2. The Protagonist Doesn't Hide His Power
2. The Protagonist Doesn't Hide His Power
KWA-BOOOOOOOOM!!!!
I was in my office working through the usual stack of paperwork when the roar hit.
It startled me, sure. Made me wince. But that was about it.
"Let me guess—somebody wrecked another building."
Where was it this time? The martial arts training grounds? One of the magic research labs? The herb cultivation facility? The graduate student dorm?
At Grandis Academy, an explosion like this was routine—one or two a month, easy. There was a reason our repair costs were a fixed line item in the budget every single month.
Of course, "routine" was how the professors and students saw it. For me, the Finance Director, it was just one more goddamn headache.
'Still, it's probably nothing too bad.'
The training grounds, the research labs, the graduate dorms—those places blew up so often that even the repair contractors gave us a bulk discount. Frankly, getting that discount negotiated last year was arguably my greatest professional achievement.
Other buildings didn't qualify for the discount, true, but those were just lecture halls and auditoriums, and those never collapsed.
Honestly, though—at this volume of repairs, they ought to be fixing one building for free by now, shouldn't they?
Grumbling to myself, I set down my pen and stood up to check which building had just gotten demolished.
"F-Finance Director, sir! We have a situation!"
"I don't recognize you. New hire?"
"Yes? Oh, yes, sir! I just joined the Exam Administration Department!"
"Then let me give you a tip. Buildings collapsing at this academy is a regular occurrence. No need to come running in quite such a hurry—"
"It's the Entrance Exam Hall, sir!"
"The hell?"
That building? Why would that one collapse?
There wasn't any event like this during the entrance exams in the game...
"The Chairwoman happened to be at the exam hall and prevented a complete collapse, but the supervising officer told me to fetch you immediately, Finance Director!"
"I'm on my way!"
"I'll guide you with magic!"
"Teleportation?"
"Haste magic, sir!"
Couldn't manage teleportation, so he was maybe a bare-minimum 5th Rank. A borderline résumé for someone aiming at the Exam Administration Department. Still, he must've had other skills that got him hired.
I accepted the new guy's Haste and vaulted straight out the window without slowing down. My office sits right next to the Chairwoman's chambers, so it's on a fairly high floor—but this kid had decent instincts for a rookie. He didn't panic. He layered a shock-absorption spell over me, and I landed safely. The magical shock-absorbing artifact the Chairwoman had personally installed for me did its job too.
The two of us sprinted for the exam hall.
"Damage report!"
"Huh? Uh—well, first, the good news is no injuries. No fatalities either, of course."
"Not that! The financial damage!"
"...s-sir?"
What use do I, the 1st Rank Finance Director, have for a casualty count?
Caring about the wounded matters, obviously, but that's the Medical Department Head's job. I've got my own responsibilities as Finance Director.
Sure, eventually I'll be the one processing the medical bills and compensation for emotional distress, but the exam officer who sent this rookie to grab me called me in to discuss money, not to organize an ambulance.
"Faster!"
"Um... one wall of the exam hall is half-destroyed! The sanctification wards collapsed, so there's a massive hole, and debris is everywhere. Ah, and—"
"And?"
"One of the rank-measuring devices was destroyed, but compared to the wall—"
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT DEVICE AND WALL ARE GOING TO COST ME?!"
The measuring device? It got destroyed?!
This was a full-blown crisis. My soul left my body and shrieked. The rookie, flustered, wisely shut his mouth. With the help of his Haste, I reached the exam hall in no time at all.
"What the hell is that?"
"I've never seen the exam hall get wrecked before."
"Whoa, one sword slash did all this?"
"Everyone please step aside."
"Huh? Senior Ad—mmph."
"Hey, he's the Academy Finance Director now! Stop acting like you're buddies just because you saw him once back in first year...!"
A vaguely familiar voice drifted my way, but I ignored it. Pushing through the buzzing crowd of students, I saw the scene the rookie had described. It was every bit the disaster he'd made it sound.
"The wall..."
"The other wall is intact, fortunately. The Chairwoman intervened quickly."
"The Chairwoman did?"
"Yes, sir."
What was she even doing at the exam hall instead of handling the paperwork I'd asked her to deal with? I wanted to chew her out. But she'd stopped a bigger collapse, so I decided to let it slide. Just this once.
I examined the ruined wall more closely.
"Finance Director! You're here!"
"It's been a while, Exam Officer Darcun. Give me the full damage assessment."
"You've already heard the basics from the rookie, but the wall itself isn't catastrophically damaged. It could easily have turned into a total collapse, but the Chairwoman's intervention kept it contained. However..."
Right. Looking at the wall myself, it wasn't as horrific as I'd feared. Half of one wall in a massive building had been blown out—the sheer scale was enormous—but by this academy's standards, where entire buildings got half-destroyed on the regular, this was practically cute. Normally the structural imbalance would've brought the whole building down, but that was exactly why we'd spent an obscene amount of money sanctifying the wards. And with the Chairwoman's extra intervention, the damage stopped here.
'This shouldn't be too expensive.'
The exam hall saw almost no use outside of entrance exam season, so we didn't even need to rush the repairs. That meant no surcharges for expedited work.
But Darcun let his words trail off. I already knew what was coming next, and it filled me with dread.
"One of the rank-measuring devices... has been completely destroyed."
"Can it be repaired...?"
"In principle, yes, but you know how this works as well as I do, Finance Director."
"...son of a bitch."
Darcun, having read my mood perfectly, took a tactical step backward. While I stood there contemplating the void, I overheard him muttering to the rookie.
"Um, Exam Officer? Why is the Finance Director reacting like that?"
"Think about it. You joined a month ago, right? That measuring device—it was made by dwarves."
"...Wait, seriously?"
"Yes. The Chairwoman bought it from them fifty years ago. And as I'm sure you know, during those fifty years..."
"The monster invasion devastated the dwarf city."
"Exactly. And because of the reconstruction costs, the dwarves started charging exorbitant prices to repair their magical tools. Nobody else can fix dwarven craftsmanship, so we have no choice but to pay whatever they demand."
"But—surely it's not that much money? I mean, even so..."
"Oh, it's expensive. More than you or I would earn in a lifetime. But the real problem is the dwarves' attitude. They know they're the only game in town, so they've got their feet up. Last year the Chairwoman's office nearly got blown off the building."
"Oh."
Oh? That's all you've got to say, you little—
I shot a glare at Darcun and the rookie as they whispered. They immediately snapped to attention, which somehow only pissed me off more. But snapping at them wasn't going to shrink the repair bill. It would make me feel slightly better for about five seconds, and then reality would crash back down even harder.
In the end, they were just salaried employees. I occupied the awkward space between the person who paid their salaries and the people who received them. Leaving them where they stood, I stepped through the gaping hole into the exam hall.
The hall was nearly empty, as expected. The applicants had all evacuated outside by now.
But a few people remained—the ones who had to remain.
"Ah, Finance Director!"
"...You're here, Finance Director."
"............."
The Chairwoman was there, waving brightly like she'd just pulled off something impressive. Standing in stark contrast to her was a cold-faced woman. And with them was the applicant who was obviously responsible for this whole mess.
"Chairwoman, thank you for your efforts. To think you'd abandon your paperwork in the Chairwoman's Office to personally prevent a building collapse—your foresight never ceases to amaze."
"Ha-ha... yes... quite."
If we'd been alone, I'd have let her have it. But in front of others, I couldn't exactly chew out the Chairwoman, so I settled for a politely backhanded version of "What the hell are you doing here?" wrapped in "You did well, so I'll overlook it."
Then I turned toward the woman who radiated cold even at a distance—verging on outright emotionless.
"Chief Examination Officer Ciel."
"Yes, Finance Director Adam."
With the rookie, I spoke casually. With Darcun, I moderated my tone out of respect for his age and seniority. But in front of this woman, I had no choice but to adopt the same formal register I used with the Chairwoman.
She was a 7th Rank swordswoman. The Chief Examination Officer who oversaw every single test at Grandis Academy. One of the four reigning powers directly beneath the Chairwoman's absolute authority—the academy's so-called Four Heavenly Kings.
And, for the record, I was also one of those Four Heavenly Kings. Technically. By far the weakest one in terms of actual power, but still.
"I was told you summoned me urgently."
"Correct. A collapsed wall alone could have been handled via an after-action report. But an unforeseen complication arose, and I judged it appropriate to call in the Finance Director."
"...The measuring device."
"A direct look will convey the situation faster than my words can."
Ciel's gaze led mine to a heap of scrap metal that no longer bore any resemblance to its original form. Specifically, a heap of scrap metal that was about to devour a staggering amount of money.
'Fuck.'
Darcun had said "completely destroyed." I'd braced myself for that. But I hadn't expected it to be this thoroughly annihilated. Just imagining having to face that insufferable dwarf again from last year made me picture my resignation letter dancing before my eyes.
"Finance Director Adam, there's no need to sink into despair. I've heard that even dwarves soften somewhat toward repeat trading partners. It should go better than last year."
"...Yes."
I could tell from how they spoke—both Darcun and Ciel took the destroyed device seriously, but only because of the "dwarf problem." As the Finance Director, they pitied me for having to negotiate with a dwarf notorious for his foul attitude. They weren't focused on the repair cost itself. The expense was high, sure, but of course the academy could pay it without strain—that was their assumption. They had no idea about the academy's disastrous financial state. They didn't know we were three years from bankruptcy.
The only person who looked as uneasy as I felt was the Chairwoman. I sidled up next to her and delivered the facts.
"Everything you earned this month? Gone."
"...!!!"
Her face flushed for a moment. Then it flushed again, for an entirely different reason, as she glared at the person who'd caused all this.
Right. The culprit. Speaking of which—what kind of lunatic had destroyed the measuring device? That thing was rated to measure up to 5th Rank. If they'd overwhelmed it, didn't that make them 6th Rank?
'With skills like that, why come to the academy at all instead of joining the Royal Court or the Empire?'
Some kind of strength-hiding weirdo? The sort who gets off on lording it over weaker opponents?
With those cheerful thoughts, I studied the culprit.
"...Huh."
"Rus Spero. Currently estimated to be a 6th Rank swordsman."
"Hello..."
Wait. This was the protagonist.
The one who gets the lowest score on the entrance exam?
Never mind that—there was a more pressing question.
'Could we stick the applicant with the repair bill?'
He was the protagonist, so he'd pay it off and level up fast, right? Hell, with strength like this, did he even need to level up? In which case—did he even need to be at the academy?
"Applicant Rus, may I ask you one question?"
"Yes."
"Why do you want to enroll in this academy? This is a place of learning, not a place to prove how strong you are. With your abilities, you would earn more than enough recognition by joining any decent knight order or adventurer guild."
"...Are strong people not allowed to attend the academy?"
"That's not quite the point, but I find it hard to see what three years at the academy would offer someone of your caliber."
"...I'll pay double the tuition."
"Applicant Rus, I'm not doing this over money—"
"Quintuple."
"Welcome to Grandis Academy, Student Rus! We are thrilled to have you!"
"Thank you."
"................"
"............."
What.
What the hell else was I supposed to do?