房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

*WHAM* *SCREEEEE* *haaaaaa*

The wall of iron thicker than the leg of an adult male bent from the punch just as if Zoemi\'s fist was a cannonball and then dissipated into mana, with a sound of a person sighing in relief, after getting pushed back by the force of the attack.

"!!!"

"Oh, so it was created with mana and not pulled from the surroundings? Shame, I wanted to test my punches against it a bit more~"

The masked attendant snickered under his mask and complained playfully while using the law of Pisces to observe the shocked face of the short brown-haired girl wearing a male school uniform.

"Hello, young lady. Nice to meet you~ Give me your best shot~!"

Zoemi put his right hand to his heart and nodded his head a single inch towards the stunned girl who judging by the badge on her uniform was a second-year student... and then he assumed a battle stance challenging said girl.

"Hmph."

The short girl scoffed and her eyes focused on the hot-headed boy. Without saying another word her body shone with light brown light and a whole suit of armor grew itself around her petite body, completed even with a fancy helmet.

Her spell wasn\'t only focused on defense either, as she raised her hands a bastard sword coagulated itself out of a thin air – which was a sight that would cause most veteran blacksmiths to either faint or froth from the mouth in fury.

"As if you are worth my best! Who even are...? GAH!"

The armored girl scoffed again raising her sword against the masked attendant... and barely managed to jolt her head to the side as he closed the distance between the two of them in a flash and swung his fist at her.

*BOOM* *CRASH*

Despite barely missing, the boy\'s fist created a shockwave that destroyed a painting on the wall directly behind the armored girl.

*haaaaa*

As if that was not enough, it turned out that the attack wasn\'t a complete miss – it turned out that the masked attendant\'s thumb barely grazed the girl\'s helmet but it was still enough contact to cause the magically created metal to dissipate into nothingness with a sound of a person breathing out in relief.

"?!?!"

*thump*

The shocked girl tried to step back while counterattacking her opponent with her sword but she ended up being grappled to the ground.

"Hmm? Oh, now I kind of regret deactivating the law of Aquarius after that first hit... you are cute, aren\'t you? I wonder how would you act under mana depletion?"

The black-haired boy chuckled while pinning the armored girl to the ground while his mask was only inches away from her face.

"Y-you...! How dare you...?!"

She growled furiously while struggling to break free but despite her body augmented with enchantments, she could not do anything against the masked attendant.

"Okay, that\'s enough of playing around. My lady, pardon my rudeness from before but you suddenly attacked us, so I implore you to calm down, think it through, and..."

All of a sudden Zoemi\'s behavior changed. After experiencing the strength that the girl could muster he raised his head and bowed it to the fierce magician while sounding genuinely apologetic.

He even lowered the amount of strength that he was holding her down with to show his good intentions.

*WHAM* *crack*

But the moment he did that, the brown-haired girl headbutted him in the face with everything she got, actually managing to push him away to the sound of porcelain breaking.

Using the chance, the armored girl separated herself from the masked attendant, stood up, and resumed the battle stance ready to continue the fight – this time much more vigilant than before.

*chink* *chink*

While she did that, the black-haired boy also stood up while stepping back – the bottom half of his porcelain mask was covered with a cobweb of cracks and slowly crumbling away revealing his face from the chin to the upper lip.

When all the loose pieces of porcelain dropped off, the remains of the polite smile that still lingered on his face disappeared completely and two drops of blood trickled down the boy\'s lips and chin and dropped down, staining his attire without reaching the floor.

"...tsssss... Oof..."

Kierul who didn\'t even activate her enchantment during the bout walked up to her attendant and leaned to the side to catch a glimpse at the part of his exposed face which caused her to suck in the air.

"You brought it upon yourself."

"Hmph. Rud..."

Then the red-haired girl shook her head and turned right around, exposing her back to the annoyed armored girl...

*BOOOOOOM* *CRUSH*

...and couldn\'t even finish the word she was meant to say because both her helmet and her head were obliterated by a punch that she didn\'t even register being thrown.

*crack* *THUMP* *crumble*

Interestingly enough, instead of releasing a fountain of blood, the armored headless body of the audacious girl only let out an earthy sound and when it finally fell down only gravel and earth spilled out from the chestplate.

"..."

Zoemi straightened his back and looked over his shoulder while the corner of his mouth dropped in disgust.

"Don\'t be so angry. I was wondering why the enchantments of the metal magicians were brown when I clearly heard about them being dark gray, but it turns out that the Tallaran twins can pull off something like that together~!"

Kierul gracefully stepped over the armored body and explained while pulling out a handkerchief.

"The awkward golems on the outside were a distraction – the one you just destroyed was the real deal so... try to calm down, okay? If you do, I promise to act properly too~"

The red-haired girl continued talking in a sweet reassuring voice while cleaning the blood from Zoemi\'s face with the handkerchief as he stood there in silence.

"Hmm~?"

The masked attendant grabbed his aster\'s wrist and she smiled at him expectantly.

"I am more pissed off at myself for underestimating my opponent and thinking that half-assing the laws would be enough. But a promise is a promise. I will make sure that you keep your word."

Zoemi breathed out, releasing Kierul\'s hand and letting her continue caring about him.

"By any chance, you didn\'t hold on to any spare masks, did you? I left everything with Kaaraal..."

He tilted his head to the side awkwardly and added in a much softer, almost bashful voice.

"Sorry, no such luck. You will have to find some replacement until the right time or have to go around like this... which honestly doesn\'t look half-bad."

Kierul shook her head and stepped closer to her attendant while gazing upon his disfigured right side.

"Having you like that will add to the tyrannic image I want to go for~!"

"Pshh...! Oh, come on!"

She giggled causing the masked boy to groan in disbelief.

"No, seriously, I don\'t mind at all! Here, I will even give you a kiss to prove it, so get down here~!"

"Kierul...!"

The red-haired girl threw her arm around the masked boy\'s neck and started pulling him down while puffing out her lips and making him laugh while holding her back.

"Alright, enough of this. Since those geniuses aren\'t sending anything else our way it means they must have shat themselves and run off to cry to the teachers. Flashpoint."

*^%$#*

Seeing her attendant\'s mood actually improve Kierul smiled and nodded her head with satisfaction before glancing back at the destroyed armored golem and incinerating every trace of it ever being in that spot with a single spell...

...well, every trace except for the slightly charred floorboards that are...

"I think so too, that\'s why don\'t you dare leave my side."

Zoemi nodded and offered Kierul his arm which she wrapped herself around without another word.

The two of them were walking down the hallway aiming straight for the headmistress\'s office as both of them memorized the blueprint of the Aspaekony Academy before arriving there.

"Say... you knew that the girl from before was a golem, didn\'t you?"

While not being interrupted by anyone, Kierul looked up at her attendant and asked curiously.

"Is my lady doubting that I would blow somebody\'s head off just because I got pissed off?"

Zoemi snickered, smirking mockingly, and countered the question with another question.

"Yes. That\'s definitely not something that you would do. Especially not a student in the Academy that I will be attending."

"..."

The red-haired girl didn\'t hesitate a single second with her answer, she didn\'t even blink as she gave an answer that made her attendant speechless.

"So? What was it? Did she smell too earthy? Her eyes didn\'t look right up close?"

Kierul didn\'t mind surprising her attendant and continued the inquiry.

"Haaa... nope. My smell and sight aren\'t all that great – the one thing that convinced me that I an not facing an actual human was that she didn\'t have a heartbeat. Also, there was this crunchy slightly coarse sound her joints made whenever she moved. It wasn\'t something that could be heard normally but with the law of Sagittarius I managed to pick up on it."

Zoemi breathed out giving up on changing the subject and just answering truthfully.

"Nice. My way was just looking at her with heat vision and seeing that her body temperature was the same as the surroundings."

"..."

Kierul nodded her head being slightly more talkative than usual which made Zoemi concerned enough to focus on his hearing again.

...and he immediately picked up on three heartbeats – his own, his master\'s, and...

"Your method is clearly better. If it was just me and in this very hallway someone, let\'s say a water magician, was hiding their presence and using a water bubble spell to control their body\'s temperature, I would mistakenly assume it was another golem and got rid of them like this..."

*click*

Kierul continued talking without ever changing the tone of her voice and snapped her fingers.