Second-Semester Finals (13)
Dragged into the professor's office without even getting to eat my pasta, I studied the face of the Dungeon Studies professor, who was clutching her forehead.
In the heat of the moment my reason had snapped clean in half and I'd just gone ahead and done it, but the fact remained that I'd flattened a handful of people in front of a huge crowd. Even now I didn't regret throwing those punches, but if you asked me whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, it was obviously a bad thing.
With every single person in the dining hall as a witness, there was no quietly sweeping the whole affair under the rug. Faults would have to be weighed on both sides, and a punishment decided accordingly.
Which meant that what I needed to do right now was explain just how unreasonable and threatening the other party's behavior had been, and plead that my own actions had a legitimate justification.
It would look even better if I showed a little remorse while I was at it.
I understood all of that perfectly well. And yet what my body actually put on display was nothing like what my mind had planned.
Shoulders squared with defiance. A scornful look that said, why are you wasting my time with this? Lips stuck out in a pout. Legs crossed with all the grace of a delinquent. I knew perfectly well this was the posture of someone who acted personally offended — the kind of stance that could invent a punishment that never existed in the first place!
But what choice did I have?!
As long as the Mesugaki skill was active, I couldn't show a hint of remorse — I couldn't even let myself look cowed!
"Lady Aln."
I'd been sighing into my collar, but at the professor's voice I turned my head ever so slightly. Here it comes — the scolding for what happened earlier.
"I'm sorry."
I blinked. The Dungeon Studies professor was the very last person I'd expected to apologize.
Sorry? For what?
"I should have anticipated that those idiots would come looking for you, my lady."
Her explanation cleared up my confusion. As it turned out, those worthless pieces of trash who'd come to find me had gone to her first to whine about the dungeon.
"Whether it was truly conquerable. Whether it wasn't some place ordinary students wouldn't even dream of clearing. Whether Lady Aln could actually prove it was possible."
The professor's voice dripped with simmering fury as she explained that she'd scared them off and thrown them out, since their nonsense hadn't been worth the breath it took to answer.
Well, of course. She'd been deeply involved in building the final exam dungeon.
How furious must a person have been — someone who took pride in shouldering a pillar of the dungeon's construction — to hear people question whether her dungeon was even a proper one at all?
If it weren't for her position, I bet she'd have dealt with them personally before they ever made it to me.
Aaagh. Just picturing those bastards' faces is pissing me off all over again.
I defended the honor of my dungeon even knowing I'd take flak from the Heojeop Chief God for it, and these unqualified nobodies had the gall to spew garbage about it. I really should have hit them harder. Should have kept the lesson going until their faces went white at the mere sight of mine...
No, wait. I can just visit them later and educate them on their place, nice and slow, can't I?
That's right. I'm a genius!
Hehe. Where should I start? Let's see...
"Lady Aln?"
Hm? What?
"I can roughly guess what you're thinking, but I must ask you to restrain yourself for the moment."
...It must have been showing on my face a little too clearly. I hadn't said a word out loud, and she still felt the need to stop me.
"If you go to see them today, it will draw far too much attention. So wait until things settle down, and then quietly teach them their manners."
At her added remark that she could manufacture a pretext for me if necessary, an awkward laugh slipped out of me.
Oh. She's not stopping me — she's giving me advice?
Guess the professor really was furious too.
Well, sure. Anyone who heard what those trash heaps said would be. Yes.
"Let's leave the matter of those worthless nobodies here. There's something more important."
'Something more important?'
"Something more important?"
"The fact that you declared, before everyone's eyes, that you would clear the dungeon."
Just moments ago, in front of the entire dining hall, I'd announced that I would demonstrate a clear of this semester's final exam dungeon.
That the dungeon hadn't been too difficult to conquer — they had simply been too Heojeop to manage it. That was what I'd promised to show them.
It was a small, one-hundred-percent-genuine truth, the kind of thing anyone who'd worked on the dungeon would nod along to. But the people who'd heard it in that dining hall were not going to see it that way.
Imagine wrenching your brain apart over a difficult problem while someone beside you laughs that the only reason you can't solve it is because you're a scrub. Who on earth would take that well?
"The eyes watching your demonstration will be far from kind."
I'd thrown down the gauntlet, so the gazes fixed on my demonstration would be nothing short of hostile. Everyone would be hunting for the smallest flaw they could seize on.
And now I understood where the Dungeon Studies professor was going with all this.
"Will you be all right?"
She was worrying about me. Asking whether I could stand being judged under the eyes of the entire crowd.
Puhahaha. The Dungeon Studies professor — the very woman who, right up until she finished building the final dungeon, had aimed nothing but hostility at me — was now worrying over me.
I suppose I really do make dungeons well.
I let out an involuntary snicker, and something in the professor's expression loosened, just slightly. She'd probably known what my answer would be before she even asked.
'I'll be fine.'
"Khh. For a Heojeop professor to worry about me — how insolent. Shouldn't you have figured out your place by now?"
Teaching other people how to clear dungeons was something I'd done until I was sick of it.
I was the one who'd written clear guides for every dungeon that existed in Soul Academy, and for the mountains of dungeons added through mods on top of that.
There was no version of reality where someone like me couldn't demonstrate the clear of a dungeon I'd built with my own two hands.
"Then I won't press the question."
The Dungeon Studies professor was smiling and adding that she'd arrange the demonstration schedule once finals were over — when Grandpa, silent until that very moment, decided to open his mouth.
⟨Well done, my girl.⟩
'With what?'
⟨Have you not dreamed of this very moment? You even planned out how you would demonstrate the dungeon clear to everyone.⟩
'...How do you know about that, Grandpa?'
⟨Because I watched, of course.⟩
You were watching me grin to myself the entire time?!
I thought you just weren't answering when I called, so I'd been letting my ego run wild and free! And that was the sinister trap you'd laid for me, you old man?!
⟨I distinctly recall you muttering to yourself, 'Everyone's going to think I'm so cool for this,' with that smirk of...⟩
'GYAAAAH! STOP! STOOOOP!'
Excuse me?! Weren't you the one who claimed you thought of me as your granddaughter?!
Is it really acceptable for a legendary holy knight to drag his granddaughter's vividly embarrassing history out into the open like this?! Shouldn't you be exercising a little more delicate consideration?!
⟨Ha. I should never have handed myself over to Lady Rina.⟩
You were holding onto that grudge from back then this whole time?! petty doesn't even cover it!
YOU were the one who started that provocation, Grandpa!
You were the one yapping away and grinding my gears, and now you're taking revenge over it like this?!
Just you wait. This one's going straight into the ledger of grudges I keep in my heart!
I slammed the old man's mouth shut by shoving him deep into my Inventory before he could spout any more nonsense, then desperately hunted for some other topic to smother the mortification flooding through me.
Something. Something appropriate...
Oh, right! The top-ranked party in the Academy Dungeon!
What on earth have they been doing all this time that they still haven't broken through Floor 5?! They've been attempting it since yesterday — it should be about time for them to clear it! I've had my penance ready and waiting since yesterday, you know!
Why are they still wandering around on Floor 5?!
The moment I posed the question, the Dungeon Studies professor — whose shoulders had been subtly bouncing with excitement right up until she was scheduling my demonstration — sagged visibly.
What? What's with the sudden mood?
Did Young Lord Kurten pull some other bizarre stunt?
No?
Then what is it?
Did Cecil lose his temper and cause an incident mid-clear?
Also no?
Aaagh. Don't tell me it was our Scatterbrained Young Lady doing something ridiculous.
"Explaining it in words would take far too long, so I'll simply show you the footage."
As the Dungeon Studies professor swept her hand, a massive magic circle spread itself across the desk, drinking in mana until the spell took shape and an image rose into the air between us.
It was Arthur's party.
"As it happens, the timing is perfect. It appears they are preparing to attempt the Floor 5 boss."
There they stood, before the door where the boss waited — the creature I had crafted to bring my dungeon to its conclusion, polished with every scrap of care I had for the sake of its completeness — making their preparations for battle.
'Joy. Ready?'
'Yes, my prince. And you?'
'Done. All that's left now is to see whether everything we've prepared is truly our best.'
...Huh? Wait.
Something is very wrong with this conversation.
Why are you talking about your individual preparations instead of the boss's mechanics? You've fought the thing — you should know by now!
The Floor 5 boss was never designed to be beaten with raw force!
...It isn't, right? This isn't what I think it is... is it?
'Haa. Lucy Aln. I told her time and again not to set the standard by herself, and still she produces a monster like this.'
'Who can say? Perhaps this, too, is something Lady Aln considered carefully.'
'...If it's her, I almost fear she truly did.'
'Um, everyone? I'm certain Lady Aln believed we could overcome this trial. So surely, toward Lady Aln—'
'Rest assured, Saintess. The two of us know her well enough by now.'
'His Highness is quite right, Phoebe. It's true her standards are punishingly high, but she would never set a trial that cannot be crossed at all.'
'Then let us try once more. Who knows what she'll say to us if we fail to clear it by the final day.'
WHAT! What are these people even saying?!
Yes, it's true — I built that boss so that it couldn't be cleared by blindly charging in! I designed it specifically to force you to find a different approach!
With Arthur's words as the curtain, I watched them open the boss room door with grim resolve — and finally, unable to contain the fury boiling up inside me, I dragged a hand down my face.
Why can none of you sense that something is off?! A boss so punishing that even you — outstanding by the standard of the entire continent, not just the first-years — would find it a burden could never appear on an exam!
After failing a few times, the normal response is to tilt your head and start hunting for another method!
Why are you just slamming your heads into it over and over?!
And you call yourselves the second and third rank of the Academy's first-years after that?!
...Hnnnnngh.
Fine. It's decided.
This winter break, the word "freedom" will not exist for any of you.
Through special training, Aln family style, I am going to beat the art of dungeon clearing into you from the very first page to the very last.
Refusals will not be accepted.
This is a disaster you brought upon yourselves.