Magic Academy Mayhem: A Class Full of Maniacs - Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Contrary to what everyone had expected, Griffin’s expression did not change in the slightest.

Like a puppet without emotions, he simply waited in silence for them to finish venting.

Then he said flatly that the schedule for the next week would be posted in the group chat, and his figure vanished from the classroom.

The five of them fell silent for a while.

Eli was the first to speak. He glanced at Richter. “Didn’t expect someone as fake as you to be so loyal at a time like this.”

“Hah?” A sound like a cold scoff slipped from Richter’s throat. Realizing belatedly that he had lost his composure, Richter suppressed the unpleasant feeling rising in him.

His eyes curved slightly. “Don’t get the wrong idea. I just can’t stand Jellyfish Head, that’s all. I wasn’t trying to back you up. We’re not that close.”

Eli’s brows drew together. He was just about to fire back when he saw Richter had already moved over beside Cynthia.

Eli looked at Richter sticking close to Cynthia and suddenly realized he seemed to have been like this for the past few days.

He sneered. “Are you her dog? Always clinging to her like that.”

“…”

Cynthia’s fingers, which had been tapping on the desk, paused. She lifted her eyes and shot him a sidelong look. “I seem to remember saying that if you’re going to argue, don’t do it in front of me, right? If you can’t even manage that much, at least don’t drag innocent people into it…”

Being suddenly pulled into the fight did not put her in a good mood, and she had no desire to take part in whatever came next. She pushed back her desk, stood, and headed for the door.

“Every last one of you is acting insane.”
“…”

Her figure quickly disappeared from the classroom. Richter lowered his eyes, the smile from before vanishing without a trace.

He suddenly kicked the desk aside, stood, and closed in on Eli.

Under Sangmo and Vernel’s gazes, he raised a hand and clamped it tightly around Eli’s throat.

His expression was so dark it was like he had become an entirely different person, and even his voice seemed dipped in frost. “…Say, my nauseating teammate, do you want to die?”

Eli had never expected him to snap like this so suddenly. Having never been treated this way before, his gaze chilled.

The Lunar Moon Blade appeared, slashing straight toward Richter’s arm.

“Heh…” Richter let out a sneer and released him.

Then he lifted his foot and kicked Eli in the stomach. Eli grimaced in pain and had no choice but to retreat.

Seeing that the two of them were about to fight, Vernel remained as calm as if she had no emotions at all. She got up and left, neither interfering nor trying to break them up, merely distancing herself in silence.

As for Sangmo, he stayed motionless in the corner, quietly waiting for them to finish fighting.

—

One hour later.

The detention room.

Vernel and Sangmo stayed in the corner.

Cynthia, who had been forcibly dragged in, looked at Richter and Eli. Both of them were bruised, battered, and covered in injuries, their hands and feet bound by chains that forced them to kneel on the floor.

Because she found the whole thing so absurdly funny, her expression instead became calm to the point of near indifference.

“…I called you insane once, and you actually went insane? Or do I have some kind of supernatural power that makes everything I say come true?”

Cynthia did not want to think right now. In her terrible mood, she simply let one unpleasant sentence after another spill out.

“Weren’t you all doing perfectly fine on the deserted island these past few days? How did you come back to the academy and suddenly start thrashing around like someone put a curse on you? If you really can’t stand each other, then find a chance outside the school and kill each other there. Why fight in the classroom?”

The two lowered their heads without saying a word. It was not that they did not want to speak, but that their hands and feet had been bound by chains, and a twenty-four-hour Silencing Spell had been placed on them. It would not disappear until tomorrow.

Looking at those two faces, Cynthia did not care how handsome they were. At this moment, all she wanted was to punch them hard.

She had just entered the campus shopping district, ready to get something to eat, but before she could even have her meal, Griffin had dragged her to the detention room.

The reason: her team members had brawled in the classroom and destroyed it, and she had failed to fulfill her duties as captain.

As for why Sangmo and Vernel had been brought in, that reason was simple too: as teammates, one had chosen to sit by and do nothing, while the other had chosen to look on coldly. They had failed to fulfill their duties as teammates.

Could anyone understand?

When Cynthia heard that explanation, she laughed out loud on the spot. Anyone who did not know better would have thought she was their guardian or something.

Because it had not been a fight with students from another department, but one within the same department-between members of the same team, no less-and because no lives had been endangered, it did not count as crossing the academy’s bottom line.
Griffin did not report them, but he did punish them with a week of confinement.

He also placed an ancient spell on them that very few people could master-the Blood Pact Resonance Spell.

While the contract was in effect, those linked by it would be forced to share in all pain the others endured. The backlash from advancing realms, as well as death, would not be shared. All in all, it would not threaten their lives, but it was more than enough to drive a person up the wall.

In Griffin’s words, putting these invisible shackles on the five of them was meant to prevent a second round of infighting-or even more trouble-from beginning.

If they wanted it removed, that would depend on their performance at the end of the semester.

So they had to spend the next half year loving each other like family, did they?

Two teammates who couldn’t stand each other and snapped at each other every chance they got. Two indifferent teammates whose emotions were so flat they might as well have lost all human desires and feelings.

And then there was her, a captain who had somehow become moody and unpredictable at some point?

What was this, some affection system that had triggered a route where they had to conquer each other…?

If there really were a system, Cynthia would not be this speechless. At least that would count as a cheat.

But in reality, such things as systems did not exist. She was like an owner who had failed to keep her pets from making trouble and had been dragged down with them.

It was so absurd she had nothing to say.

Because of the Resonance, Cynthia could only feel pain in her face, pain in her abdomen, and sharp stinging aches all over her limbs.

Taking a potion herself was useless, because the wounds did not belong to her.

Cynthia pressed a hand to her forehead, rose, and walked over to a pile of straw in the corner to sit down. She had no intention of feeding those two any medicine. She was not in the mood, and for the time being, she did not want to see either of their faces.

Since they had not directly participated, she, Vernel, and Sangmo were not chained or silenced like the two who had fought. They were simply being punished with time to reflect.

She could understand that adolescent boys had unstable temperaments and rebellious phases. She also knew Richter and Eli had taken an inexplicable dislike to each other.

But she was still utterly speechless at being dragged into something that could have been avoided.

So when all was said and done, it was because she, the captain, was too weak. She had no deterrent power and no authority to speak of.

If her realm were higher than theirs, she would not have been pulled into this whole farce.

Cynthia leaned against the wall, tilted her head back, and let out the frustration in her chest.

Her urge to raise her realm reached its peak.

Right. Cultivate.

Only by raising her realm high enough to crush them could she live peacefully for the next six years.

In an instant, Cynthia’s mood settled.

As though no one else were around, she began to cultivate.
Three days later, Cynthia automatically emerged from her cultivation state.

Although absorbing Magic Element put her in a state akin to half-sleep, she could still occasionally hear people talking.

For the past three days, they had been eating prison meals delivered by the guards outside-not really.

As for washing up, the confinement room had its own bathroom. The magical chains locking Richter and Eli in place could be extended during meal and washing times; the rest of the time, their range was restricted.

None of that was the point. The point was that Eli and Richter had clearly already taken potions.

So why could she still feel these dense, lingering pricks of pain even now?

There was no way recovery potions were this useless, right?

Cynthia looked toward the two culprits.

Eli’s condition was visibly listless. He had two dark circles under his eyes, but the injuries that had been exposed before had already disappeared. He had recovered fairly well.

As for the other one…

His head was lowered, his entire body hidden in the shadows as he leaned against the corner without saying a word.

Cynthia could not see what expression he had right now, but she did see the bluish-purple bruises visible on the back of his hand, his neck, and even the side of his face.

So it really was him…

Last time, after she had slapped him, even though ointment had been applied, the mark on his face had taken a very long time to fade completely.

It was probably due to his particular constitution, which made him poor at absorbing medicine.

His looks, at least, were like a flower that needed protection. As for his personality… if she had to describe it, only something like oleander or poppy would barely come close.