The Strongest Villain Sets Out: Reincarnated into a Merit-Based Clan, I Become the World's Strongest Swordsman - Chapter 36.2: Interlude: Cornelia Zehabaruto is Jealous

“Hey, did you hear?”

One of the female students walking down the hallway asked another female student who appeared to be her friend.

She tilted her head and answered.

“Hear what?”

“About the suspicious people who showed up recently.”

“Suspicious people… you mean those shady black-clad groups who snuck into the academy?”

That was an event from just a few days ago.

Suddenly, bandits had infiltrated the Royal Academy, an educational institution for raising excellent children.

Fortunately, there were almost no casualties, but for students with little combat experience, it became a quite unforgettable incident.

Even now, part of the damaged school building hadn’t been repaired. The scars from that time remained.

However, the academy held classes the next day. Even students who had been injured attended school.

The reason was, as mentioned earlier, that there were almost no casualties.

Why were there so few casualties despite being attacked by skilled intruders? A student who knew the reason began explaining with a delighted voice.

“Yes, that. When faced with criminals, my body froze and I couldn’t move properly.”

“Me too. In the end, I was saved by a teacher.”

“Right, right… But you know? There’s actually a rumor about this story that isn’t being openly talked about.”

“A rumor?”

“There’s a rumor that a certain student defeated the leader of the bandits who infiltrated the academy.”

“Who was it? Isn’t that impossible?”

A child couldn’t possibly beat an adult. One of the female students listening thought so.

However, the female student doing the explaining grinned and said:

“Fufu. Did you forget? In this academy, among our fellow students, there was a genius praised as a prodigy.”

“A prodigy… you don’t mean⁉”

“Did you figure it out? The answer is—Luka Salvatore, son of the duke.”

Luka Salvatore.

There was no one who didn’t know that name. At least, there was no student or teacher enrolled in the academy who didn’t know it.

Throughout the vast empire, he was the youngest child of the Salvatore ducal family, a clan particularly distinguished in martial prowess.

A genuine monster who manifested aura at world-record speed and broke through the ducal family’s trials at the fastest rate in history.

Furthermore, Luka wasn’t just an aura user. He also wielded three other powers: divine prayer, which excelled in healing, and magic, which excelled in firepower.

Recently he had also been dabbling in curses, but few students knew that.

Even so, there was no one who didn’t know how excellent Luka was.

“You’re saying Luka-sama crushed the enemy leader? Really?”

“I understand the feeling of not being able to believe it even about Luka-sama. But many students are spreading that rumor. Moreover, the source of the rumor seems to be the teachers.”

“Th-the teachers said it? That Luka-sama was active?”

“I don’t know that much. But thanks to that, it gained credibility all at once. Now, there are fewer people who don’t believe it.”

“Wow… as expected, chosen geniuses are different. Compared to me, who was trembling and being protected, the very class is—”

Thud.

Partway through, one of the female students who had been looking sideways bumped into someone in front.

Perhaps the other party had better core strength, because the female student who bumped fell backward.

She sat down hard and looked up… immediately after, she let out a scream.

“Eek!”

What she had bumped into was—Cornelia Zehabaruto, who boasted fame rivaling even Luka Salvatore.

She narrowed her eyes and glared at the female student.

“Who are you?”

A terribly cold voice was heard, and the fallen female student’s body began trembling. Fear. Overwhelming fear coursed through her entire body.

“C-Cor-Cornelia… Your Highness the Princess… I… I…”

She trembled and couldn’t speak well. The other female student was also panicking, not knowing what to do.

Knowing nothing of such things, Cornelia stepped forward. She brought her face slightly closer to the female student who had fallen and murmured:

“You two… were you just talking about Luka?”

“!”

Just hearing that voice made her feel like losing consciousness. The reason she was feared by other students was due to her usual behavior.

Unlike Luka, who was praised unreservedly, she was extremely violent and most students tried to keep their distance.

Now that several months had passed since enrollment, just how many students had been sent to the hospital?

Among them, there were apparently students who had been traumatized from being beaten up too much by her.

Cornelia especially wouldn’t tolerate any abuse directed at Luka. The story of those who had been jealous of Luka seeing hell was all too famous. And yet she was royalty. No one could oppose her.

Even if multiple people tried to fight, Cornelia easily mowed down her enemies. Truly a symbol of terror. Such a woman was right in front of them.

She was about to cry and wet herself. How easy it would be if she could just lose consciousness.

As her trembling gradually increased, Cornelia continued without concern:

“You’d better not talk about Luka too much. You don’t want to, right? To have painful experiences?”

“Y-yes… yes.”

“Good girl, good girl. Only chosen me is allowed to speak Luka’s name. If you call him too familiarly—I’ll kill you, okay?”

“————”

Ah, it was no good anymore. The female student lost consciousness.

At that moment, a male voice was heard from behind Cornelia. A familiar voice that sounded somewhat exasperated.

☆

“Hey, what are you doing, Cornelia?”

On my way to the training grounds, Cornelia was bothering students I didn’t know.

She was probably baring her fangs as usual. I called out to her, thinking I didn’t have time to waste on such things.

Then Cornelia ran toward me with a beaming smile.

The face of the female student I glimpsed briefly had sadly rolled back her eyes.

She threatened them again…

“Sorry sorry, Luka. Some flies were being noisy.”

“Flies, you say… I won’t help you if you make enemies carelessly and get attacked.”

“Eh? You won’t protect me?”

“I’ll help you if you’re in a pinch. But you can get through it yourself, right?”

“Well, yeah~. Fufu.”

I didn’t know what was so happy about that, but Cornelia hugged my arm and lined up beside me.

It was somewhat hard to walk, but I had enough composure to enjoy the sensation of her chest. The two of us headed for the training grounds while talking about what came next. Later, several female students looked at me with frightened eyes… just what did Cornelia say?

When I asked her, she played dumb, saying “What are you talking about?” She had definitely forgotten.