It's So Unfair, Pink-chan (3)
Meanwhile, at the academy.
"Hey. Got a second? I have a question."
Hindrastar called out to a student passing by.
Having thrashed the thugs from Graduating Class 1, she was nothing short of a hero to the lower-ranked students those kids had been bullying. So when a girl like that suddenly said she had something to ask, the lower-ranked students came flocking around her, buzzing with excitement.
"Professor Dian and the class president went out through the east gate. Do you know anything about—"
"They went out the academy's east gate, just the two of them?!"
The students shrieked in shock before Hindrastar could even finish.
"Are you absolutely sure you saw that?"
"For real?!"
It was Hindrastar who ended up flustered by their intensity.
What the hell is with these kids? Why are they acting like this? I was just asking because I was actually curious.
"No, no—I just thought maybe she was getting some kind of private tutoring, since it's the middle of the school day..."
"Actually, I've been suspicious about something for a while now!"
Hindrastar hurriedly waved her hands, but someone else had already raised a hand and lifted their voice.
"I've seen Knightly going in and out of Professor Dian's office several times."
"No way! Are they actually involved?!"
At that, a commotion erupted among the students, and related testimonies started pouring out from every direction.
"Oh! Come to think of it, I remember seeing the two of them alone together a few times before, too."
"Ahh, Professor Dian..."
"That's a lie!"
"If this is true, isn't this a huge deal?"
"What's going on with you guys?"
"Hey, hey, listen! The special cadet saw it—Professor Dian and Knightly..."
"Shut up! You can't just say that out loud!"
"What about Professor Dian and Knightly?"
"I said be quiet!"
"What did you say?! Professor Dian had his hand up Knightly's skirt, groping her ass?!"
"I-I never said anything like that!!!!!!!"
The moment a distorted claim bordering on sexual assault came flying out, Hindrastar shouted. But the students were already completely worked up.
"No way! My Professor Dian would never do that!!!!"
"Guys! Professor Dian dumped Professor Anna and he's going out with Knightly!"
"Why is Professor Anna coming into this all of a sudden?"
"Oh, was it Professor Ismera? Or the Principal? Anyway!"
"N-no, wait a second! That's not what I—!"
Hindrastar tried to calm them down, but it was already far beyond anything she could control. Professor Dian and Knightly were stars at the academy in more ways than one, and the mere fact that the two of them had slipped out the secluded east gate in the middle of the school day was more than enough to spawn every rumor under the sun.
"Ah, this isn't what I wanted—I'm so fucking screwed!!"
Hindrastar's vision swam.
"Roll left, Knightly!"
Knightly threw herself to the left, and Waiver's arrow streaked in like lightning. It punched into the wrist of the troll that had been swinging its club at her, knocking the weapon's arc off course. The crude club—little more than a tree ripped from the ground—whistled past Knightly by a hair's breadth and slammed into the earth, sending a dull shockwave rolling through the ground.
"Nice! That's it, Knightly!"
I stood blocking the troll's escape route, cupping my hands around my mouth and shouting to Knightly as she tumbled across the ground with her hair a complete mess.
"Damn it...!"
Knightly finally stopped rolling, swore, and started whirling the hunting stone in her hand. She had two left: the one she was spinning, and another tied at her waist. The first throw had missed completely and vanished somewhere off in the distance.
The troll, arrows jutting from it all over, let out a furious roar and wrenched its wooden club free of the ground.
"Don't face it on open ground! Keep moving! Slow the thing down!"
"Anyone can talk from the back! Yah—!"
Knightly dodged the troll's follow-up swing and sprinted into the dense undergrowth, vanishing from sight. The troll crashed after her, snapping trees and trampling everything in its path.
"GRAAAARGHH!!"
When branches kept snagging and scraping its body, the troll lost its temper and started punching random trees and swinging its club wildly. That was when Knightly slipped into view from the forest on the troll's diagonal rear. Showing only her upper body, she flashed a few hand signals to Waiver, who was waiting on the opposite slope. Waiver nodded and drew his bow.
Several arrows left the string and buried themselves dead-center in the back of the troll's head. The troll flailed, ripping every arrow out, and spun around.
"Over here! Here!"
The troll flung the arrows to the ground, spotted Waiver, and thundered toward him. Knightly, hidden on the troll's flank, didn't waste the opening. She swung the hunting stone with everything she had and let it fly.
The hunting stone whirred through the air—and grazed just behind the troll's knees by the width of a sheet of paper before sailing off into the distance. A troll sprinting in a straight line was extremely fast; if you were going to throw, you had to aim a little further ahead. Inexperienced and under pressure, Knightly had overlooked that.
Even so, though the second attempt had failed, the idea itself was excellent. She couldn't handle a frontal fight, so she'd lured a somewhat stupid monster into the forest, then used her small frame to push through the undergrowth and set up an ambush on a flanking route. Have an ally on the other side draw its attention, then strike from the side the moment it turns. If she'd accounted for the troll's running speed and thrown the hunting stone properly, it would have gone down right then and there.
That's Knightly for you. Top of the academy, through and through. Impressive.
That said, I should probably save Waiver first.
I picked up a rock from the ground and hurled it at the troll, which was scrambling up the slope toward Waiver on all fours. The stone streaked through the air and struck the troll square in the ass. The troll let out a bizarre shriek and tumbled back down the slope.
Rubbing its backside with one hand, the troll looked around, spotted me, and came pounding in my direction this time. Poke it here and it goes here; poke it there and it goes there. Stupid was one thing, but this was a whole different level of stupid.
When the troll had nearly reached me, I raised my Aura. The troll slammed into the wave of it, startled, stumbled backward, then fled the other way in terror.
"Knightly! Finish it for real this time!"
But I couldn't see Knightly anywhere. Had she hidden in the brush again? Looking closer, there she was—though she hadn't had enough time to hide properly. Her clothes were sticking out of the bushes.
The troll, looking for something to take its frustration out on after I'd scared it off, spotted the fabric poking out and charged. I was about to shout a warning when I noticed something odd, and a smile spread across my face instead.
The instant the troll started shredding the clothes visible in the gap in the bushes, Knightly—no longer wearing her outer top—leapt from a tree onto the troll's rear. In midair she threw her arm back, twisted her body, and hurled the hunting stone with everything she had at the legs of the troll that had its back to her.
The hunting stone spun viciously as it flew, wrapping around the troll's legs like a living tentacle. The moment the two iron balls crossed, Knightly hit the ground on her back and shouted.
"Got it!"
The troll turned at the sound, its legs tangled, tottered, lost its balance, and went down in a magnificent sideways crash. Several arrows thunked into the wrists of the troll as it tried to tear the hunting stones off, and in that window I sprinted over and crouched by its head.
"Stay still."
I flicked my finger against its forehead. The troll's eyes rolled back, and it went out cold. Situation over.
"That was incredible, Knightly!"
Waiver slid down the slope and heaped praise on her.
"A truly brilliant idea! Using a scarecrow is a method hunters employ fairly often, but to think of it mid-hunt with no preparation at all, put it into practice, and actually pull it off—that's truly, truly remarkable! Especially in a tense situation like this, going up against something like a troll!"
"Thank you, Professor."
Knightly bowed to Waiver, then stared straight at me, as if to say it was my turn.
"Well done, Knightly. Honestly, I didn't think you'd go this far. We were planning to step in at some point, but you actually took it down yourself."
"Of course. I'm the academy's top student, after all."
"Good, good. You're the best."
I gave her a thumbs-up. Knightly let out a haughty little snort and swept her hair back.
"Aren't you cold, though?"
I pointed at her—she'd given her outer top to the troll as a scarecrow and was left in a thin sleeveless undershirt. Only then did Knightly flush slightly and turn away.
"Why are you looking so closely?"
"I wasn't looking closely. I was worried."
"If you're so worried, perhaps you could take off your cloak and give it to me?"
"Would you look at the mouth on this kid."
I laughed and tossed her my cloak. Knightly snatched it out of the air and wrapped it around herself.
"But how on earth did you do that?"
Meanwhile, Waiver had been examining the fallen troll from various angles. He looked at its forehead, then asked me.
"This thing is normally extremely hard to knock out."
"Trolls have a weak point here."
I bent down and pointed to the sunken spot between the troll's brows.
"Hit them here and it rattles the brain. Knocks them right out."
"That's true of a dragon, not just a troll. The issue is the force of the impact..."
"I gave it a proper forehead flick."
"Yes, yes, of course. You are the Chief Combat Professor—you'd have to be able to knock out a troll with a forehead flick."
I bent my middle finger and flicked it to show him. Waiver took it as a throwaway joke and snickered.
"I'm serious."
"Understood. I won't inquire any further. Hunters never speak of the secret techniques passed down in their families to outsiders, after all."
Waiver turned his gaze back to the troll.
"Anyway, if we manage this thing well, we can easily make several wagonloads of recovery potions."
"Right? Let's offer those up to the Imperial Security Office. For the field agents. Her Highness the Second Princess will like that."
"Of course. She's our superior commander—we need to stay on her good side. That way she'll place our graduates in good positions all over."
Waiver began wrapping the troll's ankles and wrists tightly with a tough iron cord woven from wire. Watching him tie the knots, I recognized the Quirana Hunter Binding Technique—impossible to undo without considerable brute strength.
"I'll stay and watch this one. Chief Professor, please request support from the academy. The three of us won't be able to move it, I'm afraid."
"Right, got it. Good work. Let's go, Knightly."
"Thank you for your work."
Leaving Waiver behind, Knightly and I walked side by side out of the forest, heading for the academy's east gate.