This Heroine's Friend Has the Power of Botany

Chapter 112

Trust in Your Student

"Don’t you see my face? I’m just a poor girl who’s only good at using wiles. Where would I get money to give you?" The small, stunted girl leaned in, showing her freckled face to them. Upon seeing this, the thieves looked at each other, as if weighing their options. In the end, the girl’s impoverished appearance convinced them she was indeed different from the young ladies. They decided to give up.

"It seems you really don’t have anything. Alright then, let’s go. This much money will last us a lifetime! Haha." They laughed heartily before departing.

Ellie narrowed her eyes slightly, sending her purple mushrooms to follow them. After all...even if she wanted to teach the 4 young ladies a small lesson, it didn’t mean she would let those villains get away to enjoy their happiness.

“Th-Thank you so much, Lady Ellie,” said one of the female students, who had been a victim. Her face was still flushed with guilt. Earlier, she had gossiped about Ellie, never expecting that Ellie, who had heard everything, would step in to help and turn a deadly situation into a minor loss instead.

Ellie didn’t respond immediately. She let her eyes scan up and down the other’s bare body, making the fourth-year student aware of her gaze. The older girl used her arms to cover herself, but it was futile.

"I think you should seek help. Be careful not to let the men see you, or else something bad might happen."

In this world, if a man saw a woman’s body, he was expected to take responsibility, just like when Wint saw Nara’s body and felt obligated to take responsibility. However, some selfish men didn’t think they needed to take responsibility at all. Some had intimate relationships and still refused to acknowledge them in front of other people. Well...It all depended on the individual.

But who were these young ladies? They were all from high-ranking families. Some men, seeking power, might use this opportunity to claim they had seen the ladies’ bodies and insist on taking responsibility. Such selfishness could ruin these women’s lives. So, it was better to be cautious.

"Y-Yes, you’re right. We’ll go find help. We’ll thank you properly later for your assistance," they said before quickly leaving.

However, just because the situation outside had ended didn’t mean the situation inside had as well. Now that no one was watching the events below, only Ellie remained, continuing to observe the competition, witnessing it reach its peak.

Many students were severely injured, and some had even died from the events. Ellie wasn’t sure if this would happen again in the coming years. In the novel’s storyline, “the eldest son Owen,” or the hero Aman’s brother, died in a similar beast combat, but not this year. It seemed this event would occur 2 years later. According to the story, that unexpected event was significant, and she couldn’t recall if the novel had described this current situation.

A beast invasion causing chaos during the competition? If such an event really happened, how would the heroine become representative with the heroes?

Her arrival seemed to have altered some aspects of the storyline.

The first person Ellie instinctively looked for, without even realizing it, was the two young men from the Setter family. At that moment, they were hiding far from the beast. It was fortunate that they weren’t foolish enough to rush toward the commotion out of greed, unlike other students who, upon hearing the sounds of battle, wanted to benefit from eliminating other groups.

It was similar to when Nara had willingly become bait to lure all the students into a trap.

Speaking of Nara, once Ellie saw that the two young men from the Setter family were safe, she scanned the area for the glowing girl. Initially, she thought Nara might be unaware of the situation inside, like everyone else. Many students near the level 1 beast were still oblivious. Yet, Nara, even from a distance, sensed the danger.

She no longer emitted her light, regardless of how much the seniors scolded her. The beautiful light elemental girl hid quietly within the circle of traps, which was the correct choice when facing unknown enemies.

But the question was...how did Nara know what’s going on?

“First-year scholarship student?”

While Ellie was observing the movements of the students inside, especially Nara, a familiar voice caught her attention. The middle-aged woman was none other than "Professor Maxim," a renowned professor in self-defense. Her elemental power was water, and she excelled in manipulating it to create extremely strong barriers. Thus, students with magic powers supporting self-defense often became her disciples.

However, Professor Maxim taught special subjects and didn’t have the same responsibilities as Professor Regan or Professor Gwen, who served as homeroom teachers for their respective year groups—Professor Regan for the first years and Professor Gwen for the third years. Therefore, Ellie and Professor Maxim weren’t particularly well acquainted.

Nonetheless, Ellie and Professor Maxim had met 2 or 3 times when the latter visited her Professor Medik. Well...Being a student of Professor Medik had its perks. Various professors frequently sought out Professor Medik because of his role in supporting the institute, which was supplying essential potions. Many came to request important potions, while others sought his advice on medicinal concoctions. Being Professor Medik required balancing both official duties and personal requests excellently.

“Professor Maxim,” Ellie greeted her respectfully as usual, despite being surprised by the professor’s initial intense gaze.

“Why aren’t you seeking a safe place? I heard there are attackers both outside and inside the arena. By now, Professor Medik is probably frantic looking for you. You’re his only student, after all. If something happened to you, it wouldn’t be good,” Professor Maxim said, expressing concern that seemed excessive, and Ellie sensed something behind her worry.

The young girl looked up and smiled at Professor Maxim like an innocent child.

"Professor...the first group of attackers has already withdrawn. Their real mission was to assassinate the young lady of the Fernal family, who is engaged to Prince Joseph. However, their employer was a bit too stingy, and 100 gold coins didn’t mean much compared to the 500 gold coins Lady Vivian offered.”

“The group of criminals just took the large sum of money and fled in a panic. They didn’t need to kill anyone to get such a significant amount. With that much money, they could hide somewhere their employer would never find them.”

“If I were the employer, I wouldn’t offer only 100 gold coins to have the Fernal family’s young lady killed. It’s clearly taking advantage of the hired hands. It’s not surprising they were betrayed due to such stinginess, right? Don’t you agree, Professor Maxim?” Ellie spoke with a smile, as if hiring criminals for just 100 gold coins was a laughable matter.

Though her eyes scanned the surroundings, she relied on the spores near Professor Maxim to observe her. As Ellie spoke, it seemed Professor Maxim was emotionally engaged, but not in a joyful or amused way—quite the opposite, in fact!

"Professor?" Ellie called out to the woman in front of her once more, and this time, the call brought her back to her senses. The middle-aged professor forced a smile, but her eyes did not share in the sentiment.

"I believe it was Lady Vivian’s luck that the greedy thieves didn’t act further, which is why she is safe now. Otherwise, no other hired person would have betrayed their employer like this. Therefore, I think you should rest a bit. You must have gone through a lot."

"And about this matter, I’ll follow up herself. Even though the criminals did not harm our institution’s students, they are still guilty. I’ll try to catch them." Professor Maxim prepared to leave after realizing there was no murder as she had initially anticipated.

Additionally, she needed to deal with the criminals who took her 100 gold coins but didn’t fulfill their task! Let anyone else let the criminals escape, but not Professor Maxim. She wouldn’t let anyone who dared deceive her get away!!

However, just before Professor Maxim was about to leave, Ellie’s voice called her back. Ellie’s smile was bright, but it was a smile that made Maxim want to scream.

"Professor, there’s no need to rush. I think you should help those in the arena first. There are many students still waiting for the professors’ assistance. Right now, I see several professors trying to break the stratagem. Perhaps, if Professor Maxim helps, it will be faster."

"As for the criminals, there’s no need to worry. I have used my powers to track them. You know how strong my powers are, right? Tracking the target is not an issue. If you let me follow the criminals, maybe...I might even catch the mastermind."

Upon hearing this, Professor Maxim’s hands trembled violently. She thought over Ellie’s words and sensed impending doom. She knew she had to go after the criminals, but how? If she went now, knowing many students were in danger, she would certainly become the prime suspect...

"St-Student, I think you should really go rest. For these matters, I will decide and handle them myself."

"How could I do that, Professor? You know how close I am to Young Lord Aman of the Setter family. I am so worried about him. So, resting can wait. I just ask you to help everyone as quickly as possible."

Ellie leaned forward, even though she wanted to bite her tongue to say she was so concerned about that Demon of the Setter family. However, after seeing the expression on Professor Maxim’s face, she felt it was more fun than anything else!

"You, you..."

"How can you still be waiting, Professor? Hurry up." Ellie urged, pushing the professor to deal with the issues in the arena rather than the criminals.

Of course, at this point, Professor Maxim had only two choices. One was to help the students in the arena as Ellie suggested, but if the criminals were caught afterward, she would become the scapegoat for this whole affair. However...there was another option.

And that was to kill the student in front of her!!

The professor looked at Ellie, her eyes were obviously full of murderous intent, but Ellie did not avert her eyes. Instead, she maintained an innocent smile that practically begged for death.

The reason she could smile like that even in front of Teacher Maxim was...

"Ellie! There, there you are! You fool! Why haven’t you run away yet!? I heard you saved others from the criminals? How could you risk your life like that? Don’t forget you are my only student. What will I do if something happens to you!? And don’t forget, we are supportive magicians. How dare you challenge the criminals like that!"

"Don’t deny it! I met Vivian from the Fernal family! They all said how skilled my student is, but I! I never wanted you to be like this."

The voice, filled with worry and concern, echoed. Ellie watched the professor, who was out of breath and had used all his power to get here as quickly as possible. She was about to feel touched until...

"Student Ellie! I really want to know what you’re thinking. You’ve changed a lot recently, haven’t you? Or do you actually want to kill yourself? Since you registered for all 8ht competitions, have you realized now how foolish that was? If you compete, you’ll just embarrass me. So now you want to die before that happens, right?"

"Why do you have that look on your face? Did I guess correctly? You...You don’t need to worry. Even if you lose miserably, even if others laugh at you and belittle you, even if you don’t know how to concoct potions at all, I won’t feel bad about having you as my student. My student can lose a hundred times and even if you come in last place, it wouldn’t matter to me. Do you understand?"

The more Medik stressed, the more he talked. However, his words about Ellie losing miserably made the girl want to roll her eyes, if it wasn’t for seeing Lucien’s amusingly expressive eyes. Well...At least she had a friend who understood just how negative Medik’s words were... Could that be considered lucky?

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