Nth Confession

Back at Little Cherry High, Vanessa was having her own troubles.

While it had now become common knowledge that she was dating the new student Alex, there had not been any reduction of the amount of people trying to court her. If anything, Alex's spreading reputation of being a pervert had resulted in more people trying to appeal to her as being better than him.

Vanessa never used her locker and the love notes would pile up unnoticed, so many male students would instead approach her directly or come up with innovative ways of sending her a note asking to meet somewhere private. The most popular such way was to use talismans to secretly place a note on her desk, or transmit their voice into her ears.

Today it was the latter.

"Vanessa, please come behind the gym today after school, there is something I wish to discuss."

That was what the voice has stated and she didn't even know who's voice it was, it felt vaguely familiar.

While she mostly secluded herself in school, she also had a group of girls that liked to hang around her most of the time. They were a group of beauties who shared their hobbies in fashion with her and the group would often go shopping together. Vanessa's house may be mostly devoid of furniture, but her closet was full as a result.

She had distanced herself deliberately at the time of Alex's confession and their alone time afterwards, but they always came back to share gossip with her.

At the same time, it was these same girls that were the primary driving force behind spreading the rumor of her dating Alex. She hadn't stopped them from gossiping and implicitly allowed it to continue.

Behind the gym after school, Vanessa found a waiting Brock Sanderson. Brock was 6'3" with short black hair the same color as Vanessa's and was a part of both a book reading club and the school football team.

Not far behind her were the three main girls from her clique of friends. They were partially here to support Vanessa, but even more so to get the latest gossip first hand.

"Vanessa, I like you and want you to be my girlfriend," Brock confidently stated while looking her in the eye while extending a hand in invitation, undisturbed by the girls who came with Vanessa to watch.

"You asked me last year too, didn't you?" Vanessa's responded with an unmoved gaze.

Brock was generally polite and well spoken, so Vanessa felt no reason to go out of her way to be rude to him and hence her polite response compared to how she responded to most people.

"Yes, but you had stated back then you held no interest in dating anyone. This has changed, hasn't it?"

"If you know I am already taken, what exactly is your goal?"

"I can be better."

"...What?"

"I will be a better boyfriend that he is. I have heard the rumors, I have seen how he looks at other girls. You deserve someone better than that."

While there was nothing wrong with what he said based on the general consensus of the students, the act of treating the person who she had chosen as her lifelong partner angered her.

Politeness be damned.

Vanessa crossed her arms, and action which inadvertently accentuated her breasts, while she shot him a frosty glare.

"...Are you suggesting I can't judge people properly?"

"N-no, that's not wha-"

"Who do you think you are?" Vanessa interrupted Brock, her voice even more icy as the girls behind her grinned knowingly and pulled out their phones to record.

"I..."

"You act all polite and innocent, but you think of yourself as better than others, above others, when you are just a dog in heat that only wants to hump."

Brock knew what was happening, he had seen and heard many rumors of it happening to others who annoyed Vanessa, he just never imagined it would happen to him. He could see his confession had failed again and it had taken a turn for the worse, meaning he had to escape from here as fast as possible.

"If you ever change your-"

"Get lost, dog."

Brock turned to leave but as he did so, he felt a heavy pressure on his shoulders that forced him to his knees.

"A dog would crawl on their hands and knees."

Brock felt like crying inside, as he had seen this happen to others too. He had heard rumors Vanessa was not just beautiful but also powerful and with a special background. What he was experiencing now was far more than just a rumor.

He wanted to get up and leave with some dignity, but the force pressing him down only grew in strength and pushed him down harder.

Vanessa's clique grinned and caught him crawling away without any dignity, another video to gossip about and spread through the school.

"That's our Vee!" Claudia, the brunette of the clique who did all of their nails as she was the best at it grabbed Vanessa's arm in the crook of her elbow. "Another one bites the dust, do you think he will try again?" 

"I don't care."

"But you know, calling him a dog in heat while your boyfriend is-"

"Do you want to crawl away as well?" Vanessa raised her brow, incensed at her friends who always seemed to know where to poke.

The friend in question wasn't offended and only giggled before locking her arms with hers.

"Don't be like that. But you never told us why you shoo'd us away and accepted him. Is he carrying a weapon in his pants? Come on, spill the gos~"

"Shut it, I said yes because I wanted to, nothing more."

Claudia yelped as Vanessa pinched her hip for her cheeky remarks, but as they were ordinary girl, the cultivator didn't put any real force behind it.

"Speaking of this though," Vanessa began with her brows sinking in resignation, "Keep an eye on him when I am not around and stop any girls from getting too close to him."

"Yes, madam~" The girls giggled and joked, earning them a glare of disapproval.

"And if any of you try to make a move on him, don't think I won't chop you up."

Claudia and the others didn't take this threat too seriously.

They knew her violent side, having previously seen Vanessa draw her sword to fight off a bunch of sleazy hooligans who were forcibly hitting on them and trying to drag them off to a hotel. However, they considered her to be their guardian and were heavily reliant on her for protection ever since.

Little did they realize, she was dead serious in making them "disappear" if they went past her bottom line and got too close to Alex.

The next day, the video of Brock crawling away after failing his confession had spread to half the school.