小嫂子的味道

"Anyway, now you go and call someone from the academy for help. Oh! And don't tell them what happened, just tell them that a fight broke out," said Zero.

Raising his right hand in the air Zero stared at Emmeric, an ice spike materializing in his palm. "You know what'll happen if you tried anything funny…don't you?"

Emmeric glanced at Winston's body which was lifelessly lying on the ground, then he shifted his gaze back at Zero. "Y-Yes, I know that very well," he gulped.

"Good. Now go."

Following Zero's command, Emmeric left the scene and went to call someone from the academy for help.

After he left, Zero turned around and looked at Winston's body, the ice spike in his hand vanished and he put back his hands in the pocket of his blazer. With a satisfied smile on his face, he walked away and left the alleyways.

***

When taking care of Winston and his allies was done I came straight back to my room.

As I was on my way I reflected on my actions.

I did it again, I let  that side of mine take over again. The side I try to keep hidden under the mask of a normal teenage boy, once again that side surfaced.

…But this time, it was different. I don't know exactly what but instead of amusement and excitement, I felt rage and the feeling of revengeful satisfaction when I dealt with Winston.

It was understandable though, the revengeful feeling. That guy had done something horrible to Anya, something which was way beyond what could be forgiven.

Maybe that's why I felt rage when he was suffering instead of enjoying it. Though I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy it even a bit; it's in my nature I can't do anything about it.

The guy got what he deserved for harassing and attacking my sister. And anyone who'll try to harm my sister will meet the same end.

Was I being an overprotective brother here? Probably. But I don't care even if I was. It is what it is.

Reaching my room I went straight for my bed. Unlike the last night, I slept soundly and peacefully this night.

*

The next day, well, it was a mess.

The guy I sent over called one of the teachers at the scene, they took Winston and that other guy with them.

The teachers and the staff tried to find the culprit behind this incident but they only found disappointment.

,m After all, I did remove all the evidence of myself before leaving the place. I only used my magic so there was no weapon to be found, everything other than that was taken care of.

Maybe then will question Winston and those other two but I've filled their hearts with enough fear to make them not say anything against me. I think at least. I can do more if the situation called for it.

The other guy—I think Wynfir was his name, was healed by the intermediate-tier healers but Winston's arms were good as gone.

His arms were frozen and damaged to a level that was beyond what could be healed, not even by magicians with intermediate tier in healing magic. To prevent his body from getting damaged any further, his arms were cut off and he was now armless.

'Pfff! I don't know why but that sounds funny.'

Anyway, if someone's limbs were lost completely then healing them was the same as regeneration, it was a thing only achievable by advanced tier healing magic. And finding magicians who were capable of that was as hard as finding a character with common sense in a cliché novel.

—I mean, they are called clichés for a reason.

Since Winston's arms were lost, using magic was relatively hard for him now, sword arts were impossible so let's not talk about it.

Hands carried a good amount of importance while using magic, the mana you concentrate and fire off in the form of a spell comes out from your palms, after all.

It was not completely out of question without hands but the difficulty level was sure to skyrocket. And by difficulty, I mean the difficulty in controlling your mana in the right way.

The academy also knew this hence Winston was given a choice: whether to continue learning magic despite the problems he'll face or leave the academy and forget about magic.

Of course, he chose to leave. His life was more important to him than magic after all.

And it was not like life outside will be easy for him. Without hands or to say, without being capable of neither magic nor sword arts, he will be left behind by the people around him.

Even if he tried to go into the business side to earn money, since his family didn't have much name in the market, his reputation won't be good until he discovered America or something, or found a treasury of sorts.

People will trade with him more out of pity rather than actual business. Which in itself is an impossible thing here.

I hope he has some siblings otherwise his parents were in danger of poverty. He told me that his family was not rich, to begin with, so they were as good as done now.

Not having hands in a world mostly based on power, his life was pretty much destroyed. He'll probably die in 'The Calamity' also.

But I couldn't care less. That's what you got for meddling with my sister and getting on my bad side.

Speaking of her, she was right in front of me at a distance.

Right now I was headed to the classes when I spotted Anya who was also going to the classes.

The look on her face was…okay, I guess? I am worried if she's still thinking about what happened. I mean, those were some horrible things for a girl and it won't be a surprise if she's feeling scared or insecure or something like that.

Then there's the thing about that letter. I still haven't found out who sent it.

When I did some research on Winston I found nothing. No suspicious person, nothing unusual. Then I sent a letter to him—similar to the one Anya received, telling him to come to meet me in the alleyways.

I didn't mention my name just like it wasn't mentioned in Anya's letter, I also made the handwriting the same. I figured that if Winston was following X's orders then he must've received instructions from a letter as I didn't find him making contact with anyone suspicious.

So if I was right then he will think of me as X and come to meet me. Of course, there was a chance that Winston himself was X, if he was then he wouldn't have responded to the letter.

In the end, I would've found out his identity if he was X and will be able to meet him if he wasn't. It was a win-win.

It turned out he was not X and came to meet me. My main motive was to interrogate him but when he was before my eyes and I recalled what Anya told me, the things he did to her.

I just wasn't able to hold myself and went to revenge instead. I…would like to call that revenge instead of personal pleasure, this time it was different, after all.

But in the end, I wasn't able to track down X and find out their real identity. Anya must in trouble because of that letter since it told her to get together with the person who saved her, and that person was Leon.

From her perspective, Leon was a bright shining star, a thing she could never hope to achieve. In short, the letter was asking her to do the impossible.

She must be thinking over it and getting stressed out. X was going for the same thing I want but his method wasn't right.

…Wait!

Maybe I can use X to get Anya and Leon in a relationship, in a way that doesn't hurt Anya. The ultimate decision of whether be with Leon or not will be made by her.

Sounds like a good idea to me.