Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Capture Operation
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“Nom.”
Veronica took a bite out of the skewer neatly placed next to her desk.
“…Madam Dean.”
Vice Dean Kaus, confronted directly with that shocking sight, was at a loss for words for a moment.
“Crunch crunch… Hm?”
With the skewer still in her mouth, Veronica tilted her head.
“What in the world… are you eating?”
Veronica swallowed what was in her mouth and answered quite naturally.
“Lizard.”
“…”
Dragon.
A member of the lizard family… eating a lizard.
Theoretically, there was nothing strange about it… but the problem lay elsewhere.
“Isn’t that… a Bombardil?”
One of the blue beasts.
Small in size, low in intelligence… but classified as blue due to its self-destructing trait.
And Veronica had skewered it, roasted it, and was casually eating it for lunch.
“It’s tastier than I expected. Want some?”
Veronica picked up one of the skewers from the plate and offered it to Kaus.
“…I’ll pass.”
“Nom… It’s really tastier than I thought.”
Crunch. Crunch.
Every time she chewed the lizard, something popped.
“Where did you pick up the Bombardil from this time?”
“Nearby.”
“…From the cradle?”
“Yeah, there were a lot wandering around?”
So, she’d caught them all and was eating them for lunch?
“Kaus, did you go to the Empire because of the witch’s house?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Hmm…”
“The spirits are wandering around indiscriminately, causing problems.”
“It’s been a total shitshow lately, a real shitshow.”
“Terrorism has always been around, hasn’t it?”
“But this time it’s the calamities causing the shitshow.”
Veronica irritably crunched down on her skewer.
Crunch. Crunch. Something popped in time with her mood.
“What about the midterms… They’re supposed to be in the sub-space…”
The upcoming midterms were scheduled to take place in Veronica’s sub-space.
But letting students into that sub-space again, which had already been attacked once, was too dangerous.
“Making magic tools is such a pain too…”
Veronica’s soul slipped out of her mouth and then slurped back in.
“Kaus… what should I do?”
“Good luck, Madam Dean.”
Kaus left the Dean’s office without leaving even a shred of hope behind.
***
Meanwhile… in the student council room.
“Heh heh heh…”
Carnel sat at the desk with her hands clasped, flashing a meaningful smile.
“The time has finally come!”
“Ooh~”
“Operation: Student Council Recruitment!”
The student council members buzzed with excitement.
“Wow~”
Violet clapped with unfocused eyes.
Completely soulless.
Snap!
Carnel swung the thin rod in her hand vigorously, pointing at one of the many photos stuck to the wall.
“Our target is the freshman top seat, Adel!”
The tip of the rod stopped on a photo of one man.
White hair, golden eyes, and a mask covering his entire face.
“His primary haunt… the cafeteria!”
Next, she pointed at a photo of him shoving a spoon into his mask with a tray in front of him.
It was somehow an incredibly bizarre scene.
There were other photos too… of the dorms, training room, classrooms, etc., but they had low appearance probability, covered in post-its marked ‘skip’.
Flick.
The other photos on the wall peeled off one by one.
Carnel regained her composure and spoke.
“The goal is simple. Before the end of this semester, we absolutely recruit him into the student council!”
Since the student council was structured like a club, this semester’s club recruitment period was their last chance.
“Failure means zero points!”
“Ugh… zero points again…”
“This is our mission, our war!”
“Why is it a war…?”
Carnel raised her chin, eyes gleaming.
“Recruiting the top freshman… this is a matter directly tied to our family’s honor!”
“That’s not my family.”
“The details don’t matter!”
Carnel elegantly waved her hand, cutting off the conversation.
“First up, we lure him in with food!”
The rod pointed back at the wall.
It was a tuna can… crudely drawn, with a cat in the center.
“…Carnel, isn’t that cat food?”
“Adel goes crazy for tuna cans!”
Violet’s objection was lightly ignored by Carnel.
“President! What if the first operation fails?”
“Heh… Yurian? Too soft. The word ‘failure’ doesn’t exist in our student council.”
“Ooh… as expected of the president!”
Carnel carefully pulled a cat tuna can from her drawer.
“Tie it with string, lure him in, and catch him!”
“…Carnel, isn’t that less ‘recruitment’ and more ‘capture’?”
“Capture or recruitment, only the result matters!”
Carnel declared with sparkling eyes, holding the tuna can.
“Our goal is to make Adel a student council member! Means and methods don’t matter!”
“You sure means don’t matter…?”
The sole sane member of the student council.
Violet clutched her head beside her.
“President! I have a question!”
“What is it, Yurian!”
“Why are you so desperate to recruit the freshman top seat?!”
“Because…! The top seat has both skill and popularity!”
“Popularity…? Uh… Carnel? It doesn’t seem like he’s popular…”
“So we bait him with tuna…?”
“Spot-on analysis, Yurian!”
And then, lunchtime.
In the middle of the cafeteria, a tuna can for cats hung with suspicious string was quietly placed on the floor.
“Heh heh heh… success rate: 98 points.”
“What’s the remaining 2 points?”
“Lack of sincerity. Should’ve gone for the pricier tuna.”
“…!”
“President! Target sighted!”
“W-what! Everyone, get ready!”
The masked Adel and a cat trailing beside him quietly took their seats.
At the table they sat across from, Lev was silently eating, her eyes covered by her blue hair.
“Nom.”
The cat grabbed food from the tray and wolfed it down.
Adel stealthily pushed the broccoli from his tray toward the cat.
The cat then slid it over to Lev sitting in front.
“Ooh… passing food!”
“What the heck are they doing…?”
“Exchanging codes…!”
Lev silently picked up the broccoli.
He put it timidly in her mouth and chewed indifferently.
And right then…
“Gah… the sunlight!”
“President! The target’s out of sight…!!”
“E-eh… mask! The mask is coming!”
Their vision blurred by sunlight pouring through the window, and in that gap, someone masked approached the tuna can.
“Now!!”
With Carnel’s shout, the string attached to the tuna can was yanked.
A huge tarp dropped, engulfing the target.
***
Swoosh.
I picked up the broccoli that appeared on my tray and quietly placed it on Neru’s.
“Wak.”
Spotting the broccoli, Neru freaked out and shuddered, then flung it straight onto Lev’s tray.
“…”
Lev silently picked up the broccoli as if this were routine, and put it quietly in her mouth.
Her chewing was so indifferent it bordered on resignation.
“But how does he eat without taking off the mask, nya.”
[This is actually my face.]
“W-what! For real, nyang!?”
Neru’s ears perked straight up, tail shooting skyward.
[No]
“…….”
Ears and tail drooped simultaneously.
“I’m gonna eat with a mask too, nya!”
With that, Neru pulled something from her pocket.
The faceless mask I’d given her from the Gray Zone black market.
[You carry that around?]
“It’s cool, nya.”
I envied Neru for that.
Freely putting on and taking off a mask—how great would it be if I could do the same with this damn mask plastered to my face.
Irritated for no reason, I picked up a spicy pepper and hid it under the meat on Neru’s tray.
“Om nom nom.”
Neru popped the meat—and the spicy pepper—into her mouth together and went wide-eyed.
“N-nyaa?”
A moment later, dragon breath erupted from Neru’s mouth.
“NyaAaAaK!!”
[What’s wrong?]
“NyaAaK…!!”
In a frenzy, Neru started shoving all the food on her tray into her mouth.
“W-water!! Give me water…!!”
Swoosh.
Lev quietly pushed over a milk carton.
Neru clutched it with both hands, sobbing as she chugged it down.
Only then did the fire in her mouth finally die out.
“Huff… huff…”
[Done eating? Let’s go.]
“G-got it, nya…”
“…”
Lev and Neru nodded, and I tidied my tray while lost in thought.
‘Midterms.’
The first disaster Klaus would face.
The episode where the ‘Space Mage’ appears.
During the evaluation, he randomly pulls students into his space, Klaus gets caught up in it too, and fights the disaster in the typical story.
“Ooh?!”
Then… Neru spotted something on the floor and her eyes sparkled.
“Th-that’s…!”
In the dead center of the cafeteria, in a spot screaming suspicious, lay a can of cat tuna.
‘Mouse trap?’
No… a cat trap?
The placement and setup were too blatant.
It was hard to call it coincidence… but Neru didn’t care about that.
“Uwo!”
Neru leaped joyfully, her hand touching the tuna can.
- Whoosh!
A huge tarp dropped from above… wrapping Neru up entirely.
“Secured!!”
“Transport commencing now!”
Mysterious students bolted out like lightning, grabbed the tarp with Neru in it, and vanished in an instant.
“…”
“…”
For a moment, I couldn’t process what happened.
‘What did I just see?’
…Neru saw the tuna. Neru jumped.
And… got kidnapped.
‘Is that right?’
What else could it be? No matter how I thought about it, it was weird.
“Heh, perfect operation. Violet!”
“Don’t say it like I planned it, Carnel.”
That’s when it happened.
Two female students walked up in front of me… and our eyes met.
“…”
“…”
Carnel and Violet saw me and froze.
“Uh…”
“L-little bro?”
They looked blatantly flustered. Like they’d seen someone who shouldn’t be here.
“Wh-why is little bro here…?”
[Lunchtime.]
“R-right… yeah… of course.”
“Uh…….”
“See you later, little bro…? We’ve got urgent business…!!”
[Sure.]
“R-right! Study hard for the midterms!”
Carnel and Violet awkwardly hurried out of the cafeteria.
[What was that?]
“…No idea.”
Lev and I still didn’t get it.
‘It's a headache.’
Gotta prepare for midterms, and sort out that kidnapping drama.
If even someone smart like me can’t make sense of it… maybe it’s something impossible to understand from the start?
‘What mess did she cause this time?’
Maybe she stole food again like last time?
Neru always acted unpredictably, with results way out of left field, so there was a high chance.
‘No helping it.’
As her only friend, I’d have to step in myself.
If she’s already guilty… sorry, but.
‘While I’m at it, I have stuff to ask too.’
The student council room wasn’t far anyway, so I’d think about midterms on the way.