Chapter 186: Delmoa (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 186: Delmoa (2)
Violet’s Childcare Diary 2
“The time has finally come!”
Standing before us, Daisy—now in full Club President mode—shouted with a look of utmost gravity.
Was it just my imagination?
She seemed more sincere now than when she was trying to knock some sense into the Duke’s soldiers during the recent civil war.
“The competition… that will decide the fate of our club!”
“Mmm…”
Well, she wasn't wrong.
Looking at the members of our club, there was no way we’d ever actually fail, but still.
Our club’s name was, after all, the Flower Arrangement Club.
Yet, as a Flower Arrangement Club, what had we actually accomplished this year?
Absolutely nothing.
To be honest, we did some flower arranging a few times when the freshmen first joined, but that was it.
After that, in typical RoFan fashion, we got caught up in all sorts of incidents and spent our time fighting Dark Mages and the Demon Tribe.
Honestly, if we changed the name from the Flower Arrangement Club to the Dark Mage Hunting Club, the Student Council would probably give us the maximum performance score without even reviewing our application.
“……”
While I was lost in those thoughts, I felt a tugging at my clothes and looked down.
“Food.”
Sitting on my lap, Delmoa spoke with a blank expression. I pulled out a carton of soy milk I had prepared and popped the straw into her mouth.
Slurp. Slurp.
It was a familiar sight from my past life, a carton of soy milk that didn't quite fit this fantasy world. I watched Delmoa sip away through the straw as if she were used to it, then rested my chin on top of her head.
Since there was more than a head's height difference between us, she made for a perfect chin rest.
“……”
Daisy, not Delmoa, was the one who scowled at the sight.
However, she quickly fixed her expression and began her speech on how important this competition was and what our club needed to do.
…To be honest, it looked bleak.
The gods—no, the RoFan author—had given our RoFan male lead candidates everything.
But it felt like they had taken away their ability to date and arrange flowers in exchange.
What could I possibly do with a bunch of guys who treated flower arranging like botanical alchemy? We didn't have enough time for a crash course, let alone actual practice.
“Therefore, all that’s left is practice!”
Right, practice.
Not that it’ll help.
Just look at them.
Over there, someone was showcasing a color palette straight out of the twisted nether.
Over there, someone had created something that looked like the work of a Dark Mage.
And over there—I have no idea why the hell he’s sticking a carnivorous plant in there again.
Even Princess Meriya, who offered a glimmer of hope, was only "good" because she was overwhelmingly better than the male lead candidates.
By normal standards, she was just plain bad.
Daisy, who had received special training from the former president, produced something decent, but it was just that—decent.
It seemed even the all-statted Daisy, blessed by the Goddess and the author, hadn't been granted the gift of flower arranging.
Well, I wasn't exactly in a position to talk.
“……”
Wait, what the hell?
“Vi-Violet?”
Daisy’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the… well, the literal sparkling, perfect ‘work’ before her.
“Did… did you do this?”
I guess she knew our club was a lost cause too.
I wanted to nod in response to her desperate cry, her eyes filled with newfound hope, but…
“…Do you really think I did?”
I wasn't the one who made this.
I had made something that was better than the male leads but worse than Daisy, only for someone to transform it into a literal work of art.
And the culprit was none other than…
“More.”
The little glutton who asked for food every waking moment: Delmoa.
We had successfully captured Delmoa, the Saintess of the Evil God and a key player in the upcoming Academy terror attack, but that didn't mean everything was over.
For starters, Boradori had said she wasn't supposed to appear until next year in the original work.
And once we caught her, she turned out to be a complete novice who had joined the cult of the Evil God less than a week ago.
So, there was no way Delmoa was the core operative for this Founding Festival event.
Since the original core operatives, Silence and Bell, had either died or been "normalized," new enemies should have emerged to fill the void.
—…But there’s no one like that?
According to Boradori, while there were individuals on par with Silence and Bell, they were just enemies of similar difficulty; none of them could replace their unique characteristics.
Still, just in case, I got a list of named enemies similar in level to Silence and Bell.
But seeing as even the Heresy Inquisitors—who had proven their skill with Delmoa—couldn't find them, it seemed likely they wouldn't appear in this incident.
So, while we were doing our jobs, the only ones getting caught were low-level Dark Mages.
“……? No, you caught a Dark Mage?!”
One of the founding members of the Academy Romance Manipulation Team, the one in charge of the heir to the Ilias family—one of the Empire’s three great merchant guilds…
……A certain Mr. Kim shouted in indignation.
But these days, Dark Mages were popping up even in Academy group projects. To call catching one a "great achievement" was hardly enough to satisfy the standards of the Sacred After-School Dessert Club.
Just as I was using the Ilias Merchant Guild’s wealth and new products to silence the complaints coming from all sides…
Our special agent, Boradori, requested a secret meeting.
With a fluttering heart, I went to meet him, wondering what kind of information he had brought.
“Enroll Delmoa in the Academy.”
“…Are you serious?”
As it turned out, it wasn't new information, but a request for fraudulent admission.
“…Is it not possible? A ton of heterogeneous species have joined recently.”
“That was through the official admission route. And they actually have the skills.”
The High Elf and the Ancestor were powerful enough to potentially defeat Ellen, who had become a Sword Master, at their peak.
The Beastkin and Dwarves were also around the level of the Minor Sword Emperor, or slightly below.
In short, they had the skills necessary to transfer into the Academy, which prided itself on meritocracy.
That was why there was no opposition from the students despite their sudden transfers.
But Delmoa was different.
She looked nothing like someone her supposed age—and more importantly, she looked like someone you’d be in big trouble for messing with.
Still, they say you have to be careful of the elderly, women, and children in a RoFan world.
“Does she have some incredible hidden power?”
“Not before she awakens.”
“And after she awakens?”
“Even then, her combat abilities were pretty mediocre.”
Despite being the Saintess of the Evil God, she apparently only had the abilities of a traditional Saintess.
“Why is she so weak?”
“Because she was created as an antithesis to Daisy…”
“……Then shouldn't she be really strong?”
“……I get what kind of image you have of Daisy, but in the original work, she was a fragile girl, okay?”
“Exactly. So if we play our cards right from now on, can't Delmoa grow to be on Daisy’s level?”
“……Really?”
I had just said it in passing, but Violet’s eyes began to shift.
She even muttered, “It might be worth a shot…” to herself.
However, the Imperial Academy, the continent's top educational institution, isn't an easy place to get into based on things that haven't happened yet.
It was only an "automatic door" for Dark Mages; for everyone else, the gates were shut tight.
Therefore, to enroll mid-term, there had to be a suitable reason.
And that reason was!
“She’s good at flower arranging.”
“……?”
“Like, really good!”
“……”
It was a truly RoFan-esque answer.
“We really, really need her.”
Boradori was practically clinging to my leg, so I decided to ask just once.
“Is this actually going to work?”
“Right?”
And Uncle Aeryun replied with a look that said, What kind of nonsense are you talking about?
“Besides, the Student Council isn't stupid. Do you really think they’d abolish the Flower Arrangement Club just because of a lack of results?”
He made a perfectly valid point.
No matter how much the Empire cared about the reputation of commoners or how much the Academy preached equality…
The Empire was a country with a clear class-based society.
And the Academy wasn't forever; it was a world that usually ended in four years.
The students weren't oblivious.
If it were a marginal difference, maybe, but they couldn't ignore a club as insane as the Flower Arrangement Club.
Therefore, the word "abolition" was something that would only come out of the mouths of the Flower Arrangement Club members, whose heads were filled with nothing but flowers.
At worst, the club’s funding might be cut a little.
Even that would be a fatal blow to a small club, but it didn't matter to the Flower Arrangement Club since they had the future head of the Ilias Merchant Guild.
In fact, if that guy sold the flowers he brought for practice at half the market price, he could easily raise a budget equal to that of the Swordsmanship Club, one of the largest clubs in the Academy.
“So, if you have time to worry about that, focus on Silverstone, which we just found.”
“Silverstone? What kind of place is that?”
“You know that place that was messing around with drugs last year?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, that place was just the raw material supplier. The place actually manufacturing them is a separate entity called Silverstone.”
“The Empire finally did something right.”
“…The Heretic Inquisitors of the Holy Kingdom found it.”
“What exactly is the Empire doing?”
“They’re cleaning up! Cleaning up!”
Well, even if it was a RoFan world…
Every single incident was breaking out in the Empire, starting with the Academy.
If all of this had happened in my home country, I wouldn't be moving around this leisurely.
“So stop talking nonsense and help out.”
“Hmm…”
“They’re fundamentally an alchemy group, so Old Man Derf wants us to go shake them down.”
“Well, if it’s a request from the old man, I guess I have no choice.”
“The difference in treatment is a bit much, don't you think…?”
With a deep sigh, Uncle Aeryun and I went on a club field trip, fitting for the Academy’s atmosphere as it prepared for the Founding Festival. When I returned…
“……Uncle?”
“The Prince told me to do it, so what choice do I have?”
Apparently, Delmoa’s entrance exam had been arranged.
And since I was officially listed as her guardian, I had to go.
“Dad.”
“I’m going crazy.”
I don't know what the hell Boradori did.
I, a man who hadn't even dated, let alone married, was being called "Dad."
“He said to ask for the hat.”
“Who did…”
“Mo… ther.”
After a long hesitation, she ended with "ther."
Since it was obvious who the culprit was…
“My dear wife.”
“What kind of insane bullshit is that?”
“Exactly my sentiment. Head on the floor.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Arms, legs, head—all of it off the ground.”
“Yes… wait, what? Then that’s not a head on the floor, that’s levitation!”
“Do it.”
“Yes, sir…”
First, I made him do a head on the floor… no, levitation.
Sweating profusely, Boradori finished her explanation while standing vertically with her head pointing down.
“So, the kid seems to have a talent for magic or sorcery. If she wears the Helmet of the Demon King, she should be able to breeze through the entrance exam…”
It sounded plausible. However…
“This thing is dangerous.”
No matter how you looked at it, this was a piece of wicked equipment used by the Demon King, possessing its own ego since the Mythological Era.
To entrust such a thing to Delmoa, who seemed mentally underdeveloped and not quite all there…
“That’s exactly why it’s possible…”
But Boradori’s opinion was different.
“Because the ego is so powerful, we can place magical restrictions on it.”
The explanation was long and technical, making it hard to follow, but…
“Basically, the stronger the ego, the more bound it is by a contract?”
“Yes. There’s a reason people say dragons ruin their lives by messing up a contract.”
Thinking of the example of dragons, it sounded quite convincing.
Except for one thing.
“Will this thing even agree to a contract?”
An object touched by the Evil God, existing since the Mythological Era.
Would such a thing really listen to a request to provide babysitting services?
—GYAAAAAAH! I’ll do it! I’ll do it, so please, stop with the triple-casting lightning sword bullshit while holding a blade in your mouth…!
…I guess it will.