Vol. 3 - Chapter 11 - Humiliating treatment, Mia Cyrus
The student dormitory of the Magic Knight Academy was located in a large section right next to the school building of Magic Knight Academy, where there was a luxurious building standing side by side.
Just deep inside the large section was a tattered three-storey building, the school dormitory assigned for Class G. This was the place for Mia and the others to stay the night from now on.
I could not invoke it properly even though I was able to control it properly.......
She was so frustrated that her clear eyes were blurred with tears.
With how cold Shirabe-sensei acted towards her earlier, judging from his remarks, Mia was sure he must be disappointed in her. As a matter of fact, only destruction would await Mia if he were to abandon her here.
I absolutely can\'t be expelled from school!
Mia was a child born between the youngest brother of the Cyrus family\'s present head, Bale Cyrus, and the daughter of a lower rank Aristocrat. Her father was a timid and dull man who basically could not go against his older brother, Bale, and the others. Nevertheless, as a member of the Cyrus family, he was able to provide for Mia and her mother.
The school life at the prestigious Imperial Rose Academy, which alongside the Imperial Magic Knight Academy were a pair of the brightest jewels, as well as the casual days with her father and mother were boring, but Mia certainly felt happy.
She still clearly remembered the collapse of that happiness. It was the academy\'s first magic training. In the beginning, Mia was able to invoke her magic faster than other students, gathering the Cyrus family\'s high expectations for her.
However, no matter how many times she tried, her control of magic never improved. While the other children of her age were acquiring basic spells one after another, Mia could not even make a [Fireball] fly straight for even a little while.
She wasn\'t able to control her spell. For Mia of those days, this defect wasn\'t something too major but the Cyrus family didn\'t think so.
The Cyrus family, a prestigious family of noblemen, valued bloodline as the most precious thing. And magic, especially offensive magic, was one of the most important aspects of nobility.
When the Cyrus family found out that she couldn\'t control magic, even the fundamental one, which was one of the important factors of attack magic, they expelled Mia and her mother.
Most likely, they didn\'t want to acknowledge the inferior bloodline, who couldn\'t even fire the basic spell [Fireball], properly as Cyrus. She thought that was for such a trivial reason.
Bale Cyrus compelled her father to choose between abandoning Mia and her mother and staying with the family, or leaving the family. Her father chose the former. In the end, Mia and her mother were driven out from the Cyrus family, who gave nothing but a trifling amount of money.
Probably because they were afraid to be at odds with the Cyrus family, the family from her mother\'s side proposed that her mother could return, but she had to leave Mia in church. However, her mother firmly refused it. And so Mia and her mother were completely lost. Money ran out soon. They applied for financial help, but no one lent them money for fear of getting into trouble with the Cyrus family. Of course. To get into a face-to-face dispute with the Cyrus family, which possessed extraordinary economic power, military strength, and authority, would, in a sense, have meant ruin.
In the beginning, she and Mia worked as live-in housekeepers in the house of a wealthy merchant. But her mother, who was originally a sheltered and frail person, broke down due to the stress of unaccustomed housework. All the cause of her mother\'s suffering was Mia. At that time, Mia couldn\'t forgive herself for being so powerless.
After a few weeks of losing even that house and living a life on the streets just like beggars, Mia and her mother were reached out to by someone they never expected.
Ronald Rose Archive and Allan Kruger were passing by. They had been in the same class as Mia at the Rose Academy Elementary School, so they knew each other\'s faces.
However, Ronald and Allan were the most popular students at the school and were always the center of attention in class. Mia, on the other hand, was a simple and inconspicuous girl. They had never even had a conversation before. That was why, it was no exaggeration to say that they had never met before.
She still had her impression of Ronald and the others\' clothes and their refined aura from before. In stark contrast to her present wretched appearance, she felt intensely miserable. To Mia, who was desperately pretending to be someone else, Ronald said, "You are the girl from the same class, aren\'t you?" emphasising it. Mia didn\'t remember what she\'d said at that moment, but after that day, her mother and Mia were taken into temporary custody by Duke Krüger\'s family.
After living there for a few days, the head of the Krüger family, Horus Krüger, summoned Mia to his office and told her in the following manner.
"I hate incompetent and useless people. I don\'t have any intention of doing any charity whatsoever. Under normal circumstances, I would have left you mother and daughter alone, as you have no value. But rejoice. You have the talent to overturn my assessment."
Apparently, the magic test result had revealed that Mia had ten times more mana compared to a normal person.
Horus Krüger offered to pay for Mia\'s mother\'s medical treatment if she agreed to certain conditions.
The condition was to graduate from the Magic Knight Academy and enlist in the Imperial Regular Army. If this condition was met, all of Mia\'s mother\'s treatment and medical expenses would be waived. On the other hand, if Mia failed to meet the requirements, she would have to carry a huge debt, and her mother would be thrown out on the cold and miserable streets.
In short, if Mia was expelled from Magic Knight Academy, her mother\'s death would be certain.
So Mia went to live with the Krüger family and worked hard every day with Ronald and Allan to practice magic.
Finally, the examination for Magic Knight Academy began. Together with Ronald and the others, Mia had thoroughly researched the exams, and unrelated to her magic control, Mia could use body strengthening magic excellently compared to others. Basically, the Magic Knight Academy was based on ability. She had the confidence to pass it.
In the world, the Cyrus family seemed to have become the centre of clamour, but Mia had already broken off from them. She didn\'t think they had much to do with it.
Suppressing her nervousness, she went to the examination room of the Magic Knight Academy and met a strange boy.
While all of the students were putting a desperate last-ditch effort, he was looking outside with his chin on his hand.
All of the examinees here were putting their last-minute effort into this Magic Knight Academy\'s exam. So, she felt a strong sense of doubt and uncertainty when she saw how relaxed he was and asked him, "You seem to have a lot of leeways, don\'t you?"
"I wonder." From the boy\'s reply, Mia didn\'t sense any air of tension, unlike other examinees. There weren\'t many people who took the entrance exam of Magic Knight Academy without the intention of passing. That was why her first impression of him was that he was just a strange boy.
That impression completely changed when she repeatedly heard about him from the excited Ronald and Allan after the entrance exam.
Apparently, the blonde boy had guided Ronald and the others to success. Not only that, but he\'d also taught Ronald and the others the improved versions of some of the magic during the short time they were taking the exam.
If he had that kind of ability, he didn\'t need to graduate from the Magic Knight Academy to get a job. Rather, all the forces would desperately try to recruit him.
That was why, knowing that he was the teacher of Class S at the time of the exam result\'s announcement, she was strangely convinced.
The Cyrus name had dragged Mia to the point she doubted the existence of magic. The recent attack on the Undead had, of all things, revealed that Balel Cyrus had been in cahoots with the enemy. And as a matter of fact, the noble rank was stripped from the Cyrus family. They were demoted to commoners.
If that was all, it was fine. There were only a few advantages to being a nobleman. The essence of the matter was that Mia was labelled as the betrayer of the empire.
Thanks to the fierce agitation of the nobles who should have been fellow brethren, she had been subjected to the hatred of the entire empire by those who had lost their relatives in the last war. Those with the name of Cyrus even now got showered with abuses and stones thrown at them just by walking on the street.
Mia did not have much recognition as a member of the Cyrus family. However, Mia\'s real name had been disclosed in that class announcement.
As soon as Mia entered the dormitory grounds, all eyes were on her, and one contemptuous word after another entered her ears.
"Look, that girl is a traitor....."
"Ah, the family of the scumbag who disgraced the country by working with that pseudo-brave man! Doing whatever they want until now! No matter which faces, I really hate them!"
"What an easygoing person, isn\'t she? It would have been good if the government had not only stripped their noble rank but also all the fortune!"
Selfish! They didn\'t even know what Mia and her mother had to go through!
"Now now, endure a bit more. In any case, now that she is in cockroach class, she will be expelled soon!"
She gritted her teeth so hard that they might break the pacifying word of a young boy with black hair. If Mia was expelled, it would lead to her mother\'s definite death. She would definitely not say this.
Consequently, her feet naturally stopped, and she stared at the source of the voice.
"The traitorous girl is glaring!"
"Hurry up and go back to that shabby building!!"
She felt a shock on the back of her head and sparks flew in front of her eyes. When she touched her head which was giving a dull pain, a lukewarm red liquid was sticking to it. When she looked at her feet, she saw a stone lying down.
She knew it. If the name of Cyrus were to be known in the current empire, she would meet with the same eyes no matter where she went. Still, she didn\'t want to be defeated by those cowards who didn\'t even know her hardship.
That\'s why—
"That\'s why don\'t look at me with filthy eyes!!"
"Traitor!"
"You cowardly family!!"
More and more stones were fired. Without using body strengthening magic, Mia\'s physical strength wasn\'t high. It would be impossible for her to avoid all these stones and pebbles. Even so, she couldn\'t bear the thought of herself just being knocked down.
Just before the stones reached Mia, they all unnaturally stopped in midair and fell to the ground.
"Mia, are you all right?"
Mia noticed the young masked man standing there as if to protect her.
"Sensei........" (T/N - sensei = teacher)
Shirabe-sensei gently patted Mia\'s head and looked around the surrounding students.
"Who the hell are you?"
A short-haired young boy pressed him for an answer, pulling a scowl on his face.
"Moron, he was sitting in the corner of the podium yesterday. That person is a professor!"
One of the young boys next to him hurriedly restrained him by clutching his shoulder.
"More than that, how did he prevent the stones?"
Mia heard a female student muttering to herself, "Don\'t tell me by cancelling the chant?"
"Seriously, I\'ve never seen that before!"
Immediately, the surrounding was filled with curiosity.
"Hmmm, I didn\'t expect this to be such a bunch of vulgar monkey\'s gibberish. Young Miss Mia, I\'ll take you back to your dormitory from now on."
Sensei\'s shoulders slumped down and he took a sigh while looking at the situation, then pulled Mia\'s hand and walked away.
"Hold on!"
Pushing aside the students, a youth with golden hair in a swept-back hairstyle showed up and raised his voice.
"Shirabe-sensei, your remarks just now can\'t be overlooked!"
"And you are?"
Shirabe-sensei looked back in annoyance.
"I\'m in charge of Class A, Lennox Laflaris. Rather than that, I hope you take your vile words about the students back!"
"Huh? A vile beast who throws stones at their fellow classmate should be enough as a monkey, right? Am I wrong?"
The atmosphere instantly became hostile at the words of Shirabe-sensei.
The blonde-haired teacher, Lennox, pulled a wry face and questioned the students, "Are Shirabe-sensei\'s words true?"
"It\'s a lie. That girl was on her own."
A girl with long golden hair and piercing eyes accused Mia.
"Look, that\'s what students said! Aren\'t you embarrassed to lie as a teacher!?"
"Bunch of jerks!"
For the first time, the teacher spat out such disgusting words and walked to the dormitory.
Ignoring the curses spinning in unison, the sensei and Mia headed for the Class G dormitory.