"Me?" I pointed to myself.
"You!" She angrily yelled.
"..."
'What's her problem? Bitch, what did I do to you?' I thought.
"Yeah, I'm done here. You do you, I'll leave you two alone so feel free to continue the fight." I lazily waved my hand as I turned my back on them.
"Trespasser!" She angrily yelled again.
"What's her problem?" I asked Ami.
'Well, I did enter into unknown territory without permission, so they definitely have the right to attack me. However, here? This academy is hardcore.' I inwardly agree with her.
"Neither do I. I have no clue. She's been screaming one word at a time. She's also like that to me. Probably loose screws."
"Does she...? Have some sort of mental illness? Or some sort of disability?"
"I heard it!"
We looked at her intently before nodding at each other. For some reason, our gesture really pissed her off and she pointed a wooden stick at us. Soon after, the ground trembled, upon perceiving what was about to happen my hand unknowingly grabbed Ami's arm. Ami let out a shriek in surprise, thus disrupting my concentration and losing grasp of my surrounding.
"Eh, wait!" Ami stepped forward and pulled my head.
"Hmph?"
I pulled her and she also pulled me in instinctively. My field of view became dark as a soft and succulent object crashed into my face. It's a heavenly feeling, yet at the same time, suffocating—literally suffocating me. Shortly after, a continuous hollow sound reverberated, bombarding my ears.
"Don't move! Ukh!" Ami yelled.
I lifted my head up. "Ah—"
As I was about to retort, a barrier composed of water caught my attention followed by the relentless barrage of attacks coming from all directions like we were in a war against thousands of troops shooting their rifles at us. Heedless of the situation, my attention was all on the blood dripping out of Ami's thigh.
I heaved a sigh. "This is why you should mind your own business."
"Say again?"
"You need to pay attention more to how you handle people. Look at me." I said sternly as our eyes met.
Ami doesn't seem to get what I'm implying from her innocent confused reaction. For the sake of Mr. Protagonist, I, Claude Weiss shall do him a favor. "You should be mindful since there are a lot of opportunistic perverts in the world."
It took her a few seconds then her face slowly became beet-red insinuating that she finally realized what she had done. "... Just be grateful! You ungrateful prick!" She said before pushing me away.
"Took you a while." I shook the dirt off my clothes.
"I saved you! If my concentration was a bit off—"
"Well, I thank you for that."
"... Rude bastard." Ami scoffed.
Ignoring her remarks, I shifted my gaze to the tree woman. 'Could it be a dryad? Or, a sub-species of it?'
Even though she's staring at us menacingly, rather than casting it randomly and overwhelming us by brute forcing through, she's been thorough in the trajectory of her spells. I gave her huge props for that, however, the fight ended before it could even begin.
"Whoa! My god, she's tall. She's towering over us! Huge knockers too! God damn!" I screamed.
"Oi!" Ami grumbled.
Suddenly, the surroundings seem to quiet down. Ami confusingly glanced around until her eyes landed on my little maid and the woman on her foot which was her opponent a few moments ago. Yet now, that said opponent was walked over by Clara without a sweat. Although, Clara caught her off-guard. She glanced back and forth between Clara and me.
I responded with a shrug.
Then her jaw dropped.
"Good job, Clara," I said merrily.
Without saying a word, Clara casually stood next to me while ignoring Ami's gaze. Looking up close, the first thing that caught my sight was the thick strands of her virescent hair that were approximately half or a centimeter thick than normal. I ran my fingers through her hair, and after that, my fingers became swollen and had tiny cuts all over them.
"Oh, they're venomous," I muttered.
Ami who was dazing from afar snapped as she saw my hand. "Dimwit! She's an Iryth! Pull away your hands, immediately! Why would you touch it? You'll die! Your flesh will rot! That's why she's covering it! Give it to me!"
Ami grabbed my hand, but the hand was completely healed which puzzled her.
"H-How? You're a healer? But I didn't see you cast a spell..." She paused for a brief moment then narrowed her eyes. "... What are you?"
"A man?"
"Bullshit," Ami says gravely, "Answer!"
"Calm down. I'm not. How would I be? My master is the Saintess in the Temple that despises demons and curses. So, with your statement, you're insinuating that the Sword Saint herself hid a demon under her wing? How could you say that? The role of the Saint was selected and entrusted by the pope. They're the ones who carry out the will of the pope. Do you think my master will commit blasphemy? That's insulting."
Ami spent a few seconds in contemplation before she responded. "Y-You're right... It's dumb to even ask that or think about it. It's probably because of your spirit. I apologize." She bowed.
"It's fine. Many people said the same thing." I smiled gently. 'Although, the demon thing was about a different matter... Most importantly, you guessed the wrong person because there's a succubus cuddling on my arm right now. Moreover, why demon out of all things?"
"Then how could you?" Ami shifted her gaze back to my hand.
"My spirit."
"Oh... That didn't cross my mind... Sorry for being irrational earlier."
"It's fine. It's normal to react that way when seeing strange things."
"I guess so."
"By the way, what's an Iryth? What's that?"
"Young master, it's a sub-race of Treants," Clara replied.
"The tree people? Not, Dryads? Oh... I can see the resemblance now. Her skin is wood... Amazing. I didn't notice it at first glance because of how the color tone and all were similar to normal flesh skin. However, I thought Treants don't live in their habitats because, from my understanding, they don't interact with any race other than elves or dryads."
"The Iryth is a bit different, Young master."
"Oh, isn't that's interesting—"
An explosion nearby interrupted our peaceful conversation and it also destroyed Ami's barrier. The cause of the explosion was none other than the protagonist and his opponent. They've been continuously fighting, yet their concentration remained sharp as ever. However, their concentration also blinds them from noticing their surroundings as they get immersed in their battle, narrowing their sight to one objective and that is to defeat the opponent that's right in front of them.
"Shin!" Ami yelled angrily.
"Looks like your boyfriend is in the zone."
"He's not my boyfriend!" Ami retorted.
"But you like him, right?"
"Ugh...!"
"You better take a move and solidify your position in his heart, or someone will up you in that one."
"Why would I listen to a playboy?" Ami scoffed.
"Okay, let me clear this for once and all. I'm not. Have you seen me flirting with other women?"
Ami averted her gaze away.
"Thought so."
"Doesn't really clear things out."
"Oi, I heard that... But in the end, it all depends on him. No matter how much effort you make, he'll be the one who'll decide. If you can make him realize it." I smiled smugly.
Ami squints her eyes. "You—Sigh—He's hopeless... I've been trying for months, but he's hopeless! I can't get through his thick skull!"
"Then wait."
"I can't believe I'm getting advice from a person like you."
"..." 'This bitch...'
"Yeah, right... Anyway, here." I put my hand behind me and grabbed a potion inside my portal and placed it in front of Ami.
"What's this?"
"A potion. What else? Tend your wounds and stop your man there from rampaging and destroying this beautiful place."
"I don't really need it." Ami pushed the bottle to me.
"I insist." I pushed it back to her.
"I really don't. I'm fine."
"How are you fine? You have a wound and you expect me to overlook such a matter? Sorry, but I don't. I will not interfere with your affairs anymore, so accept this and we'll leave right after." I said solemnly.
"O-Okay... Thank you for this. I'll repay you next time."
"Yeah, yeah, we'll go ahead now—"
I heard countless footsteps marching in our direction. We all veered our attention toward the sound of footsteps then we saw a group of people approaching us at the front of that group was the woman from earlier with purple skin.
"Them again. They don't really welcome visitors." I grunted.
"Who are they? And, why do they look so worn out and their clothes are all tattered up? What did they go through?" Ami asked.
"It was your boyfriend's fault. They also got mixed up with their fight."
"He's not my boyfriend..." Ami paused for a brief moment. "... yet."
"Aren't you a tsun-tsun too?"
"What's that?"
"A lovely person."
Ami responded with a sidelong glance.
As for the group approaching us, their eyes landed on the Iryth on the ground, upon recognizing the person lying next to my feet, fear struck them. It's obvious that would be their reaction considering this Iryth woman is a third-year A-rank student, yet Clara beat her without breaking a sweat—I mean, I'm also no match for Clara even Lily and Adelle are no match. She's a monster and a deadly assassin on top of that. If I look back on when I met Alice in the mountains, I wonder if Clara could easily beat the demonic monster by herself considering she held back.
"Ms. Flora..." said the purple-skinned woman.
She advertently held the handle of her weapon. In a blink of an eye, I had my two fingers to her throat which took everyone by surprise, all their eyes almost popped out of their sockets. The air became prickly as I menacingly stared daggers at her, emitting a murderous intent. She fell to her knees in fright, and soon after, she peed her pants as her entire body shook uncontrollably.
Meanwhile, I was standing in front of her completely baffled by her reaction as things didn't go as I had imagined in my mind. It goes without saying, the people following her ran and left her behind. However, she hasn't realized that yet as her quivering eyes were fixated on me.
'Yikes, she almost shit herself... She probably did...' I thought as my eyes were looking down at her gravely.
"W-Wait a minute! Don't kill her!" Ami yelled from behind me.
"What? Why would I kill her? I don't want to get expelled."
"B-But, the atmosphere around you... Nevermind. Why did you do that?"
"She tried to attack us earlier before your boyfriend destroyed the entire place, so I strike first before they can. However, I didn't expect this, at all."
"D-Don't hurt me or you'll see..." said the purple-skinned woman.
"Or see what?" Ami narrowed her eyes.
"See the wrath of my tribe...!"
"I don't really care?" I added.
"My, don't bully my people too much~ She's stubborn and prideful, so go easy on her~" We heard a woman's voice nearby.