Chapter 7: Inevitably, the Heroine

I Hate Attention (3)

...I don't know how to describe this feeling. I even doubted if I was the kind of person who could be happy about something so trivial. It's just a woman, at best. There was no connection yet, nor was there any real acquaintance.

I don't know why the corners of my lips are lifting.

"...Did she go to the entrance ceremony?"

The person who passed me by indifferently—no, now that I know her name, I should call her Aisha. Aisha, Aisha. After repeating her name several times, I walked in the direction she went. She probably went to the auditorium where the entrance ceremony was being held.

I'm not following her, but I should still go to the entrance ceremony.

...I definitely wasn't following her.

#

A person's life isn't always filled with pleasant things. I knew that fact well, and that's why I prepared for bad things when good things happened.

I didn't expect to face this.

I never imagined I would find one of my father's 'children' at the entrance ceremony. The corners of my lips, which had been raised, stiffened again, and my brow furrowed slightly. It wouldn't be good to run into her. After all, his children all acted as if picking fights with me was their job.

Kaisa Carmen, with her confident face, was looking at the principal in front of her. She was probably thinking that she would surpass even that principal. Arrogance, vanity, conceit, and greed. I wondered if the word 'hero' even suited her.

The excited emotions calmed down, and the rising heat subsided. The curiosity about Aisha faded, and hatred for my father swallowed that place again. What is the reason I came here? Wasn't it to take revenge on him?

Clearing my mind, I took my eyes off Kaisa again and looked ahead.

And the person in my memory that I had just tried to erase—caught my eye again.

She was looking at the class assignment machine with a curious expression. If she had gone to school, she would have seen that kind of thing often, so what was so fascinating about it? Before I knew it, I was smiling. Especially when she picked up a ball marked with an A—I realized only now that I could smile so brightly.

I was happy.

...Why?

I shook my head as soon as I looked away. This wasn't the time to be distracted. I needed to think more seriously about the goal I had set. As I was touching my cheekbones, which had risen so high, I felt someone approaching beside me.

"Looking cheerful?"

...I swallowed a curse inwardly. Why, of all people, did you have to talk to me? I didn't want to cause any trouble. Whatever she said, I would calmly accept it. If she had any sense, she wouldn't try to start a pointless fight.

"You pathetic bastard."

A curse from the start. It was pathetic. Unlike her seemingly noble appearance, the words coming out of her mouth were all vulgar. It must be my father's fault. Like father, like child, a dog's child can't be a tiger.

Ignore her. With that thought, I remained silent.

"......"

It was better for my mental health to let her talk to herself. How many times had a casual reply turned into a big fight? Looking at her green eyes as she excitedly talked, I smirked inwardly. The emotion spreading in her eyes was nothing but inferiority.

The inferiority that the arrogant guy had gave a rather unique feeling. And the words she was spouting, soaked in inferiority, didn't even reach my ears.

"What's so good? What reason do you have to grin like that?"

"...Why do you care..."

"No, I do care. I can't just let it go if you have a happy face, unless you're always looking rotten as usual."

Is it okay to treat someone like this just because they're smiling? The question suddenly arose, but there was no reason to think deeply about it. This guy was originally like that.

"Why did you even enroll here? Don't you know your place?"

My place? Was that something someone like you could decide? When I glared at her, she smirked and replied.

"Are you asking because you don't know? Your mother made you dirty..."

Mother, the moment I heard that word, the string of reason I was desperately holding onto snapped. Who are you to insult my mother? In my short life, I had never done anything to be insulted by others.

No matter how trivial, she insulted me and my mother, calling us bastards. I had been living so carefully, how much effort had I put in? There was no longer an option for me to endure. Even if I were to be expelled from this place—I had to get an apology from Kaisa.

With that thought, I swung my sword.

Kwaaang-

Her Ability is to Harden parts of her body. I expected her to withstand my explosion. But what about a series of explosions? A little faster, so that the time the sword touched was faster than a fleeting moment, it didn't have to touch her body directly. Near her, on her collar—or even touching the air, it was fine to detonate it.

If I overlapped the damage, even her tough body would be shocked.

I didn't just develop my Ability. I trained everything from my body to properly handle my Ability, to my swordsmanship, not only swords but also fists, kicks, everything.

...She must be the same, but I didn't think I would lose. I could feel her Hardening weakening. As the intensity of the explosion increased, more fragments flew, and each fragment became a medium for a larger explosion.

'I have the advantage in a long fight.'

She knew that too, so the intensity of her attacks increased. It was almost impossible to parry now, Sss—with a short breath, I focused on her movements. All actions start from the shoulders and feet. If I could grasp the direction of progress from that, there would be no unavoidable attacks.

Her knees are bent, probably to put more force into it. A slight gap appears as she bends her knees—if I want to succeed in the attack, now is the only chance. As soon as the signal was sent from my brain, my body moved. I had already felt the gazes around me, and I knew that there would probably be a stop soon.

I twisted my body to put as much force as possible. From my shoulder to my heart, then from my thigh to my toes. The circulating force was directed not at her, but at the floor.

Kwaaang-!

Numerous fragments flew from the floor, which was deeply gouged by the explosion. As a result, there was a huge amount of dust.

"...You!"

Her relaxed face rapidly cooled. She probably realized what I was trying to do. But it was already too late. The sword had already touched, and the explosion had begun.

Because the explosion was so huge—there was no noise. In the flickering flames, in the dust that spread like sand, a flower made of red flames bloomed. The fire demon trying to devour my body, the heat rising within it. Expulsion is certain, I thought, hearing the sound of the barrier breaking, and I prepared for the fire that would soon come.

...But there was no explosion.

As if someone had cut off the conduit, the blooming flower suddenly shrank, and the explosion stopped. The scattering dust settled. Instead of heat, I felt a chill that seemed to freeze everything.

'Ice?'

The question didn't last long. It was because when I turned my head, I met eyes that resembled a reddish sunset.

Aisha, that was her name.

But why is that person here? The first feeling I had was worry. The fight between me and Kaisa was by no means safe. A fierce battle that explodes and sweeps everything away. If she was trying to get involved in such a fight—I wondered if she was hurt.

It was only for a moment, but I scanned her body. Fortunately, she wasn't hurt, and when I thought that, I realized that this ice was hers.

Is she trying to stop the fight?

But she and I were not related in any way. At best, we met for the first time today—we told each other our names and started talking. If you call that a special relationship, I have nothing to say, but at least in terms of common sense, it was the same as not being related at all. She could have been hurt in the process of stopping this fight.

Even the teachers are watching with their hands off.

Soon, I read an emotion in her eyes. She was expressionless as before, but I realized that there was a faint worry. I didn't know what she was worried about, but...I could tell that the anger that had been rising until just now was fading.

Even so, being frozen was not an option. So I broke the ice, but the speed at which the ice froze was much faster than I thought. If I broke the ice on my arm, my leg would freeze, and if I broke the ice on my leg, my torso would freeze.

I guess it would be impossible to break this. Resigned, I looked at Aisha. What is she thinking? I couldn't feel anything in her eyes, where even the faint worry I had seen earlier had disappeared.

Will I be able to see her again? Maybe I would be suspended or even expelled because of the fight I had today. Causing such a large-scale fight at an event like the entrance ceremony was by no means something to be taken lightly.

I was a little sad to lose the connection of being in the 'same class' that I had just made. No, was it not a little? I was very sad. I don't know why these feelings are arising, but I didn't want to just let them go like this. I wanted to find out what the cause of these feelings was from a little closer.

Jjeojeok-

The thought didn't continue any further.

I and Kaisa were trapped in the cold ice, and my vision was darkly colored.

#

It was an unfamiliar ceiling. It wasn't the ceiling of the auditorium full of bright lights that I had just seen, but a space where the only light was the sunlight faintly coming in through the window. Why am I here? At the same time as that question, the memories up to just now flowed in.

The fight with Kaisa, the collapsing auditorium, and...Aisha, who was freezing me.

Maybe I was moved here after the ice melted. Perhaps because of the effect of being frozen, I was a little cold even though I was covered with a blanket. It's already past spring to some extent, so the weather shouldn't be that cold. I pulled up the blanket that covered my shoulders slightly and thought quietly while lying down.

Who moved me here?

A teacher? If not, then...one of the students. Kaisa was nowhere to be seen. Well, it would be strange to put us together after such a fight.

I thought about my situation for a moment.

Using Ability without permission on the first day of the entrance ceremony, destruction of property, damage to property, threatening students...expulsion would be natural. I guess I'll have to come up with another plan to get revenge on my father. Well, my punishment hasn't been decided yet, so I'm in this place that looks like a nurse's office.

...Anyway, I thought it would be better to leave first. If I were to run into someone now, I would inevitably have to talk about the reason I fought, which was a situation I didn't really want, so I made the bed and packed my things.

Expulsion on the day of the entrance ceremony, it was something I did, but it was absurd. I even thought I should have just endured it, but even if I went back to that time, there was no way I could have endured it. To me, my mother was like a reverse scale.

After confirming that the sword was safely on my waist, I opened the door to leave.

And,

"...Where are you going?"

I faced her.

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