Stirring Trouble
However, while Ellie was waiting for her meal, voices from behind her started to pierce through, directly affecting her.
"What’s with that? A first-year student uniform and she’s a scholarship student too."
"Do scholarship students nowadays have enough money to buy meal sets from the first day of school? Eh, or maybe she knows how to do “that kind of work” right from the first day?"
Ellie glanced back at the source of the sounds. The disdainful tone and look from the woman behind made Ellie’s brows raising slightly. Originally, she intended not to live in struggle at the institution, much like the heroine of the story. She was determined to not involve herself in any trouble... Yet, it seemed trouble found her anyway.
"Oh, look at that stupid look. Is this scholarship student even sane?"
"Playing dumb about what we mean, huh? You know...the kind of work that entertains men, and then they pay you for it." The woman pretended to cover her mouth and leaned to whisper beside Ellie’s ear, but her voice was loud enough that others around could hear and began to laugh in unison.
Ellie was familiar with bullying at the workplace and knew it existed here too. She was fully prepared to ignore whatever was said, always playing dumb. However, wasn’t this going a bit too far?
"Isn’t that a bit harsh?" One female student tried to intervene, but the instigating woman ignored that caution, brushing off that student’s hand and continued unabated.
"It’s not too harsh at all. Then, maybe you can tell us where you got the money from! Scholarship students are just ordinary villagers who aren’t rich. Lucky enough to have awoken powers and not died. The institution only took them in because they’re too unlucky; that’s all. Many of them don’t even graduate, some die right here, all in a desperate attempt to escape poverty, isn’t that right?" As she vented her venomous mood, no one else dared to step in anymore.
Who would want to be an emotional outlet for others? It was clear that this woman harbored a bias against scholarship students.
"Hah! Your silence must mean it’s true, doesn’t it? A scholarship student like you, what skills could you possibly have to earn money? Probably nothing more than selling yourself!"
"And look at you! Even with your current state, you can still sell yourself. I wonder which pathetic man would spend money to have you. Truly pitiful!" The woman’s slender hand reached for Ellie’s arm, which had become somewhat plump after she had nourished herself from previously only drinking vegetable broth made by her friend Nara.
Ellie clenched her lips in anger. The story did not mention how the heroine’s friend was treated in this institution, so she hadn’t anticipated becoming a target herself. Initially, she understood that it was supposed to be only the story’s heroine who was bullied and waited for the hero to rescue her. Ellie hadn’t thought that behind the scenes of a youthful novel, there would be people who enjoyed pushing others down.
She wasn’t a naive 16-year-old without any means to fight back. Although it was a deviation from her plan...Ellie had decades of experience from her previous world. She knew that if she didn’t stand up for herself, she would be bullied indefinitely. But if she fought back and it didn’t turn out well, it would be a disaster for her life from then on.
Her role was to be the heroine’s friend who wouldn’t just wait for a hero to rescue. That meant if she wanted to give up, she’d just be like any other scholarship student who had to accept their fate. But if she wanted to fight back...she would have to be careful of future troubles. Therefore, the only thing Ellie could do after being insulted to this extent was to crack a smile.
"Hah! Truly pitiful, just smiling like that confirms you accept you’re just that low," the woman taunted happily when she saw that the scholarship student in front of her couldn’t do much.
Ellie, pitifully surrounded by laughter from everyone, thought about how when bullies don’t get the reaction they expect from teasing a dog, they eventually lose interest.
"Go on! Get out of here! And don’t let me see you again, or I will make sure to teach you your place," the female student said. But unnoticed by others, the expensive school cloak suddenly began to tear and disappeared in just 3 seconds.
"Wh-What happened?!" The woman who was about to shove Ellie’s head had to pull her own hand back when suddenly the outer cloak disappeared right before her eyes, leaving only the shrinking shirt!
When no one was paying attention, Ellie picked up her food tray and briskly walked away. She ignored the screams of that female student, only focusing on issuing two commands, which were...Root to digest the target and disperse into small spores.
Ellie didn’t let others catch on to what was happening with their clothes. She had to focus on dispersing the spores that were about to become large mushrooms. She wanted them to float around and cause the most trouble possible. Not just one! But all the students surrounding her laughed. The goal for these spores was to digest their clothes. Whether it was their outer coats, shirts, pants, or skirts. Since they dared to say she sold herself, let them expose their skin without charging then.
It was only when Ellie canceled the operation of her numerous tiny spores that everyone finally stopped making noise. Simultaneously, the commotion attracted many professors to the scene. Several students seemed to enjoy this chaos more than the earlier scene where they had ganged up to verbally abuse the scholarship student who didn’t dare to fight back. The phenomenon of students’ clothes gradually disintegrating into dust was far more thrilling.
"What’s happening! Can someone explain to me what this situation is all about!?" A middle-aged female professor asked after she had conjured the earth to hide the target from other students’ eyes while waiting for someone to bring replacement clothes.
Many students around averted their gaze from the professor, and if it wasn’t for the professor designating someone to answer, he probably wouldn’t have shared this amusing incident.
"Originally, there was a conflict between the scholarship student and that group of students, but suddenly her cloak just began to disappear. It just turned to dust with a mere gust of wind, ma’am." Upon hearing this evasive answer, the female professor pinched the bridge of her nose, now having a new character in the drama to deal with.
"A scholarship student, is it? Which one is the scholarship student in question?" As the professor looked around, Ellie merely stood up with the demeanor of someone still frightened by the recent events, as if she was scared to approach other students.
The professor observed the seemingly vulnerable scholarship student in front of her and thought it was unlikely to be her doing. However, she couldn’t completely dismiss the possibility. The situation where clothes just disappeared without any apparent cause or culprit could definitely become a dangerous issue in the future. If someone harbored ill intentions and made others vanish, who would be held accountable?
Every year, many students face life-threatening dangers. Parents were reluctant to accept it, but they came to terms with it when presented with valid reasons. But if students suddenly started disappearing without trace, turning to dust, who would dare send their children to this institution!?
Thus, it was her duty to find the perpetrator as soon as possible or at least understand what was happening.
"P-Professor, I don’t sell myself, really, ma’am," Ellie approached the middle-aged professor, pretending as if she was oblivious to the situation and still shaken by the earlier accusations.
Upon hearing Ellie’s words, the professor’s eyes widened in realization. She finally understood why the students were reluctant to explain what had happened earlier! Was it these mischievous students who had accused the newcomer of being a prostitute? Such a serious accusation!
"I know you’re not selling yourself. Alright...tell me who you are and what element you use." In her mind, maybe the scholarship student had used some trickery, like if she were a fire elemental user, it could explain clothing burning away into thin air, even though there was no smell of burning.
But as soon as she heard Ellie introduce herself, her initial thought dissipated.
"I-I use the botanic elemental power, ma’am."
If it was this seemingly useless power...it was impossible to have caused something so drastic. Even if a botanic element like little Medik had some special qualities, at the very least, the way plants in bonds were summoned couldn’t be hidden from the eyes of other students. Let alone the fact that summoning plants was an arduous task. Perhaps this first-year student couldn’t even summon bonded plants at all.
The middle-aged professor waved her hand, dismissing Ellie first as she seemed unrelated to the incident.
"Alright, you may go. There’s no way a student who uses the botanic element could do something like this. Besides, no one saw any plants springing from the ground, right?"
"No, ma’am."
"No, Professor," all the students testified, affirming that they saw nothing except the gradual disappearance of certain students’ clothes.
"Good, then go on. And from now on, I don’t want to hear anyone speaking harshly to another student again—not just to scholarship students, but to all students. No one should be subjected to such treatment, and no one should engage in such thoughtless talk again,"
The middle-aged professor sternly asserted. Ellie glanced at her briefly before leaving. She still had her 2-gold-coin meal waiting, and the smoke wafting in front of her made it impossible to resist any longer.
While observing the professor’s investigation, she sat down to eat her meal comfortably, unaware that her actions had been under someone’s scrutiny for a long time...
A young man with unremarkable white hair, but whose identity was clearly not of low status—the distinctive silver hair in this institution could belong to no one else but someone from the illustrious Setter family.
While Second Young Lord Aman prominently established his own status, he who was merely from a branch family also took on additional responsibilities besides his training, which was keeping an eye on all the movement in the institution. But this year, he was especially tasked to keep an eye on a scholarship student with freckles on the face and report directly to Eldest Young Lord Owen, a lifelong invalid but a great hope for the Setter family.He didn’t know nor needed to know why this woman was important to Eldest Young Lord Owen and his lord. Out of gratitude for the Setter family’s good care of him and his family, his duty was simply to perform well.