The Strongest Student of the Weakest Academy-Chapter 481: The Heavens Shall Fall (XXII)

"A-ah..."

Blood traced thin lines down her face and along her jaw, her hair clinging to her skin in disordered strands, and yet her eyes were still locked on mine, still refusing to look away.

I took a step forward and looked down at her.

"You knew that this sword of mine was able to devour any kind of authority or divinity," I spoke coldly, as I didn't have any amount of goodwill towards the woman in front of me.

"And yet… You still tried to force everything into one final exchange."

I stopped a short distance in front of her, looking down at her where she knelt.

"You pushed yourself past your limit, burned through everything you had left, and still chose to collide with it head-on."

A faint line of blood slipped past my lips again as I spoke, dropping from my chin to the ruined ground between us.

"Are you stupid?" I continued, my tone turning even colder, even containing a hint of killing intent, "or were you simply blinded by your need to win?"

The words landed harder than any strike.

For a brief moment, she didn't speak a single world.

Her fingers tightened slightly against the debris beneath her, enough to show the tension running through her.

"…I wasn't blinded."

Her hands tightened further against the debris, small fragments of stone grinding under the pressure.

"I knew exactly what I was doing."

There was a pause after that, a thin, fragile space where it felt like she might stop speaking altogether.

She didn't.

"…Do you know what it means," she continued, her voice lowering, "to stand beneath someone like her and never be seen?"

Not this shit again...

I sighed inwardly.

Does she have some kind of protagonist syndrome?

First, she exerted her authority to the maximum, going berserk against me after losing, and now, she's trying to gain empathy out of me?

It was clear as the blue sky who she was talking about...

Lunara.

"For her… strength is not enough. Talent is not enough. Effort… means nothing if it does not reach her," she let out a small breath.

Her gaze lifted fully to meet mine again.

"And you… you stand there as someone she acknowledged," she said, her voice tightening slightly.

"And Thaliel…" her fingers curled slightly, "…stands beside me, carrying the same shadow I do."

"I thought… that if I defeated you… if I could stand over someone she had already seen...," she went on.

Her jaw tightened.

"…then maybe she would look at us differently."

"Ah... Maybe she would stop seeing us as… incomplete."

The silence that followed was heavier than before.

"I knew what your sword could do," she added, staring at the Heavenly Swallowing Sword which hummed proudly.

"I knew what it meant to clash against it like that."

Her eyes did not waver from mine.

"But that was the only path that had even a chance of reaching her."

She sighed deeply.

"…So I took it."

Her shoulders lowered slightly, the tension easing just enough to show how much she had been holding in.

"Call it desperation if you want," she said quietly.

"Call it stupidity."

Her gaze sharpened again, not with anger, but with a hint of pride on her eyes.

"But don't pretend it was blindness."

"I saw exactly what I was risking."

She held my gaze.

"And I chose it anyway."

...Yeah, that really was stupidity.

And I can't believe that I'm the one who is going to say this to her. I exhaled deeply... really deeply, as I couldn't believe there was someone so blinded by love.

...Nah, there was also her own lover.

Both were stupid as fuck.

"You nearly destroyed yourself," I started, looking down at her where she knelt, "for a chance that someone like her might look at you differently."

I shook my head once.

"Do you even hear yourself?"

She didn't answer.

I continued anyway.

"There are thousands of gods out there," I stated flatly. "Thousands... there are multiple different domains. Different authorities... and different kinds of beauties."

I shifted my stance slightly.

"Some of them are stronger than her," I added after a brief pause. "Some of them are more beautiful. Some of them are more respected."

That wasn't entirely true, and I knew it, but it didn't matter.

"There are entire pantheons that don't even care about her name."

My gaze stayed on her.

"And you're here, tearing yourself apart over whether one of them decides to acknowledge you."

Her fingers tightened again slightly, but she still didn't interrupt.

"Why?"

The question was simple and direct.

"Why does it have to be her?"

I tilted my head slightly, studying her expression.

"You and Thaliel.... you're both strong. Not 'potentially strong.' Not 'one day maybe.' You're already there."

I gestured faintly toward the ruined arena around us.

"This doesn't happen because someone is weak."

My voice hardened just a little.

"And yet you're acting like everything you are only matters if she decides it does."

I let that sit for a second before continuing.

"You're clinging to her like she's the only thing that defines your worth. Like if she doesn't see you, then nothing else counts."

"...That's simply... dependence."

Those words made her eyebrows furrow, making her uncomfortable, as humans, well, even gods didn't like hearing the truth.

The truth hurts, whether you like it or not.

"You said you didn't lose because you refused to stop... but just like you said... that was entirely desperation."

...This woman is more like a simp than Selindra herself.

Or maybe not... Selindra literally knelt before me and actually clung to my leg, practically begging me to give her a chance.

She even changed her whole being to... fucking hell.

These thoughts made me sigh again, as I looked down at Emyria.

"You don't need her approval, and neither does Thaliel."

I looked at her directly.

"If she never looks your way again, it doesn't change what you are."

"And if it does…" I let the thought hang for a second, then finished it plainly, "Then you've already decided you're smaller than her."

My gaze didn't waver.

"And that's your mistake."

Silence settled again.

Then I added, more bluntly than before:

"Stop chasing someone who isn't looking back."

She let out a short breath at my words.

"You're wasting yourself."

I turned around and teleported away from her. I wasn't going to challenge Thaliel today because she probably needed time to comfort her little girlfriend.

Hopefully, they stop bothering us when we're on dates.

Last time, they stalked us to a hotel and even booked the room next to ours. That's some serious obsessiveness...

...I wonder if they masturbated hearing Lunara's moans...

Ugh, that gives me chills...

I shook my head, trying to clear those thoughts out of my head.

"Yo! Are you going to fight Thaliel next?" Kael waved at me, grinning lightly, probably happy for my victory, as now the academy wasn't fully dominated by women.

I shook my head at his words.

"Emyria probably needs a bit of comforting to her, so I'll let them rest for a day or two." I walked over to them.

"Damn? You're that kind?" Tyrian was a little surprised by my words as he pointed out to the cafeteria, and I nodded.

"Sometimes. Besides, now they might stop bothering Lunara and me on our dates." I smiled lightly.

"Mhm? Why? Was that what you were speaking with Emyria when she was kneeling down to you?" asked Tyrian, raising an eyebrow.

"...I guess so."

"Ah! About that, from our perspective, it almost looked like she was giving you a blowj..."

Thwack!

Before Kael could finish his words, I directly slapped the back of his head, causing him to almost kiss the ground.

"Aaww... that was unecessary dude!" he complained, massaging his head while glaring at me.

"You asked for it," I shrugged.

"Asked? You literally have seventeen lovers! One more or two, isn't exactly much!" Kael mumbled in a somewhat loud voice.

Glare...

"Haaah... just shut the fuck before he beats the shit out of you," Tyrian sighed, pulling Kael a few meters away from me.

"What?" he shrugged.

"I was telling the truth... mhpf," he turned his head to the side, acting almost like a tsuindere, and making me disgusted.

Tyrian also looked at him weirdly.

"What shit did you take today?" he asked curiously, stopping on his tracks, and putting his hands on Kael's shoulders.

"Today? Mhm..."

Kael looked like he was thinking very hard.

"Oh! I got one of those magic beans from the market, so I ate them," he frowned as if remembering the memory.

"But they didn't do anything, which made me quite disappointed..."

His face dropped in disappointment.

"Oh... that explains a lot," Tyrian almost face-palmed himself, before whispering to me in a tone that Kael, who was disappointed, probably wouldn't hear.

"I think he ate one of those emotion amplifier beans..."

"Ohh..." I nodded lightly, glancing at Kael, who was still looking down.

"Let's hope that he doesn't try to kill himself."

I sighed deeply.

I don't know if Emyria and Thaliel are more stupid for simping for Lunara for I don't know how many years, or if it's Kael's innate stupidity.

Other than that...

I'll need to check how the preparations are going.

I don't want those outer gods to step onto my territory this soon.