Episode 6. Let’s Escape in the Confusion
The items the two people had been carrying fell in a tangled mess.
“Sorry!”
“No, it was my fault.”
“Huh?”
The girl he had bumped into met Binaeril’s eyes and let out a short cry.
Binaeril recognized her too. It was a familiar face.
She was probably the girl student who had been in the same class the day he’d argued with Gillian.
A girl with short blonde hair that barely brushed her shoulders—young, yet somehow possessed of an inexplicable dignity.
*—It hurts!*
At Veritas’s complaint, Binaeril lowered his gaze.
He couldn’t immediately see with the naked eye where he was pinned underneath.
As Binaeril began hurriedly picking up the scattered items, the other girl gathered the fallen things as well.
Something pinned beneath her notebook seemed to squirm and thump heavily.
“What’s this?”
It was an old novel. It exuded a musty leather smell, yet bore a vulgar title that didn’t suit it at all.
“Ah, that’s mine.”
Receiving the book from the girl’s hand, Binaeril tapped the dust-covered cover to brush it off.
Veritas, having swallowed the dust, let out an “Ugh” of a groan.
Binaeril gathered the remaining items too and handed them to the girl.
The girl gave a small, short bow.
“Thank you.”
“No, it’s nothing. And we’re fellow students….”
“I know.”
Reading her expression, it seemed the girl also remembered who Binaeril was.
“You didn’t lose anything? Then I’ll be on my way for class.”
“Excuse me!”
As Binaeril made to leave, the girl called out to him urgently.
“Huh? Why? Did something go missing?”
“No, it’s not that….”
The girl faltered, unable to continue.
“I’m Rike.”
“Uh… okay. Nice to meet you? Rike. I’m Binaeril.”
“I know. The other students probably all know your name too.”
*Was I that famous?*
*—Of course you’re famous, since you go around picking fights with other students.*
Veritas’s nonsense was lightly ignored.
“You’re famous for being good at magic. And because of what happened a few days ago.”
“Aha.”
She seemed to be talking about the incident where he’d gotten into an argument with Gillian’s gang.
“So, why?”
Rike hesitated, unable to state her business.
Even Rike herself didn’t clearly know why she had stopped Binaeril.
Because she was happy to see him? Because he was curious? Because the smell of marten leather from the old book she’d picked up tickled her nose?
No.
Rike recalled Binaeril from a few days ago.
How he could stand up so bravely to guys like Gillian.
How a transfer student who was supposedly a perpetual junior could be so skilled.
Questions she wanted to ask drifted up faintly. But none of them were the core question.
Rike was simply curious about Binaeril, that was all.
It was just that she herself didn’t really know how to befriend people.
“By any chance……”
At that moment, someone’s shout drowned out their conversation.
“He’s here! I found Binaeril Dalheim!”
“Ack.”
As one person shouted, a cry of “Grab him!” rang out from across the way, and the sound of people rushing over in a swarm followed.
Binaeril could spot a familiar face among them. It was Gillian Baemes.
“Hello?”
“So you like saying hello, you rat bastard! Finally caught you!”
Gillian appeared, huffing with a flushed face.
Binaeril had thought that if he avoided him for a while, the guy would tire himself out and let it go.
But looking at him now, that didn’t seem to be the case. Gillian seemed even more furious than before.
With about seven or eight people including Gillian crowding him front and back, his escape route was cut off.
Because he had let things drag on, Binaeril couldn’t get away from this awkward confrontation.
“You bastard, come here.”
“We’ve been busting our asses for days trying to catch this guy.”
“Were you in the middle of a date or something?”
The mob hurled words at him one by one, snickering.
Gillian took a step out from the group.
“Did you think you could spread false rumors about me and get away scot-free?”
“What rumors?”
“You went around blabbering that I’m a bastard.”
“I’ve never spread such rumors. And they wouldn’t be false, would they?”
Of course, it was true. A fact Binaeril should never have known.
“Shut your trap!”
Gillian shoved his face in close and muttered low enough for only Binaeril to hear.
“Whether you made it up or picked it up somewhere, that doesn’t matter right now. You’re going to kneel here and apologize to me.”
Of course, Binaeril wasn’t scared.
“Then will you let me go?”
“Ha! Absolutely not.”
“Then I can’t apologize.”
“Go ahead and do as you please. Let’s see how long that confidence lasts.”
“Why? You gonna hit me? That’s against school rules. You know that, right?”
Elfenbein strictly prohibited fights between students.
Because excited students fighting might use magic, and there was no telling what accidents magic-inept students might cause.
“Don’t worry. We’ll beat you up without leaving a mark.”
The guy laughed grimly and smacked his fist into his palm.
Fists were always closer than rules. Gillian, strung out on fury, was blind to everything else.
Rike, who had been watching the situation from a step behind, opened her mouth.
“Stop!”
She shouted with her eyes squeezed shut.
Gillian let out a scoff as if dumbfounded.
“What’s this now?”
“She’s a stranger. Just let her go.”
“The hell?”
He tapped Binaeril’s chest.
“You think I’m your servant? Who are you to order me around?”
As the atmosphere turned hostile, Rike tried to grab Gillian’s shoulder to intervene.
“Stay out of this!”
As Gillian swung his arm roughly, Rike fell hard on her bottom.
Binaeril’s brow twitched.
“What? Does it bother you? Then try hitting me first. Go on, hit me!”
Gillian provoked him, nudging Binaeril with his head.
He wouldn’t have minded if they’d tried to take revenge on him, but the sight of them dragging in an unrelated girl and sneering like that provoked Binaeril.
Binaeril looked at Gillian with cold, cynical eyes.
“Hey, he’s pissed.”
“Oh, I’m so sca~red. Should we pull his pants down first before we start?”
The others snickered and laughed, but Gillian couldn’t join in.
Meeting Binaeril’s gaze, he flinched and stepped back, then blustered even more to cover up his fear.
“What, you gonna do something about it if I keep staring!”
“Truly, birds of a feather flock together.”
“So-called noble scions run around in packs and harass other students. Don’t your families teach you manners befitting your status? Though I suppose I can tell from the sight of backwater lords strutting around calling themselves nobles.”
“…Has this bastard lost his mind?”
The Albrecht Empire had not enjoyed a good relationship with Elfenbein for some time.
Therefore, most of the enrolled students were not from families holding key positions in the Empire.
They were usually frontier lords, or families like the Baemes who had bought their titles with gold, that sent their children to Elfenbein.
Perhaps that was why many of the guys bristled at Binaeril’s words. Binaeril continued without stopping.
“What? You gonna swarm me as a group? Group violence is an expulsion-worthy offense regardless of reason. How did you even get into Elfenbein? It’s not like your friendship runs that deep, does it?”
Saying so, Binaeril pointed to Rike, who was sitting on the ground.
“And we have a witness right here.”
Rike became a witness to the fight with a bewildered expression.
The guys who had been growling like they would rush in stopped, unable to advance further.
They were furious, but Binaeril was right.
They exchanged glances and looked at Gillian.
“Good thinking. Wouldn’t your remaining lives be too wasted to get expelled over a bastard?”
When Binaeril uttered that word once more, Gillian couldn’t hold back.
Binaeril took a punch to the cheek thrown in anger and fell backward.
Gillian laughed at the fallen Binaeril, his shoulders heaving.
“Ha! Serves you right!”
Gillian Baemes was quite confident in fighting.
Gillian had grown up playing the local alley boss under his merchant father since childhood.
Child fights didn’t require complex techniques or training.
Size, momentum, the guts to scare your opponent. Those were what mattered.
Gillian thought this single blow had completely crushed the opponent’s spirit.
He hurled his strongest sneer at Binaeril, sprawled out on the ground.
Binaeril tasted a bitter stinging in his mouth.
Getting hit was familiar. He’d been secretly beaten by his older brother ever since he was young, without his parents knowing.
To him, his brother was an existence he could never oppose with force. Even so, his brother could never break Binaeril’s spirit of resistance.
Binaeril felt emotions welling up from deep in his chest after a long time.
Anger, contempt, vengeance—those sorts of things.
The emotions that had always filled his chest whenever he faced his brother.
It seemed true that Gillian had taken knight lessons when he was young.
The cheek he’d been struck throbbed badly.
Binaeril got up and glared at Gillian.
His brother too had always said he didn’t like Binaeril’s eyes.
“What…!”
When his eyes met Binaeril’s, Gillian felt an indescribable feeling.
He had beaten down countless brats from the back alleys who defied noble authority, but he had never seen eyes like these.
A cold, settled rage that swept over his entire body.
Gillian was seized by instinctive fear.
“This bastard hasn’t been beaten enough!”
The unfamiliar fear made him impatient. Gillian threw another punch at Binaeril’s face.
Binaeril didn’t dodge. He was confident in his ability to take a hit.
Rike, sitting on the ground, heard the old book next to her flutter.
At first she thought it was the wind.
But it didn’t seem to be, because she thought she saw a faint light leaking from between the pages.
Rike tried to turn toward the light tickling the edge of her vision, but at that moment Binaeril fell with a loud crash.
Binaeril was seized by a strange feeling. Was it because he’d been hit after so long?
It was a weak and sluggish punch compared to his brother’s. Not that it didn’t hurt.
Binaeril hadn’t planned to fight back from the start.
He’d thought he could just take a beating, then go to the infirmary and it would be resolved.
But the moment the second punch flew, an unfamiliar thought seized him.
A thought of what magic he could use against this attack.
He recalled a few basic magics he could use and sought the optimal method among them.
That was all.
He didn’t particularly have the will to strike back, nor had he muttered an incantation.
But his inner mana naturally followed along with his thought. It was the first time he’d felt something so mysterious.
To clear the path for the mana that flowed out, he extended his hand toward Gillian.
Gillian, who was within arm’s reach, heard a faint sound of tearing air from that hand.
“Wha…?”
*Thwack!*
Watching the burly figure fly up a good meter, Rike and the other students couldn’t close their gaping mouths.
But the most bewildered was Binaeril himself.
“Gillian!”
“Hey, you alive? Wake up, man!”
His friends rushed to Gillian, who had crashed after flying through the air.
“What?”
When he came to his senses, the sticky emotions from earlier had vanished without a trace.
He wasn’t even aware that he had responded with something. Only a feeling that strength had drained from his right arm.
As he looked around in confusion, Rike’s surprised eyes entered his vision.
It was absurd, but getting away from there came first.
Binaeril gathered his things and grabbed the hand of the dazed Rike, pulling her up.
“Let’s escape in the confusion.”
“Uh… huh? No, I mean, yes.”