…Randy glared and sighed back at them, while Annie gave them a vague smile.
Then…
“Hey… You think you can ignore me, you twit?!”
Suddenly, someone was yelling a short distance away. The crowd of students began murmuring to one another.
Rix and the others turned around to see a few students standing alone in the center of a ring of other students who had moved away in order to not get involved.
One of them was the white-haired girl who had been on the ship. She was wearing a white robe that matched her hair. It looked like she had become part of the White Class, too.
Threatening her was a male student in a red robe, who was grabbing her by her lapels and holding her up.
He was bigger and taller than Randy, with a toned physique that indicated clearly that he’d had some martial arts training. He had haughty features, and the grin on his face made it seem like he was looking down on everyone. He was glaring at the white-haired girl with contempt.
“You listenin’ now? Maybe you didn’t hear me the first time, so I’ll tell you again,” he said. “I, Gordon Grolyle, have taken a liking to a lowly common girl like you. It’s an honor you don’t even deserve.”
“…”
“That means from today, I’ve decided you belong to me,” he continued. “You’ll move from the White Class to the Red Class. And you’ll stay in my room with me. I’ll make sure to take good care of you every night. You may think I’m crazy, but it’ll be easy enough using my family’s power. What, aren’t you happy? You’ve won the favor of a Grolyle, after all. I’ll keep you as a pet, at least until I get sick of you. Heh-heh-heh…”
Two male students in the same red robes as Gordon who appeared to be his toadies grinned creepily.
“Gya-ha-ha! Hey, Gordon, don’t break her in too hard before you share her with us!” one said.
“Yeah, yeah! She’s a real stunner, after all!” another chimed in.
“Man, did you get a good look at her face? Oof, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one as pretty as her!”
One of the boys sidled up to her, took her chin in his hand, and jerked it up.
“No kidding! Compared to this one, all the other girls here look like potatoes!”
The other boy started rubbing his hands over the girl’s hips and legs.
It was unbelievably insulting, unbelievably humiliating.
And yet…
“…”
…the girl was silent. Unresponsive. It was like she couldn’t even see the male students surrounding her.
She didn’t scream for them to stop, and she didn’t look frightened, either. She wasn’t trying to act brave or defy her tormentors. She didn’t obey them to avoid getting hurt or try to flatter them.
She didn’t give Gordon and his friends a single reaction they were hoping to see. So it was no surprise that he was starting to get a little angry.
“Hey…come on, aren’t you gonna say anything? Huh?!”
And then…the white-haired girl, who had looked like she was frozen in time up until that moment, suddenly spoke:
“…Whatever.”
“Huh?” said Gordon.
“Who cares?” the girl said. “Do whatever you want.”
“?!”
She didn’t even glance at Gordon or his friends. She was hopelessly disinterested to her core—in them and in herself.
Her attitude was enough to really rub Gordon’s pride the wrong way.
“Don’t get cocky with me. You’re just a common Fool who hasn’t even opened her Sphere yet!”
As he grabbed the girl by the lapels, the look in his eye was getting more and more dangerous.
“I guess there are scum like that everywhere you go,” Serephina spat disgustedly. “I can’t bear to watch. They’re not even worth calling the teachers over. I’ll deal with them myself.”
“Wait.” Rix grabbed Serephina by the shoulder.
“Don’t try and stop me, Rix.”
“Listen, just calm down. From what I can tell, you’re not the most socially adept. No matter what we do, this is probably going to turn into a fight.”
Rix pointed at Serephina’s hand, which was resting on the hilt of her rapier.
“Leave this one to me, all right? Don’t worry; I’m used to dealing with situations like this.” Rix winked confidently.
“Hrmph… If you insist…”
Then Randy came up to Rix and gave him a warning.
“Rix, watch out. That guy said he’s a Grolyle.”
“Yeah? So what?”
“I’ll spare you the details, but they’re a noble and pretty powerful family in the magical community. If you don’t handle this carefully, it could mess up your life here at the academy going forward.”
“It’s fine, don’t worry! I’ll settle this peacefully. Just sit back and watch, okay?”
Rix left Randy and Annie behind with worried looks on their faces and casually walked up to Gordon.
“Hmph, maybe a cocky brat like you needs to be taught a lesson to get it through your head!” Gordon sneered.
Just as Gordon was raising his fist above his head at the girl who wasn’t resisting him whatsoever…
“Stop! Stoppp! You over there! Violence isn’t the answer!”
…Rix waltzed right up between the two of them.
“Huh?! Who the hell are you?!”
Gordon’s face looked even scarier once the interloper barged in.
Rix smiled gently and spoke sincerely. “Humans have this wonderful thing called language. As long as we use our words, I think we can find a good solution together. What I’m saying is—”
Gordon wasn’t hearing a word of it. Suddenly, he posed like he was getting ready to punch Rix and shut him up.
“—screw youuuuuuuu!”
However, Rix was faster. He plunged his fist into Gordon’s face with everything he had.
“Buuuuuuuuuh?!”
Gordon was blown away, tumbling head over heels.
The crowd of students surrounding them quickly parted to avoid Gordon as he flew toward them.
Eventually, he slammed against the wall and fell to the floor.
“G-Gordon?!”
“You bastard! How dare you—”
Gordon’s lackeys flew at Rix.
“Stop it, you guys!” Rix knocked down the one coming at him from the right. “Violence won’t solve anything!”
He then kicked the one coming at him from the left. “If we stay calm and talk it out, we’ll definitely find some way to understand each other!”
“That’s not convincing at aaaaaaallllllll!”
Randy felt practically obligated to comment as Rix pleaded earnestly with Gordon and the others, who lay slumped and lifeless around him.
“Hey! Rix! Didn’t you say you were going to settle this peacefully?!”
“Huh?” Rix looked taken aback and pointed at the blade hanging from his hip. “I didn’t draw my sword, did I?”
“That’s your standard for ‘peaceful’?!” Randy was tearing at his own hair in frustration.
“Even I wasn’t going to go that far,” said Serephina, staring exasperatedly.
“Oh no, oh no…” Annie was clearly flustered.
After a moment…
“B-bastard…! You think you can mess with me…?!”
Having seemingly taken less damage than everyone had expected, Gordon was staggering to his feet.
His face was bright red and demonic. Now he had completely lost it.
Having already regained stable footing, he went up to Rix and glared down at him.
“I’ll kill you! I swear, I’ll kill you!”
“Hmm? Hang on, have you killed a person before? That makes two of us!”
Rix blinked in surprise, while Gordon seemed momentarily at a loss for words.
“Huh? Wh-what…are you talkin’ about…?” he stammered.
“It seems like we could be good friends after all! Nice!” Rix extended his hand for a handshake.
Though he was saying something outrageous, Rix’s expression remained calm.
To Gordon, that look on Rix’s face was somehow very…
“I’ll kill yooooouuuuu!!”
To stifle that feeling that had almost crept into his mind, Gordon flew into a rage and started to cast a spell.
He summoned a fierce ball of lightning in his right hand, and just as he prepared to bring it down on Rix…
“That’s enough!”
Thud!
Suddenly, a tremendous weight of gravity was applied to Rix’s and Gordon’s shoulders.
Their bodies became heavy. Too heavy. This enormous weight felt like their flesh and bone had turned into lead. They could no longer stand.
“Oof?!”
Unable to bear the weight, Gordon collapsed on the spot.
“…Guh?! What is this…?!”
Rix fell to one knee.
“Oh?”