Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: RESULT
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I've seen this system message a ton. Way too often.
I recalled the time I stared at the screen, lost in those memories.
This message popped up after clearing chapters 1-4 of the main story.
Of course, it was meant for Kelters. Obviously.
So why the hell was it showing up for me? If I thought back on the D/Z SAGA I knew so well, the answer was simple.
"Buggy piece-of-shit game."
What else could it be? Nothing.
Kelters' heroine system activating on me? Then what happens to the story?
Nah, this was just a hollow system message triggered by me satisfying the 1-4 clear condition. No real effect.
So who's my heroine? What's my route? Is there a hidden path somewhere? Could I end up dying or some shit? Wolfram already had sky-high odds of kicking the bucket, and now they were prepping some insane bad-end route like Kelters' for me?
I let out a short chuckle.
"Anyway, time to use that skill selection ticket."
The skill acquisition and selection tickets both granted same-tier skills, but their effects were definitely different.
This one let me pick from endless 9th-tier skills—the ones I'd actually use all the way to the endgame.
Sure, 9th-tier was full of junk, but a few support skills lasted till the credits rolled. Like that "Play Dead" one I'd snagged before.
As I scrolled through options in my head, voices called from the base of the hill.
"Wolfram!"
"Senpai!"
I glanced at the two summoning me while browsing skills.
Oh.
"……."
A faint, hazy pink glow enveloped their bodies.
No doubt about it.
No freaking way.
"…Senpai. Let's go check the treasure chest!"
"Wolfram! This is the treasure born from our friendship! Come on, let's see it!"
"…Yeah. Let's do that."
The heroine system.
It had definitely activated on me.
"Let's go, Senpai!"
"Yeah, Wolfram!"
Eve von Loengrin was insanely busy. Filthily busy.
Without that monstrous mana pool, she'd have collapsed long ago.
Eve could convert mana to stamina, even if it wasn't efficient.
Otherwise, this sixteen-year-old student council president would've crashed out last night.
But even with that unrivaled conversion skill fueling her overwhelming drive, Eve von Loengrin's mental stamina wasn't infinite.
Her Will stat was high, sure—one of those "will monsters"—but not on the psychotic level of Rudika Hassan Shadow.
And today's meeting was gnawing away at what was left of her sanity.
"Mask sales are down over 15% from last year."
"Is that so."
"Yes. The commoner students and knight division kids are thrilled."
"It'll keep dropping, so tell Yggdrasil to quit wasting their time."
"Th-then, should you handle it personally…?"
"……."
Eve shot her secretary a glance, and the woman's eyes lit up with admiration.
"…Anyway, deliver it to Yggdrasil yourself. Got it?"
"Yes, President!"
Considering production costs, blocking Yggdrasil's corruption was a huge win.
But it wasn't her achievement.
Wolfram von Loengrin.
The man listed right above her on the family register had pulled it off.
He'd changed Jefrin.
Touched the lives of a hundred thousand students for the better.
How ridiculous was that? Wolfram could've seized back student council control right now—or even split Jefrin apart—with achievements like these.
"And yet, you handed it over to me. Why?"
If.
If Eve were Wolfram?
If her little brother stole her throne and she plummeted to commoner status?
If her ambition was reclaiming the presidency, she'd have done this:
First, claim full credit for the pollen countermeasures. Then strike at the council.
"Listen up, you chicks trapped in this academy."
"I, Wolfram von Loengrin, the most legitimate heir of the imperial bloodline, have cleared away this May pollen hell for you."
"Hard to believe? Even my sister Eve von Loengrin—the traitor who stole the presidency through foul means—acknowledges it."
"You'll want to know how I ended this pollen nightmare."
"The answer's outside. I led my own body beyond the academy walls and eliminated the source."
"I walked the untrodden path and brought happiness to all."
"Think about it. If you have a brain, recognize your own failings."
"Haven't we spent the last 300 years dishonoring our great ancestors' legacy in school?"
"Why not step beyond the academy our first emperor built for future generations out of concern?"
"It's moral failing. Impiety. Like chicks too scared of storms to crack their shells despite being ready."
"Follow me."
"The world is vast. I'll lead you beyond Jefrin, Wolfram von Loengrin."
⟨ Imperial Proclamation ⟩
A perfect plan.
Paint Eve as a power-mad usurper, himself as the lord of rebellion, struggle, and liberation.
With pollen as overwhelming proof, Wolfram could pull it off today.
Boost students with magical patissier snacks on top?
Over two-thirds of the restless knight division would flip to his side.
That's twenty thousand heads, give or take.
"And yet you handed it to me…."
What are you dreaming of?
What are you plotting?
She couldn't read him.
Eve couldn't grasp where her big brother was looking.
"Was I wrong about you, Wolfram?"
Then it hit her—the words he'd said in that forest, gazing down at her impassively.
【Accept it and find a way forward. Otherwise, you'll be stuck forever.】
"…He's telling me to follow. Says he'll be waiting."
Eve clenched her fist.
This throne she'd seized from Wolfram von Loengrin.
Yet he was encouraging her instead? Eve hadn't lived a life pure enough to take that at face value.
Even if she lacked presidential chops, she could make up for it with effort. Eve clenched her fist tighter.
"Any other business?"
"…One item."
"What?"
"The first-year top student issue."
"…Coolpis, was it?"
"Kel? Kelti? …Kel… whatever. The first-year top student. I got it verbally, not in writing, so my memory's fuzzy. Apologies."
"So, what'd that cocky Coolpis kid do?"
"…Last night, he snuck out of the dorms with friends for junk food, got caught by the dorm supervisor on the way back."
"……."
She clutched her throbbing head. Was that top-student material?
"And? What'd the supervisor say?"
"…Recent grades tanked, plus he lost to a girl who'd been rated inferior."
Eve sighed.
She knew the whole story.
Lost to Wolfram's fiancée, Aila Trista. Broke dorm lockdown, got tangled in the communal dorm destruction mess, flew off after eating dirt, and caused a nuisance.
Plummeting grades and a duel loss to a supposed scrub on top.
"Quit circling. Do I really need to hear about this petty crap?"
"…Proposal to strip his top-student privileges and demote him to regular status."
"Evidence?"
"Past behavior could pass as early-semester adjustment issues, but this is blatant rule-breaking with no good intent."
"No mitigating factors."
"Yes."
Eve sighed again.
Wolfram was already messing with her head, and now this damn top underclassman was pissing her off too.
Expressionless, like processing routine paperwork.
"Yes. By student council president authority, I revoke Coolpis's top-student privileges."
She instructed the secretary.
"This is the treasure?"
"…Senpai?"
"Looks like it."
Rudika Hassan Shadow—no, Nefti and Rudika—alternated stares between the relic's treasure and me.
Well, yeah. With elegant script reading 【Your adventure so far is the real treasure.】, who'd blame them for dizziness?
"This is the treasure…? Our adventure together?"
"That's what it says."
"…What did we even do on this adventure?"
"I took a golem hit."
"I dispersed it with a barrier and ate the damage."
They stared at me again.
"Didn't Senpai Wolfram do all the adventurous stuff?"
"True. Just me. Did I know the treasure's contents beforehand?"
"No way."
Even if I seemed suspicious, knowing the treasure ahead meant I'd dragged them on a wild goose chase knowing it was fake.
Unless you saw Wolfram von Loengrin as some外出-mad lunatic who had to leave the academy, impossible reasoning.
"Really…? You're not tricking Rudika, are you, Wolfram?"
I nodded silently.
"Really. This was my first adventure too. Strolls to Sleeping Mountains or Eastern Forest edges with you two don't count. How could I know the treasure's deal?"
"…Your first time. I see."
"Yeah."
"Got it. Then I understand everything. All of it."
"?"
"You read ancient texts, heard fairy tales, and chose Rudika and Nefti as companions for your first adventure. Right?"
"Sure."
"Perfect. That makes Rudika Wolfram's first adventure buddy. That's what matters."
With that, Rudika beamed happily and let go of the chest.
"Uh, um. Feels like there should be more. Nothing else?"
"But rare ores and herbs around here instead. Patrasche."
I nodded at Patrasche, who got the hint, dragged the cart over, and started mining nearby herbs and ores.
Good kid.
Listens well.
"Will you keep calling on Rudika, Wolfram's first adventure companion, often?"
"Sure."
"Mm. No. There has to be more… I believe it. I believe in the first emperor!"
The assassin seemed thrilled, dead satisfied. Opposite of conviction knight—or was it desire knight?—Nefti, who kept eyeing the handwritten note.
"No magic traps, too nice to burn… Ah!"
"What?"
"Senpai Wolfram, isn't this the great first emperor's own handwriting? Right?"
I nodded at Nefti's question.
Item appraisal in the original game confirmed it.
"Y-yeah! I get it now! Aha!"
"…?"
"The note is the treasure! The first emperor's writing from 300 years ago, worrying for future students! Auction it off, and it'd fetch a decent price!"
"…Isn't that imperial blasphemy? All great ancestors' relics are managed by the imperial family."
"Urk. If we use the knight division's fourth sector slums…."
"Straight expulsion, no excuses. Nefti."
Nefti deflated instantly.
"My get-rich-quick. My liberation. My freedom. Hit the jackpot, pay little sister's tuition, graduate, world gourmet tour dream…."
Too big for one Eastern Forest score, no?
She plopped down, sniffling.
She'd brought the treasure map, full of jackpot hopes… Kinda sad.
In a way, I'd tricked her.
"Dunno about world gourmet tours, but for finishing, I'll whip something up at the convenience store. Rudika, you too."
"R-really? Th-then meat! I want meat!"
"Ooh, got it!"
We headed to the store amid their chatter.
That said, didn't the glow around Nefti shift a tad pinker at "food"?
"Thank you, Senpai Wolfram!"
"Mm. No get-rich-quick schemes—work hard."
"Yes! This Nefti will become a tireless worker!"
"Rest sometimes."
"Yes!"
In this exchange, the pink seemed a smidge deeper. Illusion?
It's fine, right?
Should be.
Affection doesn't rise this easy, yeah?