Compliment Barrage in a Romance Fantasy (3)
Hell yeah!
Total points: 149.
Getting a full hundred in one shot had literally changed the scale of things.
With points like these, I've got to prepare that, of course.
Judging by the talk of "first class," the moment I'd possessed this body was the morning right after the entrance ceremony.
Which meant a certain event was coming soon.
The mock duel class.
Students facing off one-on-one—a lesson that could only exist in a full-blown subculture game.
And one fact was absolutely certain.
If I failed to earn Compliment Points and stock up on items or weapons, I was going to suffer spectacular humiliation in that duel class.
In that case, there was no way I could let Professor Kadisha—who had just dumped a hundred points on me in a single go—slip away.
"Professor Kadisha."
Time to go all in.
With complete sincerity.
"For a long time now, I've felt truly sorry that you haven't been receiving the recognition you deserve."
"…!"
"As a mage, as a researcher, and as an educator, you're a person without a single flaw."
"…!!!"
Professor Kadisha's flushed body trembled violently.
The target feels extreme joy.
Compliment Points: +300(149 → 449)
Whoa—just how many points are you pouring out, Professor?
Truly a real educator. A god-tier teacher. A tree that gives without reservation.
"I believe you—"
"Quiet!! Be quieeeeeeeet!!"
Professor Kadisha roared.
"…?"
Wait, why?
You were enjoying it too.
Professor Kadisha huffed and bellowed,
"Class! We will continue the class!!"
She spun around as if to scrawl something urgently on the board, then wheeled on the rest of the lecture hall and barked,
"Everyone stop chattering and focus!!"
The students flinched under the roar, then shot me sideways glares.
Hey, why are you looking at me like that?
Hmm.
In the forced silence that followed, I reflected.
At least the points I already received didn't get deducted.
If Professor Kadisha had truly been upset, the points would have dropped.
The fact that they didn't means that even if she's saying that out loud, she isn't actually in a bad mood… right?
I nodded to myself.
This is hard.
My friends used to tell me the same thing.
You're not a bad person—you're just dense and have zero social awareness.
"Li-Liam."
Maron whispered from beside me.
"What on earth are you thinking…!?"
"About what?"
"There's no way you don't know, Liam! If you make statements like that publicly on the very first day…!"
Maron's eyes shifted to gray.
"Do you have any idea who that ends up humiliating!"
"…"
No, I really don't.
Just who exactly did I end up humiliating?
"You there!! I already said no talking during class!!"
I found out exactly who I'd humiliated the moment Professor Kadisha's lecture ended.
"We'll continue next time!"
Professor Kadisha fled the classroom as if escaping.
And right then, the entire group that had been whispering earlier and gotten called out marched straight over to me.
The male student at the front of them glared at me.
"Gilliam Everchess, correct?"
Gilliam Everchess.
A wastrel who possessed nothing but his family name.
All he ever did was toss vulgar jokes at women and snicker, or loaf around drinking.
If he had at least managed that properly and become the kept boy of some rich young widow, Gilliam would never have been despised this thoroughly.
Gilliam couldn't even be a wastrel right.
He would hit on women, and the moment they recoiled in disgust he would mutter irritably to himself.
Even when he drank, he kept glancing around and sipped alone in corners.
A pathetic, pitiful man.
The shameful black sheep of the prestigious Everchess family.
That was Gilliam.
Even the academy's new students, if they were nobles, had heard the infamous reputation.
And yet.
That same pathetic Gilliam had suddenly transformed. On the very first day after entering the academy.
"Professor Kadisha."
In a serious, clear voice he had never once shown before.
"This may sound abrupt, but there is something I wish to compliment you on."
And then the bomb of a statement that followed.
Praise for Professor Kadisha, who would never, ever accept grade manipulation.
The sheer gap between the old Gilliam and this one sent shock rippling through the noble students.
Has he been hiding his true nature all this time?
Was he deliberately acting like a fool…?
If he was keeping his claws sheathed until now, why reveal them at this exact moment?
One of the male students muttered under his breath.
"Grade manipulation… so he's jabbing at the sore spot of our Crown Prince faction."
The instant class ended, that student strode right up to Gilliam.
"Gilliam Everchess, correct?"
Of course he already knew who it was.
He asked again anyway.
Translation: You're completely different from before. Just what are you aiming at?
Gilliam frowned, then spoke as if the name had only just occurred to him.
"Roy Edgers, was it?"
They both knew perfectly well who the other was, yet he acted like he'd only now remembered.
He's insulting not just the entire Crown Prince faction, but me personally as well.
But responding to an insult with an insult was something only commoners did.
Hide a blade inside words, a needle inside the blade, poison inside the needle, and a cipher inside the poison.
That was the language of nobles.
Every gesture.
Every motion of the hand.
Nothing was done carelessly; everything carried meaning.
"Gilliam, if you're coming out this strongly, I assume you're prepared?"
"?"
A blank, clueless expression that said he understood absolutely nothing.
Roy's blood began to boil.
"In this afternoon's mock duel, I will nominate you."
"You will?"
Gilliam frowned, then let out a breath of pure relief.
"Thank goodness."
Grind.
Roy nearly lost his composure.
To be ignored so blatantly.
If it were up to him he would have driven a fist straight into that face right now.
"…Tsk."
But Roy clicked his tongue with restrained precision and started to turn back toward his seat among the other Crown Prince faction students.
"Roy Edgers."
"Hm?"
"You use ice-attribute magic, correct?"
As if that were somehow new information.
Everyone knew the Edgers family were masters of ice magic.
"Yes. And what of it right now?"
"No, nothing."
Gilliam's eyes were fixed on empty air.
Once again fury boiled up inside Roy.
Asking the obvious and then immediately looking elsewhere.
Is he saying my ice magic isn't even worth thinking about?
Ridiculous.
I'll make sure he is thoroughly humiliated in the mock duel.
Even after Roy returned to his seat, Gilliam continued staring into space, muttering to himself.
"449… still short fifty-one points…"
"Li-Liam! What are you going to do?"
Maron asked urgently of the boy who seemed to feel no crisis at all.
"Roy is the legitimate heir of Edgers, the prestigious house of ice-attribute magic… and compared to that, Liam is…!"
Maron was genuinely worried.
"Liam… you can't use magic or swordsmanship at all!"
A wastrel who possessed nothing but his family name.
Among the things Gilliam lacked was personal ability as well.
In other words.
Gilliam was not merely a pathetic, pitiful man—he was also completely incompetent.
Couldn't use magic.
Same for swordsmanship.
Nor did he have talent in any other area.
Nominating that Gilliam as a mock-duel opponent was a public declaration that one intended to thrash him and humiliate him in front of everyone.
Maron's reaction was only natural.
But it won't go that way this time.
• Scroll of Ice Resistance — 300 Points
• Low-grade Shockwave — 200 Points
The problem was that I was still short on points.
Should I go chase after Professor Kadisha?
Flood her with compliments in her private office?
…No.
Doing that to a professor could easily be read as a voluntary declaration of slavery along the lines of "Please drag me into your graduate program!"
Even someone as dense as me could guess that much.
Then should I start grabbing other students and complimenting them from now on?
Possible, but the odds are high I'd have to clear up misunderstandings first.
When my points were zero it had been fine.
But I already had 449 stacked up.
If I lost them, there was no telling how long recovery would take.
Which left only one method.
Maron.
Pour compliments onto the girl who had already accepted my sincerity and fill the remaining fifty-one points.
Maron was a likable character from the start, too.
The reason she treated Gilliam kindly wasn't because of any special bond between them.
It was simply because Maron Clearias herself was a kind and gentle person.
"Even if Liam is a scoundrel… maybe if I treat him well, he'll show a better side."
That was the kind of person Maron was.
In the game-within-the-game Astra Radius, she was listed as a distribution five-star character, right?
I understood the choice.
If I were a game developer, the early guide character you could obtain would absolutely be someone like Maron.
Is that also why she looks like this?
A full-on subculture-game fashion that left her cleavage and sideboob completely exposed.
When I first possessed the body I'd been too disoriented to notice, but looking properly now, it was quite bold.
Anyway, if it was this Maron, she would definitely grant my request.
"Maron, sorry, but can I ask one favor?"
"What is it…?"
"From now until the mock duel starts, every break period, come with me—just the two of us—to somewhere with no people and spend time together."
"………What?"
Maron's face flushed bright red.