The Gathering King Badge
Around this time of year, the Harvest Festival—one of the academy's official events—takes place. It's a bit early to call it autumn, but the festival is held to welcome the harvest season. It's the kind of thing that used to take up maybe five minutes of simple mini-games. Unlike the Mock Battle, it's not some grand event open to outsiders. Apparently, it's just a modest little gathering held inside the school so students can unwind. The top scorer gets a special prize. For a first-year's Harvest Festival, that prize is... the Gathering King Badge. It's an accessory that provides quite a bit of magic defense for something you can get in the capital. If I could just get my hands on it, it'd definitely help, but...
'No way in hell I'm winning this.'
The problem is, I've never once won the Harvest Festival. Everyone has something they're terrible at, right? Shooting, dodging, rhythm games. Among them, the mini-games this festival uses are all about... pure luck. The simplest thing imaginable, and the one thing you can't get better at. Just clicking on bushes on the screen and choosing which path to take. Clicking the screen isn't hard. The real issue is the score needed to win and the choices you make. To reach the winning score, you had to pick the correct option at least five times. With a fifty-fifty chance each time, that was roughly a three percent success rate. On top of that, there was a rare "auto-save" feature when making choices, so unlucky players could never obtain the badge. In a way, it was an item only the chosen could have. But that kind of game logic probably doesn't apply in reality.
'I wonder how it actually works here.'
The Harvest Festival is, of course, held in the main academy building, right in front of the garden that's still lush and green despite the season. The trees lining the streets and in the forests are shedding their leaves, but the garden's greenery looks no different from midsummer, as if some magic is at work. Honestly, I was a little curious to see what the Harvest Festival event—which I'd always skipped through as a mini-game—would look like in person. Even the Mock Battle, which I'd only fought through four times, had turned out to be a fairly large-scale event.
In front of the murmuring students, the teacher in charge of the festival begins to speak.
"I'll start the explanation now."
Despite the grand name "festival," the Harvest Festival is quite modest. Before it begins, herbs and mushrooms are scattered throughout the garden. The task is simply to find and collect them. Whatever you gather counts toward your score, but you're also allowed to keep and use the items yourself. Most of the main building students come from wealthy families, so the event is held in the safety of the garden. If I'd been a student in the annex building, would I have been gathering in the actual mountains? Or does the annex even hold a Harvest Festival?
"The time limit is until the sand in this hourglass runs out."
While I was tilting my head, wondering about the annex, the explanation had already ended. Honestly, I wasn't aiming for first place—I just hoped to find some useful herbs.
"Begin."
At the teacher's flat command, the students begin to move, wandering the garden with pouches the size of water bottles in hand. Even though it's called a harvest festival, not many students are moving with any real enthusiasm. Some sit on the garden facilities right in front of the teacher, resting, while others don't even take a single step from the starting line. They're participating because the academy requires it, but they have no intention of expending any energy. Huh. If everyone's like this...
'This might be doable.'
The apathetic attitude around me sparks a bit of motivation. Pretending to wander aimlessly while asking around, I pick up my pace. During the explanation, they'd said the items were scattered evenly throughout the garden... and sure enough, right in the middle of a path no student had walked yet, there was a mushroom placed so obviously it looked unnatural. I'd expected them to at least hide things near the roots of bushes or between branches. This wasn't so much careless as it was completely lacking in effort.
'Is this really okay...?'
I couldn't help but think it. The Harvest Festival was less about finding things and more about picking them up. I understood making the items easy to find since any uncollected herbs or mushrooms would have to be retrieved later, but even so, this was just too half-hearted.
'I wonder if there's anything valuable...'
Maybe my mercenary life had rubbed off on me too much—I was already thinking about money first. Before I knew it, I was moving forward in a trance, sweeping up every herb and mushroom I saw. Aside from the students openly sitting in chairs, I occasionally passed others who were actually putting things in their bags. Thanks to moving around diligently, my pouch was fairly swollen.
'At this rate, could I actually aim for first place?'
The sheer volume gave me a baseless confidence as I looked at my pouch with satisfaction. By the time the herbs and mushrooms scattered along the paths had nearly all disappeared...
The teacher's voice rang out loudly enough to reach deep into the garden, like a broadcast.
"All students in the garden, please gather at the entrance immediately. I repeat..."
The voice was loud enough to hurt my ears. I covered both ears with my hands while holding the pouch, feeling its texture against my cheek as a question suddenly occurred to me.
'How are they doing that?'
It seemed like they'd created something like broadcasting equipment using magic. It was impressive. Equipment used by an academy wealthy enough to throw money around like that must cost hundreds of gold coins, right?
With that question in mind, I trudged back to the garden entrance, where many students had already gathered and were submitting their pouches. Of course, most of them were handing over thin, empty pouches... There weren't many that actually had enough contents to bother counting.
"Thank you all for doing your best in the Harvest Festival. Until the judging is complete, you may move freely within the garden."
Each pouch had its owner's name written on it, so there was no worry about mix-ups. The teacher emphasized that students were to remain in the garden during the festival, then, while still counting the herbs and mushrooms, suddenly looked up and spoke loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Ah, you're also welcome to take an empty pouch belonging to another student and search for any remaining herbs or mushrooms."
'Cleanup duty...?'
It was clearly meant to have the students collect the remaining scattered items. The way it felt like they were just dumping the work on us made me tilt my head in confusion. Naturally, unless someone was struggling financially, no student was eager to volunteer. Even if someone wanted to, they'd probably stay quiet to avoid standing out in this atmosphere. Most of the students here were the eyes and mouths of noble society themselves. Setting aside the rumors about my own financial situation, I had no desire to pick up another pouch and search the garden again. Honestly, all the easy-to-find items had already been taken... Only the hidden ones would be left.
While everyone was sitting quietly, resting, someone approached the wooden box filled with empty pouches and picked one up without a word. All eyes, including mine, turned toward them. It was the girl from the seat next to mine, with her distinctive long, curly golden hair.
'...Arian?'
It was Arian, the potion-obsessed girl who insisted on only natural ingredients when commissioning mercenaries for gathering. Not long after Arian disappeared into the depths of the garden, the judging results began to be announced. Even though I hadn't expected to win, I found myself holding onto a small hope. The teacher began listing the rankings in a flat voice, starting from the top.
"Joint 6th place: Mars and Hewton. 5th place: Kirke. 4th place: Sharen..."
Names of students I didn't know brushed past my ears. Soon, the top ranks would be called. Even knowing first place was impossible, my heart pounded for no reason.
"3rd place: Shen."
'Ah.'
Before any real excitement could build, hearing my name in 3rd place made the fluttering stop. As expected, first place had been way out of reach... Wait a second. Kair's name still hadn't been called. Was he knowledgeable about herbs?
"2nd place: Cecil. 1st place: Arian."
Before any subtle anticipation could rise, the names for 2nd and 1st place were announced without any tension, and even that faint emotion fizzled out completely. So I wasn't in the top ranks after all. Well, that made sense. The 1st place spot had gone to Arian, as expected of the potion fanatic.
Right after the announcement ended, the teacher stood up. Holding a small badge in one hand, they looked around and called out.
"Arian. Is Arian here?"
Despite the teacher's shout, silence hung in the air. The students remained seated, glancing at each other and reading the atmosphere. No one seemed to know that the student who'd taken a pouch and gone into the garden earlier was her. The prolonged silence grew awkward, so I raised my hand and spoke briefly.
"Um, if it's Arian, she took a pouch and went that way earlier..."
"Ah, then would you deliver it to her in her place?"
"Huh? Oh, sure..."
The teacher extended their arm as if trying to hand something over from afar. I couldn't just leave them hanging like that, so I ended up jogging over and receiving the badge... Holding the symbol of luck I'd never obtained before, I felt a strange sensation. Realizing it wasn't even mine, I turned and headed down the garden path Arian had taken.
After walking for a while, I spotted golden curls visible between the hedge-lined path. She seemed quite focused, but unexpectedly, Arian noticed me first and turned around.
"...What is it?"
"You won the Harvest Festival. They told me to bring this to you."
I quickly held out the badge for Arian, who was asking about my business. With my palm open as if offering it to her, Arian spoke.
"...Ah, is that so?"
A short sigh, followed by an indifferent reaction. Arian turned the badge she'd taken from my palm over a few times, then looked up at me as if she'd lost interest in it.
"...Is that all?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah."
At my short reply, Arian silently exhaled and dropped the badge onto my palm. As I tilted my head in confusion at the inexplicable action, she continued.
"...I don't need it, so do whatever you want with it. Throw it away or keep it."
'Huh?'
My eyes widened at the unexpected behavior. It was a free item.