Chapter 26
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Elective Subjects (5)
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In the academy auditorium,
The sound that any cadet who had taken Practical Combat Studies even once would have heard enough to be sick of echoed throughout.
BOOM-
'Ow...'
"Ugh-"
Finally, a pained groan leaked from Aren, who had been slammed into the ground.
It was a sound that, though I'd never experienced it myself, still made my whole body crawl every time I heard it.
"That wraps up today's class. Make sure you all attend your elective courses properly."
Elina, who had just slammed Aren into the ground, announced the end of the lesson with a serene expression.
Most of the students, exhausted from Elina's class,
began collapsing onto the floor to rest before heading to their elective classrooms.
Today's elective was Dungeon Practice.
Being the first session, it wouldn't involve any real dangers.
It was held in a basic dungeon prepared by the Chairman, more like a simple orientation on how future classes would proceed, so there wasn't much tension.
"Isabel, Aden! Time to head out!"
"Libia, let go..."
We were about to move to Dungeon Practice with fairly relaxed minds when
Libia, having fully recovered her stamina after Elina had worn her out, came dragging Isabel along and restricting her movement.
'Isabel... is she okay with that...?'
I was just about to respond to Libia when
the sight of Isabel being dragged toward us made the thought arise naturally.
She was being pulled by the back of her uniform like a piece of luggage.
Isabel would normally be furious about something like that,
but right now, she didn't even seem to have the energy to get angry.
'It was always like this...'
After Practical Combat Studies ended, Isabel was always in that slumped state.
Part of it was her stamina being a bit low as a mage,
but the real main cause was mana exhaustion from pushing her mana to the limit every time in Elina's classes.
She'd perk right back up once she recovered a bit of mana, though.
Sure enough, the image of her being dragged like luggage suddenly vanished,
and now she was snapping irritably at Libia for treating her that way.
Watching the two of them was pretty entertaining,
but it was about time to get moving, so I spoke up as I looked their way.
"Looks like Isabel's recovered, so let's head out together."
Hearing that, Isabel calmed down a bit and straightened her clothes alongside Libia, finishing her preparations to move.
Once ready, Libia spoke up with excitement in her voice.
"Alright, let's go for real! I'm pumped for the dungeon!"
"It's the first class, so the odds of heading straight into a dungeon are low, Libia."
"Aw-! We might still go!"
Libia shot back at Isabel's cold-water response and turned her gaze to me.
Then, with expectant eyes, she opened her mouth.
"Aden! Are we hitting the dungeon today?"
...?
Why's she asking me...?
"How would Aden know?"
The question that popped into my head was echoed by Isabel as she directed it at Libia.
It was phrased as if it were the most natural thing in the world that I would know.
Doubts were bound to arise.
"...? Huh?"
At Isabel's words, laced with that perfectly reasonable doubt,
Libia visibly panicked, glancing back and forth between Isabel and me. That's when I started piecing together what was happening.
'Libia got the wrong idea...'
Since she thinks I'm a regressor,
she figured I'd know and asked me.
Of course, I did know—I'd played through the game countless times.
Unlike Imperial Swordsmanship, the first class here wasn't random anyway.
'But doing it right in front of Isabel...'
Asking me about the first class wasn't an issue on its own, but asking in front of Isabel was.
She didn't labor under the delusion that I was a regressor.
'Still, it's salvageable for now...'
It wasn't a huge problem, so I could smooth it over.
Isabel had picked up on the overly confident tone and harbored some doubt,
but it was minor. I could brush it off as just asking my take on the class, and it'd blow over without issue.
Not a tough fix,
so I had full faith Libia would handle it well.
Right on cue, as she alternated glances between us, words came from Libia's mouth—
"Ah..! N-No.. that's not what I..! Uh..! I mean—!"
My faith in her handling it well shattered in an instant as her words failed to even form properly.
At the same time, the faint doubt in Isabel's eyes, sparked by Libia's flustered outburst, amplified dramatically.
'Oh crap-'
This was looking way harder to salvage now.
"What...? Why are you so flustered?"
Naturally, Isabel pressed Libia harder, her growing suspicions plain to see.
Libia, now with no room left to dodge, trembled as her eyes darted to me in a silent plea for help.
"We really need to get going now, you two."
Continuing this conversation would just dig a deeper hole,
so I deliberately steered things elsewhere.
The words carried my intent: drop it.
"R-Right, Isabel! Let's hurry and move!"
"Hmph-"
Libia went along with it, but...
'Libia...'
Her tone was still dripping with panic, only fueling Isabel's suspicions further.
"Fine, let's move."
Fortunately, Isabel didn't seem intent on pushing it,
and with that, she took the lead toward the Dungeon Practice classroom.
'She clocked that I changed the subject on purpose...'
It had been an abrupt pivot since full damage control was already iffy,
obvious enough for anyone to notice.
"Let's go, Libia."
Confirming Isabel was ahead,
I started following with Libia in tow.
As we walked behind her,
Libia spoke up in a cautious, hushed voice.
"Sorry, Aden..."
"It's fine. Happens."
"Um.. by any chance, are we really not going to a dungeon today...?"
A simple apology,
followed by her tentative question...
'She was dying to know...'
Even in this mess, Libia couldn't help but ask—she really wanted the answer.
'She'll find out as soon as class starts anyway...'
"Today, we're going to the basic dungeon the Chairman prepared."
"Basic dungeon...?"
"It's just there to show how the classes will run."
"Ah..."
Libia sighed in disappointment upon hearing it wasn't the dungeon she'd hoped for.
'She'll change her tune once she sees the inside...'
It wasn't the kind of dungeon Libia was picturing, sure,
but the scale was something else entirely, befitting one made by a dragon.
I didn't bother mentioning that upfront, though.
As we caught up to Isabel ahead and chatted about other things,
we arrived at the Dungeon Practice classroom before we knew it.
Slide-
Gazes flooded toward the door as we opened it and stepped inside.
The classroom seemed packed with every cadet except the S-Classers.
Most of the stares aimed my way were still negative,
but it was what I'd expected after Imperial Swordsmanship, so I ignored them and headed to a seat.
The other two, however, seemed bothered by it. Once seated, they glared at the sources of the negativity and spoke up.
"The stares are still rough, Aden..."
"Tch. Gotta be the entrance speech."
Definitely not something to be forgotten in under two weeks,
so I silently agreed with Isabel.
As Isabel and Libia shot glares their way, the negative looks thinned out considerably.
I settled in comfortably and was chatting with them when—
Slide-
A sound from the front of the classroom.
But unlike usual, a sharp lingering trace of mana made it stand out,
drawing everyone's eyes to the door.
"What... everyone's here early..."
'Huh... too lazy to walk, so she used mana to open the door...?'
The one who entered after opening the classroom door with mana was a familiar face I'd seen plenty of times in the game.
A build that could pass for a kid's,
a languid voice,
jet-black hair in a messy twin-tail bind,
glowing green eyes half-lidded like she hadn't slept.
The Dungeon Practice professor and the kingdom's greatest genius mage in history,
Slacker - Rovel Leona.
The academy's reigning champ in laziness.
"Let's head out right away..."
True to her moniker, that annoyed mutter was all she offered before
the magic circle etched into the classroom floor lit up the moment she stepped in.
The light swelled, filling the room,
then faded away—revealing not the classroom, but somewhere else entirely.
The teleportation magic I'd grown used to after possessing this body, experienced several times now.
'Huh... she teleported this whole crowd at once?'
But I couldn't help admiring the flawless execution—no nausea, no delay, pure mastery.
Her teleportation was on par with the Magic Tower Lord's, no question.
"Where's this...?"
"The entrance exam site?"
While I was lost in those thoughts,
Libia and Isabel's flustered voices rang out from the sudden shift.
A dead-ringer for familiar scenery.
The basic dungeon crafted by the Chairman,
just like Isabel said—a vast white expanse we'd seen endlessly during the entrance exams.
As everyone reeled from the abrupt relocation,
Rovel, the Dungeon Practice professor who'd brought us here, finally spoke.
"Mm... this is the basic dungeon..."
After that single line, the same teleportation circle from before etched itself onto the floor beneath her—
"Better real practice than boring explanations... I'll be waiting at the end..."
Finishing with those words, the circle completed, and Rovel vanished.
'Huh...'
"Eh...?"
"What the...?"
The cadets, suddenly stranded who-knows-where, struggled to mask their bewilderment when
"This professor's a character!"
"Yeah."
Libia and Isabel, quick on the uptake, along with the S-Classers and a handful of others, started moving.
And just like that, rather abruptly,
the second elective course—Dungeon Practice—began.