But May thrust her sword straight through.

“What do you mean wait?”

“Hey! Ugh!”

Panicked by the sword trying to go deeper, the opponent forcibly stepped back and fell on his bottom.

Thud.

At that sound, the swords of the pairs practicing around them stopped.

“Ah, sorry.”

May said with a snicker.

“My reaction speed is a bit slow. I apologize for knocking you down.”

When May extended her hand, he slapped it away and said:

“You clearly saw me raise my hand and say wait!”

He got up from his spot, fuming with anger. He seemed quite upset about having to show himself sitting on the floor with his bottom in front of other students.

“Seeing it and my body reacting are different things, so what do you want me to do about it?”

May shrugged her shoulders.

“What? Are you saying it’s my fault that you’re slow now?”

“Right. I’m slow, but aren’t you the same?”

“What?”

“You kept losing control and making mistakes too. When you apologized saying you were sorry, I said okay.”

She pointed to the small scratches on her cheek and said:

“So I also apologized as soon as I made a mistake. You’ll accept it too, right?”

“Ha!”

The opponent began letting out hollow laughs, unable to contain his frustration.

When their conversation briefly stopped, Elsier took the opportunity to get up and approach.

“Since I’m the original partner, I’d like you to step aside now.”

When a voice suddenly interjected from the side, the male student turned his head to look at Elsier.

“You said you weren’t feeling well and dropped out, were you faking?”

“That’s not it, but I’m feeling a bit better now.”

But the opponent didn’t want to do as she pleased and began stubbornly holding his ground.

“Sorry, but that would be difficult.”

“Difficult?”

“I’m a student who legitimately applied for and is taking this class, and you’re just an auditing student. I need to take this class and receive evaluation, so if the numbers don’t match, you should be the one to drop out.”

“That’s……”

When Elsier couldn’t continue his words, having no particular rebuttal, May patted his shoulder once and said:

“It’s fine, Elsier. Since the professor is in charge of the class, we can just ask the professor.”

She walked toward the professor with light, bouncing steps.

“Professor.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Elsier says he’s fine now. What should we do about the practice pairs?”

At her words, the professor glanced toward where Elsier was.

“Then just do it as usual. Tell that student over there to come to me.”

Hearing this, May smiled broadly as she looked back at them, and seeing her smile, the male student made a very uncomfortable expression.

May approached with light, bouncing steps and said:

“You, the professor says to come over.”

She openly giggled and said:

“In various ways, today will be a time when you learn a lot.”

“You……!”

The male student gritted his teeth in frustration, then soon made eye contact with someone on one side and showed a somewhat ambiguous expression.

“Ah, you weren’t the only one who needs lots of learning. I hope you share today’s experience with your friends.”

She looked at the student standing where he had looked, Miller Periwinkle, and let out a snort of derision.

“You’d better go quickly. The professor is waiting.”

When May urged him, the male student glared at her once, then got up and disappeared.

And from somewhere came the sound of someone kicking the ground with a thud.

“Did you see that bastard’s face just now? He looked like he’d eaten sh*t.”

“He did look that way.”

When May agreed, Elsier said angrily:

“I’ll definitely do the same to that bastard when I meet him later.”

“Forget it.”

“What do you mean forget it. To think I have to see such guys entering the academy saying they’ll become knights, it’s absolutely terrible.”

When Elsier shuddered as if the mere thought made him sick, May let out a light sigh.

“I’ll handle it myself. Leave it alone.”

“I’m saying this because you really seem like you’ll just leave it alone.”

“I’m saying this because I really will handle it. Honestly, I just feel sorry for him too.”

“What?”

When Elsier scrunched up his face and asked, May sighed once and said:

“You saw where he was looking earlier, right?”

“No? Where would I have time to see that? Where was he looking?”

“Periwinkle. It’s not even some assignment evaluation, what kind of behavior is this?”

“Assignment evaluation? Don’t tell me…… that bastard didn’t just hate you and cause that commotion, but received work from Periwinkle like getting an assignment and did such things?”

When Elsier exclaimed as if incredulous, May pointed with her chin toward a male student resting in one corner and said:

“Look at him too. As soon as the professor isn’t around, he’ll be fine and walk out, right?”

At her words, Elsier could only let out hollow laughs before saying:

“Those are really funny guys, aren’t they? It’s not even because they have personal ill feelings, just because they were told to…… No, but I still don’t like it!”

“I don’t like it either.”

“Then why are you trying to give those guys absolution? That doesn’t make sense!”

At May’s calm continuation, Elsier instead burst with indignation and shouted:

“I just want to say that the real culprits are the guys behind them. You seem to understand it as me saying I’ll go easy on that bastard, but it would be troublesome if you think that way.”

“Then what is it?”

“I mean they’re so insignificant and worthless that they’re not worth the trouble of even borrowing others’ hands to cause problems.”

“Ah…… So that’s what you meant by ‘I’ll handle it myself.'”

Elsier nodded as if he finally understood.

“Right. Well, today too, he’ll be famous for his bottom-sitting for a while.”

“That’s somewhat satisfying. Anyway, regardless of what to do with that guy, you’re in danger right now.”

“I know that too. That’s why I said from the beginning that there would be nothing good about sticking with me.”

May hit his back asking why he was bringing up such unpleasant talk again.

“Ow! That hurts! And that’s something we have to see to know. Anyway, let’s really stick together as much as possible for the time being.”

Elsier, who had decided to observe her surroundings by tailing her even if she refused citing privacy invasion, clenched his fist and stuck close to her side.

He couldn’t understand this whole situation no matter how much he thought about it.

Even Periwinkle from the beginning was like that.

Honestly, wasn’t it just starting from inferiority complex?

If she was better and only looked at her own path ahead, there was no reason to act that way toward others.

But since she couldn’t overcome it herself, she was taking the method of trying to drag others down to put them beneath her.

‘Fine. I just need to do what I can do for now.’

And give Periwinkle a blow to make her pay the price for running her mouth carelessly.

Elsier said to May:

“For today, I have a bad feeling about something. Let’s stick together if possible.”

“I have plans to go out today though?”

“What for?”

“To buy summer clothes. But while I’m at it, I think it would be good to look for some small armament too, so I’m planning to do quite a bit of legwork.”

“Additional armament. That’s a good idea. I’ll go with you.”

“I take some time when shopping though?”

“It’s not like it’ll take days and days.”

Days and days.

To Elsier who answered casually as if annoyed, May replied with a reluctant expression:

“……That’s true.”

“Then let’s go together.”

“Geez. Do as you like.”

May turned her head with the thought that this friend was really strange.

* * *

Before departing, Elsier wrote a letter to his sister reporting today’s incident.

〈Sister. Today, something happened that really can’t be ignored anymore.

During practice time, there were incidents with clear intent to deliberately harm May.

Fortunately, she overcame those malicious harassments well on her own, but it seemed like it would become increasingly difficult for her to overcome situations by herself in the future.

As you said, Periwinkle is now mobilizing fellow students, no, even classmates to cause trouble.

I think something might happen where May gets seriously hurt. And I want to prevent that situation.

So from now on, I plan to do all activities together with May as much as possible.

Also, I’m thinking of finding out whether those bastards who were either bribed or persuaded can be used as witnesses.

Then I’ll contact you again when other incidents occur.〉

After sending the letter to Count Crient’s residence in the capital, Elsier confirmed that only ten minutes remained until the appointment time and hurriedly ran out.

May, who had been waiting for him with her arms crossed and tapping the ground with her right foot, looked at the running Elsier with fresh eyes and said:

“You said it was dangerous to be alone so we had to go together?”

“S-sorry.”

When Elsier caught his breath while panting, May looked at him with some disdain and pity before opening her mouth:

“Fine. Let’s keep our promises well with each other from now on.”

May went to find the outing carriage she had applied for at school in advance.

Walking around between the carriages lined up in the parking lot, she moved forward while checking her memo against the carriage numbers.

“AK013…… Ah, there it is.”

Looking where she pointed, they could see a coachman sitting in the driver’s seat smoking.

“The coachman is on standby too.”

“Since we’re a bit late. Come quickly.”

May scolded him once and moved her feet quickly.

The coachman checked the students’ IDs when his assigned students arrived, then opened the carriage door for them.

“Please take us to Mardini Square.”

Heeyah!

The sound of a whip was heard, and two horses began to move their feet.