<155 - Weekly Hidden Event>
It’s visitation week.
Contrary to the original purpose of allowing guardians to attend lectures and observe daily life, most parents left after spending just a day or two.
Some left voluntarily due to busy schedules, while most had to leave because they lacked visitation tickets, despite wanting to stay longer.
“Hohoho! My lovely Titosso, Papa has survived the second day!”
“…Papa, could you please go home a day earlier? I’m too embarrassed…”
“Impossible! I won’t leave until I see my Titosso talking with ten friends!”
“T-ten?!”
“What’s wrong? Didn’t you write to your sister that thanks to the lighting, you became popular? Sorry for doubting you?”
“That was then, and this is now!”
Titosso made a pitiful face.
The kids who had been happily laughing and chatting with just the lights had now become competitors.
If grades were lacking, you had to make up for them with points.
Considering a meal costs 5 points, it’s a fortune that’s not easily manageable.
“Do you think we can keep our friendships amidst all this… Plus, I have a ton of people I don’t like…”
“Shall Papa help you make up with them?”
“Please! Don’t even think about it! It’s so humiliating!”
“Papa is embarrassed…? T-Titosso… you’ve reached that age, haven’t you…?”
“N-no… It’s just because you keep saying embarrassing things…”
Unable to bear Titosso’s struggle with suffocating fatherly love, I rushed over and grabbed Titosso’s hand.
“Hello! I’m Titosso’s friend, can I borrow her for a sec?”
“Oooh, Titosso has a friend!”
Overwhelmed with emotion, Titosso dashed away from Papa’s view, panting and stopping in her tracks.
“Stop… stop! Hah, heh… that was too fast. I can’t keep up with the speed of Oknodie…”
“Oops, sorry! I just thought you looked troubled and wanted to help!”
“Can we really take this long when there’s another lecture coming up?”
“Huh? It’s fine. You don’t have to attend that class.”
“Whaaaat?! What if I don’t attend the lecture?!”
“The professor said that students who are up-to-date can skip the next lecture.”
It’s true.
Professor Weird in the 3rd period.
Professor Evening Shooter in the 4th period.
Both professors said it first.
Wasting time under the guise of a curriculum for sufficiently capable students isn’t something a professor should do; it only makes the struggling students anxious.
They even drew a firm line, stating that anyone who showed up would lose points.
“Thanks to that, I have free time until dinner!”
“When it comes to dinner, it’s gotta be…?”
“Yep. Professor Sadako’s 5th period.”
“Isn’t that great? We can stick together until we have the same class.”
“By the way, Titosso’s papa is staying quite a while, huh? Do you have many visitation tickets?”
“I don’t know. Our family hasn’t been doing that well for years… I’m worried Papa is overdoing it for my sake.”
“Why not sell your extra visitation tickets to other nobles?”
“I mentioned it last night. But instead of worrying about that, he wants to see me with friends quickly. He said he wouldn’t go back until he saw ten friends.”
With Titosso’s complaints, I felt a twinge in my head and saw an event window pop up.
[Titosso’s Papa’s Wish]
Titosso’s papa is very worried about her academy life.
He’s quite a hopeless papa, who’s so concerned about whether his child can make friends and if she’s doing well that he’s not even thinking of going home!
For the sake of Titosso, who’s feeling this embarrassment, how about introducing her to ten friends?
*Number of friends shown so far – 1 / 10
Making Friends.
Definitely not an easy quest for someone who’s socially awkward.
Even as a veteran, I can’t claim I have that many friends.
Jezel, Isabel, and Son Ohchun are comrades, not friends.
Hestia, Jigoku, and Lotto are team members for group assignments.
Dolphin Pants sisters are more like older sisters than friends.
Senior Bixton, the Dark Cult senior, and Senior Paper Company who helped with assignments are just seniors.
The only ones I could consider friends are Titosso, Jiang, Dorothy, and Mob.
“What should I do? I only have three friends as well.”
“Liar! Oknodie has tons of friends!”
“Nope! I really only have Titosso, Jiang, Dorothy, and Mob!”
“Ehh, really…?”
“Yep, really!”
After nervously twisting her fingers, Titosso shyly smiled.
“Thank you, Oknodie, you’re really a good friend…”
[You have strengthened your bond with a friend.]
[Kind Child Experience Points +1]
Titosso must have been genuinely moved.
Hmm, I feel a bit guilty.
It’s true that I consider her a friend, but…
I’m not entirely innocent in this.
During visitation week, there’s actually a hidden event.
60% of guardians won’t visit.
30% will visit.
9.9% will stay an extra day.
…And 0.1% will stay even longer.
Titosso’s papa revealed he’s part of the 0.1% exception from the moment he conditioned his return.
I was half-convinced he was a target for the hidden event.
Sure enough, when the 5th period Adventurer’s Night Activities Lecture rolled around, I could add to that confidence.
“If you’re walking the path of darkness, it’s alright for me to tell you… but it’s a secret to the first years, don’t go saying you heard it from me.”
“Uh, the path of darkness…? We’re here to learn about night activities, right? Are we unknowingly learning suspicious knowledge?”
Professor Sadako pinched Titosso’s cheeks with two fingers to shut her up and activated the hidden event trigger.
“Yesterday, the parents visited the academy for some reason, and a huge amount of negative energy spread.”
“And?”
“It’s a lot… a really lot.”
Jiang showed a curious expression.
“How much is a lot?”
“Enough that the dead could walk among the living without being noticed.”
Jiang’s curiosity froze like a statue upon hearing that.
“It’s better to be careful. There must be some very powerful ghosts out there… Those who converse with ghosts would face immense retribution if the ghosts’ grudge isn’t resolved…”
“C-can’t you exorcise them, professor?”
“Why would I do that?”
Professor Sadako’s eyes sparkled beneath her long black hair.
“If there’s a lot of negative energy, Dark Sorcerers and Necromancers get happy. They have plenty of resources and materials. They can easily commit deeds without digging up graves or taking lives…”
For some reason, her eyes glimmered with extra vitality today.
Titosso and Jiang were purely scared of the ghosts, but I already had an inkling of what those ghosts indicated.
[Ghostly Transcendence Hidden Event]
The visitation week for the weekly event had traps hidden within.
Mixed among ordinary parents were ghost parents.
These frightful parents, manifesting their concerns for their children, must be “exorcised!”
These ghost parents, born from massive negative energy, are powerful enough to wipe out first-years in an instant if using brute force.
But the world doesn’t revolve only around violence!
If you grant the ghost parents’ “wishes,” they will willingly “transcend” and leave the academy.
Exorcism or transcendence.
Solve the ghost parent commotion in whichever way you prefer!
Ghost Parents.
They are not real parents but are a conglomerate of lingering thoughts from parents who wander the afterlife, worried about their children in the academy.
Dealing with these bogus parents pretending to be specific students’ parents is the true event for week five.
And Titosso’s papa is one of these ghost parents.
Lucky me!
I was able to detect it quite early.
The conditions are tricky but still relatively easy.
Ten friends.
I just need to show nine more!
“Looks like trouble at the academy. Titosso’s papa must be worried sick.”
“Right? What if he decides to stay for another month?”
“Can’t he just stay?”
“I heard visitation tickets are super expensive. If a family goes bankrupt over a child’s visitation, that wouldn’t be funny either. Papa might completely lose his reason if it comes to my matter…”
The ghost parents were clever too.
They took advantage of Titosso’s papa, who was an easy target, and Titosso was completely fooled.
She didn’t even consider they could be fake parents!
In fact, it’s odd if you think about it for just a second.
It’s hard to find parents with visitation tickets unless they’re powerful or super rich; it’s contradictory for Titosso’s ordinary papa to have excess visitation tickets.
Such a thing just isn’t possible.
“Who are your other friends?”
“Hmm. Hmm…”
“Titosso?”
“Keep quiet! I’m thinking right now.”
At that point, it seemed like someone hard to call a friend would come up.
“Two… two people…”
“Wow, two?”
“Jiang and… Princess Arcadia?”
As I went further back, I felt less confident about it.
“What about me?”
“Oh, it’s nothing!”
“I’m looking for Titosso’s friends!”
“O-Oknodie… how could you say that?!”
“Why? Jiang only has us as friends!”
As we walked home together, Jiang’s veins popped as she heard me mention she had no friends.
“Oknodie. Do you want to play a game of Tag?”
“Out of nowhere?”
“I’ll be ‘it’ while you dodge. If I hit you, you’re not caught.”
“Sure!”
“Is that even Tag?! If I get caught, I feel like I’ll die?!”
[You enjoyed a delightful journey home with Jiang.]
[Running Experience Points +3]
[Stealth Experience Points +3]
[Reflex Experience Points +1]
The way home was quite enjoyable.
*
“Princess Arcadia! Titosso’s papa is really worried, can you help her relax?”
The next day, during Professor Plato’s upper class lecture.
Upon seeing each other, I asked Arcadia for help, and she burst into tears.
“How can this be so pitiful…? Even though she’s not great at making friends, the kindness shown to care for another lonely friend is so moving I can’t hold back my tears!”
“Sometimes I think, Arcadia, you’re too quick to cry.”
Using the cheat key of borrowing the connections of Arcadia, the strongest socialite in the Border Group, this hidden event is practically a freebie.
