Chapter 257: Bullied Melissa
Southeastern Archdiocese, diocesan academy, Apprentice Knight Training Camp.
After the Rank Advancement Ceremony ended, Leon came here to visit Melissa.
The direction Melissa had chosen after entering the Church academy was very clear, she wanted to become an Inquisitor.
In truth, very few people who entered the Church school of the diocese had such an aspiration.
Junior Inquisitors were considered positions within the Church that did not demand an especially high level of education. Even without having studied at a Church academy, one could still join through recruitment from the guard units, and Leon himself had entered that way.
Those who entered a Church school could continue taking examinations upward into a higher academy. After completing their studies, most people aimed for respectable civil positions, such as priests and nuns in local churches, Healing Officers of the Sacred Healing Order, and there were also opportunities to work in public institutions such as city halls and tax offices.
If someone intended to enter the military, they would attend an Apprentice Knight training camp while studying at the diocesan academy. After three years of further study, they could become an Apprentice Knight. Applying to become a Junior Inquisitor, however, involved simpler assessments and had no fixed period of study. Usually it only required two years, or even less, as long as one could meet the standards during the examination.
Leon had once tried to persuade Melissa that since she had finally gotten the opportunity to enter a Church academy, she could actually continue studying at the Church school and earn a diploma that would let her obtain a respectable and easy job. After all, with him as her guardian, neither tuition nor connections would be a problem. If she entered the Church, perhaps after a few years she might even have the opportunity to rise from nun to bishop.
But Melissa insisted on going to “a position where I can assist Brother Leon”, and moreover, “it has to be as soon as possible”. No matter how Leon tried to persuade her, he couldn't change her mind. He even asked Sally to talk to her, but after speaking with Melissa, Sally also took Melissa's side and said she would “respect Melissa's wishes”.
In the end, Leon had no other choice and could only let Melissa follow her own wishes.
He quickly found the female knight instructor responsible for Melissa's class in the training camp, but the moment that young instructor saw him, she looked very surprised. She first saluted him, then nervously asked: “Sir, I've been waiting for you……”
By now, Leon had accumulated a few connections within the Church. Bena, the ordained knight who had obtained rank at the same time as Leon, also worked in the archdiocese. The junior instructors for the female trainees here were basically Apprentice Knights who had not yet obtained rank. Some of them belonged to the Church of the Creator just like Bena and could, for the time being, be considered her subordinates. Through Bena's connections, Leon had previously informed the instructors here that if anything happened to Melissa, they could contact him immediately.
“Mm, I happened to come here today to handle some matters, so I came by to see Melissa as well, Melissa already told you?” Leon asked.
Before coming, he had sent Melissa a letter in advance informing her that he would visit today, so presumably Melissa should have mentioned it to the instructor.
But seeing the instructor looking so nervous, Leon felt something was off.
“Yes, actually something happened today. When I was preparing to contact you, she told me that you happened to be coming today.” The instructor looked extremely cautious in front of Leon.
“What happened?” Leon asked.
“Actually……Melissa got into a fight with someone today.” the instructor replied carefully.
“What happened?” Leon frowned.
“She's in the infirmary right now, I'll take you there so you can understand the situation from her directly.” the instructor said.
Two minutes later, the two of them arrived at the training camp's infirmary. Leon immediately spotted Melissa sitting on a chair, holding a towel that had been soaked in cold water against her cheek.
“Ah, Brother Leon……” Seeing Leon appear, Melissa looked somewhat embarrassed and instinctively turned sideways, not wanting him to see the side of her face that had been hit.
“Let me see!” Leon strode forward, grabbed Melissa by the shoulders, and gestured for her to turn around.
“I'm fine!” Melissa lowered her head and covered her face. No matter what, she didn't want Leon to see her like this.
“All right, behave!” Leon somewhat forcefully grabbed Melissa's wrist and made her lower her hand.
There was a red mark on Melissa's face, bluish in the middle. Fortunately, it hadn't swollen, though the skin at the corner of her eye was scraped, and her hair was disheveled.
“Ugh……” Having Leon see the injury made Melissa feel an inexplicable sense of embarrassment, and she hurriedly covered her face again.
Scenes of Melissa being bullied in the past immediately surfaced in Leon's mind, and his anger flared up at once.
“So, what exactly happened?” Leon turned to look at the instructor.
The instructor grew even more nervous under Leon's somewhat stern gaze and replied with a stiff expression: “Today, one of the trainees poured a bucket of water over her in the changing room at noon, pulled Melissa's hair, and then they started fighting……”
“Why did she pour water on Melissa?” Leon pressed, glaring at the instructor.
From what he knew of Melissa, she absolutely wasn't the type to start trouble first.
“I've more or less asked everyone in the class and learned a little about what happened. The trainee who clashed with Melissa is called Jacqueline Evans, the daughter of Baron Evans from nearby Roque City. It seems she had targeted Melissa several times ever since enrollment, things like throwing her textbooks into the water, tripping her during training, and this time, Jacqueline apparently heard that Melissa had someone coming to visit, so while Melissa was concentrating on dressing herself up, she took a bucket of water and poured it over her from behind, then pulled her hair, and then……”
As the female instructor spoke, she stepped a little closer to Leon and lowered her head before continuing, “I'm very sorry that I only realized the seriousness of the problem now. The other trainees didn't know that you were Melissa's guardian. They only knew that she came from a reformatory and that both her parents had already passed away.”
Leon basically understood what had happened. He had also served in the guards before, and incidents of veteran soldiers bullying new recruits weren't rare in military units. Naturally, a training camp for Apprentice Knights could also conceal this kind of filth.
Melissa was actually something of an outsider among the students in the Church school. Competition to enter a diocesan school was extremely fierce, requiring parental connections, or if one's connections weren't sufficient, one needed to pass the examinations, and in the end, the family still needed to be able to afford the tuition. Therefore, most were children of nobles, or at the very least came from relatively well-off families.
Melissa, however, had been admitted through a special quota recommended by the reformatory. Her records also listed her as the daughter of a witch, and she was an orphan with no one to rely on. In some people's eyes, she really did look like an easy target.
“Then that young lady from the baron's family can learn who Melissa's guardian is now!” Leon took a deep breath, nodded, and said to the instructor, “Take me to see her!”
“Yes, I was also preparing to——” the instructor nodded in response.
Hearing that, Melissa suddenly looked frightened and abruptly raised her head: “No!”
Leon looked at Melissa in surprise.
“Brother Leon, j-just forget about this! I'll go apologize properly……you don't need to……” Melissa looked at Leon pleadingly and stammered.
Seeing Melissa so frightened by the other party made Leon's heart ache: “If the other side was at fault, what are you apologizing for? Don't worry, I'll handle this.”
No matter what background the other side had, now that things had turned out this way, he had to step in!
Though if one insisted on saying so, he had never heard the name of this baron before. By now, Leon basically knew all the notable figures in the east. And for someone to have their child stay in this sort of training camp, they probably truly didn't have much of a background.
Noble families with connections often had better routes if they wanted their children to become knights. For example, after finishing theoretical courses at a Church academy, they could directly undertake practical training in a proper knight order, just like Miss Bena, whose every stage from Apprentice Knight to ordained knight had already been arranged.
“Actually, Miss Jacqueline's father is in a nearby town and arrived an hour ago. I informed him that you were coming back, I'll take you to see him now.” After saying this to Leon, the instructor turned toward Melissa, “Melissa, Baron Evans is already waiting, this matter requires His Lordship the Viscount to step in.”
Seeing this, Melissa lowered her gaze, her face full of worry.
“Then let's go.” Leon said to the instructor.
Several minutes later, the instructor led the two of them along the corridor to a room deep inside the building, then said to Leon: “Actually, Miss Jacqueline was also injured and is resting here right now.”
The instructor poked her head inside to check the situation and said to the people within: “Baron Evans, the Viscount of Allende has arrived.”
The instructor opened the door, and Leon straightened his back, preparing himself for a confrontation.
Then he saw the middle-aged gentleman sitting beside the bed inside, along with the baron's daughter lying on the bed with bandages and splints wrapped around her leg, bandages around her hand as well, and dressings and adhesive tape stuck across her swollen face……
“This……” Leon stood there in silence.
Silently, he turned his head to look at Melissa. Melissa had lowered her head and didn't dare look at anyone.
Noticing Leon's surprise, the instructor moved closer and quietly explained: “I heard from the others that Melissa had always endured Jacqueline's targeting without retaliating, but this time she exploded badly. When Melissa's hair was being pulled, she used the move she learned in combat class.
A precise side kick twisted Miss Jacqueline's knee, and then after the other girl fell, Melissa mounted her and beat her repeatedly. They said Melissa looked terrifying at the time, the other trainees were all frightened and no one dared pull her away. Fortunately, they're only contusions, at least there are no fractures.”
Melissa stood nearby, ashamed beyond words. Normally, she truly hadn't retaliated much against Jacqueline's nasty pranks, at most scolding her a little. She was very good at enduring pressure and preferred avoiding trouble whenever possible. She didn't want to cause Leon too many problems.
𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
But at noon today, she had happily dressed herself up and carefully arranged her hair, waiting until classes ended in the afternoon so she could see Leon. Then Jacqueline suddenly did this, soaking her hair and clothes, tugging at the hair she had painstakingly arranged, while mocking her with “You country bumpkin, who are you dressing up to seduce, some wild man from nowhere?” At that moment, Melissa's mind went blank, and when she came back to her senses, she was already sitting on top of the other girl and beating her until she cried.
Leon looked again at the baron's daughter who had been beaten so badly she couldn't get out of bed and walk. She appeared to be quite a bit taller than Melissa.
Only two months here, and she's already gotten pretty good at fighting. Leon thought.