NOVEL WEB Chapter 180
<180 - Grateful Students>
After the mob, I went to the lounge and sprinkled the favorability items I had received in a warm embrace, causing my friends’ favorability to shoot up!
“Sniff Oknodie… thank you so much.”
“Wh-why is there so much of this stuff? Waaah It’s so sad!”
“Oknodie, if you face any hardships in the future, make sure to let me know…”
What kind-hearted friends they are! Just a few gifts, and they’re already crying. Are female students always this sensitive?
But it’s strange. When I was a boy giving gifts, they would get surprised and awkwardly laugh, sometimes even twitching their cheeks.
I pondered for a moment but then convinced myself that it’s just that girls simply have more of that girly sensibility!
Pain that cannot be felt on the skin is hard to empathize with. For the same reason, even though many students knew that Oknodie was an abused child of the foundation, they still held a slight disdain for her.
“Isn’t she just a talent parasite?”
“She must be talented for the foundation to educate her.”
The gap in inherent talent. The rationalization that someone so young achieved more with far less effort than they themselves put in.
This assertion born out of envy and jealousy led them to define Oknodie as a cowardly talent parasite, not one of their kind.
“Eat this and feel better!”
“W-why is there so much doping potion!?”
“Huh? I always buy this much.”
“Were you planning to give it as a gift!?”
“I always buy a lot!”
But they realized. The truth is, this kid is also a hard worker. Behind her shining talent, there was effort that didn’t allow for even a moment of rest.
A child from a prestigious family. The child of a master. Training from childhood had become a part of their everyday life.
Everything has its limits. There isn’t a child continuously training all night just because they got into the habit of it from a young age.
“It was real abuse…”
“I misunderstood Oknodie…”
“I’m so sorry for her…”
Even the female students following Arcadia began to shed tears of remorse as the reality of the abuse was revealed.
At the same time, a new hypothesis arose: all the rumors that had spread until now might be pure, unexaggerated truth.
“Arcadia, take this!”
“Oh my, teehee. Thank you, Dia. But what should I do with this? I don’t drink doping potions.”
“Then it’s okay to give it to the other girls!”
Yet, that kind child even handed potions to students who looked down on her.
“Sob sob. What a good kid.”
“That’s why she can be the top student.”
“I finally understand the heart of Lady Arcadia. She must have known about that child’s good nature.”
The students of the Arcadia faction made a vow. They would become a protective barrier for Oknodie.
But the opportunity for them to step in arrived sooner than expected.
“I can’t even muster the energy for lunch…”
“Ugh. There’s too much homework…”
One day, while deeply immersed in their studies for the upcoming midterm exam, the followers of Arcadia witnessed a scene where a group of students had gathered.
“What’s going on?”
“It looks like a fight.”
“Why is there a fight at a time like this?”
The ones raising their voices were students attending the [Fundamentals and Understanding of Mana Usage] lecture. Their opponents were students from the [Imperial Magic Studies] course.
It was a mandatory magic class that every student had to take.
With the number of students being so high, there were multiple professors, and students could choose any lecture to attend, so not everyone knew each other.
However, it wasn’t difficult to guess why they were fighting.
“It seems like the Border faction and the Empire faction are at it!”
Students attending the lectures from the border faction and the Empire faction. Until now, even if their relations weren’t great, they had merely drifted alongside each other in this tough academy life. But today was different.
“Don’t you feel sorry for the materials you’re using to hone your pathetic skills?!”
“What? You lot, pretending to be something you’re not thanks to your family’s support!”
They were openly insulting each other and soon enough, students started grabbing each other by the hair and fighting!
The followers of Arcadia, taken aback by the sudden brawl, quickly grabbed one student from Group A and asked.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
“Our professor assigned us homework, and while we were gathering preparation items, those guys just demanded we hand everything over because they got the same assignment!”
“How can there be such mean people?”
“You guys help us out. Let’s give those wretched imperial bastards a good beating while we have the chance!”
The overly enthusiastic student who jumped into the fray quickly began to scream and then crawled out with only scratches and bruises left behind.
Students crying as they fled or desperately surrendering were mostly from the border faction.
“That mana flow technique of that guy!”
“Those wannabe knights and mages have gathered mana like it’s a cheat code.”
“We can’t win with our skills… If we’re weak, we lose our materials and our grades!”
The students couldn’t hide their despair.
“Please help us!”
“You guys are followers of Arcadia.”
“If you’re that strong, can’t you help us out a bit?”
Yet the followers of Arcadia couldn’t muster the courage to jump in after seeing that scene.
Among the lower class students, even they had a certain level of strength.
Arcadia, the princess of one nation. The sheer number of students who admire her is stunning, and to stand by her side wouldn’t be possible with mundane specs.
Everyone came from somewhat respected families or were children of high-ranking officials.
So paradoxically, they couldn’t step in. They knew well how strong the power they enjoyed was, as well as how much stronger the Empire’s nobility was.
A clear power gap existed between the Empire and the border.
“I-I can’t do it.”
“We know. We know how strong they are…”
“The border can’t beat the Empire.”
There could be arguments about how one could have their skills honed through tough environments in the border region, but that’s only seeing one side of things.
While they spent their time managing territories and stabilizing society, the Empire hired specialized instructors at great cost to tutor their children.
It was common for someone to invest massive amounts into a well-known combat class to learn game-changing skills from named experts.
Even the classes themselves varied.
On the outside, most would receive the [Street Fighter] class and hone their skills through street brawls.
In contrast, the Empire had established and licensed dojos from which one could take the [Dojokwon Fighter] class, honing their fundamentals solidly from the start.
When a fight occurs between the two, the outcome is typically an overwhelming victory for the doja-kwon fighters.
More often than not, it is the latter that wins.
Unless a genius street fighter or an absurdly physical specimen comes along, that’s usually the case.
“So are we stuck getting extorted like this with no one to fight for us?”
“Let’s ask the instructors for help!”
“Inform the professors!”
The students, now bruised and battered, sought help from the instructors, but their hopes were dashed.
“As long as it’s not a physical act of preventing you from attending class, we won’t intervene in disputes over assignments related to lectures.”
The instructors firmly drew the line.
Should the fight escalate beyond a certain level, punishments and demerits would follow, and imprisonment in the underground detention center may occur, but such severe fights had not broken out.
The professor who assigned the homework, Professor Weird, chided the disheveled students.
“If you had diligently practiced nature magic, you wouldn’t have had to go through that. It seems like you didn’t train enough. If you feel wronged, dedicate yourself to magic training from now on.”
“But I lost the materials I need to train the magic!”
“You haven’t done your best yet.”
“Do I have hidden potential or talent?”
“You came to the professor’s research lab instead of being locked up in the underground detention center. In nature, when you fight, you should be prepared to take your opponent’s breath away with the intention to kill.”
“Are you telling me to commit murder over just a collection of materials!?”
“Not to that extent, but if you don’t prepare to be trapped in the underground detention center, how do you plan to secure your lecture materials?”
The professor’s mindset was of no help whatsoever!
No one stepped in to help.
Even the students from the Empire who attended Professor Weird’s class felt the same.
“Help us. You’re in the same position as us.”
“Give up. You’re already outnumbered in this imperial faction.”
These students who understood each other’s strengths quickly gave up on their grades!
Even impressive students like the fire mage Rosgini and the earth sorcerer Sandkooker felt the same way, leaving the border students no choice but to cry and resign themselves.
“Stop it!”
The students listening to the Empire professor as they left the materials storage.
Before the brave voice calling out to them could be heard.
“Who gave you the right to take our materials?!”
The subject of ominous rumors and unexpectedly warm-hearted child, Oknodie.
Getting involved in a fight that others had given up on, she stepped forward.
The followers of Arcadia grew more concerned.
It was a clear loss if this fight happened.
But if Oknodie stepped in, for some reason, it didn’t seem like they would lose.
“My cute friend Dorothy is getting hurt too!”
The students thought. Dorothy had probably been caught up in the chaos and was getting beaten up.
“Look at this! Dorothy’s doodles on the textbook cover are being stepped on by all of you! How heartbroken must she be!”
“St-stop it… Oknodie, please stop…”
“No, Dorothy. We can’t let this slide for the sake of everyone’s pain.”
“No, please stop that for me…”
With a different reason for being hurt in real-time, Oknodie was furious!
“Phew, thank goodness. I can trust that girl.”
“She’s serious enough to train with doping potions every night.”
“If she’s trained to the level where she’s co-valedictorian due to the foundation’s child abuse, she’ll catch up to the Empire’s early education too.”
But one of Arcadia’s followers thought deeply and then voiced their concerns.
“But if that girl starts fighting, things could get out of hand. She handles dark mana.”
“And so what?”
“If you handle too much dark mana, it becomes uncontrollable, and suddenly you can collapse, right?”
The expressions of her followers turned pale.
“If that news reaches Lady Arcadia…”
“And she’ll know we didn’t fight…”
“If Oknodie collapses, it’ll all be on us, right?”
They couldn’t be glad that Oknodie stepped up.
Even if she wanted to fight, they had to dissuade her in order to maintain their relationship with the princess.
“We’ll help too.”
“Hah. We’ll only help this once as a special favor.”
“Make sure you express gratitude to the princess. We’re helping you because of her.”
Reluctantly stepping up to help Oknodie, the followers recognized it was better to take some hits than to leave her to collapse.
With this, Lady Arcadia would know they made an effort on Oknodie’s behalf.
They thought about how pitiful she was. With the past doping potion incident, they had come to realize just how unfortunate this girl was.
Let’s consider it a way to repay her kindness.
In all honesty, if a real fight broke out, they would probably get beaten up, but they too were offspring of recognized power in the border.
With a bit of compromise, they could at least manage to secure some face-saving materials.
They could make sure to set aside Oknodie’s share as well.
“No! You all should stay back!”
But Oknodie refused to back down.
“No, we offered to help, didn’t we?”
“Who are weaker people like you going to help?”
“N-no, that’s…”
They had never truly intended to fight anyway.
“What’s going on? Are you going to step up or not?”
“You lot. Who do you think will charge in?”
The rude students from the Empire stood with arrogant postures.
In response, Oknodie fired off a spell straight at them.
[Water Creation Magic]
Suddenly, the imperial students were drenched in black water.
“AAH!”
“W-what’s that weird sound coming from me?!”
“Ouch! This burns! Ugh, was that a poison spell used on a person!?”
“Wait. This tastes sweet?!”
“You idiot, spit it out! What if the protein dissolves and it tastes sweet? You might melt your tongue!”
“Is that really possible!?”
The dark water creation magic altered by dark mana.
The outcome was… soda!
Harmless but unexpectedly shocking—Imperial students were stunned as they glared at Oknodie, who had invoked this spell, and the Arcadia followers realized they were screwed.
Negotiation was out of the question now.
They had no choice but to truly protect Oknodie and start a brawl.
“Everyone, guard Oknodie!”
“Don’t let anyone approach!”
Round two of the brawl began.
An unwanted fight, but there was no turning back.
Still, at least Oknodie would be thankful, and that was the only reward they could count on!
“Stop it… Everyone, please don’t do this. There’s no need for you to fight for me!”
I want my experience points back!