Tough Crew
1175 Words
I stood there with Mindy and Azalea, as well as several other commoners, staring at our trashed dorm. I had a feeling the moment I saw my name as ranked fifth on the entrance exam that I may be subjected to bullying, but to think it would be this bad right off the bat. Not only that, but it got other innocent people involved, though indirectly...
"It's not even the first day," I sighed.
Unfortunately, those words got the attention of my commoner peers, and not in a good way.
"You!" a male called out as he approached me. "You're Levi Caribbean, aren't you?!"
Despite this bad feeling I was having in answering honestly to this man, I said, "Yeah, I am."
My feeling was confirmed, as he grabbed me by the collar and held me up. "This is all your fault! Why the hell did you have to score that high?! In fact, why the hell did you even bother coming here if you were going to cheat your way up?! Do you have any idea what you did to the rest of us?!"
Riled up by his shout, the rest of the commoner students turned to us in rage.
"Yeah, he's right!"
"Who do you think you are?!"
"You should know how hard enough it is for us to even get into this academy, you showoff!"
"Have you no shame as a commoner?!"
"Someone like you needs to know her place!" the guy holding me up exclaimed, reeling a fist back.
Azalea hastily grabbed his arm to stop him. "Stop it! Levi has done nothing to deserve any of that at all!"
"Shut it!" he exclaimed, pushing the girl back. "If you're going to cover her, then you might as well be just as guilty!"
"Shut up," I calmly spoke, grabbing his attention. "I stayed silent to let you vent out whatever frustration you have against me, especially considering where my presence had led. I mean really. Did you honestly think I would be that oblivious as to not know the effect my results would have for the remainder of my time here? Question should be 'who do you think you are?'"
"What was that?!" Just as the guy asked that, he was suddenly smacked down, forced to release me, and was kicked aside, by none other than Mindy.
"You're being terribly rude to Lady Levi, you swine," she said in a cold tone. "You better watch yourself. All of you."
The rest of the commoners were visibly shaken by the threat. I only sighed, knowing that she was only saying it to scare them off, especially after I made her promise to not resort to any sort of violence during our time at this school. ... Unless if she forgot it that is.
"Okay, that's enough," I said, patting the harpy on the head to calm her down. "Now look here. No one is asking for any sort of trouble, not even me. What happened to our dorm? That's just the nobles being jealous of me for taking one of the top five spots. Nothing more. Besides, not sure if any of you had noticed beforehand, but the place was already on the verge of collapse. I'm pretty sure it was going to fall even if they didn't come by."
"That's actually true. I was surprised with how worn down and haunted it seemed," Azalea vouched as she got back up.
She was not the only one who noticed the dorm's condition before the nobles' arrival, for several others also voiced out their agreements on the dorm's condition.
"But even so, where are we supposed to stay now?!" the commoner who started this commotion questioned. "The dorm may have been bad, it was still a free, stable roof over our heads! Or are you people saying you want to work here just to ensure your stay?!"
I only sighed at his pettiness. "I thought you guys are young adults, but I see you're actually still children. As a fellow young adult, I cry for my generation."
'Even though I am actually older than you people,' I mentally added.
Ignoring whatever further questions this guy has, I turned to Azalea. "Azalea, your affinity is plant, right?"
"Well, yes. Why?" she asked.
"How good of a control do you have over your plants? If you can make something like a large tree, we can use it to make a house."
My suggestion seemed to have baffled the commoners, for some odd reason.
"Um... I understand what you're suggesting, I think. But doing that will take a lot of my mana out of me. Especially if I have to make a tree that big," Azalea reasoned.
I raised a brow in confusion. Is one tree really too much? After that display of magic she had put up, I had assumed she had enough to make a few trees. Did I assume wrong?
"I think you've misunderstood something," Mindy spoke then. "While Lady Levi is asking you to make a tree, she is not asking for you to make one big enough to house everyone. She plans to use its materials to make a new dorm."
"Really? That's what she means?" the plant mage asked. "Oh, but... even so, I don't think I can make enough trees to make a new building."
"Well, that's also half right, but not exactly what I mean, either," I corrected, bringing all attention back to me. "I wasn't twisting words when I said we can make a tree into a house. And likewise, I am not asking for you to make one perfectly huge tree that acts like a building. You may have a decent amount of magic in you, going by what we saw in the exam, but that doesn't mean you have an unlimited amount, or as much as an average noble would."
"I-I see..."
"Besides, it will be a shame to waste the debris," I then added, making the group more confused with my plan.
"You want to make use of all this junk?" a female commoner asked.
"It's not junk if it can still be used. And from what I see, there are still some pretty good boards amongst all this rubble." I walked up to the pile and picked up one of the many unbroken boards from it. "Hmm... A little old, but it will do for now."
"'For now'?" a male commoner repeated.
"I mean, it's not like these boards will last for that long. At best, I'd say they are good for a few more days before we need to get them replaced. Replaced as in needing to make some lumber out of some trees around us. Then again, if Azalea is willing, she can produce some better trees for us to make lumber out of."
"W-W-Wait a second, Levi. Exactly what are you planning to make from all this?" Azalea asked me.
I turned to her in confusion at the question. "Isn't it obvious? I'm planning on making some tree houses."
- Writer
