Chapter 18: CH 15

Afterwards, we were surrounded by the teachers and led to the guidance counseling room.

Alfie and I entered the room first, followed by Blue Hair. Before long, a bald headed teacher also joined us in the counseling room. I suppose he was the teacher in charge of guidance counseling here. He had the air of a stubborn old man with that fierce look on his face. He also had a very stout build. He didn’t seem like a teacher at a magic school in the least.

The teacher scowled and threw a glare in my direction. Blue Hair’s shoulders shook while Alfie let out a small sigh. While I squinted my eyes at the brilliance of the teacher’s bald head.

“So, what’s your excuse?”

“I, I-”

” ”  We’re the victims, the perpetrator is Blue Hair over there. ” ”

While Blue Hair was dithering in his reply, Alfie and I jumped in to answer without a silver of hesitation. Blue Hair seemed to be rather shocked at our simultaneous objection that was perfectly in sync. I wonder if he was surprised at how we were in perfect harmony without even discussing it earlier?

“Hmmm… Then let’s hear Blue Hair-kun’s excuses.”

This teacher-like old man… He’s kind of funny despite the tough look.

Being pressed for an answer yet again, Blue Hair turned to point at me all of a sudden.

But unfortunately for him, I had already moved half a step back by then. Thus his finger only pointed at empty air.

“Stop playing around already.”

“Aye.”

Alfie got mad at me.

“This, this guy! He used violence against me and my friend, when we were just trying to get in the line! And the guy next to him shot magic at me too! We are the victims here!!”

“—-is that so?”

The teacher seemed exasperated at this entire situation. And from the look of it, he might have heard the details of the situation from other teachers before arriving here.

I casually took a glance in Alfie’s direction but he simply shrugged his shoulders in return, as if to say do whatever you want.

Then the teacher looked over at us, interrupting our exchange.

“Alright, can you first explain to me again how you guys ended up causing this mess? I already got the gist of what went down earlier, but I prefer hearing things from all the parties involved instead.”

Surprisingly, the teacher had a reasonable take on the situation. Since that is so, I went with the flow as well.

“It all started when a guy suddenly tried to cut in line in front of me when I was patiently waiting in the cafeteria earlier. That really annoyed me plus I was feeling super hungry at that time. So I sent him back to the line with a ‘smack.”

“I wonder what sort of ‘smack’ you meant there?”

“Umm, it’s just …a ‘smack’ I guess.”

I gestured with my hands to explain how I hurled the first guy who tried to cut in line in front of me.

“And then, another crazy guy jumped in and interrupted me for some reason, so I ‘smacked’ him back as well.”

The explanation continued on, along with the animated gestures of how the second guy was successively hurled right after.

“Oh I see, so he went back with a ‘smack’ too?”

Teacher was really in a good mood all of a sudden, wasn’t he?

“As for that Blue Hair, he was the last one to come at me. He yelled at me and I yelled back at him and then he suddenly just sat on his butt on the floor. I didn’t even touch him at all.”

“Sat- I never sat there!”

Blue Hair immediately snapped at me.

“I mean, you’re a commoner! Isn’t it more courteous to give up your place in the queue for a noble like me?”

“Who said what about me being a commoner now?”

“…..Eh? Is that wrong?”

“It’s not very nice to judge people based on your own preconceptions, you know?”

“Tha-, that is true. Well then I’ll apologize for that matter.”

“Still, I am a commoner though.”

“Stop making fun of other people!”

Blue Hair-kun really has a short temper for a blue haired person, doesn’t he?

“Be it commoner or noble, if there’s people lining up for something, isn’t it just common sense to line up at the back of the queue?”

“That is correct but, hearing the words of common courtesy coming out of your mouth makes me feel awfully uncomfortable.”

“Oh just shut up.”

I scowled at Alfie’s snide remark. Of which, he simply stared back at me with lukewarm eyes in return. We both soon turned around at the sound of the teacher clearing his throat.

“I understand where it all began but, it still doesn’t explain how the cafeteria got flooded. Could you please explain how that happened?”

“Th-that’s—”

“I was peacefully having my lunch with Alfie, someone started attacking us with magic all of a sudden. So I put up a barrier to block it. And the reason why the cafeteria got flooded is all thanks to Blue Hair who kept using water bullets at my barrier. To be honest, aside from the first two, I didn’t do anything to this Blue Hair at all.”

“And after that, I dismantled the barrier so that Reese could hear what they were saying. But this hot headed guy kept casting more magic so I shot a weakened wind bullet to stop him. I plead this justifiable self defense.”

Before Blue Hair could say anything, I jumped in to lay out my side of the story and Alfie followed suit without any delay. Blue Hair, whose words had been cut short, lost his momentum altogether and was left with his mouth hanging open, unable to get a single word through.

Alfie and I have known each other for a long time now. This level of impromptu coordination in the spur of the moment was almost nothing for us.

“… Then what about you, Blue Hair-kun? Is this all true?”

Blue Hair‘s face turned bright red at the teacher’s inquiry and he finally cried out loud.

“I-, I’m Latos Ganoark! The eldest son of the honorable Ganoark family! My name is not Blue Hair!”

Was the tsukkomi really necessary?

It wasn’t as if I intentionally kept calling him, ‘Blue Hair’. I only heard his name for the first time just now.

──Oh wait. I just remembered something, I actually might have heard one of his lackeys calling him that before.

“By the way Alfie, do you know who this Ganoark family is supposed to be?”

“How would I know, I’m from the same countryside where you’re from.”

“You mean to say that you haven’t heard of the Ganoark family?”

When we were both tilting our heads in confusion, the teacher kindly gave us a brief explanation on the subject.

“The Ganoark family── They are a noble house that excels in the field of water attribute magic. The Ganoark family is quite prestigious in their own right. And Latos Ganoark also happened to receive an excellent score on the entrance examination as well.”

“Yes, that’s right! We are on a different level compared to commoners like you!”

……………………

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“Wha-, what with this weird mood change like you’re all ridiculing me inside your head all of a sudden!?”

You guessed it right. That’s exactly what we’re doing.

I mean… wait?

──Come to think of it, the teacher knew Blue Hair’s name all along. Well, isn’t he the mischievous one? You really couldn’t imagine it by his appearance at all.

“There’s certainly no doubt that they are both commoners.”

The teacher released a deep weary sigh as he continued to explain;

“First, that polite one over there── he is Alfie Lightheart, the overall third place of this year’s entrance examinations.

“………….ha?”

“And by the way, he also happens to be able to wield four attributes, a very rare genius of this era.”

Blue Hair’s── Latos’ eyes widened in surprise.

“Four, four attributes you say!? Come to think of it, I remember hearing that a teacher went out his way to recruit a genius with four attributes that── could he be!?”

Yup, that’s Alfie alright.

“And about the rude one over here…”

Eey teacher, the way you’re introducing me is a little──

“Nothing wrong about it. So just shut up.”

Oy Alfieeee?!

“I’m sure you’ve heard of his name too. After all, he made quite the fuss at the entrance ceremony.”

“The entrance ceremony!? … No, no way! It can’t be!?”

Back then, my voice was amplified by the headmaster’s magic tools. Still, the hall was really big and students at the back stood quite a distance away from the stage. So it’s no wonder that they couldn’t see my face clearly. But when he heard my name, he seemed to have recalled everything.

“Among all the new students this year, the only one who got the perfect overall score for the entrance examination is him, Reese Louise. And if I were to add another piece of information, they both belong to the Noble class.”

Latos’s eyes opened even wider, as if they were about to jump out of their sockets.

“Tch, I’ll be the first one day.”

“I don’t think this is a good time to be competing.”

──In the end, Alfie and I were both warned for causing a ruckus but we weren’t harshly reprimanded for it.

While on the other hand, Latos was to be punished to some extent for his actions. But he was still able to avoid heavy punishment, considering that he was still a freshman and nobody was injured during the scene. And the two cronies of his were sternly reprimanded.

“Oh come to think of it, I didn’t get that teacher’s name back there.”

“Well you’ll find out sooner or later. That aside, we should hurry up and head back to the classroom right now, I’m sure we can still make it to the end of the class if we hurry.”

“Aye aye.”

We both left the guidance counseling room and scurried back to our classroom.