moved in advance to where Renya would turn her head to, and made her keep looking into my tearful eyes.

“Uwuu…. Uw?”

As my face came into her field of view no matter which direction she turned, in the end Renya ducked her head as she started twitching.

Ducking her head to avoid my line of sight wasn’t a bad move.

Because if she does, then she can’t see my face unless I duck down under her myself.

And there was no way I could stick my head under in a sad(act) situation like this.

And so her ducking her head down to avoid my face was not a bad move, not a bad move at all.

That is, if my objective had been to show her my sad face!

Fwoomf.

“O, oppa?!”

I could hear Renya’s startled voice from right in front of me.

My attack of choice was a surprise embrace!

Renya ducked her head down to avoid looking at my face.

And of course let alone my face, she couldn’t see the rest of me either.

And when her vision was obstructed?

Of course you’d have to go for the sneak attack!

“Renya… I want to know. What happened to Ari?”

“Fueee?”

And if the opponent didn’t go down with the first sneak attack, then follow up a second, a third time to finish them off.

Professor Aruhan had told us that there was no point in a sneak attack if you couldn’t finish off the enemy.

“Renya… I’m… sad. I don’t want to have to make you lie.”

“But… but still…”