<185 - Obvious Strength>
[Many classmates gave up or fled during training. The effective experience points are severely reduced.]
[Education Experience Points +5]
[Bad Kid Experience Points +1]
“Tch.”
When did they all ask for training?
People can be so awful.
It’s not like my grades are at stake, so I won’t stop them from fleeing, but I can’t help but feel irritated.
After all, I took the time to train everyone, and the only ones who kept up until the end were Dorothy, Rosgini, and Sandkooker.
“Haa.”
While I’m tidying up, I can’t help but sigh, worrying about the futures of those weaklings.
“Need help?”
Dorothy sneakily approaches and asks while being cautious.
I don’t know who’s worrying about whom when I’m the one struggling to move my shaking limbs.
“It’s okay. Everyone must have had a hard time, so just go back and do some mana breathing and rest well. You need to rest to build up your strength.”
Sorry, Isabel.
It’d be easier to tackle this competition alone.
I promised Isabel and everyone that I would rely on them instead of tackling everything alone, but it’s understandable that when they can’t keep up despite trying, it can’t be helped, right?
Oknodie couldn’t hide her gloomy face.
Dorothy felt sorry for her.
“Sorry, Oknodie. I thought it would be good for everyone if they all improved their grades because of this competition, but I didn’t expect everyone to lack such perseverance.”
“It’s not your fault, Dorothy. Maybe I made it too hard.”
Oknodie reflects on herself.
However, Dorothy remembers.
Oknodie encouraged them throughout the running and jumping over the Burning Ring.
She said this was just the basics.
Even the lower-class students, the Mob, endured the training process.
They shouldn’t let their spirits be broken here.
She sincerely believed this training was easy.
And she ran and leaped over the Burning Ring as if she were quite used to it.
She even spun around in the air, increasing her rotation count while passing through the ring, claiming this side had better agility rising efficiency.
‘Has Oknodie gone through all this training…?’
Wiheomhae Foundation.
The rumors swirling within the academy about Oknodie’s backing.
For the foundation, this level of training must have been basic.
She must have grown up thinking it was common sense.
That’s how she probably enrolled in the academy.
But she found out it wasn’t true.
Most of them couldn’t keep up with her training.
The foundation deceived her.
They set excessively high standards.
What kind of feelings did Oknodie have upon realizing that?
Did she feel betrayed by the foundation?
Did she feel disappointed in us?
Or maybe both.
“Oknodie’s expression was really bad, right?”
It wasn’t just Dorothy’s worry.
Rosgini looked at Oknodie’s retreating figure from the playground with pity.
“Need help?”
“It’s okay. Everyone must have had a hard time, so just go back and do some mana breathing and rest well. You need to rest to build up your strength.”
Oknodie plugged the damp ring into the ground with a gloomy face, pulling it out with her hands.
Even though she said she was fine, her voice had no energy at all.
“…Shall we do our best, at least?”
As Sandkooker reached out, Rosgini and Dorothy placed their hands on top.
“The competitive spirit of the Red Magic Tower burns hotter than anyone else’s. I don’t want to finish things by disappointing you after asking for help first.”
“Let’s overcome the 96 portions we disappointed Oknodie together!”
“Fool. If we combine our three portions, that’s 33 portions each. How much of a stamina fool would we have to be to defeat 33 Imperial Students all alone?”
“What’s with that tone? You’re the one who said let’s work hard.”
“Only land manipulators of the Yellow Magic Tower can have that kind of spirit. Don’t get cocky for being a member of the Red Magic Tower that burns quickly and fades out.”
“Hmph. Forest dwellers never fall behind when it comes to spirit. Just you wait.”
Three people fired up with rivalry and tenacity.
Whether they could manage 99 portions combined was something they would have to see.
“Oknodie. I heard you helped your friends with their midterms, but why do you look so down?”
“Just. Huh. I’m starting to think I might have misjudged things.”
“The food wasn’t bad, was it?”
“Not at all! The grilled meat, the eggplant, the inari sushi, the lunch box… they were all delicious! …Except for the paprika.”
“If you don’t eat a balanced diet, you won’t grow. Didn’t you say you’d be 230cm?”
She chuckled lightly at the joke, but her expression quickly darkened again.
Just seeing her shriveled shoulders stirred a sympathetic feeling within me.
“Jezel. Can you find out some information for me?”
“Information gathering is my specialty.”
“Oknodie has been looking more down since she helped her friends with their exam preparations. Can you find out why?”
Jezel readily accepted.
In fact, the reason she enrolled in the academy was probably due to her curiosity and sympathy towards Oknodie.
Even if it wasn’t Isabel’s request, Oknodie’s matter was at the top of his interests.
‘Is it because everyone is afraid of the professor? I don’t remember seeing anyone awkwardly ask the professor something while collecting information.’
Jezel first visited Professor Weird, who taught the problematic lecture.
“Excuse me, Professor. I have a question regarding the first-year [Fundamentals and Understanding of Mana Usage] course.”
“It’s not my fault. The mana exposure is properly blocked, so it won’t affect first-years. So don’t even mention compensation.”
“…I came to ask about the voluntary training of students competing against students from [Imperial Magic Studies].”
Professor Weird, who was mindlessly avoiding eye contact and playing with a book, tossed it behind the sofa and slumped back as if to bury himself in it.
“Should have just said so. I was all tense for no reason. First-year?”
“I’m Jezel, a student aiming for the Adventure Department.”
“If it’s a request for assistance in training, I will refuse. The essence of nature magic arises from daily training. When trials and adversities come, students who are meant to fall will fall, and those meant to thrive will thrive.”
“…What?? Thrive?”
“It’s my philosophy. A little druidic, isn’t it? I read somewhere that ancestors mostly said this when they didn’t want to deal with annoying work.”
“Fall back or something, you wretched dryad.”
What sort of nonsense is causing talk about mana exposure while also neglecting first-year education?
I came to hear about Oknodie’s special training and ended up just annoyed.
“Apologies for interrupting a busy person. My bad.”
“Oknodie’s friend, right?”
“…How do you know? I haven’t even taken your course.”
“I’ve heard. From Professor Minerva, one of the examiners during the entrance exam. She said there was one particularly concerning child to watch out for.”
“…!”
“Don’t be too tense. Druids are hybrids of humans and tree spirits. They’re half-human but half-spirit. They memorize what happens in their vicinity and their social relations.”
What seemed like a careless professor was surprisingly keeping an eye on Oknodie.
Enough to remember the social relations outside his classroom.
It would be nice if he invested half of that spirit into the first-year students in his class for their special training.
Only the students attending the lecture are the ones getting a raw deal.
“Don’t make such a face. I’m not truly neglecting things either. It’s just the direction of their training is well established, so I’m not intervening.”
“I heard they’re just focusing on physical training and acrobatics instead of magic training. Do you believe that’s correct?”
“Do you know? If the body is good, there’s no need for magic. Magic, in its essence, is no different from martial arts developed to allow the weak to overcome the strong.”
Martial arts focus on defeating strong opponents with weak strength, while magic differs only in that it can substitute various evolutionary elements with magical powers.
The aim is the same.
“In that regard, Oknodie’s aim is extremely close to the correct answer. She hasn’t made a mistake. She’s just walked too far at too young an age.”
Professor Weird revealed to Jezel the information he wanted to know, the reason Oknodie was feeling low.
“She’s just feeling lonely. The loneliness that arises from realizing the differences between herself and the other kids. It’s surprising for a child her age to feel the regret usually felt only by masters of a field after decades of experience.”
“Can you perhaps offer any assistance for Oknodie…?”
“I’ll refuse.”
“Why? Aren’t you concerned about Oknodie?”
“You need to correct that misunderstanding.”
Professor Weird said while lounging on the sofa.
“Lazy animals starve but lazy plants grow well anywhere.”
“…”
“And that child will manage just fine as long as she hangs out with friends of her level. There’s no reason for an adult to step in.”
“Friends of her level…?”
“Until now, she must have felt her life was too fast, feeling a line drawn between her and normality.”
Making it so she no longer consciously thinks about her extraordinary strength.
She needs friends with obvious strength.
Preferably ones her age.
Despite pretending to be bothered, Professor Weird ends up giving the advice she needed.
…Thanks to that, I could think of just one person.
While not exactly her age, there’s one child whose age is relatively similar at the academy.
A competent person in the same field who would never be hastily called weak compared to Oknodie.
“So, you came looking for me?”
“Please take good care of our little lady.”
As Jiang reached for the metal trinket stuck to the wooden pillar, a powerful magnetism pulled the metal trinket toward her.
The trinket clung to her glove with a clanking sound.
She swiped the trinket from her glove and lightly detached it, collecting the trinket all over her body.
Stuffing the rhombus-shaped ones into her pocket, she put the longsword inside the glove’s finger cover, attached the dagger to her thigh’s dagger belt, and evenly stashed it into her wrist and waist, inside the pocket of her clothes, and even the lining of her garments…
‘Is she a person or a hoard of trinkets?’
Jiang collected an astonishing number of trinkets everywhere on her body, enough to scare anyone to touch her.
She gave a twisted, wicked smile.
“So… this is it? You want me to make the annoyances that brought Oknodie down suffer?”
“Not at all.”
If I let her rampage freely, I think the kids are going to get hurt. Jezel sincerely denied it, frowning.
