This Is Going to Need Some Educating
⚠ CAUTION ⚠
A Gate Boss resides beyond this point.
The Ball of the Dead does not welcome the living.
Personnel Limit:0 / 4
“Damn it. Between the first-floor lockdown and this—what kind of gimmick is that supposed to be?”
The mage grumbled at the system window. For a C-class dungeon, the mechanics really were vicious. Traps, and now a personnel limit on the boss room on top of everything else.
Probably the main-story writers cutting corners for convenience, Lua thought, glancing over the students. At least they were resting near the gate entrance, sipping the water that had been handed out one bottle at a time. A few thrifty ones had even brought snacks.
“Teach!”
Yu Juju, gauntlets already off, came scampering over like a squirrel. For someone who had just fought through that many battles, she still had energy to burn.
“Open wide, ma’am!”
Lua noticed the little square of chocolate pinched between Juju’s fingers.
“I-I’m fine.”
“Aw, come on—you should eat something! You’ve been burning mana nonstop, so you gotta be hungry, right? Here. Aaaaah.”
“Ugh…”
Being fed like a toddler while the other students snuck glances their way was mortifying no matter how you sliced it. But Juju showed no sign of backing down, so Lua finally opened her mouth.
“A-aaaah…”
Sweetness melted across her tongue.
“There we go. Good job. Want another?”
“W-wait, um—”
Lua dug into the inner pocket of her coat and pulled out a butterscotch candy she had packed for exactly this kind of sugar crash. If she just sat there and took food, she really would look like a child. Better to offer something back.
“W-want this… at least?”
“Ah…!”
Juju accepted the candy as carefully as if it were some priceless treasure.
“Hehe. Thanks, Teach! I’ll save it!”
With that bright, breezy grin of hers, she trotted back to her friends.
“All right. Time to decide.”
The mage gathered the scattered students into one group.
“We need to choose who goes into the boss room.”
“……”
“……”
An uncomfortable silence settled over them. Without anyone needing to say a word, every student started reading everyone else’s face.
“Shall we start with the tank? There are only two of you.”
“I’ll go!”
Yu Juju’s hand shot straight up. Compared to her boundless energy, the other tank still looked short on recovered mana. The choice was unanimous—Juju would tank.
In the main story, this is where the protagonist first experiences real party combat.
Lua stepped back a pace and thought it through.
Whether the player prefers DPS, tank, healer, or mage, the protagonist is forced into the tank slot here.
A mandatory event, in other words—setup for everything that came after. So even if Yu Juju, who had taken the special-class seat in the protagonist’s place and shared the same tank role, joined the party instead, it shouldn’t throw things too far off course.
“As for healer, Teacher will take that. And of course I’ll handle the mage position myself.”
A small round of applause rose from the students—gratitude for a school nurse and a professional willing to put themselves in harm’s way for their sake.
Originally the healer is a student too, but they barely matter in the story afterward. Me taking the slot shouldn’t change anything.
Which left—
“—And for DPS? Who would you recommend, Teacher?”
The mage handed the decision over to Lua.
“I only met these students today. You’ve been watching them at school this whole time, so I’ll leave it to you.”
“Ah… well…”
Lua looked down at the students sitting on the floor.
“I-I’ll do it!”
Out of nowhere, one of the DPS students thrust a hand into the air.
“I’m scared, sure, but… if we win, we’d be the first freshmen to ever clear a gate!”
That was all it took. Other hands started flying up left and right.
“Then I’m better! You burned through your skills way too hard earlier!”
“Excuse me? I had the highest kill count!”
“What does that even matter in a party fight?”
Before long the DPS students had dissolved into a full-blown argument, eyes glittering with the glory of a gate clear.
But among them, one person alone said nothing—Himari, sitting quietly in the middle of the group.
She’s lost her confidence.
Despite being a DPS, she hadn’t landed a single successful attack, and it had crushed her. Himari’s Hoshikawa-ryu Battoujutsu was powerful, but she hadn’t mastered it yet, so the charge time before she could even use it was painfully long.
Still around Level 3, probably.
Regardless of what anyone else thought, Himari was the DPS Lua had already decided to take all the way to the final battle. She had more than enough room to grow—and even as she was now, she was more than capable of handling the boss here.
So what Lua needed to give her in this moment was just one thing: confidence.
“Himari.”
At the sound of her name, Himari—knees drawn up, back against the wall—lifted her head. The other DPS students shut their mouths, looking completely blindsided.
“I-if it’s all right… w-would you help?”
Lua fidgeted with her fingers, the invitation barely more than a mumble. She would have loved to sound cooler about it, but this was the best she could manage.
“Teacher.”
Himari walked forward with heavy steps until she stood before Lua.
“I am grateful for the offer… but I am not qualified.”
Her face was as blank as ever, yet the gloom in her voice came through plain as day.
“It shames me to admit, but in combat I failed to defeat even a single enemy.”
“……”
“I thank you for evaluating me so highly as to make the offer. However, I believe another student would be more suitable. My battoujutsu… is useless.”
“No.”
Lua delivered the line she had prepared in advance.
“I don’t need Himari’s battoujutsu. I need Himari.”
Of course she hadn’t invented it on the spot. It was the exact line the original protagonist used to persuade Himari.
“……!”
Himari drew a soft breath.
There’s no way she can refuse that.
In the original, the protagonist had tossed the words out without thinking—but by pure coincidence, they were identical to something someone from Himari’s past, someone she had been deeply tied to, had once said to her. As long as she still carried those memories, she would be drawn in.
“—Ah.”
Just as Lua expected, Himari looked rattled.
“What you need… is me…?”
Lua waited for her to find the rest of the words. When Himari finally raised her head again, resolve had settled firmly across her face.
“Very well. If Teacher desires me, I shall give it my all.”
“Thank you, Himari.”
Lua let out a quiet breath of relief. Strategically speaking, Himari had been the only real option anyway. The only weapons that could reliably put down C-class monsters were rare-metal arms of C-class or higher. The other students were stuck with D-class gear at best—but Himari carried an A-class rare-metal weapon her father had given her.
Anyway. I’ve managed to steer everything along the main story up to this point.
All that remained was to take down the boss—
“—Hold up a second.”
The challenge came from a direction Lua had not seen coming.
“Fighting together’s fine and all, but we gotta clear the air first.”
Yu Juju. She had been about to pull her gauntlets back on, and now she stood with her arms crossed, looking thoroughly unimpressed.
Ah. Right…!
Juju’s gaze was locked on Himari, who had just joined the party.
“Himari. Ever since we said hi in the training room last time, you’ve had a problem with me, haven’t you?”
“……”
Himari looked straight at her, as if willing to hear her out.
“No matter how I think about it, I didn’t do anything wrong. We’re about to put our lives on the line and watch each other’s backs. Shouldn’t we settle any bad blood before we go in?”
Lua clicked her tongue under her breath. She had not seen this coming. Originally they walked into the boss room without a single hitch—but with Yu Juju sitting in the protagonist’s seat, the future had already shifted, even if only a little.
I should have noticed sooner.
Whatever had happened between them, Juju was right. The grudge needed to be aired out now. It would only help the story going forward.
“U-um, you two… what’s going on…?”
Lua squeezed herself between the pair as they glared at each other at point-blank range. She ended up looking like someone trying to wriggle through a gap between two walls, but at least she managed to snag both Himari’s and Juju’s attention.
“J-Juju’s right. If you two fought, maybe it’s better to make up before we go in…?”
“…Understood. If Teacher says so, I shall forgive this discourteous classmate of mine.”
“Who’re you calling discourteous?! Who was the one giving me weird looks first?!”
“Th-that’s enough…!”
Lua shoved her hands between them and pushed. It took real effort just to force each of them back a single step. Fortunately, the mage pitched in as well.
“Just… t-tell me what happened.”
“Fine by me. You be the judge, Teach.”
Still glaring at Himari, Yu Juju recounted what had gone down in the training room. She had only gone over to say hello—and out of nowhere Himari’s whole attitude had flipped, like she was offended.
“I-is that true, Himari?”
“You omitted the most important part.”
Towering over Juju, Himari looked down at her and delivered a line no one present could possibly have seen coming.
“Yu Juju attempted to impregnate me.”
“……”
“……”
“…What?”
“One must not hold hands with a man outside the family. It produces a child.”
—So declared Hoshikawa Himari, age twenty.