Ex-Hero, Now Freeloader - Chapter 20 – Don’t Plunge Into a School Arc 1

「Fufufu, it really is Sir Rain~ Do you remember me~? I was one of the girls that you helped together with Elly in the past~」[1. TL Note: Elly is how she playfully calls Eleanor.]

This woman’s name is Louto.

Also, the things that I am now aware of are how large and soft her breasts are, how good she smells, and how strong she is.

「…I can’t breathe.」

「Hya…! Oh, Sir Rain, your breathing is making me feel ticklish~」

Could you please listen to me?

『Hey, hands off him, you big-titted Majin! What if he suffocates?!』

「Oh my. So sorry about that~」

I was finally released.

Louto is a Majin with fluffy brown hair. Her eyes are narrow like thin lines and her smile draws an upward arc.

She looks to be in her early twenties.

Now that I think about it, Eleanor and Lejie are Majin too…

So is the old man, and obviously that means his kids are Majin too.

The only visible difference between them and humans is the horns.

It would seem that not all of them are, but I wonder if it’s more common for those with a high amount of mana to be born among Majin.

For humans, there are a lot of female sorcerers, and I think the males make up about twenty to thirty percent.

The Sage and Saint are also women.

「…Yeah, I remember. You were the girl who was just about to be sacrificed.」

「…! Exactly! If Sir Rain were even a few seconds late, I would’ve died~ Truly, it was fated to be~」

『Isn’t that more of a miracle or good luck?』

「No, it’s fate~」

While saying that, Louto took my arm into her hands.

「…Ah, I guess I should call you Ms. Louto? I’ll be in your care today.」

「My! My, my, my! Having you call me Ms. Louto seems gravely disrespectful but~… I suppose it’s alright.」

「So… Is it normal for a teacher and student to lock arms like this?」

「I believe this sort of thing happens once in a while~」

「No, it does not, Ms. Louto.」

An exasperated Fripp interjected.

「Oh my, hello Fripp. You have outdone yourself this time. Rest assured that I’ll give you straight-As in exchange~」

「Please don’t! You should not tamper with grades in such a manner.」

「I’m kidding~」

「Kuh, how wicked…」

She seems like a free-spirited, hard-to-grasp person.

While Fripp is serious, they seem pretty incompatible.

We head to the classroom while having strange gazes directed at us.

It was a fairly wide room with tables and chairs all lined up for the students.

Maybe because we stopped by the dean’s office for a moment, by the time Louto and I got to the classroom, the seats were filled.

Even Fripp, with who we parted ways when I visited the dean’s office, was there.

It appears that one’s social status does not matter within school grounds.

Now that I think about it, even Louto didn’t treat Fripp with any extra formality.

All are equal as students, huh?

「Alright, everyone. Good morning~ Today, the Hero Rain will be a student at the academy for the day~ Clap your hands everyone~ Please get along with him~ It would appear that Rain will teach magic after school, so those who wish to learn, please stay behind~」

Good, good. Unlike earlier, she isn’t attaching Sir in front of my name.

I guess she was just excited to meet me again after five years. She does her job properly.

She is staying true to the academy’s ideology of all students being equal…

「If anyone is disrespectful to him, the perpetrating student will be expelled, so please be careful~」

…I take it back!

This is an abuse of authority.

She’s favoring a single student exceedingly more than the rest.

「Everyone, this is the part where you laugh~」

It seems that she was joking.

Yes, of course. That’s what I thought too.

「Uhm, I’m Rain. I’m only here for a day, but it’s nice to meet you.」

「Now then, Rain, your seat is…here~」

As she says that, she places a chair right next to the teacher’s podium.

「Ms. Louto, I would like to sit like everyone else.」

「What~? Are you sure? It’ll be lonely…for me.」

That doesn’t concern me.

After some persuasion, I convinced her to let me sit next to Fripp.

As I passed through the gap between the desks towards the last row, a certain student stuck his foot out.

This is when a normal person would get caught on it and trip.

T-this is an initiation!

I don’t really get it, but it’s a sort of rite of passage that I’ve seen done among mercenary groups as well.

Those guys can get a little extreme, like suddenly getting into a fistfight, but how I respond to this will determine where I stand initially.

If you think of it as a method of judging one’s abilities, then it may not be meaningless.

I’m sure there are other ways to go about that, but that differs depending on the group, right?

I don’t really mind getting tripped and taking a big fall, but…that would make them look down on a Hero.

I don’t care about that in and of itself, but if that sets a bad impression of the Demon King Army who took me, a human, in as a freeloader, and of the seven girls I saved five years ago who adore me, then that would be a problem.

People might think…『Really? This is the punk they took in? This is the guy those seven have been thankful for all this time?』

…So, should I avoid it?

No, this isn’t something that has to be avoided.

Ergh, now that it has come to this… Sorry, male classmate, please yield.

I continue walking.

From the side, it would look like I was just proceeding forward at a leisurely pace.

But the truth is my foot crushed the foot of the student sticking his foot out and continued walking as if nothing happened.

「…?! GAH…!!」

The owner of the foot, who was grinning slightly, realized what had happened and opened his eyes wide, yelling from the pain that assaulted him.

However, that soon subsided as well.

「What’s wrong?」

I ask. At the same time, I used healing magic to fix his broken bones.

「I didn’t step on your foot, did I?」

「…! N-no it’s…it’s nothing.」

「I see. Well, nice to meet you.」

「Y-yeah…」

He wouldn’t look me in the eye.

I wonder if this was the correct response.

This is my first time at school, so I don’t really know.

「…Don’t get cocky.」

Went a voice from somewhere… Ah, well.

I sit beside Fripp and look at him. He had a wry smile on his face.

「Did I do something wrong?」

「No. You were extreme, yet gentle at the same time. It’s an odd feeling.」

I broke that guy’s foot but in the end, he wasn’t injured. I guess that’s what Fripp means by extreme yet gentle, huh?

「Normally, what would you do in that situation?」

「That’s tough to say. Sadly, there is no right answer.」

「That’s crazy.」

Is school where the attacker is the winner?

Is this what Makai is?

「Be careful of him later. Needless to say… Ms. Louto might do something.」

When I looked back at him, I heard the sound of something flicking off of something and the young man from before is collapsed on the desk.

White dust danced around him.

「Honestly. You shouldn’t doze off in class~ You can’t get good grades like that~」

I think there’s some relation between the chalk in Louto’s hand and the young man’s sudden unconsciousness, but I won’t bring it up.

I also won’t bring up how the person who said「Don’t get cocky.」caught a high-speed piece of chalk, that came out of nowhere, in between their fingers and threw it to the ground while clicking their tongue.

「Looks like being a student may be harder than I thought…」

『Never fear. If things go south, just swing me around.』

The students would die if I did that…