The noble boy’s face turned bright red with anxiety as he desperately tried to explain to the crowd around him.
“Hmph! If you didn’t do it, then how do you explain the underwear found in your bag?!”
“I-I-I...... It was......”
The noble boy stammered, then gritted his teeth and said,
“A black cat did it! That cat dragged all that stuff into my bag!”
“......Heh——”
The girl opposite him sneered disdainfully.
“Can you come up with a more ridiculous lie?”
“It’s not a lie! I’m telling the truth! It really was a black cat! It was pitch-black all over with golden eyes—and it even turned around and smiled at me before it left......”
“Oh, really~?”
The girl laughed coldly,
“Even if that black cat did do it, you must have ordered it to!”
“What?! That’s nonsense——”
“If you didn’t order it, then why would it stuff underwear into your bag!?”
“I-I-I......”
“You’re absolutely disgusting! You disgrace to the nobility—stay away from us from now on! Let’s go——!”
With that, the noble girl grabbed the other sniffling girl and left without looking back.
The noble boy collapsed onto the ground, his face ashen, and mumbled in despair: “It’s over, it’s all over......”
Manacos did not expel students lightly—only for serious crimes would they face expulsion; otherwise, the worst punishment was a reprimand. So the noble boy wouldn’t be kicked out of the academy.
But as a noble,
honor was more important than life itself!
And now he had suffered social death in noble society—his fate was easy to imagine......
“......”
Hulim Heyerar watched silently as everything unfolded.
This spectacle seemed like nothing more than a case of an impulsive boy bringing about his own social ruin.
But only if that boy wasn’t the same one who’d led the beating of Arthur three days earlier......
“Arthur really meant what he said about revenge.”
Recalling the self-proclaimed commoner boy’s comical oath, Hulim felt a sense of unreality.
This was what he’d meant by the consequences of messing with someone from the slums.
It was pretty brutal......
After mourning the noble boy’s misfortune for all of 0.01 seconds, Hulim turned and left the scene of the drama.
In the days that followed, the incident became the talk of the academy. After all, in a top institution filled with prodigies, someone committing such an act was extremely rare.
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Thanks to this, Hulim learned the aftermath.
As expected, the noble boy had dropped out voluntarily and vanished without a trace. It was hardly surprising—having disgraced himself so thoroughly, his family would never allow him to appear in public again.
In addition, several of his accomplices and lackeys—the ones who’d joined in beating Arthur—were rumored to have been involved in the incident. Without evidence, the rumors went no further, but they were undoubtedly facing strange looks from everyone at the academy.
Now they were all keeping a low profile; a few with weaker nerves had even applied for a leave of absence.
They’d never imagined they’d end up like this just for offending a boy from the slums......
......
......
Lower level of the Echo Labyrinth.
“ROAR——!!”
A deafening roar shook the entire underground passage.
“Left! Attack its left side quickly!”
Arthur shouted in agony.
Having drawn the Minotaur’s attention head-on, he’d taken a point-blank Roar attack. If he hadn’t stuck his sword into the ground in time, he would’ve been sent flying—but even so, he was being buffeted around like a sheet of paper.
Boom——!
Just as his grip on the sword hilt was about to slip, a giant fire sword suddenly appeared from the Minotaur’s left side, slashing into its body. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as the blade sank deep into its chest.
“Ooo......”
The Minotaur let out a scream, spat out red liquid, and collapsed to the ground.
Thud!
With the heavy sound of its fall, silence finally returned.
“Ow ow ow......”
Arthur, who’d face-planted into the ground, climbed to his feet, clutching his nose.
“Are you okay?”
Hulim pulled her sword out of the Minotaur’s chest and glanced at Arthur.
“I’m fine, I’m fine!”
Arthur shook his head, then ran excitedly over to the Minotaur’s corpse.
“Whoa~! The lower levels really pay better! The Minotaur’s horns, hide—they’ll fetch a good price. And this——”
Arthur tried to lift the axe the Minotaur had been wielding, but his face turned bright red as he managed to lift it only a little.
He set the axe down, staring at it unwillingly.
“Maybe I should use Reinforcement to carry it back......”
“I’d advise you not to do something that stupid.”
Hulim uncorked a Mana Potion and drank it down, her tongue twisting as if in pain.
No matter how many times she drank it, she’d never get used to the taste......
She looked up at Arthur, who was still debating whether to give up the axe.
“By the way, Arthur—how did you pull it off?”
“Pull what off?”
“The incident at the academy a few days ago.”
“Oh, the underwear theft!?”
Arthur scratched his head, seemingly unsure how to explain.
“I know it sounds unbelievable, but it really was a black cat......”
“That black cat’s probably a stray—always popping up out of nowhere. The first time I met it, I thought it was hungry, so I shared some food with it. After that, it started showing up around me a lot. I thought it just wanted food, so I’d share with it every time—and eventually, the cat got really attached to me.”
“Later, I realized it was actually really smart—it could understand everything I said. The day that noble stiffed me, I thought since the cat knew the academy so well and was so clever, I’d ask it to help humiliate those guys, just to see if it would.”
“And it actually did it! And in this way! I still can’t believe it! By the way, that guy’s life is probably ruined, right......”
“Ah, right—can you keep this a secret? If word gets out, those nobles will definitely get revenge!”
Hulim nodded.
“I won’t say anything. Besides, no one would believe me even if I did.”
Instead, Hulim was more interested in the black cat. She’d never known such a creature existed in the academy—she wanted to meet it......
Meanwhile, in a remote forest within Manacos, a wooden cabin stood quietly.
“Meow~!”
A pitch-black cat with golden eyes jumped onto the open windowsill of the cabin.
“Sphinger, where have you been again?”
A voice sounded from inside, and then Grisa, dressed entirely in black, walked over.
“Meow~!”
The cat meowed, then transformed into a cloud of black shadow, leaping from the windowsill to Grisa’s feet in an instant.
The shadow condensed, and the cat’s form reappeared.
“Meow~!”
The cat rubbed affectionately against Grisa’s legs.
Grisa shook his head helplessly, bent down, and picked it up.
“......Don’t do that sort of thing again.”
“Meow~.”
The cat nodded, as if it understood.
......
