episode_0036

The worm has two options right now.

One is to apologize to me.

The other is to accept my duel request.

What I wanted, of course, was for him to accept my duel request.

And, in fact, accepting the duel request was the only option the worm had.

All the students in the cafeteria were staring at me and the worm.

If the worm were to refuse my duel request and just apologize here?

Other students would see it as him being afraid to fight me and losing, so he got scared.

Click. Click.

The sound of a camera echoed through the silent cafeteria.

Everyone in the cafeteria looked in the direction of the sound, and there stood Simon Nicholas, the head of the newspaper club, holding a camera.

“Oh, did I interrupt? You can continue what you were doing.”

Simon spoke boldly as he took pictures, regardless of everyone staring.

Their personalities were diametrically opposed, making it hard to believe he and Frederic Nicholas, the Special Class sorcerer, were brothers.

“Simon!!”

The worm glared at Simon as if to kill him and shouted.

This was because Simon was the one who posted the incident of the worm spraying Lucas with juice on the bulletin board.

“What, are you going to attack me?”

Simon wasn’t scared at all even when the worm shouted.

He wasn’t scared because Simon was stronger than the worm.

Simon was in the mid-upper ranks of the third year, and the worm was in the upper ranks of the third year.

“Go on, try to attack me.”

Despite that, the reason he was so confident must have been because of the man next to him.

“Don’t put your hand on my shoulder.”

Next to Simon was Joden, the strongest third-year.

Simon and Joden had been close friends since before coming to the academy.

“Tsk.”

The worm looked at Joden once, clicked his tongue, and then looked back at me.

Did he know how ridiculous he looked right now?

“Do I look easy just because I was beaten by Joden in the cafeteria last time? Or do you seriously think you’re special just because you’re in the Special Class? You and I are on different levels…”

“Haa.”

Listening to the worm babble on, a sigh naturally escaped my lips.

‘Annoying.’

Damn it. Why can’t he just understand and stop making a fuss?

Is it that hard to just say yes?

I’m in an awful mood, should I ask him to fight right now instead of three days later?

Couldn’t I accidentally kill him during the duel?

It’s possible if emotions get heated during a duel.

It feels like I could just make it look like the worm tried to kill me first, then pretend to counterattack and kill him.

No. Should I just change the bet from the loser getting expelled to the loser committing suicide?

That way, I wouldn’t have to do anything else.

Breaking into that bastard’s dorm at night and killing him is also a good method.

“Whew…”

Snap out of it.

I exhaled and took a deep breath.

I almost let my old personality come out.

‘I haven’t been able to release my emotions much lately.’

I use [Poker Face] to suppress my original personality as much as possible and [Clown] to hide it as much as possible.

The reason I hide my personality isn’t by my choice, but because of a forced characteristic.

However, no matter how much I suppress and hide my personality with characteristics, emotions don’t disappear. They just build up endlessly.

When emotions kept accumulating without being released, my original personality would burst out like this.

One might think that having my original personality emerge is a good thing.

But this emerging personality was hard for me to control.

So I usually released it well, but it seems I’ve been under too much stress recently because of the worm in front of me.

“So, Senior, a third-year, you’re not scared and will accept my duel request, despite me being just a first-year?”

“Yes. Just as you said, the loser gets expelled from the academy. You’re going to be expelled anyway, so you might as well start packing your bags now.”

“Considering I’ll be going on vacation during summer break, packing my bags in advance isn’t a bad idea, I suppose.”

After listening to my words, the worm walked out of the cafeteria.

I was about to eat my lunch comfortably, but then…

“Fighting with expulsion on the line, you didn’t mention that!”

I couldn’t eat because Lucas, who was next to me, spoke up.

“I told you, didn’t I? I’d take care of everything within a week.”

“Haa. I didn’t know you’d handle it this way.”

“Honestly, if both of them remain at the academy, the other side will keep picking fights. In a way, isn’t this the most rational and certain method?”

This time, Sepia spoke up.

“So, if one of them is gone, there’s no chance of them clashing. Is that why you requested a duel with expulsion as a condition? If you lose, you could be expelled.”

“No, Sepia-ssi. There’s no chance I’ll lose.”

This time, Clara spoke to me.

“Your opponent is a top-ranked third-year.”

“What does that matter?”

“Haa.”

“Now, now, everyone, don’t worry and just enjoy your lunch.”

“””Haa…”””

.

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After finishing lunch, the Special Class students and I walked together through the academy grounds.

“Look over there.”

“Is that masked man the one who requested a duel with Ropri, putting expulsion on the line?”

“Yeah, his picture was in the newspaper we saw earlier.”

Rumors had spread so quickly that students whispered about me everywhere we went.

‘The newspaper, huh.’

I led the Special Class students to the bulletin board where the newspaper was posted.

[Duel for Expulsion Between an Academy Freshman and a Top-Ranked Third-Year.]

How quickly was it made?

It hadn’t even been 30 minutes since I requested the duel, but the newspaper was already on the bulletin board.

I stared blankly at the newspaper.

“Do you finally understand the seriousness of this?”

Clara, who was beside me, spoke up, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the newspaper.

“Clara-ssi.”

“What?”

“I don’t think I’m very photogenic.”

“Go die.”

Aw. This is such an important issue.

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.

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Lunchtime ended, and all the remaining classes were also over.

During class, all the students whispered about me.

Naturally, the topic of discussion was whether I could defeat the worm.

And almost all the students said I would lose.

“You all worked hard today. Don’t be late tomorrow either.”

Professor Alicia announced the end of class with the same words as always.

“Loki, you stay.”

Except for telling me to stay.

“Yes, Professor-nim!”

After all the other Special Class students left, only Professor Alicia and I remained in the classroom.

“I heard the story. You’re having a duel with a third-year, with the condition that the loser gets expelled?”

“Yes, Professor-nim! It just sort of happened that way.”

“Ropri, whom you’ll be fighting, is strong even among the third-years. He’ll have more combat experience than you, and much more stamina.”

“That’s not exactly a reason for me to lose, is it?”

“One of your specialties, trickery, won’t be much help against an overwhelmingly strong opponent.”

In a way, Professor Alicia might seem confident that I would lose.

But I knew that Professor Alicia wasn’t that kind of person.

“Professor-nim, but he’s not an overwhelmingly strong opponent, is he?”

Professor Alicia listened to my words, then grinned with satisfaction and roughly ruffled my hair.

“That’s right. There’s no reason for you to lose. If you do lose, you’ll die by my hand.”

“Then I’ll have to win to stay alive.”

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I was lying on my dorm bed.

It wasn’t bedtime yet, but I was tired, so I rested my body on the bed.

Ring-ring.

While I was resting on the bed, a sound came from the communicator.

It meant someone was calling.

Of course, I talked to Yerika every day, but that was usually much later than now.

“Yerika, why so early…”

[I heard from my brother! Expulsion, really?!]

“Anyone hearing you would think I’ve already been expelled. I’m still attending the academy just fine.”

[This is no time for jokes!]

“As I said yesterday, Yerika, you don’t need to worry. I fully intend to win.”

When I spoke with a voice full of conviction, Yerika seemed to calm down and took a short, deep breath.

[If you lose, I’ll appoint you as my personal guard knight right away!]

Just by her voice, I could tell she was pouting.

“What if I win?”

[Then I’ll appoint you as a guard knight after graduation, of course.]

That’s a checkmate, truly.

“But Yerika?”

[Yes?]

“Did you call so urgently because you were worried I might be expelled?”

[I don’t know!]

Annoyed by my teasing, Yerika shouted loudly and then hung up.

Ring-ring.

Thirty seconds after Yerika hung up, the communicator rang again.

Anyone could tell Yerika was calling back.

I answered the call and intentionally spoke mischievously.

“Yerika, could it be that you wanted to hear my voice again in that short time and called back?”

However, no sound came from the communicator.

A moment later, a voice did come, but it wasn’t Yerika’s voice; it was a deep male voice.

[Hoho, what was that?]

????????

“Your Majesty?”

The person who called me was not Yerika, but the Emperor.