Chapter 51: Back to School

Roy appeared back in his room and sat on the edge of his bed.

“Sigh…”

He let out a deep breath. ’At least the hidden story has been found. There’s hope that I can get those rewards before the entrance exam.’

Pierre had ended the sign-in session after the failure. He didn’t want to have to restart the simulation on his next sign-in, but instead continue level 8.

The neon-blue cube floated and spun on its axis before Roy, and he allowed himself to lie down on his bed.

[23:58]

Roy stared at the countdown.

’How much has Greymane recovered?’

With that thought, the Strange Beast appeared within the iridescent cube that had become quite transparent.

Roy raised an eyebrow. This was the first time he had seen the cube morph.

The abyss soul displayed within bore gashes on its sides and even a ruptured eye. However, it was recovering in the confines of the system space.

Roy had absorbed more energy crystals than usual to speed up the recovery process.

As long as Roy had Greymane, even among F-Class Executioners, he was not to be trifled with.

Roy caressed the cube’s wall.

“Goodnight, friend. Tomorrow’s going to be difficult.”

* * *

The noise of students conversing filled the classroom.

Roy kept his head down on his desk, resting on his arms. When he arrived earlier, the entire class had fallen silent briefly, but he ignored them and went to his desk.

“Roy was crying about Pierre and Jane’s relationship, and then attacked Pierre. Both were then suspended, but Roy had more days.”

That was the headline going around about the incident last week. At least, that was what Roy could gather from the not-so-whispery whispers.

And he only had one person to blame:

’Chris. That fat loser and his big mouth full of lies. Why would I cry because Jane is Pierre’s girlfriend? This is why we can never be friends. The little shit.’

Roy just kept on hissing and gnashing his teeth. He couldn’t wait to leave this environment.

“Hey, Roy…”

’Speak of the devil.’

“…how’ve you been? I tried calling you, but you didn’t pick up.” Chris tapped Roy’s shoulder to draw his attention.

Roy grunted and raised his head slightly, giving the bespectacled fat kid the side-eye.

“I didn’t see it,” Roy said. This time, he wasn’t lying and honestly didn’t see the missed calls. Plus, he wasn’t expecting anyone to reach out.

“Oh, that’s okay, I guess. Dude, a bunch of crazy things happened in your absence. Do you wanna know?”

“…” Roy hesitated. “What happened?”

“The video of the fight went around the school. They’re now calling you GayRoy, because of the way you fought Pierre and the things you said.”

Roy’s face turned to stone. ’GayRoy…’

“And that’s not—”

“Good day, everyone,” the male teacher entered the class right then and greeted.

Chris’s eyes widened, and he whispered to Roy, “Oh, dude! This morning, we’re having an aptitude test.”

If Roy was stone before, now he just crumbled like a biscuit.

During the test, he tried to look at Chris’s work, but the bastard covered his answers. He turned to the girl behind him, but it was that flat-chested girl who said he tried looking under her skirt.

Of course, she shunned him.

’You know what? I’m going to be an amazing executioner. I don’t need this shit!’ he thought and submitted without answering anything.

The grades came in immediately after the test, as the test was conducted digitally on the students’ devices. To no one’s surprise, Roy got a zero.

At recess, he ignored everyone, including Chris, and sat alone. Turned out he really was GayRoy now, as some of his more extroverted classmates and even those from other classes called him that nickname.

Oddly enough, though, Pierre never looked his way or even confronted him. He laughed and chatted away with his friends. Chris also mentioned that Pierre had stopped bullying him after that incident.

It started to seem like the guy was changing for the better. Roy didn’t like that. He didn’t need much of a reason to hate the handsome bastard, but he would still want one to be present.

Roy, however, mostly observed Jane. She, too, never spoke to him or even glanced his way.

’I have to find out if Pierre used his [Je T’aime] skill on her,’ Roy told himself.

Since he was stronger now, he believed the best option was to corner Pierre and press him for an answer.

But first, he had to bide his time.

Grr~

The closing bell rang, and Roy got up to leave, when Chris voiced, “Dude, wait. I— uh, I got this new console at home. It’s that Hyper-Immersive VR that just came out. Would you like to try it out?”

Roy had already hung his bag. But then he recalled Donald’s jab at Roy not having any friends and hissed.

“Sure.”

This wasn’t the first time Chris had invited Roy to his house, but this was surely the first time Roy had agreed.

[Following a classmate to check out their new gaming console. Will be back home a bit later.]

Roy sent the composed message to Donald and his grandmother.

Roy put his phone in his school uniform pocket and raised his head.

Unlike normal, Chris wasn’t blabbering about something and remained silent instead.

“Is anything wrong?” Roy asked.

“What? No. I’m just thinking,” Chris said.

“And this area’s quite lonely, don’t you think?”

“Uh… yeah.”

A realization struck Roy like a flash. ’Something is wrong.’

He halted but only now noticed that they were already at a dead-end.

Roy glared at a sweating Chris when a voice came from behind, along with numerous footsteps and laughs.

“GayRoy and Piggy…”

Roy turned sharply, and before him were a group of seniors with Pierre ahead of them all, holding a steel bat resting on his shoulder.

“It’s time for me to pay you back…”

Pierre smiled, but his eyebrows were deeply furrowed.

“You did well, Piggy. You can leave now.”

“R-Roy, I’m sorry!” Chris screamed and ran past Pierre’s group. One of the seniors kicked him in the rear, and he fell, eliciting a burst of laughter from the group.

Chris’s butt crack was on full display, but he shamelessly got up, raised his sagging pants, and continued to run away—more like jog away.

Roy’s gaze was steady. He tightened his fists.

And grinned.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep