Episode 143

Joshua and I were dragged straight to a deserted junkyard.

As soon as we arrived, we saw a huge guy lounging on a pile of boxes.

He had the same brown hair as Danvers Campbell, but he looked at least five times bigger than him.

Seeing a guy in a school uniform casually smoking a cigar made me let out a hollow laugh.

‘Wherever you go, punks like that are always the same.’

The guy, striking a tough pose as he sat there, lazily turned his head at the commotion as the crowd rushed over.

“What’s this?”

As he spoke, scowling, the boys surrounding us quickly scattered to the sides.

Now it was just Joshua and me, standing awkwardly exposed in the middle of the junkyard, under a storm of sneering, mocking glares.

“A little runt… and some crazy chick who still clings to teddy bears?”

“……”

“These are the losers you dragged all the way here, Danvers Campbell?”

The big guy scanned Joshua and me up and down before shooting Danvers a sharp glare.

“Uh, Hans… I mean, bro, it’s just—”

Danvers stumbled over his words under that stare.

Even if he was his own brother, it seemed he still couldn’t help but be terrified of him — especially a brother built like a tank and into sports.

“They’re from the Kallios family, bro! That one’s the second son, Joshua Kallios, and she’s that commoner girl they sponsor…”

“Oh. That Belze Beauty Salon?”

“Yeah, yeah! She’s supposed to be loaded!”

They pointed fingers at us, sizing us up like we were on auction.

Unlike me, who stuck out my lower lip in pure annoyance, Joshua’s face had gone completely pale.

He must have thought he was finally safe when Danvers’s group didn’t show up after lunch.

Only to end up in the worst possible situation he wanted to avoid.

As I glanced worriedly at Joshua—

Hans Campbell stubbed out his cigar and said,

“Phew… Let’s skip the small talk. Time’s short.”

“……”

“How much are you paying up?”

He looked straight at me as he asked.

I just blinked and answered,

“For what?”

“Uh, s-senior!”

Almost at the same time, Joshua, who had been quietly standing there, suddenly called out.

He quickly moved to stand in front of me and spoke.

“She… Belze is new here. She doesn’t know anything. Could you let her go and just deal with me instead?”

Hans Campbell snorted a laugh as he watched Joshua desperately trying to shield me.

“What, you trying to act like a man now, huh?”

At that, even Danvers and the other boys burst into mocking laughter.

After a while, Hans Campbell shrugged and said with a sneer,

“But too bad. I’m sick of your jewelry.”

“Th-that’s—!”

“Everyone knows it’s stuff from the Duke’s house. It’s hard to sell. And what, you expect me to walk around wearing some dusty old lady’s junk? It’s worthless, completely worthless.”

“……”

“Besides, with your allowance, it’s not like you can cough up much cash either. I heard someone manages your money and you can’t even spend freely.”

Listening to him ramble, I found myself a little surprised.

‘Huh. He was actually handling things smarter than I thought.’

Despite my worries, Joshua had been doing a good job protecting himself in his own way.

When those thugs demanded money, he used the excuse that it was hard to get cash and handed over jewelry instead.

Knowing that there weren’t many places willing to deal with items stamped with the Duke’s seal, he had cleverly used that to his advantage.

‘I thought he was still just a kid…’

Even as he trembled, Joshua stood firmly in front of me, and I looked at the back of his head with a kind of proud affection.

“I-I’ll talk to the butler and somehow come up with the money—”

“Hey, Josh, move. I want to talk too.”

I shoved him aside before he could keep babbling nonsense trying to protect me, and stepped forward.

Joshua whipped around with a horrified expression.

“Sis, no…!”

“So you’re telling me to pay you money?”

Ignoring him, I confronted Hans Campbell directly.

Maybe he hadn’t expected the supposedly clueless girl hugging teddy bears to suddenly step up like this — his face twisted with annoyance.

“…Yeah. About 500 gold every week should be fair—”

“Why?”

“…What?”

“Why should I pay you?”

I repeated the question, staring at him like I honestly couldn’t understand.

Hans just blinked at me, completely thrown off.

The whole junkyard fell into an eerie silence.

And then—

“Hah, haha…”

Hans Campbell let out a loud, mocking laugh, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Did you seriously just ask ‘why’?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’ll show you.”

With that, he sprang to his feet, stomping toward us.

“Ugh…!”

Joshua instinctively took a step back, startled.

But almost immediately, he grit his teeth and quickly stepped in front of me again.

“B-bro! Please, let me explain—Ugh!”

Before Joshua could even finish speaking, Hans lunged forward and grabbed him roughly by the collar, yanking him up into the air.

“Josh!”

Joshua’s feet left the ground, and he dangled helplessly in Hans’s grip.

I had thought Joshua was pretty tall, but in Hans’s hands, he looked like nothing more than a ragdoll.

“Bear… Bear…!”

I was just about to shout for Teddy bear when—

“Here. Look.”

Hans lifted Joshua higher with one hand, like he was showing off a prize, and then raised his other hand high into the air.

Whish—!

Before I could even react, his hand came down in a sharp arc.

“Ahh!”

Joshua, not used to this kind of violence, let out an involuntary scream.

But surprisingly, there was no heavy, sickening sound of a blow.

Instead—

Slap!

Right before hitting Joshua’s cheek, Hans shifted his hand and delivered a flick to Joshua’s forehead.

“Ugh!”

Joshua let out a painful groan as he instinctively clutched his head.

“Scared, aren’t ya?”

Hans snickered and casually tossed Joshua back toward me.

“Ah, urgh!”

“Joshua!”

Thud!

Joshua crumpled to the dirt ground, clutching his forehead and groaning in pain.

I immediately knelt down to check on him.

“Are you okay?”

“No. It hurts, sis. I’m dizzy…”

“Let me see!”

I hurriedly pulled Joshua’s hand away and checked his forehead.

The spot where he’d been flicked was already swelling up, a deep bluish-purple bruise forming fast.

There was even a bit of blood beading at the center, as if he’d been scraped by a fingernail.

“You’re bleeding!”

“I barely even hit him. If I’d really put some strength into it, his skull would’ve cracked open,” Hans Campbell said with a lazy laugh, completely ignoring my horrified outcry.

“Now do you get it? Why you have to pay me?”

“……”

“Next time, it won’t end with just a flick.”

At his words, I silently stood up.

Facing him up close, his size felt absolutely monstrous.

It was like a squirrel standing in front of a giant bear.

But I didn’t flinch at all — instead, I stared him down, my gaze as sharp as knives.

Seeing a girl so much smaller and younger daring to glare at him like that must’ve pissed him off, because his face twisted into an ugly scowl.

“What are you looking at, you little— lower your eyes before I—”

“Teddy… teddy bear.”

There was no point in talking anymore.

I immediately gave the command to my guard.

“Giant Mode.”

At the same time—

Whoosh—!

The stuffed bear tucked inside my arms shot upward at incredible speed.

As always, Teddy bear spun several graceful somersaults midair before landing perfectly on the ground with a crisp thud.

“W-what the hell…!”

Just as always, the thugs stared, mouths gaping wide open, unable to believe their eyes at the sight of a living teddy bear.

But this time, Teddy bear didn’t just spin and land neatly.

The bear, standing upright, suddenly began to grow.

Rumble…

From a size about as big as my upper body, Teddy bear quickly expanded until he was as tall as Danvers Campbell.

And it didn’t stop there.

Growing and growing, he soon caught up to Hans Campbell’s towering height.

And still, he grew bigger.

Finally, when Teddy bear was about twice Hans’s size, with his head nearly brushing the top of the junkyard’s fence, he stopped swelling.

A massive shadow loomed over the frozen Hans Campbell.

And then—

“Hello, friends! My name’s teddy… teddy bear! Belze’s personal assassin! Now featuring Extra Gigantic Mode!”

From the massive teddy bear came a bright, cheery greeting.

Just then, I spotted a dented tin can rolling around at my feet.

I casually picked it up, walked over next to Teddy bear, and waved it back and forth for Hans Campbell to see.

“Beat him half to death — until he looks just like this.”