7. Midterms on a Deserted Island, as Expected
7. Midterms on a Deserted Island, as Expected
The Lufthragina Archipelago. To put it simply, a cluster of uninhabited islands.
It belonged to the Chairwoman, and while Grandis Academy sat squarely inland, the story of how she came to own a far-flung archipelago went like this:
"Krakens used to spawn around those islands fairly often."
"...The Krakens I'm thinking of? The 7th Rank monsters that, while a notch below a Manticore, can obliterate an entire port city with a single specimen? The calamities of the sea whom sailors once worshipped as a Sea God?"
"Yes. Though I'd argue they're trickier to kill than a Manticore, precisely because they don't come out of the water. And while a Manticore operates alone, for some reason more than ten Krakens had gathered near that archipelago. No one could even launch a ship there, so I beat them to death at my convenience."
"By yourself... you did that?"
"Honestly, if all thirteen had rushed me at once I might've struggled a little, but after I blew up about three of them, the rest ran off on their own. Anyway, because nobody knew when the Krakens might come back, they just signed over ownership to me."
It was the sort of anecdote that gave you a glimpse of what the Chairwoman had been in the past. In any case.
The Lufthragina Archipelago's history as a Kraken breeding ground meant no port city had ever been built nearby. The entire area had been abandoned due to the risk of Kraken attacks, so we had to charter a mana-powered ship from the nearest harbor.
Negotiations went smoothly. As it happened, the local noble's son was a student at Grandis Academy.
What about the safety risk, though? Krakens could still appear.
"I'll go in person."
"No one's going to argue with that."
The strongest person in the Kingdom was accompanying them — who was going to complain? Especially when she was the very same person who'd single-handedly driven off all those Krakens.
Of course, the Chairwoman and I making the decision didn't mean the work was done. We still had one very simple step left.
Namely: we just announced it at the department heads' meeting.
"We'll be changing the midterm exam content. The theme is survival, and the location is my personal property, the Lufthragina Archipelago."
"M-Madam Chairwoman...?"
"Three weeks until midterms, correct? Submit your plans starting now."
"Madam Chairwoman!"
"...Understood."
I delegated the work to the Student Affairs Department head and the Chief Examination Officer... and trusted them to handle it.
The Academic Affairs Department, the Planning Department, Food Supplies Management, and the Guard Corps weren't entirely uninvolved, but none of them would bear the brunt the way Student Affairs — who fielded student complaints — or the Chief Examination Officer — who managed the exam itself — would.
This was clearly a somewhat different course from the Chairwoman's past behavior, but who was going to say anything? When she said jump, you jumped.
Before I could gaze with quiet pride at a Chairwoman who seemed to have undergone a slightly dark-coded evolution,
I stood beside the despairing Student Affairs head and the dejected Chief Examination Officer and spoke quietly with the Food Supplies Management Head.
"As you know, this time you only need to prepare the basic survival kits. Nothing else. You understand the rest."
"Naturally. But I am curious: if the midterm proceeds this way, won't at least seven out of ten academy students be heading out to uninhabited islands?"
"They will."
"A rough calculation suggests the anticipated expenditure will be less than one-tenth of the last midterm. This is... purely coincidence, I take it?"
"Obviously a coincidence. As Finance Director, I suppose I could call it good fortune."
"...Understood."
The Food Supplies Management Head's eyes shifted a little, but saving on the budget was good for his department, too. That's what mutual cooperation looks like, isn't it?
The foreseeable problems were: the Student Affairs Department and Exam Officers pulling insane all-nighters for the next three weeks on site surveys and new planning documents; the stress on academy students — a great many of them noble offspring — and on whichever nobles had to let that Chairwoman cross their territory; and the flood of student complaints and grumbling during the exam itself.
Nothing major. In exchange, we'd saved a colossal amount of money.
Besides, I'd already worked out rough solutions for those problems, too.
"By the way, does this mean you'll be going to the islands as well, Finance Director?"
"Excuse me? Why would I go? It's insanely hot, humid, maddening, and crawling with mosquitoes. Obviously I'll be staying at the academy and working with the cooling magic devices running."
"...Finance Director?"
"Yes, Madam Chairwoman?"
"You'll be coming with me."
".........Pardon?"
Wait, hold on.
This is not what we discussed.
I frantically maintained a facade of composure and tried to signal the Chairwoman with my eyes, but she just smiled and gave a small nod.
"Aside from the Chief Examination Officer and the Finance Director, I leave the academy in the care of the other department heads. Though it's only a week."
""""As you command.""""
"Understood, Madam Chairwoman."
"Now hold——"
"Meeting adjourned! Everyone dismissed!"
Adam Caines, Finance Director.
Island assignment: confirmed.
*
Bwooooom———
The mana ship carved through the water with a deep, resonant hum.
"How refreshing. This is my first time on a mana ship, too."
"You, Your Highness?"
"The Delphia Kingdom does border the sea, but we've never had the luxury of operating mana ships. It's the ocean, after all."
"That is true."
Unlike other equipment powered by magic stones, a mana ship operated on a fundamentally different cost scale. Simply because it was a ship.
More precisely, the problem was the sea itself. The sea remained a place the continent's races — humanity included — had yet to conquer.
Monsters at the 2nd or 3rd Rank level swarmed like baitfish, and powerful 5th or 6th Rank monsters appeared with unsettling frequency. That was the ocean.
So a mana ship wasn't merely a vessel propelled by mana; it was fitted with every conceivable weapon to efficiently exterminate monsters, and regulations required at least one mage aboard for emergencies.
Only through such measures had port cities been established and the sea gradually pioneered, but even that was limited to coastal waters — venturing far into the open ocean remained a distant dream.
And even a mana ship built with such painstaking effort crumpled like paper if a 7th Rank Kraken showed up.
Beyond the hegemonic Empire and the powerful Kingdom right behind it, few nations could properly operate mana ships.
That very fact was why Beatrice stood on the deck of the surging mana ship, savoring the sea breeze.
"I've ridden ordinary boats out to areas without monsters before, but this is my first time going all the way to an archipelago this far from the continent. Rus Spero, isn't it the same for you?"
"...I've never even seen the sea."
"We never know when we'll ride a mana ship again, so let's enjoy it to the fullest. And you there. Your name was Milia, wasn't it?"
"Y-Your Highness needn't remember a name like mine! Please, just ignore someone like me and carry on as you two were..."
"We're on the same team. How could I do that? The rule is each team must have one student from magic, martial arts, and administration. And I chose you personally."
"Your Highness...!"
"You've already received a recruitment invitation from the Student Council. Aren't you being a little too self-effacing?"
"...That's."
After meeting Rus Spero on the street, Beatrice had assembled her team for the midterm.
From the magic field: Beatrice herself. From martial arts: Rus Spero. And from administration: Milia.
A commoner without a family name, barely a month into her first year, and she'd already caught the Student Council's eye.
That fact alone had made Beatrice take careful note of Milia.
'Civil engineering as her major. That'll be extremely useful in a survival-themed exam.'
Rus Spero was 6th Rank, so despite his restrictions he posed no problem at all. If anything, the real weak link was Beatrice herself, the half-baked mage.
But even for a midterm where artifacts were forbidden, she had already prepared her own methods.
Everything was perfectly in order. Nodding to herself at the thought, Beatrice surveyed the vast expanse of the sea.
"Those mana ships over there are all headed to different islands, I assume?"
"Th-the Lufthragina Archipelago consists of twenty-seven islands... so each year's students are likely going to different ones."
"With roughly seven thousand students taking the exam this time, that comes out to about two hundred fifty per island."
Unlike other private academies, Grandis Academy had a relatively small student body. At public academies, student tuition was a major revenue stream, but private ones operated differently.
Naturally, because Grandis Academy's Chairwoman was the wealthiest person in the Kingdom, tuition was kept low while entrance exams remained rigorous, resulting in fewer students relative to the campus size and educational resources.
Conversely, that very scarcity kept nobles and talented commoners alike continuously knocking at the academy's door.
Beatrice tenderly stroked the broken clock artifact — permitted as an exception since it could no longer function as an artifact — and nodded as if steeling her resolve.
'No matter what.'
She would earn top marks, take first place, receive the scholarship.
And combine it with her part-time work to help Adam, even if only a little.
"................."
Rus Spero watched Beatrice intently.
"Ngh..."
And wedged between a 6th Rank swordsman and a foreign princess, the commoner Milia
could only let out a queasy groan of discomfort.
At last, the mana ship reached one of the uninhabited islands of the Lufthragina Archipelago.
The moment the hundreds of students aboard disembarked.
"The midterm exam now commences, effective this hour. Your issued supplies are the survival kit — that's all! Survive on this island for the next seven days! Detailed rules will be displayed in the sky for reference at any time! That is all!"
Bwooooom.
The ship departed without mercy.
".........Huh?"
A single noble student's bewildered murmur
spoke for every student left stranded on the uninhabited island.
*
"Madam Chairwoman."
"Yes, Finance Director."
"Did you bring me here on purpose, specifically for this?"
"You could say that. How is it?"
"You ask how it is..."
——It's absolutely perfect.
Among the islands of the Lufthragina Archipelago, the one farthest from the mainland and closest to the open ocean.
Unlike the other islands, a small house had been built here. Not quite a vacation home, but adequate enough for a comfortable stay.
And the Chairwoman and I
were lying in a hammock, resting at ease, having left student supervision to the other faculty members.
"What is this house, anyway?"
"I built it as a base of operations when I was hunting the Krakens. I had the faculty who went ahead for the site survey tidy it up — it's in better shape than I expected."
Well, the faculty would've cleaned it assuming it was where the Chairwoman would be staying. Only natural, given she was the Kingdom's wealthiest person (audible laughter) and the dictator who ruled the academy (audible laughter).
The only difference was that I'd been added to the arrangement.
"I already eliminated any troubles that might arise during the exam, and we've thought of ways to handle student complaints, haven't we? So all that's left is to rest comfortably!"
"Honestly... I can't remember the last time I was able to lie back and relax like this."
"It's only a week, but this is a vacation — my gift to you. I've brought plenty of food, and I told the faculty not to come unless it's something truly urgent, so..."
She shifted a little closer.
The Chairwoman had edged nearer, and smiled at me with her eyes.
"...It really is just the two of us."
Yeah, it is.
How long has it been since I rested like this?... Come to think of it, this is the first time since I became Finance Director.
A nagging sense of guilt whispered that maybe I ought to be back at the academy doing paperwork instead of lazing around here.
'But this is a rare chance to rest.'
There are limits to how long I can keep going on military-grade stimulants and infusions of the Chairwoman's ki.
Now that things had turned out this way, resting properly and recharging might actually yield higher efficiency when I got back to work.
As the Chairwoman — now close enough to be a little overwhelming — gazed at me with an unreadable expression, I raised my hand and clapped twice.
Clap, clap.
"Professor Kirke."
"...Finance Director?"
"You recall the dedicated communication magic tool the Chairwoman gave me before. I've modified it to activate in response to my clapping."
"Wh-what do you need the communication tool for?"
"There's a small errand I need run."
More importantly, she ought to be listening. Why isn't she answering?
Clap, clap.
I clapped again, more impatiently this time, and a voice emerged from the fist-sized crystal sphere I'd tucked into my coat.
——What... is it this time?
"Now, now, why so prickly? Professor Kirke, all that anger at such a young age — you'll die early."
——That is! Because someone cut my annual salary by ninety-eight percent! I went hungry again yesterday because of it...!!
"I am quite certain you can get by just fine on far less than that."
——How would the Finance Director possibly know that without having lived it himself!
I am living it.
Well, she wouldn't believe me if I told her, so let's just get to the point.
"Anyway, you're on Island Four at the moment, aren't you?"
——...Yes. Though for some reason, the proctors assigned to Island Four are disproportionately magic-field professors. Their stares are quite piercing. Another coincidence, I suppose?
"Obviously a coincidence. Goodness, who could have done such a thing, knowing full well the magic professors dislike you, Professor Kirke? Whoever could it have been."
——.................
"Setting that aside, Island Four ought to have plenty of coconuts, doesn't it? The academy even accelerated their growth for the students' survival."
——That's... correct. But why the sudden interest?
"Do bring me some. I've suddenly developed a craving for coconuts, you see. A light twenty or so should do. Much obliged."
——You, insolent...!!!
"Ah, if you don't like it, you're welcome to resign from the academy. Though in that case, the rumors about you, Professor Kirke, might spread across the entire Kingdom, the Empire, and maybe even reach the Holy Kingdom if things go badly. Oh, and you did read the fine print when you signed the contract regarding the hair-loss remedy research ratio, didn't you?"
——...Fine print?
"If you leave the academy before completing the research, you simply reimburse the total cost of all materials, resources, and facilities you've used up to that point, plus a certain percentage of the projected future profits the hair-loss remedy research could have generated. Nothing major, right?"
——............
"If you plan to resign, please tell me now. The Chairwoman is right beside me, so we can process it immediately!"
——...I'll go pick the coconuts.
"And since you're being so perceptive, do punch holes in them and stick straws in as well."
——What in the world is that supposed to.
Click.
It sounded like she'd been about to say something at the end there, but I cut her off. If she doesn't like it, she can quit.
"That settles snacks, Madam Chairwoman."
".........."
"Madam Chairwoman?"
"No, it's... never mind."
Why is she acting like that again? She sulked a little and tossed over onto her side, then shifted right back to where she'd been next to me.
Ever since what happened on the rooftop, the Chairwoman's moods had become oddly harder to read.
'I don't get it.'
I'll just sleep until Kirke brings the coconuts.
Feeling the Chairwoman's gaze — which seemed to be fixed my way for some reason —
I quietly sank into a dream.
It was the first honey-sweet, deep sleep I'd had in a long while.