Bullied but Popular

Chapter 14

14 – don’t cross the line

When the atmosphere in the room became serious, Tail’s voice was heard from the artifact.

(… Sounds like an artifact that transmits sound.)

(…they said it was bugged.)

(Probably still listening.)

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(… I think so.)

“Uh, what should I do?”

Anna looked at Mate anxiously,

But there was nothing special about mat.

‘No…how did you find out?’

While Matt was wondering, he heard a strange sound from the artifact.

dismissal

“……”

“Ah, my artifact…”

It looks like Aren broke the artifact.

Anna looked at her friends with a worried expression and said.

“You wouldn’t know we did it, would you?”

“Of course, I haven’t seen it, so how do you know we did it?”

Luke pretended to be relaxed and said in a calm voice.

But I couldn’t help but feel that my voice trembled a little subconsciously.

said Ron.

“Mate. Can he spot us?”

Matt shook his head with a helpless expression.

“No… That artifact is my original and I bought the parts myself with my own money. You won’t know us…”

At Mat’s words, the friends started talking about Aren, as if they were relieved at that time.

“But how did you find out?”

When Anna questioned, Luke said.

“Isn’t it just a coincidence? The inside pocket is double, so I put it in there, but I guess I put my hand in by accident.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

Carol refuted.

“Among the contents of the conversation earlier… Wasn’t it strange?”

“Strange?”

When Luke said he didn’t know, Tia said.

“eye.”

“that’s right.”

Carol nodded and said.

“Tail has mentioned it a few times… I wonder if you can tell just by looking, how far you can see…”

“Does that mean that Aren’s ability has to do with his eyes?”

“I’m not sure…but honestly I think so.”

“……”

There was silence in the room for a moment.

I was just trying to figure out his relationship with Cecilia, but I feel like I’ve heard something I shouldn’t have heard.

Anna stretched as if she didn’t like this uncomfortable air.

“Kkeuh~ Did you hear something different from the original purpose?

Seeing that Anna was trying to change the mood, Carol also stepped in.

“That’s right. Anyway, let’s stop talking about this. As I said before, it’s all a secret. Forget everything about Aren. Be especially careful about Luke.”

“Oh, no!”

“Foot!”

“It’s self-employed.”

Carol’s joke seemed to have worked, and the atmosphere in the room slowly began to relax.

Carol now raised her voice to end the meeting.

“It’s late now, girls, go home quickly. It’s already been a while.”

At Carol’s words, Anna and Tia rose from their seats.

“Then we’ll go first~”

“See you tomorrow.”

“Okay go~”

The moment Anna greets her first and opens the door to leave the room.

“…!?”

“…Anna? What’s wrong?”

When Anna, who was leaving first, did not move in front of the door, Tia called for her and looked out the door.

And it hardened like a stone.

“…!?”

“……? Tia Anna, what are you doing?”

As the two stood still, unable to leave, the men also stood up and headed for the door.

And, too, it hardened like stone.

“……”

“… hi?”

Aren Deepus stood in front of Carol’s room with an expressionless expression.

‘Uh, how!?’

Mate stepped backwards, his face white as if he had seen a ghost.

The other children looked at Aren with a nervous expression, as if they were very surprised.

At least, Carol quickly found her composure and approached Aren.

“Hello Aren? What’s going on here?”

“I have something to give back.”

‘… no way.’

Aren took something out of his pocket and showed it in front of Carol.

“ruler.”

“……”

A bugging artifact in the shape of a ballpoint pen was placed in Aren’s hand.

“Don’t you take it? Then…”

Aren dropped the pen as it were. and…

Unlock Coastal Art

Used Aren’s Shore ability, Unlock.

It was a kind of buff that made it possible to turn the mana inside the body without a limiter.

Aren focused his mana on his feet and stepped on a ballpoint pen.

Kwaaang!!!

“…!?”

I couldn’t imagine that it was an attack by a mana user.

cheap

It felt like the temperature around me was rapidly dropping.

Aren, who pulverized a ballpoint pen in one go, looked at Carol and the others with cool eyes.

“I don’t know why you guys are messing around with me… but you guys crossed the line first.”

“for a moment.”

Carol, feeling the significance of Aren’s words, spoke urgently.

“I’m so sorry about this. It’s our fault without any excuses. Just a little bit of our story though…”

“for a moment!”

Tia interrupted while Carol was talking.

“I’ll tell you.”

“Tia…”

“It’s my fault.”

Tia took a deep breath and looked at Aren.

Then he lowered his head and said.

“I’m sorry. I made this up.”

“……”

Aren looked at her with a nonchalant expression and said.

“Tell me why.”

“… I wanted to know about your relationship with my sister.”

‘Senior Cecilia?’

Aren had nothing to say at this point.

The reason Cecilia was obsessed with Aren was because of the gift.

However, there was no way to explain it to Aren, who had no intention of telling Tia about the gift.

‘I’m sure my sister will be concerned… but it has nothing to do with me.’

Aren glared at Tia with a breath of life.

“If you’re curious about that, why don’t you ask your senior directly?”

“I asked, but he didn’t answer…”

“So you wiretaped it?”

“……”

Indeed, exclamations come out of the action of the high-ranking aristocrats.

Aren said while looking at Tia, who was still lowering his head.

“Raise your head, Tia Cloud.”

Tia quietly raised her head.

“Make sure and move on.”

“… what?”

“Are you going to break up with me?”

“… huh.”

“Then keep your line. Don’t test my patience.”

“……”

“I don’t know if you’re conscious, but you’ve been on my nerves since the first time you saw me.”

“……”

“If you care about Cecilia-senpai, I will keep my distance from you from now on.”

“……”

“This is the final warning. If you ignore the warning, then I will cross the line.”

Ron Andrey, who had been quietly listening to Aren, stepped forward.

“Do you think you’ll leave it like that, low-ranking noble?”

However, Aren looked at Tia and asked, ignoring Ron who stepped forward.

“Aren’t you going to answer me?”

“… this bastard.”

The moment Ron was about to grab Aren by the collar, Tia grabbed Ron’s arm and said,

“Okay. Nothing will bother you in the future.”

“……”

Aren glared at Tia for a moment, then turned and went back to his room.

Ron tried to hold on to Aren, but Tia grabbed and dragged him.

“Thanks Ron. I’m fine.”

“Tia…”

“It’s my fault, so…”

Tia sighed and closed her mouth.

Looking at Tia like that, Carol said.

“It’s exactly everyone’s fault, Tia’s sorry I couldn’t come out.”

“… No, this is me.”

“It’s everyone’s fault because we all did it together.”

At Carol’s words, other friends also began to comfort Tia.

“Yes, that’s right. Tia, I’m sorry too~ I pushed you to do this…”

Anna hugged Tia and Luke started to comfort Tia.

Seeing her friends, Tia smiled and said.

“I’m sorry everyone for me. And thank you. Let’s go back today and see you tomorrow.”

“It’s late. Be careful.”

“Please take care of Anna Tia.”

“Luke, I’m a girl too! But I’ll protect Tia!”

Tia went back to her dormitory in a bright mood.

***

A month has passed since then.

Meanwhile, Aren was really quiet.

Tia, Karl, and Luke never approached Aren, and Cecilia also decided to meet only occasionally to get advice from Aren after hearing about Tiawa’s work.

And surprisingly, even Aaron did not touch Aren.

I don’t know why, but it was good for Aren.

‘Let’s just go like this.’

While Aren was enjoying his peace, the professor’s voice was heard.

“The first year tournament begins.”

At that word, the eyes of the students turned to the professor.

“As everyone knows, we will be playing in a tournament format for three days starting tomorrow. Of course, there are no classes.

The students’ faces began to harden with tension.

The professor looked at the students and said.

“I know you’re nervous, but losing doesn’t mean you’ll be expelled. The professors won’t penalize guys who show a lot of success after seeing your duel, so just do your best to show your potential.”

The students were furious at the professor’s words.

‘Is that easier said than done?’

‘You try it!’

‘If anyone hears it, they’ll know that Ji is expelling me.’

The students chewed on him at the carefree professor’s words, but the professor continued.

“The opponent list is posted on the bulletin board, so check it out right after class.”

After that, the moment the professor left, all the students got up from their seats at the same time and started running to the bulletin board.

Aren, on the other hand, got up slowly and headed towards the bulletin board with a leisurely pace.

‘Because I have a coast~’

Using the shore also improves your eyesight.

Even if you just look at the bulletin board from a little higher place, you can clearly see everything in Aren’s eyes.

Aren arrived leisurely, climbed as high as he could, and gazed at the bulletin board in the distance.

‘My opponent is…’

Gymnasium 3 Aren Deepus VS Aaron Valentine

‘…… X feet?’

Out of hundreds of people, I had to fight the opponent I hated the most.

And Aaron, who was watching right in front of the bulletin board, was also staring at the bulletin board.

“……”

“Wow~ Out of hundreds of people, two of them met by chance?”

Amy, who was next to Aaron, looked at Aaron and said.

“Aaron are you confident?”

“Are you sure?”

Aaron turned his gaze to Amy and spoke in a low voice.

“As if I could lose to him.”

“It’s not like that, but Aaron also cared about Aren.”

“It’s just that I’m worried because I’m using a slightly unusual technique.”

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After saying that, Aaron pushed the gathered students and moved on.

Amy followed Aaron back, but suddenly Aaron stopped walking and spoke to him.

“Why don’t you go?”

Amy tried to talk to him, but Aaron just stared straight ahead, ignoring him.

When Amy followed Aaron’s gaze, it was only then that he realized why he had stopped walking.

Aaron and Aren were glaring at each other.

The two stared at each other for a while.

Aaron was the first to speak.

“You didn’t know that I would kill you like this?”

“……”

“I can listen to your last will, but what do you have to say?”

“……”

Aren looked at Aaron in silence, then turned around and went back to the dormitory.

Aaron also did not dare to hold on to Aren and only glared at his back as he returned.

Amy started to look forward to their duel even more when Aaron looked different from usual.

‘Aaron is about to be conscious of this…’

Amy prayed to heaven for tomorrow to come quickly.

***

“You’ve been quiet lately.”

“No… If anyone hears it, they’ll know that I’m always causing problems, but this time it wasn’t an accident…”

“You were always in the center.”

“……”

on the day of the tournament.

Aren was training in the morning with Teil.

Of course, there was a game in the morning, so I was lightly warming up.

Aren said.

“How do you feel when you see it?”

“what?”

“Can I win?”

“… I don’t know.”

Tail thought while looking at the vivid mana sword surrounding Aren’s sword.

In the meantime, Aren was pissed off at being teased by Tail as a mana user, and he trained to the point of death and was barely able to enter Expert.

Of course, it was great to refer to Tail’s mana management.

Later, Tails found out about this and used Aren as a punching bag, but if it ended up like this, it could be said to be cheap.

After thinking for a while, Tay said.

“If you use your coast awareness to your heart’s content, there’s a chance.”

“… i think so too.”

They are hiding the coast as an artifact, but it won’t be strange if they are discovered anytime.

As such, Aren’s swordsmanship was strange.

“If you don’t want to be expelled, use it. If you pretend that your ability is only your own seniority, you can put out the fire.”

“Will it be that easy?”

“Or get expelled.”

“You say it nicely, what are you going to do about dungeons when I get expelled?”

“No matter where you hide, you can’t escape as long as you’re within the kingdom.”