The Cold (3) - Charles' POV

I didn't like Rika. She always created so much trouble. Once she joined our fraction, the work dramatically increased, mostly doubling it. Luke was the only reason people tolerated her, covering for her in the process. He worked hard, volunteering to take on more work so we would help him out in the future. While sweetly smiling, earning all of our trust very quickly. He did this all for his partner.

My impression of his partner was horrible. I had heard rumors about her, making people beg her to study more. The teachers always talked about the girl in the other class that always slept on her desk. Their class was much more behind than ours with them trying to convince her to pay attention. She even made her partner kneel at the courtyard for hours just for her to attend classes.

I couldn't help but pity Luke. I knew he was suffering the most as Rika's partner, but it was hard to suffer with him. Half of my dorm room was filled with documents on covering for Rika. When we were going over who to elect as the next fraction leader, it couldn't be me. Haruka spent most of his days on Rika, losing some weight in the process. Luke perfectly finished all his assigned work given by us, making him an important part of the fraction now.

After Rika got kidnapped again, Luke started to bring her to our fraction meetings. He couldn't miss any meetings, being trained to become the fraction leader for next year. Many of our fraction members have never seen Rika before, only knowing her from all the documents. They were disappointed when Luke covered her face with a blanket. I liked that Rika was asleep, knowing she could cause more trouble if she was awake.

When the magical girl video of her got leaked, we had to have an emergency meeting. Seeing the video myself, I wondered why everyone was obsessed with it. She was just dancing and posing while pretending to be cute. But a few of our schoolmates came to visit our classroom, claiming to be fans. I never thought it would escalate to the point that one of her fans would become a stalker.

A fan page dedicated to her was created, secretly taken photos of her uploaded. Luke made sure to never leave Rika alone, making sure she wasn't more than a few metres away from him. He didn't hesitate to pour a large amount of mana to blur her appearance with Alex fortifying the barrier. Making sure to pressure the teachers by visiting them frequently at their office, they spent most of their time in searching for the culprit.

Luke frowned as the pictures taken of Rika were starting to become more extreme. While the ones in the past seemed to be taken from metres away, the recent ones were mostly closeups of her. From her sleeping face to her body entangled within the blankets on the bed. Capturing all the angles, showing her delicate arms and shape of her legs. The times when she came out of the bathroom, focusing on how the drops of water streamed down to her collarbones.

I was stunned by my former fraction members that possessed many photos of her in their storage places. They were disgusting, not feeling anything about violating someone's privacy. Attacking Luke to get a glimpse of Rika in real life, it was no wonder he always hid her face when he brought her to our fraction meetings. They were extremely aggressive, making the meeting place destroyed from all their spells. A few of our members became seriously injured, others helping them by teleporting to the infirmary.

I was exhausted from trying to fend them off from coming closer. Rika's friends were the same, struggling in pushing them back. Far in the back, Luke created a barrier, a small dome with around one hundred layers, making it almost impossible to penetrate. I knew the members of the Roselia family possessed an tremendous amount of mana, but the amount he used was insane. He didn't hesitate to use around what a normal civilian possessed in the first district.

Our former members were starting to work together to create a strategic plan. Appointing positions on who was the main attacker while others served as healers, tanks and vanguards.

"Fire ten nuclear bombs!" One of the former members yelled.

I wheezed for more air, the attacks escalating. I wondered if any of them thought of how their spells could destroy the school. Ethan was busy with chanting a barrier to protect ourselves from their spell while others were busy fortifying the present ones. Being on the frontlines, I had a sword in one hand while carrying a weak barrier on the other one. My sword was almost like a staff, helping me to carry out more powerful spells when it was harder to concentrate.

I clashed with another person who held a similar sword as me, "why are you so obsessed with seeing her?"

"You don't know since you see her all the time. Her delicate face and innocent features," a person grunted.

"So her appearance?" I wondered if they didn't eat the wrong things.

He laughed as he pushed more strength into his attack, "she's cute with everything she does. From how she smiles when she eats some cake to the way she wakes up every morning."