Chapter 74
“You don't remember me!?”
“Yes.”
He, with curly hair reaching his chin and a prince-like face, shouted in confusion.
Actually, I don't remember a thing.
I lightly twirled my bedraggled hair around my finger and said.
“Who are you?”
“Th, that giant monster! The girl controlling it wasn't you!?”
Ah.
Only then did the memory come flashing back.
First, there was Leokan, a senior who rampaged as faithfully as possible under my command while trying not to hurt anyone too badly.
Me, happily scooping up the herb bag.
And the flag, as a bonus.
“That was me. The herbs were tasty.”
Thanks to that, my mana rose to A rank or better.
It was still short of what I'd need to reach a high-ranking noble house, but at least I wasn't outmatched even by nobles.
Nice and well-fed, and off I go.
“Because of you, because of you...!”
“What?”
“Because of you, we ended up clashing with those monster-like top ranks! Offer a sincere apology!”
Sometimes I think nobles of this in-between sort are even more arrogant than high nobles like Aris.
Maybe it's because they have more contact with commoners.
But I'm a kind person who doesn't ignore a senior's opinion.
So I decided to ask for the reason first.
“How did that happen?”
Herbs can be picked up, can't they?
If you can earn points that way...
“Because you stole the flag! Thanks to that, even our lower ranks were able to take part in the flag-generation event!”
“Ah.”
“Thanks to that, we somehow secured magic-combat points...! We were born nobles, and yet we had to go through this hardship! I won't forgive you!”
“Hmm.”
An apology, huh.
That is rough.
While other people were suffering like dogs, I was happily pocketing points.
“But isn't being weak your own fault?”
I really don't get it.
Honestly, even with jamming and whatever else, one blast of dragon mana would probably take them out.
And from the way they were firing magic, they didn't seem to have trained properly either.
I sprang up from the chair and declared with confidence!
“There is no reason to apologize!”
“What?”
“You were born a man, and yet you couldn't even aim for the top ranks, so now you're pestering a junior as heavenly as this? What a disgrace!”
I straightened my back and lectured him.
“If you neglected your training, you should be ashamed! Does it make any sense to whine for an apology after losing to a little girl?”
Honestly, the logic was a little off, but the foundation was sound.
He had no choice but to sink helplessly!
“Kraaaah!! I won't forget this humiliation, this humiliation! Don't you dare forget the Lorenz barony!”
That was what the Lorenz barony's whatshisname said.
He was going to wield noble authority.
But.
“My friend is the Duke of Script. Can you handle that?”
“…What?”
The whatshisname's face turned to shock.
But soon he returned to a composed expression.
“Hah, y-you commoner, daring to bluff to a noble. I'll really have to teach you a lesson...”
I took out the letter of introduction Aris's father had given me and showed it to him.
So this is how it's used.
“Hah.”
The signature of a top-ranking noble.
You could tell how effective it was by the way the whatshisname's face instantly went pale.
“I, I apologize!!”
This event might actually be pretty fun.
A grin crept onto my lips.
* * *
The whole story seemed to be something like this.
The exciting third-year magic-combat final exam.
Naturally, the overall supervisor was the department chair, Kararov, and true to Kararov, the exam was insanely brutal.
Thanks to the nobles' somewhat justified complaints about how brutal the exam was, a rule was added that one flag would be handed out at the beginning.
And.
“You took back all of those flags!”
“But why is that my fault?”
For some reason, almost all that came to me were victims.
I didn't know whether it was because I'd robbed so many people or because only the victims were actually making it through, but.
Still, I was wronged too.
“I'm a victim too! I didn't even know what a flag was!”
At first I responded like this.
But it got more and more fun, so from the middle on I started enjoying it too.
First I took out the cloak I'd bought at the school market and the clothes Aris had left with me before, and put them on.
Then, in a deliberately solemn voice.
“Actually, I was really the hidden examiner.”
When a somewhat innocent-looking senior girl came in, I started my pitch.
Honestly, I wondered whether she'd even fall for it.
My current appearance was short, and nowhere near mature.
But Leokan's impact had apparently been bigger than I'd expected.
The senior with sapphire-colored eyes was fooled very easily.
“Th, th, that's...!”
“Did you really think you could just rake in points for free like that?”
Heh heh.
Yeah, yeah. No freeloading. Of course, I was freeloading on the exam itself, though.
And on the grades too.
“Still, isn't this too much!”
Apparently not convinced I was really the examiner, she began protesting to me.
“Wasn't this lower in severity than the event you joined with the top ranks?”
“That may be so, but... still, so suddenly...”
“Is there a problem? Then go complain to Professor Kararov.”
“P, Professor Kararov...?”
If I seemed to be losing the argument a little, all I had to do was bring up Kararov's name.
The third-years would jump at nothing more than hearing Kararov's name.
Kararov. When he made exams hard, he was nothing but an infuriating bastard, but as an ally, he was reassuring.
Of course, whether Kararov actually considered me an ally was another matter.
* * *
As a result of having toyed with roughly seven people.
“That's enough.”
During the break, I was hauled off to the administrative building.
And then I was made to stand before the professors, Kararov included, with both hands raised.
Isabel was laughing at me, and the other professors were staring as if wondering what kind of person I was.
Damn it.
I got caught.
“No, I got ratted out!? You senior bastards, I'll never forget this grudge...”
“Quiet.”
“Yessss.”
Just you wait.
Kararov let out a sigh.
“I knew you had gone into the third-years' exam and taken back the flags.”
Hmm.
So I'd been caught. That much.
“Thanks to that, whether they were from the noble faction or whatever faction, everyone took part in the event, and it produced some rather interesting results, so in the end it was a good thing.”
“Then I did a good deed... Gyaaah!!”
“I never told you to impersonate an examiner.”
No, this guy was applying exactly as much load to my arm as I could endure.
It suddenly got a lot heavier.
Still, unlike usual Kararov, it was a relief that it ended with just my arm hurting.
If it had been the usual, he'd have thrown in a brain-melting assignment as part of the package...
“Reverse-analyze that magic circle, jam it, and write up a report too. It's a Type 1 magic form.”
“Yes?”
“Didn't you see it there? Spell jamming. Unless beginner magic had encryption applied to it, you'd have definitely run into spell jamming at least once.”
Isabel, who had been watching from behind, spoke to Kararov.
“...Isn't that too harsh on the student? Kararov. That girl still has to make our potions, too.”
“Isabel. There is nothing harsh about my treatment.”
Isabel weakened the magic on my arm.
“How about we just stop at reverse analysis and Type 2?”
Huh?
That's just fewer variables; there's no difference!
“Umm... I heard Yumia was here, so I came... and... it's about time for the break...”
At that moment, Aris poked her head into the booth.
Kararov pointed at me and said.
“Take her with you. For the record, even if Yumia asks, don't even think about dispelling it with your unique magic.”
“Ah... what kind of trouble did you get up to again!”
Again?
“Aris thinks I'm the culprit too.”
“...Aren't you?”
“I am, but.”
“Sigh. My apologies. I'll take her with me!”
“How am I supposed to get this off!? At least dispel it before you go!!”
I protested to Kararov even as Aris grabbed me and dragged me out.
Of course, none of it worked.
“Do your best.”
And so, thanks to Aris, I got out quickly.
“Ugh, heavy.”
Kararov must have had some sort of eye for detail, because he really set the burden to exactly what I could handle with my own strength.
Thanks to that, my arm had become as heavy as a thousand pounds.
If I swung it around, it'd obviously become a weapon, so I had to sit still and dispel it before leaving.
Hmm.
But this could be applied to combat too.
After all, mass is force.
It'd be useful to learn.
[The mathematician of the magic circle has finished analyzing the magic circle!]
“Spell Jamming, Decasting Domain.”
—KWA-CHAAANG!
“...You dispelled it right away?”
“Why?”
“No... you were putting on all sorts of theatrics inside the booth, weren't you?”
That was just a show.
I had to do it so Kararov wouldn't give me extra work.
“It's an application problem in barrier magic. He deployed a barrier that tracks body parts, and only enchanted my arm.”
Enchanting mass onto the body is basically impossible, or at least difficult.
So Kararov used a trick.
He put a barrier on the body and only applied mass there.
“But the twist was that he set it up so the magic would keep reactivating unless I dispelled the mass enchantment and then the barrier too.”
It couldn't be anything but the conspiracy of a wicked professor.
Well, he probably prepared it so I could watch it over and over in case I couldn't analyze it and write the report after one look.
Aris asked in surprise.
“...You even knew the principle!?”
“Heh heh, I did work hard.”
I put a lot of effort into maintaining the mana-stone generator over vacation.
Naturally, my understanding of barrier magic had improved to a level completely unlike before.
Now I could maintain the generator's barrier all by myself.
“Eek, what are you doing?”
Aris patted my head.
I wish she'd stop, since it messes up my hair.
“No, I just thought you were kind of impressive.”
“How old do you think I am?”
Well, it's not bad.
But come to think of it, doesn't that mean my workload increased in the end?
As I was thinking that, Aris delivered some rather interesting news.
“After the break, the upper-rank seniors are coming in.”
“Oh-ho.”
This time, I was determined to win the seniors over and get something out of them.
I wonder if there isn't a scenario where seniors who have tasted modern goods end up obsessing over me?
According to Robert, rumors were going around the imperial palace lately about catching that spice merchant and bringing him in.
He said even nobles had offered to pay several times the price for him.
“But is there really no useful senior?”
The mana-stone generator had been running itself ragged lately, so I wanted to have it serviced.
But Isabel was busy these days, and taking it all the way to the modern world would take too long.
I didn't have any professors in the Department of Magical Science I was close enough to hand it over to.
Taking it to the magic-tool shop that fitted wands would make the price tags a serious concern.
'If there were a useful senior, I'd want to kidnap them.'
I wished some senior who was decent enough in the Department of Magical Science would walk in.
I wasn't even asking for top rank, so mid-rank would be fine.
So I went back into the booth.
“Uh... er... um... is this... the right place?”
Long light-green hair, with sea-blue eyes peeking through it.
There was something like soot on her face, but it couldn't hide her looks.
“I, I'm Chloe Sellers, the top student of the Department of Magical Science! Junior!! Please take care of me!”
She shouted at me.
“You're hired.”
“Huh?”
A big catch.