Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Flag of Rebellion
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A long, long day had finally come to an end.
My steps felt light as I returned to the convenience store after a fulfilling day's labor.
"Well then, I'll head out here."
"Good work, Aila."
"No need to mention it."
With that, Aila withdrew gracefully.
I arrived at the convenience store and let out a sigh.
"Hoo."
I was truly exhausted to the point of death.
But there was still work to be done.
With food not going down easy, I ate the cake afflicted with Half Berserk.
Whoosh. My magic power decreased.
Wolfram's magic power dropped by 3.
Stamina and strength rose by half the magic power consumed, and an unbelievable surge of vitality coursed through my body.
"This is the realm of 3.5."
I roughly grasped it.
The buff duration was, as expected, 20 minutes.
"In the most dangerous moment... is there enough of a window for one move?"
Right now, I'm weak. I have to mobilize every card I have, and this Half Berserk cake that boosts stamina by a whopping 1.5 might prove surprisingly useful.
I forced myself to my feet. Time was short. What I needed to do now was prepare for tomorrow.
I cleaned up, finished prepping for business. Put the donut dough in the freezer, shoved the cream in too. Set the freezer to low power to turn it into a fridge, finished cleaning. Swiftly, all done within 20 minutes.
"Winning today's battle doesn't mean I can rest tomorrow."
That's self-employment for you.
The sun will rise tomorrow, and I have to open shop again.
That's how we live.
Once everything was done, I lay down on the mat with satisfaction.
Tomorrow would bring another day.
The next day, I rested due to muscle pain.
"......"
My head throbbed. My body sagged like a sponge soaked in water. Thinking it over, it made perfect sense.
In D/Z SAGA, the official Berserk skill always came with 'feedback.' Meaning, if you boosted your stamina by consuming magic power, you'd pay the price later.
In my case, I'd forcibly enhanced my stamina from 2 to 3.5—a 75% increase—and now I was bearing the full brunt of that feedback.
Anyway, I barely managed to pull myself together and got out of bed. Wasn't I skipping classes too freely? Midterms were still a ways off, though.
"More importantly, 1-3 comes first."
The entrance ceremony. Aila's defeat in the tutorial.
The dormitory ghost incident.
The midnight dormitory escape.
And then the end of Act 1 approaching.
Each act mostly culminated in a boss fight, so naturally, 1-3 had one too.
"A pretty crucial turning point."
As I organized my thoughts, there was a knock-knock at the door. Turning my head, I saw a pink chick peeking cautiously from outside.
"Milmyu."
"...Hello, sunbae-nim."
Her face bore a chick-shaped bandage, and she looked utterly drained.
Yet there was the chick, beaming brightly.
Since Milmyu had come by, I whipped up two smoothies and we sat down.
"What are you fidgeting about?"
"Y-Yes? Heh?"
"Drink up."
"Y-Yes!"
The chick glanced around nervously, startled at my call and chirping in surprise.
After sipping her smoothie, she took a few deep breaths and nodded, seemingly calmed.
"Sunbae-nim. Um, I don't know where to start."
"The fight outcome first."
"Ah, right. Yes. Ahem... So... I won. ...Hehe."
"I see."
I said that, but I was genuinely surprised.
Milmyu the failure had beaten the hero Kelters.
"Can you explain how you won?"
"Just like you taught me, sunbae-nim."
Did I teach her something?
Oh.
"Bang."
"Bang."
We both spoke at once.
One syllable, but it conveyed everything.
Got it. Bang.
A trick that worked even in the game.
Against a hybrid water mage melee character.
If you successfully defend or immune a few close-range attacks, the opponent's AI backs off to prepare magic.
A surprise or assassination during that cast time had a high success rate.
But that was just the game.
How many times had this girl rolled to beat Kelters? How many hits did she take just to bait him into casting magic with sheer grit?
Kelters was born different. His very existence was unfair.
She overcame it with pure willpower alone and landed that one strike.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she forged a miracle herself.
"How many times did you fall?"
"...Pardon?"
"How many times did you fall against Kelters?"
"I don't remember the rolls exactly... but I think I got hit about a hundred times."
"......"
Milmyu giggled as she said it.
A hundred times.
After twenty minutes, Half Berserk would wear off, and Milmyu's victory impossible. So she'd taken over a hundred hits in those twenty minutes.
Yet she stood back up and stole that one blow from Kelters.
"Your knees must be scraped, palms torn. Must've hurt a lot."
"...Yes. It hurt like crazy."
"And yet you did it. Good job. You worked hard."
"...Yes!"
Milmyu raised her gloved left hand in a V-sign, replying with a radiant smile I'd never seen before.
Ah. The glove.
"Looks like the glove helped."
"Y-Yes? ...Ah. Yes! It helped... a ton... well, not a ton, but... actually, it did a ton."
"Be clear."
"W-Well... It was like you were right there with me... in my mind. So... I felt like... I could attack faster..."
"You felt like you could attack faster?"
"Yes... like you were by my side..."
"That's right. You did attack faster."
I nodded, and Milmyu's face flushed bright red.
"Th-That means... our hearts were connected...? In that moment..."
"The glove boosts Dexterity under 10 by +3. You actually got faster."
"......"
"What's wrong?"
"The glove. Thank you so much. I used it well, sunbae-nim."
Suddenly so formal.
And a bit cold?
"Good to hear you used it well."
"Yes. Thank you. I won because of it."
No.
That's not it.
"Nonsense."
"P-Pardon?"
"It was all your own effort. A victory you earned yourself."
"......Ugh."
The chick puffed her cheeks, glaring at me with her flushed face.
What was that about?
After the chick left, I decided not to open shop today.
With lingering muscle pain, I idled away tidying outside the store, then dragged over a chair and sat.
Jefrin's seasons matched Earth's, and the calendar was identical—no lunar months or anything fancy, just January to December, 1st to 31st. Rinderfully unoriginal, but that casual setting was part of D/Z SAGA's charm.
So now it was early May. The prime of spring.
As I dozed lightly, inhaling the gentle floral breeze...
"Is Wolfram here?"
"...Mm. Aila, is it?"
"Oh my, meditating out here? Plotting another rebellion? You really are something, Wolfram."
Aila laughed as she said it.
How did she even think like that so effortlessly?
"What brings you?"
"Ah, first, take this."
Aila handed over a stack of bills.
"Fifty thousand lin bills, a hundred of them. Prize money."
"...Why'd you bring it?"
"I manage distribution rights for everything from Magical Patissier, right? They declared it, so the prize came my way too. Said to pass it on."
"Makes sense."
They'd monopolized rights till now, so desk-jockey bureaucracy figured tossing this over was fine. Trash professors.
"And on another note, the professors asked me to put in a good word with you, Wolfram."
"A request? What kind?"
"They want a pair of those Rebellion Wings you whipped up. Disgusting. Bunch of has-beens begging. I turned them down."
"I see. That's what it means."
"Yes. Exactly."
Surprisingly inscrutable.
What did she mean?
"Countless revolutions and innovations led by Magical Patissier. Under the artistic flag of rebellion they form, those fossils have no place. Only the truly elite, even if offered."
"......"
Ah.
Translating Aila-speak to normal: The professors want my Magical Sweets. But she blocked them.
"Good call."
"Yes. Heroes worthy of gathering under the flag of rebellion are limited. And I'm number one, of course."
"...Mm. Right."
"Filthy professors. Thinking they can join this grand march with mere millions of lin or 7th-tier artifacts."
"...How much?"
"But it's all part of your plan, making you look broke on purpose. I almost fell for it. Whining about high rent to poke at my feelings. Isn't that too much?"
Aila smirked.
No.
That's not it.
I'm actually broke. For real.
"This false info will make the second-rates offer cash. We weed them out, only letting true first-rates join. All a ploy by you to separate wheat from chaff?"
"......"
"Only I saw through the disguise first, intuiting the truth. Hehe."
The disguise was twisting.
How to handle this?
Should I just bail? In this mood, she might not cut rent but double it.
"Aila Trista. You know..."
"Since you shared the plan with me, I'll halve the rent from now on."
"What?"
"Making it free would hurt my merchant pride. But I can't gouge a partner who trusted me with everything. So half. Five hundred thousand lin."
"......Aila Trista."
"Yes?"
"You're the best partner."
"No need to mention it."
Aila turned gracefully.
What? Why does she shine like that?
"So, five million lin delivered, rent settled. How should we distribute the Magical Patissier?"
"We don't."
Are you nuts? Handing that out?
What if weirdos swarm us?
"Not at all?"
"Mm. Not until they've got some real skill. Plus, this skill has higher tiers. Doubles in power each evolution."
"What... did you say?"
"And two evolutions left."
Aila's eyes widened.
"...Yes. Got it. Then today's meeting ends here. I'll head in."
"Take care."
Meeting? News to me.
Aila walked out of Sector 8 against the spring breeze.
Before leaving, she tossed me one last line.
"Oh, right. That season's coming up."
"That season?"
"The flowers' awakening. You know, right? No worries about you looking shabby, Wolfram, but be careful. Tell me if you need supplies."
"Mm? ...Mm. Got it."
After Aila left, I pondered briefly.
May. Flowers' awakening?
What was that again?
"In the original, what happens early May?"
I racked my brain. Then it hit me.
May.
A status effect blanketing all of Jefrin.
A disaster, in a way.
"End of Eastern Forest region. Flowers bloom en masse in the sanctuary created by the great emperor, wind blows toward the residential areas. And..."
The barrier doesn't activate against pollen deemed non-hostile to humans, and Jefrin drowns in it.
That's the flowers' awakening.
The time when sneezes and teary coughs echo to the skies across Jefrin.
Eve especially had a substory where pollen wrecked her in battle once.
Eve sniffling and snotting, achoo achoo.
"...Not something I want to see."
That'd be rough.
Why would I want that view?
"I'll just fix it."
I've cleared main story and seasonal events.
A substory or two? Easy.