A Benevolent Patrol
Gift Academy stood as the world's premier educational institution.
Its alumni ascended to the highest echelons of power across every nation. Whenever a graduate founded an organization of their own, its fame—or infamy—spread far and wide, from neighboring territories to the entire continent. Not only did they emerge as absolute masters at the pinnacle of their respective fields, but they also carved out entirely new chapters in history. It was the ultimate shortcut to becoming a hero, a prestigious degree track guaranteed to yield unrivaled success.
Drawn by that dazzling promise of glory, thousands sought admission. The 981st cohort alone numbered 2,130 undergraduates. And among them, the very first dropouts would be determined this week.
It's the week of the high-stakes practical evaluation. Anyone who bombs this will rack up such an insurmountable score penalty that no future lecture can ever save them.
Naturally, some of the failing students refused to accept reality. All they had needed to do was endure, and eternal renown would have been within their grasp. Yet they had failed even that, reduced to pathetic dropouts.
Backing from noble houses. Sponsorship from sovereign states. Investments from powerful syndicates. Though their affiliations differed, the weight pressing upon their shoulders remained the same: the expectations, desires, and desperate hopes of those who sent them. To betray all of that meant returning home to crushing disappointment, cruel vilification, and an astronomical mountain of debt.
Arcadia and Giselle have both been paying so much attention to the Lower Class lately that I'm starting to worry about them too.
Finding herself with some spare time after lectures, Orknodi decided to take a stroll through the Lower Class facilities to scout out any potential walking time bombs.
By Orknodi's internal ranking system, Yui was a second-tier supporting character—the classic NTR heroine.
Wielding the same sly, silver-tongued charm she had once used to wrap Rockfell around her little finger, she had narrowly scraped through the Lower Class re-examination. She had succeeded in keeping a foothold within the academy, but surviving the cut did nothing to wash away the humiliation burning in her chest.
"Dorothy. Rockfell. Everything you two are enjoying right now should have been mine...!"
Using a dagger, Yui sawed off a chunk of rock-hard black bread, soaked it in water, and chewed it down with pure venom. The Lower Class students passing by recoiled at the sheer savagery of her meal.
"Wait, isn't that the emergency relief ration they sell at five for one Point to bail out bankrupt students?"
"I've never actually seen someone eat that before... What in the world did Yui do to go broke like that?"
"Actually, Yui has plenty of Points." A student seated at an adjacent cafeteria table leaned in to drop the shocking truth upon the whispering pair.
"What?! Then why on earth is she eating that godawful sawdust brick?"
"Rumor has it she's hoarding Points."
"Good grief!"
"That's inhumane!"
"Why would a freshman pull the kind of stunt only a third-year would do?!"
In a dark corner of the cafeteria, a third-year student—who had cast an Invisibility spell on himself precisely to avoid the soul-crushing embarrassment of being seen gnawing on black bread—glared daggers at the freshmen. Naturally, being invisible, the fearless underclassmen running their mouths had no idea he was even there.
"Ugh. Why do I suddenly feel a chill?"
"Is it drafty in here?"
"It must be because it's still early in the semester. March can be pretty brisk."
Go ahead and laugh, you idiots. What could gluttons who mindlessly blow five Points on full cafeteria meals every day possibly understand? Yui inwardly cursed her pitying peers. There was an old saying that even dust, gathered over time, could form a great mountain. She had zero intention of ending her academic career as a pathetic Lower Class nobody. By hook or by crook, she would hoard Points until she clawed her way back to the Upper Class where she rightfully belonged.
For that goal, she could endure anything. She could easily pass up the sweet-and-sour pork, the stir-fried glass noodles, and the chili shrimp from the cafeteria's special Chinese set menu.
Crunch.
Crrrunch.
Finishing a meal as agonizing as tearing off her own flesh, Yui made her way to her next destination: the training grounds, where she planned to prepare for Friday's high-stakes practical exam.
"Morning, Yui!"
"Look at you showing up every single day, especially for a merchant guild heiress."
"Hmph. There's nothing more humiliating than washing out because of poor stamina."
Naturally, she was not heading to the indoor training facility equipped with state-of-the-art gear; that facility charged an admission fee in Points. Instead, she utilized the outdoor training field. It was a free public space open to anyone—a wretched, bare-bones lot frequented only by those who hated feeling confined, those who couldn't secure a spot indoors, or penniless bankrupts whose Points had run completely dry.
"Are you on Team Dolphin Shorts too, Yui?"
Drenched in sweat as she jogged around the track, Yui paid no heed to the voice at first, assuming it couldn't possibly be addressed to her.
"Excuse me? He~llo~? Earth to Yui! Bleh-bleh-bleh!"
"Quiet! Don't distract someone in the middle of their workout! What have you been babbling about anyway? Why is a little girl obsessing over dolphin shorts—"
Yui snapped her head around in furious irritation, only for her eyes to widen until they practically doubled in size.
"Y-Y-You...!"
"Long time no see! Do you remember me?"
"The menace who sabotaged me during the entrance exam with an innocent face and terrifying hands!"
"...That menace has a name, you know. It's Orknodi."
"Like I care! Do you have any idea what kind of living hell I've been going through at this academy because of you?!"
"What kind of hell?"
"Tightening my belt at every meal, using only free public facilities, and slaving away at odd jobs and training while everyone else laughs and enjoys their youth! Do you have the slightest clue how that feels?!"
During the second gate in the Hunter's Forest, specifically the third sub-quest, Tag, Yui had betrayed Dorothy in an attempt to pass side by side with Rockfell. But Orknodi's sudden intervention had cost her a staggering amount of Points and caused Rockfell to slip through her fingers. The capable man she thought she had stolen had returned right back to Dorothy's side, and Dorothy had welcomed him back with open arms.
Left entirely alone, Yui had previously been trailed by several male students like satellites orbiting a planet during her training sessions. Yet today, those same annoying pests were nowhere to be found.
Everyone knew.
They knew how monstrously strong Orknodi was.
And they had heard the terrifying rumors circulating about her lately.
Did she... did she really come all the way down here just to torment me?!
What a ruthless monster. To think she possessed the cold-blooded thoroughness to track down a defeated foe, no matter how weak, simply to trample them into the dirt once more.
Shivering with dread at the horrors Orknodi might inflict, Yui slipped a trembling hand into her pocket. She debated handing over just a few, but quickly realized that an extortionist of this caliber would never be satisfied with crumbs. In a desperate bid for self-preservation, she hastily untied the pouch at her waist and shoved the entire thing into Orknodi's hands.
"Take this and get lost!"
"Whoa! Caramels!"
Caramels served as a pseudo-currency among Lower Class students, functioning in place of Points for gambling, minor trades, and black-market favors. Yui had braced herself to be mocked for offering such petty commoner junk, but to her immense relief, the little tyrant seemed thoroughly pleased with the bribe, happily accepting the pouch.
"Thanks a bunch!"
"Then why aren't you leaving?! You wretched caramel racketeer! You apex predator of the underground tables! I can't even focus on training with you hovering around, so disappear already!"
At those harsh words, the bright, innocent beam vanished from Orknodi's face, replaced by the wounded expression of an abandoned puppy asking, How could you say something so mean?
"Haha. Come on now, Yui. Why don't you try being honest for once?"
"Yeah, seriously."
A pair of female classmates jogging past spoke up on Yui's behalf.
"Oh! It's the dolphin-shorts big sisters!" Orknodi chirped.
"Hey there, cutie! We see you jogging all the time, don't we? Don't mind Yui here. Her mouth is sharp, but she's a softie at heart. She was saving up a hundred of those caramels to trade for a prize, but look at her giving the whole bag away just because you're so adorable."
"Right? Yui is such a total pushover. You know the type—the naive girl who gets sweet-talked into marrying a deadbeat."
"Living a self-sacrificing life for others is admirable and all, but you've got to take care of yourself too, girl."
"Totally. Keep living like this and you'll end up losing the nice guys to other girls, stuck as some tragic beta female getting beaten every day by a deadbeat demanding yesterday's caramels."
It was enough to drive a person insane. Who was calling who a pushover?! These brainless, gullible simpletons!
Yui's temper flared to the absolute boiling point, but with Orknodi standing right in front of her, she didn't dare blow her lid. Mistaking her crimson, fuming face for bashful embarrassment, the girls in the dolphin shorts merely giggled and jogged along to continue their workout.
"What is this...?" Yui hissed, trembling. "Is this what you wanted? To make me a laughingstock in front of my peers?"
"I'm sorry! I really didn't mean for that to happen. I just came because there was something I wanted to ask you."
"Hah. That sheer arrogance, assuming I'd just answer whatever you ask, makes me want to grab your cheeks and yank them off. Just spit it out. What do you want to ask?"
Catching sight of her classmates glancing back, silently mouthing the word pushover with smirks on their faces, Yui felt her blood pressure spike. Struggling desperately to suppress the ruthless, home-wrecking instincts slumbering within her merchant blood, she braced herself—only to find that her anger was instantly extinguished by Orknodi's next words.
"Do you happen to sell drugs?"
"...You came to me because you needed merchandise from a merchant? Hah. I have nothing to sell to someone like you, but if it'll get rid of you faster, fine. Yes, I do."
"Then what about illicit substances? The unauthorized kind with side effects that stack Berserk counters every time you take them?"
When confronted with something truly terrifying, the human mind simply goes numb. Yui's fury dissolved like cotton candy plunged into water, vanishing into the vast ocean of her emotions. And if she had to name the suffocating tide that flooded her being at that very moment, it was pure, unadulterated terror.
How does she know? How does she know I possess the formula for the Berserk Potion? I haven't told a soul, let alone brewed or sold a single bottle...!
It was information the girl before her could not possibly possess—information she had no right to know. The moment the horrifying implications sank in, a violent shiver ripped down Yui's spine.
I know what you are capable of brewing.
Because I've already investigated everything about you.
That was the unspoken message behind Orknodi's words.
"Have you made any?"
The smiling inquiry no longer sounded the least bit innocent. It was an unmistakable warning.
"...Do you want me to make some?" Yui croaked out.
"Not really? As long as you haven't, that's fine."
Don't you dare dream of clawing your way back into the Upper Class.
Don't you dare let yourself cross my sight again.
Hold your breath and live quietly down here in the Lower Class for the rest of your days.
Fail to heed this, and you will have to explain to a great many people why the heir to a merchant guild possesses the recipe for a strictly forbidden narcotic.
Not only would her academic career be over, but the very survival of the Yui Merchant Guild, which carried her name, would hang by a thread.
"Oh, by the way. Don't go making any Berserk Potions," Orknodi added cheerfully, delivering the final nail in the coffin. "You'll end up locked away in a dungeon if you get caught!"