Chapter 33: The Heroine Arrives To Save!

"W-What?"

Marcus looked surprised when his fist met mine cleanly. He clearly hadn’t expected the school’s new top-ranked student to react so poorly to a punch to the face.

But his anger kept him from thinking. All he knew was that the current Reyn seemed vulnerable.

THWACK!

THWACK!

I continued taking his punches, making sure each one landed as badly as possible. But even someone as filled with anger as he would eventually question how weak a person could be after defeating the academy’s other strongest students.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

Marcus continued beating me, while the rest of his posse looked increasingly confused. Their anger was beginning to give way to uncertainty.

I couldn’t let them start thinking clearly. This plan required them to be stupid, and thoughtful people were bad for schemes that deliberately cultivated toxic relationship dynamics.

Why couldn’t they just play along and be the perfect pawns, blissfully unaware of how absurd the whole situation was?

I pretended to cast a ball of light in my hand, then flooded it with so much mana that the spell appeared to rupture.

But Marcus didn’t notice. The failure was too subtle.

So I repeated the process. This time, he noticed. His eyes fixed on the failed spell in my hand, and then he smiled. He had taken the bait.

"So that’s it, huh?"

THWACK!

He kicked me square in the abdomen, sending me crashing into a pile of unused desks. The back of my head struck the wall hard. Only the last-minute reinforcement of my body kept me conscious.

I wanted to get beaten up, but I needed to make sure I remained conscious.

"You used up all your mana yesterday, and now you can’t even cast a single spell?"

Marcus looked confident. One of the people behind him stepped forward and spoke.

"My turn, Marcus."

The second man was Daemon Hurst. He had nothing to do with Marcus, but the two were united by their shared hatred of me.

"At first, I wanted Marcus to handle the beating since he’s the most capable fighter. But after hearing that you’re mana-depleted, I guess I can join in on the fun."

Daemon stepped forward, cracking his neck as he rolled up his sleeves. Where Marcus was stocky and solid, Daemon was lean, with the kind of wiry muscle that suggested he’d spent more time running from consequences than facing them head-on.

"Can’t believe I was scared of you yesterday."

He muttered, almost to himself.

"Watching you take down those three... I thought maybe you’d actually changed. But look at you now. Pathetic."

I let my head loll to the side, keeping my breathing ragged. The blood from my split lip dripped onto the dusty floor, and I made sure they could see it.

"Go to hell, Daemon. Maybe if you actually grew a spine, you wouldn’t be so easy to mess with."

The words came out weak, just enough defiance to provoke without threatening. Daemon’s eyes flashed.

THWACK!

His fist connected with my ribs, and this time I let out a genuine grunt of pain. The guy could hit.

But not as hard as Gavian. Not even close.

I’d taken worse beatings from my own brother while he was trying to teach me a lesson. These amateurs were nothing compared to that.

Still, I had to sell it.

Another punch. Another kick. Daemon and Marcus took turns while the other three watched, their initial hesitation fading as the sight of their former tormentor bleeding on the floor made them brave.

"Not so high and mighty now, are you?"

Marcus grabbed me by the collar and hauled me up, then slammed me against the wall. My vision swam, but I stayed conscious.

"Lady Rose should see you now. Maybe then she’d realize what a worthless piece of trash you really are."

"Then... why don’t I call her?"

I was injured enough, I thought. It was time to signal Anna and let her know where I was, but not before making sure this scene wouldn’t completely damage my new reputation as the strongest student.

At the very least, I needed to bruise each of them before going down. That wouldn’t be difficult. Far from it.

"What are you talking about—"

A flash of light burst between us. I slipped easily from Marcus’s grip, drove a heavy punch into his face, then lunged toward Daemon and buried my knee in his stomach.

The rest of them suffered the same fate, injured, though nowhere near as badly as I was. Once I had given them enough bruises, I let myself collapse onto the floor in fake exhaustion.

"Guess he had some magic left..."

One of the women spoke while rubbing the spot on her head where I had struck her. She had the most calculating eyes in the group, though that didn’t matter much.

"We should clean this place up while he’s out cold."

"No."

The other man finally spoke, the quietest member of the group. Suddenly, the air around his palms compressed between his hands and solidified into a dagger.

"We’ll kill him."

"What?"

The others stared at him in surprise. He only stared back, genuinely confused that they hadn’t considered it themselves.

"What, did you think beating him up would change anything? Once he recovers his mana, we’re all screwed. We need to finish him here and now."

They actually seemed to consider it. His explanation made sense, and their confidence and anger still clouded their judgment. They hadn’t thought through the logistics of hiding my body or concealing the murder of a duke’s son.

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

"Reyn, are you inside? I sensed your light magic."

Anna tried the doorknob from outside, but they had already locked it. That wouldn’t stop her. A sudden surge of powerful light magic from a random room was more than enough to make her seriously concerned.

BOOM!

The lock shattered, and the door flew open. Anna saw me lying on the floor, badly injured, with fading sparks of mana flickering away from my body.

"R-Reyn!?"