They don't want me to try anymore.

The familiar feeling of pressure came and went quickly.

When he opened his eyes again, he was surrounded by students in the auditorium.

What followed...

It was a deafening cheer!

Chapter Twenty-Six: The person who wronged you knows better than you how wronged you are.

"Richard, you did a fantastic job!"

"After Senior Luvia graduated, you were the first person to kill the lord in your first year!"

"You absolutely must come to our Outstanding Youth Club!"

"Come check out our stockings appreciation club..."

"Get lost! What's there to say about your disgraceful club!"

"...We have a collector's edition of 'I Was a Human Sample at the Succubus Academy'."

"Huh? I don't believe you unless you show it to me!"

For the first time since enrolling, Richard was surrounded by enthusiastic classmates.

But Richard had no energy to be happy.

He had underestimated the Ash Giant's power in its final moments, and as a result, he inhaled a lot of the hot and poisonous gas from the giant's body, causing him to feel a burning pain all over his body.

Therefore, he is currently in a severely damaged state, and is only holding on by sheer willpower, otherwise he would immediately faint.

In my previous life, this injury would have been absolutely fatal, but thankfully this is a magical world...

But seeing that his classmates were about to throw him into the air to celebrate, Richard could only grit his teeth against the pain and say hoarsely:

"Wait, I'm injured..."

"Ah, stop! Stop!"

Be careful, everyone!

"Junior, I have some healing potions here..."

Richard scratched his head, feeling a little uncomfortable with his overly enthusiastic classmates.

He glanced around and saw Hepel and Tom, who had just come out, both smiling at him. It seemed they had already gotten the points.

Looking further ahead, Zoe hasn't come out yet, but there shouldn't be any trouble. A normal exploration of the illusionary realm usually takes a whole day.

In that case, you can faint without worry...

"Teacher, I want to report this!"

ha?

The familiar voice's shout stopped Richard from going black.

Richard forced himself to sit up and looked toward the source of the sound, his eyes narrowing.

Unsurprisingly, it was Hamilton.

He raised his head high, his face full of righteous indignation, and said, "I am reporting Richard Targaryen for illegally carrying the Shock Scroll, deliberately awakening the Ash Giants, and disrupting the order of the exploration of the Visionary Realm!"

The auditorium fell silent instantly upon hearing this.

The bearded teacher, Kalanish, frowned and said in a deep voice, "Mr. Hamilton, this is a very serious accusation, and you cannot make things up!"

"Teacher, of course I have evidence."

Hamilton bowed slightly and spoke eloquently: "Judging by defense alone, the giant in the Red Prison Mine is much stronger than the giant centipede. Ordinary students could not possibly awaken it, so the accident in the illusionary realm just now must have been deliberate!"

"And I happened to hear from a classmate that he saw Richard reading a book about the Shock Scroll in the library café. You know, the Shock Scroll can create miniature earthquakes and is one of the few items that first-year students can easily obtain that can also awaken giants!"

"Later, when I went shopping at the Pointy Hat Magic Supplies Shop outside the city, I also heard from the owner that Richard had bought his only Shock Scroll."

“Teacher, I initially thought these were all coincidences and didn’t believe Richard would do such a thing, but after seeing his behavior just now, I feel I cannot tolerate such unjust behavior in the sacred St. Goethe!”

"I know my words may not be enough as evidence, but teacher, you can go to the Illusionary Realm and take a look at the Ash Giant's corpse, investigate it, and see if it was hit by the Shock Scroll..."

The surrounding students immediately erupted in discussion.

"quiet."

After Kalanish finished speaking, he looked at another teacher beside him and asked, "Have you seen anything suspicious?"

The young teacher stroked his chin and said:

“Master, I did see a falcon fly to the place where the giant was. At the time, I thought it was a reconnaissance method of one of my classmates, but now it seems that it may have been carrying the Shock Scroll with the falcon in its beak.”

Kalanish fell silent, seemingly deep in thought.

The students around him could no longer contain themselves, and many looked at Richard with suspicion.

Although students have great freedom of action within the Illusionary Realm, the use of any advanced scrolls other than the two scrolls provided by the school is strictly prohibited, and the Shock spell is one of them.

After all, the Illusionary Realm tests students' comprehensive abilities, not their background or wealth. If everyone could freely bring high-level items, wouldn't that cause chaos?

In other words, if Hamilton's allegations are true, then Richard cheated! And he cheated in a cunning way that would cause most people to fail!

That's enough to get him fired!

Hamilton's friends in the crowd also started making sarcastic remarks.

"I don't understand. With Richard's abilities, he should be able to pass the normal exam, right?"

"You don't understand. Some people just want to show off! They like to mess things up, watch others suffer, and then come out to 'turn the tide' and gain fame, haha."

"This person was disliked in first grade, and is probably trying to change his reputation with this."

"No wonder Richard was so incredibly brave later on, it was all planned in advance..."

"If he wasn't behind this, why was he so proactive?"

"He always uses dirty tricks in battle, so it's not surprising that he would do something like this!"

"In the end, he's just a country bumpkin from the south."

Richard looked around and couldn't help but let out a cold laugh.

So that's how it is; they were waiting for me here.

In that case, will my previous outstanding performance become solid evidence against me?

People find it hard to imagine that a mid-Bronze Saint could defeat an Ash Giant, but if you tell them that it was all achieved through cheating, they are more likely to believe it—especially since Richard is an outsider, not one of their own, so there's no burden of doubt.

Although he was poisoned in the simulation, he only saw a few lines of text and the experience was not deep. But now, looking at Hamilton, who was righteously accusing him in the crowd, he was truly angry.

Hamilton, you're doing great!

Indeed, once a person becomes a dog, they will throw away even the most basic dignity and shame, and will be capable of anything.

Despite his anger, Richard remained calm.

It is precisely in times like these that you must not panic.

The opponent came prepared, and he was caught off guard. He couldn't turn the tide with just words. Besides... Richard felt the pain growing stronger inside him and knew that his current injuries probably wouldn't allow him to engage in a verbal battle with Hamilton.

We must...think of a way...

Meanwhile, Linda was also observing Richard from within the crowd.

She smiled from the bottom of her heart.

Good, that's right~

Richard, are you having a problem you can't explain right now?

Although the evidence isn't perfect, once public opinion takes hold, and I use my family's influence to get a few teachers with no connections to pull strings behind the scenes, you'll have no choice but to confess—after all, this is the domain of the imperial nobility, and no one will stand up for you, a Connaught.

Even if you weren't expelled afterward, you wouldn't be able to stay at school any longer.

Then... I can make my appearance.

Who told you to still be a prince of Connaught, with some use to me? When you're cornered at school, I'll be a little gentler and offer you help when you're in dire need. I bet you'll bow down and become my dog ​​then.

That's how things should be!

Those country bumpkins from small countries... should be wagging their tails around my boots!

"Shut up! Richard isn't that kind of person!"

Suddenly, another shout came from the crowd.

Everyone looked over and saw that the speaker was Tom, a student who had repeated a year.

Faced with the sudden influx of gazes, Tom lost his balance, his face flushed, and the words he was about to say stuck in his throat, unable to come out for a moment.

Fortunately, Herpel chimed in, questioning Hamilton: "Is everything you're saying just speculation? Don't you Rolanders ever provide evidence when you frame someone?"

“Miss Hepper, whether this is a frame-up or not needs further investigation.” But before Hamilton could answer, the young teacher who had mentioned seeing the falcon spoke up.

He completely ignored Tom and only told Hepper, "As an exchange student, you don't need to worry about this. We'll handle it."

"But……"

“Teacher, your words are somewhat biased. Miss Hepel was also a victim of the Red Prison Mine accident, so she certainly has the right to care about the outcome... Not only her, but I also need to ask her about it.”