Episode 141

Crack—

I tightened my grip around his finger even more.

“Aaaaagh!”

Danvers Campbell screamed and shouted,

“W-What are you idiots doing?! Get her off me, now!”

“Uh, uh…”

Flustered, his cronies hesitated, trying to move toward me.

But before they could even take a step—

Whoosh—!

I let go of Danvers’s finger with a sharp flick.

“Ugh!”

The force made him stagger backward violently.

The boys behind him instinctively tried to catch him.

“Aaagh!”

But unable to handle Danvers’s size, which was massive compared to most boys our age, they all stumbled and crashed to the ground in a messy pile.

‘What is this, a bowling alley?’

I suppressed a laugh at the ridiculous scene unfolding before me.

“Ugh, Danvers! Move! You’re heavy!”

“Get off already!”

The boys struggled to untangle themselves and get back on their feet, grumbling and swearing.

Meanwhile, Danvers Campbell lay on the floor, clutching his twisted finger and wailing.

“Aghh, my hand…! I think my index finger’s broken…!”

“Quit exaggerating. It’s not broken.”

I shrugged lightly and replied breezily.

“Honestly, you’re twice my size. Do you really think I could break your finger? Does that even sound believable?”

In other words, even if he tried to complain to someone about this, no one would easily believe him.

Fortunately, since it was lunchtime, the classroom and the hallway outside were completely deserted.

After glancing around to confirm there were no witnesses, I bent down to meet Danvers’s eyes.

“You’d better return that ring to its rightful owner, Danvers.”

“W-What…”

“I might not be able to break your finger, but I could break your toes instead. Right?”

I could have just snatched the ring off his hand right then.

But instead, I leaned down and, with a slow, menacing whisper, pressed down on his foot.

Press—

“AAAAAAGH!”

I barely even pressed him, but Danvers screamed like his soul was leaving his body and yanked his foot back.

Scrambling to his feet, he glared daggers at me.

“You little brat! You look like a twig—!”

Danvers reflexively raised his hand to strike me but froze, remembering what had just happened when he tried to poke me earlier.

Apparently, he realized how humiliating it was to lose to a tiny girl half his size.

He muttered under his breath, “Tch, damn it.”

“A commoner freeloader living off the duke’s household…”

“Yaaawn… I don’t recall you contributing anything to the household expenses.”

“You—you think you’ll get away with this?!”

The classic threat.

I yawned again, clearly bored.

Danvers flushed red with anger, fists trembling.

“Just you wait. I’ll make your academy life hell.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“You damned little wretch—!”

“You know, even if you combined all your family’s wealth, it wouldn’t come close to mine. Now, who’s the real pauper here?”

“You—!”

At my taunt, Danvers and his cronies all ground their teeth furiously.

But for some reason, though they glared at me with pure hatred, none of them dared actually move.

It was unexpected.

‘I thought they’d lose it and try to kill me on the spot…’

Joshua still looked incredibly uneasy, clearly worried about what I might do with Teddy bear.

But unfortunately for him, I had no plans to swing Teddy bear around today.

‘After all, I just received a blank check as allowance. I can’t get expelled right away for making a scene.’

I had even considered provoking the boys enough to get into a fight alongside Joshua.

It would be a bit painful for Josh, but a few bruises were a small price to pay if it meant getting those bastards expelled—and healing injuries was a piece of cake for me.

But, surprisingly, Danvers didn’t fall for the bait so easily.

‘Could it be… they know about the surveillance magic devices installed in the classrooms?’

To prevent bullying and violence, the academy had secretly installed recording magic devices in every classroom.

Fortunately—or unfortunately—those devices were extremely expensive, so they didn’t come with audio recording features.

My new friend, the headmaster, had already tipped me off about that.

That’s why I deliberately positioned myself with my back to the device while dealing with those brats, making sure anything I did wouldn’t be clearly captured.

Even when I twisted Danvers’s finger or provoked them, it was hard to tell what was happening from the recorded footage.

And somehow, it seemed Danvers Campbell and his group were aware of that too.

Unlike me, they occasionally raised their hands threateningly—but it was all mild enough to be brushed off as “just fooling around.”

‘It’s not enough. They’re being too careful.’

While I was racking my brain for a better way to provoke them—

Rattle—

“What are you kids doing here?”

The classroom door, which had been closed, suddenly opened, and someone stepped inside.

Startled, I turned my head to see a middle-aged woman standing in the doorway.

One of the professors from the Business Department.

She looked familiar — she had been one of the ones earlier complaining about the “special treatment” I was getting.

“I forgot a textbook earlier… But wait, didn’t you—Representative?”

She had been muttering casually as she walked in but immediately widened her eyes when she saw me.

“I thought you were attending Theology classes. What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to have lunch with Joshua.”

I smiled brightly and pointed to Joshua, who was standing awkwardly behind me.

“Ah…”

The professor quickly nodded as if she understood everything.

Even in an isolated place like the academy, there was no way she didn’t know I was backed by the House of Kallios.

The middle-aged woman soon lost interest and turned her gaze away.

“After lunch, move straight to your next class. If you’re late again like before, you’ll get a penalty. Especially you, Danvers Campbell.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it…”

Danvers muttered half-heartedly under his breath.

After grabbing her forgotten textbook, the professor left the classroom without a second glance.

She clearly had no concern for the fact that a brand-new student like me was conversing with the worst troublemakers.

Seeing that, I started to understand why no one had done anything about Joshua’s silent torment until now.

‘Looks like the academy needs a serious cleanup.’

As I stared at the door where the professor had disappeared—

“…Let’s just go, Belze.”

Suddenly, I felt a gentle tug on my free arm.

Startled, I looked up and found Joshua standing right beside me.

For some reason, he looked pale.

His blue eyes, staring down at me, were practically pleading.

Don’t fight anymore.

Knowing we didn’t have much time left for lunch anyway, I decided to let it go for now.

“Alright.”

I nodded obediently and let Joshua lead me out.

But just as we neared the door—

“See you later, Joshua. You’re dead.”

A voice full of malice rang from behind.

Smack—!

I reflexively started to turn around, but Joshua tightened his grip on my hand and yanked me through the door.

I understood.

He was telling me not to engage any further.

So I silently followed him.

But as we reached the threshold, I heard their sneering voices behind us:

“What should we steal next?”

“My mom says their house has a bunch of rare relics and weird heretic stuff. Maybe we should have him bring some?”

“Oh, good idea!”

Hearing that—

I couldn’t take it anymore.

BAM—!

I slammed the classroom door open with a loud kick.

The boys flinched in surprise as I turned back and growled murderously,

“You’re the ones who are dead, you filthy pieces of shit.”

* * *

“Where the hell did you learn language like that?”

It was just as I took a huge bite out of a sandwich in the cafeteria.

Joshua, who looked like he was about to snap his spaghetti plate in half, suddenly frowned and asked sharply.

“Near that pawnshop you went to before.”

I casually answered, taking another massive bite of the sandwich.

“Sigh…”

Joshua let out a deep sigh and grabbed his hair in frustration.

“What are we going to do now?”

“About what?”

“Danvers Campbell.”

Was he afraid of that punk?

Curious about Joshua’s unexpected reaction, I put my sandwich down and chewed thoughtfully as I looked at him.

With a dark expression, he finally confessed the reason he hadn’t easily fought back against Danvers until now.

“That guy’s got an older brother. He’s on the track and field team, the biggest guy in the entire academy—no, probably the biggest in all of Erea.”

“…….”

“He’s a football prodigy too. Even when he causes problems, no one really touches him.”

TL/N: MB she’s 12 Josh is 11, and Edwin is idk lol I lost the track fr. I kinda read through mtl to see if the dad remembered and didn’t get to that part yet so :hurt: