RATH 90
TL: Eevee

11. Not a myth, but a legend (3)

#3 Their story: A certain student council president’s story.

“I’m sorry.”

I bowed my head deeply, but the other person’s anger didn’t abate.

“What is this, revenge? Is this reeveeeeeennnnnggeee!”

Professor Harian’s shrill shrieks shook the fabric of the tent.

The cause was my talking about Professor Nicerwin during my match with Arucia today.

Because of me, Professor Nicerwin became a monster that could face off against gods, a Spirit King, and a thousand students all at once, and was currently at the center of attention of all the empire’s nobles.

But…

“Didn’t I just say the truth?”

On the contrary, I actually underplayed it.

Because let alone the students, not even the teachers could do anything to him!

Although it should be obvious, whenever the silver devil came went around hitting teachers in the name of treatment, every time, the teachers would scream and struggle and do their best to run away.

Because the moment you get hit by it just once, the devil will become an object of fear.

But no teacher, not even Professor Muam or Professor Harian managed to avoid the silver devil.

The moment this story gets out, the empire’s curiosity towards Professor Nicerwin will explode!

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s the truth or not! You idiot!”
“Kuhuk!”

I thought that was a fairly perfect argument, but what came back was Professor Harian’s fist!

“You moron, do you have any idea what’s happening right now? Every single noble that can call themselves a noble have been charging in demanding we hand over Professor Nicerwin!”
“Can’t, can’t we just hand him over?”
“The problem is that said Professor Nicerwin’s ran away with no one the wiser!”

After a brief rundown of what happened, apparently the nobles had come charging in asking for Professor Nicerwin, but Professor Nicerwin had already fled.

And no matter how hard we tried to explain it to them, the nobles weren’t believing it!

The teachers were even being questioned whether Yugrasia was deliberately hiding him in order to monopolise him.

And the end result of all that.

“You’re the one who started all this and I’m here to take all my anger out on yoooouuuu!”
“Kugh!”

An explosive punching power from that tiny frame!

But unlike last time, having blocked it with a perfect guard, I turned on Professor Harian and…

“Kuahhhhhahhaaaaaaaaaahgh!”
“Imma here too!”

The strike to my side was a familiar one, yet one that I could never ever get used to.

“Owner told me to tell pres. Ya dead.”
“Kuuuooooghhh!”

In the blink of an eye, five strikes rained down onto different parts of my body.

My consciousness was getting hazy. My mind wanted to faint, but my body wasn’t letting me.

It hurts. It hurt, and yet my mind was only getting sharper.

“Kuhg, gughh? Haahh!”
“Fufufu. Howzat, feels good, ‘mirite?”
“S, stop… haaaak!”
“Pres, lookie here. That’s what ya saying, but your body’s feeling my touch. Now, howzzit!”
“This, this is a tent without any soundproofing! There are other nobles who aren’t used to this around here, not just students!”

Professor Harian tried to stop her in response to the bizzare moans that came out of my mouth.

“Wanna get hit with him?”
“It’s just the student council president, feel free to hit him as much as you want!”

Although it wasn’t much of a resistance.

“Prezzie, owner’s really pissed. He told me things’ve turned to a real pain in the ass for him cuzza you, he said it was alright if I ended you.”
“Sp, spare me…”
“You know! I’m a kind goddess, that doesn’t kill anyone!”
“Just kill me insteeeeaaaaadd!”
“Hahyahahahaha! That’s never gonna happen! Pres still has lots of work to do for the remainder of the imperial festival!”
“Kwuuuuuugh!”
“I’ll… I’ll be off now. Do your best!”

Professor Harian closed her eyes at my screams and left the tent, but the silver devil didn’t care and kept on drumming my body.

No matter how much I apologized, or begged for forgiveness, the devil’s violence didn’t stop.

I’d much rather just faint and let it end, but the silver devil didn’t even permit me that.

In the end, all I could do was curse past me and my mouth for blabbing on because I felt good about being strong and fighting 100 Arucia students.

“What’s this?”

When I opened my eyes, I could see the night sky.

I was definitely in a tent, no, before that it felt like there was around a page’s worth of needless blank space, that people might think was an editing error!

“No wait, what the heck am I saying…”
“What are you saying indeed, hasn’t everything you’ve been speaking of lately been nothing but bullshit?”
“Huk!”

The voice I heard suddenly was one that I often heard normally.

But both the way of speaking and the aura around it was so dramatically different I thought it was a completely different person.

“P, Professor Nicerwin…”
“Indeed, Nerkia. Isn’t this a good day to die?”
“It, it’s nighttime right now so I don’t know what the weather is like!”

Feeling a very real threat to my life, I hurriedly shouted but it didn’t seem to have an effect.

“Indeed, that’s how it is. Most humans don’t know when they’re going to die. It’s a perfect day for you to die then, no?”
“If I die then our academy will!”
“Win. Do you honestly think that Yugrasia can’t win without you?”
“No…”

In all honesty, there was no way Yugrasia couldn’t win just because I was missing.

Because each and every student in the school was running for the sake of eliminating the night study!

But I need to survive first before all else!

“P, please let me live…”
“Mm, alright. I’ll keep you alive at least.”

Pat.

After patting my shoulder a couple of times, Professor Nicerwin sat down on a chair that I had no idea when or where it had appeared from, crossed one leg over the other and looked down at me.

“I won’t kill you.”

As Professor Nicerwin beckoned, out from the darkness came a ray of silver light…

“Heehiithiit!”
“K, kill me instead!”
“That’s not gonna happen!”
“You, you hit me before! Beating me twice in one day is too much!”
“I’m a girl, a bad girl!(1) I’m always so mean, I’m so mean!(2)”
“Kaaaaagh!”

A tiny foot smashed my sides.

I could have sworn that impact was proportional to mass and speed, but why was this small and slow kick so painful?

“Whaddaya mean why, of course it’s cuz I am the great goddess Arcadia!”
“How… kwuuugh!”
“How did I know? ‘cuz I am the great goddess Arcadia!”
“So it’s the same thhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggggggggggaaaaagghhh!”

Suddenly I felt 18 different places on my body erupt in pain.

As her fingers stretched out like tentacles to drum around my entire body my mind teetered between hell and hell around three times or so.

There was no such thing as heaven under the silver devil’s attacks.

“Enough.”

And as I experienced multiple hells, Professor Nicerwin finally commanded the devil to stop.

“Kill… me…”
I knew that this hell would end once the imperial festival ended, but it was too hard to endure this pain right now.

I would much rather just die right now, but I could only fear this curse that wouldn’t even let me die.

“No, the reason why I ordered her to stop was to hit you more. At this rate, even the me… this girl has a limit.”
“Please…”
“This girl doesn’t end in just pain. It only ends because the body simply cannot accept any more blessings due to all the blessings stacking. In that case, all I have to do is make your body become able to accept more blessings.”
“Urk?”
“By attacking you normally(3). Don’t worry. When this child wasn’t around, I swung a bat around myself, so I still remember how to hit people in order for it to hurt normally.”
“Urk. Urgh… S, stop…”

To be honest, Professor Nicerwin’s attacks didn’t hurt.

Just being lightly massaged?

After being hit with the devil, Yugrasia students’ pain resistance surpassed the level of humanity, so we didn’t feel pain to the majority of attacks.

But, according to what Professor Nicerwin said, because of these attacks, the silver devil’s attack time would get longer.

When I thought that I was being attacked to get hit by the silver devil longer, every hit drove more and more fear into me.

“Please! Stop! Why do I have to get hit even more whenever I get hit!”
“You have already crossed the point of no return.”(4)

Professor Nicerwin said as if I had no more chances.

But, who was I.

I was a member of Yugrasia, who did everything humanely possible to survive the silver devil!

I could survive if I could persuade Professor Nicerwin before the devil’s attack started.

In that case, why was Professor Nicerwin this angry with me?

Professor Harian was angry because they got stuck doing troublesome work.

Was Professor Nicerwin truly the same?

Probably not.

Knowing Professor Nicerwin’s personality, he wouldn’t be moving himself for the same reason.

In that case, aside from that reason, was there another reason for him to be angry?

Just why?

On the contrary, I just raised Professor Nicerwin’s value?

A teacher that not even a thousand students together couldn’t defeat, was that not an owner of unbelievable skill that you couldn’t find in any other academy!

My achievement was in naturally revealing Professor Nicerwin’s own inherent talents that hadn’t seen the light of day compared to his teaching talents!

‘Hang on, is that it?’

What if Professor Nicerwin was angry that his talents had been revealed?

Why? There’s no need to bother about that.

If I asked him, I could be at risk of getting hit even more.

So all I can do is use this fact to beg for my life.

“I, have an answer!”
“Yes, there is an answer. Your death.”

This, this isn’t right?

“I have a way to return everything back to the way it was. Someone just needs to attract all the attention that’s focused on Professor Nicerwin right now!”
“Really? That’s a good idea.”

I’m saved!

“But, that’s something you need to do anyway. And I need something to let my ire out on.”

It wasn’t it?!

As if the other students’ jokes that ‘Professor Nicerwin is actually a villain from Howling!’ were real, he was looking down at me with extremely cold eyes, although at some point his hands had stopped moving.

“Since you seem to be reflecting, I will forgive you.”
“Th, thank you very much!”

In a state where I couldn’t yet move my body properly because of the attacks of the silver devil, I just managed to bow my head and thank him for his forgiveness.

“But, since it’d be a bit of a waste of me hitting you… Aru, hit him to his limits.”
“N, No!”

Like a criminal sentenced to execution, my face dyed white, I screamed…

“Yeth way!”
“Gaaaaaaaahhhhgh!”

If there was mercy, the devil was not it.

“Huk!”
“You’re awake.”
“I thought that we’d have to leave pres out of todays’ match.”
“You’re alive.”
“That’s our academy’s president for you, you have to respect his sturdiness.”

And when I woke my eyes, it was the next morning.

When I sat up in my bed, I could see the other members of the student council looking at me with disgust.

“What happened?”
“What happened. The silver devil beat the crap out of you and brought you here.”
“Honestly you were going ‘hehehe’ with your mouth drooling and nothing visible of your eyes but your whites, when we asked the devil we got ‘owner was pissed so I kept hitting him!’”
“We even expected to have to fight the last day without you, pres, you know?”
“I get it…”

Having a rough idea of what state I was when I’d returned, I sighed, but my trials were not yet over.

“Are you good for today’s event? You kicked up such a huge fuss yesterday, if you don’t go out today, it’ll look weird?”
“Aaaaaaagghhhhhhh!”

Suddenly I clutched my head and screamed.

“Risen, how much longer to the event?”
“Why, are you not feeling up for it? An hour till the first event, an hour forty till the last, why?”

I’d said to Professor Nicerwin.

That I’d turn all the attention from Professor Nicerwin back to me today.

But that was only something I’d said so I could survive, I didn’t actually have any idea how to go about doing that.

Honestly, what else would be more eye-catching than someone that could defeat a gods, a Spirit King and a thousand students all on his own!

“Risen, this question might sound like the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard in your life…”
“What’s with that question? You wanna go? Is that it?”
“No, my life is on the line.”
“Really? Bye then.”

Risen shooing me away with his hand was just like normal.

But I knew how to turn his heart around.

“By the silver devil.”
“Give me some time.”

No matter how much of an asshole Risen was, he at least had the decency to help out if it was related to the silver devil!

“Yes, that’s it!”

I nodded to Risen’s suggestion.

If it was that, I could definitely pull all the attention to myself.

Because it was something so completely and utterly insane only Risen could come up with!

And the day of the event, seeing that thankfully, my target was present, I boldly walked forwards.

Ignoring the Arucia students who were on edge at my walking forward once again, but purely for a single intention!

“I, Nerkia ri Derilraff declare, right here!”

I could see the tension on the Arucia students’ faces.

If the person who’d come out and single-handedly destroyed them all came out and spouted out something like that then of course that’d be a cause for worry for them, but fear not! This is nothing like that!

“Arucia’s…”

This was dangerous.

Very, very dangerous.

But, in order to survive, I had to say these words.

“Vice-president, Arietta rul Meirae! I love you so much!”

The enormous task, that was a public confession!