Chapter 52
“How much did you dig up?”
“Not much. I’m just glad I managed to find one mandragora root in Zone B.”
The students lining up to submit their harvests chatted among themselves.
Each of them had a sack in hand.
Some sacks were obviously heavy, while others were pitifully bare.
The four of us went over to where the first-years were gathered and got in line.
Immediately, everyone’s attention turned to us.
Linia hid behind Robert and me.
“Whoa, look at the top duo. They’re totally loaded!”
Aris’s and Linia’s sacks were so bulky they could practically be called enormous.
“At that size, they must’ve needed a weight-reduction spell. Can first-years even use that?”
“Idiot, the top student is a genius from the Dreamwell family. With unique magic, there’s nothing she can’t use.”
“But the runner-up’s and Robert’s sacks don’t have much in them.”
“I heard the four of them are close. Didn’t they share?”
“I guess everyone in the exam is a rival.”
Hmm.
More accurately, there was no need to share.
My inventory was already packed to the brim.
The problem was that if I had to sort out all the poisonous herbs mixed in there, I wouldn’t get any sleep tonight.
I decided not to correct their misunderstanding.
“But were we not allowed to steal from other first-years either?”
“Don’t even ask. Apparently if a fight looks like it’s about to break out, the spirits rush in and stop it.”
…Spirits?
“There were spirits?”
“Huh? What are you talking about? They’d been trailing us and watching us the whole exam.”
“They were cute.”
Aris asked in confusion, while Linia muttered her personal impressions.
“Now that you mention it, I didn’t see a single spirit. We should’ve at least seen one or two low-ranking spirits.”
Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen any spirits either.
“Ah.”
I’d once obtained the trait [One Feared by Spirits (R)].
Was that why?
That must have been after Adrian enhanced my dragon eyes...
Dragon mana and spirits might just be a bad match.
“Well, it doesn’t matter either way.”
I could always ask Adrian about it later.
After waiting a bit, it was our turn.
The four of us went into a tent and sat in the chairs provided, since teams had to submit one at a time.
Aris and Linia went up and submitted their bulging sacks.
The instructor gasped in admiration.
“You gathered quite a lot. I see students like this once every few years, but even among them, you’re outstanding.”
The herbs from Zones A, B, and C were properly mixed together.
It didn’t seem like they’d done what we did and sprinted straight to Zone A.
He expertly sifted through the herbs, carefully checking for any poisonous ones.
“No poisonous herbs either. Excellent!”
Linia and Aris were both scored 100 points.
“We did it!”
“Mm. Nice.”
Aris looked happy to have been rewarded for her hard work.
“Next, please.”
“Yup.”
The instructor was pulling herbs from our sack when he suddenly widened his eyes.
[Golden Mandragora (SSR)]
“You brought a very rare ingredient. This hardly grows even in Zone A. The third-years didn’t interfere with you, did they?”
“We beat them all up on the way back.”
“Haha, you sure are spirited.”
He seemed to think I was joking.
But I was serious.
Then he reached into the sack again.
[Fresh Mandragora]
[Dragon Flame Grass]
He looked flustered as rare ingredients kept coming out one after another.
I’d gotten annoyed while sorting, so I’d only thrown in the stuff that could score high.
“…You get 100 points.”
“Oh, and one more thing. Does this count for points too?”
I decided to ask about the flag I’d been wondering about all this time.
He looked flustered and asked back.
“H-how did you get that!?”
“Huh? I snatched it.”
“That’s a third-year scoring flag! There’s no way a first-year could obtain one...”
Thud, thud.
A few more heavy flags fell out.
Ah.
I still had about twenty more of these.
He went a little blank, then barely managed to recover.
“…Please return them later. There’s no separate score for first-year flags.”
“What about our score?”
“Ah, my apologies. I got distracted by the flags. This is the first time I’ve seen anything like this... Both of you get 100 points. Congratulations.”
He offered his congratulations with a friendly smile, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the flags I was holding.
How was I supposed to return these?
The moment I returned twenty of them, I’d be under immediate scrutiny.
‘And they’re not even useful.’
I should just take them back to Earth and toss them in a landfill.
But would these even burn?
* * *
“Did you hear about that?”
“What?”
“Normally, the third-year magic combat course is just about keeping your own flag safe, right?”
“And?”
“But someone leaked a huge number of flags, so now they’re in short supply.”
“What?”
“I heard there’s even a rumor that an examiner disguised as a first-year was involved, and the spirit in charge of monitoring ran away...”
“So?”
“You know that flag mass-spawn event? It’s basically a battle among the top ranks.”
“Why does that matter?”
“The lower ranks are joining in too, and it’s turning into a full-blown brawl. I’m wondering if we should go back them up. There’ll probably be injuries.”
“What!? If something like that happens, tell us in advance! Professors, honestly.”
“Senior, we’re just slaves. What would you tell slaves for? We just have to roll with it.”
“Sigh...”
On the way back to the dorms, I overheard the instructors talking as they headed up the mountain.
Hmm.
I felt a little guilty.
“Wow... The third-year exam sure is eventful...”
“If someone hadn’t stolen the flags, it probably would’ve been a little calmer.”
Robert said, looking at me.
No, how was I supposed to know?
Tell the first-years about the flags too.
“This is the organizers’ fault for not informing the first-years.”
“Are you heartless!?”
I did feel a little guilty myself.
At this rate, I had a feeling I’d get burned badly someday.
Lately, it felt like I was just piling up karma.
* * *
That evening.
The head chef, now used to using spices, brought the dish out in a sizzling stone bowl.
One steak was placed in front of each of us.
“I’m usually too busy during work hours to make this sort of thing, but I made some time specially.”
“Wow! You’re the best, mister!!”
I threw both arms up and cheered.
I’d asked for something tasty, and he’d offered to make some for the other three too while he was at it.
What he handed over this time was pepper and steak seasoning.
“Hahaha!! I’d be grateful if you all enjoyed it!”
He headed back to the kitchen, genuinely delighted by the praise.
I cut the meat with a knife and speared a piece with my fork.
It was deeply satisfying how easily the fork slid in.
“Ahh, now that’s meat.”
The moment I put it in my mouth, the rich fat and spices blended together.
“Wow, this much spice...! I’ve never even tasted something like this at home!”
“Now that it’s in my mouth, I can see why it cost that much.”
“Thanks for the meal, Yumia.”
The other three’s reactions were good too.
They’d probably grown up eating nothing but delicacies in their noble households.
The spices were impressive, sure, but the chef was impressive too.
I’d never known meat could be grilled so perfectly.
“And Yumia, could we get this in bulk?”
Robert, who had tried cola for the first time, said with wide eyes.
“If possible, I’d like some too. I want to take it back when I return to my family.”
Cola was popular too, as expected.
Honestly, if I sold a can of cola for one silver, I felt like there’d still be buyers.
Wasn’t there some way to break into the distribution network properly?
I’d probably need to look into the gate to the other world more closely later too.
* * *
After everything was sorted, washed, changed out of our half-ragged clothes, I oiled my knife a bit, entertained the useless thought of trying out the club, calmed Aris after she was startled by the mountain of herbs, exterminated the bugs hiding in the herb pile, sealed the flags away where no one could see them, and basically did a whole bunch of other things...
we collapsed exhausted onto the wooden floor.
The fan was on full blast.
“Uhaaa... I can live again...”
“Have you finally realized how precious I am?”
“Yeah... Fighting the third-years was really tough. Yumia, didn’t you run into any third-years?”
“We...”
We decided not to mention that we’d done it more than a dozen times.
Nor that we’d done it cowardly, with ambushes from behind.
It’s not good to realize there’s a floor beneath the floor.
“Ah, right.”
I handed Aris the healer-only manual.
“What is this?”
“…Wow! I had no idea something like this existed! So this is what the human body looks like!”
They say if you know anatomy, you can treat wounds far more efficiently.
But I’m not a healer, so I don’t really know.
She’ll figure it out somehow.
“I’ll study it whenever I can! I think it could even apply to unique magic! Though the theory on magic is a little outdated!”
Aris, cheerfully dismissing the achievements of magic researchers in one fell swoop.
But it seemed to be pretty helpful in its own way.
Well, that’s good.
Lying here like this, I’d recovered some of my strength.
Herbalism was over.
In truth, it felt more like a prerequisite for potion studies, so the real final exam period hadn’t even started yet.
The Potion Studies final exam announcement said we’d have to make five low-grade potions three times in a row.
It was scheduled for three weeks later.
“The math course is still a written exam.”
“I heard that’s actually pretty moderate, for Professor Karnarov.”
“I have no idea what the Basic Magic final will be like.”
“Yeah...”
This was Karnarov, the one who casually handed out SR-grade artifacts and made us do sparring practice.
It wouldn’t have seemed strange at all if he told us to do some kind of survival exercise in the eastern forest.
“Then we’ve got a little breathing room.”
The Potion Studies final was still quite a while away too.
Then I should get started.
Air conditioner installation.
If I just drill a hole in the wall and install the outdoor unit, everything else should work itself out.
Since there’s a simple terrace, I could probably put the outdoor unit there.
So in the end, the problem is the hole.
The terrace door is a sliding door.
If I drilled a hole in the door, there’d be no end of trouble, so I had to drill through the wall.
“But I’m sleepy, so I’ll do it tomorrow!”
I threw myself onto the bed.