"Go on. Say it~"
Then, while keeping the kitchen helper boy away with one hand, he used the other to lift Justin's chin so he could have a good look at his red, teary-eyed face, and encouraged him.
"Tell everyone how delicious my saliva was~"
"!!!"
Rotsard smirked mockingly while looking down into Justin's widened eyes.
"..."
The future hero's chin and shoulders started trembling, and Rotsard's smirk turned into a sadistic smile.
He found it.
He found a way to really get to the future hero.
The insults about flinging fertilizer were only annoying, sometimes infuriating, but this…!
This was the kind of stuff that humiliated him to the core!
"OI! That's not what's going on! Who said anything about your spit, you carnivore!?"
The moment, though, was interrupted by the kitchen helper boy struggling to free himself, changing the object of his anger back to the main culprit.
"Shhh. Shh. Shh. Don't waste the good will you've earned with your diligence, little peasant."
"!?!?"
But Rotsard changed his grip from the boy's wrists to his head and pressed him to his side while shushing him, causing the kitchen helper to flail in bafflement, completely speechless at the blatant display of shamelessness.
To the kitchen helper's even greater shock, though, was the fact that once he found himself in the bleached-blond-haired student's clutches, he couldn't escape…
"...!"
At all…
It felt as if he got stuck in a bear trap bolted to a boulder.
"..."
His instinct of small prey kicked in against his will. and he cowered in silence in an attempt to hide, too afraid to move and too afraid to make a peep.
Simply paralyzed.
But while one youngster's response was to submit, the other was to resist!
Using the chance when Rotsard's attention was elsewhere, he jolted back his head and then pushed against his bully with both arms, shoving him away!
"...?"
"?!?!"
…only that it wasn't Rotsard who was pushed, but rather Justin ended up pushing himself away while the bleached-blond-haired boy remained on the spot, raising his brow at the situation even he didn't consider.
But then Rotsard glanced at the kitchen helper still in his grasp and his eyes widened in realisation…
…well, a misunderstanding, actually…
"Oh, what a caring person you are. Worrying so much about your fellow peasant~ That's right, he's a nice hostage, isn't he?"
Rotsard, convinced that Justin decided to distance himself instead of shoving him because he was worried about the kitchen helper and not because he wasn't strong enough to move him, chuckled, putting the youngster in front of himself and placing both hands on his shoulders, making him into a shield for a possible counter.
"You believe that your results will be good enough to make me apologize and change my ways? Oh, what a naive soul you are~"
Believing that he knew what was going through the future hero's head, the bleached-blond-haired bully chuckled in amusement.
"Naive, perverted, soul~"
"Sh-shad uph…!"
Rotsard smirked again, slowly and carefully articulating every word, staring into Justin's soul with his beastly yellow eyes, causing the future hero to release an angry sob while desperately wiping the tears from his eyes in an attempt to keep up some dignity.
"B-but I will get better results than you…! And you will apologize…!"
Justin ended up stomping his foot in a childish manner and cried out while pointing his finger at Rotsard, although the message didn't carry much determination as he was trembling while saying it.
"That's it? In such a case, so be it."
"...!?"
The bleached-blond-haired boy then surprised everyone, tilting his head curiously before nodding dismissively and letting go of the fearful kitchen helper.
"Keep up the good work, little peasant."
He then patted the youngling's head and walked past him and the future hero, without being stopped by anyone.
While he might not have been interrupted, he was being stared at by seemingly everyone.
No matter what other feelings were mixed in, the prevailing majority of those looks were of a hateful kind, wishing him another humiliation.
A wiser man would have left like that, but the bleached-blond-haired boy was far, far too petty for that.
While the door was three steps away, he turned around to face the cafeteria and spread his arms, inviting a challenge.
"What's this? You all aren't going to start a chant this time? While it would be most desirable for you lot to grow a spine and display what differentiates you from the rabble of filth known as peasants, it feels like this time there's simply not enough teachers around to make you feel invulnerable… putting you even lower than that filth…"
"...!"
Rotsard spoke up, looking around left and right to witness all the faces turn away, ending up uncontested.
"Detestable… Truly, detestable."
*thump*
"Wh-what the hel?!"
Rotsard let out a disappointed sigh when something unexpectedly bumped into him from behind, and someone's baffled voice rang through the silence caused by the unbothered, bleached-blond-haired boy's statement.
"Hey! Why the hel are you blocking the entrance!?"
"..."
"...!"
Originally, Rotsard wanted to say more, but the noisy person behind him was getting louder, which caused the bleached-blond-haired boy's expression to harden as the look in his yellow eyes caused a few unlucky ones attempting to make eye contact with him to shudder.
Rotsard then turned around first, facing two upperclassmen. One he didn't know, and the other was none other than the fourth-year student, Vicas Lazalarius.
"..."
"What are you looking at!? Apologize!"
The only acknowledgement that Rotsard gave the actual antagonist of the first volume was a brow raised in annoyance before someone called out at him furiously from the floor level.
And upon lowering his gaze, Rotsard was met with the unbecoming sight of a third upperclassman sprawled on the floor in disheveled clothes.
He was the one calling out this whole time, which also meant he was the one who bumped into Rotsard, interrupting the flow of his speech.
The anger on that particular upperclassman's face suggested that being a victim in that encounter wasn't his original objective, and constant glances towards Vicas made it seem that the red-haired youngster was the one changing the strategy and making him stay down.