How to Spend a Holiday (1)
Huhuhu, the future mastermind pulling strings from the shadows? As if. Take this past-life knowledge cheat and choke on it! My bravado lasted about five seconds before I found myself clutching my head over one very annoying problem.
“...Why the hell aren’t these things moving?”
I’ve probably said it a few times by now, but Planetarium has two main types of scenarios. The first triggers automatically once a specific time is reached. The second activates in a chain once certain conditions are met.
The previous “Southern Army VS Academy Heart-Pounding Guillotine Match!” for example, was the kind that would pop off on its own after enough time passed. If the name sounds ridiculous, that’s not on me. The original work apparently hated the idea of players whining, “There’s nothing to do. Why is this game so content-starved? Total garbage,” so it crammed every corner of the world with random events and scenarios. Some you could safely ignore and only miss out on rewards. Others, if left alone, would spiral into absolute disasters.
That’s why I stepped in early on the southern army business—to nip the big scenarios in the bud before they could bloom. The problem was that the scenario that was supposed to be blooming right about now had gone completely silent.
“It’s about time for them to start stirring up trouble...”
The cult with the painfully lame name—Star Seekers—believed that the prosperous humanity of this continent were sinners abandoned by the stars. Their only path to salvation was to become the stars’ chosen “new humanity.” They were fanatics, every last one of them.
The real issue was that becoming an apostle required an enormous number of lives as payment. To them, anyone who wasn’t a believer wasn’t even human—just an offering. Julius might pull every dirty trick in the book to seize power, and the Ivestan Empire might be moving to reclaim continental dominance, but both of them still operated with some degree of rationality. These lunatics had none. They were terrorists, plain and evil.
So I’d already cleared the dungeon that served as the prologue to the Star Seekers scenario. I’d even posted surveillance to alert me the moment they showed up. But they never came. The window for the scenario to begin had already passed, yet nothing. I’d cleared my entire schedule for this! I’d even negotiated with Professor Istal to turn my classes into holidays!
Was this the butterfly effect? Or had I been too complacent, assuming the story would follow the game timeline even though I knew this wasn’t a game anymore? Then again, I couldn’t just throw out my meta-knowledge entirely. The previous mock battle event had unfolded exactly as I remembered, so I couldn’t afford to drop my guard.
“...So what am I supposed to do now?”
My original plans had all evaporated into thin air, leaving me with nothing but time. Training? Spell practice? Neither was a bad idea, but I already squeezed those in during classes and free periods. Doing more of the same felt pointless.
As for strengthening my companions, I’d already done everything currently possible. I’d handed out appropriate gear to the core members, and everyone was growing rapidly through their classes. The Academy really was the best place for explosive early-game growth. I hadn’t forced my way in despite all the restrictions for nothing.
On the business side, I’d left Midas Cube sales to Loto. Not that he was doing anything complicated—when Dorp or his merchants delivered the goods, he simply sold them inside the Academy. I knew it would be smarter to hire professionals for reliability and business savvy, but commercial activity within the Academy came with annoying restrictions. Right now I was only allowed to operate because I supplied some cubes to the professors for class use. Even then, the fact that a student was selling to other students put me in a gray area. If I brought actual merchants inside and let them sell openly, the backlash would be unbearable.
In the end, I had to either do it myself or leave it to fellow student Loto. It wasn’t impossible that he might lose his mind, pocket the money, and run... but even if he did, I still held the cube generator. The entire business only worked because I kept skimming the best items from the cubes students brought as payment. Even if he ran off with a few hundred cubes, how much could he realistically earn? And how would he handle the consequences? Skimming a gold coin or two might go unnoticed, but at any real scale it would be obvious.
There were plenty of safety measures in place, so just keep working hard for me, Loto. Though now that I think about it, is getting paid in cubes instead of wages really okay? I shouldn’t talk since I’m the one who introduced the system, but aren’t you getting a little too addicted to gacha...?
While I sat in my room, lost in thought, a knock came from outside. I opened the door to find a beautiful girl with silver hair that carried a faint blue tint looking up at me.
“Ah, Brother. You were inside after all.”
“Fiore? What’s up?”
“It’s a little awkward to say right here in the hallway.”
With a playful smile, she stepped briskly into the room.
“Hmm. The men’s and women’s dorms have different buildings, but the basic layout is identical, huh?”
“Hey, hey. You can’t just barge into someone else’s living space like that.”
“We’re siblings. What’s the big deal?”
I was pretty sure it was a big deal. Especially the faint floral scent that drifted over whenever she moved, or the glimpses of skin visible through her rather revealing clothes. Was this familial trust? Complete defenselessness? Or was she teasing me on purpose? Given her usual behavior, it felt intentional, but maybe she genuinely didn’t think anything of it.
Sigh. Yeah. Best not to mention it.
While I kept silent, Fiore looked around the room with open curiosity before tilting her head.
“It feels... lifeless in here. Like only the bare minimum tools are placed exactly where they need to be. It’s not the image I had of you, Brother.”
What was that supposed to mean?
“What’s my image, then?”
“Hmm. A picky crow? You collect shiny things, but you’d probably sort them strictly by grade and keep everything rigidly organized. I didn’t think you’d live somewhere this stark.”
“......”
Was that an insult?
After quickly reflecting on my usual habits, I answered her.
“The mansion I commissioned in the special district is almost finished, so I’ve been packing to move over there.”
“Oh, the one you got as a reward for the last group assignment. It took them long enough.”
“I had a lot of specific requests.”
As a reward for the previous integrated group project, top-scoring students received the right to build a residence of their choosing in the Academy’s special district. The plot of land per person was large enough for a comfortable home for a family of three, but I wasn’t satisfied with that. I bought up the land shares from my party members and built an actual mansion.
It was three stories tall, designed so two separate buildings faced each other with a connecting passage in the middle. You could move between them without ever stepping outside. The first floor housed an alchemy workshop, storage, and a small training yard. The upper floors were living quarters.
My picky demands had made the head carpenter glare at me like he wanted to murder me... Sorry about that, sir. But when I thought about the future, I needed a proper base of operations. I couldn’t keep borrowing alchemy equipment forever to make Attribute Stones, and I had far too many gold coins and unopened cubes piling up. I needed somewhere secure to store them.
“Miss Ligret is moving in too, right? Would it be okay if I joined you?”
“Well, you technically have rights to the land too, so I don’t mind... but are you sure?”
“Haha, it’s not like you’d try anything weird, Brother. Not with someone as reliable as Miss Ligret acting as your bodyguard.”
Not funny, kid. Though the living quarters were separate despite the connecting passage, so maybe it wouldn’t be a big issue.
“Anyway, you said you had business with me?”
“Oh, right!” Fiore clapped her hands together. “Brother Theo asked me to tell you he wants to see you.”
“Theo? Why?”
“He said he’d tell you once we met.”
“Hmm.”
What could this be about? It wasn’t like we lacked letters or communication artifacts. The fact that he specifically wanted to meet in person suggested it was something important. I had a few guesses, but...
I thought for a moment. Should I go? Or would it be smarter to stay here on standby just in case?
“Got it. I’ll contact Ligret and we’ll head over together.”
The decision came easily. Better to move than wait. If there was something to gain by staying put, that would be different, but since my prediction had already missed the mark once, obsessing over it wouldn’t accomplish anything.
“Understood. I’ll prepare a carriage, then.”
“A carriage? Wouldn’t the train be faster to Spero? The station isn’t even that far.”
“No. The carriage will actually be quicker. The place where Brother Theo is waiting... is right here in the empire.”