“Damn that bitch!!”
Furious, Owen flipped the table in front of him.
The expensive glass tabletop smashed onto the floor and shattered into pieces.
The sudden violence terrified the lackey standing beside him.
“Young Master Ou, calm down, please calm down!”
“Calm down? You’re telling me I should just swallow the humiliation I suffered at the academy?”
Owen grabbed his lackey by the collar and, using his superior strength, lifted the man clean off the ground.
“Do you know how those idiots at the academy are laughing at me now? They all call Via a soft rice cake, and say I’m worse than a rice cake, that I got played by Via and turned into a total pushover!”
“That’s impossible! It’s all slander! Via is a born waste; how could she ever compare to the genius Young Master Ou!”
“What can I do when everyone believes it? I’m furious!”
Owen slammed his lackey to the floor, his face flushed with rage.
It had happened today, during class. He’d overheard classmates whispering about him.
In the last assessment, he had insisted Via used a mana bomb to destroy the bridge, schemed against him, stole his core, and caused him to barely pass.
But in the end, there wasn’t enough evidence to punish Via. Instead, with Lucy fanning the flames, everyone started mocking him.
His status at Avalon had plummeted. Many of the friends who once flocked around him now kept their distance. He was no longer the center of attention, and the drastic fall from grace was unbearable.
Unable to hold back, he had grabbed a classmate by the throat in the middle of class and punched him several times to vent.
The enraged teacher stopped him, dragged him to the academic office, and he received disciplinary punishment.
“It’s all that bitch’s fault!”
“Young Master Ou, you really shouldn’t call her that… No matter what, she’s Lady Sylvia’s daughter. If someone hears you using that kind of language, it could harm the Leites family’s reputation.”
“Who the hell are you to lecture me?!”
Owen’s cheek twitched. He raised his foot and kicked his lackey square in the face.
The lackey curled up, clutching his head and crying out in pain.
That was just how the young master of the Leites family was: extremely generous when happy, showering his subordinates with rewards, but terrifyingly violent when angry, using whoever was nearby to vent his fury.
“If the academy didn’t explicitly forbid students from fighting each other, I would’ve dealt with you long ago, Via!”
Owen imagined the lackey’s face was Via’s and kicked even harder, as if he wanted to smash it in.
Knock knock knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
The battered lackey clung to the sound like a lifeline.
“Young Master Ou! Someone’s here to see you!”
“Who is it? I’m not seeing anyone! Get lost, I’m busy!”
Owen roared at the door.
A calm, unhurried voice came from the other side. “Young Master Owen, your father sent me.”
“Father?”
Lately, Owen had complained to his father, explaining why he hadn’t earned Excellent in the last assessment.
His father believed in his son’s outstanding talent. A Silver-rank at such a young age; how could he possibly fail a mere exam?
Owen said he couldn’t swallow the insult.
His father told him to wait; he would send someone to handle it.
Could this be the person Father sent?
While Owen was thinking, the bruised and swollen lackey scrambled to his feet, opened the door, and fled.
“Young Master Owen, do you have time now?”
The man standing outside asked.
Owen looked up. The visitor was dressed mysteriously in a full black suit, carrying a briefcase, standing ramrod straight.
Owen had never seen that style of suit before.
“I have time now. Come in.”
“Very well.”
The mysterious man nodded, stepped inside, walked over the broken glass without a care, and sat opposite Owen, crossing his legs.
Owen was secretly shocked. Wasn’t this guy a little too arrogant?
He was, after all, the young master of the Leites family. Where was the respect?
“We’ve heard your request. Now we want to know exactly what you want,” the mysterious man asked.
“I can’t openly touch Via at the academy, but I desperately want to teach her a lesson,” Owen said through gritted teeth. “No matter what, I can’t let this go.”
“Just a lesson? That seems far too lenient. She ruined your reputation at the academy. Isn’t that level of revenge a bit… mild?”
“Then… what else can I do besides teach her a lesson?”
“Heh heh, that depends on you. If you have the guts to open this, you’ll understand exactly how to make Via pay.”
The mysterious man smiled faintly. He placed the briefcase in front of Owen, used a key to unlock it, and opened it just a crack, gesturing for Owen to open it the rest of the way himself.
Looking at that dark slit, Owen felt an invisible pressure and inexplicably grew nervous.
Only now did he notice a strange emblem on the briefcase: a single crimson eye. Just looking at it made his heart unsettled.
“…Tch!”
Owen clicked his tongue, steeled himself, grabbed the edges, and flung the briefcase fully open in front of him.
…
…
Meow~ meow~
In Via’s dorm room, the little yellow cat lay sprawled comfortably on the sofa, a dried fish in its mouth.
The freshly showered pink-haired girl leaned against the sofa, eating a Swiss roll while flipping through a magazine.
It was Avalon Academy’s weekly publication, containing various academy-related news.
“The academy expedition sign-up has started?”
Via noticed one article.
The expedition was an event where Avalon teachers led students out of the academy for off-campus activities.
It sounded like a normal school trip, but Avalon’s destinations were never simple. There were always missions and real risks involved.
Last year, for example, her year had been taken to the ruins of a city where demons and humans once fought, tasked with clearing out lingering magical beasts. It served both to show students the viciousness of demons and to test their abilities.
This year would probably be similar.
“I’ll skip it. It’s a waste of time. I have other plans. I need to make more mana bombs quickly… wait!”
Via was about to close the magazine when, at the very end of the article, she saw a location she absolutely could not ignore.
Demon King’s Castle ruins?
“This year’s Avalon Academy expedition is actually going there?”
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