<273 - The Reversal of Awareness>
The Academy has more instructors than students usually think.
For assisting the professors’ classes?
If needed, they can just use teaching assistants.
Unless the professors personally brought along a bunch of instructors, it’s not common to need many.
So, is it to create jobs so that the upperclassmen can earn points easily?
There might be some truth to that, but that’s not the whole reason.
The parties involved know why there are so many instructors.
“When the transparent orbs containing visibility magic break, your salaries break too. Please take special care to ensure they don’t break.”
“Yes…”
To spread the Dragon Principal’s [Visibility Orbs] throughout the Academy, floating in the air or attached to some body parts!
In short, it’s a moving CCTV.
The Dragon Principal, who takes interest in everything, loses interest just as quickly, so most visibility orbs are being monitored by the Guardian professor and head of the department [Mahabharata], along with the exclusive surveillance unit, motivated by the idea that it would be a waste to break the precious orbs they painstakingly created.
“First-year Jigoku’s bullet destroyed 3 glass windows. Property damage -15 points.”
“First-year Ishtar rescued 12 kidnapped students. Requesting point distribution across the entire organization.”
“Wouldn’t 50 points be enough?”
“Understood. Rescue bonus +600 points. As a leader bonus, Ishtar personally receives an additional +600 points.”
“Fourth-year Magdonard threw a third-year into a dimensional gate over a quarrel. Lowerclassman violence -500 points. According to the rules, if they fail to return within an hour, we dispatch a rescue team to the indicated coordinates and bill for the costs.”
A real-time manual point tracking department was set up to catch everything from unauthorized littering to property damage and campus violence!
Not only is the number of administrative staff considerable, but there are also quite a few instructors dedicated to capturing students on the field.
“Today, the fourth years are relatively calm, which makes me feel good. Thinking about last week’s incident caused by a fool who opened the gate to the Spirit Realm for an explosion magic practice instead of the Demon Realm still gives me a headache.”
Hearing Mahabharata’s words, the staff on monitoring duty shivered.
The feeling of witnessing an incident that would upend the continent right before their eyes makes them wonder why humans only have one heart; they wish they could swap in a spare heart.
In comparison, the first years’ little Neua extermination commotion seems really small, adorable even.
“Next week’s Weekly Event should be convincing the highly agitated plant elemental spirits to calm down by declaring it Plant-Friendly Week,” she thought she would have to persuade the Principal.
“Professor Mahabharata, what happens if you fail to persuade them?”
“If we fail to convince them, plant monsters will swarm the academy due to a massive supply of negative energy from the plant elementals. If that’s blocked, plants from all over the continent will rampage as plant monsters out of spite.”
“…Will the Principal cooperate?”
“To be honest, she definitely won’t help. It looks more fun on the other side; if she doesn’t suggest we add more fire, we’ll consider ourselves lucky.”
In essence, Mahabharata is responsible for the peace of the Academy, its students, and the world!
Due to her heavy responsibilities, her focus was diverted towards devising ways to persuade the Principal when something strange was caught on one of the instructors’ visibility orbs.
“Uh, Senior.”
“What is it? Did Oknodie succeed in defeating the Neua Queen? If they rescued the ones left behind by the Warrior, who didn’t notice the Level 5 monsters, you’d probably get around 6000 points.”
“No, it’s that Oknodie has allied with the Neua Queen. Do you know how many points we should give for establishing an interspecies friendly relationship?”
“…What kind of nonsense is that?”
While eavesdropping on Professor Mahabharata’s conversation, a seasoned control officer diverted the clip of Oknodie to their personal mana board screen.
With shiny metallic weapons in view, a Neua was gliding from the trees, shouting “I’m gonna steal it!” while snatching up the items, oddly circling around Oknodie in celebration.
“…What bizarre antics is this kid up to again?”
Rescuing the light stand that was kidnapped by a monster.
…It would have been better if it was a person.
Irene finally felt the worth of entering the Academy.
Her goal was to gain the power to save the resource-strapped Northern People, constantly under demonic invasions, from the Academy.
Even if it was a light stand and not a person, with Oknodie stepping in, the Northern region started showing signs of being saved.
“Oknodie really cherishes friends. Even going to the dangerous habitat of monsters for something like a light stand, deep within!”
“Of course! Without a light stand, Titosso isn’t Titosso!”
“What if it was someone else’s light stand, not Titosso’s?”
“Well… they’d probably still go to pick it up, right? Because they could give a 2-star light stand to Titosso!”
“2-star…?”
“Ah, you don’t need to know that you can enhance the same equipment every time it accumulates in multiples of 2!”
The Academy allows for such things.
In the North, where they even use crude spears made from wood due to a lack of weapons, this was a foreign concept.
It was probably just a lavish culture passed down from the wealthy Empire.
It was certainly a story Irene didn’t want to say as Northern Grand Duchess.
Feeling even more grateful for Oknodie’s generosity, she couldn’t help but ask these questions.
“So, if it wasn’t a light stand but Titosso that was kidnapped?”
“I’d still rescue them!”
“What if it was someone totally unrelated to both Titosso and the light stand?”
At this point, Oknodie finally halted the instant replies and fell into thought.
“If there’s a quest, I’d probably rescue them, right?”
“…If there’s no request or reward involved? What then?”
“If I’m free, I’ll help out. But if it gets too annoying, I might just leave it.”
Surely, this kid’s view of human life is rather merciless.
For friends, they’ll definitely save them. For acquaintances, there will be hesitation. For completely unrelated humans, they won’t care unless it’s intriguing or they happen to be free.
Although Irene discovered what she wanted to know, her expression darkened slightly.
So far, the Northern people must feel like unrelated humans to Oknodie- beings of no interest, and after graduating from the Academy, her prospects of gaining the attention of the Foundation and the Academy professors seemed slim.
As it stands, the chances of Oknodie choosing to venture into the North for a rescue are nearly non-existent.
She needed to find a way to earn Oknodie’s favor, improve perceptions of Northern people, and discover something that could pull Oknodie into the barren lands of the North.
If she couldn’t figure it out while she was a student, she would have to rely heavily on the dubious Grand Duke or the scoundrel Warrior.
‘Lucky me.’
Contrary to her harsh circumstances, the students kidnapped by Neua were able to scream for help just by the fact that a light stand from Titosso was taken.
“Hmm. The viscosity isn’t too bad. This will help in the development of original techniques.”
As she sliced open the cocoons with a dagger, Jiang showed curiosity towards the empty cocoons.
Just looking at Hestia swinging her hammer menacingly and Sing, who didn’t even seem to desire to draw a sword, hinted that they had overwhelming power.
Typically, monster habitats are likely to be more dangerous than direct confrontations with monsters, as extremely strong boss monsters usually appear, but here, they were met with a rather strong Oknodie, who was certainly stronger than any first-year.
There was simply no room to feel nervous.
“If we have rescued everyone… should we freeze them all?”
“No! What if the light stands freeze and break?”
For Oknodie, who valued the light stands more than people, Irene’s area-of-effect magic was prohibited.
Fortunately, stress over cutting open all the cocoons to find the light stands was alleviated.
Around the exceptionally luminescent giant cocoon, Neua were gathering in numbers.
“Tsu tsu tsu.”
The Neua were requesting help from their boss monster.
The giant cocoon split on its own, and out floated the [Neua Queen], adorned with spectacular patterns that stood out from the ordinary Neua as she gracefully waved her wings down.
As the Neua Queen raised her hand, the light stands were hoisted high, and [Crimson Light of Intensified Resolve] illuminated the area.
“Tsu tsu tsu.”
“Tsu tsu tsu.”
The flapping of wings quickens, and the resolve of the Neua surges!
“Looks like they’re as gleeful as primitive people discovering fire.”
Jiang’s heartfelt comment could be considered cute, but if they all started spraying [Debuff] and highlighting the area, it would become a troublesome matter.
“Oknodie. We need to take the initiative to attack.”
“Hmm. Wait a moment! Moths tend to be drawn to streetlights… well then!”
With a strangely outlandish thought, Oknodie laughed.
She approached the Neua Queen and called out.
“Hey! Did you know that the light stands lose their shine over time?”
“Tsu tsu tsu?!”
“If you return the light stands, I’ll help you get many more brilliant lights!”
“Tsu tsu tsu…”
“See, if you do this, more light will appear!”
Attaching a mana sticker containing light magic pattern to a nearby fishbowl caused the entire bowl to emit a dazzling blue light, creating a dreamy ambiance reminiscent of the deep sea.
“Tsu tsu!”
“Tsu tsu!”
Excited Neua gathered around the fishbowl, fluttering their wings slowly as if they were jellyfish.
Satisfied with her subordinates, the Neua Queen readily handed over the light stands to Oknodie.
“Clever. Who would have thought you could negotiate with monsters like that? That’s something only a child’s innocent perspective could dream of.”
Hestia’s honest admiration resonated with Irene, who silently agreed.
In the North, monsters were precious resources to be eradicated or forcibly consumed.
Yet here, they exchanged desires peacefully.
It was an idea she hadn’t even considered.
“I could regularly help input mana so the lights last longer! In exchange, you let us freely gather materials from the forest!”
“Tsu tsu.”
“Hehe. What a good Queen! As long as we don’t attack the Neuas first, they wouldn’t harm us either!”
How on earth did they manage to communicate? Leaving that aside, a peace treaty with monsters had been signed in the blink of an eye.
‘…Perhaps the most necessary support for the North isn’t materials or talents, but a negotiation skill that turns monsters, who disrupt the war with demons, into allies instead.’
Irene’s determination to earn Oknodie’s favor only grew stronger.
“But don’t let just anyone in; only let our organization members come in!”
“Tsu tsu?”
“If it’s someone else, don’t kidnap them to eat, but allow them to grant mana to the rituals and then suck out just the mana before sending them away. This way, we won’t be hunted down by humans!”
“Tsu tsu!”
“How will we know if they’re one of us? Just tie a black cloth around your arm, and you’re one of us!”
Using people as mana shuttles might be a bit extreme, but it will happen to people from other organizations or seniors.
Secure the material collection locations, and they wouldn’t have to worry about seniors or instructors, professors, being extra triggered by incidents, making it a wise decision.
From the following year, starting from Class 982’s first years, if they couldn’t be selected by Oknodie to be part of the [Organization that Plays with Oknodie], they may just find themselves unknowingly turned into mana shuttles while gathering materials, but then again, that was a problem for juniors, not something that would concern them.
“Wanna drink some iced tea?”
“I love cold drinks!”
Whether it was Oknodie’s favor towards Irene or vice versa, a budding friendship continued to progress with the rescue of the light stands.
