Chapter 30 - Volume 3 (2/2)

Lily drew back her hands with a frightened jolt. During that recoil, the accumulated tears at the edge of Lily’s bright green eyes trickled down.

With that, my last bit of patience ran out.

I walked up to Art in long strides, having forgotten even my manners, and before a slightly flustered Art could say anything, I slapped him on the cheek with all my might.

With a loud slap, a nice, satisfying sound was made as my palms felt the throb of pain.

I thought he’d hit me back in the heat of the moment, but Art simply stared at my face with his mouth open in dumbfoundment, ‘idiot’ written all over his face.

Including the spectators, everyone here went dead silent.

That’s right, the courtyard, to an extent, was a place that can be conspicuous. Seeing that such a commotion happened at the courtyard, the fact that Art had picked Lily as a bullying target must have already circulated to the entire student population by now. It’s likely that this will induce others to bully her. And of course, he probably did it knowing that would happen. To my annoyance, Art was a boy that was capable of such calculation.

I was in a rage, but my thoughts were composed. Virtually prepared to contend with Art, I looked for allies amongst the spectators.

The first to remember to move, was that one person in Art’s entourage. Really, what a completely useless watchdog he was.

「Y-you’re mistaken, Lycoris-sama! We never caught the bird in the end, this grave – we only piled up soil to trick her!」

In the end, he gave an explanation to something that I’d rather be left unsaid.

Lily probably didn’t notice with all the commotion, but the fact that a hole was right there beside the grave was a little strange. Generally speaking, the normal sequence was to first dig a hole, put the corpse in, then cover it with soil from the top.

Not only that, catching a wild bird, no matter how accustomed to Lily it was, was still a difficult task. Making a fake grave then using it to scare her seems more likely.

「Lily, it’s just as you heard. That little bird is most likely fine」

Lily raised her face, taken aback.

「Lycoris, I…」

「Yes. Go and find the bird. I’ll manage this somehow」

Lily nodded at my words, then ran off towards the forest where the little lapis lazuli-colored bird was likely located.

「S-since you made a mistake, apologize! Getting hit is really painful! 」

When Art shouted at me from behind, I looked at him over my shoulder.

「A mistake? You were planning to kill the bird, weren’t you?」

「That’s right, but we told you we couldn’t do it in the end, didn’t we! That woman just got tricked because she was stupid enough not to find anything fishy about it」

「I completely understand it now」

This time, I intended to hit Art’s cheek with clenched fists. Because I knew it was my own indulgence that I ended up unconsciously slapping him earlier.

But, sure enough, the second time, even Art didn’t resign to accept getting hit. Since Art seized my wrist, in close range, I simply glared at him.

「I thought even you would mature a little bit if I persistently nagged at you, but my outlook was too naive. In these three years, you really didn’t grow up at all. Being in charge of educating you is really impossible for me」

Declaring it vehemently as I faced him, Art, as always, uttered the same thing he usually did.

「…why?」

「『Why』, you ask? Until you understand, don’t speak with her or me. I won’t forgive you. Especially if you give Lily an apology that doesn’t come from the heart」

Once I declared those words, a large shadow obstructed my field of vision. Since I quickly realized it was Wolf, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

After Wolf twisted Art’s arm pretty violently for me, he held out a handkerchief for me.

I thought it was because I looked like I was about to cry, but in reality, my eyes were already brimming with tears. It wasn’t something I’d brag about.

「Wolf, could I leave Art to you? I’d like to find Lily」

「No, let’s go together」

Since Wolf insisted, we eventually left Art to the care of a teacher nearby and headed to the forest to follow Lily. However, even though our time difference wasn’t too big, Lily was nowhere to be found.

Afterwards, we assembled a group of people to search for Lily, but it was only after even night had wore on that we found her.

With an exhausted face, she came back aimlessly to the dormitory and ended up sleeping, almost as if she’d blacked out.

She kept sleeping for nearly a whole day after that.