Chapter 32

Chapter 32

* * *

I’m so sleepy... I was prowling through the campus grounds like a lone wolf, as usual. As a villainess, I had a certain reputation I needed to protect. I couldn’t be seen yawning in public, so I bit my lip instead, bringing a few tears to my eyes. Walking to the lecture room, my eyes terribly bloodshot, I encountered a scene behind the magic building I found hard to ignore.

What’s going on here? My sleepiness fled some. Something didn’t seem right. A young, large nobleman was picking on a tiny lady. Not knowing that I had just rounded the corner and was watching, he kept on with his verbal bullying of her.

“Arin, do you really intend to keep attending this school?”

The lady’s slim shoulders were hunched and the thick glasses she wore were sliding down her nose a little.

“I heard your family is destitute. How have you managed to stay this long, anyway? Frankly, I think you should quit. Though nobody’s saying as much to your face, everyone’s laughing at the state of your shabby clothes.” The young man stepped on the hem of the girl’s worn dress and snickered nastily.

“S-stop that! Please!”

“What’s the matter? It’s already dirty. You can’t even see any difference.”

“Stop, it will tear.”

He started dragging the hem of her dress across the dirt with his foot and the lady’s face paled.

“Look at you, so frightened that I’ll tear your dress. Someone as scruffy as you doesn’t deserve to attend the Academy. You seem to still be hung up over being accepted into the advanced placement program once, but come on! Know your place!”

He snatched one of her books out of her hands. “Let’s see now. Hmm... Applied mana formulas, intermediate level. You have such a tiny mana pool. What good is this book to you? You should just burn it.” He started tearing pages out of the book one by one.

The girl, now utterly white with fear, jumped and tried to snatch the book back, but she was just too short. “Give it back! Stop!”

“Do you think reading books will change anything? A woman shouldn’t be studying formulas! I mean, just think about how few women are actually taking formula classes, compared to men. There’s a reason that most high-ranked mages are men, Arin,” he said. “Stop being so unreasonable and just marry some obscure lord. You know you’ll only grow less attractive as a marriage partner the older you get, right? Who knows? You’re still cute at the moment, so—”

“Shut up.”

Inevitably, I interrupted, shooting him the darkest glare I was capable of. Not only was he being sexist, but he was also sexually harassing her. I couldn’t bring myself to ignore the way the man was poking her in the cheek and making fun of her.

I was all the more irritated because this whole scenario reminded me of a guy from my previous life—one of the older students—who’d hit on me, all the while saying women didn’t belong in the engineering department.

Based on the way he was talking, I could guess that he probably felt inferior to her because she’d been accepted in some sort of program for talented students and she was easy prey because her family wasn’t doing well.

What a sorry excuse for a human being you are. I knew that I was butting in, but I’d only end up getting constipated if I got overly upset. And constipation wasn’t good for my beautiful skin.

“L-lady Deborah?” The plump young man looked immediately terrified the moment he recognized me—like he’d seen a viper poking its head out of the grass.

“What are you looking at? If you already know who I am, get the hell out of here.” I loomed over him, exuding rage. I was so tall, I towered over most of the young nobles while wearing high heels.

“M-my lady. Why are you getting involved like this?”

“You’re so ugly, you offend me,” I spat.

His chubby cheeks grew ruddy with rage. “W-what did you say? That’s quite rude of you. We don’t even know each other. I’ve heard the rumors about you, but this is unacceptable. You might be Duke Seymour’s daughter, but that doesn’t mean you can treat me like this!”

“You really need to stop running your mouth. Just listening to you makes me feel like my ears will bleed.” I’d seen plenty of bullies in my time, so I spun my fan by its cord like a weapon and shifted all my weight to one leg. “You said something absurd just now about women being bad at math. What do you think I am, a man?”

His double chin quivered. “I-I wasn’t referring to you in particular, Lady Deborah, but most ladies in general. It’s simply a fact that women are worse than men at math. Only a few battle mages are women—”

“Seven times seven.”

“Huh?”

“Forty-nine,” I said, slapping his cheek with my fan.

His tiny, beady eyes widened with indignation.

“Let’s play a little game, shall we, since you’re saying something so utterly absurd and then treating it as fact. I’ll represent women and you men. All right?”

“Wh-what?”

“You seem pretty confident, based on all that hot air you’re blowing. Don’t tell me you’re scared of a little basic math?” I mocked him, goading him so he couldn’t back out.

“O-of course not!”

“Eight times nine.” Most people became flustered when a problem was thrown in their face.

“S-seventy...”

“Seventy-two. Too slow.”

I began drowning him in questions from the multiplication table, which anyone who’d attended school in my world was very familiar with. I slapped him mercilessly whenever he gave the wrong answer. He began to adapt to my punishing pace after a few delayed responses and started giving his answers more quickly so I moved on to my next tactic.

“Twelve times nine.”

“B-but wait!”

I’d jumped to multiplying by twelve and I could see how shaken he was by it. I swatted him on the cheek hard and said, “One hundred and eight.”

I started increasing the second digit slowly since I was confident I’d memorized up to the nineteen times table. When I was in elementary school, the rumor that students in India memorized up to the nineteen times tables had been a hot topic. I’d had a first-time homeroom teacher, who’d resorted to corporal punishment to try and force us to memorize all those numbers.

I didn’t end up needing it during my college admission exam. Who knew it would come in handy like this? Things that had done me no good in my previous life were proving to be quite useful here. Somewhat bemused by the observation, I continued. “Thirteen times seven.”

“W-wait! My lady, this isn’t fair—”

“Ninety-one. Fourteen times nine.”

“I-I’m sorry! I was out of line and disrespectful.” He started bowing profusely, his cheeks red and swollen.

“You’re so ugly, looking at you hurts my eyes. Get lost.”

He nodded hurriedly and ran away, quite the contrast to his earlier heckling. I clicked my tongue as I watched him waddle away. Then my eyes met those belonging to the lady he’d been picking on.

“Oh!” she gasped, her thick glasses sliding down the bridge of her nose. She was quivering. I supposed she was afraid after watching me slap and scare the disgusting noble into submission.

Deborah is really strong...

She peered up at me with large eyes that looked to be on the verge of tears and her face was flushed. As I continued to stare at her, her ears and neck grew red as well.

It’s almost like I was the one who was picking on her. Hmm. I suppose I’ve defended my infamy for another day. Giving her a parting cold glance, I walked through the gloomy grounds and entered my lecture room located on the second floor.

* * *

The weather is pretty good today. I made a beeline for the nicest, most well-lit spot in the room as I usually did, sat down, and planted my elbow on the desk, cupping my chin in my hand. I didn’t get much sleep last night... I feel so drowsy.

I was nodding off, basking in the sunlight, when Professor Kyle arrived to actually teach the formula class for a change. He’d usually come in looking exhausted and leave after throwing a quiz at us, but today he actually began to teach a lesson. He was writing out a long list of formulas on the blackboard when he suddenly stopped, turned around, and looked directly at me.

“Everyone. You know that there is to be no cheating on tests, right? I will not allow the sharing of answers in this classroom. If anyone requests such a thing from you, please report them to me right away.”

I tilted my head slightly, chin still resting in my palm. Why did I get the feeling that the professor had been talking directly to me? I was quickly proven right. He called me over as soon as the class had ended.

“Lady Deborah,” he began, rubbing at the dark circles under his eyes.

“Yes?”

“I’ve been issuing short quizzes so far, so I chose not to bring this up until now, but I advise against continuing this sort of behavior in the future.”

My eyebrows went up. “Are you accusing me of something?”

“You copied the answers from other students. My guess is that they’re being forced to help you because of your familial background, but I simply will not tolerate cheating in my class. Do you understand me?”

I felt rather odd hearing the disdainful sneer in his voice. Well, I suppose he could have misunderstood. I hadn’t shown my work for the quizzes so far, choosing to leave early after just writing down the answer. I wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible.

That was probably why the professor thought I’d threatened the other students into sharing their answers with me.