Having finally endured all the morning classes, the end-of-class bell rang, and several professors gathered their lesson plans and left the classroom one after another.
Greg had just breathed a sigh of relief and was preparing to pack up his things, find a quiet place to relax, or perhaps ponder how to trick Vivian into clearing the dungeon with him, when—
"Student Greg!"
"Please wait a moment!"
At least a dozen female students who usually displayed more or less the reserve of noble ladies rose from their seats almost simultaneously, as if they had practiced it. Wearing warm, shy, or bold smiles, they surged toward Greg's seat from every direction like a rising tide!
Their speed was so swift and their objective so clear that there was not a trace of the ladylike decorum or elegant composure emphasized in their social etiquette classes.
"Student Greg! Are you free this afternoon? My family is holding a private afternoon tea party in the Rose District! It's all friends our age, and everyone really wants to meet you!"
"My family is hosting a ball at Rose Manor this weekend, and my father specifically instructed me to invite you! Please do us the honor of attending!"
"Next Wednesday is my nineteenth birthday, and my family is holding a small celebration dinner. I... I really hope you can come!"
"Student Greg, I heard you've done some research on Ancient Language? My family has a collection of ancient fragments left by my grandfather. I wonder if you'd be interested in looking over them together... tonight?"
Delicate, chirping female voices instantly enveloped Greg.
The scents of perfume and the fresh fragrances unique to young girls mingled into a dizzying warm current.
Exquisite, gilt-edged invitation cards bearing family crests were handed to him like a flurry of snowflakes.
What made Greg's scalp tingle even more was that almost every girl, as she shoved an invitation into his hand, used the tips or pads of her long, bright-red-manicured nails to lightly scratch the palm of his open hand with clear coquettish intent.
The touch was initially cool and slightly ticklish. Combined with the breath of the young girls so close to him and their expectant gazes, it did make Greg feel a subtle tingle in his heart, even giving him a brief, secret sense of satisfaction.
But one, two, three...
When the fifth, sixth, and seventh girls' fingernails scraped the exact same spot on his palm at almost identical angles and pressure...
That tiny bit of secret satisfaction was rapidly replaced by an accumulating, sharp sting!
"Stop! All of you stop!"
Greg finally ran out of patience. Snatching back his already reddened palm, he raised his voice in an attempt to break free from this gentle encirclement:
"Ladies! Please maintain your distance! I am a Disciplinary Committee member! Harassing a male is also—holy crap!"
Before he could even finish speaking, he felt his backside get slapped hard from behind with extreme speed!
"Who?! Who was that just now?!"
Flustered and annoyed, Greg looked back and forth.
The girls burst into a chorus of bell-like laughter as they exchanged glances. Far from backing off, they seemed to find Greg's flustered reaction even more entertaining, and their encirclement drew even tighter.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the classroom, the male students—who had already been harboring complex emotions—saw the goddesses they usually fawned over without receiving so much as a second glance now enthusiastically surrounding Greg in female rivalry.
Every single one of them was practically bursting with rage.
"Tch! These women... are shallow to the extreme!"
A boy with brown curly hair gritted his teeth:
"Just because that trash performed well once, they actually treat him like a hero? They don't even look at his current standing!"
"Exactly! He doesn't even have a noble title anymore! He has nothing left except a pretty face and a bit of meaningless fame earned by who-knows-what stroke of dog-shit luck. Is that really worth them acting like this?"
Another tall, skinny boy chimed in sourly, his gaze fixed on a girl in a pink dress who was struggling to push closer to Greg—the girl who had been his unattainable crush for six months.
"Short-sighted! Not a shred of foresight! What's the point of fawning over him now? Once this excitement blows over, won't he just go back to being Greg Sass with nothing to his name?"
A third boy grumbled indignantly.
But right then, a usually quiet boy suddenly spoke up in a low voice, his tone laced with a hint of uncertain worry:
"Say... now that Greg has proven himself and demonstrated his worth this way... could his family, House of Sass, consider recalling him, or even... restoring his inheritance rights?"
"..."
Those words were like a drop of ice water hitting a pan of boiling oil.
The boys who had been full of righteous indignation just a moment ago fell instantly silent together.
On each of their young faces, their expressions shifted at a visible speed from anger and disdain to shock and gravity, before finally collapsing into a thoroughly gloomy dour face.
Restoring... his inheritance rights?
This possibility, which they had never considered before, fell upon their hearts like a heavy sledgehammer.
That's right, what did noble families value most?
Reputation, profit, and an heir who could carry on the family's glory!
Greg used to be trash and a disgrace, so being abandoned was only natural.
But now, he had demonstrated strength capable of single-handedly vanquishing an Undead Knight, caused a significant stir in the academy, and even earned public praise from a professor...
If Greg were truly recalled to his family and restored as heir to the noble title...
Then he would once again possess a family background far beyond their reach, coupled with his damn handsome looks and current heroic reputation...
What on earth... could they possibly use to compete with this guy?
It seemed... they really would be utterly crushed in every single aspect...
An even deeper feeling of helpless despair and jealousy, mixed with an intense sense of defeat, quietly spread through the hearts of these boys, leaving behind nothing but bitterness in their mouths.
"Wait, why did it suddenly get so quiet?"
The boys suddenly noticed that the noise in the classroom had vanished completely at some point. Only a heavy silence bearing invisible pressure gradually rippled outward from the direction of the doorway like waves of water.
The few boys who had been immersed in imagining their own tragic futures raised their heads blankly.
Only then did they see a tall, aloof figure standing quietly at the classroom entrance.
Her ice-blue hair draped smoothly down her back like a waterfall from the purest glacier.
Her flawless, refined features were currently shrouded in a lingering shadow of fatigue, but this did not diminish the innate nobility and distance that surrounded her in the slightest.
She merely stood there without any extra movement or expression, her ice-blue eyes calmly sweeping over the instantly silent classroom, lingering for an extremely brief instant on Greg—who was right at the center of the crowd of girls.
An invisible low-pressure system seemed to envelop the entire space following her gaze.
Rate on N.U.
