The Dormitory Scramble Begins
Well, if I did that well, shouldn't I get something in return?
Sera had so many things she was curious about.
She kept chattering beside him while the meal was placed in front of them.
“So, you hate Shif?”
“It’s not that I hate it. Shif is an entity that receives hatred.”
“Hating Shif but still wanting to enter Shif School. What a weird kid.”
The meal was extremely disappointing.
Ethan stabbed the fried food on his plate with a fork.
..These are centipede and scorpion with rice. Why is the food like this.
He stared at the lifted item for a long time.
Those thieves don’t have money, do they.
With such vast underground caves and dungeons, why on earth was the food like this…?
Ethan swallowed it with his well-trained adventurer’s stomach, thinking he’d just get used to it.
Sera wrinkled her nose and let out a hearty laugh.
“This fried thing is super crispy!”
“Eat it up. You can’t find the back legs of the magul cricket anywhere else.”
“Uweok…”
Sera spat out the bug dish she’d been chewing happily right back onto her plate.
Maybe because it had gone through the cooking process, the appearance was so similar to the fried food that it was hard to tell the difference.
“Who would eat this kind of thing!”
Ethan ate the bug that was very similar to what she had spat out, chewing it openly.
“Why are you doing that? Crickets have higher protein content than the same weight of beef.”
“It’s a bug…”
“It’s future food.”
Sera frowned deeply and mumbled.
“How do you, from a noble family, eat things like that so well.”
Ethan wiped his mouth with a napkin.
“If it’s for survival, this much is only natural.”
“But in an era where magitech smart farms are fully developed, why are you talking about survival…?”
Over the past year, he had traveled the entire continent and experienced every kind of bizarre incident.
If he ate only moss worm soup for three meals a day for a week, it would feel like a five-star hotel breakfast.
From what I know, the Thief Academy of the Solitaire Empire… Shif School.
After enrolling, every single day was said to be nothing but assignments.
The beginning was eating foods I didn’t want to eat.
Looking around, he noticed masked students hidden here and there in the student cafeteria, staring fixedly at the new students and scribbling something in their notebooks.
They were probably already starting the entrance exam.
Ethan, with his keen senses, had already noticed it.
“But isn’t this a bit odd?”
Another quick-witted new student spoke up.
“What is odd?”
“I just feel a bit… like someone is staring at me.”
Ethan nodded lightly in agreement with Sera’s words.
“That’s right. The supervisors are currently monitoring the new students.”
“Eh!? Why?”
“Probably to evaluate whether you have the qualities suitable for this school.”
“Just while eating?”
Sera seemed to have as sharp instincts as Ethan.
Ethan felt he needed to keep her by his side even without receiving the red vegetables.
In the academy, it’s important to recruit talent early.
After all, there were also episodes where they would engage in team battles later at Shif School.
“The other kids haven’t eaten much at all.”
Sera looked around the cafeteria.
“Ugh… is this what they gave us to eat?”
“It’s too much even for me. I’m from a noble family!”
“Is this human food…?”
The new students looked on in despair, hesitating to empty their plates.
“You should eat quickly too. We don’t know what they might make the new students do here.”
“Eh? You say we’re all done eating?”
“I’m going first.”
Ethan pushed in his chair and patted Sera’s shoulder.
“Sera, you’re a special existence. So from now on, I’ll leave the rest to you, Sera.”
“M-me? I’m just from a commoner background.”
“The origin of your birth means nothing.”
Sera felt a warm presence in the eyes of the man looking at her, different from the cynical gaze he gave to the other new students.
“You’re already my teammate.”
Ethan had already set the groundwork.
To act freely within the empire… I’ll definitely need the support of the top guild from now on.
Among the surviving guilds in the story, the Kara Guild is one of them until the late middle.
Making friends with them won’t be a bad thing.
Whether this was a lie to lure the daughter of a rich guild or not, it didn’t matter much to her.
After all, she was the type who got easily moved.
“Eh, Ethan…!”
“I’ll leave the rest to you, Sera.”
“I’ll become the clean Shif instead of the dirty one, just like you said!”
“..No, you don’t need to worry about that.”
Sera was overjoyed to have gained a noble friend.
“He treats me differently from those arrogant, unlucky kids.”
She couldn’t understand why he overvalued someone like her, who was just a commoner.
“Seeing that he eats all sorts of things well… and he seems to have a good stomach… isn’t he the one who wants to become Shif more than anyone else?”
Next to Ethan’s empty seat was a neatly emptied plate.
He had devoured the insect food including centipede and scorpion, along with tree bark and bitter herbs.
Sera tilted her head with sparkling eyes.
Ethan has a serious heart toward becoming Shif Master!
Even though she was a noble, she had enrolled in this harsh Shif School and eaten everything, including bugs that even experienced rangers and street kids avoided.
I need to work even harder.
Sera clenched her fist.
“Ugh.. argh!”
She closed her eyes tightly and took a handful of the bug dish into her mouth.
“Hic!”
The new students watching this dropped their spoons in shock.
“D-dark elf…!”
“Is it okay to belong to the White Shadow Guild? What kind of ambition is that…?”
“Shh. What about the empty plate in front of it?”
Sera had also emptied her bowl neatly.
When she stood up with the bowl in hand, her expression full of energy.
A small masked beastkin approached her.
“Hey… you have to take everything you ate with you.”
“Eh? Oh, this is what Ethan ate and left… Ethan?”
When Sera looked around, Ethan was already gone.
“You can go clean it up at the stream and come back for it.”
“Where is the stream?”
“Go northeast from here for about twenty minutes. I can’t tell you the exact location… you’ll have to find it yourself.”
Looking around, the other students were complaining about having to walk a long way for the dishes.
“There’s no tap water? Why do I have to do the dishes myself! Bring a servant!”
“What are the catering staff doing? Why is the cafeteria designed so poorly…”
“Wait a minute… there’s no bridge toward the stream! Only a tightrope! Are we supposed to cross it like that!?”
Sera suddenly felt as if she had been deceived.
Ethan!
He had naturally thrown the dishes at her.
His talent for being a thief was showing deep within his bones.
“Tch… let’s see about that!”
Whether she was moved by peeking at the talent of the first teammate or crushed by the weight of the bowls, she shook her shoulders lightly as she lifted the plates high.
[The identity card was eventually taken away.]
Ethan went to the principal’s office and tried to intimidate the principal and the vice principal, but it failed.
“Please expel me.”
Principal Donovan squinted his scarred eye.
“Coming here suddenly and saying something so absurd.”
Rummaging through the desk.
Ethan took out the empire ID card and said.
“If taking the ID card means expulsion, I have an ID card.”
“What ID card?”
“Eh?”
When he looked at his hand, the ID card had already disappeared.
Druk.
The ID card slipped out of the principal’s drawer.
“I’ll keep your ID card safely. Come get it yourself when you graduate.”
Ethan trembled inside.
What kind of nonsense is this.
He had expected the ID card to be taken away, but he hadn’t expected it to be confiscated so casually.
Just as Ethan was about to speak, Donovan opened his mouth first.
“Have you forgotten where this is, Ethan?”
Principal Donovan stared at Ethan with both hands clasped behind his back.
Ethan calmed his mind.
He looked around briefly.
Display cases on the wall were filled with various artifacts.
When he shifted his gaze to the principal, there were harsh-looking poison potions on the desk and artifacts that he probably stole from somewhere.
Right. The principal Donovan was the Shif Guild leader.
Ethan crossed his arms and nodded lightly.
So this is how it is. I thought I was going to face even a saint.
Donovan smiled faintly at the quick-witted Ethan.
“A very good adaptability.”
“I’ve heard that compliments are not just words, Principal.”
“…”
“To this thief hopeful, shouldn’t you give me something?”
Ethan extended one hand forward.
Give.
“What?”
“You didn’t take my ID card from the beginning. So give me something.”
“So what?”
“Anything.”
Donovan narrowed his eyes, then scratched his head.
“..I got it, got it.”
He released his clasped hands and floated several cards in the air.
“Do you have a request for me? I’ll grant you one wish.”
“A wish?”
“As long as it’s not too excessive.”
Since Donovan couldn’t take the ID card, he was saying he would give a reward for it.
I was considering what I should ask for.
I’m still just a fresh new student at Shif School. If I demand school secrets or hidden artifacts, I’ll definitely be suspected.
I decided to pretend to be a bit perceptive.
“I’d like to get a club room.”
Donovan’s eyes narrowed upon hearing the words.
“You don’t mean you know about the entrance exam…?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hmm.”
Donovan stroked his chin.
“As a Shif member, it’s a superb ability to figure things out. But as principal, it bothers me.”
“I have no idea what the meaning is that Principal is referring to.”
“..You don’t have the aptitude for lying.”
One card trembled and a bunch of keys appeared from it.
Clang.
The key bundle flew into the air.
Ethan caught it with his right hand.
Donovan leaned back in his chair and pointed at the keys.
“Find the building that matches this key anywhere and use it as your club room. You’ll figure out where it is yourself.”
“You won’t tell me the location?”
“Learning how to find a building location is something you learn in the independent study class. You can do it.”
Ethan opened one eye and pouted.
“Why do you ask so many things from the students.”
“It’s not like professors don’t ask a lot from students.”
“Tsk.”
“Is the reward over?”
“It’s sufficient.”
Donovan stood up from his seat.
“Even a first-year new student who hasn’t finished one semester getting a club room? Your seniors would go to the Time Spring and complain right away if they heard.”
“It’s not my responsibility.”
The principal chuckled.
“Kruh… you’re really annoying to talk to.”
He gestured to the floating cards and put them in his back pocket, then tidied up the area.
“Oh right. Since I’m here, can I ask for one more thing?”
“What?”
He tapped the desk.
“Collect all the students in the auditorium in one hour.”
“Without using the school intercom?”
“The magic stone in the broadcasting equipment is broken right now. You collect them.”
After saying he understood, Ethan tried to open the door to leave.
“Oh, by the way. Tell him that too.”
“?”
Donovan grinned.
“If you’re late to the assembly, something very fun will happen.”
Ethan tilted his head and left the principal’s office.
The principal’s office door slammed shut with a bang.
Donovan stared at the door for a moment, then muttered to himself.
“..How did he know the location of the principal’s office on the first day of enrollment?”
He tilted his head, but soon shook the thought away.
Meanwhile, Ethan was at the end of the labyrinthine school corridor.
Holding the rope hanging from the ceiling, he descended while thinking.
What kind of nonsense is he trying again…
Ethan returned to the temporary dormitory where the new students were gathered.
A building that looked as if it had burned to a complete black.
In front of it, Sera, Ethan, and the other students stood with their luggage.
“This is the dormitory?”
“They said so.”
It wasn’t even a dormitory; it was close to a dilapidated shack.
“Hey, but you!”
“What?”
Sera puffed out her cheeks like a pufferfish.
“My partner is giving me dishes and cleaning duty!”
“That’s a misunderstanding.”
“What misunderstanding!”
She sulked and crossed her arms, turning her head.
I didn’t intentionally leave the plates behind.
I’ll have to appease her later.
Ethan stared at the decaying building with a bewildered heart, but soon calmed down and thought hard.
There were a few classes I remembered from before…
What event happened at Shif School upon enrollment?
Enrollment event, event…
Oh right.
“Dormitory Scramble.”
Sera tilted her head at that.
“Scramble?”
I nodded.
“It’ll be a super fun school life from now on.”
“Super fun…?”
She seemed not to understand the term.
An old woman with a hunched back came forward from the decaying building.
“Hehe.. welcome, new kids.”
She shook her cane on the ground so hard it rattled, then continued.
“In this wonderful place! You’ll have to deal with spider webs and cockroaches! ..If you want to live here for four years without dying, you’ll have to eat shit!”
As the old woman gestured, a banner immediately fell from the sky.
The new students’s mouths fell open at the sight.