163. The Grinding Senior
163. The Grinding Senior
- Don't.
Riber mouthed the warning without making a sound, but I figured I could get away with it once or twice more.
I wouldn't be able to do much.
Everyone was focused on studying, but every single person gathered here had entered the ranks of the superhuman.
The moment they got suspicious, I'd be caught.
Pulling secret pranks while everyone was gathered to study for exams had been on my bucket list since my previous life.
I thought it was something I'd never get to do after graduating, but I never imagined it would come true like this.
This time, I wanted to use my hands, but that would be way too conspicuous.
I decided to use my leg again.
Riber, having been pranked once, was already on high alert around me.
Even while studying, he occasionally glanced sideways and kept an eye on me, but he still couldn't stop it.
My leg bent acrobatically, to a degree that made me wonder if legs could even bend at such an angle, and slithered up Riber's leg like a snake.
"...."
As he felt the sensation on his leg again, Riber shot me a glare and let out a small sigh before looking back down.
It seemed he had given up, as if thinking, 'If you're going to do it even when I tell you not to, just go ahead and do it.'
If so, shouldn't I live up to those expectations?
My big toe, which had been climbing as if placing little kisses, slid up his calf and then pushed into his inner thigh, touching the deepest spot.
"Eut!??"
The reaction was more intense than expected.
When I touched the deepest spot, Riber jumped up so hard he nearly fell backward in surprise.
And then he immediately retaliated.
'Ow, ow!'
As everyone turned to look at Riber in surprise, he pinched my calf, which had sneaked in, incredibly hard.
He was glaring fiercely at me, angling his glare so only I could see it.
It hurt a bit, but it was so funny I stifled a chuckle.
"Are you okay?"
"There seems to be a flying insect buzzing around. It startled me."
"Uh... I didn't hear any wing sounds... a flying insect?"
"Yeah... a real nasty one."
His eyes were terrifying.
Since the consequences would be scary, I decided to stop messing with Riber.
It might already be too late, though.
'Then... who should I try next?'
This time, I switched targets.
I tapped Lucia on the calf; she was sitting right next to me.
She was wearing an extremely neat outfit that showed no skin aside from her neck and hands.
She had on a long skirt and black stockings, so the tip of my foot felt the sensation of thin fabric.
It was a long, sleek calf that contained terrifying power, with solid muscle underneath.
Perhaps she thought the first touch was nothing—she showed absolutely no reaction—so I crept a little higher.
Unlike with Riber, there was no obvious reaction, so I was gradually creeping higher when I suddenly looked at Lucia's profile.
"... Uh...."
Her face was flushed bright red, and she was hanging her head low, mumbling the contents of the book she had been memorizing.
I had a feeling it would be dangerous to go any further here as well.
"......"
Riber was watching that scene from the corner of his eye.
But I wasn't the kind of person to stop at something like this.
There was one person left.
Emy was diligently solving problems as if she truly had no idea what was going on.
Just as I stretched my leg to prank Emy as well, my vision suddenly shook.
"Hey!! Stop messing around!!!"
Riber, unable to take it anymore, jumped up, grabbed the back of my neck, and shook me wildly.
Since I didn't resist the shaking, my head flopped around like crazy.
.
.
.
.
.
After that, we studied diligently.
Though I studied something else.
Rather than trying to top the rankings with a skill test or anything like that, it was more important to study the rare materials that could only be found at the academy.
The academy library housed many crucial materials in one way or another.
We studied for a long time, and just as the atmosphere was winding down, Lucia brought up the subject.
"...Come to think of it, once this skill test is over... the semester ends a month after, doesn't it?"
"That's how it goes."
"Once the semester ends, it's vacation... what are you going to do?"
The end of the final skill tests meant the end of the semester.
When the semester ended, it was vacation season until the next semester.
With the vacation being about two months long, it was a period where you could do practically anything you wanted.
Many students at the academy had family homes too far away, so there was constant talk of giving them more time off, but the academy's stance was that in such cases, they could simply stay at the academy.
As for me... I felt like I wouldn't be staying, I'd be going out.
There was something I had been thinking about for a while.
"I should stop by the main house."
"Main house..? Nemea?"
"Not that one, the real main house."
Lucia, who still didn't know my real surname, tilted her head.
I was worried about Titan, a place I hadn't visited in years and hadn't paid attention to for months.
No, let me correct that.
Whether the Titan family went to ruin or not was none of my business, but I was worried about my younger sister, who had been saddled with the position of family head at a young age.
The vassals, who had been suppressed under a firm family head until now, might be harboring bad intentions now that the position had changed to a pushover young girl.
Since there were very few people on that side I had positive feelings for, if I caught wind of such a situation....
'I didn't like them anyway, so I'll just have to uproot them all.'
But if the core personnel who had been running the territory properly were all kicked out, the territory would collapse.
I was thinking this way, but I could only pray that those vipers would be satisfied with their positions and just do their jobs properly.
"Vacation, huh... Atlas, if you have time... could you come visit our territory?"
"Simore's territory?"
"Yeah, Emy, you come too. My family would love it if I brought friends."
"Me.. me too! Atlas, come visit our territory too... I'll treat you right."
The vacation was only two months long, but there were quite a few places calling me over.
But if they're inviting me, it would be rude to refuse. Titan was at the center of the Blade Mountains, Russell was at the edge of the Blade Mountains, but Simore was on the exact opposite side.
Distance-wise, visiting both Titan and Simore during that short vacation was absurd, but at least for me, it was possible.
"Then I guess we'll have to make a proper plan once vacation starts."
"You're going to both?"
"There's nothing stopping me."
The atmosphere seemed to be wrapping up for the day.
As everyone was tidying up, I suddenly remembered that construction had started yesterday.
If I was going to invite people, it would probably just be the people here, so it seemed fine to let them know in advance.
"I'm building something fun, want to take a look?"
-------------------------------------
"Is this what you were talking about before?"
"Nice spot, right?"
Riber knew the mansion under construction was the villa I'd mentioned before and looked at it with interest, but Lucia, seeing it for the first time, was shocked.
"What is this..?"
"A villa to stay in until I graduate."
"... You have the dormitory."
"After the Holy Knights broke down my door and trashed the place, I got so pissed I couldn't live there anymore."
When I called it a villa, Lucia looked at me in disbelief.
Even the Five Pillars had lounges they could use as personal space, but erecting a whole separate building like this was something she had never seen before.
Amy was also looking at it in wonder.
It seemed this was her first time seeing it during the day.
The mansion backed onto the forest, so while the eerie feeling from the forest gave you chills at night, now, with the sun high in the sky, it was just a mansion.
In the process of demolishing the old mansion that had been there, the forest took a bit of damage, but the scenery wasn't significantly harmed.
"Wow... when did you start building this?"
"Yesterday."
"Yesterday??"
They were appalled when I said it had barely been a day.
My house, under reconstruction, already looked quite presentable.
This was the magic-powered prefabricated mansion developed by the Magic Tower.
If you assemble the parts, which are made for each section, using telekinesis magic and elemental magic according to the manual, it takes on the shape of a mansion in an instant.
There was a version that ended after just assembling, but this was a version where craftsmen could do detailed work on top of that.
Senior Rio had already assembled the pre-ordered materials on Day 1, completing the framework.
"Hey! I said lift it higher!"
"Y...Yes!!!!"
It looked like our heavy equipment was working right at that moment.
Senior Rio, wearing comfortable clothes instead of her usual neat attire and with a headband holding her hair back for easy work, was transporting materials with telekinesis under the orders of the dwarf artisan Grey Beard.
There was nothing to worry about; she seemed to be doing a good job.
"Wow, a dwarf?"
"Sunbae?? What are you doing there??"
Amy and Lucia, seeing that sight, shouted in amazement.
"Uh... uh..???"
"H.. hey hey hey!!! Be careful!!!"
Senior Rio's concentration broke when she saw us, and a sack that had been floating high in the sky with telekinesis wobbled and fell.
Fortunately, it was in a fairly stable state, so it ended with just a thud on the second floor, but Senior Rio then had to be scolded by the dwarf craftsmen one after another.
"Ugh... don't look. You should have told me you were coming..."
She clearly didn't want her juniors to see her doing manual labor in comfortable clothes like she used to wear back in the countryside.
She seemed truly embarrassed, not even able to look this way.
"Sunbae, the exam is right around the corner, are you okay? You weren't dragged here against your will, were you??"
"Don't worry about that, it's only for about a week,"
At Amy's question, Rio glanced at me briefly and then muttered quietly.
"The daily wage is pretty high..."
"That's right, that's right, our client is quite generous! Haha!"
At those words, Grey Beard laughed heartily in agreement.
"What's this, the client's here. Did you come to check if we're goofing off?"
"Yeah, I'm doing an inspection. Think it'll be done within this week?"
"It's a prefab base, so that much time is plenty! The water's running well too, so we just need to pay attention to the interior."
Grey Beard boasted confidently that there wasn't much left since the mage had already done almost all the foundation work.
Earth elemental magic, useful even for civil engineering, was the most superior element—and if you disagree, your residential facility gets confiscated.
"Atlas.. what is this place for...?"
"It's a place to study... and hang out... and stuff. I'm planning to move out of the dormitory."
Originally, I had intended to keep it as just a villa, but that was no longer possible.
Every time I entered the dorm, the unpleasant memory of the Holy Knights breaking in surfaced.
I planned to finish construction this week, move in the furniture I had prepared, and then stay here.
"Wow, you were building something like this?"
Just then, I felt an unfamiliar presence from behind.