A C-Rank Magic Student Who Deludes Himself into Thinking He Is SSS-Rank

“You’re late, Kurosaki-kun…”

In the botany preparation room at the academy, Lina Lestia muttered to herself.

She had asked her student, Shion, to help with the class preparation and had sent him to fetch some equipment from the storage room.

While working on her tasks, Lestia was becoming concerned about the unusual time it took Shion to return from the storage room.

(The storage room is far from here, but should it take this long…?)

Lestia was puzzled. The school’s storage room housed various types of equipment, not just those used for plant magic classes, so there was a good chance that Shion had yet to find the equipment she had requested.

She concluded that this was probably the reason for his delay.

…In reality, Shion was engaged in a duel with Eliza Lored at the arena, but she had no way of knowing that.

“Ah, I should have gone with him.”

Lestia regretted her decision.

Ideally, she would have preferred to accompany him.

When conducting experiments in her plant magic classes, a fair amount of preparation is needed, including equipment, soil, and seeds for each student.

However, she needed help to prepare everything alone; it wasn’t necessary to have someone’s help.

Still, she wanted to spend time with Shion and used the class preparation as an excuse.

What mattered to her was not getting Shion to finish the chores but preparing with him. Thus, with Shion going alone to the storage room, the current situation was far from preferable for Lestia.

This situation was caused by an incident that happened recently.

Recently, Lina Lestia had fallen on Shion in an accidental, almost nose-to-nose embrace.

Remembering this incident when she met Shion earlier made Lestia stutter and blush.

Shion, concerned about her odd behavior, was hastily asked by her to fetch the equipment from the storage room.

As a result, Shion took an unexpectedly long time to return, and now Lestia was disheartened, preparing for the class alone.

“Ah… Why am I so conscious about a student like this… Ah!”

At that moment, Lestia suddenly had a realization.

“…Wait, why am I the only one so conscious about this!”

Saying this, Lestia stood in front of the mirror in the preparation room.

“I’ve always been interested only in plants and never cared about this, but men approach me quite a bit. My features are quite nice, right?

Lestia positively assessed her reflection in the mirror. Objectively, this was an understated evaluation, as she was undoubtedly exceptionally beautiful.

“And my chest is on the larger side, too… Isn’t it rare for a man not to react to that?”

She lightly lifted her chest from the sides to check its size.

“Or maybe I’m not appealing enough as a woman in my usual behavior… For example, like this…”

Saying so, Lestia unbuttoned the top three buttons of her blouse, revealing her cleavage, and leaned forward to view her bust in the mirror.

“…‼ Wow… If I do this, I can be quite──”

…That was when it happened.

“──Excuse me. Sorry for being late…”

“……….”

…Shion had entered the room, and his eyes met directly with Lestia’s reflection in the mirror.

──Immediately after, Shion was completely restrained by thick plants, unable to move.

“Please wait, Teacher, seriously, let’s not do this.”

“…It’s okay, Kurosaki-kun‼ If it goes well, you’ll only lose the memory of today!!”

“Teacher, I learned in your class. If I’m forced to drink that liquid you’re holding, it won’t just erase today’s memory. Please, think this through, seriously.”

Lestia, holding a bottle of ominous-colored liquid, had a look in her eyes that had completely lost her sanity.

(…This is bad, I’m going to be killed‼)

…It took quite a while for Shion’s desperate persuasion to bring Lestia back to her senses.

Shion later said that this was the closest he ever felt to a real threat to his life.