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Chapter 21
🕑 Added 2025-06-27 17:47:29 +0000 UTC"It is... cruel of you to show my master such miracles."
Those were the unfair words Gray left to me before shuffling down the stairs in that awkward way of hers, hood pulled close and head hung low as if the world around her was terrifying for some reason.
I was, honestly, lost for words. I didn't get it. What miracles? What cruelty? Her Master was Waver, I knew that. What had I done that warranted such a cryptic scolding?
My 'trance' was only broken when a blonde doll-like teen whisked past but not before eying me with a grin that said 'I know your secret'. She was followed by a bubbling maid made of mercury who paid me no heed as they slipped into the El-Melloi Classroom.
I shook my head, and looked to follow Gray but by then she was gone too. I realised then I didn't know where she lived. It wasn't like she was keen on sharing anything. She just sat in a corner of the class, quiet, until the lectures were over before just leaving.
"What'd Gray say that's got you so stumped?" My concentration broke again, this time from Flat's over-the-top voice and the slap he planted on my back..
"Idiot, my dear Gray would never say something bad to anyone." Svin cut in, arms crossed.
I narrowed my eyes, specifically at his fluffy blonde hair, "Shut up candy-floss. This isn't Reddit, filthy simp."
The mutt that he was, the 'cunt to everyone but Gray' simp snarled at my words like he was about to uNleASh the BEasT inside and began folding his sleeves with murder in his eyes. I met his provocation with a grin. I had a good few spells to test out. Namely, the applications of Gabriel's reversed miracle, projection and structural analysis... even the constant spell he was getting ready to release now.
But, before the willing guinea pig could lunge at me, Flat came between us. He separated us forcefully by bruting his way in.
"No! Le Chien, Sky Eyes, no fighting your friends!"
I recoiled, "What the fuck is a sky eyes?"
"Stop calling people dogs!"
Svin lunged for him instead but Flat just leapt onto the well-polished railings of the stairway, laughing. He expertly stood up on one hand, and even jumped when Svin swiped at him with the strength in that one hand.
"Sky Eyes isn't good?" He hummed with a hand on his chin. "How about... Mister Reverse?"
No, nicknames sucked. Specifically, Flat's nicknames sucked. Le Chien, his name for Svin, quite literally translated to 'The Dog' in French. I dreaded to think of what he could come up with for me if given free rein.
"Hal. It's Hal."
That was what my little sister came up with, and it was infinitely superior to everything else for that very fact.
"Oooh, can I call you that?" Flat leapt onto the nearby chandelier to avoid Svin's swipes, and the massive thing heaved and croaked in the air under his weight as he balanced himself along the thick wires propping it up.
"You've been calling me that, without my permis-"
"But we're friends, so it makes sense!"
Geh... With how insistent he was with that, it was probably some shonen mc abandonment issues from birth type deal or whatever. I wasn't keen on opening that particular can of worms lest I solidify my position as the side-character that loses his family for his development.
"Did your dad try to kill you or something?" I couldn't help it.
"Yeah, he did! How'd you know?! Well, my mother did too. They really sent a lot of people to get rid of me before the Professor found me."
I deadpanned, "Aw jeez... I wonder why."
He just gave an embarrassed laugh and scratched the back of his head.
"It's because I was an embarrassment or something... Or was it them being jealous?"
"...You're an embarrassment to the whole of the human race. So, that can't be it." I noted, considering the new information. I'd heard that magi possessed a rather nasty habit of getting jealous enough of their own children to hire assassins and the likes when outdone. Weirdoes.
Flat laughed again before leaping off the chandelier. He spun twice midair and landed on his feet to give a curt bow, one hand held to the side. By then, Svin calmed down enough to not jump him the second he could. Instead, candy-floss hair just groaned as he made his way down to join him.
"Haaaal~!"
Before I could too, a high-pitched squeal drew my attention. I didn't need to look to know it was Yvette so I just ducked. Unfortunately, it turned out that she'd jumped at me. She went flying off the stairs... This ended in her having an intense makeout session with the tiled floor of the Department of Modern Magecraft's entrance.
To absolutely no one's surprise, she got up like it didn't even happen.
"Ow ow ow ow! You meanie! Just because I'm a concubine doesn't mean you get to be a domestic abuser!" She sat up and began rubbing her bruised nose with one hand, pointing at me with the other. "Wait, I kind of like it. Hey, hey darling~! Slap me once. Come on."
...
...
...
I put my hands together and took a deep breath, thanking God from the bottom of my heart for the fact that this crazy nutjob hadn't met my mother. I dreaded to think of what she would do, and how I would suffer for it.
By then, the other no-name students were beginning to notice, exchanging glances and hushed remarks. Some were laughing, not at me, at her. That wasn't right at all. Only I got to shit on these people that called me 'friend'... or otherwise.
A wordless glare with active magic circuits proved sufficient for staving off that particular distasteful bit of attention. As I made my way down the steps, they began going wherever they meant to instead of lounging around. Aka, they began minding their own fucking business.
Yvette squealed again and leapt onto me. She was short enough that with her knees folded, she literally just hung off my neck like some kind of koala. She was... unexpectedly light.
"Kyaa~! How intense~! I wuv it!"
Even Svin begrudgingly gave his approval in the form of a tsundere-like nod.
I belched. "Ugh... Don't do that again. I'm on my knees."
"Fuck you." He stomped off.
"Let's get some pizza! Yay!"
Flat unceremoniously dragged him back by his nape.
-
Munching on cheap pizza with too much cheese and bread so thin you'd probably have a heart attack if you ate two, I lied on my back, staring up at a cloud that was distinctly shaped like someone giving me a middle finger.
"Life is good." I said to myself.
It was dangerous, there was a distinct chance I'd wake up in some fucked up lab or in a containment unit, or get kidnapped by a vampire or have some alien deity pop in or something. But, I liked it. Hell, I LOVED it.
It was exciting. The constant rush. The knowledge. All the things which were supposed to be impossible. Henry did serve as a cautionary rein, and gave me forethought but even he-...I was some poor kid that'd never had the chance to have crazy fun in life. And William, possibly an adrenaline junkie cast out by a mellow society that couldn't stomach someone so exceptional but with such an 'odd' way of being.
This world gave me all I'd ever wanted. How could I possibly be afraid or hold myself back?
Even if I died again, I'd die satisfied knowing I was never held down. That was my earnest belief. Life was short, it was best to live it to the fullest than pathetically cling to it. Few could know this as intimately as I did.
"See, I knew you understood me!" Flat hollered, leaning far enough on the railings along the River Thames that he was definitely going to fall in a few seconds.
Yvette had excused herself, spouting something about beauty sleep, Svin too. So, I was left with the clingy guy that had practically no life outside bothering others to play with him. Truth be told... he was growing on me.
For one, I didn't have the heart anymore to mock him. He was just too earnest.
"Like me and Svin, you're an irregular too." Flat hummed. "But, people like you a lot less. Do you know how many proposals Svin's gotten? He's just stuck on Gray... The one girl that avoids him! Hahaha..."
"I can't blame him. She is pretty." I shrugged, sitting up to stare at the sunset past Flat. "Maybe he'd have better chances as a sheep. She does happen to be Welsh."
Flat paused a moment, I could see him slowly connecting the dots.
"...That's mean."
I shrugged again, reaching for another slice of my cheap pizza.
"As for people not liking me... it's what happened before. My parents didn't like me, and my peers didn't either." I spoke as William. "It's cause I'm him. When someone's too good, people start seeing them as an outsider. Admiration turns to jealousy and when that inevitably fails. Fear rears its head. At some point, you find yourself just not caring either and distract yourself with whatever seems interesting."
"I guess, I can understand." Flat nodded his head. "That's not too different from..."
Indeed, Flat and I weren't too different. We were just different in how we faced the world. I simply understood that I owed it nothing. And that it could do nothing to me if I didn't let it. If, truly, it was my problem, then I was going to repay that, twice over but because it was just exciting being annoying, not for some kind of revenge.
"Woah! Woooah! Hal! Help-...!""
My thoughts were interrupted when, as expected, Flat lost his balance, slipping into the murky waters of the River Thames with a loud splash. I sighed and rose to my feet, then went to fish him out.
As I pulled the overly excited blonde from the water, he just tripped me inside.
"You fu-"
"Hahahahaha!"
-
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