Chapter 85
The four of us were on our way to School Market when I kept hearing whispers from beside us.
“Look over there. A student was attacked by a dragon, and apparently they're the top first-year.”
“But apparently they've been a delinquent from the start?”
“They were even seen stumbling around drunk…”
There were first-years and seniors alike.
I looked in their direction and said one thing.
“What are you looking at, you bastards?”
“What!? As expected of a commoner, they don't know any manners.”
“They really are a delinquent!”
“What does that even have to do with anything?”
I nearly took out my wand, but restrained myself.
“I'm a person with culture and refinement, after all.”
“Culture and refinement, my ass… Urgh.”
Robert cleared away the noise I was making and asked,
“Isn't there any convenient magic?”
Mana bullets hurt when they hit, after all.
A sword weighed about as much as a decent club too.
Maybe I should bring a giant squeaky hammer next time.
“There is a spell called Sound Bomb. It creates a weak, wide explosion in front of you.”
“Ooh.”
“I'll teach you later.”
“Yay.”
“Let's head to School Market for now.”
Aris climbed into the carriage as well, and we set off a little later.
* * *
“Aaaah! Please don't do this!”
“You're not handing it over? Do you need a beating to come to your senses?”
School Market really was fun.
“Hey, cut it out. He's still a student from another school. Teach him a lesson and let him go.”
“No, he started it by taking my wand and playing around with it!”
A burly, delinquent-looking Lunaris student snatched the wand I'd been spinning and playing with.
That was how the incident began.
‘Hey, pretty girl. If you want this back, come play with me.’
‘What?’
‘You came out because you've got time to kill, right? I know a nice bar around here…’
‘Ozz Caster, Silver Shoes.’
‘Huh, wha!? They disappeared… Urgh!’
I teleported using a spare wand taken from my Inventory.
Then I got behind him, ambushed him, and stripped him of everything down to his underwear.
“You even took my wallet…! Swords are expensive!”
“Then if you beat me in a duel… Gyaaah.”
At that moment, Aris appeared from somewhere and smacked me on the back.
“You mustn't bully the weak! Robert, what are you doing too?”
“No, he bullied me first.”
“It is true that he was the initial aggressor, though.”
Aris looked at the Knight School student, whose eyes were black and blue as he raised his hands and pleaded.
Then she looked at me as if she didn't quite understand.
“Yes?”
“W-well, that's true, but…”
“Just go. I'm feeling generous.”
I tossed him the sword I'd taken.
“Th-thank you!”
The delinquent-looking student took the opportunity to run away.
“The lower ranks really are weak.”
“Ugh, is that a first-year?”
“Yeah. Though I doubt you'll ever meet him in a duel.”
I'm the top student, so they'll pair me with the top student.
It was only natural.
“What on earth are you going around doing…?”
“Still, it's lucky that we ran into an event like this right away.”
“Lucky…?”
Linia said tiredly.
Ah, right. She hated troublesome things.
But a moderate amount of trouble was supposed to add some vitality to life.
“So what are you guys going to do?”
“I have business at School Market's post office. I need to go there. You won't cause any trouble, will you?”
“I'll go too. There should be a letter from my father.”
Hmm.
“Then I'll do something separately as well. I need to find buyers for the goods I brought from Earth.”
Everyone seemed to have something to do.
Was I the only one who came purely to look for something fun?
What a bunch of bores.
“Going alone isn't so bad.”
If anything, going alone was how people like these got drawn to me.
This appearance of mine worked pretty well on people who didn't know me.
That might be one of the good things about changing bodies.
From that perspective, being alone wasn't so bad.
I wandered around like that for about thirty minutes.
“Hmm…”
I wasn't seeing any interesting events.
“Buy something! An artifact essential for this exchange event, only five silver!”
“Isn't it time to replace your protector?”
“Come on, daggers are cheap! Daggers!”
Of course, watching the hawkers was pretty entertaining too.
The street food was quite tasty as well.
“But nothing much is happening.”
Things would be fun if another werewolf-level incident broke out.
Of course, that wasn't going to happen.
Apparently, the previous incident had been the work of demon worshipers.
There was no way they'd try something like that now, with School Market overflowing with powerful people.
A C- to B-rank monster would be instantly minced the moment it was released.
The only remotely notable thing that happened was saving a first-year from Lunaris Knight School who had gotten into an argument with a senior from our side.
“Hey, are you all right?”
“Ah… yes. Thank you.”
“You're a senior, aren't you? I'm a first-year, Philia Trace!”
…Senior?
Come to think of it, I'd been too lazy to wear my cloak when I came out.
I'd threatened a senior with a sword when I drove him away, so the student must have misunderstood.
“…Uh. I'm not…”
“Could you show me your aura!?”
A look of admiration shone in her bright green eyes.
Wow.
She had so much energy. It was draining me.
I should show her quickly and run away.
I wanted no part in fun things that happened like this.
“Here.”
When I drew blue aura from my sword, her eyes widened.
Hmm.
Even I had to admit it looked pretty satisfying.
I'd trained for this for quite a long time, after all.
‘Still, this much should be ordinary at a knight school…’
When I looked to the side,
her sky-blue hair and green eyes were trembling.
“Waaaaaaah!!! This is… at least Rank 3!?”
“That's enough, right?”
“What family are you from? What's your background? With skills like that, you must be near the top of your year…”
“Ozz Caster, Silver Shoes.”
“How can you produce such rich aura? How many stars have you reached in body enhancement… Huh?”
Phew.
* * *
Professor Karnarof's Silver Shoes really was an incredible spell.
I'd experienced its power firsthand.
It could move me several dozen meters away, and it left almost no mana trace behind.
It was the perfect spell for escaping troublesome situations.
I'd complained that it was awkward to use as a movement spell, so I felt a little sorry now.
“What should I do now?”
I muttered that as I chewed on meat skewered on a stick.
Juice spread naturally through my mouth. The outside was crispy, while the inside was tender and moist.
“Hmm. Something's missing.”
The meat itself was wonderfully tender, but it was rather bland.
Once I sprinkled on some lamb-skewer seasoning, it became perfect.
“Kyaa, now that's meat.”
The salty, pungent scent of spices tickled my nose.
This time, I drizzled it with barbecue sauce and took another bite.
There was no way I could go without a beer.
I teleported to the observation deck atop the clock tower that occupied the center of School Market.
Psssh—the ice-cold canned beer let out a hiss.
A salty bite, then I washed it down with beer.
“Phew.”
‘This is why nobles go crazy for spices.’
After eating nothing but plain meat sprinkled with salt, even adding pepper was revolutionary.
But the appeal of spices lay in their variety.
For someone who enjoyed fine food, that pleasure wasn't easy to come by.
As I ate above the clock tower, I spotted some interesting movement somewhere.
Students from our school and students from Lunaris.
‘Looks like they're about to fight.’
I'd finished eating, so why not go take a look?
I threw what I'd eaten into the trash can in my Inventory, then began to glide.
“Riding the Wind.”
The ability to ride the wind.
I'd been using it as a movement skill naturally, but in truth, it felt less like riding wind and more like blending into the air.
That meant I could glide naturally instead of moving at high speed if I wanted to.
I landed on a rooftop near the disturbance, and the students came clearly into view.
One side held wands, while the other held swords.
“Damn it, so you want to do this!?”
“We're the ones who picked it up first!”
“We need potions too!”
“Then give up the magic tools!”
“Let's settle it with a duel!”
“You started this!”
It was an ordinary commotion.
Though it was the sort of fight more commonly seen between merchants than ordinary students.
The goods brought into School Market were limited.
Potions and magic tools weren't things that simply popped out the moment you decided to make them.
Even skilled craftsmen usually needed quite a long time to produce a single item.
‘Of course, I can make them pop out instantly.’
So ordinarily, there was no need to get involved in a commotion like that.
I had more than enough of everything.
Even so, I inserted myself into the middle of it.
I did so wearing a red hat and a mask.
“W-what?”
“Who are you!?”
“If you're here to stop us, get lost! This is a sacred duel!”
I cleared my throat and let the soul of a hunter training-camp instructor possess my body.
I adopted the tone of someone speaking as if the instructor's words alone would determine whether one went to heaven or hell.
“The students of two schools that should be building camaraderie are bickering like this… This instructor is deeply disappointed!”
“What?”
“Just mind your own business and get lost!”
Hmm. I guess I wasn't intimidating enough.
Fine. I'd do what I always did.
“You say you don't know me. Then it is only right that I make you know me.”
“I'm asking who the hell you—!”
“In Code, Bullet, Explode.”
—Fwoooosh!!!
“Kraaaak!”
I put the Knight School senior who had been about to talk back to sleep.
“When did I say talking back was allowed?”
“S-so fast! This skill… He's near the top of his year!?”
“Damn it, what is this attack!? Leon! Wake up!”
He's not dead, you idiot.
I fired a powerful shot at the ground.
I wondered if that was a little excessive, but it focused everyone's attention on me.
“Who are you!?”
“Which school are you from?”
“Wait, isn't that one of our first-years?”
A senior from Reinhart recognized me.
‘Ah, I've been found out.’
Judging by the color of their shoulder patches, they were second-years from Reinhart and Lunaris.
They clearly weren't near the top of their year.
They were roughly middle-ranking seniors.
They were nobles with high mana reserves who had learned basic magic, but they were the type who could use it only by the book.
In other words, they couldn't help but be outmatched by me.
Once I realized that, I spoke to them kindly.
“What's with this talk of a duel? People should know how to resolve things peacefully.”
“What?”
“They were the ones who started it!”
The Reinhart senior protested to me.
“And you, if you're a Reinhart student, shouldn't you be taking our side!?”
Ugh.
But I had logic on my side too.
“Swords and magic aren't meant to be used for things like this. They're honed so we can face our common enemies.”
I used the senior's moment of hesitation to land another blow.
“But what are you doing, senior!? You're standing in front of comrades you should be fighting alongside, and all you can do is squabble over scraps!”
“I-is that so?”
“It might be.”
Peace born from overwhelming force.
Just as the conflict was about to subside, I opened my mouth.
“But, seniors, these goods have to go somewhere, right?”
“That's right, isn't it?”
“We have to secure the supplies ourselves. The artifacts consumed in the tournament are more numerous than you can imagine.”
If I left, the conflict would probably resume.
In that case…
“I happen to know a solution. Would you like to hear it?”
“…What is it?”
“You were ultimately going to decide ownership of the supplies through a duel, right?”
“That's right, isn't it?”
“Then I'll referee!”
“Huh?”
At the seniors' baffled expressions, I shouted,
“Everyone attack me! I'll take the side of whoever beats me!”
“What!?”
Disputes have to be resolved.
Damn right.