"Cadet Rin Evans and I will be sparring next," she declared, her voice loud enough for everyone to hear.
And just like that, I found myself roped into a situation I hadn’t asked for.
It was practically a law in web novels: the moment you thought, "As long as it’s not me~," fate would personally slap you in the face.
"Oh, then would you come up?" Instructor Ray said, waving me forward with an easy smile.
I could’ve thrown a tantrum, pretended to be sick, or even faked twisting an ankle right there. But honestly? I didn’t feel like wasting the effort.
No, I just walked up calmly.
That girl—no, Buttcheeks—clearly saw me as an easy target.
I figured it was about time someone corrected that little misunderstanding.
As I stepped onto the platform, I caught the brief flicker of surprise in her eyes.
She hadn’t expected me to just accept it without a fuss.
"Loser. You really don’t know your place, huh?" she said, smirking and folding her arms arrogantly. "You’re seriously going up against me?"
I raised an eyebrow. "Funny. You just called me ’Rin Evans’ a minute ago. Now I’m back to ’loser’ already? That was fast."
"Tch." She clicked her tongue, clearly annoyed. "Don’t get cocky. I warned you to be ready, didn’t I? Looks like the opportunity came faster than I thought."
I gave her a lazy smile.
Buttcheeks had a lot of bad traits—bad attitude, sharp tongue, ego bigger than her actual ability.
But I knew deep down she wasn’t truly a bad person.
Just an idiot who couldn’t back down when her pride was on the line.
"You’re pretty confident, huh?"
"Obviously," she sneered, twirling the whip she carried with a casual flick of her wrist. "Once I’m done with you, maybe you’ll finally realize your place."
"Sure," I said, stifling a yawn on purpose. "Maybe you’ll surprise me and actually land a hit."
Her eye twitched.
Oh, this is going to be fun.
But before we started, there was something I had to ask.
Something I was genuinely curious about.
"Hey," I said, casually, "mind if I ask you something?"
She frowned, suspicious. "What?"
"Why do you hate me so much? As far as I remember, I haven’t done anything to you."
She scoffed at that, like I had just asked the dumbest question in the world.
"Hate? That’s a pretty big word you’re throwing around," she said, pausing just long enough to adjust her grip on the whip.
The weapon curled around her like a living thing as she started swinging it loosely in slow arcs.
"Why would I waste time hating a bug that’s about to be crushed?"
Wow. Real original.
Still, just because her words were cliché didn’t mean she didn’t mean them.
Her whip was no joke.
In a world where magic was everywhere, even something as basic as a whip could become deadly.
And from what I remembered, Buttcheeks wasn’t even naturally suited for close combat.
Which meant that her level of control over that weapon wasn’t talent.
It was pure, stubborn hard work.
"Oh, so you don’t actually hate me?"
"Nope." She smiled sweetly. "Was there some kind of misunderstanding?"
We stared at each other for a moment, both smiling.
A tense, twisted kind of smile.
"Do you really think you’re even worth hating?" she said—and then the whip lashed out.
Crack!
With a sharp, ugly sound, the whip struck the spot where I had just been standing.
The floor splintered slightly from the force.
I barely moved aside in time.
She really meant it.
"What makes you so cocky, huh?" she taunted, starting to circle me like a predator eyeing easy prey. "You can’t even exercise properly. You’re weak, and you’re slow."
She wasn’t wrong.
I was weak.
Weak enough that if I got hit by that whip of hers outside these protected training grounds, I’d probably end up crying from the pain.
But that was fine.
Because I didn’t plan on getting hit even once.
"You! I just... I just don’t like your existence!" she snapped.
Damn.
That hit harder than I expected.
Was there even a difference between saying ’I don’t hate you’ and ’I don’t like your existence’?
At the end of the day, anger was anger. And right now, she was practically boiling with it.
"Even I wanted to be in the same class as him, not like you!" she continued, her voice rising. "I wasn’t even able to join his team... but he invited you! And you rejected Leo’s offer like it was nothing?!"
Her fists trembled at her sides.
"And then, this morning—you humiliated me in front of the whole class! Even Leo laughed at me! You... I’ll teach you the lesson you deserve!"
Ah.
Now it made sense.
Jealousy.
Anger.
And a twisted sort of obsession with Leo.
In her eyes, Leo wasn’t just a talented cadet—he was a god walking among mortals.
Damn, I thought, she’s got it bad.
Funny enough, yesterday it was that boar-like gorilla who picked a fight with me, and he too had some weird obsession with Leo.
Seriously, what the hell was wrong with these people?
Of course, I kept all those thoughts to myself.
Instead, I shrugged casually and smirked.
"I see," I said, locking eyes with her. "So you want to teach me a lesson? Well, give it your best shot."
The moment my words left my mouth, she charged.
Fast—
but reckless.
She swung her whip with a sharp crack, aiming straight for my shoulder. I tilted my body just enough to the side, feeling the air split near my ear.
Close.
But not enough.
I wasn’t planning on taking even a single hit, remember?
"Tsk!"
She clicked her tongue and lashed out again, this time at my legs. She was trying to trip me up—smart move if she could actually catch me.
I hopped back lightly, just outside her range.
"You sure you’re trying to teach me a lesson?" I called out lazily, arms still crossed. "Feels more like you’re just throwing a tantrum."
Her face turned even redder, her movements getting sloppier with every strike.
Good.
Anger clouded judgment.
And a clouded opponent was an easy one to beat.