Treasure Hunt (4)
The spear wielded by the third-year senior was fast.
He was someone who had made it through countless training sessions, examinations, and dungeons. His real-world combat experience would inevitably dwarf mine. His physical specs, too, were on another level entirely.
Word was that this man ranked below average even among the third-year NPCs, but how could a senior who had honed himself all the way to his third year at the Academy be measured against someone like me, who had transmigrated into this world barely half a year ago?
In other words, this was a fight I couldn't win. Under normal circumstances, that is.
But as it happened, I had the power to make the circumstances anything but normal.
First of all, there was the Iron Wall skill. No matter how quickly the senior swung his spear, what Iron Wall told me came faster than anything he was aiming for. His attacks were, for me, nothing more than something to react to.
<Slowly. Don't get hasty.>
And then there was Grandpa. If Iron Wall thickened my defenses, Grandpa was the one who patched up my lack of combat experience. Having weathered countless battlefields and grueling wars, there was no battlefield in existence that Grandpa didn't know. He was, for all practical purposes, a navigation system charting the road to victory.
But above all, the most important thing was this:
"You big dweeb of a senior♡ I wun your little fight♡ Did you really think that pathetic little spear of yours could leave a mark on me?♡"
"Shut up!"
"Aha ha. You've attended the Academy for three whole years, and you can't even beat a first-year?♡ That's soooo sad♡"
"I said shut up!"
I could toy with my opponent's emotions however I pleased.
Back when I knew nothing about fighting, I hadn't understood what it meant to shake an opponent's feelings. But from sparring against Forsell, against Carl, against the various knights of House Aln, I'd learned that unsettling your opponent carried a meaning far beyond mere provocation.
The third-year senior in front of me proved it plainly enough. The man who had attacked me methodically at the start was now, at this moment, thoroughly emotional.
He no longer bothered to conceal his intentions. He prioritized hurting me over any calculation of gain and loss. He couldn't even conceive of reading *my* intentions anymore — because he'd taken the Mesugaki skill's bait, hook, line, and sinker.
What an absurdly efficient debuff this was. A debuff so complete that, devoured by his own anger, he couldn't even notice he was being played by some bizarre power! And on top of that, the angrier he got, the higher my stats climbed.
Judging pure performance, the Mesugaki skill was a broken, cheat-tier skill! It's just that paying for it with my speech patterns and my reputation hurt like hell!
I caught the spear shaft swinging down at me with my shield and measured the distance to the senior. Two paces, at most. Close enough to close in a heartbeat. According to everything Grandpa had taught me, this was the distance at which a spearman should start feeling the prickles of danger — but the senior didn't notice a thing. He'd lost his reason entirely.
<Now. This is the moment to bare your fangs.>
Grandpa had always liked comparing the holy knight to a crocodile. Lurking beneath the water that was your shield, watching for your opening — and the instant a gap appeared, lunging to snap shut your jaws and end your prey's life. That was the resemblance, he'd said.
I always thought it was a rather uncool metaphor for a legendary holy knight to make, but the explanation itself was dead accurate. Because that was exactly how a holy knight fought.
<Now!>
The moment I swept aside the senior's spear as it thrust at me once more, Grandpa shouted. Without a shred of doubt, I moved my body on his word. I knew Grandpa would never fumble a call at a moment like this.
Flustered by the sudden closing of distance, the senior scrambled backward, but it was far too late. The spearman's advantage had vanished in this single instant. Now it was my turn.
I raised my mace high and brought it crashing down. There was no awkwardness left in this motion anymore. My finishing move — the one even Grandpa admitted had no flaws left to pick at.
Head Crusher.
The third-year senior, sensing how this would end, screwed his eyes shut. But the worst-case conclusion he'd braced for never arrived — because at the very last moment, I stopped my hand.
When the senior cautiously cracked his eyes open and saw the mace hovering motionless before his face, the strength drained from his legs and he collapsed to the ground.
Thank you for your hard work.
"Aha. Big dweeb senior. You were looking so confident, and this is all you've got? How paaa-thetic."
When I laughed my half-forced, skill-induced giggle, the senior's face crumpled like he was about to burst into tears.
I'm sorry! But from the moment your Underdog-exploiting build got discovered, your fate in Soul Academy was always going to look like this! If it makes you mad, you should've been stronger! I mean, I would've cleared you either way!
Reward has been granted!
I clenched my fist as I stared at the message window floating before me.
The skill this quest granted, Underdog, converted 5% of the damage I dealt into fixed damage whenever I fought an enemy twenty or more levels above me. In ordinary situations it was hard to find a use for it, and by the late game it became completely worthless — but this skill was absolutely essential. If only for the tricks I planned to pull off in the future.
If I'd failed to get even this one, I would've been crushed.
I'd missed the vast majority of the quests that were supposed to be claimed on the day of the Academy entrance ceremony. And the most painful loss among them was the 'A Girl's Worries' quest. When you accepted it blind, it looked like some throwaway side quest, but if you dug into it properly, it paid out seriously good rewards. I don't care about the rest, but I should have gotten that one.
Haah. I'll just have to try talking to her again some other time.
"You really are strong!"
The moment I stowed my shield and mace, Frey came sprinting over to me.
"Don't you have enough fights for one day? Rematch. Right now."
No thank you.
"Pathetic excuse for a swordswoman. Are you a chicken-brain? Why do you keep making me repeat myself?"
"...Huh?"
"Thank you for your hard work, my lady."
"Good work out there, Lady Aln."
After I shoved Frey out of the way by force, Joy and Carl stepped up to me. How long had these two been standing there? Fine, Carl I could believe — he's basically my stalker, so of course he'd come find me. But why Joy?
Thank you. Although...
"Oh, it was nothing. But I'll let our little weakling slide — what brings the Airhead Lady to my humble presence?"
"I came because I have something to say to you."
Joy's expression was dead serious as she said it. She'd come to lecture me about the Third Prince, hadn't she.
Ugh. Great. That's not something I can just refuse to do, no matter how much I'd like to. I mean, the guy assigns nicknames to people by criteria nobody can even begin to fathom — there's no way on earth I could get his labels changed.
"Could you spare me a moment of your time?"
I'm terribly sorry, but...
"Airhead Lady. Do I look like someone with that kind of free time?"
"Are you busy?"
YES!
"Of course I am. Do I look like I have hours to idle around the way *you* do?"
"Idle? Excuse me? I came all the way out here because of *you*."
I could roughly guess what was really behind the frown on Joy's face. She'd come to persuade me for the sake of the Third Prince, who would be wounded by my words — and for my own sake, since I'd end up hated by the prince for it. She looked the part of a villainess, but she was a genuinely good person.
How much better would everything be if the Mesugaki skill's drawbacks were just a little lighter?
I don't need any help.
"Help? From the Airhead Lady? To me? Aha *ha*."
At that blatant, unmistakable mockery, Joy's expression turned several degrees colder.
Ugh. I'm sorry, Joy. But you'll understand that I have no choice in this matter, won't you? Please?
...No, of course not. You won't.
Thank goodness there's no favorability readout floating in the air. If a message like "Joy's favorability is decreasing" had popped up, my heart would have snapped clean in two.
"...Fine. Have it your way."
Watching Joy turn her back and walk away, I let out a long sigh inside. Was raising her favorability to 70 even going to be possible like this? No matter how I turned it over in my head, the only future I could see was one where I spent half a year at Soul Academy and then died screaming.
<Living as a loner is sometimes not so bad a—>
Grandpa. Shut up.
Didn't you know that clumsy consolation is worse than silence? Zip it, Grandpa. Before I bury you in an Academy toilet.
Haah. Fine. Right. Moping about it forever won't fix anything. I just have to start with what I can do right now.
Carl...
"Hey, weakling. You finished your business for today, right?"
"Huh? Yes. For the moment, yes."
Follow me.
"Follow me. I've got things for you to do."
The last item on my agenda for today was something that could only be done after sundown. I had to go hunting for the items obtainable only in the areas accessible solely during the night at Soul Academy.
"My lady. The Academy gates are about to close for the night."
When I laid out my plan to leave the Academy grounds, Carl moved to dissuade me.
I know.
"Weakling. You think I don't know that?"
"Then how exactly do you intend to get out, my lady?"
Soul Academy sealed its gates at eight o'clock. From that point on, no one but a handful of professors could leave the grounds — and no one could enter, either.
However, there existed a gimmick for slipping past this and roaming the Soul Academy at night. Normally you wouldn't discover the passage until the latter half of your second year, but as long as you had the location memorized, you could make use of it from your very first year.
Carl. Follow me.
"Weakling. Move."
I led Carl to a secluded corner of the Soul Academy's gardens, then walked toward a wall of living plants blocking one path from another. Ordinarily, branches and undergrowth would have made it impassable — but this particular stretch was different. It had been designed that way from the very beginning, so apart from the overgrowth spilling out of it, there was no reason it shouldn't open.
Walking straight forward with my eyes closed, I soon came upon the massive wall that encircled the Soul Academy buildings.
"My lady. Isn't this a dead end?"
Nope.
"Weakling. You keep answering me with that insolent mouth."
"My apologies."
This spot looked like any ordinary stretch of wall, but it concealed a single hidden gimmick. Running my palm across the Academy's bricks, I found one stone that sat looser than the rest — and pressed it down hard.
With a grinding creak, the wall groaned open, and a passage revealed itself.
"This is..."
I told you there was a way, didn't I?
"Insolent little weakling. Are you still doubting my word?"
"No. Of course not. Is this, too, a revelation from Armadi?"
Y... yes. Exactly that.
"Believe whatever you want."
Every single time I worked some miracle out of game knowledge, that degenerate useless Chief God's reputation climbed another notch, and I *hated* it. It made a convenient excuse, sure, but it was unearned credit handed to an idle do-nothing god who never lifted a finger. If He were a deity who actually helped me, I'd have gladly handed over the credit myself.
Grumbling to myself like that, I stepped through the passage. Once we were outside the Academy walls, I prodded a certain spot, and the passage swallowed itself once more.
"Remarkable. To think the Academy held something like this. I had no idea whatsoever."
Of course you didn't. This was a gimmick that had been forgotten as the Academy's history grew long and dusty. I'd have to explain it from scratch if I started talking, so I kept my mouth shut.
"So then, my lady. Where exactly are we headed?"
Alsetin's Tavern.
"Alsetin's Tavern."
"The Alsetin's Tavern I know is a den of gamblers in the back alleys."
That's the one.
"That's exactly the one you're thinking of."
"My lady! Gambling is unacceptable!"
The moment I nodded, Carl had a full-blown panic attack. He carried on about how he'd seen plenty of people ruin their lives over gambling, and his theatrics left me with no choice but to sigh.
Carl. I'm not going there to gamble.
"Hey, weakling. Do I look like the kind of idiot who'd do that?"
Would I have to be insane to gamble in a place like that? A den stuffed with nothing but con artists — gamble there and you'd get marked as a sucker and fleeced down to your socks. Like a seasoned Soul Academy veteran like me would ever do something that dumb.
"Then why on earth—?"
We're going to meet the owner.
"Because I need something from the guy who runs the place."
Alsaetin, the black-market dealer. For the sake of my favorability targets, there was something I had to get my hands on from that man.