Chapter 34: Why Are You Here Too?
Meanwhile…
Having failed for several days, Liya repeatedly told herself that she genuinely just wanted to experiment and had no other intentions.
Whatever happened to Will, she wouldn’t care! Absolutely! She definitely wouldn’t care!
She had absolutely no feelings for that Will either!
However…
She admitted there was one thing she had to take care of.
Last Friday, when she excitedly rushed into the classroom to find Will, the moment she slammed her hand on the desk, she discovered that Will’s desk was covered in insulting words written by the students who had been bullying him.
Undoubtedly, he was being bullied by people in his class.
The reason could be inferred from the words themselves. It was probably because Will’s practical exam scores were lacking, and everyone thought he was weak. His father, however, had pulled some strings with the school—since the wealthy magnates of their dungeon city weren’t short on money or items, they still sent him to the elite class.
She had heard before that people from the Hysterm family were destined for the elite class and were also easily bullied. It seemed that people in this family were only good at business, and their actual strength was indeed a bit lacking. In her centuries of life, the only people from dungeon cities she’d heard of having good academic results were the current patriarchs. Hysterm family members who weren’t the patriarchs all carried the “bad at magic” label.
Returning to Will.
When she saw it then, she felt a pang of sympathy.
After all, Will’s injury and subsequent missed practical exam were partly her fault, and regardless of the reason, bullying on school grounds was wrong.
So, on this Monday of the new week, unable to sleep anyway, she woke up early.
She rushed to the classroom, cleaned Will’s desk, and to prevent those brats from succeeding again, she spent a considerable amount of money to coat it with slime. After thinking about it, she decided that just coating it with slime might not be enough of a punishment, so she applied a counter-magic used by witches to prank people.
It was just coating something; the effect on the arm would only last for a day. It was a bit scary but had no other effects.
“Truly… I just wanted to do these things, and then perhaps Will would, out of gratitude… teach me just how to complete the experiment. I h-had no other intentions!”
Then, before anyone arrived, she quickly slipped away.
She couldn’t be seen by anyone.
— But what would Will think if he saw it? Would he be a little happy? Would he realize it was me? If he realized it was me, would he… would he be a little grateful to me?
Unfortunately, apart from a quick peek in the morning, she hadn’t interacted with Will at all today.
However, because of that one peek, she became even more concerned about something else!
When she peeked in the morning, she noticed that in the time it took for her to finish with the desk and turn to observe Will’s state, a letter had been placed in Will’s desk drawer. It was a pink letter, and he smiled happily after reading it!
Could it be?!
Are these kids these days already dating at this age?
They even write letters now?
Admittedly, Liya thought Will had a little charm. His drive, his schemes to achieve a certain goal, and… his face, were all outstanding among these immature students.
But…
Haven’t these kids only been in class for three days?
During the morning class meeting, Liya glanced at Will several times, but she couldn’t glean anything from his expression.
What was worse, Will actually noticed her gaze and glanced back at her, forcing her to quickly avoid his eyes and not make eye contact.
Her heartbeat, perhaps because Will was still carrying that strange replica coin, kept accelerating, making her uneasy even while standing at the podium.
She also observed the few girls in the class one by one.
None of them were cuter than her!
Ah, no…
None of them seemed to have a crush on Will.
How could she tell?
If someone had a crush on a person, they would want to look in their direction more often, right?
If someone had a crush on a person, they would avoid eye contact when their gazes met, right?
If someone had a crush on a person, they would have trouble sitting still and feel their heart race when in the same space, right?
The few girls in this class showed none of these reactions!
Therefore, there was no one here secretly in love with Will!
“Hmm… this one is clearly paired with Felix, no. This one looks like she’s only focused on studying, no. This one is too chubby; even Will probably wouldn’t… Hmm…”
Even after class, in her small office, Liya went through the one-page list, trying to find out who it was.
But she dismissed each one because they genuinely didn’t seem like it.
“I’m super curious! I’m so curious, who is it!”
Based on her years of observing the brats at school, she could picture the cliché scene…
Will being led to a small grove of trees, looking up through his glasses at the shy girl before him, his gaze fixed on her tender pink lips, waiting for her to speak first.
And then… the coy girl in front of him finally mustered up her courage, raised her head, looked at her own reflection in his eyes, and said to him…
Wait?
Reflection?
The reflection in Will’s eyes…
Thinking of this, for some reason…
Liya’s thoughts momentarily froze. The reflection wasn’t… herself…
That student who always clung to her, his eyes weren’t looking at her?
There was no strange coin nearby, but as she thought of this, Liya’s heart suddenly seemed to race a little faster.
Strange… so strange, why would she want Will to look at her?
Why would she be so curious about who wrote the letter?
Why would she be curious about Will receiving a love confession?
Why would she ponder at whom Will’s eyes were truly looking?
Why? Why? Why?
…
“Ah… why am I here?”
As the questions in Liya’s mind halted, she realized she had walked out of her office and was standing at the classroom door.
Today, there was an outdoor practical lesson. To train the students’ bodies and teach them some practical magic, they took the students outside.
So the classroom was empty, and from outside the door, she could see sunlight unobstructed by anyone.
— Since I’m already here, I’ll go in and take a look!
Thinking this, Liya reached out and pulled the door open. She glanced at Will’s seat and then found that the letter had fallen on the floor.
It was evident that the person who cleaned up was in a great hurry and didn’t notice the letter falling.
“I-I’m just picking it up for him. I-it’s fine.”
Casually, without intending to, she saw the ” hẹn hò hò địa điểm thứ ba số ba kho hàng số năm “.
Warehouse number five in the back-door warehouse number three.
Alright!
She would go and take a look!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will, holding the pink letter, followed the address within it, passing through the grove of trees towards a more secluded warehouse.
“Sigh… so, how stupid does one have to be to fall for ‘someone is confessing their love to you’ and then go to the warehouse based on the letter they were given?”
Oh, it turns out it’s “Young Master Will” himself. Never mind then.
“Hmm, here it is. As expected, the main door is wide open. For a secret warehouse of a Magic Academy, this is something that absolutely should not happen.”
In the original work, after two days of being bullied and isolated by the entire class, Young Master Will went home for the weekend and cried for two days. On the third day, he found a cute pink love letter and actually believed someone was interested in him, so he happily ran to the address written on it, expecting a cute, shy girl to confess to him…
— It sounds like the bullies really understood him, having mastered the art of PUA.
And then, “snap.”
Just like now.
He was locked inside.
Will glanced back at the door and even pulled on it with his hand, confirming it was locked from the outside.
It was clear that he had deliberately come to be tricked.
Holding the letter, to make his being tricked seem more believable, he began to read his lines dramatically.
“Ah… I’m so scared… why did the door suddenly close… what should I do…”
Then, he looked back at the cold storage room. It wasn’t large, mainly composed of gray metal shelves. It was likely cooled by magic. When the door was opened, some warm air entered, so it wasn’t too cold yet.
This was one of the few places in the original work that provided a scene and psychological description of “Young Master Will.”
Here, the temperature would soon start to drop due to the automatic door closing. After all, this was the school’s ice cellar for storing important refrigerated items.
Therefore, this rare segment offered a pitiful description of a canon fodder villain who constantly bullied the protagonist in the early stages, showing how he endured the extreme cold, how he reflected on his life, how his inner struggles led to his aggressive and psychologically twisted nature…
Then, five chapters later, he was killed by a Slime.
That’s right, this was a common occurrence in trashy novels; the author, unable to flesh out the villain’s backstory earlier, quickly added character development just before the villain’s death, eliciting pity, and then hastily concluded it.
However, considering he had transmigrated into this person’s body, Will tidied up the clues about this young master.
In childhood, due to the death of his pet dog, he would lose his temper easily with those around him. Coupled with the fact that even pets died, and his father was always absent, he lacked affection.
By middle school, he became easily fooled and rather simple-minded. However, constantly being messed with, his already prone-to-anger young master personality became more extreme. He couldn’t tolerate differing opinions, but being bullied so severely, he also developed some PTSD, adding an element of bullying the weaker to his personality.
By the time he formed a dungeon exploration team, he naturally became the villain who took his anger out on the easily bullied protagonist, even driving him away to prove himself.
Therefore, this time spent locked in a refrigerator became a significant part of the original work’s description of him. Perhaps the author felt that there was a reason for everyone deserves pity.
“Phew… it’s the same as in the original work, there’s a clock here. The Fire Dragon’s stomach acid is actually quite useful; I don’t feel the cold yet, and it even burns my stomach.”
Will pondered how long he had to hold on and looked back.
“Well… that…”
Wearing a long robe and a ridiculously large hat…
With golden twin tails…
And red magic eyes…
Liya stood before him.
“Hi? Will… Classmate Will, wh-why are you here too…”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that!?”
