7. Midterms on a Deserted Island, as Expected
7. Midterms on a Deserted Island, as Expected
We sent the utterly distraught Kaern off on a mana ship.
There had been a brief disruption, but the survival midterm quickly resumed. The students' mood wasn't bad either.
That was because Kaern Desté, the one who had caused the ruckus, didn't have a great reputation.
"The youngest knight got disqualified? The guy who hogged that one little spring all day just to wash his armor?"
"Good riddance. Every little thing was 'as a knight this, as a knight that'—made hunting a real pain, you know?"
"You could use it to your advantage. The prey would run off in the opposite direction of wherever he was shouting. Still, can't use that trick anymore."
Honestly, anyone who'd wear full plate armor in this weather was never going to take survival seriously anyway.
The students who'd gathered naturally dispersed.
In the meantime, I watched the retreating figures of Beatrice and Milia, who were secretly making off with a supply crate.
I could let Beatrice go; she'd clearly grown quite accustomed to survival by now.
'Milia, though.' She was a student I needed to keep my eye on, a name to remember. Not right this moment, but eventually.
In a year, when the protagonist starts his second year, Milia would become the center of a critical event. In a rather unpleasant sense.
Still, for now, it seemed limited to just spreading a few rumors, so there was no need to poke the hornet's nest. Just keeping her in mind was enough.
'Anyway, I thought this was another incident waiting to happen, but it turned out to be a net gain.'
Compared to everything that had happened so far, this was just business as usual, and it hadn't demanded any new expenditures either.
Most importantly, I'd gained a pretext to meet Sir Julius and wring some money out of him, which was a huge windfall.
After seeing off the Exam Officer and professors, who bowed their heads repeatedly to the Chairwoman and me before shuffling off to their work, I quietly whispered into the Chairwoman's ear.
"Madam Chairwoman, you handled that quite well."
"Agh!"
"......Madam Chairwoman?"
"Ah, ahem. Sorry. That was just... a little unexpected. Anyway, things worked out just as you said they would, Finance Director."
"It's all thanks to you."
And I meant it. When Kaern had leveled his sword at me, I'd had to physically stop the Chairwoman from immediately launching a punch.
Behind my back, I'd frantically moved my hand from my pocket, desperately signaling her to hold back. Please, just hold back. 6th Rank or not, if the Chairwoman threw a punch, everyone would die.
And above all, she had channeled that fury directly at Kaern, pressured him effectively, and gotten exactly what we wanted.
The Chairwoman was becoming a fine Finance Director herself. (?)
'Sir Julius, huh.'
He wasn't a character who had appeared directly in <Dark Kingdom>. He was only mentioned as an important figure when recruiting the youngest knight, Kaern Desté, as a companion. That was only true for the academy part I had played, of course.
A 7th Rank swordsman, the Commander of the Royal Knights, and one of the wealthiest men in the Kingdom.
Setting aside my desire to meet him, I didn't actually know the man named Julius well. I only knew his personality and background from the game's descriptions or Kaern's dialogue.
If anything, that was the part where—
"Madam Chairwoman, are you perhaps well acquainted with Sir Julius?"
"Well, I suppose so? Back when I used to travel with my little brother, that disciple of his was always around too."
......Little brother?
She had a little brother?
"Ah, when I say little brother, I mean Margrave Claudia. I'm just a bit, a tiny bit, older than him, so when we traveled together for a while we decided to call each other that."
"Uh... I see."
So she'd been calling the Margrave, a 8th Rank swordsman, her little brother this whole time? Wouldn't Risha faint if she heard this? It really made me curious about the Chairwoman's past.
But the Margrave I knew was an old man with a full head of white hair. And she was older than him? What was going on? Looking at her skin and everything else, the Chairwoman's body seemed genuinely youthful, rather than just having forcibly stopped aging.
Was this that Rejuvenation thing you see in martial arts novels or something?
"Anyway, I see him every so often when I go to the Royal Palace. That Julius fellow, how do I put it."
"......?"
"A schmuck?"
"Pardon?"
Did a schmuck just call someone else a schmuck?
For a moment, I had a bout of cognitive dissonance, but I gathered my thoughts at the sight of the Chairwoman's slightly sheepish expression.
So, in other words.
Julius was such a schmuck that even the Chairwoman called him one, and yet he was one of the richest men in the Kingdom?
How was he the richest? How did that guy ever make money?
"I'd certainly love to meet him once this is all over."
"Wasn't that why you suggested meeting him in the first place, Finance Director?"
"Yes, but I didn't expect him to be someone who'd earn that sort of assessment from you, Madam Chairwoman."
"......Hmm, should I be pleased about this, or angry......"
"Be pleased."
At any rate, meeting the schmuck would have to wait until after the deserted island midterm. As I was about to return to that island with the Chairwoman, who seemed to be oddly glancing at my cheek, two people caught my eye.
One was the protagonist.
'What's been with him since earlier?'
Even while carrying off the supply crate with Beatrice and Milia, he kept staring me down. I had no idea what was going through his head.
But then again, I never knew what was going through the protagonist's head originally, did I? So I'll just let it slide for now.
The other was Professor Kirke.
"Professor Kirke."
.............
"Professor?"
She'd been trembling like a leaf since earlier. She probably hated my guts, yet she was so terrified of the Chairwoman that she was trying to hide behind even me.
No, seriously, why was she—
"......Hold on."
..........
"Your Rank...?"
The mana I felt from Professor Kirke was considerably weak. This wasn't a change that could come from mere fear.
I'm no mage, but I know when this kind of phenomenon occurs.
Rank Regression.
A rare phenomenon triggered by a life-threatening injury or extreme trauma.
Kirke, who used to be a 6th Rank mage.
Had fallen to 5th Rank...... however.
"Professor Kirke, why didn't you say so sooner? Did you hate coconuts so much that your Rank regressed?"
"......Excuse me?"
"Then starting today, I'll have you fetch tropical fruits instead. I was getting a bit sick of coconuts myself."
What else did she expect me to do?
Rank Regression usually resolves itself after a few months of good rest anyway. It goes back to normal on its own.
Of course, it was questionable whether Professor Kirke—who'd had 98% of her salary slashed and had to grind away at hair-loss remedy research every day—could even afford a few months of convalescence.
But considering this woman had moved the Chairwoman to tears, and just thinking about the lost profits from the improved healing potion research made my blood boil, I had no reason to cut her any slack.
I gave the speechless Kirke a few pats on the shoulder and returned to the Chairwoman, who was wearing a strangely proud smile.
"Madam Chairwoman? Did something pleasant happen?"
"......Truth be told, I had a goal I wanted to achieve during this business trip. A somewhat personal one."
"You had something like that?"
"Honestly, I could do it anytime, but I couldn't just force it from my side alone... I was holding back, just teasing at the idea a few times when I could have simply done it."
"What in the world was it?"
Anyway, the way the Chairwoman had been looking at me since earlier was a bit... lingering.
Even when Beatrice pulled out the clock artifact, I really had let my ego run wild and imagined things.
Could this really be...?
"Th-The tropical fruit, I mean!"
"......The fruit, you say?"
"I just want to eat it all up right now! But if I eat too much, the students won't have anything left, right? So I was holding back, and then you just happened to bring it up, Finance Director! Yes, that's it!"
"Aha."
Seriously. I need to fix my overinflated ego.
Come to think of it, what's the age gap between the Chairwoman and me? Why would she ever see me as a romantic prospect? It'd be at least six times over, not just two or three.
I'd always thought I was reasonably perceptive about these things, but I should throw that notion out the window too.
As I was feeling awkward, I asked one more thing before being carried back to the island in the Chairwoman's arms.
"By the way, Madam Chairwoman, how are the 'preparations' coming along?"
"The, the plan preparations, you mean? They're progressing smoothly. I may not know much about academy affairs, but I do have a knack for this sort of thing. I'll be able to get the timing exactly right."
"That's a relief. Impact is crucial, after all."
There would probably be a considerable amount of complaints or protests from the students once the exam was over, but we had thought it all through.
And I hadn't thought of it alone; we'd incorporated a plan the Chairwoman herself had proposed. When I first heard it, I'd wondered if the stress had temporarily driven her insane, but after hearing her out, I understood completely.
Besides, in this plan she wouldn't be the incompetent and schmuck-like 'Chairwoman,' but would revert to being 'the strongest in the Kingdom.'
She was the undisputed expert in the Kingdom on this, so I had no choice but to trust her.
I was mulling this over as I returned to the small island cradled in the Chairwoman's arms, and since it was already evening, I must have dozed off without realizing. When I came to, I was already in bed.
"Ah."
"You were sleeping soundly, Finance Director."
"Ah."
So embarrassing I could die.
This time, my forehead rather than my cheek felt a little damp, but no matter how you looked at it, it was impossible to drool on your own forehead while sleeping. I asked the Chairwoman about it.
"......You noticed? I was playing a trick. I secretly dabbed some seawater on you."
So that was it. Did that mean all the other times my cheek felt damp, it had been seawater instead of my own drool too?
After realizing I'd been falling for it all along without a clue, I tried to turn the tables on the Chairwoman by drinking with her late into the night.
......Yet again, I was the one who fell asleep first. How could anyone down twenty-plus bottles of liquor and remain totally sober? Was this what it meant to be 8th Rank?
As a side note, the damp spot this time was on my nape.
Why on earth did she only dab seawater on places like that......
*
A week passed.
Commoners might form the largest group, but Grandis Academy also had a substantial number of students who had been raised in luxury, like nobles.
It was only natural that this was far from a normal exam: we had dumped those students on a deserted island, handed them nothing but a basic survival kit, and told them to survive for a week.
As a result, a considerable number of students had dropped out midway, but those who had seen it through to the end were far from few.
And those students were now—
"Is this water? Real water you can actually drink? Not the kind you have to boil or you'll be stuck with diarrhea all day?"
"Oh my god, meat. It's meat! Roasted meat! Sob, it's so good......!"
"Hey, hey! If you go over there, you can wash up! They're even giving out soap!"
"You're kidding! I'm going first!"
"Freedom at last!"
—weeping tears of emotion at the feast and shower facilities the academy had prepared in advance on the Finance Director's orders.
Complaints? Of course there were. Protests? Obviously they wanted to raise them.
But after spending a week surviving in a state that looked like a beggar's rags, they didn't even have the energy to raise their voices. We had herded all the students who had passed the exam onto the largest island and laid out a feast.
Complaints or protests could wait. First, they drank their fill of water, ate their fill of food, and scrubbed their filthy bodies clean.
There's something called the Peak-End Effect.
It means that no matter how difficult the process was in the middle, if the ending is good, people interpret the whole thing favorably. The most famous example is how people look back on their time in the military.
A week? Sure, it was tough. But the students who had quit midway weren't here. The dropouts were in a nearby port city; only those who had endured it to the bitter end remained here.
The conversations naturally revolved around the exam.
"Did you see that Valentin baron kid crying his eyes out when he quit? Aren't nobles supposed to handle this kind of thing easily? It was kind of pathetic."
"Not to toot my own horn for making it, but it wasn't at a level where you straight-up couldn't do it, right? If you can't even handle this, can you really call yourself a Grandis Academy student?"
"So anyway, that wild boar, I just— with my sword, bam! With my arrows, like, whoosh! I hunted it all by myself, I'm telling you!"
"You almost got gored by that boar."
"Whatever, I didn't get gored, so it's all good! I'm the one who survived, so I'm stronger!"
For better or worse, these were students who had been thrown together and lived rubbing shoulders on the deserted island. There had been incidents like theft, but cases of teammates bonding or allies growing closer were far more common.
Those students were now gathered, swapping a week's worth of war stories and laughing at the dropouts who weren't there.
So you'd think: complaints are fine, protests are fine, but do we really have to do it in this atmosphere? For now, let's just eat, drink, and chatter. We can always bring it up once we're back at the academy, can't we?
But that thought—
<Now, we will have a few words of instruction from the Madam Chairwoman!>
"The Chairwoman?"
"All of a sudden?"
"Students, you've all worked very hard. I'm sure there have been many opinions voiced, since this was the first exam of its kind. Even so, I sincerely congratulate all of you who have finished this difficult exam."
The Chairwoman's words, lightly lifting their spirits.
"Therefore, an additional scholarship will be awarded specially to all those who completed the exam."
"""""Waaaaaah!!!"""""
A reward that, while not a huge sum, seemed to wash away the toils of the past week.
And then.
"Everyone, do you happen to see something over there on the horizon?"
"Huh...?"
"What's that? It wasn't there before?"
"......Wait, isn't that thing huge? How far away is the horizon, and it still looks that big...?"
"It's a Kraken."
".........Excuse me?"
"W-Wait a minute! A real Kraken? A 7th Rank monster?!"
"I-Isn't it heading this way?!"
"Help!"
"Students, there's no need to be alarmed. The most important fact right now is that Krakens are, surprisingly, extremely delicious."
"M-Madam Chairwoman...?"
"Everyone, watch closely."
The students had briefly panicked when the Kraken suddenly appeared and began approaching at high speed.
But the Chairwoman used her Rigid Energy to lightly pin them in place, then strolled over the ocean's surface with an air of utter nonchalance.
She was so ridiculously relaxed that the students, rather than falling into further chaos or fleeing, simply stared at her.
"She's walking on the sea...?"
"Can people do that?"
"Wh-What does that matter now! The Kraken is right there───"
"It's been a while since I hunted a Kraken."
FWOOOM!!!
The Chairwoman smiled gently and kicked off from the water's surface, raising a massive spray.
The impact created a pretty huge wave, but it miraculously bypassed the island where the students were, producing a spectacular show.
High above, so high you had to crane your neck just to barely see her, the Chairwoman's figure glittered.
[Kraaawaaaaaargh!!!!]
"Hm, a young one? Normally I'd tell it to bring its parents along."
Rigid Energy.
The very benchmark that separates 5th Rank from 6th Rank, the equivalent of Sword Aura for martial artists.
Rigid Energy, which even 7th Rank martial artists can only manage to imbue into their fists, blanketed the Chairwoman's entire body, and then further spread across the island the students were on like a protective shield.
At a scale that defied comprehension, students, as well as the Exam Officer and professors who had been briefed in advance, could only drop their jaws.
"But still, this means I can finally feed the Finance Director a good, hearty meal!"
[Kra, waaargh!?]
CRAAACKA-THOOM!!!!
A deafening roar that tore at the ears. And the sight of the Kraken bursting like a balloon.
A 7th Rank monster, each leg exceeding 30 meters, and even a juvenile possessing a body length well over 100 meters.
A calamity of the sea, said to boast a size that dwarfs most ordinary structures and rivals that of a royal castle—
Killed by a single punch from the Chairwoman.
As the Kraken sank, spewing blood and ink, the Chairwoman casually butchered it with her Rigid Energy as if she'd done it a thousand times, bringing only the legs back.
"Hm, the waves are a bit high, aren't they?"
SPLASH!!!
She erased the tsunami caused by her own punch with a flick of her hand, then returned before the students and smiled.
She dumped dozens of legs—each one rivaling a modest tower—onto the shore, and chirped brightly.
"Now then, let's eat!"
"""".............""""
It went without saying.
Not a single student who had been on that island mentioned any complaints or protests after returning to the academy.
Moreover, the Chairwoman's Kraken hunt had been observed—along with the enormous wave—from the port city where the dropouts were staying.
"That sound just now...?"
"That was the sound of our Madam Chairwoman slaying a Kraken. You do remember the terms of our deal, don't you?"
"......From now on, mana ships will be lent to Grandis Academy free of charge. The Kraken hunt... truly, you have my thanks."
"That's not all, is it?"
"Hm?"
"What about the remaining bounty for the Kraken hunt that you, Viscount, had posted?"
..........
Including the free rental of mana ships and the Kraken bounty fee that a certain Finance Director had squeezed out of the port city's noble, it was a thoroughly satisfying outcome for absolutely everyone involved.
"......How the hell did you die?"
It was just that for the regressor.
An insoluble question had arisen.