Chapter 58: Don't Try to Understand (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 58: Don't Try to Understand (3)
"No, if that was the case, you should've told me!"
Hiss!
Violet was being unusually fierce, but I had no choice but to be understanding.
"I seriously thought I was going to die!"
She said she thought she was headed for the guillotine after experiencing the full basement treatment, so her fierce howling was justified.
"I told you I'd handle everything."
To be honest, I didn't know it would be resolved this way. But in the end, it was true that I was the one who solved it.
"Should I be... thankful for that? Who was the one who dragged me there in the first place?!"
"I heard the Captain is considering a salary raise for you this time."
"Thank you! I shall serve with all my loyalty!"
What a girl, so honest with her desires. That was the greatest virtue for a spy.
"By the way, where's Daisy?"
"They said Hedrick is the main character for this part. So I dumped her on him and came here."
"Wow..."
She looked at me like I was human trash, but I felt wronged.
"It's a fake relationship, anyway."
"Even if it's fake, leaving your girlfriend with another man..."
No, when you put it like that, I really sound like a scumbag.
...Wait, am I?
"And since you're the one I'm meeting right now, does that make you the 'other woman'?"
"...Are you trying to throw someone who just got released by imperial agents back into hell?!"
She jumped back in horror; she seemed truly repulsed by the idea.
"I can't die alone."
"Just die by yourself!"
"Daisy is your friend."
"The more you're friends, the more you're supposed to stay out of their love lives!"
This girl... before, she was willing to take a hole in the stomach from Silence for her friend. And right after that, they were slapping each other like Pikachus in a Pokémon movie. But the moment the RoFan heroine starts dating, she tries to cut ties.
"Are you afraid? Of a RoFan heroine's romance?!"
"It's fucking terrifying!"
So it is fucking terrifying.
"Me too!"
Honestly, I had to admit it because I was scared too.
When I entered the club room, there were two people slumped over.
"My life..."
"...Sigh."
"Whoa."
"Adam! You're finally here. It's been a while, but what on earth is going on?"
As I marveled at the sight, a man who had been sitting quietly in the corner of the club room jumped up and approached me.
"It really has been a while."
Unlike Hedrick, who got his share of screen time this time, this was the second son of the Border Count—a RoFan male lead who still lacked any presence. It was Taylor, Gerard's guard and shadow.
Unlike us, he was almost always by Gerard's side except during club hours, so he rarely visited the club room. He seemed flustered to find two pieces of limp, soaked seaweed sprawled out in the room after his long absence.
"Well, I know why Uncle Aeryun is like that. It's just because of some fucking annoying business."
"What kind of business could do that to a man of his caliber?"
Since they were from the same Empire, Taylor held Uncle Aeryun in quite high regard. How should I explain the reason such a man ended up in that state?
"The details are a secret, but... it's roughly the same feeling you'd have if you read a letter saying Gerard ran away from the Academy because he challenged me—Daisy's lover—to a duel out of spite and lost?"
"That sounds like total bullshit just hearing it!"
"Exactly."
Along with his exclamation, Taylor's gaze toward Uncle Aeryun became distant and pitying.
"Then, why is Marie acting like that?"
"Her date probably failed."
"Waaaaah!"
"Bullseye..."
Taylor shook his head as he watched the Fire Spammer burst into tears.
"Honestly, I thought you'd be the most broken one. But you're the most normal."
"Why?"
"From a third-party perspective, what would people think if they heard that the guy who was called the Saintess's lover at the start of the semester has now become Lady Loreliya's lover?"
"A crazy bastard?"
"Yeah, you crazy bastard. On top of that, a friend in the Imperial Intelligence Bureau told me. Since the Founding Festival started, you've brought in at least three dark mages a day. How did you even do it?"
How? By going on dates with Daisy.
Since I couldn't bring myself to say that, I pointed my finger at Uncle Aeryun.
"It's because that old man is bad at his job, so the Academy is crawling with dark mages."
"Gah!"
"...The man named Aeryun I heard about wasn't that kind of person."
At Taylor's words, which sounded strangely wistful for some reason, I narrowed my eyes and spoke.
"By the way. While someone from another country was working his ass off, what were you doing?"
"What do you mean? I was working."
Even if "work" just meant following the second son of the Border Count around while he looked at the festival or participated in events.
"To be honest, Adam, you're the weird one. I'm the normal one. We're supposed to stay by the side of the people we serve. Why are you running around separately beating up dark mages?"
"......"
It was such a sound argument that I was momentarily lost for words.
That's true... Why was I catching dark mages instead of helping Prince Ellen with Leon's exchange event?
"Well... because the dark mages kept appearing in front of me?"
"What?"
Thinking back, it wasn't like I specifically went looking for dark mages to beat up. They just kept finding me.
"In fact, I wasn't even the one who caught them."
It was true. It wasn't me; Daisy caught them all.
"Was the Saintess actually a spy?"
For a moment, he seemed to be seriously considering if the woman his master fell for was a spy for the dark mages. If he didn't know this world was a RoFan, that would be the realistic conclusion.
"That's not going to happen."
But no matter how I thought about it, there was no reason for the Saintess to be a spy. And there was no reason for a spy to beat up dark mages.
"Then that leaves..."
Without hiding his suspicious expression, Taylor looked at me.
"You really want me to do it?"
"Just kidding."
With a smirk, Taylor immediately backed down. He draped an arm over my shoulder and whispered secret information into my ear with an apologetic voice.
"The second semester field trip. I heard they're going to combine it with the final exams."
"No, what kind of crazy talk is that?"
Violet—no, Codename Boradori—hadn't mentioned anything like that.
"Do you think I came here for nothing? I came to let you know."
He wasn't the type to lie, but he also wasn't the type who could get information before Uncle Aeryun. Which meant...
"Don't tell me..."
The location was...
"Right. They said it'll be held at our territory."
It was the Border Count's territory.
"What?"
The next morning.
Violet, who had been dragged out before she could even fix her hair, had her eyes half-closed. But the moment I told her what I'd heard yesterday, her eyes snapped open and she grabbed me by the collar.
"No, what are you talking about?! Is it true? We're really going to the Border Count's territory?!"
Judging by her reaction, she clearly hadn't known.
"I heard it from one of Gerard's people, so it's probably true."
"But why?!"
I briefly summarized what I'd heard yesterday for the frantic Violet.
"There have been a lot of incidents lately."
"That was the case in the original work too!"
"It was. But there are a lot of differences between the original and now, right?"
Silence, who was supposed to hand the protagonist's party a defeat, died at our hands. The dark mages, who were supposed to cause chaos among the students with artificial magic swords, were suppressed by the Empire in advance, and all their magic swords were seized.
Not to mention the Holy Kingdom, and even in this current incident—which was supposed to be a fairly large firework show at the Academy—only a few warehouses caught fire.
Even then.
"I heard the warehouse that got damaged was a flower warehouse?"
"It was..."
When I checked what was in the warehouse, it was full of flowers. I thought they were flowers prepared for the event... but they were just flowers imported for the Flower Arrangement Club to use for Daisy.
...That crazy RoFan male lead bastard.
How hard do you have to practice flower arrangement to buy flowers by the warehouse-load for a club with fewer than ten members?
"Is your club really that hardworking?"
"...The President does it all by himself."
Since it was an Academy event, the Flower Arrangement Club was also participating in the Founding Festival.
Prince Esid was active as the face of the Imperial Family. Gerard was in a similar situation. Hedrick was probably still checking every single staff member dispatched to the Academy to clean up the mess. Prince Ellen was active with the people from the Leon Kingdom who attended the exchange event. And Daisy was probably walking around with the Pope.
"But what are you and that Magic Spammer doing?"
But that Magic Spammer prince rejected the Fire Spammer's date. And this Purple guy is oversleeping because he says he has nothing to do. If their President is working his ass off, shouldn't they help out a bit?
Seriously, typical Magic Spammers. Their social skills are so lacking.
"The President told us not to come, though?"
But at my gaze, Violet replied with a face full of discontent.
"Why?"
"He said his stomach hurts if I show up and then Daisy comes. He told us all to fuck off and that he'll handle it himself."
Hmm, is that so? Come to think of it, that makes sense. Even if the RoFan Golden Generation showed up, they'd only be a hindrance to the Flower Arrangement Club's activities, not a help. I would've told them not to come too.
"We got a bit sidetracked."
"This guy, just because he has nothing to say..."
Violet crumpled her face and muttered.
"Watch your tone."
"You said I'm on vacation until the Founding Festival ends if nothing happens!"
Since I was the one who gave her a vacation as a reward for her good work lately, I unfortunately couldn't summon Boradori to duty.
"If you want to keep enjoying your vacation, just shut up and listen."
"Yes, yes~"
"Sigh. Anyway. The big events that were supposed to explode in the original work were resolved well. So it seems the Academy thinks very highly of the current freshmen's skills."
In fact, Asran, who was called the Minor Sword Emperor or the Defeat Sword Emperor in the Swordsmanship Department, proved why he was called the Minor Sword Emperor by defeating every challenger until Prince Ellen stepped in. And the Prince of Dale, who rejected the Fire Spammer's date, also proved why Dale is called a magical powerhouse by showing a performance in the magic tournament that was not inferior to Asran's.
"True. Given the nature of Academy events, there were many outside challengers. Even though some of them were quite famous, they lost to the students..."
"Exactly. If they had been utterly crushed like in the original, it would be one thing. But since it was resolved internally, the Academy chose 'overcoming' instead of 'protection'."
If large-scale incidents had broken out one after another like in the original, the Academy would have felt external pressure. But the previous magic sword incident and this attempted terror attack could be buried as minor accidents.
Therefore, the Academy thought:
'The students' skills are better than expected...'
'The Swordsmanship Department Head Professor is the Sword Emperor...'
'They were just caught off guard by the variable called Silence, but the Magic Department Head Professor is McGregor...'
'We might as well send the students outside to train them.'
'And while the students are gone, we can carry out maintenance on the Academy...!'
"Based on that judgment, they're doing the field trip and final exams at the Rias Territory, where they can trust the students and provide them with various experiences."
At my words, Violet, who had been agonizing for a while, crumpled her face and shouted.
"...Isn't this just pushing Gerard because he has no screen time?!"
"Who on earth would..."
"The author bastard!"
Surely, that couldn't be it.
"...Could it?"
I wanted to say no, but this was a RoFan world where incomprehensible things happened just to facilitate the turn-based battles of the RoFan male leads.
"......So enjoy your vacation while you can. Expect to work like a dog once the Founding Festival is over."
"What a great way to spend a vacation!"
"I don't even have a vacation."
"...Good luck with that."
Even during the festival period, I had no choice but to head to the club room to take Taylor's lessons on the Rias Territory.
