CH526

“So to make a long story short, after I proposed to him and we all talked, this is how it turned out!” Yuzu told her friend happily, the only one among them all to not see the mental damage she was doing with what she had said. “I can’t believe I never told you before! Of course, with everything moving so fast I guess it just kind of happened.”

“I can’t believe it either,” Xilly spoke, her blank face and empty voice conveying her broken spirit as she was forced to listen to Yuzu’s account of how she’d ended up in the relationship she had, that not only was she the instigator of the proposal, but that Jake had technically been single when it had happened, the man being too dumb to notice Amy’s feelings till everyone around him made that fact clear afterwards.

God, catharsis really is the greatest feeling in the world, isn’t it?

“And now you’re learning from Ben! The world really is small, isn’t it?” Yuzu laughed. “This is really a great opportunity for you, you’re so lucky.”

The comment was met with the shocked looks of the three victims of Ben’s teaching practice, with Amy at the side looking like she was inclined to agree with them.

“It’s kind of hard to think that when he’s using someone as a footstool, Yuzu,” She said, eyeing Zallith as the man was bent over on the ground to support Ben’s legs, even if Ben went to defend himself.

“That’s a misconception. This only looks like a person, it’s a footstool through a through.”

“…Really?”

It wasn’t hard to imagine that Ben might have the skill to make a piece of furniture that looked so deeply like a man, but that very footstool speaking to its defense killed that brief bit of belief.

“I’m not, I’m a person,” Zallith tried to say, only stopping as Ben delivered a swift kick to his ribs with the force of his high strength behind it.

“Footstools don’t talk back,” He ordered, the tone he’d used with his friend gone from his voice as everyone else watched the cold display.

“…Well, aside from whatever this is, I swear you’re really lucky to have him teaching you,” Yuzu went on in Ben’s defense. “Aside from his teacher, he has to be the best enchanter on the planet right now so make sure you learn a lot, okay?”

“You heard about that, did you?”

“Pff, it was hard not to and given my own skill of course I was informed. He’ll be stopping by to learn some soul spells with me to help him get used to applying them.”

“Wait,” Nati spoke hesitantly, not wanting to be right but unable to escape the implication of those couple sentences. “If you’re telling the truth about him being the second best right now, wouldn’t that make his teacher-”

“The world’s newest god,” Ben finished for her. “Yeah, don’t go spreading it around. He likes his privacy and if word gets out then there’s a non-zero chance he’ll kill you guys. Well, maybe not you Nati, given your family connections and all, but definitely the other two.”

That reveal seemed to deal a greater blow to the three than anything else, making Nati and Zallith in particular go pale. Neither had been shy about acting smug for their faith to have gained a third-tier skill holder and had been fine directing that smugness at the very man’s student. Beyond being emotionally horrifying, it was simply embarrassing.

“Hey, Ben, buddy?” Jake whispered in his ear as his students were left to deal with the reveal. “My guy, is everything okay? You seem kind of… not thrilled with any of them.”

“Oh, they’ve just been terrible students during my entire first week here,” Ben laughed. “Rude, confrontational, and just genuinely unwilling to actually work with me at all, plus a little too willing to let me die. Let’s just say they didn’t go out of their way to make a good impression and now that I have Nare’s permission I no longer need to try and be the bigger man. Let me tell you, being petty feels great.”

“Wait, what was that about letting you die?”

“Don’t worry about that, what matters is that now I get to train them to be the best versions of themselves and they can’t say no so anything I do is justified since it’s all to make the world a slightly safer place.”

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“And using someone as a footstool contributes to that?” Amy asked again, still having her misgivings about what she was seeing.

“No, that bit’s just for my satisfaction.”

“I think you broke one of my ribs with that kick,” Zallith whimpered and was completely ignored as a reward, same as how he’d seen fit to ignore Ben’s bleeding.