WIEDERGEBURT: The Missadventures of Nevaria Acadeny - Chapter 3

Eryk should have known that fight would come back to bite him in the ass.

He woke up the next morning, got ready for school, and stepped outside to find none other than Lin standing outside his door with a bright smile on her face. Her dark-skin made her stand out amongst the fair-skinned students exiting the boy’s dorm. A lot of them looked at her, but she paid them no mind.

I can already sense trouble.

“Darling! Morning!”

Lin waved the moment she saw him, her dazzling smile inflaming the souls of those nearby. One poor idiot was so enamored he walked into a wall. Eryk wanted to yell at the boy to pay attention to where he was walking, but instead, he put on a wry smile and waved back.

“Morning, Lin. Dare I ask what you’re doing here?” he asked.

“This princes decided to walk to school with you,” said Lin.

“Of course, you did.”

Lin lived in the female dorms, which weren’t that far from the male dorms. It was about a five minute walk.

He hadn’t realized it during their first meeting, but Lin was a very prominent figure—or rather, her mother was the prominent one. Her mother was a wealthy shipping magnate who owned the world’s most used shipping company. Eryk had thought she looked familiar, and it turned out, he had seen her mother on the news several times back when he lived in the orphanage. He hadn’t paid much attention because he was busy watching the others. That was his justification for why he didn’t recognize the girl right away.

The reason she lived in the student dorms was because her mother wasn’t around often and Lin felt it would be better if she lived closer to school.

“Did you sleep well?” asked Lin, latching onto his arm the moment he came within reach.

“Yeah. I suppose…”

“That is good. This princess always finds she sleeps better after a good exercise.”

“By exercise, you’re talking about that fight?”

“Of course.”

“Yeah. Figured as much.”

Walking to school with an attractive girl hanging off his arm was a first for him, and it was really distracting. He did briefly consider telling her not to get so close. Eryk didn’t want to get chummy with someone he barely knew. However, he already had a decent handle on this girl’s personality from their first meeting, so he knew telling her to back off wouldn’t go down well.

Eryk was the sort who always took the path of least resistance.

They soon made it to school, and that was when the trouble started.

“Eryk Veiger and Lin Lamia. The dean wants to speak with you.”

The person who spoke was a stern man who looked like his face had been hewn from stone and his body sculpted by Phidias. He was so muscular that his muscles had muscles. Eryk had never met someone with such a powerful physique before.

He wore a business suit that looked like it was going to rip if the man so much as flexed. Even the subtle movements of his arms and legs caused the fabric to release a strained sound like it was halfway ready to tear.

This was the school’s health education instructor. What was his name again?

“Ah? Mama Hilda wants to see us? What for?” asked Lin.

Mama… Hilda…?

What kind of familiar way of addressing the school’s dean was that? Did Lin know Hilda?

“Head up to the dean’s office,” said the man.

Because they didn’t have much choice, Eryk and Lin headed to the dean’s office, located on the highest floor in the tallest tower. There was no elevator in this tower. They had to climb the stairs. Eryk wondered what idiot designed this floor and didn’t install an elevator. This wasn’t the sixteenth century. Did the architects think they were living in medieval times? He thought he was gonna drop like a sack of bricks as they climbed up god only knew how many flights of stairs.

Eryk was gonna knock on the door, but Lin barged in without bothering.

“Mama Hilda! This princess heard you wanted to talk to her?”

Must not facepalm. Must not facepalm.

Repeating those words like a mantra, Eryk entered the room, which looked typical of a dean’s room all things considered. He’d seen enough anime to know this was how rooms like this were supposed to look. Even the picturesque image of the dean sitting before her desk, the rising sun setting a backdrop in the window behind her, was typical of this sort of setting. It was like the woman wanted everyone to understand that she was the leader of this place.

Hilda Astralia was the dean’s name. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, and looked like a less busty version of Kari. Right. Now that he was thinking about it, Kari was the dean’s daughter, wasn’t she? She had never mentioned it before, but he remembered some people talking about it on his way to school one day.

“How many times have I told you not to barge in here?” asked the dean.

Lin stopped short and placed a finger to her lips, tilting her head ever so slightly to the left. “Um… this princess doesn’t remember.”

“That was a rhetorical question. Sit down.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Not on the floor, you idiot!”

I won’t do it. I won’t facepalm, Eryk thought as Lin immediately sat where she was standing. He didn’t necessarily blame her. Hilda’s voice could have frozen over Hell. Even he shivered and he wasn’t the recipient of it.

“You do, Eryk. Sit down.”

“Eeek.”

Emitting a quiet shriek, Eryk sat in one of two chairs before the dean’s desk alongside Lin, who tried not to squirm.

“Did you two know that you’re trending?”

“Excuse me?” asked Eryk.

“Wut?” said Lin at the same time.

Hilda smiled mirthless as she grabbed the phone sitting on her desk, fiddled with it, and placed it before the pair. They leaned forward and found… images of them kicking ass and taking names. It looked like someone had snapped pictures of their fight last night with those goons who were trying to pick up Lin.

“I received quite the shock this morning when I saw you two all over social media,” Hilda continued in a voice like a tundra. “Not only has this blown up because a couple of students wearing our uniforms got into a fight with some ruffians, but people are beginning to spread bad rumors about my school.”

“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear on the internet,” Eryk said. It was an autoresponse.

“Right. Right. The internet is full of idiots. They’ll say anything for clout. This princess believes you should just ignore them,” Lin agreed.

“They’re saying we allow even uncultured swine into our hallowed grounds and that we’re teaching our students that violence can solve their problems,” Hilda continued.

“If anything, I’d say those men were the uncultured ones,” Eryk added.

Lin nodded imperiously. “This princess did nothing wrong. Those people making comments are stupid.”

“Are you even listening to yourselves?” asked Hilda with a sigh. “It doesn’t matter what their intelligence level is. Public opinion is important regardless. Our school is the most preeminent prep school in Japan. We have students from all over the world coming to attend this school because they know that we are the best. We cannot have students starting trouble because it gives us a bad reputation, and having a bad reputation will cause parents to look to send their children elsewhere. We’ll lose funding, which means our many activities will be canceled and we won’t be able to pay our teachers. Do you understand what I’m saying here?”

“I understand perfectly, but that’s just one side of the story,” Eryk said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for the dean of an academy to reprimand her students when she hasn’t even listened to their side of the story yet.”

“Yeah. Yeah. This princess did nothing wrong. You should listen to her side of things before casting judgement.”

Hilda’s face stiffened as the pair ran their mouths. The look on her face was almost comical. It was like she had swallowed a lemon or something. Eryk would have loved to get it on camera, but he knew that wouldn’t go over well… and he didn’t have a camera. Curse his poorness.

“Oh? And what is your side of the story? Do tell me. I would love to know why you two beat up an entire group of young men in front of a convenience store.”

Eryk was more than happy to share his side of things, but before he could even open his mouth, Lin decided to run hers.

“So, it’s like this, Mama Hilda. This princess was just minding her own business and getting her favorite chupa chups, when these idiots came over and tried to mess with her. They kept hitting on this princess. She told them to buzz off over and over again, but they wouldn’t take a hint. That made this princess mad, see? Wouldn’t you be upset if a bunch of men slobbered all over you and got upset because you refused their advances? You would, right? Anyone would. So this princess was about to lay the smackdown on those mofos like Mike Tyson. Shit was going down. That’s when Darling stepped in and came to her rescue.”

Darling? Hilda mouthed, staring at Eryk.

He looked away.

Lin continued. “Anyway, Darling was so awesome. He was all “Didn’t your mom teach you that it’s rude to grab a girl without her permission?” and then decked that mother fucker right in his stupid face. He was like PAM and POW and KABAM!”

Eryk did not remember any PAMs, POWs, or KABAMs. He literally hit that kid once before the fight started.

“So I see,” Hilda said in a composed voice. Her expression was a terrifying mask of calm. It was the calmness before a storm.

Does this girl realize she’s digging us an even deeper grave? Why won’t she shut up?

“And what happened after that?” asked Hilda.

Eryk tried to stop her, but Lin’s mouth was like a train wreck. “After that? We obviously beat the crap out of those suckers. They attacked us, so we defended ourselves. It was self-defense. Japan allows the right to defend ourselves if we believe we’re being threatened.”

“Do you think those men were a serious threat to you?” asked Hilda.

“Pfffft! Of course not! This princess could have taken them on with her eyes closed,” Lin thrust out her chest.

Eryk finally facepalmed.

Hilda smiled. “Did you know that, at the time you act, you must reasonably believe that you were in imminent danger of being killed or seriously injured in order for Japanese law to consider your act self-defense? What’s more, the level of force you use cannot exceed the threat with which you are faced?”

That was the moment Lin finally realized she had fucked up. Her face went paler than a sheet.

Hilda took back her phone and scrolled through something, then read out loud. “Those young men you were injured were emitted to the hospital. Three of them had broken ribs, one had a broken arm, another a broken leg, and one of them received so much damage to his genitals that he’ll never be able to reproduce.”

“Good. That jerk doesn’t deserve to have children,” Lin mumbled.

“What was that, Lin? I couldn’t hear you? Did you just say I should make your punishment harsher?”

“This princess said that’s horrible and everyone deserves to have children!” Lin shouted.

“You two are very fortunate. This is only a single incident and our school has enough money to throw around that we can sweep this under the rug,” Hilda said.

Eryk was sweatdropping. “Did you just admit to throwing money at this problem to make to disappear?”

“However, that doesn’t mean you two cannot go without punishment. This is a very serious issue. Had you been attending a regular high school, you would have no doubt been arrested and charged.”

Eryk leaned over to Lin. “Is she ignoring me?”

“Don’t worry. She does that to me too,” Lin whispered.

“Pay attention, you two.” The pair snapped to attention. Hilda smiled, but it was vicious and cruel. “Since this is a first offense, I’ll let you off easy and give you one month of latrine duty. Have fun cleaning our toilets.”

It took one second for Eryk to understand what their punishment was, another second for the realization to set in, and one more second for despair to hit him like the Shikansen. Lin’s despair peaked at the same time as his.

“!!!!!”

Two screams echoed across the school simultaneously.