Rewards and Consequences (2)
The unpleasant conversation with the director ended, and the next morning I woke up feeling as refreshed as usual—only to spot the two packages sitting inside my room and immediately sour my mood first thing in the morning. What a wonderful way to start the day.
“Haa… Do I seriously have to wear this thing?”
When I tore open the package, a neatly wrapped brooch lay inside the box. The red wing-shaped accessory had a design that would appeal to girls who loved cute trinkets, but anyone who knew what it really was would probably wave their hands in refusal the second they saw it. Who in their right mind would happily wear a brooch that doubled as a wiretap and surveillance device?
“And if I break it… they’ll punish me right away. Haa…”
In the end, I didn’t really have any choices. It was either put it on willingly or throw a huge tantrum and get it forced on me anyway.
“Ugh… An old grandpa listening in and watching me twenty-four seven? This is the worst…”
The fact that they were making me do it of my own “free will” somehow made it even more malicious. Still… what could I do?
I frowned as hard as I could and pinned the red wing-shaped brooch to the left side of my chest.
“At least it looks decent.”
Maybe they were trying to follow current trends, but the red wing brooch actually matched my hair color surprisingly well. If the director had sent me something like a checkered bow tie like some crusty old man, I really would have thrown a fit and demanded a redesign. Thankfully that disaster was avoided.
Even so, knowing it had surveillance and listening functions still left a bad taste in my mouth…
“Guess I’ll just have to get used to it while wearing it.”
Back in the lab days, twenty-four-hour surveillance and wiretapping had been everyday life, so readjusting probably wouldn’t take long.
Surveillance Brooch has been equipped.
All conversations and actions will be monitored by the Director.
“...That brooch is a listening device?”
The first person I looked for after leaving the dormitory was Dana. I had originally planned to meet up with Camilla to discuss our summer break plans after finals, but I decided it would be better to tell Dana first since she had helped me by tampering with the information that reached the director. If I dragged my feet and didn’t tell her, and she accidentally slipped up, my academy life would be over in an instant.
As soon as I found her, I informed Dana that the new brooch was a wiretap. She looked startled for a moment but nodded in understanding.
“Yeah, the director’s been really on edge ever since that last demon incident.”
“Makes sense… Knowing that old man’s personality, there’s no way he’d just leave you unsupervised. Still, a listening device? That’s seriously creepy.”
“Right?”
“Ugh… From now on I’ll have to watch what I say in case the director’s listening.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. How am I supposed to speak properly when the boss is watching?”
To anyone eavesdropping, it would sound like casual girl talk. But the real subtext was clear: The director is listening, so be careful what you say. Got it. I’ll watch my words… That was the entire conversation.
Still, the fact that Dana—who knew part of my secret—now had zero chance of accidentally leaking information was enough of a win for me.
“Anyway, I should get going. I promised to watch my friends train.”
“Already? The midterms got canceled because of the mid-term evaluation mess, and we still have quite a while until finals, don’t we?”
“I’m not sure about the details, but they asked me to help anyway.”
My original plan had been to laze around until right before finals, half-ass the exams, and then dive straight into summer vacation… Somehow that had turned into helping the kids with their training instead.
I’ll just teach them a bit and lure them into playing with me.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, goosebumps suddenly erupted across my entire body as a memory from the past floated up from the depths of my consciousness.
“Um, Dana…”
“What?”
“By any chance… when you were teaching me, did you ever think something like, ‘I want to slack off, so I’ll just teach her half-heartedly and lure her into playing with me…’?”
-Twitch.
“W-what? I never thought anything like that?”
Caught off guard, Dana visibly flinched and immediately started acting suspiciously nonchalant. At this point it was basically confirmed that she had been planning to goof off during our lessons.
Of course, I had reached a similar conclusion myself, which was how I’d noticed…
“I see. I’ll really get going now.”
Still, it wasn’t something I could hold against her, so I waved goodbye and left Dana’s private room.
The next place I headed was the academy’s grand auditorium. Normally an auditorium is known for the principal’s speeches or PE classes, but Kardi Academy’s grand auditorium was a little different. The massive hall—bigger than most soccer fields—was left open until curfew for students’ personal study, so it was only natural that students flocked there to do combat training.
Of course, there were also private training rooms for students who didn’t want to reveal their fighting styles. That was exactly where I was headed—the private training room where Siwoo and Aria were waiting.
-Knock knock.
“Who is it?”
Siwoo’s voice came through the door. If I said it was me, he would open it right away, but for some reason just asking him to open the door felt boring. So I decided to play a little prank.
-Ahem…
“It’s Aria, Siwoo.”
“...Stop messing around and come in.”
“Aww, you’re no fun.”
I thought I had imitated her voice pretty well, but apparently my acting skills were so bad that he saw through it instantly. I pouted, and Siwoo lightly tapped the top of my head before pointing inside the training room.
“Enough with the jokes. The others have been waiting for you too, so go say hello.”
“Okay.”
It seemed Aria and Camilla had just finished their own chat. They both turned their heads toward me and waved.
“You’re here, Plea?”
“Ah, hello, Miss Plea…”
The usual confident Aria and the usual timid, shrinking Camilla. Actually, Camilla only got like this when she saw me, so maybe I should drop the “usual.” Still, she seemed to be getting more used to meeting me. In the past she could barely speak to me, but these days she was even greeting me first. Her social skills (Plea-exclusive edition) were clearly recovering.
“I was planning to come earlier than the promised time, but my talk with the dean took longer than expected.”
“It’s fine. We only just finished our sparring anyway.”
“Hm? Sparring? Are you already preparing for finals?”
“Not exactly… Oh, right. Miss Plea probably wouldn’t know about this.”
“Know about what…?”
“Since the mid-term evaluation was canceled, it looks like the school is planning some kind of festival instead.”
“A festival?”
Had there been something like that? No matter how hard I thought about it, I had no memory of a festival happening at this time. In the original story, this period was supposed to be packed with mid-term exam preparations. What festival?
“Here, take a look at this.”
Aria scampered over to the bench, pulled a poster out of her bag, and showed it to me.
First Annual Kardi Academy Academic Festival
Experience special events prepared by the faculty—read: exam questions—earn points based on your results, and exchange them for rewards prepared by the academy!
After skimming it, I realized the content was basically identical to the original story’s mid-term evaluation. They had simply rebranded the test as a “festival.” The purpose was no different.
Why go through all this hassle?
The line at the very bottom of the poster that read Parents may observe gave me the answer. This whole festival packaging was probably just propaganda to show the public that the academy was still fine.
After all, no matter how well the incident had been handled, the fact that a demon had invaded the exam hall was a huge negative. There was no way the academy’s image hadn’t taken a hit.
But that’s not my problem.
I’m just a student. The faculty are the ones in charge. It’s not my salary on the line if the image repair fails, so I have no obligation to care.
What actually interested me wasn’t the boring reason behind the festival, but the rewards the academy was offering.
“Whoa… These rewards are pretty good?”
By my standards they were all useless junk, but to normal students they must have looked like a treasure trove of opportunities. That was probably why Camilla, Aria, and even Siwoo were all staring at the list with such greed.
“Yeah, they’re decent… Plea, are you not interested?”
“Not really… At my level, these rewards might as well not exist.”
Unless it was something like the special brain fluid elixir I had asked the dean for, these things wouldn’t help me at all.
“Still… they’ll definitely be a big help to you guys. And the reason you called me here is so I can help you guys obtain the rewards listed, right?”
“Ahaha… You’re very sharp, Miss Plea.”
Camilla and Siwoo didn’t answer directly, but the atmosphere made it clear they agreed with Aria. Yeah, calling a friend to a training room out of nowhere would have been too suspicious otherwise.
“Well, it’s not like I can’t help.”
The faster these kids grow, the sooner I can carry out my plans. There was no reason for me to refuse.
“It’s my first time training someone else… but I’ll do my best.”
For the next three weeks or so, I was going to push Siwoo, Aria, and Camilla to grow as much as possible.