C32
"I'm sleepy..."
Even today, I walked alone through the academy campus like a lone wolf living in an empty world.
Having the face of an evil woman, I couldn't even yawn a little, so when I bit my lips to suppress it, tears began to well up in my eyes.
Walking to the classroom with bloodshot eyes like a ghost, I encountered a scene that was hard to pass by on the campus grounds behind the magic department.
What's happening?
I woke up a bit.
This was because the atmosphere around him was unusual.
A knight, with the body of a big man, was bothering a young lady.
He didn't even know I was standing there like a ghost in the corner and started a special fight with the woman.
"Arin, are you sure you'll keep coming here?"
"...?"
As the young girl's small shoulders slumped, the thick glasses on her nose fell.
"I heard your house is ruined, but you managed to get stuck in the Academy. Honestly, isn't it better to quit? Even if you don't show your true colors, everyone would still laugh at trash like you."
The knight laughed foolishly, stepping on the young lady's old skirt.
"Oh, don't do that. Please!"
"What's the matter? Even if I step on it, it's so dirty that you can't really tell the difference."
"Enough, it's tearing."
The knight dragged his feet and pulled harder on the hem of her skirt, and the lady's face turned pale.
"What kind of academy has a bitch who's so afraid of tearing one of her garments? I guess you still have some lingering feelings about finishing the gifted program, but let's figure out the topic, alright?"
The man mockingly took one of the books the lady was holding.
"Let's see, hmm... it's a book about intermediate mana formula. You're a beggar, so what are you going to use it for? It would be more beneficial for you to use it as firewood."
And he began tearing the book page by page.
The young girl, who looked sick and tired, jumped to grab her book, but she was so small that it was still out of her reach.
"Stop it, give it back!"
"Do you think it's worth looking at a book like this? What are mathematics to you, woman? It's obvious just by looking at the ratio of men to women taking math subjects. There's a reason there are so many men instead of women among high-ranking mages, Arin."
"..."
"Don't try to hold onto things you can't do anyway, and just get married in a suitable place. You know why? It's because you're pretty, so now..."
"Would you shut up?"
I finally appeared in front of them.
With an expression as gloomy as possible.
From making sexist remarks to even sexual harassment.
It's hard to walk away after seeing a man bullying a lady and touching the lady's cheek with his finger.
In my previous life, there was also a student who constantly talked about how a woman could go to the engineering college, so this bothered me even more.
Judging from the situation, the man from a powerful family despised the lady and seemed to harass her due to his inferiority complex since he couldn't enter the gifted program...
That's pathetic. You're a pig, you little punk.
Although I know I'm being a bit meddlesome, I feel like I'll get constipated if I suppress the anger, and that won't be good for this skin as white as jade.
"Princess De-Deborah?"
As soon as he saw me, he looked sick as if he remembered my notoriety.
It was as if he saw a violet viper emerging from the bush.
"What are you looking at? If you know what's good for you, look down and leave," I said while looking at him authoritatively.
Since I'm so tall and even wear high heels, most men would feel overwhelmed.
"Princess, go back the way you were, why are you doing this to me all of a sudden?" he replied.
"It annoys me that you're so ugly," I retorted.
The man's chubby cheeks turned red when I spat out those words.
"W-What did you say? I can't believe we're arguing on our first meeting. I've heard the rumors, but aren't you going too far? Even the Duke Seymour's daughter has her limits!"
"You're the one exceeding your limits. I feel like my ears are going to rot."
As I had seen somewhere before, I twisted the cord hanging from my fan like a weapon.
"You said women are weak with numbers. Do I look like a man to you?"
The man's sturdy jaws softened.
"Well, that didn't specifically refer to Princess Deborah but to a universal phenomenon. Isn't it true that women are weaker than men in numbers? Even among battle mages, there are only a few women who..."
"7 times 7."
"What?"
"49."
When the fan slapped him on the cheek, the man's snake-like eyes widened in shock.
"Let's start the game as the male and female representatives to see who is weaker in calculations to confirm your absurd hypothesis that you claim is 'true.'"
"W-What?"
"As for the confidence you had to come up with nonsense, you must be quite sure with your calculations too. There's no way you're afraid even though it's a basic computational game."
I provoked him to steer the situation my way.
"Well, no way!"
"8 times 9."
And most of the time, when a problem is presented in front of someone, they instinctively focus on it.
"... Seventy."
"72, slow."
I mercilessly continued to slap his cheek while playing the game that drove men and women crazy, if it were from Korea.
The man, who responded a second later than me, seemed to have adapted to the game as he started giving his answers faster and faster gradually.
So I pulled out the next trump card as if I had been waiting for this moment.
"12 times 9?"
"Th-This!"
His mind was clearly shaken by the sudden two digits.
It was from the 12 times table, so I confidently stated the answer.
"108."
I began to recite the numbers one by one.
I'm confident I can reach up to the 19 times table.
In elementary school, the myth that Indians memorize up to the 19 times table to multiply spread even to Hell Joseon, where educational fever was raging. Therefore, teachers who wanted to produce better results forced and whipped children to memorize up to the 19 times table.
I didn't need it when I took the university entrance exam, but I'm using the 19 times table here. Things that were completely useless in the past are somewhat useful here.
I kept playing, feeling a bit ridiculous about this situation.
"13 times 7?"
"Now, wait a second! Princess, this is..."
"91. 14 times 9?"
"I-I'm sorry! I dared to make a ridiculous slip of the tongue in front of the princess."
In the end, he shook his head with a swollen face.
"My eyes are tired of looking at your ugly face. Get lost."
Giving up on further harassing and tormenting the weak young girl, the piece of trash nodded and escaped.
Internally, I clicked my tongue when I saw his ugly back, and my eyes met the young girl, whom I had intimidated before.
"Oh!"
Her thick glasses slipped down her nose.
Seeing her arms and legs trembling as she took short breaths, it seemed that I had appeared very scary to her when I slapped the big man without blinking.
"Deborah is a really powerful woman..."
Her large eyes looking at me were teary as if she were about to burst into tears at any moment, and her face was flushed.
As I looked at her gently, the lady's ears and neck turned redder and redder.
"It's as if I'm the one harassing you."
Mmm! It seems that today I've also maintained my notoriety well.
I gave her a cold glance and then walked through the gloomy campus to enter the second-floor classroom.
---------------------
Today, the weather is good.
I rested my chin on my hands, looking out the window from my seat, where the sun was shining well, giving me a sense of stability.
"...I'm sleepy because I couldn't sleep well last night."
I was dozing off under the warm sun when Professor Kyle entered the classroom for the first time in a long time.
Usually, he entered with a lethargic and tired expression, tossed the exams on the desk, and left right away, but today the professor started doing something like a proper class.
The professor, who was writing formulas on the chalkboard, suddenly looked at me and opened his mouth.
"Everyone, you know you have to be honest on the test, right? We don't accept secret answer sharing. If anyone asks you to give them the answer, inform me immediately."
I looked expressionlessly with my chin in my hands and tilted my head slightly.
It was because I felt that Professor Kyle had simply attacked me with his words.
I guess my assumption was correct, and when the class ended, the professor called me aside.
"Princess Deborah," the professor said, rubbing his dark eyes with a very tired expression.
"Tell me."
"I turned a blind eye since it was a minor test, but it's better not to do such a thing from now on."
I raised an eyebrow.
"What did I do?"
"It's dishonest to copy only the correct answers given by other students. It seems that some students were forced to help you inevitably due to the princess's background, but you must not do bad things like cheating. Do you understand?"
I felt a subtle sense as I listened to his admonitions with nuances that I ignored.
Well, that might be a misunderstanding.
In the meantime, I remembered that I didn't write out the intermediate solution process properly, as I simply solved the problem as quickly as possible to leave the class early.
Because it was a waste of time.
Therefore, the professor seems to think that I threatened several students to share their answers.
