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Chapter 14
How much time does it take for a person’s spirit to break?
Robespierre knew the answer to that question.
It wasn’t something he had particularly wanted to know, so it would be more accurate to say he had come to know it.
“……”
Warm morning sunlight streaming down from a cloudless sky.
The cheerful chattering of mountain birds announcing the morning.
Even the black skyscraper towering among the dense coniferous trees.
The sight of the Research Building rising like a spike on the beautiful mountain path displayed a strangely discordant beauty.
But the truly bizarre scene was something else entirely.
……Thunk! ……Thunk! ……Thunk! ……Thunk!
A girl continuously banging her forehead against the Research Building’s outer wall.
It was Hermione.
She had always brightened her surroundings with her cheerful energy, but her current appearance was……
“Uugh…… Uuugh…… Uuuugh……”
Her condition was not much different from that of an undead soldier.
Robespierre watched her quietly and thought.
‘……Why is she still here?’
Hermione was a student notorious for arriving at Lykeion Academy the earliest.
For such a person to still be loitering outside the school gates was certainly strange.
At that moment, Hermione’s weak muttering began to drift over.
“……How does it make sense that the merchant caravan encountered bandits and couldn’t bring strawberries and blueberries? Why did they have to encounter bandits of all things! No, no. Those people did nothing wrong. But what am I supposed to do? Should I have just thrown myself in front of the carriage on the way here and gotten run over? Should I just not go? No, then I might get fired from my teaching assistant position……”
Even in that short time, Hermione’s emotions were changing moment by moment.
Despair, anger, regret, depression.
Eventually, Hermione muttered with a vacant expression.
“Should I just… just die……”
Then.
Clang- Clang- Clang-.
The clock tower’s bell began furiously announcing that it was exactly nine o’clock.
Startled by the sound, Hermione snapped back to her senses.
Only then did Hermione notice Robespierre standing behind her.
“Huh? Pi, Pierre!? When did you get there……”
Hermione quickly rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.
The area around her eyes had already swollen red.
But Hermione immediately put on a cheerful voice and took the lead.
“Oh my, when did it get past nine o’clock? Pierre, let’s hurry!”
Hermione began walking precariously, like a kite string about to snap.
“……”
Robespierre followed behind her with an expressionless face.
Smack-!
The cake slammed into Hermione’s face.
Before long, the research lab floor was becoming covered in pure white fresh cream.
Soon, Chipness approached the trembling Hermione.
Click- Click-.
As soon as the sound of heels stopped, Chipness’s shrill voice flew out.
“You’re doing this on purpose because the professor isn’t here today, aren’t you? Just to piss me off.”
“That’s not it……”
“Not it, my ass. If that’s not it, then how does it make sense that the merchant caravan encountered bandits and couldn’t bring the cake? You expect me to believe that? Huh? Could you believe it if you were me?”
Though she had much she wanted to say, Hermione decided to keep her mouth shut.
Whether she argued or didn’t argue, the result wouldn’t change.
If she continued talking here, it would only lead to even worse bullying.
Sure enough, Chipness picked up a whip and stood there looking at Hermione.
Hermione clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut.
However.
“Since this is the first time, I’ll let it slide this much. But if something like this happens again, it won’t end this easily, so keep that in mind.”
At the unexpected words, Hermione slowly opened her eyes.
“Th, thank you……”
Soon after, Chipness took a mug filled with milk tea and headed toward the professor’s office.
“Well then, I’ll clean the professor’s office. You two clean the research lab. You know to wake me if anyone comes.”
Click-!
As soon as Chipness entered the professor’s office, Hermione collapsed as if crumbling.
Soon after, Hermione pressed her forehead as if confused.
She had felt grateful, even if just for a moment, to Chipness for not whipping her and just letting it pass.
The fact that she had felt that way was so shocking to Hermione that tears were about to flow.
“Sorry. I showed you something ugly. Haha…… What am I even doing, really acting like a fool……”
She was speaking to Robespierre standing behind her.
Robespierre was silently wiping up the fresh cream scattered on the floor.
Hermione also picked up tissues and crouched down next to Robespierre.
“Thank you, Pierre……”
“……”
Robespierre just silently continued wiping the floor.
Such behavior was actually a great comfort to Hermione.
‘So this is why they say “love your classmates, love your country.”‘
Rather than offering awkward words of comfort, Pierre quietly staying by her side was truly appreciated.
Eventually, Hermione muttered weakly.
“……So hazing really exists.”
When Chipness first mentioned hazing, she didn’t understand what it meant.
But now she had learned its meaning through painful experience.
The act of inflicting continuous physical and mental torment on subordinates.
Continuously burning, burning, and burning again until finally turning them into ash that couldn’t even resist.
That was ‘hazing.’
Hermione lowered her voice as much as possible, worried it might be heard in the professor’s office.
“Among teaching assistants from other classes, Senior Teaching Assistant Chipness is incredibly famous. Apparently, all the new teaching assistants who were here before us quit because she made their lives miserable.”
“……Mm.”
“Right, I was really creeped out when I heard about it. But then exactly one person, Senior George, after he came in as a successor, she couldn’t do the hazing anymore. It would be too risky in various ways to mess with someone from the Pendragon family.”
“……Hmm.”
“You’re right. Weak to the strong, strong to the weak…… A typically cowardly person. Really……”
Bullying easy targets happens everywhere in the world.
In that sense, Hermione, being a commoner and a first-year, would have been the easiest prey.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. The professor keeps being away preparing final exams. I’m in the red buying cakes and milk tea. No matter how hard I work, I’ll probably end up getting whipped anyway.”
Hermione threw the tissue in the trash and smiled brightly.
“Sorry. I brought up depressing topics for no reason.”
But her smile didn’t last long.
Creak-.
The door opened and Chipness peeked her head through the gap.
“What interesting story are you telling?”
“Huh? Well, that’s……”
Soon, Chipness’s eyes narrowed to slits.
A cunning and malicious expression like a fox.
It was her characteristic expression when she had found something to pick on.
Watching Chipness approach, Hermione steeled her heart.
‘It’s okay. This happened all the time, right? It’s nothing special. If I endure it, it’ll pass.’
Click- Click-.
But Chipness’s footsteps stopped in front of Pierre, not Hermione.
“Pierre. Pierre. Lolol Saint Pierre. Our cute Pierre.”
Chipness seductively stroked Pierre’s shoulder with an alluring expression.
Then she immediately scowled and continued.
“……I heard everything. You, you’re apparently a child cast out by your family?”
“……”
But Robespierre just continued wiping the floor without any response.
Then Chipness pressed down on the corner of the tissue Robespierre was holding with her high heel.
“How dare you ignore me? You? Me!?”
“……”
“Mute bastard. Did you think I was being nice to you all this time because I actually found you cute? I was being nice thinking I might be able to make connections with the Lolol family. Turns out you’re completely hollow inside.”
Chipness picked up a coffee cup from the table.
Then she tilted the cup with elegant hand movements.
Trickle-.
Soon black coffee began dripping in front of Robespierre.
Chipness smirked and spun the cup on her finger.
“Oops, I spilled it? Sorry, Pierre. The coffee cup is empty? Then what should you do?”
“……”
Chipness crouched down in front of Robespierre, who was silently wiping the floor without any response.
“What should you do? Don’t you know rule number 4? When the senior teaching assistant’s coffee is only half full, you should quickly refill it, right?”
Then she brought her face close to Pierre’s ear and whispered softly.
“Without the Lolol family, you’re no different from that commoner girl over there. Got it? From now on, it’s going to be very~ fun. Pierre, I’ll make you pay for everything I couldn’t do before, so look forward to it.”
Chipness slowly caressed Robespierre’s jawline.
But there was no change of expression whatsoever on Robespierre’s face.
Chipness let out a small snort and soon spoke with a shadowed face.
“Get up. I have plenty~ of things for you to do.”
Research Building 6th floor, Artifact Warehouse.
Inside the warehouse slept all kinds of artifacts owned by Lykeion Academy.
Walls without a single window, thickly accumulated dust, artifacts packed tightly on metal shelves and even rolling around on the floor.
The artifact warehouse was usually left neglected except during the annual inventory check.
Moreover, since it was a space that only faculty and teaching assistants could freely enter, it was an even more deserted place.
And in that secluded location.
“Pierre, wait…… Not there, a little lower…… Yes, there. No, you went too far down. A little higher……”
Chipness’s sultry voice quietly echoed.
In a very secretive and very seductive tone.
“To keep your mouth shut even in a situation like this. You’re really cute, our Pierre……”
“……”
“No, not up, I said down…… No, you went too far down…… A little higher…… No…… A little lower…… No…… I said down! You fucking retarded bastard!”
Chipness glared at Robespierre with her brow deeply furrowed.
She soon continued in an irritated voice.
“How many times are you going to make me say it? Bring me the ‘Telescope of Akan’! That thing in the middle section of the shelf! What’s that thing on your shoulder, just a decorative piece? What!?”
Robespierre slowly blinked with an expressionless face.
The artifact he was currently holding was precisely the ‘Telescope of Akan.’
“A translucent crystal with a signature written on the surface. That’s the Telescope of Akan.”
“So you’re saying I’m wrong? Wow~ how smart of you. A first-year brat who doesn’t know the first thing about artifacts dares to argue with a fourth-year senior teaching assistant? Why don’t you become the senior teaching assistant then? Huh?”
“……”
“Ah, forget it! Put that back where it belongs and bring me the ‘Desert Jewel’! Hurry! There’s no time!”
Chipness watched with amusement as Robespierre turned around without a word.
‘Hehe, how did he know about the Telescope of Akan? But so what? What’s he going to do about it? If I insist it’s not, that’s the end of it.’
In the research lab, her word was law.
She needed to properly imprint that fact on Pierre.
Chipness spoke again sharply.
“I can see your hands? How leisurely. Right? If you want to stay in the artifact warehouse for life, keep doing that~ You’re doing great. Our Pierre is quite the genius. You have an aesthetic of slowness.”
This world is all about power.
It’s natural for weak humans to be exploited.
Chipness, born into a humble family, knew this fact better than anyone.
Chipness sipped her milk tea with a relaxed expression.
Slurp-.
Lykeion Academy was a venue for making connections with high-ranking networks.
As a daughter of the mediocre Alma family, it was the only lifeline for social advancement.
Therefore, humans like Hermione or Pierre who wouldn’t be much help were nothing more than slaves…… no, livestock to Chipness.
‘If you’re going to blame someone, blame your powerless self.’
But no matter how much they blamed themselves, nothing would change.
The hazing had only just begun.
“Idiot, would that be there? Why don’t you use your brain a little? Stop that and move that bookshelf over here.”
“No, put it back. It doesn’t look good now that you’ve moved it.”
“Is that heavy for you? You’re so weak. Don’t rest and just bring that over there.”
“Move everything on this shelf over there. Match the order perfectly too.”
·
·
Chipness’s ‘dog training’ continued for several more hours after that.
Trapped in a windowless room where you couldn’t even tell the time, rolling around in dust pits doing useless tasks.
With constant sarcastic and insulting remarks as a bonus.
It would be a situation that would shake the mental state of any ordinary person.
But this was only the preparation phase.
The most important stage in hazing was the next step.
Completely breaking the spirit that had begun to waver precariously.
Trampling it down so thoroughly that they couldn’t even think of resisting.
It was time to display overwhelming violence.
Eventually, Chipness pulled out a whip from her sleeve.
“This won’t do. You need to get beaten.”
At the same time, the leather whip rushed fiercely toward Robespierre.
Crack-!
A sharp snapping sound filled the artifact warehouse.
The leather whip struck the stone pillar right next to Robespierre and slithered down.
“……Scared? I missed on purpose.”
Chipness slightly raised the corner of her mouth and continued speaking mockingly.
“It’s really strange, you know? Whether it’s people or animals, they never listen when you only use nice words. But after getting beaten, they become very obedient. I wonder what you’ll be like, Pierre?”
Lolol Saint Pierre, a failing first-year student in Lykeion Academy’s Cleric Class.
With weak physical strength and a fragile mind, Pierre would surely tremble in fear.
After a few proper lashes as an example, he would quickly become frightened and turn into a loyal slave who only followed Chipness’s words.
However, the situation seemed to unfold somewhat differently from Chipness’s expectations.
“……!”
Chipness couldn’t help but be startled when she saw Robespierre’s face.
A smile.
“……You’re a bad one, aren’t you?”
Far from being paralyzed with fear, Robespierre was faintly smiling.
