Chapter 25: Punishment

After talking for over two hours and answering numerous questions, the orientation finally came to an end and while the first-year students were slowly leaving the gymnasium, the hosts were in the room behind the podium.

Claudia was sitting on the only seat in the room with her legs crossed as she went through the tablet in her hand. Axel on the other hand had his back against the wall by the side with his arms crossed.

The reason why he was still there was because she said she had something to tell him.

"You know…." She blurted before slowly turning the tablet upside down on her thighs.

"Know what?" Arsha inquired, closing his eyes.

"You know you could try to converse more like a normal person when you're asked to do things like this."

"So this is a lecture." He sighed.

"Call it whatever you please, I'm just saying this in case we get asked to do something like this again but I hope Miss. Claire doesn't think of you as a partner whenever she decides to assign another task like this to me." She articulated before slowly uncrossing her legs.

"You hate me that much, huh?"

"Do I have any reason to like you?" She retorted before turning away from him to get up on her feet.

"Not really but if you hated me this much then you should have left me in the hallway yesterday to get clobbered and then after that, you went ahead to throw me into your bed to prevent your roommate from misunderstanding." He uncrossed his hand at that moment to twirl the in his left hand.

Hearing him say that, she bit her lower lip before folding her left hand.

"I did that because I don't like jumping to conclusions about people, I wanted to hear you out and when I found out that you were part of the reason our dormitory didn't get burnt down, it made me sort of happy because someone as terrible as everyone in class says wouldn't go out of his way to do that, right?" Her voice seemed to have quaked a bit on that last part. "But now I'm doubting that, maybe you were there for something else, and stopping the fireball was just a cover-up. I say maybe because before yesterday you haven't really done anything for me to consider you a decent person at least, the opposite has been the case instead."

After saying that, she took a deep breath before proceeding to make her way toward the exit.

"And what does being decent benefit me?"

She was just about to leave the room when he said that and now she was just standing there.

"From what I've seen, those who claim to be good and kind-hearted are always the first to go in dire situations." He remarked.

"I see, of course, that's how you think, really matches your actions during the school beast invasion, I guess they weren't exaggerating, that's a shame." She muttered before making her way out of the room.

"Exaggerating? She thought they were exaggerating?"

_________ _________

It was a brand new day for Aigis Academy, it was supposed to be a new happy day but that wasn't going to apply to a certain someone.

On the farthest end of the highest floor of the academic block was the office of the Principal of Aigis Academy and inside that room at the moment, there was a lot of tension in the air.

Ariel had just been summoned by the Principal, a middle-aged man with a frail-looking body and dark hair, his dark eyes always looked dead no matter how you tried to look at them and he always carried a black cane around with him.

At the moment, he was standing in front of his desk with his gaze on Ariel who was staring right back at him with a questioning look on her face.

They weren't the only ones in the room though, there was Vice Principal Claire by the side and two guards dressed in black.

"I'm sorry, what did you just say, Principal?" She inquired to confirm that she heard him right.

"I'll repeat if that's what you want." He sighed. "Due to your actions yesterday, the Grand Knights held a meeting today and they have decided to suspend you from duty for a month. That's the message I was asked to relay to you."

Hearing that the second time, Ariel couldn't help but frown.

"Suspend me? For what reason?" She fired back with her questions.

"I just told you, it was due to your actions yesterday."

"Because I almost killed a Demon Lord?"

Now that left her in shock, never in her life did she foresee a scenario where she would be getting punished for almost killing a Demon.

To hold in the anger, frustration, and disappointment she was feeling at the moment, she bit down on her lower lip so hard it began to bleed.

"And let me guess, it's because killing her would have rendered the treaty invalid and a war you're not ready for would have broken out, is that it?"

"Well, I'm glad I don't need to explain…."

"That's bullshit!" She snapped.

"Pardon?"

"I said that's bullshit." She repeated with the same intensity. "I come into your office expecting at least a thank you for protecting the school but the first thing you tell me is this crap. What about the two hundred-plus people that were slaughtered at the arena, wasn't that a Demon's doing? They're covering that up like it was nothing but now they're punishing me for something I wasn't even able to go through with."

Her temper was flaring and she wasn't trying to calm down but the Principal wasn't phased in the slightest.

"If you have a problem with your sudden suspension then you should go address the Grand Knights, Miss. Logan, I was only asked to relay the information to you."

"Well, you go relay what I just said to them."

"Ariel." Claire tried to caution her but she knew that was a futile attempt.

"I guess you getting upset with me today was inevitable either way." He sighed.

"And what are you talking about now?"

"After receiving the news about your suspension from Grand Knights I was instructed by the higher-ups to punish you." He disclosed.

"Punish me?"

"Yes, and because of that, I have decided to take away your Lord tier weapon."

At that very moment, Ariel froze, it sounded like she was in a dream but she knew what she heard came from the real world.

"You want to take it away, Fremi?"

The principal gestured to one of the guards at that moment, and without hesitation, he moved forward and grabbed her left hand.

He went through her watch while she just stood there frozen and in no time, the red spear appeared in the room.

"I'm sorry." The guard muttered before grabbing the spear and returning to his position.

She slowly turned her gaze to Claire at that moment to see that she was saying something, or to be precise, she was moving her lips to say something.

"I'm sorry, Ariel."