I Need the True Ending to Graduate - Chapter 49

“….”

A storm of emotions, fierce and unrecognizable, swept through Ruad’s heart like a typhoon.

He had thought that since he had taken on the role of her self-appointed guard, this kind of harassment had lessened. But it turned out it was only because they couldn’t openly bully her while he was around.

The moment he took his eyes off her for just a second, this was what happened.

All he had done was get her a glass of water, and soup had been poured over her head.

And part of the blame lay with him.

If he hadn’t brought up the cafeteria, if he hadn’t been so curious about why she refused to eat there, this never would have happened.

She wouldn’t have had to experience something so humiliating as having hot soup dumped over her head in the middle of a meal.

Ruad felt his heart burning black and melting away as he let a faint smile curl his lips. But his eyes did not smile at all.

His bloodshot eyes gleamed cold and sharp like blades.

Calmly, almost frighteningly so, Ruad dropped the cup in his hand to the floor as if tossing trash aside.

The transparent glass shattered with a loud crash. Water splattered across the floor.

The sound of the cup breaking drew everyone’s eyes in the cafeteria to him.

But Ruad didn’t care who was staring, nor that the cup had broken. His eyes were fixed on only one person.

Striding across the room, he reached Lucia’s table. Without hesitation, he grabbed his own half-eaten tray from beside her and slammed it down hard on the head of the bastard who had dumped soup on her.

“Aagh!”

Caught off guard, the man screamed as he toppled from his seat.

The plates, bowls, and utensils that had been on the tray clattered loudly to the floor, mixing with his cry.

The cheerful, comfortable atmosphere that had filled the room moments ago froze over instantly.

Rolling on the floor smeared with spilled food, the man clutched his head and looked up at Ruad, nearly sobbing.

“W-why… what the hell…?”

“….”

Ruad said nothing. Even as he stared at the man trembling in fear before him, his face showed no sign of emotion.

He just wanted to kill him.

The bastard who had deliberately humiliated Lucia, and himself, for letting it happen. He wanted to kill them both.

That was all.

Without a trace of the smile he usually showed in front of Lucia, Ruad kicked the man’s shin, stomped on his body, and began pummeling him with his fists.

“Ugh! Aagh! Help! Somebody help! Agh!”

Every time Ruad’s fists slammed into him, a scream burst out like notes struck on a piano.

The man, unable to resist under the flurry of blows, curled up and waved his hands desperately.

“I-I was wrong! Agh! I’ll never do it again! Please! Please spare me! Ugh! Ahh!”

“….”

Ignoring the man’s desperate pleas for his life, Ruad kept beating him. He didn’t think the man was even worth talking to.

He was like a broken machine with no brakes, striking without mercy, until the tray in his hands split clean in two.

Part of him thought that Lucia wouldn’t like seeing him like this.

Even if he was doing it to protect her, a man who swung his fists wildly was nothing more than a dangerous ticking bomb.

That was why, until now, he had held back from using violence in front of her. At most, he had threatened their tormentors lightly and sent them running.

He knew that the good, reliable friend image he had built for her would collapse in an instant. And yet, he couldn’t control his body.

Ruad beat the man relentlessly, as if on sheer instinct.

After pounding him for a long while, he smashed the broken tray against a chair, splitting a plate in half. Gripping it like a blade, he raised it to stab the man’s eye.

Then, suddenly, a pale arm slipped into his vision and caught his hand with the lightest touch. And at the same time, a small but unmistakable voice reached his ear.

“Stop, Ruad.”

It was Lucia’s voice.

Only then did Ruad slowly come back to his senses. He stopped what he was doing and lifted his head.

Lucia’s face should have been stained with disappointment and fear. But instead, it was calm.

As if she wasn’t even surprised by the violence he had just unleashed.

Or as if she already knew his nature was this violent and destructive.

At some point, she had removed the plate from her head, tidied her soup-drenched hair and jacket, and spoke quietly. Her voice was that of a resolute trainer subduing a raging beast.

“I think it’s best if you stop now.”

“But, Lucy….”

He was about to say that bastard had deliberately dumped soup on her head, that this wasn’t nearly enough, that he couldn’t calm down unless he gouged out the bastard’s eye.

But then Lucia slowly blinked her large eyes and said, “Your hand’s bleeding.”

“….”

“Look.”

Then she pulled his hand toward her.

The arm Ruad had raised high dropped ridiculously easily at the touch of her hand.

Lucia clasped both her hands around his, which was clutching the broken shard of a plate and soaked in blood, then began prying open his clenched fingers one by one.

As his fingers spread apart, the bloodied shard slipped from his hand and fell to the floor.

Across his palm, covered all over in blood, ran a long straight wound.

Even as he held his hand open, blood dripped steadily from the cut, trailing down the back of his hand. It was a fairly deep wound.

‘My hand’s completely wrecked.’

Only then did Ruad realize that his hand was soaked in blood, cut open by the broken plate. Pain began creeping in slowly, throbbing like a wave as if anesthesia had worn off. It was pain he hadn’t even felt until now.

Lucia carefully brushed his wounded hand with her slender, pale fingers.

“The wound’s deeper than I thought. If you don’t get it treated quickly, it’ll get worse.”

“….”

“And right now I feel dirty. I want to wash up. My jacket’s soaked in soup too, so I want to change clothes.”

Come to think of it, she had been doused in soup. Hot soup at that.

Before beating that bastard senseless, he should have first checked Lucia’s condition, whether she was hurt.

“…Yeah. Your hair’s completely wet. It must have been hot….”

With eyes full of guilt, Ruad reached out with his uninjured hand and touched her hair.

Though she had straightened her appearance, the smell of soup still lingered faintly. Her once-soft hair was damp, and the scalp beneath was slightly reddened.

But Lucia replied calmly, as if nothing had happened, “Fortunately, I’m not hurt. My scalp stings a little inside, but rinsing with cold water will calm it.”

“Does it sting a lot?”

Ruad’s heart sank as he tried to check her condition, but Lucia stepped back and shook her head.

“No. Not that much. I’m an adult, I’m not so weak that I’d whine over something like this.”

“But still….”

“More importantly, can I borrow your dorm room?”

“My dorm…?”

At Lucia’s sudden remark, Ruad forgot his worry for her and widened his eyes.

Though he had grown close to Lucia, it was the first time she had ever asked to use his dorm.

In fact, it was rare for her to ask him for anything at all.

Unable to hide his surprise, Ruad asked again. Just moments ago his heart had been blazing with fear and concern, but now it pounded wildly with a completely different emotion.

“Why my dorm, all of a sudden?”

“To get your hand treated, and because I want to wash up. Your dorm’s the closest. Plus, I’d like to borrow some clothes and eat with you too.”

“….”

“Is that not okay?”

Lucia tilted her head slightly as she asked. It wasn’t much, just a small tilt, but on her it seemed almost cute, uncharacteristically so.

Ruad’s chest pounded violently.

“…No. It’s fine. Of course it’s fine.”

He stared blankly at her face for a moment before snapping back to himself and answering. First, he swallowed the saliva pooling in his mouth.

Then he took her hand with his uninjured one, her small warmth filling his palm.

Ruad forced a smile, the same smile he had always shown Lucia.

“Let’s go. You can’t stay in dirty clothes like that. And it looks like eating here quietly isn’t going to happen anyway.”

“….”

“Come to my dorm. You can borrow clothes and use the bathroom.”

“…Alright. Let’s go then.”

Holding her hand like that, Ruad led her out of the cafeteria, a mess of broken trays and shattered dishes, and toward his dormitory.