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The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

Chapter 148: The Forbidden Words

After Fiera and the others had finished their battle, Fiera jumped off the stage and rushed over to me, while Ride glared at us with a look of regret.

(Well, if you lose like that and are handed victory, it must be frustrating. Not that I feel sorry for you, though.)

As I watched Ride lying on the ground, Fiera sat next to me with a refreshed expression.

“How was it?”

“Well, as long as you didn’t kill anyone, I guess it’s fine.”

“I feel really refreshed! I’m glad I left it to Fiera!”

“Me too. Honestly, it feels great. I wish I could have shown Iris too.”

I didn’t feel anything particular about their comments, but Fiera and the others seemed quite annoyed, chatting and laughing happily.

“Hey!”

As I lazily listened to the three of them, suddenly Ride, who seemed to have recovered from his concussion, shouted as he came closer, barely hiding his anger.

“You! What was that match about? Why did you hand me the win?”

“Hm? I don’t really understand what you mean. I said I wasn’t interested in ranks. But you seemed to want to be first, so I just let you have it. No deep meaning behind it.”

Fiera replied calmly, but perhaps her attitude irritated Ride even more; he was shaking with anger.

“Quit underestimating me! Sure, I wanted to be first! But not like this! I wanted to earn it with my own strength!”

“Heh. Your ‘own strength’? You can’t even see the strength of your opponents, and you’re saying that? What are you talking about?”

“What?!”

“You couldn’t comprehend our strength or even your own. That’s why you’re satisfied being proud of a magic sword that’s barely unleashed half of its potential, right? With that level of thinking, there’s no way you could win against us with your own power.”

“Shut up!!”

“The foolishness lies in trying to fight with someone you think is weaker without even understanding their strength. That’s something only strong individuals like El are permitted to do. You were simply overconfident in your own abilities and looking down on your opponents. So who’s really lazy here?”

Fiera’s words were correct when observing Ride from an objective standpoint. He called me lazy and arrogant, but in reality, it was Ride who was looking down on and underestimating his opponents, and he was the one being complacent about his own strength.

“How about you realize this already? You might be strong within the academy. But that’s only within the small confines of the academy. Once you step outside, there are countless individuals with your level of power. You’re weak. You need to accept that.”

“Ugh. No way… that’s just…”

Ride, perhaps taking Fiera’s words to heart, looked down and tightly clenched his palm, droplets of red blood falling from it.

“Hey, can I head back now?”

“El.”

“How long are we going to watch this farce?”

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Let’s go.”

While Fiera and the others were having a serious discussion, I couldn’t hide my boredom at their utterly uninteresting conversation, prompting an apologetic reply from Fiera.

“Ha ha… ha ha ha ha!!!”

As I stood up from the audience seats and turned my back to Ride, he suddenly started laughing hysterically like a broken doll.

“Ahahaha! You too… are you mocking me?!”

“…What?”

“Of course you’re mocking me, right?! You must think it’s pathetic to lose to a girl!”

“I don’t think that at all…”

“Shut up!! What the hell are you?! With that condescending attitude and lazy demeanor, you still think you’re stronger than me? Ridiculous!! I’ve been trained by my father and the knights since I was little! And yet… and yet!!”

(Wait, that has nothing to do with me. In the first place, it was Fiera who fought you, so why am I being blamed?)

Ride’s words were nothing but mere venting against me, and I was beyond exasperated. It had become a bother to even engage anymore, so I ignored him and tried to head back to the classroom, but Ride spat out a word that could be deemed forbidden.

“You must have been spoiled by your parents! Like father, like son! They must be useless parents too!!”

“Huh? What did you just say?”

“I said your parents are fools! They must be useless parents too… guah!!”

In an instant, I closed the distance between us, grabbed Ride by the throat with my right hand, and lifted him straight into the air.

“Alright then. I’ll be your opponent.”

“Guah!!!”

With a strong throw, I sent Ride flying onto the stage, and I used flight magic to slowly descend on it.

“Teacher Lime.”

“Yes, yes! What is it?”

“Even if I defeat this guy, please don’t change the ranks this time. It’s too much trouble.”

“Understood.”

“Sephiria.”

“Yes?”

“Heal up this guy’s injuries and stamina completely.”

“Yes, understood.”

“Sonia.”

“What can I do for you?”

“About magic power transfer?”

“I can do that.”

“Then do it.”

“Got it.”

After giving instructions to Sephiria and Sonia to restore Ride to perfect condition, I waited patiently for him to recover.

“Ugh. What do you think you’re doing?”

“What do you mean? That’s simple…”

I paused my words for a moment, then grinned, hiding my sadistic desire.

“I’m going to defeat you in perfect condition to cut off any excuses you might have.”

“What?!”

“Humans tend to make excuses and justify themselves. They might say their grades are bad because they didn’t study enough. They lost because they weren’t feeling well. They lay down preventive measures and try to protect their own hearts. Do you know why?”

“……”

“Because they don’t want to admit it. They want to create an escape route. The root of that is their weakness of spirit. And those with weak spirits blame others when things don’t go well or don’t turn out as expected. Just like you.”

“Ugh.”

“That’s why I won’t give you an escape route. I’ll thoroughly obliterate that path.”

Even if my parents were to die… No, even if they were killed right in front of me, I wouldn’t be this angry.

That’s partly because I’ve experienced my parents’ deaths in the past, and I can rationalize it as their fate.

However, words that mock my parents are different. They deserve respect, they are my pride, and they were a support for my heart in the past.

That’s why I cannot forgive words that belittle them, and more than anything, I don’t want to.

“Kamael.”

“What is it?”

“Give me a dagger.”

“Why?”

“You know why.”

“…Fine. Got it.”

Kamael said with disbelief, pulling out a dagger he’d hidden in his sleeve and throwing it to me.

“Don’t break my tools, okay?”

“Understood.”

After checking the condition of the dagger, I turned my gaze toward the still-dazed Ride.

“You better get your weapon ready too.”

“You can’t be serious, are you going to fight with someone else’s weapon?”

“Yeah. I told you, right? I’ll take away your escape route. This is just a dagger, and it’s not even the weapon I’m used to. With this, you can’t blame the weapon anymore. Now hurry up and get ready.”

“That is an insult to me! Using someone else’s weapon!”

To a swordsman, a weapon is more precious than life itself. It is what takes the life of the enemy and saves one’s own.

And since Ride is the son of the sword saint of the House of Holstein, he cannot tolerate me using another’s weapon.

“Ha ha. To think you’d consider victory when you can’t even win against me. How confident you are. Now hurry up and draw your sword.”

“Damn it. There’s no way I’m going to lose to you!”

“Teacher Lime, please.”

“Understood. But please, no dead people this time. Alright, let’s begin!”

After Lime signaled the start, Ride remained still with his sword ready, gradually showing signs of impatience.

“What’s wrong? Not coming at me?”

“Shut up!!”

(Damn. What the hell is this? There’s absolutely no opening.)

Ride studied my movements carefully, but perhaps he couldn’t find an opening; he instead appeared to grow anxious.

“If you’re not coming, I’ll go first.”

As soon as I took a step forward, before Ride could even acknowledge it, I slipped behind him and pressed the dagger against the thickest vein in his neck.

“…Huh?”

“With this, you just died once.”

As I spun the dagger in my right hand while grinning, I informed him of his first death.

“What…?”

“Well? What could it be?”

Ignoring Ride’s growing agitation, I took another step forward and this time appeared right in front of him, pointing the dagger toward his blazing eyes.

“This makes it your second time. If I stab this dagger through your eyeball into your brain, you’ll die, right?”

“What the hell… how are you…”

“Think for yourself.”

As I said this while peering into Ride’s slightly becoming fearful eyes, I continued to inform him of his death count by pressing the dagger against his chest, forehead, and then his abdomen.

With each increase in the count, the fighting spirit in Ride’s eyes faded, replaced by fear, but I paid him no mind and continued.

What I was doing was quite simple, a combination of the combat method Fiera had used against the assassin by exploiting their blind spots, and the technique of becoming natural I learned from the Forest King, Build.

These two techniques worked exceptionally well together, giving such an effect that when combined, it felt as if one had completely vanished from existence, making it impossible for someone like Ride to catch my movements.

“That’s your twentieth time.”

“Ugh…”

Having reached his twentieth death, Ride let out a pathetic sound of fear and sat back down, trembling.

“Now do you understand? Our levels are on different dimensions. There’s no way someone like you can match me.”

In the future, Ride might grow strong through various experiences alongside the protagonist, but at his current level, it was honestly laughable.

“Ha. I’m bored now. There’s no fun in bullying you any further, so let’s end this.”

Having lost interest in the now completely frightened Ride, I stepped off the stage and returned the dagger to Kamael.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I got to see something good too.”

“Heh. Oh really?”

“El. Let’s go.”

“Yeah. Teacher Lime, is it alright if we head back to the classroom? I’m tired.”

“Sure, that’s fine. We’ll be doing the support-related rank determination afterward, but it seems like you’re not interested.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Ugh. I wonder if Ride will be okay. I hope he’s not broken…”

As we turned our backs on Lime and began to walk away, I heard her voice from behind, sounding worried about Ride, but I had lost all interest in what would happen to him, so I ignored it and headed back to the classroom.

Afterward, while the support-related rank battles concluded and everyone returned to the classroom, I slept with Fiera’s tail resting on my lap.

 

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