My Second Chance In Life In Another World

CHAPTER 50: MANIPULATION

I took another look at Alad, and it seemed like he wouldn't be awake anytime soon. After confirming that, I headed towards Crestia, who remained in the same position as when I first saw her.

She looked at me with a scared expression as I approached her. Is she scared of me? Well, I just showed her how easily I beat her bullies, so it's not surprising that she would be scared of me.

Once I reached a certain distance where we could communicate easily, I stopped there. I didn't want to scare her, so I purposely put some distance between us to put her at ease.

"So, are you okay?" I asked her.

I couldn't think of anything to say in this awkward situation, so I just made the safest move.

"Yeah," she answered meekly, still scared of me.

This is the first time I've seen her like this. Normally, she would scorn me when I asked her something, but right now she's answering properly.

"Please don't be scared of me; I won't do anything to you," I said jokingly to ease the tension.

She just looked at me and didn't say anything.

What should I say in this kind of situation? I can't think of anything.

"Umm, th-thank you very much for saving me," she said, then bowed her head.

It feels weird receiving a thank you from her because of how we interacted with each other before, but this feeling isn't that bad.

"I have something to ask you: can you tell me who those people are and their relationship to you?" I asked, then pointed at Alad and Werk, who were still on the ground and passed out.

I took another look at her after pointing at Alad and saw her expression. She had an expression that said she didn't want to talk about it.

After seeing that, I immediately realized that I'm being insensitive here by asking her that out of nowhere.

"Ah! It's okay, you don't need to answer. Sorry I asked something like that out of the blue," I immediately apologized to her.

She was surprised by what I said. Maybe she didn't think I would back out that easily.

"That guy with gray hair, his name is Alad. We've known each other since we were kids because we come from the same village," she said.

I was surprised because, based on her earlier expression, she didn't want to talk about it, but suddenly she started talking about Alad.

She looked at me with her red eyes as if she were waiting for me to say continue.

I nodded at her, and then she started to continue her story.

"Ever since we were children, he's been like that—a bully. All of the kids in our village called him 'boss,' and no one dared to go against him because his father taught him swordsmanship skills before even knowing if he had a talent for swordsmanship or not," Crestia said.

So that's where he got his arrogant attitude.

"Even I, at one time, got bullied by him because I didn't give him what he asked me to get. I can't tell my parents that I'm being bullied because he told me that if my parents become aware that I'm being bullied, he would tell his father to kill them. I got scared, so I didn't even dare to say a word about it to my parents. My parents are just normal people after all; they were born without magical affinity for swordsmanship talent." She continued her story. Now she's making an expression that says just remembering it hurts her.

"The bullying continued for about three months until he finally left to attend the academy. After he left, my life went back to normal, and when I turned seven, I discovered that I have an affinity for water magic and needed to attend the academy too. At first, I was scared, thinking, 'What if I saw him again?' But that feeling slowly faded because I convinced myself that I can fight back now because I have power."

I looked at her while she continued to tell her story. Her appearance right now is very different from the Crestia that I know; it's as if she's a different person.

"The day finally came, and I went to the academy. I hid my timid personality and masked it with a tough personality so I wouldn't get bullied again, but everything came to an end when Alad approached me after the opening ceremony."

I know that feeling very well; I was like that too. I thought I'd become strong after three years of being a neet, but when I encountered Jake and Mary again at the convenience store, I realized once again how weak I am.

"He reached out to me with a big smile, saying, 'Long time no see, how am I?' and other stuff like that, but then he whispered something to me: 'Come here later at night, don't let anyone notice you; I'll be waiting. You know what would happen if you went against me, right?' I'm so scared of him, so I don't have a choice but to follow his words and escape the dorm at night," she explained. Right now, she's making a pained expression.

"I went to the place he mentioned, and then I saw him waiting there for me. After that, he talked about something like this academy being dangerous, especially for us first years, but I don't need to worry because he'll protect me. However, in exchange, I have to pay him one gold coin a month."

One gold coin? Isn't that the entire allowance of a student for one month? And he's asking Crestia to pay him that so he can protect her?

Yes, the academy gives one gold coin to each student as their monthly allowance. That means the academy only provides one gold coin each month, and the students need to budget it for the entire month. And this guy wants to take it from Crestia in exchange for her protection.

The more I learn about this Alad guy, the more I want to wake him up and beat him again.

"I got startled at what he said because that means he would take all of my money. I want to refuse him, but I don't want to get bullied again. While those thoughts were circling in my mind, he said something. He said that there is a way to make my money double or even triple, and he would introduce me to it. If I accepted it, he wouldn't mind adjusting the date of my payment to Saturday. After hearing that, I couldn't do anything but accept his proposal."

So it's not Crestia's gold coin he's after; his real objective is luring Crestia into this so-called way to double or triple her money.

"After I accepted his offer, he immediately dragged me to this place called the 'Fighting Ground.' In that place, people do these so-called 'duels,' which are matches between two people inside this so-called 'arena.' Now, all I have to do is bet on who I think is going to win, and if I'm right, my money will instantly double. He urged me to bet, so I bet one silver coin. After that, the one I placed my bet on won, and I got one silver coin. I was happy because with that, I could pay him one gold coin and still have money."

So she was completely lured in instantly; this Alad is really something.

"I continued going there every night after that and earned one gold coin and nine silver coins. At that time, I only needed one silver coin to pay Alad and still have one gold coin left. So I placed my bet one last time, but everything turned against me when a mysterious masked man appeared on the stage."

"At first, everyone thought it would be an easy win because he seemed like an amateur and didn't appear strong. So almost everyone, including me, bet on his opponent. But to everyone's surprise, he won with some stroke of luck. Despite that, people still thought it was just luck and continued to bet against him. However, he kept winning every duel with incredible luck. I didn't notice because I was busy with my own bets, but after his last match, I also ran out of money."

"Right after I realized I was completely broke, Alad came up to me, reminding me that I needed to pay him on Saturday. He noticed that I had no money left, so he offered to lend me five gold coins, but I had to return them on Saturday as well. I agreed because I couldn't think of any other possible way to pay him, but it all came back to bite me. My luck ran out, and I lost every bet until there were only three silver coins left. And then Saturday came, and you know what happened next."

She ended her story with tears falling from her eyes.

So she never had any debt from the start, and it was Alad who meticulously planned everything to make Crestia fall into this situation.

Maybe he intended to make Crestia one of his followers, just like Werk, or perhaps he intended to make Crestia his toy to pay off her debt.

I stood up and closed the distance between Crestia and me. She wasn't scared of me like before. I took my handkerchief from my pocket and handed it to her. She accepted it and wiped her tears with it.