MROBW 09

Chapter 9

Among the group of kids coming in, there were a few who had taken off their helmets the moment they crossed the finish line and glared at me as if they wanted to kill me.

Thanks to that, I immediately recognized that this was the group of guys who had just raced against me.

And the reason I had been trying to leave the area wasn’t solely because of Kitty.

“What the hell? How did someone who isn’t even in the advanced class suddenly join in?! Where does that happen? This isn’t even a beginner or intermediate class, and he just barged into an advanced-class lesson…!”

At a glance, every kid in the group was clearly older than me.

Apparently, they couldn’t get over the fact that they had lost to someone younger, because several of them were gnashing their teeth and talking about me as if they wanted to tear me apart.

Even without a subject being mentioned, it was obvious they were talking about me.

This is going to be a headache if I run into them.

After figuring out the situation, I decided to quietly disappear through the door on the opposite side instead of waiting for the girl’s answer.

However, the very moment I took a single step backward—

I happened to make eye contact with the guy who had been badmouthing me the most enthusiastically.

He immediately frowned.

“What the hell is that guy? Why is he with Camilla?”

That was when I realized it at once.

Because they were kids, while I was an adult.

Even from that one sentence, I could easily pick up on the jealousy mixed into his tone. Obviously.

Oh, these kids are pretty precocious. Or maybe not? Did people normally start dating around this age? I don’t remember.

Judging by the way they were talking about this Camilla girl, it seemed like quite a few guys in the academy’s junior division had crushes on her.

At least, that was what I could tell from the resentful looks the boys were giving me.

Feeling awkward for no particular reason, I rolled my eyes and glanced sideways at the girl beside me.

The girl called Camilla merely looked at the kids by the door with an indifferent, aloof expression.

It was such a ridiculous situation that I almost let out a hollow laugh.

* * *

Even though I had always been compared to and mocked because of that bastard Percival, who never once gave up first place, I had never missed the podium.

Our relationship had been awkward, but regardless, I was also legally the son of the chairman of Landbury.

Which meant that I had never really been lacking in either skill or money.

So it wasn’t as if I had ever been unpopular.

If anything, I had to be careful about scandals!

Come to think of it, even that bastard Percival, who got involved in controversies over foul language and violence practically every other day, had never had a scandal involving women.

Maybe that was because he was concerned about Arthur, who was constantly ending up in the tabloids because of his remarriage to my mother…

Anyway, what I wanted to say was—

“What are you? Why are you alone here with Camilla?”

I wasn’t some deranged pedophile who was going to flirt with the Madonna of a bunch of kids who looked like they were still in middle school.

Unable to know what was going through my mind, the boys came toward me, huffing angrily.

“I asked what you are! Why aren’t you answering? Can you not talk? Ah, or do you not speak English?”

“Um… I can speak English, and I can talk.”

In the short time I spent trying to think of a way to avoid an unnecessary fight, the guy who had approached me couldn’t wait any longer and started poking my shoulder.

I rolled my eyes and looked over the group.

He’s not the leader.

The black-haired guy who was aggressively pushing my shoulder seemed more like the group’s enforcer than its leader.

You could usually tell how groups of boys like this operated just by looking at their atmosphere. It wasn’t particularly difficult to figure out.

The leader is probably…

But before I could completely figure it out, the somewhat large kid in front of me aggressively pressed me.

“Then why aren’t you answering? What the hell are you doing here? What kind of guy are you? Why did you come in here?!”

“I just got lost and ended up here. I was only going to ask Camill— I mean, this person here, for directions.”

It was annoying that they were being rude to me for no reason, but there was no point in fighting with children here.

With that in mind, I explained myself while lowering my posture.

And look at them. They said her name was Camilla, so when I tried to call her by her name, their eyes practically bulged out.

I wish Camilla would appreciate all this effort I’m making.

But Camilla had already put her G.S. harness back on and resumed her training.

She must have really good concentration.

I don’t think I can expect any help from her.

I stole another glance at her back as she returned to her training, then turned my head forward again when I felt their heated stares.

The guy in front of me was staring at me with burning eyes as if he were about to eat me alive.

I hunched my shoulders a little more for no particular reason.

“This is my first time here… so if I’m not supposed to come in, I’m sorry.”

If I say this, surely they won’t get angry at someone younger than them for no reason.

However—

“Why are you going on about this being your first time here? Are you bragging that you beat us even though you don’t even attend the academy?”

“Look at Mr. Genius.”

What the hell is wrong with these kids? They’re so young, so why are they this twisted?

Apparently, I had made the wrong judgment. The moment I finished speaking, the boys standing behind the enforcer started sneering.

“I was only trying to say that I really didn’t know where I was and ended up coming in here. I’m sorry… I was running away from someone, so I didn’t have time to look around.”

“Oh, it looked like Engineer Kitty was looking for that guy. Come to think of it, wasn’t Engineer Kitty the one who brought him here earlier?”

“Hmph. So what, Engineer Kitty has his eye on him now?”

Ah, seriously. I can’t even say anything.

The more I talked, the more hostile things became.

I had been away from groups like this for quite a while, so I’d momentarily forgotten. I should have known that kids like these would pick a fight no matter what I said.

I had planned to humor them a little, brush things off, and then leave, but now it wasn’t just the enforcer. The other guys behind him had also crowded in front of me.

They were still small enough in height and build that their shadows barely reached above me.

Ah. I know what this is.

Kids trying to extort money from someone usually surrounded them like this.

“Th-Then, now that I know I came into the wrong place, I’ll leave. Sorry for disturbing you.”

Realizing that trying to explain myself to every single one of them would probably end with an actual fight, I tried to slip past the human wall.

Honestly, fighting wasn’t scary to me.

I just didn’t want to fight children.

What was I supposed to gain from fighting a bunch of little kids other than a massive dose of existential emptiness afterward?

It was just as I was trying to get away from the intimidating group—

“Whoa!”

A hand suddenly shot out toward my side.

Thinking it was a punch coming out of nowhere, I couldn’t help making a noise, but it didn’t touch my body.

Looking again, I realized it wasn’t a fist.

It was a palm.

He was offering me a handshake.

Ah, this guy.

“Hi. We raced together earlier, right?”

I blankly raised my head.

A guy with almost platinum-blond hair and an annoyingly handsome-looking face was smiling down at me.

Unlike the other boys, who had a somewhat delinquent air about them even from their clothes, he was neatly dressed and gave off the impression of a model student.

He wasn’t bad-looking, either.

The way he smiled and spoke politely was somewhat gentlemanly.

But—

“That was a good race. I thought I had to keep an eye on Percival among our generation, but I was wrong. I didn’t know there were guys like you hiding out there.”

“…?”

What the hell is wrong with this guy’s way of speaking?

How should I put it…

He was saying it prettily, but the content wasn’t pretty at all.

Because of that contradiction, I stared blankly for a moment at the hand he had extended toward me.

Then the guy who had been pressuring me like a servant standing beside a young master suddenly shouted.

“Noel is offering you a handshake! What are you just staring at? Don’t tell me you don’t know who Noel is?!”

Is he really important enough that I need to know his name?

Just before I said that out loud, I remembered who this guy was.

He was the second-place finisher who had come in behind me.

I remembered noticing his hair color when he took off his helmet, which was why he had stuck in my memory.

So he’s probably the leader of this group.

“Ah, uh… it was a good race. Thanks. But I’m going to go now. My mom is probably looking for me.”

I reluctantly shook hands with the guy who would have taken first place if it weren’t for me, then quickly opened up an escape route.

I had a strong instinctive feeling that nothing good would come from staying here.

I was just about to leave the area when—

“Ah… Blanchard’s new one?”

“What?”

He muttered it as if talking to himself, but there was no doubt he had said it for me to hear.

There was a malicious implication hidden in that sneer.

When I stopped and turned around, the boys in the group were snickering.

Apparently giving up on pretending to be a model student, the second-place guy was laughing along openly now.

No… Are kids really this rotten already? They’re insulting my mother?

When I was their age, I used to come home after karting and watch Disney and Pixar movies. Wasn’t that normal?

The moment they saw me becoming visibly hostile, the guy babbled out something that could hardly be called an explanation.

He was even grinning as he did it.

“I wasn’t trying to offend you. I just heard some things about you lately… Have you met Percival?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“It does have something to do with it. If your mother succeeds, then, luckily, you might become brothers with him soon, right? Then you’ll be coming to this academy soon too. You might even become good rivals with Percival…”

‘If your mother succeeds.’

‘Luckily.’

‘Brothers.’

The sound of their snickering grew louder, as though those three phrases were some hilarious three-part joke.

Something suddenly flared hot inside me.

“Do you want to die?”

“What?”

I had been acting meek the entire time, only to suddenly snap at them.

The boys sucked in their breaths in surprise.

The atmosphere instantly turned cold.

Even then, the one called Noel—the second-place finisher—was still smiling.

That made my irritation surge.

Seriously. These little brats have already learned all the worst things and are bullying other people like this?

I’m an adult on the inside, but as far as appearances go, I’m just a foreign kid younger than them.

I did feel a little ridiculous about the idea of fighting kids this much younger than me, but I couldn’t stand watching them behave like this.

Judging from the way they talked, it seemed that bastard Percival, who was already attending this academy, had been hearing all kinds of things he should and shouldn’t have been hearing as well…

Wasn’t that why he came to me and acted like an ass? Because he kept hearing this kind of gossip behind his back?

Thinking that, I decided these kids needed a little education in basic human decency.

So they’d never say something like that in front of me or Percival again.

Then maybe that bastard would give me less trouble, too.

Since things had turned out this way, perhaps I needed to educate Percival on manners again as well.

The only problem was that my body was ten years old.

If we were talking about mental age, wasn’t I technically the older brother?

“You should spend more time practicing instead of eavesdropping on rumors adults are spreading. Isn’t that why you lost to me when it was only my second time driving a kart?”

“What did you say?”

I changed my attitude in an instant and arrogantly sneered at the boys who protested.

Only then did the expression of the second-place guy, who had been snickering until now, stiffen.

No matter how much they tried to act grown-up, they were still children.

There was no way they could smoothly brush off a provocation.

I deliberately smiled even more brightly and crooked my finger at them.

“There are simulator rooms here, right? Since we’d have to tell the adults if we went out onto the track, let’s race there. Ah, don’t worry. Since you guys can’t beat me, I’ll give you a three-second handicap.”

According to what I’d been told earlier, Landbury Academy had simulators for every level, luxurious as the place was.

So there was obviously a kart simulator somewhere around here too.

For reference, Formula racing is a battle fought over 0.001 seconds.

The same was true of karting, which came just before the Formula series.

Drivers fought desperately during qualifying to get as far forward on the grid as possible and shave off those 0.001 seconds.

So saying I’d wait three seconds was basically the same as saying—

I’ll hop on one leg, and you guys can run on two.

And I was confident I could pass every one of these guys even while hopping on one leg.

Because—

I was more than two seconds faster than second place in lap time earlier.

Of course, I hadn’t given it my all earlier.

I had thought of it as nothing more than children playing, after all.

Honestly, that thought hadn’t changed even now…

“Ah, if three seconds seems too little, should I wait five seconds?”

The boys who had been laughing while insulting my mother turned bright red.

“You little bastard! Have you said everything you wanted to say?!”

And then they came charging at me, cursing.

Hmm.

Maybe this was why uncles liked teasing their nieces and nephews.

This might actually be kind of fun.