Just as Alex had expected from the voice, he found Principal Toren standing ahead of him, suspended in the air with his hands clasped behind his back.
The principal's white hair fell freely to his back, and his pale, mystical eyes swept slowly over every student present in the restroom. His face was stoic and unreadable, and it was difficult for Alex to tell whether Toren was furious or simply weighing his options, as the principal carried the look of a man who could erupt without warning or let the entire matter dissolve without a single raised word.
"I suppose you are all bullying Alex," Toren said, his lips pressed thinly together. He raised a brow. "Am I wrong?"
Alex noticed that everyone around him had dropped their heads, their faces angled toward the floor. They were so terrified that not one of them dared to answer the principal, and even Eldric, whose head was not completely bowed, kept his chin slightly lowered like a statue robbed of its pride.
Without a word, Toren appeared directly before Alex, and his feet finally settled upon the floor. Eldric's minions scrambled back several steps, their hands clenched so tightly that blood was beginning to well at their palms.
Toren looked Alex over from head to toe, and Alex felt as though he was being stripped bare beneath the weight of those white eyes. He would have taken a step back himself had Eldric not been standing half behind him, partially blocking his retreat.
"Congrats, kid," Toren smiled for the first time, and Alex could see plainly that it was a genuine smile, not one of mockery or the fake smile meant to lower a person's guard. Alex stared at Toren's face a moment longer than a student would normally dare to look at the principal of the strongest academy, then lowered his head slightly.
"It was just some misfortune that turned into fortune," Alex replied, trying to steer the conversation toward the present situation. The principal could offer his congratulations later. Right now, Toren needed to focus on the misfortune part, the part Alex had deliberately said out loud so that Eldric and his minions would receive the punishment they deserved.
Toren simply nodded and placed a hand on Alex's shoulder. "You need to control your mana, boy. You are letting it radiate outward." He smiled once more, then moved past Alex and came to a stop directly before Eldric.
My mana is leaking? Alex tried to sense his mana and found that it was indeed seeping out from his body. He would have tried to rein it in, but Toren's voice pulled him back to the moment before he could.
"Child, answer me truthfully," Toren said, and Alex abandoned the thought of containing his mana for now, turning his attention back to the unfolding scene. The principal continued, "Do you admit to bullying Alex?"
What followed was the sharp cracking of muscles and bones, and then came the heavy thuds, one after another, as Eldric and every other soul in the restroom except Alex and Toren dropped to the floor. Painful groans rose from all of them as their legs buckled completely beneath them and their upper bodies folded forward, with more than a few faces pressing flat against the cold white marble floor.
They shook. Their muscles trembled involuntarily against the floor, their bodies pressed down as though an invisible weight had settled across their backs.
This was the power of the principal, and it was likely not even a tenth of what he truly possessed. No student present had reached even the Expert rank, which began at level fifty, and so Toren had probably used only the tiniest fraction of his strength. It was known, or rather unknown, that no one had ever learned the true extent of the principal's abilities. This suggested that Toren could likely surpass even the emperor himself, and yet rather than ruling over kingdoms and empires, he had chosen to manage an academy, to raise the next generation of those who might one day carry the world forward. For what reason, no one knew.
"Tell me, child," Toren repeated, his voice cold as ice, "did you bully Alex?"
Could the principal rival the man who had died after slaying those three white marble like beings? And what about the man with the golden crown hovering above his head? Could Toren stand a chance against him as well? Alex did not know, but he knew one thing with certainty: he had to become strong as these men, men who radiated power like a river. He clenched his fist at his side.
"N-No... I didn't," Eldric's broken, pain-laced voice came out in fragments before it was cut short as Toren lifted the boy to his feet with an invisible force. Toren's white eyes were cold and steady, and Alex saw a primal fear creeping across Eldric's face. The coldness that Eldric directed toward Alex, the look that had always said he did not like Alex, was stripped away completely in the presence of something so much stronger than himself.
"Is that so?" Toren tilted his head. "I was going to offer something rather generous to all of you, if you had simply chosen to be honest."
Toren's demeanor shifted entirely.
What is going on? Shouldn't he be punishing them? Alex felt a creeping discomfort watching the situation turn in a direction he had not anticipated.
"So answer me, and answer me honestly this time. Were you or were you not bullying Alex?" Toren's voice turned dangerously quiet once more, and Eldric visibly flinched beneath the weight of it and gave a small, jerky nod. "...Yes." His voice came out hoarse, but there was no mistaking it. He knew he could not lie his way past the principal.
"Good," Toren's voice brightened a little. He brought a finger to rest beneath his chin as though thinking something thoughtful. "I have two proposals for you, Eldric."
"First, you and your little friends will be suspended from the academy for one month." Toren let the words hang in the air.
Alex drew in a slow breath. Finally, they are going to be punished. He felt a quiet satisfaction at the first option but a dread seeped in as he waited to hear the second. Would the principal simply allow them to apologize publicly and call it settled? That would not be nearly enough for everything Eldric had put Alex through.
"If you are not satisfied with the first choice," Toren continued, "then you and Alex will duel in one month's time, and the two of you will settle your scores against each other in the arena. Even so, you will still face a one-week suspension from the academy."
Toren then moved his eyes across the restroom. "And if Eldric loses, then he along with his friends will apologize to Alex in front of the entire school. If Alex loses, he will be transferred to Class A, and Nack will be brought back to Class S." Alex heard a head snap sharply in their direction at those words.
"But," Alex began, only for his words to die in his mouth beneath the weight of Toren's white eyes, which carried a look that made it perfectly clear the principal had already made up his mind.
Still, Alex could not bring himself to agree with the second option. Why must he duel Eldric to settle scores? When had he ever picked this fight? They were the ones who had come after him, not the other way around. So why should he be the one fighting to earn an apology that should have already been owed to him freely? Though Alex wanted nothing more than to punch each one of them to the ground, he was not yet confident enough in a victory over Eldric. He had seen it firsthand: Eldric had increased his pace at the very last moment and would have driven a punch into Alex's gut had the principal not intervened. So the second option felt wrong to Alex on every level, and not just because of the risk, but because the entire logic of it was backward.
All of these thoughts spiraled through his mind, and at last he found his voice. "Sorry, Principal, but why must I even fig-"
And just as he was speaking, Eldric cut across him in the most notoriously unpleasant way possible.
"I will duel Alex," Eldric declared, in a single sharp breath.
Alex had not finished speaking and was just drawing in air to continue, but once again the words died before they could take shape.
"Wonderful." Toren clapped his hands together and released everyone from the floor, bringing them back to their feet with some invisible force. He turned swiftly toward Alex and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Everyone visit me tomorrow morning at my office." Then he cast one last glance around the room. "Your guardians will be waiting to celebrate your achievements tomorrow morning. How sweet it is that you will all get to reunite after parting for only a few days."
Toren gave Alex one final look. His hand remained resting on Alex's shoulder and Toren smiled quietly, and then the world around Alex went dark.
***
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