LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 9
“Wait a second, teacher! Are we really doing this?!”
“Of course, Ageha. You didn’t think you’d pull this without being ready for a fight, did you?”
“Well… I just wanted to scare them a little to get an apology…!”
“Then you better learn now. When you try to choke someone else’s neck, yours might get choked too.”
As the stage was set, the ‘victims’ were buzzing as if they never expected it to come to this.
Among them, the heroine Toojuu Ageha, who was pressing me earlier, was the most flustered, questioning if we were really going to let them fight.
When the other students crept in to see what was happening, it could have been an attempt to save face…
But I didn’t think she was that cunning.
She was a character who was pretty much a loser in the original story.
She probably set up a shoddy plan and genuinely thought she was perfect—classic delusion!
“Ugh, this isn’t how it was supposed to go…!”
“Excuses won’t fly here. Take this chance to learn some responsibility, Ageha.”
If you hadn’t stirred up the students, this wouldn’t have happened.
After hearing that, Ageha completely deflated, knowingly bowing her head.
It’s just like in the original, once her confidence is shattered, she turns timid in an instant.
Justitia explained the rules only after Ageha fell silent.
Attacks that could leave aftereffects or scars are prohibited.
And if you’re subdued or pushed out of bounds, you lose.
They can send up to four fighters, but if I go down even once, it’s game over for me.
“Isn’t that a bit… too much?”
Ageha timidly expressed her thoughts, but Justitia quickly responded.
“It’s based on the difference between entrance exam scores and yesterday’s test results. No problem, right, Blanca?”
“Not at all. I’d prefer if they all jumped in at once, honestly.”
But Justitia insisted that this is a duel, putting her foot down.
What a bummer. It’d be easier to just take them all on at once.
“Lastly, whatever feelings you had, settle them all during this duel, and don’t let it happen again. If this continues, it won’t be so lightly brushed aside next time.”
With those words, she called for volunteers to step up.
“I’ll go.”
As everyone hesitated, it was the punk who stepped forward.
Unlike before, he looked a bit calmer, though his eyes still were filled with hostility towards me.
“Yamaguchi Fukukin. Very well. Blanca, please take your spot.”
The punk stood opposite me, putting on gold chains and rings from his pockets as if to intimidate.
His ability was to enhance himself based on the value of the items he wore.
If he decked himself out with around 20 million won worth of jewelry, he’d become ten times stronger, that was his own boasting.
From the midpoint, he only showed up as a cash cow when the protagonist needed money or on a trip, so I don’t know much about him.
Regardless, he was pretty strong. At this point, he could probably play within the top ten.
Among the victims, he was likely the strongest right now.
So, it made sense for him to step up first.
“Surrender. You know my power now, and this isn’t a surprise attack.”
Even after all this, the punk was still urging for surrender.
“Get ready…”
“You’re chatty. Are you scared?”
“Hah, no way.”
The punk grinned aggressively, channeling his magic.
I responded by harnessing my magic as well, mixing different components together.
“You’ll be scared soon enough.”
The instant Justitia declared the start, I narrowly dodged the charging punk while releasing a gas I’d synthesized earlier.
The gas was colorless, so you couldn’t see it at all.
But judging by the way his hair was ruffling, he must have inhaled something already.
That should have been the end, but surprisingly, the punk kept coming.
Ah, he’s holding his breath. Did he plan to finish me off without taking a single breath from the start?
Admirable thought, but isn’t he overestimating himself too much?
Holding his breath won’t keep him from the poison, and he doesn’t have to breathe for the poison to work.
From the look on his face, the smell must have already crept into his nostrils.
He won’t last much longer.
As I continued to barely evade the punk’s attacks, I counted down from 15 in my head.
And upon finally reaching 1, the punk—unable to hold on anymore—stopped punching and ended up sneezing.
“Kek, cough… cough…!”
His cough was laced with blood. His eyes were bloodshot, and his nose was bleeding profusely.
“The smell is pretty awful, huh?”
What I laid out at the start was ammonia.
Of course, like now, if he shed blood but got the right treatment, I’d expertly adjusted the concentration so he’d be fine without aftereffects.
“The reason I use visible gas, you see, is considerate. Just so you don’t accidentally get caught up in it.”
Ammonia is notorious for its smell, but it’s toxic in its own right.
It can inflict prolonged pain without killing you immediately, which is why I often employed it.
“So, I’d like an answer from you. Did you mistakenly think I could only spit out visible smoke? Or did you know I could release something invisible and still came at me?”
“Kek, cough, hack… urgh, cough!”
“That’s not an answer.”
Since he was trying so hard to stay upright, I gave his gut a solid kick to bring him down.
“Since you’re silent, I’ll just assume you were in the wrong. If you knew and still charged at me, that makes you an idiot on top of being arrogant.”
I wanted to believe my classmates weren’t that foolish.
While I added that little remark, I don’t even know if he heard it.
The punk no longer showed any fighting spirit.
He was just crawling on the ground, trying to get as far away from me as possible.
In that action, there was no sign of the tenfold strength he bragged about.
That’s why I chose ammonia. His ‘value’ isn’t absolute, it fluctuates.
I had to exploit that weakness.
No matter how valuable a gold necklace is, if it stinks, its value drops.
Seeing him in such a pitiful state, I couldn’t help but smirk.
But with so many eyes on me, I held back my laughter and kept talking.
“Oh, don’t think too harshly of me just because the teacher said so. After all, you were the ones who poked the bear first, right?”
I firmly stepped down on his back, forcing all the air out of him.
…I really shouldn’t. It was hard to stifle my desires. Yes, that’s the expression. That face. Those gestures.
Show me more. Suffer more in agony. Despair more.
Express thoroughly the moment you realize you were mistaken about being superior.
More, more, more—
“That’s enough, Blanca.”
-Ah.
Right, this is a duel. Thankfully, Justitia used her power to stop me from making a mistake in front of everyone.
As soon as Justitia released her ability, I lifted my foot from the punk’s back and sprayed a neutralizing agent to clear the odors stuck in his clothes.
Of course, I sprayed some on the punk rolling on the ground as well. A neutralizer suitable for the situation.
“Yamaguchi Fukukin, incapacitated! Maria, please come help!”
“…Yes!”
Justitia immediately called in the heroine Maria, a healing ability user, to treat the punk, then approached me.
I wondered if she was going to scold me for going too far, but unexpectedly she asked what I used.
“It was ammonia. After healing him, just make sure he drinks a lot of water and washes thoroughly, and he should be alright.”
“Understood. We’ll do that. But attacking a subdued opponent isn’t what a hero does. Come to the counseling room after school.”
Only after saying that did she loosen her expression.
Though she’s a Liberator, her mindset was like that of a true hero.
Once Fukukin was taken away, Justitia looked at the cluster of victims and asked,
“Any next participants?”
No one raised their hand.
“If there aren’t, I will consider it a total surrender. I’ll ask once more. Anyone?”
Everyone had looks filled with a ton of fear.
Justitia declared my victory. But no one cheered.
All they did was stare silently at me.
Minho, Yeonhwa, and Jinhyeon looked like they had something to say, but… there was someone else who needed to speak first.
“Hey, your name’s Toojuu Ageha, right?”
“Y-yeah, that’s me…?”
Unlike when she was trying to corner me with the group, Ageha was now hunched over like a terrified sparrow.
How rude. They stirred the pot first, and I just reacted.
But since we agreed to settle all feelings during this duel,
I shook off my disappointment and cheerfully extended my hand towards her.
“Ageha. Let’s forget the past and get along well!”
“Ugh… Y-yeah… let’s get along, okay?”
Ageha stammered and even hiccupped, trembling all over.
– – – – –
Looking at Jinhyeon, he wore a very troubled expression.
Even though we were at home reviewing what we learned today, he still seemed stuck on thoughts of Blanca.
Considering his personality, it wasn’t surprising. He was all about justice, no matter what others said.
…So that meant, in this case, ‘justice’ was Blanca.
For whatever reason, anyone bullied by the majority was someone he’d see as protected, and that was his sense of justice.
But now, the person he was supposed to protect was the one diving back down to stomp on the one who bullied.
Justice had flipped instantly.
For someone who tends to see the world as black and white, this must have been extremely confusing for him.
If it’s this puzzling for me, I can only imagine how he feels. It’s hard to fathom.
“Jinhyeon.”
“Uh, yeah?”
“Are you still thinking about Blanca?”
“…Sorry. I should be focused, but I got lost in thought. Where were we?”
“You really should stop breaking everything down so rigidly. It’s here, this line.”
Once I pointed it out again, he quickly regained his focus.
I also plunged into our review, trying to shake off my wandering thoughts.
But that discomfort lingered until I finally fell asleep.