"Have you heard?"
"Who didn't!? Young Lady Vallhall got annoyed with that trash, interrupting her talk with Justin, and showed off her spell!"
"It seems she's pretty annoyed with sharing a surname with a cheating rotten bastard like that."
"She definitely is! The spell she used to make him back off was no joke!"
"Oh, oh! I've seen four teachers trying to remove the ice and snow left by it! One of them complained that the 5th tier fire spells aren't enough to melt through it! And it was just a residue! Can you believe it!?"
"She 's so strong!"
On the day of the opening ceremony, the whole Royal Academy was bustling with rumors and gossip.
The main object of most of those, Saria Vallhall, wasn't paying attention to them at first, yawning and shaking her head, trying to get rid of the sleepiness.
She was too excited for the beginning of the school to fall asleep and was now paying the price of staying up all night.
"And righteous too! You know about those bandits getting bolder in the north? Well, Young Lady Vallhall took care of them on her way to the Academy!"
"Eeeehhh!?"
"I've heard of it too! She didn't want to take any credit for it, but since all the bandits were found encased in ice, she was the only person who could do it!"
"...eh…?"
But even with all the haziness and sleep deprivation, there were some rumors that seemed way too wild for her to miss.
"Bandits encased in ice…? What are they talking about, Spite? Wasn't our ride here peaceful?"
"Nmmm…"
Saria grumbled while furrowing her brows, and Spite let out a muffled dismissive whine from within its fluffy costume.
"Have you heard? That trash will have ANOTHER duel with Justin, and right after the opening ceremony too!"
"Ugh… I hate it. He will definitely cheat again! He always does!"
"But don't you want to see Justin defeat him anyway?"
"That trash should really learn his place. Doesn't he care about Young Lady Vallhall's opinion now that she also attends the Academy?"
"You know what? That's so pathetic. I even started to think that he might actually be putting in some effort, but that behavior is irredeemable."
"Pffft! You thought that trash had any redeeming qualities?"
"Hey! I've said that his behavior is irredeemable after all!"
"How come those two are related is beyond my understanding."
"Hey, shut it. He is a Vallhall, whether we like it or not. You can't badmouth them like that in public!"
"...it's as bad as I expected, haaah…"
As she now started paying more attention, Saria let out a sigh of annoyance, shaking her head and getting angry at the thought of that rotten bastard.
Her mood improved during the opening ceremony as the speech given by the headmaster filled her heart with pride and excitement over her academic life.
But then, the headmaster did something that destroyed the atmosphere like a boulder falling onto a soap bubble.
"Why don't we have one of the students who was a freshman only two months ago address his juniors? Student Rotsard Vallhall, if you would be so kind."
"!?!?"
Calling for Rotsard caused an uproar amongst the students who certainly had a completely different opinion about him than the headmaster. But regardless of that, in his usual mocking and condescending fashion, the bleached-blond-haired youth walked past all of them and took the spotlight, looking down on everyone with his beastly yellow eyes, barely keeping his face from twisting into a mocking smirk.
"It's not just about the freshmen. It's advice for everyone."
Rotsard straightened his back and his mouth split in a fierce grin.
"Know. Your. Place."
"!!!"
Only three words. His actual speech was just three words, but it was even more than enough to make Saria's blood boil.
"YOU TRASH! HOW DARE YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT!?"
"?!"
Before she herself knew it, she was already shouting her lungs off, making the heads of everyone present turn her way.
"NMMM!"
"YOU!? You dare to talk about others knowing their place!? YOU DON'T KNOW YOURS!"
Spite tried to interrupt its master like it did the day before, but Saria firmly grabbed a hold of its fluffy costume and held it at arm's reach while calling Rotsard out.
"You shouldn't even be a Vallhall! Your FATHER was the one adopted into the main family AFTER you were already born! By some miracle, you were blessed with Essence of Winter, so you were allowed to carry OUR FAMILY NAME! Without it, you would be as related to my family as some stray mutt! But what did you do with all that luck that others would kill for!? NOTHING! You are a waste! Trash who never trains, never studies, only ever coasts on the hard work of others! And you have the GUTS to tell others to know their place!? How about you learn it yourself first!? Let me tell you that now, we wouldn't care if you died in some ditch! If anything, that would have spared us all the shame we have to deal with BECAUSE OF YOU! So, how about I will teach you your place!? Everyone! Listen well! That TRASH has no protection from the Vallhall family and just received the bare minimum to survive, but he acts as if those scraps made him better than all of you! He is not! Feel free to treat him the way he truly deserves to be treated! Just leave the Vallhall name out of it! He's nothing more than a ROTTEN BASTARD!"
It seemed that all of Saria's resentment towards Rotsard, she had been bottling up, had broken loose and spilt over uninterrupted.
"..."
Oh, the silence that befall the Royal Academy after Saria closed her mouth, breathing heavily in agitation and hate mixed with disgust filling her golden eyes…
It was deafening.
"..."
Soon enough, the eyes of everyone were drawn to the object of the fierce speech, some even held their breath in anticipation for Rotsard's response.
"..."
But the bleached-blond-haired youth stayed silent, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists so hard his arms and shoulders trembled… or maybe that trembling had a different origin…
"..."
Regardless, Rotsard blinked a few times, and his jaw moved as if he was chewing on some words he considered but never ended up actually speaking out and…
…he turned around and walked away, leaving the assembly without looking back…
After that, the students erupted with cheers and excitement, some even starting a chant in joy over the fact that they no longer had to fear the repercussions of telling Rotsard how it was.
Saria was swarmed with her classmates, all awestruck by her standing up to a well-known delinquent, being a paragon of justice even against someone with her own surname.
The opening ceremony ended in a disaster like that and had to be dismissed by the teachers even though originally a few others were supposed to take the podium after Rotsard…