Honestly, I was reading the newspaper without interest, but something in it piqued my curiosity.
[The Paladin's son, Leon Avares, offers flowers to the Royal Princess Marily Iris Cerulean at a banquet! Is that the beginning of a stunning couple?]
"..."
I did my best to not cringe at the information which was written not to the front page.
What the heck was he doing?
Leon Avares and Marily were both in my class.
Not my promo, but in my class.
So I have encountered them quite a lot of times in the last two months. Of course, I didn't speak to them since their status was far above mine. I mean Leon was the son of a [Paladin] and Marily was a royal and her father, the king, was also a [Paladin].
Due to what happened before, I wasn't someone really interested in others, so in class I kept my distance from others, but some things were impossible to not know even for a loner like me.
And that was the fact that Leon was head over heels for Marily. The latter probably was aware of that because of Leon, constantly trying to start a conversation with her. But until now she hadn't shown any signs of discomfort or affection towards Leon. She kept her poker face of a princess and dealt with him like that for two months.
But that moron misunderstood her lack of proper answer as shyness of her part.
How do I know that?
Because he said it!
'Don't be shy about that, Iris, there is no need between us.'
Remembering his words I heard in class, I cringed.
I'm sure I wasn't the only one cringing, but no one dared to say anything.
First, because his father was a [Paladin] and second, because that guy was very strong. He was in Rank [E+] which was considered a genius for his age.
He was part of the Golden Generation of the kingdom.
I turned the pages and saw articles about harassment, discrimination, kidnapping, murders and plenty of other things.
Shouldn't such articles be in the front page?
As expected of journalists, they love buzz.
Indeed, when I stole a car from an actor I got more buzz than when I robbed a museum from a painting of Picasso. What a twisted world.
'Oh.'
As I thought about how twisted I myself was from stealing national treasures, I saw the four boys coming out of the restaurant.
Without knowing, half an hour passed, huh.
I put the newspaper in the market's bag and took the mask and gloves before putting them on. I took the bottle filled with toothpicks and put it in my pocket and started following the group.
A shocking fact was that they were in my Academy. I could say that just by looking at their uniforms. That was why people in the cinema hesitated to intervene when they pushed me. That uniform gave protection and status.
They were all wearing white blazers, blue pants, a blue tie and blue shirts.
Since the color of their shirts was blue, they were First Year like me at the Azur academy. Of course, it was the first time I had seen them. We were 1200 in my promo so I couldn't know all of them in just two months.
As I walked, I saw a stand selling ice creams.
Ice creams late at night?
Well to each his own.
"One vanilla ice cream, please."
"Yep."
I gave him the money and took the ice cream.
I licked the ice cream a little before suddenly running at great speed.
"Wow!"
"Hey!"
The people who were walking complained as I pushed them away, but I didn't care.
Soon, I arrived behind the group and pushed the leader.
-Thud!
The leader fell on his knees with an ice cream stuck on his back.
The ice cream slowly slid over the leader's blazer, dirtying it before falling to the ground.
Soon a crowd started to form around us and a commotion started.
They were students from a prestigious academy, after all, so they were eager to see what was going to happen.
"Bastard! Do you know what I am wearing?!"
He stood up and flaunted the emblem on his blazer.
"A blazer and a shirt?"
I waved at him and started running again.
The crowd around laughed at my words and the leader's face became red from anger.
"Hey! Let's catch that bastard!
"Y-Yeah!"
His three cronies also chased after me.
'Idiots.'
I took the right corner in a dark alley and they followed.
"Idiot!"
The leader smirked.
He probably knew that alley and that it led toward a dead-end. Moreover, there weren't cameras in that alley.
But I knew that as well.
Still, my stamina was sure low, I was already out of breath, dammit.
"Ah…ah…ah"
I held my knees as I tried to regain my breath.
"Aahahah! You're dead!"
"What an idiot!"
"You should have remained in a public area."
"You will suffer more now."
The four spoke one after another as if they had practiced it beforehand.
"You are from the Alexander Great Azur academy?"
I asked in a 'fearful' tone.
"Yeah! So you will be our slave from now on!"
"But."
I smirked beneath my mask.
"You're damn weak. How did you join the academy?"
"What…?"
The four were speechless as I changed my tone.
"Probably money, huh? You must be all filthy rich."
Damn, I couldn't control my urge to snatch all their wealth and send them on the road.
My bad, I couldn't help it.
"Guys break all the limbs of that bastard."
The leader lost his smirk and ordered his minions to go.
The first guy approached me and punched me out.
I saw his punch coming miles away, so I evaded it easily by taking a step on my right.
Then with my elbow, I struck the guy's head from behind.
"Arghh!"
The guy fell head first on the ground.
I turned toward the three standing with surprised faces and shook my head.
"As I said, you are too weak."
"You asked for it!"
Another man came but his hand was glowing.
He was using mana to reinforce his hand.
If I took that punch I would surely break something, so I opened the bottle in my pocket and took a few toothpicks.
Imbuing them with my mana, I flicked one.
-Whoosh!
-Spurt!
"Arghh!"
The man groaned, as a toothpick pierced his cheek deeply.
Indeed, three-quarters of the stick was inside his mouth.
Tears of pain fell from the man's eyes as he tried to remove the toothpick.
Finally, the third man came but this guy, learning from the defeat of his comrades, chose to envelop his whole body in mana.
"At least, you're not a complete idiot."
I said with contempt.
Though he didn't attack me like a beast, he approached me carefully, observing my movements.
I took a step back while stepping on the bastard, groaning while holding his head, and took a dozen of toothpicks.
-Whoosh! -Whoosh! -Whoosh! -Whoosh! -Whoosh!
One after another, the toothpicks hit the man but his body was now sturdy enough to deflect all of them. Still, I continued to flick them.
"It's useless!"
The man shouted and jumped at me.
I threw the empty little bottle on the ground and took the bottle of water from my bag.
Throwing aside the bag, I opened the bottle and threw the water on the guy.
"Acid."
"!"
When I said that, the man instinctively closed his eyes and crossed his arms before his face.
-Splash
"Eh?"
Seeing his dumb face, he must have understood, but it was too late.
I concentrated a huge amount of mana inside my hand and punched his stomach.
-Bam!
"Cough!"
Since he lost concentration, his reinforcement became fragile as well, so my fist easily went through and reached his stomach.
"Gwaaahhh!"
He fell on his knees and started to throw up what he ate.
"Disgusting."
My face scrunched up as I stepped away from him.