Chapter 72
Chapter 72
Episode 72
"Haa... Anyway, the problem is that the kids are overflowing with useless energy, isn't it?"
[Dragon Emperor] Tiamat was, as always, sitting in the place where Spina's egg was kept, letting out her complaints.
The complaints she periodically came to voice were stories about worldly affairs.
They were stories prepared for Spina, who would one day be born.
"Oz has been causing trouble since way back, so that's one thing, but these days, Alexios, that bas— Hmph, hmph. Your big sister just said a bad word. Anyway, Alexios also feels like he's going to cause trouble these days, you know? Really, as the days go by..."
It was when Tia was in the middle of self-censoring and talking.
Wobble.
Spina's egg shook minutely. And there was no way Tia, a Dragonkin, would miss that.
"I-it moved, right? It really moved, right?"
Tia, who had been sitting slumped, straightened up and pressed herself tightly against the egg.
A faint vibration could still be felt.
"See..."
Tia murmured, hugging the large egg with her small body.
"S-see... I... I told you... it was alive... didn't I?"
Tia, her voice hoarse as if her throat was constricted, muttered words, not knowing to whom she was speaking.
Her younger sibling had moved. It wouldn't be long before it was born.
Look, everyone had told her to give up, but wasn't her younger sibling alive?
Tia spent some time holding the egg in her arms.
From the inorganic shell, for some reason, she seemed to feel warmth.
[Erosion rate 40%]
I didn't feel very good.
Would there be anyone who would feel good when an enemy they had never even actually met was coming to see them, acting as a guardian no less?
Yes, I hadn't felt good.
"Oz."
"Yes, Headmaster..."
"Even so, don't you think this was going too far?"
A little too much.
"No, well... I was aware from this side too that there was a clear difference in skill. But was there really a need to trample the kids' pride like that?"
"I apologize. It was an immature response."
It was only after my head had cooled down a bit that I realized it, but it seemed I had, surprisingly, harbored considerable hatred for the being called Salem.
Perhaps because of that, I had surrendered my body to anger and trampled on kids who had only just begun to learn intermediate magic.
The moment the match started, without even bothering about the opponent's response, I slammed magic into their unprotected bodies with overwhelming deployment speed.
The mages, whose bodies were also frail, had no choice but to be pushed out of bounds and eliminated, with expressions of not understanding what had happened.
"No, well... Yes, you're not an adult. Yes, I understand, but... I just said it because I also have a reputation to maintain."
It was said that she was the one who had proposed this tournament-style evaluation method.
To evaluate combat-track students, it was right for combat to precede, but the number of professors was too small to deal with all of them.
And pushing them into a practical training format wasn't feasible given the recent unfavorable circumstances, so in the end, they had to have them compete, but it must have been difficult to strike a balance with just the existing grades.
That's why she must have prepared a tournament-style evaluation where students would fight each other beforehand and repeat it.
Of course, she would have anticipated such side effects as well.
It wasn't even a problem for exceptional beings like Marie or Alexios to grind down the students.
Tia would have known that too, but it meant she had left it entirely to individual conscience. And I, with my head heated, had acted without conscience.
From her perspective, she couldn't get angry and could only express her frustration.
"For the comprehensive evaluation, please, I'm asking you."
"Yes, I can't guarantee it, but I'll try my best."
"No, I'd rather you just guarantee it... Is it, perhaps, because of Salem? If that's the case, I'll make sure he can't even show his face in the arena until the professor's match."
In a situation where it wouldn't be strange for her to grab me by the scruff of the neck as usual, she was being strangely deferential.
Of course, a normal teacher wouldn't grab a student by the scruff of the neck for something like this. But the opponent was Tia. It was definitely strange. It seemed like she had some ulterior motive...
"Ah..."
"Hm?"
Come to think of it, it seemed it was about that time. The time when she, who usually didn't need to be mindful of others, would have to be.
"No, it's nothing. I'll be careful, so please don't worry so much."
"Your 'don't worry' is just completely untrustworthy... No, yes. Please, I'm really asking you. Okay?"
Tia would soon have to leave Scientia. And in the safest possible state at that.
There was no being who would dare touch her, but what if it was a being she was protecting?
Well, it would likely be the same, but there was no way she wouldn't be worried.
[SSR Inheritor of Will]
Spina Ereda El Tiamat
Spina's egg had begun to move, and Tia had noticed it.
From her perspective, she would want to eliminate as many risk factors as possible.
It could be called overprotection or an overreaction, but as the person involved, she wouldn't be able to hide her anxiety.
Wasn't this the only family she would meet in hundreds of years? It was only natural.
Tia's destination was the Lunar Federation. The place where the [White Dragon] Jinsun resided.
Mount Penglai (Bonglaisan)
It was the setting for Chapter 6 of the main story.
"Don't worry."
"Then I'll trust you?"
"Yes, Headmaster. At least I, for one, will not cause any more trouble."
"R-really? Then that's fine. If you don't cause trouble, the rest should be alright, I guess."
"...If you say it like that, doesn't it make me sound like the academy's biggest troublemaker?”
"Haha..."
Answer me.
For now, all the exams I had to take, excluding the comprehensive evaluation, were finished.
In the case of the intermediate magic studies exam, it felt like it ended even earlier because my match finished unusually quickly, but...
Well, since there was nothing I could do about it now, I offered my condolences to the guys I had met.
Sorry!
[Erosion rate 34%]
The [Erosion rate] that had spiked in an instant still showed no signs of decreasing. Was there still animosity towards Salem remaining?
At this rate, I wouldn't be able to keep my promise to Tia, so I had to lower it somehow...
Fortunately, that aspect seemed like it would be alright.
"Hoo hoo hoo. Master, don't you need a cool drink?"
"...."
Because a being who would shake my mind in a different sense had appeared.
Eleanor appeared, carrying a large bag filled with drinks.
It was commendable that she seemed to be living diligently, but did she think this was the middle of a marketplace or something?
"Uh, no thanks."
"Don't be like that, buy one! Master, you're rich, aren't you? Your cute disciple needs money!"
Should I call her assessment of herself as cute objective, or should I call it detestable?
Still, well, I understood, so it would probably be fine to buy just one.
Even if I bought it, now that the Red Lion Mercenary Corps was gone, it was hard to think she would reach Chrysos, but it also didn't feel right to ignore her efforts.
I was worried that at this outrageous price, she might develop bad habits, but... as she said, this much could be cutely overlooked.
"Alright, can't be helped. I'll buy one, so give me one."
"Here you go, Master."
Eleanor took out a drink, the kind sold anywhere on campus, from the bag and handed it over along with the bag.
"...I'm pretty sure I never said I'd buy all of them, though?"
"I'm leaving it with you, so you have to sell them all by the time I get back, okay? I won't charge you for your drink, especially since it's you, Master."
"No..."
With those words, Eleanor skipped away, hopping and jumping.
I couldn't just leave this, so what should I do? Honestly, I had no confidence in soliciting customers.
It was easy to think that business would go well with this face, but my intimidating aura was quite strong. Since it was also accompanied by power and strength, if I solicited customers, it would be forced sales.
If I sold these expensive drinks like that? I wouldn't be able to face Tia. I had just promised not to cause trouble less than 30 minutes ago, so I couldn't do that.
"...I'll just have to hold onto it."
It was the moment I sat down in my seat, holding the bag of drinks.
"...."
"...."
My eyes met with Baekyang from the opposite side, who was carrying an identical bag with a pitiful expression.
"...No, this brat pulled such a cunning scam?"
Since she had run off in such a hurry, I had thought she would have her own match soon.
But she backstabbed me like this?
Cute disciple, my ass. Not cute at all. You scammer brat!
I roughly put down the bag and headed towards the other side where Baekyang was.
"...."
No, still, since it kept bothering me, let's pick up the bag again.
Seeing myself worry about whether Eleanor would get sulky even while being scammed like this, I thought I was a lost cause too.
When I arrived on the other side, I saw Baekyang, surprisingly, diligently selling drinks.
"This is my territory, you knooow."
"I'm not going to do business, so you can work hard on your own."
"...."
"Noah will get sulkyyy."
"She's the one who scammed me, and she's going to get sulky?"
At my answer, Baekyang shrugged and then picked up the bag I had brought as well. Hey, hey... If she did that, it would only make me look like trash, wouldn't it?
"How about a drink, you knooow?"
"The price is too expens..."
"It'll definitely be cooool, you knooow?"
Baekyang, unlike me, didn't hesitate to strong-arm people into buying drinks.
"Uh... yes... Please give me one..."
"Thank youuu."
She had even used magic, it seemed, as the opponent's eyes were hazy.
In the midst of that, she did make it cool with magic, so I didn't know whether to call that kind or cunning.
This one and that one, they were all ambiguous fellows. In other words, you could even call them human-like. Even though they were goblins
"Noah said she's going to hire mercenaries during the vacation, you knooow."
"...."
"That kid, unlike how she looks, is broke, so she's working hard, isn't sheee?"
"I know that too. And you probably know it as well, don't you? That even if she saves up this kind of petty cash, she won't be able to hire proper mercenaries."
"I don't know where Noah is trying to go, but well... I suppose so, you knooow."
Baekyang, who was sitting, slightly bowed her head towards me and made eye contact.
For someone who was usually scared of me, it was quite a bold action.
"What about you, Lord Oz, you knooow?"
"...."
"Are you going to leave Noah like this, you knooow? You, of all people?"
Bewitching eyes, a burdensome smiling gaze. No matter how I thought about it, Baekyang was older than us.
She gave off that kind of atmosphere.
When it involved Eleanor, she even felt more like a parent than just an older person...
"I know, you knooow~ That Lord Oz, and Lucia too, all of you, are watching over Noah."
Baekyang smiled, covering her mouth. A dokkaebi, no, even before that, a yokai. A bewitching yokai that seemed like it would mesmerize you if you looked away for a moment.
"What do you want to say?"
"You have a lot of money, don't youuu?"
"...."
"From what I can see, it's impossible to sell all these drinks before Noah gets back, you knooow."
"Are you telling me to buy them all?"
"Lord Oz, you could do at least that much, couldn't youuu?"
I could.
It wasn't difficult in the first place. Oz had been rich from the beginning.
It was said that mages spent a lot of money on research, but right now, I wasn't doing any research.
"Even if it's a meaningless act?”
It was meaningless. Eleanor could not reach Chrysos.
In the first place, even if I gave her a large sum of money instead of petty cash, there was no reason for mercenaries to go all the way to the perilous Chrysos.
The Red Lion Mercenary Corps had only approached Eleanor to deceive her; generally speaking, it meant hiring mercenaries itself was impossible.
"What's wrong with it being meaningless, you knooow?"
"...."
But Baekyang's thoughts seemed a little different. It wasn't because she didn't know.
She was thinking that the process itself had meaning.
"Haa..."
Seeing that, something useless came to mind. For no reason, the back where Prudence Loa's hand had touched felt hot.
Even if nothing could be gained, did the process have value?
Yes, that was probably why I had bought that expensive drink in the first place.
"Tsk."
I tossed the gold coins I had to Baekyang.
Even if it was a completely meaningless act, I couldn't stand the thought of ignoring her efforts.
It should have been like this from the beginning.
It was even annoying, feeling as if Baekyang had seen through my inner thoughts.
"Hoo hoot."
Baekyang smiled bewitchingly, covering her mouth.
But, though bewitching, it also felt kind. It seemed to be because her playful tone was imbued with consideration.
"Oh my, how kind~ Lord Oz is such a good boy who listens well, you knooow."
As if you're any better.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
After selling all of Baekyang's and Eleanor's drinks, we decided to watch today's big match together. Actually, the one who sold the drinks was Baekyang, and the one who bought them was me, but that didn't really matter.
The important thing was Eleanor's match, the one who had scammed us.
As much as she had put in various efforts, just watching her growth would be a sight worth seeing.
Eleanor was already standing in the middle of the stage as if she were the protagonist. Truly an action typical of her.
And her opponent was...
"What do you think, you knooow?”
"Noah is going to lose 100%."
"That's a harsh evaluation, you knooow..."
"Then what do you think?"
"Noah is going to throw up, you knooow..."
[SSR Fist King]
Alexios
Her first opponent was the final boss. The match Eleanor was participating in was for the intermediate swordsmanship class.
In the first place, for Eleanor who used a greatsword, it could be said to be a matter of course.
Then what about her opponent, Alexios?
"Is Lord Alexios also skilled with a sword, you knooow?"
"Why are you asking me that?"
"You two are brothers, aren't youuu?"
"Brothers, my foot."
When I showed my disgust, Baekyang giggled.
She was getting bolder these days; I'd have to re-establish the pecking order soon.
More than that, if I had a brother or younger sibling like that, I would have run away from home.
Could it be that the reason Oz escaped the monastery was to get away from the thug-like Alexios?
...Of course, there was no way that was true, but.
"Still, if I had to say."
"To what extent?"
There was nothing particularly strange about Alexios participating in a swordsmanship class rather than a martial arts class.
It was probably because there was nothing left for him to learn in martial arts.
I had applied because I didn't even know intermediate magic, but usually, for a character of SSR-rank, it was natural to learn something new rather than basic to intermediate classes.
But even that didn't apply to Alexios.
In other words, it was simply a subject choice for amusement.
And what made that possible was because of the passive skill he possessed.
"That bastard doesn't discriminate between weapons."
[All Rivers Flow to the Sea]
A passive skill that allowed him to equip all types of equipment items.
Considering that Oz's [Contemplation] possessed more abilities than what was seen in the game, [All Rivers Flow to the Sea] would likely be similar.
-Haaaaaaaap!
The sword, swung in a graceful trajectory from Alexios's hand, lightly deflected Eleanor's greatsword.
The passive skill, which had merely allowed equipping gear to raise stats, now literally embodied the meaning of [All Rivers Flow to the Sea].
With this, it became certain.
-Compared to the rushing momentum, the weight of the sword is far too light.
He was a weapon master.