Why Are Sad Premonitions Never Wrong?
"W-well… the candy was tastier than I expected…."
Lua offered the least convincing persuasion imaginable.
Fortunately, things worked out. She cleared up the misunderstanding and walked away with a high-performance telescope in exchange for the commemorative coins she had collected.
Thankfully, Himari and Juju said nothing about what they had seen earlier.
"Thanks. I owe you both."
"Wouldn't it be better if you carried your staff ID around with you?"
Juju said as they left Operations Headquarters behind.
"Y-yeah. I should."
Lua scratched her head.
"Sorry for making you worry when you've got matches to run. You can head back now."
"It's quite all right. Our next match is in two hours."
"That's right. It's the all-grade integrated obstacle race! Teacher's gonna come watch, right?"
"The obstacle race… Right. It's already that time."
It was an event Lua remembered. A race where competitors used skills and physical ability to clear the various obstacles set across the stadium and bring back a flag. First-, second-, and third-years all competing at once—the undisputed highlight of the sports festival.
I should make sure to watch this one.
She wanted to see Himari and Juju in action, and she also needed to confirm that the event was still unfolding according to plan.
"Yeah, I'll be there. And with this, I'll have a great view!"
Lua held up the telescope, and the two of them broke into bright smiles.
"If you win, I'll buy you something good from the stalls outside."
"……."
"…Teacher. That remark."
In an instant, cracks ran through both their smiles. Lua looked from Himari to Juju and tilted her head. Had she said something wrong?
"There's only one winner, so…."
"We cannot both win, it seems."
When Himari's and Juju's eyes met, sparks practically flew.
"Teacher, don't you go waitin' around."
Juju smacked a fist into her open palm.
"I'll grab that flag and cross the finish in ten minutes flat."
"How amusing, Juju."
Himari looked down at her with a frigid gaze.
"You will not so much as touch the flag."
Caught between them, Lua could only paper it over with an awkward laugh.
Why are they both getting so worked up…?
Juju was one thing, but even Himari—she couldn't begin to guess why.
While waiting for the two of them to compete, Lua claimed the second reward she needed from the sports festival: a sub-quest to find a lost item.
It started by speaking to a woman lingering on the second floor of the stadium's east wing. The lost item was the ignition device for the evening's fireworks display.
As quests of this type usually went, it was meant to chain from clue to clue until the item was finally found—but Lua skipped every intermediate step and went straight to where the igniter was hidden.
"Ah, thank you so much! Without this, we almost couldn't have done the fireworks!"
"I-i-it was nothing…."
"Please take this. I won't feel right unless I repay you somehow."
What she received with those words was a glass bead no bigger than a fingertip. It looked useless at a glance, but it was an item that would let her learn an entirely new skill.
"Hoo."
Lua took a deep breath and swallowed the bead whole. She felt it slide down her throat the entire way.
The moment it reached her stomach, a warm energy spread through her body.
— Ding!
You may acquire the skill [Crackle (Lv.1)].
Acquire it?
"Acquire."
— Ding!
[Crackle (Lv.1)] acquired!
Crackle (Lv.1)
An electrical discharge skill used to ignite fireworks. Generates a trace electrical spark from the index finger.
Do not use on people.
Still a garbage skill.
Objectively speaking, it had no practical value. It burned through a lot of mana, and the effect amounted to little more than a tiny spark at the tip of her index finger.
In the scenario, it was a skill used once to light the fireworks at the sports festival closing ceremony—and never seen again.
But right now, I need it for a practical purpose.
Lua had once researched whether this Crackle skill could be put to use in real combat. Surprisingly, she had discovered it had its uses.
Of course, any number of other skills would be better in most respects—but the situation was different now. This was practically the only self-defense skill the current Lua could learn.
That makes two objectives down.
A glance at the clock told her the obstacle race she had been waiting for was almost up.
Lua hurried down to the first floor and took an empty seat in the section reserved for faculty. Other teachers who had been wandering about were filing in as well; everyone, it seemed, wanted to watch this particular event.
"All right! Up next at last—the highlight of this entire tournament! The obstacle race is ready to go!"
The host's excited voice burst from the speakers.
"Please welcome our students with a round of applause, so they can show us everything they've trained so hard for!"
Amid cheers from the audience, guild agents, and faculty, the students began to enter. Fully equipped, they walked into the oval stadium, waving in every direction.
"Third-years have the edge, don't they?"
"You'd think so."
"You never know. I hear the second-year special class kids have been grinding their teeth getting ready for this."
Mixed into the cheers were faculty voices handicapping the results.
Lua used the telescope to pick Himari and Juju out of the crowd. Both of them were walking side by side at the head of the first-year line. Sua, as a member of the organizing committee, was sitting this one out.
Rules are unrestricted. Weapons allowed, even.
Of course, it couldn't be a real fight, so every student had a safety lock fitted to their weapon. Removing it meant automatic disqualification.
According to the scenario, the player-controlled protagonist naturally took the win—and with it, the sports festival's third reward: a chunk of B-class refined rare metal. That was the proper history.
So does that mean Juju, who took the special-class seat in the protagonist's place, is going to win?
There was no way to know yet. Lua swallowed hard, telescope pressed to her eye.
I have to watch the flow carefully.
She still didn't know what Park Haengsin was plotting, so she had to catch even the slightest sense of wrongness. Surely this time, something involving monsters would—
—Bang!
The door to the faculty seating section flew open with a racket. Lua and every other seated teacher turned toward the uninvited guest.
"I-I'm so sorry!"
The student who had burst in wore an armband labeled Organizing Committee.
"T-teachers! We have a huge problem!"
His voice shook, and his face had gone deathly pale. One look was enough to tell something was seriously wrong.
"What is it?"
"Some kind of emergency?"
"W-well…!"
The committee student held out what he was carrying. A flag snapped cleanly in two, bearing the academy's emblem.
"Don't tell me…."
"Yes—the flag for the obstacle race ended up like this…!"
The teachers' jaws dropped. The obstacle race needed that flag to determine a winner, and with it broken clean in half, the event was obviously in trouble.
This wasn't an ordinary day. An accident in front of an audience this large would put a crack in the academy's reputation.
"I-is there a spare?"
"No…."
"How did this even happen?!"
"While we were setting up the obstacle course earlier, it looks like it got run over by a cart hauling styrofoam balls and snapped…."
"Does that make any sense?! How heavy could those even be?!"
"Eek!"
The vice principal barked; the student flinched in terror. The other teachers soothed the furious vice principal back into his seat.
"Right now, finding a solution matters more than the cause. Let's look for a substitute."
"Damn it—the match starts in five minutes. Where are we supposed to…."
Out on the field, the host was still stalling for time by introducing the competitors. They had to find a flag substitute and get it set up, fast.
"Um, we do have… something like this, at least."
What the student produced was a fluorescent vest stamped with the academy emblem. It happened to be a similar color to the flag, so it would stand out well enough.
"Right. We can use this instead."
"But just tossing a vest out there alone looks a little… unsightly."
The teachers put their heads together, murmuring.
True to their posts at the finest academy around, it didn't take them long to reach a conclusion.
"Aha! That'll work!"
"And that concludes our athlete introductions! We will now reveal the course! Competitors, please step back outside the starting line!"
The students checked the safety locks on their weapons and followed the host's instructions. After hosting match after match without a single empty moment, the stadium floor transformed into a bare open lot.
"Everyone, your attention please! For this sports festival, Felix Academy has ambitiously prepared the following obstacle course!"
The instant the words left the host's mouth, the stadium began to move.
— KRRRMM!
— CLUNK!
The center of the oval arena split apart, and a new course rose into view: a massive obstacle run shaped like a hill—gentle on one face, steep on the other.
"What? It wasn't flat?"
"They're really cranking it up this year…!"
"Hmph. Whatever—just get to the top fast, right?"
Tension and excitement spilled out among the students in equal measure.
"……."
Hoshikawa Himari simply drew a slow breath and toyed with the Japanese sword at her hip.
"First up: the slick oil slope! Push too hard too early and even a moment's carelessness will put you on your back!"
True to the description, the base of the hill gleamed with oil, slick enough to spot from a distance.
"Next course: the ravine crossing! For better or worse, log footholds have been provided!"
A great ravine cut through the middle of the hill as if a chunk had been carved out, and logs floated in the open air between the two sides—held aloft by some skill, no doubt.
"And for the finale: eggs against a boulder! You'll have to break through a thick wall of ice!"
Past the ravine waited a massive ice wall raised by a teacher. Competitors would have to punch a hole through it, vault over it, or smash it apart to pass.
"Whoever seizes the flag at the end and returns to the starting point is the winner!"
The flag?
Every gaze swung toward the hilltop. Sitting on the round platform at the highest point of the obstacle course—the very end—was not a flag at all, but a person.
"?!"
Himari's eyes went wide.
Wearing a fluorescent vest that read FLAG, Lua sat there with the face of someone about to faint.