<725 - A Peaceful Day (5)>
Darknodi couldn’t resist the rookie’s call and decided to head to Professor Weird’s lab.
From behind, Ishtar’s shout that it was insane and definitely a trap set by Professor Weird went unheard.
To Ishtar, it was undoubtedly a trap laid by the professor using Oknodie’s tendency to lose his mind over new events and unfamiliar first experiences.
‘Logically, if the purpose is wholesome, there’s no reason to meet in the lab instead of countless other places!’
At this rate, Oknodie might end up a pitiful princess, trapped in the lab, sending out distress signals with paper airplanes every day.
‘…Could he really maintain such pitifulness in the professor’s lab?’
If he looked like a wretched creature bleeding out, that might fit the bill.
At least the seniors she saw in Professor Franz’s lab, where she went to argue about midterm scores, looked like that.
– The reason they couldn’t respond appropriately was that they had never been caught and tortured by the nobles; they had been tortured for days! Please save us!
– Sorry. I forgot to close the door for a moment. So, Ishtar, second-year, you said you were dissatisfied with your scores?
– ……Not at all? I’m completely satisfied!
– As a powerful noble, I, Franz, shall never ignore students’ dissatisfaction. If there are grievances, you are welcome to enter this solitary… uh, personal room.
– My dissatisfaction is with how the professor spends more time on politics than taking care of himself. Here, I’ll give you this animal ear cookie I saved as a snack, so please take care of your health.
– Haha. A cookie from a current warrior gives me strength. I’ll eat this and continue my… uh, education. If you have no business, please take your leave; I have a schedule to keep.
Holding back a shiver, just before leaving the lab, she could still hear the faint screams echoing in her ears.
It was a shame to give the cookie baked by Guard Leader Vanilla to the professor, but if it weren’t for that cookie, she might have ended up experiencing who knows what in the so-called personal room…
Worrying about Oknodie voluntarily stepping into such a dangerous lab was only natural as a friend.
“If you don’t go now… I’ll give you something good?!”
“Something good? What’s that?”
Darknodi blinked in surprise and turned around.
Ishtar’s eyes were spinning like they were on a roller coaster.
What kind of new thing or experience would Oknodie like?
As Ishtar pondered what first experience she could offer Oknodie, she noticed the faint glimmer of hope in Oknodie’s eyes turning to disappointment.
There was no time to hesitate.
She ran up and lifted Oknodie high into the air.
“!”
In front of a startled Oknodie, Ishtar shouted with all her might.
“Right now… we can explore the classified areas of the academy together!”
“I don’t want to get caught and scolded by the professors.”
“Ugh… then, we can secretly tame the monsters raised by professors to lower the exam difficulty!”
“I don’t want to get caught doing that either.”
“Why do you only become passive at times like this! Normally, you would have dragged me along without a care, even if you didn’t want to!”
In the end, Oknodie, looking at Ishtar with a strange expression, rolled away and disappeared from her grasp.
Of course, Ishtar wasn’t one to simply give up and leave Oknodie behind.
‘If he gets caught, he might end up trapped somewhere for weeks, and I’d be the one suffering for all those classes I attended just because of Oknodie! I just want to make sure he doesn’t enjoy himself alone, not that I’m helping him out of friendship!’
Just recently, Ishtar remembered the two expedition teams formed for the Catacombs, and she didn’t want to see a group forming for an expedition to Professor Weird’s lab.
Putting aside the fact that Oknodie had been enjoying himself, he had been wandering around neglecting classes, causing his yearly average grade to drop.
And that would mean she couldn’t show Oknodie the strength of a second-year when he became a third-year, or the true potential of everyone he had pushed away carelessly out of his sight.
‘Right… we have a value that exceeds Oknodie’s expectations. For the sake of proving that, you need to watch us properly from your spot.’
Filled with courage, Ishtar followed Oknodie back, fully armed.
Professor Weird’s lab resembled a massive botanical garden.
However, this botanical garden looked as if it had been ravaged by a catastrophic apocalypse, reduced to ash or bizarrely mutated into a dark forest that coughed out black smoke.
‘These traces… belong to Professor Sadako’s minions.’
After the survival reports of the Catacombs Expedition revealed the strength of the Catacombs to the outside world and even mentioned that fourth-years were set to tour, before the midterms arrived, all academy students had researched the kinds and strengths of the monsters that inhabited the Catacombs, as well as countermeasures.
Having to take an exam might become necessary when they became fourth-years, and news of Professor Sadako leading her minions into professors’ personal rooms and lecture halls had been widely reported.
The result? 15 battles, 15 victories.
Wherever Professor Sadako went, she brought destruction, and with all attacked professors being obliterated, other professors had raised the white flag in advance.
Even Demonology Professor Damon, who had allegedly fought the fiercest and most intensely, had purportedly suffered a significant reduction in his demonic power, which was no surprise considering the state of Professor Weird’s botanical garden.
‘Since Professor Weird was out of town.’
In short, it was a case of being robbed blind.
“Chirp chirp.”
“Chirp chirp…”
In the center of the lab, a terrified 20-meter-tall giant sparrow, deprived of its vitality and emaciated between the withered trees, chirped.
Hearing the sorrowful cries of the guardian monster raised in the lab, Professor Weird shaped a giant hand made of plants to cover the chick’s cheeks.
Thinking maybe he was trying to comfort it, she watched in surprise, which turned into warmth, but the giant hand’s movement seemed strange.
‘Huh? What’s that pose…?’
SLAP!
A big slap across its cheek!
“#@^#@^!”
“Why are you crying like that? Want me to hit you?”
“Chirp chirp!!”
The bird that was already angry at being slapped once, got hit on the opposite cheek and fell over.
Even the beloved pet monster was beaten by Professor Weird’s cruel punishment, making even the strongest warriors tremble.
But warriors were warriors, after all.
While others would have been panicking and screaming to form a botanical garden expedition team, she calmed her quivering heart and coolly ran through scenarios in her mind.
‘Calling doesn’t really help.’
For example, if she called Forest Guardian Dorothy.
– Dorothy is the forest guardian! Isn’t she strong with plants?
– Sure, she can detect any plant with an observation function, which can safely capture a stealth route!
– Then come help.
– But they’ve all been burned to ashes! It’s now open ground! You won’t need me!
She’d probably run away, claiming everything was burned away.
Even if she called Oknodie’s best friend, Jiang, it would be the same.
– Jiang used to hang out with Oknodie. Didn’t he visit Professor Weird’s lab before?
– He did.
– Then help.
– The helplessness I felt back then is still fresh in my memory. What I need now is training, not real combat. Oknodie will somehow resolve things on her own, but if you’re really worried, call the professor.
Having felt the limits of his ability, Jiang was now focused on training.
Other students wouldn’t help either for the same reason.
It was hard to believe that there would be a rare individual with experience in Professor Weird’s botanical garden who was strong enough to help yet lacking ambition…
“Dobi is a free spirit! When the prophesied moment of doom comes, if Oknodie defeats the end, then all will gain true freedom!”
“Long live the leader! Long live! Long, long live!”
As if he’d just invented the concept…
“I am omniscient! And I am omnipotent! I know the location of the vault where the professor keeps answer sheets, and I know the teaching assistants in the lab who harbor personal grudges against the professor! So give me points! Those who want to fix their scores will receive support at a cheaper price than the student council if they offer sufficient tributes to the Church of the End!”
“Wow!”
As if launching a public campaign, Dobi hoodwinked freshmen into handing over their points.
The members of the Church of the End, realizing Ishtar was striding straight toward Dobi, gasped, clutching their donation boxes and yelled.
“Warrior! We haven’t done anything particularly evil. The vault truly exists, and we will fix the answer sheets. There’s a chance the revised sheets could get busted by the professor, but the parties who commission this must bear that risk!
“And we’re just weak underclassmen. Even if we’re the same year and batch mates, upperclassmen hitting underclassmen is like seniors beating juniors. If you have a conscience, you shouldn’t hit us!”
“I knew you were remarkable trash, but what I need now isn’t donation boxes or foolish juniors. So don’t run away, Dobi, just come here calmly!”
[Holy Mirror]
Through mirrors unfurling all around, Ishtar unleashed unexpected attacks at stylish angles, launching her signature holy sword magic.
The Holy Mirror swallowed Dobi, who was trying to slip away with a Pass Wall spell, and dropped him right in front of Ishtar.
“Ugh…! Ishtar, I can’t believe you’ve noticed our evil plan and have responded so swiftly. No matter how rotten a villain you are, a warrior is still a warrior!”
“Were you doing anything else besides preying on the poor first-years?”
“I absolutely cannot disclose the wicked plan where we worked with the church members to prevent Vladimir’s corruption by secretly complimenting her whenever she picked up trash or watered plants, guiding her to be a full-fledged model student and stifling her growth!”
“…Alright, I don’t know anything about Vladimir’s model student corruption plan, so rest easy. All I want to ask about is Professor Weird’s lab.”
Dobi, who had been spewing absurdities to the warrior, suddenly changed his expression when he shot her a freezing glare.
“What has Professor Weird done now?”
“The suspicious transfer student the professor brought called Oknodie to his lab.”
“What a horrific thing…! That woman intends to repeat the tragic horrors she inflicted on me upon Oknodie this time. We must stop her at all costs!!”
Ishtar felt a chill run down her spine.
“What did Professor Weird do to you?!”
“He made me do a part-time job to wake the slumbering spirits and then… I got battered badly!”
“…”
“It hurt like hell!”
“R-Right.”
Perhaps the thought that Professor Weird was scary stemmed from her preconceived notion of Professor Sadako.
Ishtar’s wariness began to fade a little.
