Chapter 141: Remind Me Not To Mess With You

Mika was just about to open his mouth and ask Maria what class they had next, but before he could get the words out, Maria turned her head toward him, her expression deadpan as ever.

"Did you finish the Inscription Breaking assignment yet?"

"...The what now?" Mika froze for a second, blinking.

"The long-term assignment." Maria said, her tone sharp but calm, as if she were speaking to a particularly slow child. "The one they gave us two weeks ago. The one worth thirty percent of our term credit. Don’t tell me you forgot."

"Ohhh...That one." Mika said, leaning back lazily in his chair as he thought about the classes that came with his curriculum as a support-class student.

Even though the support class had normal subjects, math, science, history, like any other school, most of their curriculum was very different.

The majority of their time was dedicated to classes that taught them to support the blessed in practical, often dangerous situations: potion brewing, tactical mapping, deciphering battle formations, mana-channeling stabilizations.

And the subject Maria was talking about, Inscription Breaking—the art of disabling the protective runes and seals found in cursed artifacts, ruins, or enemy traps so the blessed could proceed safely. These tasks required patience, precision, and a lot of internal problem-solving skills.

And the current assignment? It was from that very class. The task required them to work through a set of increasingly complex rune combinations, identify their weaknesses, and write detailed reports on how to dismantle them safely.

Mika just shrugged and said, "Nope. Haven’t touched it yet."

Maria stared at him. "...You haven’t touched it yet?"

"Nah." Mika replied with a grin. "But don’t worry. The class isn’t until after lunch. I’ll finish it during lunch break. No big deal."

Maria’s eyes narrowed to icy slits. "No big deal?" She leaned closer, her tone sharp enough to cut. "Mika, there’s a reason the teacher gave us two weeks. There’s a reason this assignment counts for a massive chunk of our grade."

"It’s supposed to be extremely difficult, so difficult that we were allowed to consult professors, researchers, anyone we could find for help. And you’re telling me you’re going to finish it during lunch?"

Mika just grinned wider and leaned back in his chair, arms folded casually behind his head. "Come on, Maria. You know me. Do you really think I wouldn’t be able to finish an assignment like this?"

She stared at him for a long moment, her lips twitching into something halfway between exasperation and reluctant amusement.

"If I didn’t know you, I would’ve thought you were a braindead idiot for saying something that arrogant. But..." She exhaled through her nose. "Since I do know you, and as infuriating as you are, I also know you will actually pull it off. Which, if you think about it, makes me even more annoyed."

Mika smirked. "Oh? So you’re admitting I might be smarter than you?"

Maria gave him a long-suffering look before smirking faintly. "It is...very difficult to live with the knowledge that a pervert like you might be smarter than me. It gives me nightmares sometimes."

Mika chuckled at that, raising a brow. "Nightmares, huh?"

"Yes." Maria said dryly. "But it would be worse to know the truth and still deny it. Better to be honest than keep it all inside and make myself look even more pathetic."

Mika placed a hand dramatically over his heart. "Wow. Maria Deveste, actually admitting that I might be smarter than her. This is a historic day."

She just gave him a look that promised death if he kept talking. Mika only laughed, then leaned forward, his voice dropping lower.

"Anyway, about the assignment, I already knew the answers to all of it the moment I got the paper. There’s really nothing to worry about. It’s already solved in my head."

Maria’s brow arched high, her expression caught somewhere between skepticism and reluctant curiosity. "Oh really?"

"Yes, really." Mika tilted his head. "Why? What’s wrong? You sound like you don’t believe me."

Maria tapped the desk with one finger, her voice cool.

"Because this assignment is hard, Mika. Extremely hard. The first half is manageable if you spend time on it, but there’s one question, just one, that’s so absurdly difficult, most of the class thinks it’s a trick question. That you’re not even supposed to answer it yet."

Mika glanced around the room and noticed for the first time that she was right.

Their classmates were sitting in small groups, papers spread across desks, muttering heatedly and looking completely frustrated. Some were even scratching their heads or banging them softly against the desk, as though the question was personally mocking them.

Maria continued, her tone almost thoughtful.

"It’s the reason everyone looks like this. Even I haven’t figured it out yet, but I don’t think it’s a trick question. I think it’s just something too hard for most of us to comprehend right now. What do you think?"

"Honestly? I don’t think there’s any trick question at all." Mika leaned back again, his expression calm and unreadable. "I looked at the whole thing, and I can answer every part of it."

He paused, his smirk softening just slightly.

"But if we’re talking about that one question I noticed...yeah, it’s nasty. That one’s way beyond what students are expected to solve. Even with outside help, it’s practically unsolvable unless you already have an advanced understanding of inscription theory, and even some professional researchers haven’t cracked it yet."

"...The teacher probably put it there just to mess with us. To make everyone’s lives hell and watch them suffer."

"I knew it." Maria muttered, her voice dropping into an icy register that could have frozen stone. Then sharper, with poison dripping from each syllable, "I fucking knew it. That bastard did something to the paper."

Her fists clenched on her desk, as she glared at the half-finished assignment in front of her.

"You know why?" She hissed, not waiting for him to answer. "Because recently our dear teacher found out his wife was cheating on him. And instead of dealing with it like a normal human being, he’s been taking it out on us."

"Cranky in class, snapping at students, not even bothering to teach properly. I let it go at first, but this?...Adding a question no one in this academy could possibly solve just to amuse himself?"

"He’s probably sitting in his office right now, jerking himself off to the thought of every support student pulling their hair out in frustration."

Mika raised an eyebrow, caught between amusement and sympathy. "Wow. You seem...quite irritated."

"Irritated?" Maria turned her head slowly. "Why wouldn’t I be? I’m pouring time and effort into my studies, only to get fucked over by some pathetic bitch of a man whining about his failed marriage."

"He probably didn’t even support his wife properly in the first place, with how shitty of a person he already is. And don’t get me started on the cases against him, students have filed complaints before. Everyone knows he’s a rude, incompetent asshole with a rotten personality."

She exhaled, shoulders trembling from the effort of keeping herself composed.

"And this one question alone? It’s 45 percent of the assignment grade. 45. If students can’t answer it, their credit takes a nosedive. He’s not just making us miserable, he’s playing with people’s futures just to soothe his fragile ego. That fatty..."

"Alright, alright, calm down. Don’t worry about it." Mika chuckled softly, waving his hand as if to brush off her fury. "At lunch, I’ll finish my assignment and lend it to you. You don’t have to copy everything if you don’t want, but you won’t fail. Problem solved."

But Maria’s eyes lit up suddenly, sharp and bright with intrigue. She leaned forward, her braid brushing against the desk as she fixed him with a piercing stare.

"Instead of waiting until lunch...can you give me the answer to that question right now?"

Mika frowned, suspicious. "And what exactly are you planning to do with it?"

Her lips curved into a faint, mischievous smirk. "Just give it to me."

He studied her for a long moment. But there was something about the way she was watching him, eyes glinting with an odd mix of amusement and malice, that made him give in.

With a shrug, Mika pulled out a fresh notebook, and without hesitation began scribbling down the solution from memory. His pen scratched against the paper steadily, line after line filling the pages until four sheets were packed front to back with detailed explanation.

When he finally tore them free and handed them over, Maria’s smirk widened. She didn’t even bother reading through them.

Instead, she pulled out her phone, snapped a clean set of photos, and began typing. Her thumbs moved with quick, practiced efficiency before she gave her screen one last tap, and then leaned back, looking satisfied.

A moment later, the classroom erupted.

"Holy, oh my god! The answer! Someone just sent the full answer!" one voice shouted, disbelief lacing every word.

"No way...this is real? Look at this, shit, it’s so detailed. I don’t even understand half of it, but it looks legit!"

"Who cares if you don’t get it? Just copy it down before the teacher changes his mind! I thought I was gonna fail for sure!"

"Whoever sent this is literally a god. I don’t care who it is—I owe them my life."

Excitement rippled across the room as students frantically began writing, their earlier misery melting into relief. Phones buzzed in other classrooms too, and soon the chorus of astonished voices spread through the halls: support students everywhere had the impossible answer in their hands.

Mika played with the pen in his hands, watching the scene unfold. "Huh. And here I thought you didn’t have a heart. Looks like you really do, sharing love like this."

"A heart? Don’t be stupid."

Maria scoffed, rolling her eyes, but the amused curl of her lips betrayed her satisfaction.

"I couldn’t care less about these idiots. I’m only doing this because I want to wipe that smug look off our teacher’s face. He wanted to watch us all fail, wallow in our frustration?...Fine."

"Now he’ll walk into ever single one of his classes and see a hundreds perfect answers staring back at him. That’s going to make him choke on his own tongue."

Mika let out a low whistle, running a hand through his hair, still smiling in disbelief.

"You do realize that technically, distributing the answer like that counts as a violation, right? The teacher might be an ass, but the academy rules are clear—just because they allow external help doesn’t mean we’re allowed to mass-distribute solutions."

"If they find out it was you who sent the answers to every single support student, you’re going to be in some serious trouble."

Maria didn’t even blink. She just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, her lips curling into that signature, dismissive smirk.

"Who cares?" She said flatly, her tone carrying the same weight as a gavel slamming down. "Even if they investigate, it’ll just backfire on them. The moment the internal committee sees this question and realizes how unfair it was, they’ll start questioning why it was included in the first place."

"If they dig deeper, they’ll find that the whole thing was just a frustrated teacher venting his personal crap on his students. The administration won’t want that scandal getting out."

"So, trust me, he won’t even dare push for an investigation. He’ll probably keep his mouth shut just to avoid getting exposed."

Her confidence was absolute, her tone like stone.

Mika couldn’t help but grin at that. It was moments like these that reminded him why Maria fascinated him so much.

When they’d first met, she’d been aloof, almost mechanical, showing nothing but cool detachment. Even now, most of the time, she was the same, cold, distant, seemingly uninterested in everything around her.

But every so often, just like now, she let her true thoughts bleed through. Malice, spite, amusement, they all came to the surface, and she shared them with him freely.

It made Mika feel strangely privileged, almost honored.

Everyone else got the mask. He got the real Maria.

But just as he was enjoying that thought, she turned to him, her smirk sharpening, a darker gleam flashing in her eyes.

"But you know, Mika." She said, her voice dropping low and silky. "this still isn’t enough."

He raised a brow. "Not enough?"

Maria leaned forward slightly, her gaze sharp and eager.

"You see, I a couple of nights of sleep trying to solve that stupid question, hours of my life I’m never getting back. And now that I know it was all pointless?"

"...There’s no way I’m letting that fat pig off so easily."

Her thumb tapped her phone again.

And a second later, the classroom erupted again, but this time, the tone was completely different. No cheers, no happy sighs of relief. This time it was gasps, disbelieving laughter, shouts of outrage.

"Holy shit! No way! No freaking way, this guy’s finished!"

"Look at this! He plagiarized half his research papers!"

"It’s not even subtle! He literally copy-pasted entire paragraphs! How has no one noticed this before?"

"His entire career is down the drain. Thank god, I hated that bastard anyway!"

Phones were being passed around, screens lighting up with the file Maria had just sent.

It wasn’t just a casual accusation, this was ironclad proof, a detailed compilation of every single paper the teacher had ever stolen from, side by side with the original sources.

Within minutes, the entire support department was in chaos, and the outrage spread like wildfire to other wings of the academy.

Even Mika, who thought he’d seen everything, had to lean in and blink. "Wait, wait, wait. How the hell did you even find all of this?"

Maria gave a low, almost delighted laugh.

"After the first week of this assignment, when I realized how absurd that question was, I got pissed. Really pissed. I wasted hours trying to crack something that couldn’t be cracked, and it made me hate that bastard more than I already did...So I started digging."

"I figured someone with a personality as rotten as his had to have made mistakes somewhere. And I was right. I found a small, barely-read paper that he’d clearly ripped off years ago. After that, it was just a matter of pulling the thread."

"One plagiarized paper led to another, then another. And before long, I had enough evidence to bury him alive."

Her smirk turned into something almost menacing.

"Now the whole academy knows. And it won’t be long before the board steps in and forces him to resign...Maybe I’ll even skip my next class so I can take a picture of his face when he walks out for the last time, frame it, hang it on my wall as a trophy."

Mika stared at her for a long moment before letting out a low chuckle.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side. Seriously, that sounds like the worst possible decision anyone could make."

"Oh, don’t worry, Mika." Maria leaned back lazily against her chair, her smirk never faltering. "Even if you make me angry, I won’t break you like I do everyone else...You’re far too amusing for that."

"I’d rather just give you little punishments, tiny nudges to keep you in line. That way, I can keep playing with you since you’re too fun to throw away."

Mika wasn’t sure if he should laugh or shiver at that statement. This girl, this absolute menace, had just casually ruined a man’s entire career, and here she was, saying she wanted to keep him around for her own entertainment.

And somehow, that thought made him feel...special.