The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 46

The face of the dual-wielding boy visibly paled as he froze at the unmistakable voice. I turned to see that the whole student council was walking towards us through a gap created by the students.

Taking calm but hurried strides in the front was Tess, her doll-like face expressionless. Behind her, I spotted Lilia, who gave me a worried look.

My attacker immediately recalled his two blades into his dimension ring and gave a respectful bow towards them, sweat beading down his forehead.

"What is going on, Arthur?" Jarrod is the one that spoke up, making everyone in the crowd raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"Looks like the scholar Mage knows someone from the student council."

"No wonder he was acting so cocky just now."

"Pfft. Did you see him raise up his arm like he was going to stop the attack with his bare hands?"

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the whispers from the crowd. Even for preteen children, I had expected them to be taught manners to some degree since they were all from influential families.

"No, nothing much happened, although you should go take a look at that dwarf student lying over there—Boznean, I think that was his name." I pointed over to the tree where the dwarf was still groaning while clutching his stomach.

Elijah walked towards me, hoping to distill the situation. "Hi, Lilia. Sorry, we ended up getting caught up in this little scuffle after the duel between them ended. No harm done!" He gave a slight wave at her as he started talking while directing his words at Tess, her face still shrouded in a mask of apathy.

"Still, this student was about to attack you when a duel wasn’t even issued. This is a serious offense." Lilia stepped up, her gaze a bit sterner as she pulled out a small notebook and jotted something down.

While Lilia, Jarrod, and Elijah were talking about what exactly happened, Tessia’s piercing eyes drilled into me, as if she was expecting me to do something. Honestly, even with extended life experience, I have no confidence in what to do when it came to these situations.

Did she want me to treat her respectfully as the student council president? Did she want me to treat her as a childhood friend? Did she want to keep our past relationship a secret as a whole?

’It’s Mama!’ Sylvie ’kyu’d’ on top of my head, and I had to firmly tell her to hold still and not go to her.

Meanwhile, the crowd was getting more and more rowdy, the males doing the best they could to get a better look at Tess, hoping to engrain her image into their memories to use in times of loneliness or longing.

"You. I believed I asked you a question. Do you dare?" She took a step forward, her eyes boring down on the second-year student. I was thinking that the student was technically a level higher than Tess, but when I took a look at the ribbon that was tied neatly underneath her collar, it had two stripes as well.

"N-No. Of course I would never dare break the rules like that. I simply wanted to scare the boy—I had planned to stop before my weapon would hit him. But seeing that I was still acting rashly, I apologize," he said, shooting me a threatening glare as he bowed to Tess.

"Leave." Her eyes continued to look down at him as he shuffled a good distance away before he turned around and ran out of sight, a few of the boys in the crowd following after him; most likely the ones that fanned the flame in this whole scuffle.

"And you! Why are you starting a fight with a senior on the first day of school? You should know your place! No matter how rowdy he may have been, he is still your senior and he didn’t break the rules when dueling with the other student. Furthermore, he is a battle mage student while you are a scholar mage student. Did you not pay attention to my speech about discrimination between the two sects of students here? Yet, you still chose to interfere, making these types of problems apparent on the first day!" She knit her arms tightly as her stern gaze bore down on me, her face flushed with either anger or embarrassment—which of the two, I couldn’t tell.

"What?" My gaze narrowed as I asked, unsure if I heard her correctly.

I took a step forward this time, and I could see Elijah’s eyes widen in horror as he realized I was going to go past the point of no return.

"Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me like you’re lecturing me based on a presumption you drew from the last five seconds of stumbling upon this situation. Are you really lecturing me, right now?" I took another step forward and I could see Tess’s once haughty face beginning to crumble.

"He was about to seriously injure or even kill that dwarf lying there right now, after the duel system broke. If I hadn’t stopped that arrogant brat, you would’ve had to deal with a murder case, not an unregulated fight between two students," I continued, my voice coming out louder than I had wanted to.

"I apologize for the trouble I’ve caused, Student Council President," I said icily, stunning everyone, including Tess.

As soon as I turned around, a hard lump formed in my throat from the guilt. I had just mocked the students for their immaturity, but here I was, acting the same way. I had forgotten that Tess was just a thirteen-year-old girl, yet I had expected her to act in a way that even I couldn’t.

Elijah followed closely behind as I kept walking, my pride keeping me from turning back around.

What a lovely reunion.

"Hold it, first year." Clive Graves ran towards me, grabbing me by the arm as he tried to spin me back around. "Were you raised in a cave? Are these the manners your mother taught you growing up? Do you even know who she is?"

Holding firm, I stopped and looked at him over my shoulder.

I knew from first glance that I would’ve never gotten along with him, but his words somehow had the power to irk me more than most fools. Was I raised in a cave? Was he seriously deprecating my mother?

"Let go." The malice dripping in my voice startled even Elijah as he instinctively took a step back. Clive immediately released my arm, jumping away as he guarded himself with mana.

I took a quick glance at Tess and realized she’d fallen down, more from surprise than out of fear. There was a brief moment where I asked myself if I should help her back up, but as a crowd quickly formed around her to make sure she was okay, I simply let out a sigh and continued my way towards the dorm. Elijah trailed behind as gasps and startled murmurs resounded behind us.

"President Tessia, please get back up! Are you okay?"

"Who the hell was that? I think Treasurer Jarrod called him Arthur, right?"

"Oh man, he is so screwed. He just told off the student council president of the academy."

Elijah took a few hurried steps to catch up to me, eventually walking by my side. "You know what you just did, right? Man, you sure love attracting trouble, don’t you? First the dungeon and now this?" He shook his head but continued to follow me as he reassured me nonverbally that he’d remain by my side.

I almost chuckled at the fact that no one knew my history with Tess until another wave of guilt twisted my insides. Maybe I was bit too harsh on her—no I was definitely too harsh on her. She’s still just a little girl! I shouldn’t have lost my patience just because she acted her age.

As the guilt consumed my thoughts, I slapped my cheeks and decided to let nature take its course—because that was always the best course of action to take in a relationship.

School should at least be this exciting, right? I comforted myself. I wasn’t really mad at her, but for some reason, my patience had grown thin at that moment. I knew I should reconcile with her before it became too awkward but I got the feeling that the timing was going to be an issue.

Elijah and I had managed to make it to our dorm building without further trouble. There were two male dorms and two female dorms within the academy. The two set of dorms were separated by underclassmen and upperclassmen. Underclassmen were students that were still taking their general education classes. These students were then moved into the upperclassmen dorms after they’d finished their general education courses and had formally decided on what type of student they were going to be.