Wanna Bet?
"Wanna bet?"
The priest who'd heard me relaxed his stiff expression and opened his mouth.
"......You won't draw? What do you mean by that?"
"Just what I said."
The priest in charge of the summoning ritual asked me back in bewilderment. But I had no intention of backing down from my choice. Because I'd roughly figured out how this summoning thing worked.
This is straight-up double-dipping, isn't it?
From closely watching the other kids do their gacha pulls, even if there was a summon ticket that guaranteed a specific summon, it didn't mean you could summon it right away. You had to spend Soul Power separately to activate the summoning circle, then toss in a heirloom to make it happen.
Insane pricing.
You had to spend resources just to use a guaranteed summon ticket that already cost resources to obtain? In a game, everyone would riot over the double monetization, but who could you complain to in reality? You couldn't even pray to the gods about it.
But the priest shook his head at my words.
"We can't do that. The summoning ritual is a sacred ceremony......"
"Priest."
"......Yes, speak."
"The heirloom my family was supposed to send still hasn't arrived."
"That's truly unfortunate, but......"
"I'm not asking you to make the impossible possible. Can't you just wait one more week?"
"Uh, um......"
The priest started to waver. It was only natural. In this academy, built to train excellent summoners on the surface at least, asking to wait a week for a better summon wasn't such a big request.
He looked like he'd cave if I pushed a little more. I opened my mouth for the finishing blow.
"If that's how it is, then......"
"Don't waste time. Just pull already."
A sharp, piercing voice stabbed into my ear from the side. I turned my head to check the owner of the voice.
......Stella Iritz.
The game's main heroine and the poster girl who always ranked in the top five of popularity polls had poked her head in.
Why the hell now?
Did she overhear what I said earlier? Was this her way of "repaying" it by sticking her nose in?
I plastered on a smile and pretended not to know, asking her back.
"What?"
"You—Ian Clark, was it? Never heard of your family...... At best, you're from some backwater barony."
I didn't know either. But I couldn't back down here. That was probably what she wanted.
"So?"
"The heirloom from a trash family like yours is obviously going to be crap, so don't waste time and give up here."
"......Do you have the authority for that?"
"Authority? This is advice. Personal advice."
She didn't have the authority to force my summoning either. But people don't crumble before authority. They crumble before power.
I checked the priest's expression. It didn't look good. Even if I ignored her, the priest couldn't ignore her.
She was the eldest daughter of Iritz, one of the four dukes in the empire.
In that case......
I'd just use the situation to my advantage.
"So you're saying it's obvious I'll get a 1-star summon anyway, so I should give up?"
"Yeah, you get it."
"What if I pull a 3-star summon?"
"......What?"
Her face stiffened. Today, in this spot, no one except her had pulled a 3-star summon.
There might be some kid among those who hadn't pulled yet who lucked into one...... But if it were that easy, her pulling a 3-star wouldn't be such a big deal.
"One week later, when I do the ritual again. If I summon a 3-star summon, what then?"
"......That's impossible."
"Scared? You, the lady of Iritz?"
"......You."
Stella's gaze sharpened piercingly. If this weren't the academy, I'd have been dragged off by her minions and executed ages ago.
But this was the academy, and here, academy rules applied.
Equality. Nice word. Especially when I'm the underdog.
Ever since the empire's founding emperor—a commoner with no backing—got lucky and summoned a 5-star summon.
All kids talented enough to become summoners were treated equally. That was why the game protagonist could sass the duke and marquis heirs without titles.
Likewise, inside the academy, my status matched hers. After graduation, I'd grovel, but by then, I wouldn't be here anyway.
Of course, if I pulled a 1-star or 2-star, it'd all be for nothing......
Not gonna happen.
I'll pull a 3-star. Somehow.
"Fine, deal."
Stella ended her brief deliberation and pointed at me, shouting.
"One week, we'll wait. But brace yourself—if you summon something worthless in a week......"
"And if I do?"
"Sharing the same space with a lying nobody who doesn't know honor would be humiliating, so drop out."
"Deal. Then if I succeed?"
"Succeed? What?"
"Delaying the ritual is something anyone can request, but you're the one blocking it? And you added conditions, so there should be a reward if I succeed."
"......Ha, what a clown."
Yeah, I had to be the clown. Even if it meant spouting utter nonsense that wrecked logic, I had to grab whatever I could since I couldn't whale right now.
"Fine, deal. What do you want?"
"You said the heirloom from my family is obviously going to be trash without even seeing it, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then if I pull a 3-star with that, I could pull even higher with your Iritz family heirloom, right?"
"......You don't mean."
"If I succeed, hand over one of your family's heirlooms."
Stella's expression hardened. Normally, she couldn't decide that on her own. Even as the duke's eldest daughter and next head, she wasn't the head yet.
Besides, even the family head couldn't just take out a heirloom willy-nilly.
But Stella Iritz had pride that pierced the heavens.
"Ha, fine. If you actually succeed! I'll give you one, no problem."
"─It's a promise?"
No more words needed. I bowed quickly to the priest and left the temple.
The priest went "Uh, wait—" but I was already gone.
Perfect.
Back in the dorm, I flopped onto the bed and checked the attendance reward from this morning.
[Day 1 Reward ─ 100 Soul Power]
With this, I had enough Soul Power to activate the magic circle. Then I turned straight to the Day 7 reward.
[Day 7 Reward ─ 3-star Random Summon Ticket]
Done.
If I just waited a week, I could secure a 3-star summon for sure. Random was a bit iffy, but better than 1- or 2-stars.
That's when I noticed the faintly glowing quest window in the corner.
Gain Stella Iritz's Recognition (NEW!)
📍 Success: Acquire Heirloom (Random)
📍 Failure: Expulsion (Death)
......No, the reward is what I asked for anyway.
I closed my eyes slowly, staring at the shameless quest window. After all that in one go, I was exhausted.
But I snapped them open again.
"......Oh, class today."
Realizing I'd ditched in the middle of the summoning, I got up. Finding the classroom shouldn't be hard.
The quest window would guide me.
What do they even teach in an isekai academy anyway?
A fantasy world academy that handled summons to fight demons wouldn't bore kids with math or science, right? With that curiosity, I left the room.
As I walked the halls, kids' stares stabbed at me like needles. Every one of them whispered and nodded toward me.
Shit, pulled too much aggro......
Challenging one of the empire's four pillars, Stella Iritz, had spread through the entire academy in an instant.
They weren't touching me directly because they feared Stella, whom I'd bet with—not some no-name baron's kid.
Paradoxically, by picking a fight I couldn't handle, I'd borrowed her prestige.
Here it is.
I entered the classroom and sat anywhere. It felt like a university lecture hall. I picked a back corner to dodge the stares.
Sitting in the rear meant they couldn't turn openly, so it was easier to avoid eyes. I killed time slacking off until the teacher entered, drawing all gazes.
The teacher was a burly, bald musclehead.
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Oliver Crockett, your homeroom teacher for the year."
He showed the back of his hand. Too far to see, but the front-row kids gasped, so it must be a high-rank summon.
Kindly, he explained for us back-row students.
"As you can see, I'm the master of the 3-star summon, Rock Turtle."
Rock Turtle. Decent for tanking but nothing else—usually discarded later. But in the story's ultra-early stage, it was a solid mainstay.
"I summoned this without any heirloom."
"Whoa......"
"How......"
The kids—and me too—let out exclamations.
A 3-star from regular gacha? On the first try? That was insane luck. Among hundreds of thousands of players, barely a few hundred had that experience.
"It's thanks to my skill, and though lacking, I'll train you all to become excellent summoners like me......"
"......?"
But his follow-up made me doubt my ears. What he just said defied common sense.
......Skill?
What skill was there in gacha? Only money and luck.
Yet he talked like pulling a 3-star was his skill. Ridiculous.
I couldn't hold back my itchy mouth. I raised my hand.
"Yes...... Ian Clark? What is it?"
"One question."
"Go ahead."
"Have any of the students you've taught pulled a 3-star?"
He clamped his mouth shut. Yeah, thought so. No skill in gacha.
But stroking his pride, he smiled casually and explained.
"Ahem, my career isn't that long, so no disciple has pulled a 3-star like me yet...... But several have pulled 2-stars."
"Ah, yes. Got it."
Several? And he calls that a brag?
3-star vs. 2-star was only a 10x difference on paper, but felt like hundreds. Even in the game where you could whale Soul Power, here in isekai where you got one, maybe two or three lifetime pulls—what then?
The gap between 2-star and 3-star was worlds apart.
And I was confident I'd pull a 3-star, knowing that.