Episode 46: Desk and Chair

Leaving behind Leon, who says it’s his daily routine to practice swings in the courtyard in front of the school building after meals, I return to the classroom.

But the air inside the classroom feels strangely tense. The students, usually chatting lively, are silent today.

I don’t pay it much mind and head toward my seat.

…But what I find there can hardly be called a “seat” anymore.

My chair has been brutally destroyed, reduced to scattered wooden fragments on the floor. The desk is no different. Despite its sturdy construction, it’s been deliberately smashed to pieces.

A stifled chuckle reaches my ears. The culprits are students wearing uniforms adorned with noble family crests on their chests.

About nine of them are clustered together, eyeing me with amusement.

“Hmm…”

I mutter.

“This is all…? A bit disappointing, honestly.”

With that, I walk toward the laughing noble students. As I approach, one of them calls out to me.

“Something wrong, Siegfried-kun?”

“My chair and desk were destroyed.”

“Oh, looks like it. Wonder who could’ve done that…”

Smirking and shrugging, the student’s head is suddenly seized in my grip.

“Wha—? H-Hold on… What’re you…!?”

“Be my chair.”

With those words, I slam the student’s head into the floor.

“Oof!”

Without pause, I grab the head of the student next to him and—

“W-What are you doing, Siegfried…!”

Slam him mercilessly into the floor as well.

“Gah!”

I turn to my next target, who’s already trying to flee with his back turned. But I’m faster.

“Ngh, let go!”

Ignoring his protests, I slam his head into the ground too.

I repeat the same motion about eight times in total.

And then, the last one.

Cornering the noble student who’s been scurrying around the classroom, I grab his head.

“W-What the hell are you doing…!?”

The student protests in a trembling voice.

“Y-You think we’re the ones who wrecked your desk and chair!? You’ve got no proof—!”

“No. I just need a new desk and chair. This is my way of making use of useless lot like you. You’re welcome to thank me.”

With that, I slam his head into the floor without hesitation.

“Now then…”

I drag the nine noble students sprawled on the floor to where my seat used to be. Pushing aside the wreckage of my chair and desk, I start piling the students up.

“What tasteless furniture… but I suppose it’s not entirely unusable.”

I stack three noble students to make a chair and the remaining six to form a desk.

I sit down on the chair made of noble students.

At that moment, a burly figure stands beside me.

“What… are you doing?”

It’s Leon.

“As you can see, my desk and chair were destroyed. This is the substitute.”

I point to the wreckage of my original desk and chair.

“I’d rather not resort to this, but I can’t attend classes properly without a desk and chair. I have to study diligently for His Majesty’s sake, after all.”

Leon seems at a loss for words at my now-routine deflection of responsibility onto the king.

As for me… I’m sighing inwardly.

This is it, Randolph?

I thought he’d pull off something far more sinister, but this? It’s nothing but petty, spiteful harassment. I expected a bit more class from a villain like him…

Come on, Randolph, step it up—

In my heart, I send a silent cheer to Randolph.

 

◆

 

Night. At the top floor of the Grantzire dormitory, in the private room reserved for the student representative.

“…At noon, one student in the cafeteria, and later, nine students in the classroom were beaten down by Siegfried.”

The voice of a noble student, kneeling on one knee, echoes quietly in the room as he reports.

“…I see.”

Randolph, seated on the sofa, nods and says curtly.

“That’s enough. Leave.”

“Yes, sir.”

As the student exits, Randolph is left alone in the room.

And then—

“Damn it!”

With a shout of rage, he slams his hand onto the table in front of him.

“Siegfried…!”

His suppressed emotions burst forth, his breathing growing ragged.

“Doing whatever he pleases, acting high and mighty…!”

The harassment directed at Siegfried was all orchestrated under Randolph’s orders.

Siegfried may have dismissed it as “petty harassment,” but Randolph knows better.

These insidious tactics are exactly what chip away at a person’s spirit over time.

Even hardened criminals, subjected to relentless bullying in prison, can break down mentally and take their own lives.

Some inmates have even said, “Being whipped or losing freedom is nothing compared to the terror of insidious bullying.”

But—Siegfried is unaffected.

“Should the school discipline Siegfried…? No… that won’t do.”

Siegfried is a student admitted under the king’s direct orders.

If they punish him, the headmaster—Randolph’s father, Duke Steyart—could be seen as opposing the king.

“Then… make peace with Siegfried?”

He mutters the idea, only to reject it immediately.

“After being humiliated like this… there’s no way I’m backing down…!”

As the heir to the Steyart ducal family, one of the five great noble houses, and the top student representative of the military academy, his pride won’t allow it.

That leaves Randolph with only one option: to keep targeting Siegfried from the shadows.

In a way that allows him to claim to the king, “I had nothing to do with it.”

“This is what you get for underestimating me. I’ll make you regret it, Siegfried…!”

Trembling with fury, Randolph mutters under his breath.