How to Survive at the Academy Chapter 97

Student president election (10)

Ophelis tube filled with silence.

Lortel Kecheln was quietly blocking the exit leading to the central corridor.

Seeing that, Ziggs… grabbed Tanya by the shoulder as they ran out side by side.

“Ugh, what?!”

Just like that, Ziggs pulled Tanya’s entire body and hid it behind his back.

“Aww!”

Tanya, who had been staggering under Ziggs’ strong grip, managed to regain her speed.

“Go, why all of a sudden…”

“Stay still.”

Ziggs’ intuition is pretty much right. His sixth sense, which he had cultivated while living in the wild, saved him several times in a crisis situation.

Again, Ziggs’ sixth sense screams in uneasiness.

Perhaps she was sleeping, she was wearing a light wool coat over a slip dress made of lace. Her voluminous reddish-brown hair, which flows like waves, is also completely loose.

“Lortel.”

Ziggs is in a position to know to some extent about Ed’s human relationships in his lifetime.

Those who recognized the true value of Ed usually had a special relationship with him, and even if they had a narrow network, Ed’s acquaintances were all terrifying people.

Knowing that Lortel had a close enough relationship with Ed, Ziggs carefully adjusted his posture.

Although he held the handle of his sword, he wanted to avoid a situation where he would fight Lortel at all costs.

Lortel’s magic skills and agility were such that even the picky Professor Glast put her name in Class A.

However, it was not up to the level of Ziggs in terms of combat sense and combat sense. If they fight, Ziggs will probably win.

Ziggs might be inferior in simple firefights, but in one-on-one combat where the abilities and given environment are used to the maximum, there are very few people who can beat Ziggs.

However, Lortel’s true fear does not stem from its combat prowess.

For Lortel Kecheln, whoever targets it will surely lead to destruction. Even her adoptive father couldn’t escape its clutches.

You should never think of her as a benevolent and benevolent sign who is deceived by her elegant and lofty appearance or her elegant words and actions.

No one else knows, but Ziggs Eiffelstein certainly knows. She is a rose with thorns. Its thorns are coated with several layers of deadly poison that can poison even an elephant in an instant.

In this Sylvania Academy, if I were to pick someone who should never be turned into an enemy… I would definitely fit within my three fingers leisurely.

He was waiting with his head down, blocking the door. No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t look favourable.

—It was clear that he had heard the news of Ed’s death.

Lucy is making a fuss like that outside, and it’s even weirder that she doesn’t know.

So, Ziggs had no choice but to hide Tanya behind him.

“You’d better evacuate, Lortel.”

When Ziggs said that, Lortel from the darkness carefully raised her head. I don’t know what effect the news of Ed’s death may have had on her feelings, what thoughts she may have had towards Tanya.

He was in a position where he could only wait for Lortel’s answer.

However, Lortel raised her head… and smiled with a surprisingly graceful appearance.

“You say that, Ziggs… What have you been doing here without escaping?”

Tone as usual.

Only the clothes were a little more comfortable and informal, but as always, he was calm and calm.

Ziggs did not relax and stared at Lortel, who continued to speak calmly.

“It’s a dangerous situation. We need to evacuate. Aren’t you, Ziggs? And you, Tanya.”

Did even Tanya feel something out of the ordinary?

However, he doesn’t show any hostility, so it’s okay to say something back.

“Lortel.”

Ziggs did not release his grip on the handle of his sword.

And he asked straight forward.

“Did you hear the news about Ed?”

Lortel’s brow furrowed and trembled.

It was a very weak reaction that was difficult to catch with a reasonable eye, but Ziggs, who was quick-witted, recognized the fluctuations in his emotions.

“Well. What do you think?”

“Yeah, I don’t think they’ll just let you go.”

“What are you talking about, Ziggs. I have no reason to stop you guys.”

The image of Lortel, who gently closes her eyes and smiles, is still relaxed. However, Tanya and Ziggs can’t even think of moving a single step.

“There’s no way I can defeat you in a simple one-on-one battle like this.”

Regarding all of Lortel Kecheln’s abilities, it would make my mouth hurt to recite them one by one.

However, if I had to pick out the best among them, it would be a monster-like calm that maintains reason in any situation.

She never panicked or lost her senses, even in a situation where Tarkan destroyed the student center or Glast’s magic tower rose from the school building.

It is a monster of reason that acts like a machine by finding the best move. Even Lucy, who always seemed aloof, even in this situation, where she was swept away by anger, she gritted her teeth and maintained her cool reason.

However, reason and rationality do not always move together as one body.

She lived the life of a merchant who weighed everything in terms of money, but there are times when even she gets out of the balance of rationality. That’s when Ed is involved.

Lortel does not stop Ziggs. The reason is that Ziggs has a higher fighting ability than Lortel.

If so, I can’t help but turn around and ask.

“It’s not me… What would Tanya be thinking if she were alone?”

It has a calm and orderly appearance, but there is no guarantee that it will be so on the inside as well. That girl never reveals her true feelings.

That’s why, no matter how messed up the inside is, you can never figure it out just by looking at the outside.

However, there are times when the fragments are revealed implicitly.

“It must have been torn to pieces.”

Goosebumps ran down Tanya’s back.

His expression is still calm and orderly. The tone of voice doesn’t change at all. However, a sharp, flesh-cutting threat hangs in the air.

“You’re lucky, Tanya. I should thank Ziggs for accompanying me.”

Tanya’s expression is clearly revealed in Lortel’s amber eyes, which do not even move.

The reason why Lortel was sitting guarding this hallway was probably…

“That’s a rash move, Lortel.”

“Right, Ziggs. It looks like you’re siding with Tanya.”

Ziggs couldn’t say anything.

Apparently, all the circumstantial evidence points to Tanya as the culprit in Ed’s assassination.

Tanya’s behavior, which has consistently revealed her ill will toward Ed. And the vassals of the Ross Taylor family, who seem to be the perpetrators of the assassination. It overlaps with the fact that they were direct vassals who follow Tanya’s orders. Quite a few vassals rarely act on their own without the master’s orders.

The actions of Ziggs, who decided to believe in Tanya’s innocence… are thoroughly emotional rather than rational. Ed Rosteeler is just a guess based on empirical evidence that he wouldn’t want Tanya to meet a terrible end.

This is why Lortel, who always aims to act rationally, is terribly out of character with the rather emotional Ziggs.

“So, rather than killing them directly, they would have tortured them first. If they somehow confessed, that’s another story.”

Watching Lortel smile, Ziggs swallowed dryly. That woman is also not in a normal state. She looks infinitely calm, but she is clearly twisted somewhere.

“Looks like you haven’t had your nails done in a while, Tanya. Thankfully.”

Tanya sighed, hiding her hands behind her back, trembling. Lortel’s implicitly thrown words had a horrifying connotation.

First of all, the story that at least my nails wouldn’t have been fine… made my heart tremble several times.

“Oh, no… I…! No…!!”

“Stop it, Tanya. She’s not someone you can convince with emotional arguments.”

Tanya was about to say something, but Ziggs calmly interrupted. Lortel also doesn’t change a single expression.

However, he quietly allowed them to pass.

“Pass by.”

Lortel never wages a losing battle. He is the one who only fights to win.

It is the dignity of a person who has survived from the time he grew up on the windswept business front.

This is not the battlefield of Lortel Kecheln. Instead of shedding blood by exchanging sword strikes and magic, he is the one who stealthily moves in the darkness beneath the water and puts the battlefield itself in his hands.

If you turn it into an enemy, you will surely see a terrible sight.

Turning Ed into an enemy, needless to say, means that that woman also becomes an enemy. Tanya didn’t know that fact, but after it became a reality, a sense of fear welled up all over her body again.

Ziggs glared at Lortel in a wary stance.

She really didn’t even flinch. Is she really unwilling to stop? Or is even this acting and just a plan?

There is no distinction.

If it’s simply an enemy with strong fighting ability, you can find a way to get rid of it, find a compromise in another way, or choose the option to fight and win with grit.

However, someone like Lortel, who is infinitely cunning, makes it impossible to be sure that any action is the right decision. It makes me feel like I’m wandering through a smoke screen, so it’s rather a headache.

By the time such an unanswered confrontation continues.

“Then Lortel…”

– Clink! Kwa Gang! Kang!

“Ah, uh…! Ah!”

[Be careful! Aren’t you hurt?! ]

“Uh, yeah…! I didn’t get hurt… what should I do… the windows… ugh… they’re all broken… this is super high quality, I don’t have much money to ask… what should I do… uuuuu … Eek…”

[In this situation, would you go to the culprit for each broken window and ask for compensation? ]

There was a girl who broke a window on one side of the hallway and slipped in. The sound of the rain that had been heard outside the window began to resonate directly into the hallway.

The light pink hair in the braid was completely soaked in the rain. The same goes for clothes. The pure white blouse and navy blue skirt were completely stuck to the rain and clinging to the body.

She wringed out one side of her wet skirt and shook her head like a puppy, then looked at Tanya and blushed.

“Oh, I found it! Tanya!”

After shouting like that, the atmosphere in the hallway finally caught the girl’s eyes.

“…”

Tanya was shaking, and Ziggs was breaking out in a cold sweat with his hand on his sword. And Lortel, who was calmly glaring at them with cold eyes.

“Uh… Um… Am I not able to grasp the atmosphere…?”

Jenika pouted and stopped wringing the water from her collar.

Then Merilda, who was poking her head through the window, let out a sigh.

[No, rather, it seems to have come at the right time. ]

*

– shoot it

In addition to his extreme physical condition, his vision is blurry due to the pouring rain.

Even the blood swordsmanship, which seemed to eat the whole body, had already noticed that the body condition had reached its limit… All magic power had disappeared.

He raised all his strength as a sword demon and risked his life to attack, but the time Clevius had the situational advantage over Lucy was only one hundredth of a second.

Even so, it was the result of Lucy’s negligence rather than Clevius. Ironically, it was a gap created because the gap was overwhelming.

If Lucy had fully focused on fighting Clevius from the beginning, the match would have been over in just a few seconds, let alone a situational advantage.

Considering that Lucy was fighting while controlling her powers to avoid causing casualties, as well as the time prisons that were spread out throughout the garden and the magic spheres that filled the sky… will be.

It was miserable and sad, but it wasn’t unexpected.

lost again He was already quite used to losing.

“Ugh, keuh… ugh…”

Even if you push off the floor to try to get yourself up, your body loses strength without being able to stand up even halfway. When I just raised my head and looked up, a man in a robe was looking down at Clevius.

As soon as he entered the rose garden, he first checked the surroundings. It was as if someone was in trouble if someone was watching.

Unfortunately, not many people could see him in the rose garden where most of the students had evacuated.

Of course, the students and maids trapped in the time prison are meaningless, and at most Clevius or Elvira collapsed next to her.

Even the fog was thick due to the pouring rain, so even if there was a presence, it did not look easy to check the face.

The lieutenant water spirit, ‘Lioness Lacia’, who stopped Lucy, disappeared in an instant. It was Hyun-hyun, who seemed unstable even at first glance. It seems to have summoned after barely drawing out the power that had reached its limit.

As a result, only Lucy, Elvira, Clevius, and the man in the robe remained.

When I looked up close, I could finally see his face.

The boy with aristocratic features and short blond hair was a familiar face.

“What is it… X arm…”

Barely supporting his upper body with his trembling arms, Clevius let out a blank laugh.

“You’re alive. Motherf*cker.”

“…”

“Uh, sigh…”

Clevius, who had shed blood once, gritted his teeth and looked up at Ed.

“Really.. dog.. X-arm… if I knew this was going to happen… I… ugh… keuug…”

“You’ve been holding on, Clevius.”

“Yeah…why…you pick me…??”

A battered boy with his head bent down in the drizzling raindrops vomits out his accumulated resentment and resentment.

“Put it on…! X arm…!!”

nobody said anything Clevius’s rage is nothing more than a sense of entitlement. Still, Ed stood still and listened.

However, Ed’s gaze felt a certain surprise.

Clevius lasted close to 10 minutes against ‘Indolent Lucy’.

How many people in this undergraduate school can do that? Even Ed, who knew all about Clevius’ combat abilities, couldn’t bear to think that it was possible.

“Yeah… Really… I was beaten like a dog… I know… I know I’m a really ugly, stupid, nerdy bitch like a dog… I know it best… X-arm… .!!”

Clevius clenched his fists and clenched his teeth.

“I knew it too. Even if I tried to attack, it would be a piece of shit. I knew that even if I risked my life, I wouldn’t be able to reach even my toes… Yeah… So I wanted to jump out, but my X-arms and feet didn’t move, so they told me what to do… .”

The rose garden reflected in the coward’s eyes was full of idiots.

There was no way they could stop such a monster, and there were only idiots who rushed in and tried to do something about it.

Maid Jang and her successor maids trapped in a time prison. The seniors who tried to stop it somehow… In the end, even the alchemist who always grumbled against Clevius.

These idiots are a group of people that Clevius has been sick of seeing throughout his life.

Leaving them behind, they fled to a safe place, did not challenge, defined it as impossible, and lived without sticking their heads out.

Everyone wished that for Clevius. He taught that it was wise, and Clevius himself thought so. He didn’t even know how many people he would kill again while challenging the blood of the Sword Demon.

When you get used to defeat, you forget the pain it caused. His ego is completely worn out and his emotions are not even moving. Even if someone insults you for being a coward or a fugitive, there comes a moment when you can nod your head and accept it.

I’m sure it will.

“What the hell… X-arm… How long do you have to hit and run away…”

The figure of a hero who drew his sword and charged at the army that came like a mountain. A picture of Velcus Nortondale, the progenitor of the Nortondale family seen in a picture book.

Everyone feared the curse of the sword demon in Clevius’ blood and gave up, but the older brother who died alone affirming Clevius as a member of the Nortondale family until the end.

Tarkan, a high-ranking fire spirit that even the seniors in the grade were afraid of, and Ed Rosteyler, who stood in front of him and devised tricks until the end.

Taily, the swordsman who ran at Professor Glast without losing his will to the end among the magic towers that towered over the sky.

Even in front of Lucy, the maids who tried to do their part until the end, the seniors, and even Elvira.

Those idiots eat away at the defeatism rooted in the boy’s heart.

Like a light cast in a gutter, it brings an ugly and stained figure to the face.

It makes me hold my two legs to the ground and pulls out a sword with a missing blade.

It makes you put your head like an idiot into an ordeal that everyone defines as impossible.

“Seriously… I’m… a stupid bugger, a f*cking piece of trash… I… I… I know… I know…”

Shed too much blood. It was time for her to take a break.

Clevius couldn’t speak any more and passed out.

Ed just stood still and listened to Clevius’ incoherent curse words. She was about to speak in her quiet voice, leaving Clevius, who had lost her mind at last.

“Uh, huh…”

-Shoot it.

The battered Elvira came in between Clevius and Ed. She looked as if she was already overpowered and struggling to control herself, but with her arms outstretched, she stood in front of Clevius.

Apparently, Ed misunderstood that he would do anything to harm Clevius, and Elvira was sitting in an awkward position blocking the road, her trembling arms not lowered, pursed lips.

It was a dangerous look that seemed like it would fall out immediately if you kicked it.

Still, with eyes that were alive with will, she trembled and somehow took a protective posture.

“…”

Ed, who was looking down at Elvira, quietly opened his mouth before long.

“Thank you, Elvira. Clevius. Your efforts were not in vain, they were really worth it.”

Elvira’s pupils widened as if she couldn’t have imagined that such a line would come out of Ed’s mouth.

There was no particular reason to harm Edgar Clevius. Rather, Clevius’ struggles were of great help to Ed.

However, Elvira was still disapproving of Ed, so it only made her nervous.

However, contrary to Elvira’s imagination, Ed calmly tapped Elvira on the shoulder a couple of times.

At that gesture, Elvira lost her strength and collapsed to her knees.

“…you are…”

“Rest for now, since I’ve confirmed that I’m alive… I have a lot to tell you two.”

Then, Ed silently put down his robe hat and turned around and proceeded.

It was time to take Lucy back.

*

Loneliness is a disease unto death.

It is a curse that comes to everyone equally and eats away little by little.

That’s why people live by leaning on each other.

Even a girl who lives her life looking down at everything in the world with a sad face is bound to find that mortal disease without exception.

However, the reason the girl couldn’t fathom the fear of loneliness… was because she had Glockt in her childhood.

The existence of the old man who stroked her hair with his wrinkled hand and sat beside her as if he was always there… was protecting the girl from the fear of loneliness.

However, it is very difficult to realize it yourself.

That’s why it may be natural to realize the pain of the loss and suffer after losing it.

– shoot it

Upon seeing the boy wearing the robe hat, Lucy almost lost her strength in an instant.

I rub my eyes, wondering if I’m hallucinating, but the boy’s image remains the same.

There was no dramatic reaction. She’s not a girl to run into screaming and hug.

“I’m sorry. Lucy. I didn’t tell you beforehand. I needed to die for some reason.”

However, it wasn’t until the low-pitched voice that I thought I couldn’t hear anymore came flooding into my ears, that a sense of reality came up.

“But, I was in an urgent situation where my life was on the verge of danger, so I couldn’t cope with anything in advance. So I didn’t have time to tell the news.”

Ed trudged through the rain to Lucy who was standing there blankly. And it was only after reaching her face that she clearly communicated it to Lucy, who was making an expression like Gingaming.

“I’m alive. Now, like this.”

Lucy looked up at Ed blankly.

Even the stout body, the flowing blonde hair, and the faint, rain-soaked scent of grass emanated from Ed Rosteeler.

The expression is also a slight motion. However, it was not rainwater that anyone could see that flowed in lumps around the eyes.

Suddenly, he sniffed, then jumped up and ran across Ed’s chest. Then he buried her face in Ed’s wet collar and rubbed it.

“I thought you were dead.”

The wet feeling was a tone that was hard to hear for Lucy’s voice.

In the calmly pouring rain, Ed slowly wrapped his arms around Lucy’s shoulder.

Looking up at the raining sky as it was, I pressed the body of Lucy, who was sobbing slowly, for a long time.

spring rain falls

After the rain that sweeps down the flower petals piled up on the roadside or the smell of flowers left in the flower bed, spring reveals a new look.

The same goes for the torrent of emotions.

If you spit it out coolly once and regain your reason again, a new phase often comes to a relationship that has been stably established.

It starts with a small sense of incongruity.

Lucy, who cried in Ed’s arms, finally manages to capture the weak emotions hidden in the solitude.

It was Lucy who was looking at Glockt over Ed’s face… No matter how much I think about it, I feel like there is a fundamental difference between the feelings I had for Ed and the feelings I had for Glockt.

Glockt’s wrinkled hands stroking Lucy’s hair while sitting by a warm fire and Ed’s hands pressing down on Lucy, who was overflowing with emotion and bursting into tears, felt the feelings… similar yet strangely different.

The rain slowly stops, and the moonlight begins to seep through the clouds.

Lucy, who was rubbing her eyes in Ed’s arms, suddenly swallows her breath.

Even worrying about what the difference is… Eventually, the answer is embodied.

Once you are aware, it is not a task to realize the identity of the emotion.

– Whiik!

-sudden!

Suddenly, Ed was startled and regained his balance.

Lucy, who had been crying in Ed’s arms, suddenly held back her tears, then quickly pushed Ed’s chest and lifted her head.

And then… I look up at Ed’s face in disbelief. It was not only Ed who was surprised, but Lucy too.

Her eyes were still moist, but the embarrassing emotion was clearly buried.

Like a stray cat that seems to have met an unexpected enemy… Lucy’s face, which had been trembling endlessly, heats up.

“Lucy?”

Ed just called Lucy’s name normally, but he felt a fire burning in Lucy’s chest.

She tried to answer, but when her voice trembled and the words didn’t come out, Lucy hurriedly backed away.

Even the high-ranking wizards of the bachelor’s school can’t help but tremble in front of her… Lucy is such a great mountain.

Lucy looked at Ed with a trembling face as if she was facing an unknown existence. His face was filled with only embarrassment.