The Clubroom Is For Whom #3
I, Ha Seungri, was never particularly fond of sweet foods. But I did consider them important in life. After wracking my brain hard, eating a clean, light dessert during break time could melt away the fatigue. Of course, eating too much caused problems. Everything in moderation, right?
In that sense, what I was making this time was something that perfectly suited a light dessert.
“It should be around here somewhere.”
When I looked around, Enio, who had followed me, asked,
“Victor, what exactly are you trying to do here? This is the girls’ dormitory. I managed to get you let in by asking, but still…”
The girls’ dormitory was a male-forbidden zone. Without permission from a councilor or a student council officer performing official duties, a man simply setting foot inside would result in severe punishment.
“Look, a guy went in.”
“What? Wait, isn’t that Victor? Didn’t they say he was resting after getting hurt?”
“Enio of the Blackstar is with him too. What’s going on?”
“More importantly, what’s with those two? Why are they together?”
Even without straining my ears, the whispers from the girls walking around reached me loudly. This reminded me of my part-time convenience store job back in an all-girls high school.
“Victor, did you want to get attention from the girls? How perverted.”
It seemed Enio had come to some strange misunderstanding. But showing her would be faster than explaining, so I headed to the back of the dormitory.
There was a flowerbed there, blooming with flowers that perfectly suited a spring day in the new semester. It was incredibly beautiful. It truly felt like a women’s garden. The all-girls high school where I had worked was nothing like this, but seeing it now confirmed this was definitely inside the game. How romantic.
Though those girls over there were a different story.
“You girls. Smoking magic herbs on school grounds is against the rules.”
“Ugh, it’s Victor.”
“Put it out, quick.”
The flashy girls with blonde or blue hair made eye contact with me and immediately extinguished the flames on what they were holding. Then one with an impressive eyebrow piercing frowned and spoke.
“Victor, you’re not even an enforcer anymore. Why are you being so strict?”
“Magic herbs raise magic power but they’re harmful to the body. And even if I’m not an enforcer, everyone has a duty to report illegal activities.”
“Ellie, let’s just go. Enio’s over there too. This is getting annoying.”
“…Ugh. I only threw away the long one.”
The girls who looked like they knew how to have fun simply dropped the magic herbs on the ground and left. Littering like that. What bad girls. I decided to pick them up for now. They might come in handy.
Enio, who had been watching the whole process, asked,
“Victor, why did we come here? You’re not an enforcer anymore, so you can’t have come to crack down on students smoking magic herbs.”
“Where there are many flowers, butterflies and bees are bound to gather. Look over there, Enio.”
I pointed at the dormitory wall with my hand. Under the high eaves hung a rather large beehive, bigger than I remembered. About the size of a child’s torso. It was seriously huge.
Bzzzzz. Bzzzzz.
As if sensing the intruder, the bees began to emerge and show their hostility. Each bee was as big as a palm, making them quite threatening. In fact, the Bashkir honeybee swarm in D&A was a fairly difficult colony monster to deal with. Getting stung had a chance to inflict Level 3 Poison, which hurt quite a bit. It drained 3 HP per second. If I mentioned that first-year students had an average of 50 HP, you could probably guess how bad it was.
“What is that? Was there something like that behind the dormitory? It looks incredibly dangerous…”
Since Enio didn’t live in the dormitory, she seemed to know nothing about the beehive that had taken over this flowerbed. I decided to explain it to her cleanly.
“It is the nest of Bashkir honeybees. I am going to take it down.”
“That…? It looks extremely dangerous?”
“It will be fine.”
I had taken down plenty of them with my original body.
I borrowed a ladder from the girls’ dormitory maintenance supply room. As I climbed it, word must have spread that I had come to the girls’ dormitory, because a crowd of girls gathered to watch.
“What is that guy doing now?”
“He said he’s taking down the beehive. Maybe he’s finally responding to the complaint we filed with the student council! Now we can manage the flowerbed properly!”
“But he’s not even a student council enforcer anymore. Does he really need to do this?”
“Right. Isn’t it like that thing where he always does his best until the end on whatever he takes on?”
“If it’s Victor, that makes sense. His sense of responsibility looks a little cool…”
“What? You have that kind of taste?”
The girls chattered away with their various opinions. But they were all wrong. I wasn’t taking down this beehive for everyone’s sake. My goal was what was inside it.
Buzzzzz—.
As I climbed the ladder with steady steps, the bees began to swarm me. The thought of palm-sized bees latching onto my body sent a slight chill down my spine.
Steel trait has been activated.
If I didn’t have the Steel trait, I would never have done something this reckless without protective gear. My neck and shoulders stung, but it was bearable.
“The scary part is the poison. The Bashkir honeybees’ attack power itself is low.”
A stinger only two or three centimeters long couldn’t pierce this Victor’s tough skin. And even if it did, I possessed resistance to poison thanks to my trait.
“Still, it stings the eyes a bit.”
The bees were spraying their poison like gas, making my eyes burn. Even in the original world where I wore protective gear when harvesting beehives, my eyes always stung. It was better than when making Bomb Sauce, but there was no need to keep getting hit like this.
“If you don’t want to get stung, stay back.”
I first warned the girls who were watching nearby. Then I put one of the magic herbs the delinquent girls had discarded earlier into my mouth and blew out the smoke.
Buzzzzz—.
The Bashkir honeybees couldn’t withstand the smoke and fled far away. Taking advantage of the moment, I grabbed the beehive and ripped it off with all my strength.
What I wanted was the honey inside.
A sweet reward obtained by defeating ferocious bees. It boasts a wonderful sweetness strong enough to wash away all the fatigue from being stung. It may be enjoyed even more deliciously through special cooking methods…?
Good. I got it.
Unlike regular honey that could be easily obtained in the field, Bashkir honey was considered a first-tier ingredient. Finding a Bashkir beehive itself wasn’t easy, and its effects were excellent, so it was always in short supply. Still, thanks to the sub-quest “Honey Commotion,” one was guaranteed to appear near the girls’ dormitory.
It was when I came down from the ladder.
“…Um, Victor. Thank you for removing the beehive. I couldn’t manage the flowerbed at all because of the bees.”
Someone approached me.
“You are Rose.”
It was a modest student with brown hair braided into one plait and wearing glasses. Rose, the flowerbed manager. She was the student who would give a flower or herb every time you encountered one growing in the girls’ dormitory flowerbed after completing the sub-quest “Honey Commotion.” The flowers and herbs received that way were quite useful as they could be used for cooking, furniture, and item crafting materials.
“Victor, this is my small token of appreciation.”
Rose held out a small wild plant to me. Of course, it wasn’t an ordinary weed—it was a four-leaf clover with four heart-shaped leaves. It matched exactly the reward given by Rose upon completing the sub-quest “Honey Commotion.” Would the effect be the same?
An easily recognizable symbol of luck. Increases the amount of Rene acquired by 5%.
A simple effect. It increased the amount of Rene obtained from defeating monsters or clearing dungeons by five percent. It might not seem like much, but when accumulated, it became a lot of money.
“I will gratefully accept it.”
Receiving the reward for clearing a sub-quest felt strange. As I had vaguely guessed, it seemed that even if you weren’t the protagonist Luke, you could still receive some rewards by clearing sub-quest episodes. This information would be helpful in many ways.
“Then Enio, let us return to the clubroom.”
“Huh? Okay. I’ll come with you.”
It would be nice if the clubroom had a brazier or heating equipment. Since there wasn’t any at the moment, I lit a bonfire in front of the warehouse being used as the clubroom.
“First, I will heat it.”
I put a large amount of the honey obtained from the beehive into a pot and boiled it. Normal honey could have its components destroyed when heated, but since this was honey from inside the game, it was fine. Besides, it wasn’t ordinary honey—it was monster honey.
“Victor, what are you going to do with this one?”
Enio tilted her head as she looked at the queen bee trapped inside a straw-woven collection container.
Well, I didn’t think I could do anything particular with a queen bee either. I hadn’t even thought I would be able to catch one in the first place.
Bzzzzzz…. Bzzzzzz….
Catching the queen bee that couldn’t escape the beehive was pure coincidence. I figured I might be able to use it somewhere, so I put it in the collection container for now. Enio seemed fascinated by the queen bee.
“She’s much gentler compared to those ferocious worker bees from earlier.”
“Most queen bees have low aggression. They conserve their bodies for the prosperity of their species.”
“Really? I didn’t know that.”
“Still, you could get stung, so do not touch her.”
“Hmmm…”
Enio seemed to lose interest in the queen bee at that point and turned her head toward me. Then she ran her hand across my shoulder.
“To charge at those terrifying bees. I didn’t know you would go that far just to make a dessert for me. Honestly, I’m a little touched.”
“Do not speak to me. This is a critical moment right now.”
From now on, I had to stir the honey with all my strength. Otherwise it would fail. This was the Bashkir honey I had gone to such lengths to obtain. Even someone as experienced as me couldn’t say for sure when I would get the next one.
As I stirred the boiling honey with a ladle, an unexpectedly sweet aroma began to spread. A sweetness that made me forget all the fatigue from moments ago. Bubble bubble.
At the same time, the yellowish honey began to emit a brilliant golden light. As I stirred it even more, the golden liquid that had filled the pot gradually decreased, shrinking further until…
Finally, it turned into a candy-sized lump.
“Victor, this is…?”
“It is the dessert you said you wanted to eat. At the moment, I cannot make any better dessert than this.”
Using cleanly washed hands and sanitary gloves, I gathered the dough. After shaping it into a round ball and letting it rest for a bit, it was done.
Honey Candy has been successfully completed!
A candy made with special honey. The poison has been removed and the sweetness greatly increased through the correct cooking method. However, there may be a way to make it even more wonderful…?
A first-tier dish, Honey Candy, was completed. For reference, if I combined it with the other first-tier dish Snowflake Shaved Ice and one more ingredient, it would become the legendary dish Honey Shaved Ice Harmony, but since I couldn’t make that right now, it was a shame. Still, this should be enough to serve as a light dessert.
“Candy. I think this is the first time I’ve eaten it since I was in my homeland. Is this really delicious?”
Enio looked at the round candy with slightly wary eyes. Was she sulking because I told her not to talk to me while making the candy? She rolled the candy around in her palm, smelled it, and frowned.
“Golden. It somehow reminds me of someone’s eyes. Well then, shall I try it?”
A red tongue extended from her open mouth. The candy placed on it looked like a bead from a multi-tailed fox. In reality, it was probably similar. In some ways, Enio was more dangerous than a multi-tailed fox.
Chew.
Finally, the golden candy disappeared between Enio’s lips.
And those ruby-like eyes widened greatly.