RATH 92
TL: Eevee
11. Not a myth, but a legend (5)
#5 Their story: a certain traitor’s story.
“Piss off, where the hell do you get off crawling your way into?”
“Don’t even think about getting near before you die.”
“That, that’s not it…”
“What’s not it. That’s rich coming from the one who publicly humiliated our vice-president.”
“Heartless asshole.”
“There are things you can do to win, and things you cannot.”
I felt the eyes look down on me as if they were looking at trash, but I could do naught but keep my mouth tightly shut.
Right now, I was trash incarnate.
“Just one… please give me just one chance.”
“Get lost.”
No matter how much I begged or pleaded, the Arucia students refused to allow me onto their grounds.
To be honest even I wouldn’t allow myself in.
Because the only ones who knew the full story were those evil Yugrasia students that had also participated in that event.
The majority of the Yugrasia students that hadn’t participated in that event thought that I had actually said what Risen had said instead.
The female students of my academy were looking at me as if I was trash, and some of the male students were looking at me with respect.
To the girls, I was trash that abandoned his woman for a single victory, to the boys, I was a hero that even gave up his woman in order to win.
And as for Risen, the cause of all this… he was avoiding me as hard as he could using Loki’s full power.
I’d summoned all my elementals and run at him with the resolve to actually kill him, but Risen was taking this just as seriously as I was and easily slipped through my elemental encirclement, dodging in and out and here and there disgustingly easily.
In the end I couldn’t exact the retribution of blood once again…
Even when I’d showed up in the Arucia residence to beg for forgiveness, I was coldly turned away, and could only walk away with lifeless footsteps.
“Is this… really the end?”
I could still hear Ari’s cry ringing in my ears.
The cry that was filled with sorrow and despair… and yet asked me one last time with that final hope.
“Should I just sneak in?”
As Ari’s cry rang through my head, I stopped walking and looked back at Arucia.
Even if the majority of the students bar Mercaria were nobles, even if the equipment they had were the best canvases available, a canvas was still a canvas.
To me, who had experimented and invented all sorts of means and methods to escape from Yugrasia’s night study, there was no way that a couple of magic tools would be able to stop me.
As long as those tents weren’t Made In Black Anvil!
“Alright, I’m just going to gap it and look for Ari!”
Just as I was looking around to determine the most optimal escape route, I heard a familiar voice from behind me.
“…Are you even going to commit a crime now, oppa?”
“Re, Renya?”
Renya ti Silgran.
A childhood friend from a very early age, and the first girl that confessed to me.
She wasn’t jealous of my other childhood friends that also liked me, and on the contrary, helped them to confess themselves. A girl who was that gentle-hearted was now looking up at me with teary eyes.
“Are… are you really going to become a criminal as well now, oppa?”
“N, no… I just wanted to meet Ari… but I couldn’t find a way to meet her, that’s all it was!”
“…But trying to sneak in is still a crime.”
“Kghhh…”
“Oppa… I saw today’s match as well, but you weren’t acting like normal. The oppa I knew would never have done something so filthy just to win!”
Sorry, I’ve fallen so low I actually can do as filthy things as I need to in order to win.
It was just that I was making such a huge fuss about it because it was Ahri we were talking about, to be honest if it was someone else’s problem I’d actually be praising Risen right about now.
Because that was the kind of place Yugrasia was.
Not even the jungle would be this savage!
“It wasn’t me that said those things yesterday…”
Although since I couldn’t say that as is, first I looked away and said so with a regretful voice.
“Really?”
And Renya looked at me with heartrending eyes in response to my much-too practiced acting skills!
“Yes. It was the vice-president Risen that said those things yesterday. You know the Trickster? He used Loki’s ability to change his voice into mine.”
“Really? It really wasn’t oppa that did it?”
“Of course.”
This at least was no lie.
Because of that, I could nod my head with no deceit and when I did, the tears that had gathered in the corners of Renya’s eyes began to flow freely.
“Thank goodness… thank goodness… Unni had worked so hard to get her and oppa recognised by her dad…”
It hurt my heart to see her cry so sorrowfully, but I heard something I couldn’t just gloss over.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Ah…”
At my words Renya’s eyes widened, and her mouth opened slightly.
“Ah, th… that… ah, that’s… if unni does her best at the imperial festival… that’s, uh…. If she does her best… then might unni’s dad not see oppa in a better light?”
Renya can’t lie.
She’s so, so horrible at lying.
To the point where I wondered if I might have to have her enrol in Yugrasia for a short one-month course.
Although of course if she did, the moment Renya met the silver devil would undoubtedly be the moment she’d break up with me so it wasn’t like that would ever happen!
As Renya told me what was definitely a lie, I used the practical acting skills I learned in Yugrasia.
“Renya.”
“M, mm.”
I lowered my voice, and made my eyes look as sad as I could.
Although it wasn’t as good as our abilities to play dead in order to fool the silver devil, but our skills in looking as pitiful as possible to the teachers that stood in our way were good enough for us to be able to survive by begging, even if all our houses were to fall to ruin.
“Is that… really it?”
In a complete turn of events to just before, now I was the one looking at Renya with tears in my eyes.
“Ah… th, that’s…”
Renya couldn’t meet my eyes and turned her head around so I couldn’t make eye contact.
“Renya…”
But it wasn’t like I would allow that.
I moved in advance to where Renya would turn her head to, and made her keep looking into my tearful eyes.
“Uwuu…. Uw?”
As my face came into her field of view no matter which direction she turned, in the end Renya ducked her head as she started twitching.
Ducking her head to avoid my line of sight wasn’t a bad move.
Because if she does, then she can’t see my face unless I duck down under her myself.
And there was no way I could stick my head under in a sad(act) situation like this.
And so her ducking her head down to avoid my face was not a bad move, not a bad move at all.
That is, if my objective had been to show her my sad face!
Fwoomf.
“O, oppa?!”
I could hear Renya’s startled voice from right in front of me.
My attack of choice was a surprise embrace!
Renya ducked her head down to avoid looking at my face.
And of course let alone my face, she couldn’t see the rest of me either.
And when her vision was obstructed?
Of course you’d have to go for the sneak attack!
“Renya… I want to know. What happened to Ari?”
“Fueee?”
And if the opponent didn’t go down with the first sneak attack, then follow up a second, a third time to finish them off.
Professor Aruhan had told us that there was no point in a sneak attack if you couldn’t finish off the enemy.
“Renya… I’m… sad. I don’t want to have to make you lie.”
“But… but still…”
As I whispered into her ears, Renya’s face which had already turned red, started to heat up as if she would explode.
“Tell me, Renya…”
“Th, that’s…. Uwuu… Unni told me not to say it…”
Now tearing up a bit, she twisted around this way and that to escape my attack, but the more she did, the deeper she dug herself into my arms.
“Uwuu… wha, what the…”
As she only get closer the more she tried to get away, Renya was starting to lose herself.
‘This is the end.’
“Are you… really not going to tell me?”
“Funyaaaaaaaahh!”
As I whispered and lightly nipped her ear, Renya finally fell to my last attack, falling to the ground with tears in her eyes.
“O, oppa’s… sniff… gotten lewd…”
Although she came to a bit of a weird misunderstanding.
And shortly afterwards.
“And that’s what happened.”
“So that was it.”
What Renya told me as we sat on the grass was a long story, but easily summarised as thus.
Ari and I had known each other since a very young age, but the difference in class between her family and mine was much too great.
I was from an ordinary viscount’s family.
In comparison, although not necessarily famous, Ari’s family was one that held the title of Count, one that could be called a high-ranking noble.
Because of that, Ari’s father very, very much disliked me hanging around Ari.
There was already a difference in class between us, and Ari’s father was a person who treated his family’s pedigree as one which started as a Baron as a knight, and eventually worked its way up to a Count.
It was also said that he said he would only let his daughters marry someone who had learned the sword, and often enough to essentially be a habit of his.
But I only learned summoning!
And as a summoner that only learned how to utilise spirits, I was completely ignorant in terms of swordplay.
In a situation like that, Ari and I became lovers thanks to Renya’s help, and hating to hide that truth, Ari did her best to make her father acknowledge me.
Perhaps Ari’s efforts had paid off, her father had told her directly that if Arucia won this year’s imperial festival thanks to her efforts, he would take a second look at our relationship.
So Ari worked herself down to the bone until the imperial festival began, and improved herself!
And the end result of that was…
‘They got completely wrecked by Yugrasiaaaaaaaaaahh!’
She worked that hard, and in the end, Arucia was still on 0 points with only 1 event left!
Worse, the reason she lost the latest event was because her lover, the person she’d worked so hard for had betrayed her!(even if it wasn’t the truth!)
“Unni… even after the event ended, she kept crying. When I went to see her before you came, she was still crying.”
“Urghh…”
Even if I couldn’t hear Renya’s sorrowful voice, I could almost see Ari crying in front of me.
“And in that situation, even if you try to sneak in to see her, unni won’t want to meet you.”
“Mm.”
She tried her hardest, worked so hard all for the sake of getting her father to acknowledge our relationship, but I was the one who had rejected her.
Even though I wasn’t the one who said those things, right now, that was the only way Ari could accept the current status quo.
Would she really want to meet me in that state?
Even if I snuck in, would Ari actually accept me?
“So oppa, please, just wait a little bit. Until unni can heal her heart… can you please wait just a little bit?”
It wasn’t a bad idea to listen to Renya, who said she would mediate between Ari and I.
Because stepping out right now could actually hurt Ari even more than she already was.
But… but!
“No, I’m not going to wait for her.”
“N, no! Even so, sneaking in is a crime!”
“I’m not going to sneak in, either.”
“Th, then how?!”
As Renya was shocked by what I announced, I threw away the sad expression I’d had on my face, and managed a forced but bright smile.
“A frontal breakthrough.”
“Huh?”
As I looked at Renya’s stunned expression, I stood up from where I’d been sitting down.
“Renya, where’s Ari’s tent?”
“U, unni? Unni’s over there… ahh!”
Renya pointed to a tent with her finger, before realising what she’d done and quickly pulling her finger away, but the target had already been sighted!
“I’ll be back soon.”
“O, oppa?!”
Renya hurriedly reached her hand out but she couldn’t catch me.
“Huhh?!”
“I told you to piss off… what the?!”
“Get him, the Yugrasia student council president is trying to break in!”
With the blessing of the wind spirit, I quickly ran forward.
There was no way that the likes of Arucia students could hope to catch up to my evasion skills that had been tempered by the night study.
“Was it that one?”
Bang!
“Ari!”
I kicked down the entrance to her tent.
“Ne, Nerkia?”
When I barged in, a shocked Ari lifted her up from her bed, and I saw her eyes were bloodshot and swollen.
Her hair was also in ruins.
There were still tears in the corners of her eyes, and although it might be a bit rude to say this, but she was even dribbling snot which I hadn’t seen from her since we were kids.
“D, don’t come in!”
Whether it was because she realised what she looked like right now, or simply because she hated me.
She yelled shrilly as she covered her face with the pillow she was holding.
“No.”
There was no way I would listen to those words.
“Go away, go away! Yugrasia’s victory is more important to you than me.”
“That’s not true.”
“Lies! You… when I asked you to show me your face back then, you didn’t even come out…”
“I wasn’t the one who said that.”
“Lies! How am I supposed to believe that!”
As Ari threw her pillow at me and pushed me away, i…
“Believe me.”
“Hhhph?!”
I stole her lips away.
“Wh, what are you doing!”
“What am I doing, of course I just kissed you because you’re so cute?”
“Are you actually Nerkia? The Nerkia I know wasn’t this type of persommff!”
I immediately blocked up that bad mouth which kept on saying useless things.
With what? With my own mouth of course!
“Puhaa… Ne, Ner… mmff! W, wait! Let, let me brea… mmm!”
And as I attacked her a second, third, fourth time, I whispered into Ari’s ear just as I’d done with Renya.
“I’ll make you believe that you’re more important to me than Yugrasia’s victory, Ari…”
“Re… ally?”
As Ari looked away from me slightly with a brightly flushed face, I gently kissed her cheeks and whispered into her ear.
“Yes…”
And the next day.
“Come at me, Yugrasia!”
The moment the match began, I immediately declared war on Yugrasia.
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