Chapter 4
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Ironically, people seem unable to react properly when they witness something too shocking.
Even as Elijah, who had been sent flying into the wall, was carried out by the emergency medical team, a heavy silence settled over the entire building—so complete that even someone breathing a little too loudly would have been heard.
It felt as though everyone's soul had left their body.
“Victory goes to Dowd Campbell.”
But just as the judge made that announcement, looking utterly dumbfounded,
“...What the hell was that just now?!”
“What the hell is that guy?!”
A deafening uproar erupted from every direction.
Who was Dowd Campbell? What kind of place was the Campbell Barony? This wasn't the time to wonder about that—they needed to dig up information on that guy, and fast...
While the world around me went berserk with noise, I stood alone, staring blankly up at the sky.
The person in question.
All stats F.
A bottom-tier freshman whose entire repertoire consisted of two unidentified skills.
Currently on day one of academy life.
He'd just started academy life and taken down the protagonist in a single blow.
“...Ah, fuck.”
How the hell was I supposed to deal with this aftermath?
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Imperial Academy Elphante was one of the handful of top educational institutions across the continent. The only places that could compare were the [Grand Temple] of the Holy Empire and perhaps the [Crucible of Strife] built by the Tribal Confederation.
And at institutions of that caliber, naturally, the faculty was made up of nothing but impressive people.
“...”
...”
So the current situation was unquestionably bizarre.
Even people like them couldn't hide their bewilderment.
A mana crystal embedded in the center of the table was playing footage of Elijah Chrisanax being knocked out with a single punch.
“As for the first possibility.”
The head of the Department of Knight Studies spoke in a grave voice.
“This student, this Dowd, is a remarkably skilled fraud.”
“...That's a rather harsh assessment all of a sudden, Conrad.”
“I'm saying it makes no sense.”
In response to the chancellor's amused reply, a middle-aged man with a cross-shaped scar on his face ran a hand through his hair and answered.
“Anyone with even a little discernment would've realized it as soon as they saw this. This Dowd Campbell guy had absolutely nothing going for him before the duel started. No combat skills, and no supernatural abilities on his person, either. But...”
He then manipulated the footage, bringing it to the moment Elijah was struck.
“This one punch, however, is unquestionably the ‘real deal.’”
“What do you mean by ‘real’?”
“I mean that no one at this academy could take that hit directly and withstand it. I know I couldn't.”
At those words, the silence in the room grew even heavier.
The person who'd just said that was a former member of the Imperial Guard, one of the continent's finest knights. Given his background, it was hardly the sort of praise one would expect him to bestow on a student.
All the more so considering that the faculty in this room consisted of some of the most outstanding talents on the continent.
“An illegal drug, an undiscovered magical device... He must've used some kind of ‘means’ to unleash powerful force temporarily. That seems the more likely explanation. I imagine everyone would think so.”
Because...
If not, then this Dowd Campbell's existence would become a much bigger headache.
“And the other possibility is...”
He paused for a moment, then gave a wry smile.
As if even he thought it ridiculous to say.
“He's a genius who could be called a monster. One of the rarest talents in history.”
It wouldn't be strange to describe him that way.
No matter how you looked at it, Dowd Campbell didn't have even a one-in-ten-thousand chance of winning.
His opponent was ‘that’ Elijah Chrisanax. A candidate for the next [Hero], whom even the Imperial family was keeping a close eye on.
Combat skills in a realm no ordinary person could ever reach, no matter how hard they struggled their entire life; a sea's worth of supernatural abilities; and a spirit that would never break, no matter the circumstances.
They were all talents Dowd didn't possess. At least, on paper, this man truly had the talent of a bug.
“...”
The problem was that this catastrophic gap had been bridged with a single punch.
By a being whose methods they couldn't begin to understand, and could only call ‘talent.’
And truly,
if he wasn't a fraud, but a genuine embodiment of talent...
‘He'll become the eye of the storm.’
He would be a force that brought tremendous upheaval.
Conrad thought so as he stroked his chin.
“Still, it'll be difficult to simply accept that student's victory. The Margrave of Kendrid won't sit idly by.”
At the chancellor's gentle words, Conrad nodded as well.
The Margrave of Kendrid. One of the Empire's venerable houses, infamous for its bitter feud with House Tristan.
As Elijah Chrisanax's zealous patron, the Margrave of Kendrid would obviously have no desire to see the ‘value’ Elijah represented diminished in the slightest.
“...”
Conrad's expression stiffened.
At what point had they started worrying about politics in a place established to teach students?
If they'd found a talented student, they ought to give him the treatment he deserved.
“Still, it would be a great loss for the academy to simply leave such a conspicuous student alone. Whether he's a fraud or not will come to light soon enough, so let's wait and see.”
And as if he'd read Conrad's thoughts, the chancellor continued with a light laugh.
It was a sentence that made Conrad's eyes light up.
“What do you mean, wait and see?”
“There are plenty of interesting freshmen this year in particular. Some have such strong personalities that they need to be managed separately.”
Though his tone remained light as he said that,
“If this student is outstanding enough to make the department head say something like that... then surely there'll be a role for him to play. For their sake.”
It was undoubtedly a sentence with a suggestive ring to it.
●
So.
I gave some thought to how to deal with the aftermath of knocking out the protagonist.
And, naturally, that's a problem for my future self to solve.
“...”
No, that's actually the case.
Even now, there were countless people outside my dorm room clamoring to meet me, but there wasn't anything I could do to deal with that right away, was there?
Since I'd pulled off that spectacular feat in front of so many witnesses, my fame was skyrocketing to absurd heights.
[ Kendrid's rising star suffers a shocking defeat right after enrolling?! ]
[ Special Feature: Dowd Campbell, the Talk of the Town. Who Is He? ]
One piece of surprisingly realistic worldbuilding.
Tabloids are pretty much the same in this world as in the one I came from.
I gave a wry smile as I skimmed the tabloids churning out absurd stories about me after only a single day.
They said I was secretly the Imperial Knight Commander's illegitimate child. They said I was the academy's strongest life-form, secretly raised there.
Are you fucking kidding me?
Well, there was still something worth getting out of even trashy media like that.
I'd spent the whole day shut up in my room gathering information about the current situation, and one thing in particular stood out.
[ House Kendrid formally requests Elphante Academy to investigate the truth- ]
[ Experts' opinions that the duel was a complete sham continue to pour in- ]
Maybe it was backlash from my skyrocketing fame, but public opinion wasn't as favorable as I'd expected.
Before enrolling at the academy, Elijah had been hailed as a ‘supernova’ who'd already piled up achievements like mountains. You could say Elijah had a solid fanbase.
Even if some extra A who'd come out of nowhere had beaten Elijah in one blow, it wasn't the sort of thing people would simply applaud.
‘Well, I can't do anything about that.’
I didn't care what people said about me. My only goal, either way, was to survive and make a beeline for the ending.
The butterfly effect from beating up the protagonist on my first day at the academy was something my future self would just have to deal with somehow.
I knew all the ways to get stronger in this world and overcome crises by heart. All I had to do was come up with a solution suited to the situation.
More importantly...
< Gift-Related Character Alert >
▼ Elnore Erinarize La Tristan
[ Trust Level 1 ] >>> [ Trust Level 2 ]
[ A reward is available to claim! ]
[ Related event in D-1 ]
▼ Baron Armut
[ Curiosity Level 2 ]
[ A reward is available to claim! ]
▼ Viscount Lupen
[ Curiosity Level 1 ]
[ A reward is available to claim! ]
▼ Viscount Gront
[ Interest Level 3 ]
.
.
.
Right.
I couldn't help smiling as I looked at the names cascading down the Gift-related character window.
It was probably partly due to the [Fatal Charm] skill, but maybe the sight of me sending Elijah flying had made quite an impression, because a whole lot of names were listed in the window.
I organized the information as I looked over the profiles, each with a different word displayed.
It seemed affection levels went Curiosity → Interest → Trust. There appeared to be higher states, too, but for now it looked like this was as far as it went.
And each state seemed to have five levels.
Elnore was still the highest, of course. Trust Level 2.
‘It's a little strange, though.’
The ‘important villains’ in the story must have seen me too, but none of their names appeared. Everyone listed was closer to an extra.
There could be all sorts of reasons.
Some people were so full of themselves that they didn't care about anyone else. Others were born crazy, so their outlook on life was different from everyone else's.
The problem was...
Why was the final boss, of all people—the one who should've been least interested in me—the one with the highest favorability?
While the others had only reached Curiosity or Interest at most, Elnore alone was already at Trust Level 2.
Why?
“...”
I didn't really know, but...
Elnore's related event was tomorrow, anyway. If there was a reward to claim, there was no reason to turn it down.
Just one of the two skills I'd received as a reward had been enough to take down the protagonist. I was looking forward to seeing what I'd get this time.
[ Claiming Gift reward from ‘Elnore’. ]
[ You have acquired ‘Trait: Tristan-style Swordsmanship’! ]
< Mastery Info >
[ Trait: Tristan-style Swordsmanship ] [ Rank: Basic ]
[ A sword style from House Tristan, a renowned family of swordsmanship. ]
[ ■ You can produce a consistent level of power regardless of weapon. ]
[ Raise the trait's rank to gain more benefits! ]
“...Now this is something.”
This is huge.
Just as you'd expect from the final boss's Gift reward. First, Elnore gave me a skill that could be raised all the way to EX rank, and now there was a high-performance trait as well.
House Tristan was one of the Empire's foremost swordsmanship families. Its effectiveness was practically guaranteed.
“...”
The problem was that most abilities tied to that family had something to do with demons.
Even if the thing listed here was swordsmanship, House Tristan was the sort of place where the deeper you dug, the more ghost stories you uncovered.
Learning an ability derived from them could cause problems down the line, one way or another.
Well, that was true, but...
‘I don't give a shit.’
If they gave it to me, I'm using it.
It's not as if I can afford to be picky, and the trait's performance has already been proven.
I'll leave the cleanup to my future self.
Thinking that, I claimed the rest of the rewards.
[ Claiming Gift reward from ‘Baron Armut’. ]
[ You have acquired 100 pt! ]
[ Claiming Gift reward from ‘Viscount Lupen’. ]
[ You have acquired 50 pt! ]
.
.
.
By the way...
It seemed the Gift rewards from the rest of them had been replaced with a currency called points.
What was this?
[ Points can be used in the Currency Shop! ]
Oh, I see.
So extra villains just get a lump-sum reward instead.
I knew about the Currency Shop system. If I remembered right, it was basically an aid that made gameplay smoother by letting you buy various consumable items and buffs.
[ Current Points: 3,500 pt ]
But isn't that way too much?
3,500 points was an amount you wouldn't reach until much later in the original game, wasn't it?
Even if the Fatal Charm skill had an effect, how many bad guys had I managed to catch the eye of?
“...Well, good things are good.”
Thinking that, I scrolled down the window.
It felt kind of wrong to think too deeply about something they were giving me for free.
Still, gathering this much was already a remarkable achievement. At the very least, it meant the resources I could use for tomorrow's event had increased tremendously.
As I thought that and was about to close the window, something strange caught the corner of my eye.
A line written in black at the very bottom of the window.
< Gift-Related Character Alert >
▼ Elijah Chrisanax
[ Curiosity Level 4 ]
[ You cannot claim a reward yet! ]
“...”
Why are you in here?
“Hmm.”
I stroked my chin and pondered for a moment.
I was pretty sure the Gift-related character list only included ‘villains’ who had some kind of ‘affection’ for me.
“...Hmm.”
No, seriously, why are you in here?
Why is someone who doesn't meet either of those two conditions here?
As I was thinking that in a daze, there was a sudden knock at my door.
“Um, is this Mr. Dowd Campbell's room?”
“...”
That voice sounded familiar.
“I'm Elijah Chrisanax. May I come in?”
“...”
I sighed and rubbed a hand down my face.
Elijah really didn't know how to take a hint.
I didn't know why Elijah had suddenly come looking for me, but maybe if I kept quiet, Elijah would leave. I tried to hold on to that hope.
“Um, sir. I already know you're in there, you know? If you don't answer, I'll break in.”
Is this person a lunatic or what?
“...What do you mean, ‘sir’? I'm not your damn teacher.”
“Oh, so you are in there after all.”
But despite my curt answer, all I got from the other side was a cheerful voice.
“Could you open the door? There's something I want to talk about.”
“...What is it?”
“Hmm, just something like getting to know each other a little?”
“...”
A sudden migraine swept over me.
I groaned, clutching my head, making no secret of how close I felt to dying.
Dowd Campbell. Day two of academy life.
The protagonist of the original had started clinging to me.
This is such a fucking mess.
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