Otto found it a little strange.
Could people really sink so low?
What did they gain from bullying Mei?
Did they want to pressure her into becoming withdrawn?
He sensed that something was off.
But he couldn't put it into words.
"This might be some people's prank," the female teacher said awkwardly. Having her words disproven so quickly was rather uncomfortable.
Otto ran his fingers over Mei's desk. He seemed to have thought of something, but the teacher's interruption made him miss that fleeting spark of inspiration.
"Let's clean this up first."
Otto spoke to Kiana. Kiana nodded and rolled up her sleeves. With her strong sense of justice, she couldn't turn a blind eye to something like this.
If she found out someone was being bullied, she would not hesitate to throw a punch.
Perhaps only a Kiana so full of justice could open Mei's heart.
"Lovely lady, could you take my precious daughter to get some rags or something?"
"Y-Yes." The female teacher led Kiana away. Once they had left, Otto looked at the Teaching Building and entered alone.
The female teacher brought Kiana to where the cleaning supplies were kept, and Kiana carried a bucket off to fetch water.
Watching Kiana trot away to get water, the female teacher concealed herself in the darkness, and her flirtatious air vanished completely.
After carefully checking her surroundings, she took out her phone and dialed a number. Once the call connected, she hurriedly said,
"Lady Cocolia, I need to report something."
Within Ten Steps, the Gun Was Fast and Accurate
A girl stood atop the Senba Academy Teaching Building.
Her dark purple hair fell to her hips, and she had a tall, slender figure and pale violet eyes. Her long hair was tied into a ponytail with a bow.
Her black sailor uniform accentuated her curvaceous body. Her slender legs and full hips were wrapped in black pantyhose, their tight embrace outlining the sexy curve of legs without an ounce of excess fat.
She wore no accessories, yet her somewhat plain attire could not conceal the elegant air around her.
However, her rosy lips were lightly pursed, and a trace of confusion showed on her refined face.
As though she were worrying about what to make for dinner tonight.
Her right hand rested on a slightly rusted railing as her violet eyes looked down over the entire Senba Academy.
A breeze swept past, sending her hair and skirt fluttering.
"Black... Oh, safety shorts. Never mind, then."
Then an incongruous voice broke the harmony.
The girl named Raiden Mei turned her head and saw the rooftop door open as a masked man stepped out.
Otto looked at Raiden Mei and smiled.
"No matter how painful life gets, I wouldn't recommend jumping off a building. That's just running away."
Seeing Mei standing beside the rooftop railing, Otto assumed she intended to jump.
"I wasn't planning to jump." Mei shook her head, her eyes carrying an icy aloofness. "You can have this place. I'm leaving."
Mei walked toward the door. Since someone had arrived, she was preparing to leave.
"Don't leave so quickly, Raiden Mei. Let's talk for a while."
Otto smiled, then reached back and shut the rooftop door. He stood in front of it. Unless Mei pushed him aside, she could not leave.
Mei frowned and watched Otto warily, her hand reaching behind her back.
She carried a long bag containing a bamboo sword.
"Who are you? Why do you... What do you want from me?"
Mei did not ask why he knew her identity. Since her father had been imprisoned, many adults coveting ME Company had tried every possible way to get close to her.
Her voice was cold. Ever since her family had undergone such a drastic change, she had seen many things clearly. Those "friends" who had once approached her had only done so because she was Raiden Mei.
There was not a single sincere friend by her side.
So she gradually withdrew from the crowd and began keeping to herself, using solitude to ease the torment in her heart.
All she needed now was to be alone. That way, she would not be hurt.
Raiden Mei had once used a mask of strength to disguise her fragile heart. This time, she had put on another mask.
"I just felt angry seeing such a cute girl like you being bullied like that."
"I saw your desk. Someone had actually written those filthy words on it. It was truly unpleasant."
"My desk?" Hearing Otto's words, Mei frowned. "I don't understand what you mean."
"Weren't you being bullied? Didn't they hit you, curse at you, mistreat you, and stuff dead rats into your desk?"
Looking at Mei's frost-covered expression, Otto found it strange as well. Mei only gave him the impression of being isolated. She did not look like a child who had been bullied at all.
She was like Kamisato Ayaka hiding inside a turtle shell, guardedly watching everything around her.
How had a girl like this become the Housewife?
"Bullying? Perhaps." Mei took the bamboo sword from its bag. "But the bullying I received was probably what people call cold violence."
There were no insults or humiliation, only cold violence. Yet Mei found it even more painful.
That desk wasn't Mei's?
Otto froze. He had assumed it was Mei's desk. Good thing he had not said anything, or he would have made a fool of himself.
Still, this academy had serious problems. There was actually another girl being bullied.
But that was not what Otto cared about right now.
Otto looked at the bamboo sword in Mei's hand and smiled. "We're civilized people. There's no need for weapons."
Right. Although Raiden Mei looked like a delicate, ordinary high school girl, she was actually a great swordswoman skilled in Hokushin Itto-ryu!
Anyone wanting to bully her with violence had better first test whether their head or a bamboo sword was harder.
"Besides, I bear you no ill will."
"I'm a friend of your father, Raiden Ryoma. I came to see you this time because I want to help you."
"Seven times." Mei looked at Otto, leaving him slightly puzzled. "I've heard that line seven times already."
Mei's face remained cold.
"Why does every one of you use the same wording? Do you really think I'm an idiot?"
Honestly, Mei was sick of it.
At first, she had truly believed them.
But later, she discovered that they had intended to violate her. Fortunately, her combat ability was excellent, and she managed to escape the danger.
Lie after lie had made her stop trusting anyone who approached her.
Otto was also on the verge of breaking down inside. Seriously, had everyone else already used up his lines?
Mei simply refused to listen to reason. To break into her heart, he would need to be like Kiana—energetic and passionate, while also harboring the same loneliness, giving Mei the feeling that she had found a kindred spirit.
"Move aside. Don't let me see you again."
Gripping her bamboo sword, Mei fixed Otto with a cold gaze.
Otto also realized that ordinary methods would not get through to this girl.
"I only wanted to talk to you about Raiden Ryoma and yourself. I really want to save your father from prison."
Otto had actually already saved him, only to lock Raiden Ryoma in his own prison afterward.
"I have nothing to discuss with you."
Another line she had heard before.
"Really not willing to talk?"
Otto asked again.
Mei did not answer. She was already prepared to use a little violence to make him leave. If she did not teach him a lesson, people like him would keep pestering her.
Mei did not want to get close to anyone, nor did she want anyone to get close to her.
"Then... can this make us talk?"
Otto raised the USP45 and gestured toward Mei.
Mei's expression stiffened. She had seen people pull guns before, but she had never seen someone pull a gun the moment they met.
This was the famous Senba Academy. Was this man insane, pulling out a gun here?
He was even wearing a strange mask. Could he really be mentally ill?
Talking to an armed madman was extremely dangerous, because she had no idea when he might shoot her.
Mei stared at the cold muzzle, gripping her bamboo sword tightly as she considered whether resistance was possible at this distance.
She was more than ten steps away from him. If she closed the distance a little more, she could use her bamboo sword to knock away his pistol.
"Beyond ten steps, the gun is fast."
"But..."
As if performing a magic trick, the pistol that had been in Otto's left hand vanished.
Mei could swear she had not blinked, but the gun had disappeared right before her eyes.
When it appeared again, the USP45 was in Otto's right hand.
Otto was simply making flexible use of the system's equip and unequip weapon functions.
"Within ten steps, the gun is both fast and accurate."
"Miss Raiden Mei, take a guess. Which hand will I hold the gun in next?"
"My left hand, or my right? Use your bamboo sword to choose."
"Once you choose wrong, I'll put a hole in you."
Moral Blackmail
His right hand rested on the girl's shoulder, and the two stood intimately close together like lovers.
If Otto had not been holding a gun in his left hand, its icy muzzle pressed against Mei's slender waist, they would have looked like an enviable, heavenly couple.
Otto inhaled Mei's sweet fragrance, a smile curling onto his lips.
But in Mei's eyes, that smile was terrifying.
Even Mei, who had always been poised and graceful, felt her legs grow a little weak.
It could not be helped. Anyone would be frightened if a masked madman with a gun smiled at them.
It reminded Mei of when she had been kidnapped by a terrorist group as a child. Even after being rescued, Mei had spent three years recuperating in a private ME Company facility due to psychological trauma.
No matter how many masks she wore now, perhaps her truest self was still that little girl trembling in a dark room.
The fear even made Mei hallucinate. She felt like a small deer with its limbs bound, while the footsteps on the narrow stairs sounded like a blade being sharpened against a whetstone.
The moment the footsteps stopped, she would be disemboweled.
I can't do anything!
"Don't be afraid. I'm not a bad person."
Otto whispered gently into Mei's ear. His breath entered her ear, but it only frightened Mei even more, as though an invisible hand had seized her heart.
Mei had once watched a film from Shenzhou featuring a gang called the Axe Gang. Although its leader, Brother Chen, wore a refined suit, he was actually an extremely unstable man. He would gently tell a girl, "Don't be silly, ma'am. I don't kill women," then brutally murder her from behind when she turned around.
At that moment, Otto looked just like Brother Chen of the Axe Gang in Mei's eyes.
Before you continue