Master vs Maid

Leige watched in growing anticipation as students got beaten up for everyone to see. He knew by now that there was no chance of him winning, nor would he leave unscathed. 

After all, this wasn't a novel, it was real life. There was no such thing as 'plot armour' or sudden power boosts that would enable him to win the mini class tournament. He didn't have a 'system', he didn't have any particular handicaps except for his own intelligence, which wouldn't help him much now.

He was in this alone. 

However, there was no more time to pity himself as the teacher continued to work down the register.

"Leige Valentine, Angelica La Verne, please make your way onto the stage." the field which was previously tense melted into collective snickers as the rest of the class relaxed. They simply could not wait to see Leige, their enemy, being beaten up. 

Leige looked over at Angelica, who was already walking up confidently to the stage, which was just an area of grass.

Although he knew her surname would be close to his, he didn't expect to have to fight her. 

Taking a deep breath, Leige stood up, adjusted his school uniform and followed.

"Don't expect me to go easy on you, Leige-sama." Angelica sneered, fixing her purple hair into a ponytail.

Well, it wasn't like Leige ever expected that in the first place, but he stayed quiet as he scanned the field, noticing Yumi's nervous gaze. 

"Do I get a weapon?" he asked quietly to the teacher. Since no one else was at rank 5, they all had their own individual weapons they could summon or make. However, he couldn't do that with no magic. The least the school could do to give him a little bit of a chance would be giving him a weapon.

The teacher froze for a moment, averting her eyes as she spoke arrogantly,

"Why would you get a weapon? Your rank is not a concern to the school, we cannot afford to supply one person with a selection of weapons! It would just go to waste!" she was definitely lying.

The averting of eyes and the thin sheen of sweat that covered her forehead was enough for him to tell. Angelica seemed to know this too, evident by her furrowing her eyebrows. 

However, the teacher obviously didn't want to supply anything to Leige that would increase his miniscule chance at winning, and Leige wasn't very concerned, so he let it go. 

After all, he knew how much everyone would continue to dislike him if he complained about his lack of weapon, and although he had forgotten about his main main goal as he was focused on the prospect of magic, he knew that he needed to change the plotline so that people did not hate him as much so he could live a peaceful life. And to do that, he couldn't complain when he knew what his classmates wanted.

So he just walked to his place on the field as Angelica prepared herself.

Angelica was at a loss at what to do. As much as she hated Leige, she would much rather have a fair fight with him than simply beat him up. Not even giving him a weapon resulted in her certain victory, but it just felt like she was cheating or something. 

She had been raised in a poor yet open family, so poor that she ended up having to work as a maid for her worst enemy! But she was trained and she knew that taking advantage of someone was wrong, and so she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable about the sudden obedient Leige.

If he had been his usual self, hurling insults at everyone and using his power and wealth to bully the less fortunate, perhaps it wouldn't have been a problem to fight him. 

However, she hadn't seen him insult anyone today, and he was unusually obedient. When the teacher had blatantly lied and not given him any weapon, she had fully expected him to burst out in another rant about how his father could send them to jail or something.

"Start!" the teacher's sharp whistle shook Angelica out of her thoughts and she took a deep breath, looking at Leige who was standing awkwardly, like a little kitten who was lost.

Leige, on the other hand, was watching the obviously hesitant Angelica.

He had long accepted that he would get very hurt, and so now he was focused on something else. Watching how magic worked close up. 

But nothing would happen if Angelica did not move.

Angelica was very simple-minded, and so Leige could see exactly what she was thinking. After all, she was just a side-character, and the game developers would not have put much effort in to develop her character.

Leige understood that now she was feeling hesitant to attack him because of his clear disadvantage, not to mention how he had been completely out of character for Leige.

He stayed silent for a moment, wondering what to do.

Ah. 

If she was feeling uncomfortable attacking as he was now, if he became the old Leige then she would be provoked enough to attack without worry.

It was only that he would have to think up some insults. Anyway, it didn't matter if they were related to her or not since he just wanted to make her angry, like poking a stick at a dragon before it finally spread its wings. 

Although he would normally feel guilty about saying such things, after all, he was a man with morals, since he didn't mean them and therefore it would all be an act, surely it didn't count the same way other actual insults would.

"Are you not going to attack?" Leige's previously quiet, soft voice had transformed into it's former glory. The arrogance and pride that dripped from each word was extremely familiar to the class who had been enduring it for a long time. 

The class groaned as Angelica widened her eyes. From the corner of his eye he could also see Yumi's shocked face.

Leige winced deep inside after seeing her expression.

Its not real, I don't mean it. You understand, right?

At least he could fulfil his short childhood dream of being an actor that probably only lasted a few hours before he realised how hard it would be to have a successful career and gave up.

However, he had encountered enough prideful people in his life to know how they acted. 

With his chest puffed out and his head held high, the only thing missing from Leige's previous appearance would be the hair sopping with gel. 

Angelica narrowed her eyes at the male who was around the same height as her walk confidently towards where she was standing. 

"What? Are you scared?" he taunted, leaning in to smirk mockingly at her. 

Angelica began to activate her magic as she began to glare at him.

 His plan was working, good.

He wondered why he was feeling a twinge of guilt even though he knew that he didn't mean any of it.

"What are you so scared for? Oh, I know. Because you're poor, and stupid. I bet you only got into this school because you slept wi-" he couldn't say another sentence of absolute rubbish before he was blown back to the ground.

He was hit hard, punched by Angelica with what seemed to be an iron fist. 

He tasted the iron of blood in his mouth as he furrowed his brow to deal with the pain and stood back up. 

He wanted to see a proper magic attack happen right in front of him.

"What, is that it?! I knew it, you're just a poor-" he stopped abruptly as she growled and ran towards him, collecting something in her hands. 

Was that Qi? A physical form? Energy? Did everyone need to gather energy before they could perform a magic attack, or was that just for Angelica?  Why was it in the shape of a ball? Did that mean it had its ow-

"SHUT UP!" a ferocious shout gave him a moments warning before an abundance of fireballs covered around something like iron bullets were shot towards him.

So she has a dual ability

Was his last thought before being hit by the shower of bullets, searing, unbearable pain splitting his body into parts of sizzling meat and melted bones.

He abruptly lost consciousness as Angelica immediately stepped back, covering her mouth in horror. 

Deafening cheers as the class saw their worst enemy get destroyed filled her ears as she watched, numb to the bone, as medics stepped in.

For the rich class, this was nothing, and they were not even thinking of the idea that Leige was in any sort of actual danger because they had medics.

However, to Angelica, who only got into the rich, prestigious school due to years of hard work, it seemed like Leige was in actual danger. After all, when she lived in the poor area of the Kingdom, having a medic for school was absolutely unheard of.

The teacher smiled at her warmly.

"You did well, Angelica. Next time, don't be hesitant to attack, those precious seconds would immediately determine the victor of the match in a real battle." she pushed up her glasses and called out the next pair, and the whole ordeal seemed to be over.

Angelica, who was once looked down on because she was poor but still made it in to the best class in the first year was congratulated by her teammates for the first time.

Everyone cheered her on, commenting on how Leige finally received his karma, and how she did good.

For once, she was accepted.

For once, people were happy because of her.

For once, these people didn't hate her.

She let out a smile of relief. Maybe she really did do the right thing.

However, unknown to her, two people did not join in with the small celebration.

Yumi, and the class president.