I awoke at 4:56 the next morning. My whole entire body ached; it felt like I had been put inside of a blender. As I sat up in bed wincing in pain, I remembered the fact that I had essentially been put inside of a blender. The Raiden manhunt that ended in me going one-on-one with Myra Kazuichi. Or, the bloodhound.
Just remembering her name and appearance made the bruises on my side hurt even more. I lifted up my shirt and placed a hand on my left side, where she had landed some of the most devastating blows. The skin was purple from bruising, and just placing a hand on top of it made me flinch. Not to mention the fact that my head still hurt like hell, and my heartbeat was still irregular from overusing electrification.
That was the part that terrified me the most. The fact that she had not only done this to me, but the fact that she had managed to keep up with me while I was using electrification. At pretty much full power. I had gone up to 100%, and she was still able to hold her ground. She was seriously freakish. In a way it reminded me of Shindo. Or, as he was more fittingly known, 'The Prince.'
Although I had heard that people had stopped referring to him that way. His relationship with his peers had been mended following the events of the siege on Theta. I was happy for him. He was finally able to overcome the thing that had once kept him isolated. His own strength. I was also happy because that meant Suijin had one less thing to worry about. But by the law of equivalent exchange, she had gained a new thing to worry about with Yuri and all.
But the fact that I could even draw a comparison between Myra and Shindo said enough about the level of her strength. If Shindo was a monster disguised as a prince, then Myra was a beast disguised as a hound.
Kazuichi? She's a daughter of one of the 10 grand magic families as well? Weird that I didn't recognize her.
As I got up and went about getting ready for school, I thought back to what had happened directly after our fight and Alice had intervened.
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The Day Before...
Alice forgetting the keys to the handcuffs meant that there was no way either of us could get out of them. We couldn't even use our strength to just shatter them, because Ayung had designed them to be nearly unbreakable, and not to mention she had given the handcuffs the ability to absorb mana and sap strength. So both of us were much too weak to actually break through them.
I watched as Alice paced around the room, thinking about how to get them off. But since we were handcuffed together, that meant she was also dragging me along. I was too weak and tired to actually get up.
"Why would you willingly put on handcuffs that make you just as weak as the person in the cuffs?" I asked as my body was dragged around the room in circles. I was going to vomit real soon.
Alice paid me no attention.
On the other hand, Myra was watching us with an amused expression. "You know, if you want, I could just break them for you guys." She made a gesture of pulling something apart.
"No!"
"No!" We both shouted at the exact same time.
I had declined the offer because I had seen her strength firsthand. If she helped us, no doubt she'd be able to get the cuffs off, but I'd probably also lose my hand in the process. I rather liked having my right hand, so I decided to just pass up on the offer.
Alice, on the other hand, had a completely different reason for declining. "This is actually good." She adjusted her glasses, and the glare of the sun caused her eyes to not be visible. "Very good." A smile appeared on her face. "If I head to Credo like this, then he'll have no choice but to give me the credit. Then I basically get a free ticket to that training camp!"
Myra looked at us in confusion but just shrugged her shoulders. She then reached into her pocket and pulled out a walkie-talkie of sorts. I knew phones weren't allowed on campus, but they allowed alternative forms of communication like radios?
"Take down the barrier, piece of shit."
Considering she had told this person to take down the barrier, I assumed she was talking to Aven. I wondered why she was so aggressive.
All at once I felt the magical energy of the barrier disappear.
"No reason to be so aggressive, milady. Is this because of the da-"
Before Aven could finish speaking, Myra crushed the walkie-talkie in her hand like one would an empty can of soda. She then tossed the crumpled thing to the side before beginning to walk away, her fists clenched tightly. "Let's go."
After seeing that display, I wasn't prone to any meaningful disagreement, and neither was Alice.
It was only after we got outside and faced off against the wall of students that I found out who Myra Kazuichi really was. Someone who was famous among the second-year students for her strength. She was also the target of a lot of affection as such. It was also out there when my brain finally processed the fact that she was a member of the Kazuichi family, one of the 10 Grand Magic families.
I watched as she talked among the students with a bit of shock. And somehow I had never heard about her up until this point?
That was when Alice pulled on the handcuffs and dragged me away. "Huh?"
"We have to go now. As soon as they realize you were able to hold your own in a fight against her, they'll be all over us. And I won't get my credit because you'll be dead."
I wanted to say something; however, I noticed the student's gazes that were slowly turning our way. A whole lot of them. Thankfully, someone had covered us in a concealment spell. When I looked over, I saw Nova smiling at me.
I nodded at her before turning back to look at Alice.
"Thanks. I guess."
She didn't turn around. "I'm not doing this because I want to help you. This is just so that I can get the reward I was promised. That's all."
Ariel: Would you look at that? You had a brush with death at the mercy of thighs, and then you meet a real-life tsundere. I take back my previous comments. Your life's an above-average Web novel.
I sighed.
Can it just go back to being a shitty one? I don't know how much more of this I can take.
Sparkle: Man, he doesn't know what he's in for~ HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAH-
Oh, wait. I really shouldn't be
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Back to the Present...
"There's this story I'm sure you're all familiar with at this point. It's the tale of a magician who strived to represent justice in a world where that was something hard to find. During the heyday of the Grand Magic Alliance, right after they had completely managed to fight back for the rights to the lives of magicians, the leaders of said Grand Magic Alliance began to grow in over their heads."
Credo began the class with a lecture. That was horrible for me, because I was already struggling to stay awake from my last few classes. Intros to magical engineering and the classes that Hikaru had made me choose on the course selection form were really draining everything I had. I would've fallen asleep in my other classes if it hadn't been for Hikaru and Masayoshi keeping me up. Along with the help of Alice.
I couldn't say I was shocked that she was also one of the people who selected a wide variety of classes, but the sentiment wasn't shared. According to Alice, she thought of me as a
Lazy, antisocial dimwit, who was unfortunate enough to be dragged around the school like Erika.
I had told her that words hurt, and maybe she should consider letting people down easy. To that she just responded:
"I have no reason to concern myself with anything superficial like that. If you want to say something, be honest and get to the point."
I didn't admit it, but I found her belief pretty cool.
Because of my escapades in the previous classes, when I walked into the arena for class and Credo began to give a lecture, I couldn't help but sigh. I had been hoping for something slightly interesting to keep me awake, but it seemed I'd be battling the seductiveness of sleep once again.
"Uriel. That was the name of the woman who took a stand against the leaders of the Grand Magic Academy. She and a band of magicians took up their swords and launched a campaign against the tyranny of the wizard of Greed. She was carving out her own justice with her own hands."
Next to me, Masayoshi seemed to have stopped breathing. When I turned my gaze towards him, I saw that his eyes were distant as he stared directly at Credo. He was in deep thought. He always seemed to be thinking deeply every time I was around him, now that I really think about it. Even Nova and Erika began to notice it. It was as if he was trapped in a prison that was his own mind, mulling over the same thing over and over again, unable to find an answer.
I really wanted to help him if I could, but he really didn't make it easy. He kept himself closed off, and he had begun to start pushing people away. If I were more like Erika, maybe I could just give him a good slap and tell him to at least tell his friends what was wrong, but I didn't think I was the kind of person that could pull something like that off.
"Hey, Masayoshi." I called out to him.
Still. I could try. If I didn't, then I couldn't call myself his friend, could I?
"Remember that question you had asked back when we used to arrive early and sit in homeroom? About Justice?"
His expression perked up a bit, and he nodded. "What about it?"
"Well, after everything that's happened, I think there's a need for me to revise the answer I had given to that question. I think believing that justice can be found is naive."
Masayoshi nodded.
"However, I think the refusal to accept that fact and move to create justice yourself—that's where the answer to your question is. Justice lies in whoever can create it."
"And that power belongs to the strong." Masayoshi finished for me. I was going to disagree with his statement; however, at that moment, Credo's piercing gaze shot towards the two of us.
"After that, on the dawn of the final battle, the last fight that they needed to realize this new world and new justice they had spent so much time and effort and sacrifices fighting for—Uriel was betrayed. Her own men lynched her. Brutally killed her, and she was hanged. In the center of the city of London. For all to see,"
At some point he had come to the end of this story. One that I recognized from the reading I did. The betrayal of Buckingham Palace, As Uriel made her final stand against the corruption of the Grand Magic Alliance, she was betrayed by her very own men and killed. It was a brutal story, and one I mulled over for a long time.
Why would her men betray her in such a way? After all the fighting they did together and all the sacrifices they made for one another, as well as all the progress. What prompted them to throw that away? Power? Money?
And on the more horror side of things, what happened to the body, Uriel?
It was a legend around that area that 3 days after she had been hanged, her body vanished. No one knows what had happened to her.
"My point here? There are going to be times when those you thought were closest to you will turn against you. And how you react and deal with those will define whether or not you end up an urban legend like Uriel or whether or not you write history with your own hands. He was watching me and Masayoshi closely.
"Now, for today's test, how about we enact a simulation of being betrayed by everyone around you?"
I knew what he was going to say before he even said it. I just sighed.
"Raiden and Masayoshi. Until the end of class. You two have to avoid capture."
All around the room, students instantly launched up and got ready to chase us down, waiting for Credo's call.
"Rules. You can't leave the arena. And, no deadly force, I guess."
Am I just this guy's personal guinea pig?! And why was deadly force an afterthought?!
Masayoshi looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
"Would I be wrong if I betrayed you right now?"