Chapter 112: An Ordinary Midterm Exam (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 112: An Ordinary Midterm Exam (1)
Daisy had vanished.
Of course, that didn't mean she had disappeared from the Academy entirely.
She was still attending her classes quite normally.
However...
"...You're saying she shook off the agent sent to monitor her?"
Watching Uncle Aeryun gape in shock, I felt a sense of pure admiration.
"Daisy, are you even the strongest at running away...?"
Just how far did the talent of a RoFan female lead go?
And what kind of original plot development could have possibly suppressed such talent?
Of course, I couldn't just leave Daisy alone, considering she was the eye of the storm whenever an incident occurred.
That was why I played my trump card.
"...I can't find her."
My trump card was immediately neutralized.
"Agent Boradori. Your recent mission success rate is dropping way too much."
When I mentioned that her salary might get cut if this continued, Boradori made the most aggrieved face in the world.
"No, lately you've only been giving me missions that are impossible to succeed at!"
"Isn't finding Daisy possible?"
"You try finding her then!"
It seemed it really was impossible.
"To think even Boradori, the exclusive bait for Daisy, wouldn't work..."
This meant Daisy was serious.
"She doesn't really need to run away like this, though."
I had a rough idea of why Daisy was on the run.
Since a 'confession attack' had been prophesied, she was likely trying to avoid it.
However, this was a case of Daisy overestimating those RoFan male lead bastards.
"This thing is my brother? We share the same blood?!"
Princess Ruelle was walking the typical path of a male lead supporter.
What did that mean? It meant she was failing, just like me.
At first, she tried to help the Magic Spammer's love life secretly, and when that didn't work, she openly declared her support. But apparently...
"N-Now is not the time!"
...is what he supposedly blurted out.
Still, Princess Ruelle was understanding.
It was right after a slight...? accident had occurred due to her own mistake...?
So, she could grant her flesh and blood some leniency for his claims of mental distress.
However.
"...Be honest. You're just running away, aren't you?!"
After several more attempts at encouragement, Princess Ruelle finally realized it.
This bastard was just running away while using his 'trauma' as an excuse.
He was so afraid of being rejected that he couldn't even start!
There was even a reason she could be so certain.
"How is he doing the exact same thing as Marie-unni?!"
Apparently, the Magic Spammer was acting just like the Fire Spammer.
"They should just date each other since they're so alike! Why are they so out of sync?!"
As Princess Ruelle growled like that, Senior Loreliya and I...
"The weather is quite cloudy today."
"Indeed. The Imperial Meteorological Office said it wouldn't rain, though."
"They're usually wrong anyway."
"True."
...were quietly having tea time.
"Give me a cup of tea as well."
To Princess Ruelle, who held out her cup as if this were a daily occurrence, I gave a warning in advance.
"This is hot."
I said it because she had downed a hot drink in one go last time, but...
"Don't worry. My insides are burning even hotter right now!"
At those words, I just shrugged and filled her cup.
"Haa. So. I'm thinking of giving up soon."
"Really?"
"Yes. No matter how much I'm doing this for Marie-unni, I feel bad for the Saintess having to receive a confession from such a hopeless human being."
Just how much did she hate it that she'd run away like this?
Muttering that, Princess Ruelle spoke with the face of an enlightened monk.
"Even so, I don't think Marie-unni would ever abandon a brother like him... If destiny doesn't exist, they'll probably end up together in the end."
"Ending up together because there's no destiny..."
"It's frustrating how much sense that makes..."
The idea that if the Magic Spammer didn't have a fated partner, he'd end up with the Fire Spammer.
I felt a bit bad for the Fire Spammer, who was being treated like this despite being the officially designated partner by the royal family and a childhood friend, but...
"...I did my best, Marie-unni."
As Princess Ruelle muttered while staring at the cloud-filled sky, we outsiders decided to keep our mouths shut.
"So, you can stop running away now."
"...Really?"
I narrowed my eyes at the blonde head that suddenly popped out of the flower bed.
Even so, for a Saintess to go this far.
"Do you hate it that much?"
"...It's not that I hate it. No, I'd rather just get the confession over with and be done with it. But there's such a thing as timing! If I dump him now, it'll feel like I'm doing it because of those rumors..."
And those rumors just had to be that.
They were friends, after all, and it seemed she wanted to prevent his first love from ending with gay allegations.
"So, if you're lying, I'll really... just..."
"Just?"
"...I don't even know what I might do."
It didn't sound very threatening, but the person saying it was the RoFan female lead.
She really might do something, so I couldn't just brush it off.
"He really gave up. I heard he doesn't seem to have any intention of confessing at all."
"...That's a problem in its own way."
Watching the head that had popped out disappear back into the bushes, I let out a sigh.
"Anyway, you're the club president. Get back to your post quickly. The Flower Arrangement Club is going to be disbanded at this rate."
I wasn't just saying that.
The RoFan male leads, who were the main force, had already stopped their club activities.
With the president, Daisy, also on the run, all that remained were Violet and the freshmen.
But the freshmen were all full of ulterior motives, so it felt like Violet was guarding the club room all by herself.
"Since when were you so interested in our club... Oh, are you looking to join?"
I firmly pressed down on the blonde head that popped out again.
"Ow!"
"That will absolutely never happen."
"Then why..."
"I'm telling you not to drop a bomb in the middle of the semester."
If the Flower Arrangement Club were to be disbanded, the people sealed within it would be released.
Each and every one of them was a 'bomb' to the ordinary students attending the Academy—and right in the middle of the term, no less.
"Don't treat our members like bombs!"
"You're the one treating them most like bombs, aren't you?"
"...Huh?"
Daisy's eyes widened at the unexpected truth.
She seemed to have remembered that she herself was running away to avoid their confessions.
"I-I didn't mean it like that..."
With her eyes darting around, Daisy's head finally vanished beyond the bushes.
The next day, news began to spread that the Flower Arrangement Club had resumed its activities.
No matter what happens, time flows without stopping.
And the Academy's semester was no different.
If you're wondering what this nonsense is about...
"It's almost time for 'that' to come."
"Indeed..."
"I wonder what they'll do this time."
At my words, Uncle Aeryun and Taylor nodded.
The new recruits nodded along and asked:
"Come to think of it, next week is the midterm exam period."
"I heard the exams at the Imperial Academy are difficult. Is it something to worry about that much?"
Looking at the junior who was completely missing the point, Taylor frowned.
"No. Why are you bringing up midterms all of a sudden?"
"...Weren't we talking about midterms?"
"You said 'that' is coming soon."
"Weren't you worried about what would be on the exam?"
At those words, I let out a deep sigh.
"Why would we care about that?"
"...Isn't it natural for a student to care about exams?"
"What's the point of caring about exams at the Imperial Academy? You planning to defect to the Empire?"
"If that's the case, I can process the paperwork for you right now."
"...Huh?"
The juniors' eyes widened at mine and Uncle Aeryun's words.
These guys seemed to have gotten too immersed in their student cosplay, thinking a student's duty was to study.
"We just need to do enough not to fail or get expelled."
"Th-then what did you mean by 'that'?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
"Dark Mages."
"......?"
It was a natural answer, but the juniors looked like they were listening to gibberish.
"Listen well."
"It is 'common sense' for Dark Mages to show up during exam periods."
"......?"
At our answer, all the juniors' gazes turned toward Uncle Aeryun.
Taylor was also an Imperial agent, but through their club activities, they had naturally realized that Aeryun was the one in charge of this sort of thing.
"I have a question, Senior Aeryun."
"I don't really want to hear it."
"Is this an Imperial conspiracy? Even so, if it's common sense for Dark Mages to show up, isn't the Empire just not stopping them?"
"I said I don't want to hear it!"
"But this isn't a conversation I can just ignore!"
Watching Uncle Aeryun get grilled by the youngsters, I asked Taylor:
"So, where are they holding the exams this time?"
"The first-years are doing it internally like last year. From the second year up, they said it'll be held in a dungeon outside the Academy."
"The internal dungeon was raided not too long ago; they're bold to decide to go outside."
"To be honest, there isn't a single place that hasn't been raided, right? They figured if it's going to get raided anyway, they might as well do it as usual."
As expected of the Empire. Their guts were truly something else.
"Maybe they've just given up?"
At the Fire Spammer's sudden interjection, I immediately shot back.
"...Please, you should just give up."
"......Never."
Even though I'd left it unsaid, the Fire Spammer understood perfectly, and I couldn't help but sigh.
He had been in 'grumpy toad mode' for a while now because Princess Ruelle kept pestering him to just give up.
"Then try putting in some effort."
"......"
But he was only full of grumpiness, and his will to actually proceed was still close to zero, which was frustrating.
"Dark Mages will show up again this time. Aim for that moment."
"...Will that work?"
"If it doesn't, make it work. They flock to Daisy even when she's standing still."
"...What's so different between her and me?"
"Face. Name. Height. Weight. Hair color. Eye color. Nationality. Title. Personality..."
"Don't list them one by one! And those are all obvious things!"
The Fire Spammer looked like she was about to cry, but I was hitting her quite legally.
"Princess Ruelle told me to tell you: if you feel wronged, either put in the effort or give up."
"......"
As a man of Leon, I never thought a day like this would come.
But this was an official request from a member of the Dale royalty, recognized by the Kingdom.
"Since when did you listen so well to Dale?"
"It's something even I couldn't have imagined."
But since I was given the legal authority to nag the Fire Spammer, there was no reason to refuse.
"So..."
"So...!"
My words to the Fire Spammer and Uncle Aeryun's words to the juniors who were grilling him overlapped.
"Let's see what happens when the Dark Mages show up during midterms."
"I'm telling you, you'll see when the Dark Mages show up during midterms!"
The content wasn't all that different, either.
Elian, an agent of Leon, had heard many stories before entering the Academy.
Mostly, they were stories about Adam Smith, the agent who had been performing missions at the Imperial Academy first.
Each story was surprising and sounded like a lie.
Because of that, Elian had thought that Adam's achievements might have been slightly exaggerated.
After all...
'It's not like Dark Mages are being farmed somewhere; there's no way they appear that often, right?'
Though a new recruit, Elian had been an agent for several years.
Yet, during that time, Elian had never encountered a Dark Mage.
No matter how much larger the Empire was than Leon, or how many more problems it had...
There was no way one would meet that many Dark Mages in a single year...
"Oh. There's one over there."
"......"
There was.
'Why is he there?'
Of course, that didn't mean he could understand it.
The only silver lining was that Elian wasn't the only one thinking that.
'Why is there really one there?'
'Is the Empire really farming them and letting them loose?'
'I'm supposed to catch that?'
Of course, thinking that didn't change a thing.