Chapter 12
“That's incredible..”
Mist was staring blankly at the cave.
The light had already disappeared.
But its echo continued to linger in her mind.
‘To be honest, I was.. a little suspicious of Mr. Bin..’
I knew Bin wasn't strong.
But.. I even had my doubts about whether he was making any effort.
‘Because I couldn't sense any effort from him.’
Bin was far too weak.
And.. even his actions were ordinary.
He even looked fragile.
‘But not everyone can work as hard as I do.’
‘I know Mr. Bin isn't exactly a good person, either..’
Mist looked at Bin with hazy eyes.
In truth, the person I used to be would never have liked someone like him.
No, she would have hated him.
But there was something different about Bin.
Bin wasn't someone she could call kind.
He didn't feel like someone who put in tremendous effort, either.
Still..
But she didn't feel like hating him.
‘I find myself cheering him on.’
Mist looked at Bin.
His face looked utterly miserable.
Why was he making a face like that?
“.. What a fucking world.”
Bin was lamenting his lot.
Hearing that, Mist misunderstood him even more.
‘.. As expected, he has no talent, even though he wants to become stronger, does he?’
‘How painful must a life like that be..’
After saying that, Mist turned away.
His words were.. surprisingly close to the truth,
but this time he was cursing for a slightly different reason.
[Congratulations. You have survived.]
‘How could I not swear after seeing this?’
I sighed.
I didn't even know what the hell this situation was.
‘If this message has appeared, does that mean this is an event that normally occurs?’
‘But there wasn't even an event like this at Mel Academy?’
I'd seen people find all sorts of items during expedition events.
But there had been almost no cases where anyone discovered a dungeon.
At most, it was an Easter egg that was embarrassing to even call an event.
But this causes a hologram like that to appear?
‘.. What kind of situation causes this hologram to appear?’
I would have to think this over.
Of course, not right now.
I raised my head.
Because I sensed someone's presence directly in front of me.
It was Mist.
“Oh, right. Ms. Mist was.. here too.”
When I came to my senses, Mist was standing in front of me, looking at me.
‘She heard me swearing. Did that lower her favorability?’
To keep Mist's favorability up,
I'd been quite careful about my image up to now.
But I was in a hurry, so I used banmal and even swore?
It seemed likely that my favorability had hit rock bottom because of this battle.
My head suddenly started hurting.
Why were there so many complicated things?
But apparently, that had only been my concern.
“You can speak informally to me.”
Huh?
‘.. Giving me permission to speak informally must mean her favorability has risen quite a bit?’
“You can speak the way you did earlier, informally.”
“I'll.. give you special permission.”
No doubt about it.
In the game, the line where she specially granted permission had appeared exactly like this.
This meant her favorability really had increased.
How had this happened?
‘The favorability threshold for allowing banmal should be.. at least a month before this line appears, shouldn't it?’
Not even a week had passed.
There seemed to be something I didn't know.
‘Was acting completely exemplary all the time.. not the trigger for Mist's favorability after all?’
I had no idea.
Whatever the case.. this was good for me.
“Okay.”
“.. As expected.. you're quick.”
I tilted my head.
What was quick?
“I'll.. try speaking informally too..”
Mist looked at me with a slightly flushed face.
Then she blinked.
“Ah! We need to hurry and wake them up.”
I nodded.
In fact.. I was flustered too, so I wasn't sure how to respond.
But.
Would they even wake up if we tried?
—-
“.. What do you think?”
The chairwoman wasn't smiling.
Naia found this fact fascinating.
She didn't seem to be in a bad mood.
She looked.. like a cat that had found a mouse.
She was serious, but.
It felt as though he was nothing more than a toy.
But that fact alone was extraordinary.
To think there was a student capable of holding the chairwoman's interest this much.
“.. That's an interesting way to fight.”
“I know, right? It really is.. interesting.”
The chairwoman slowly licked her lips.
Only one hologram was floating directly in front of her.
“I heard that kid did something interesting in class?”
“How did you know that?”
“Everything that happens at the academy always finds its way to my ears.”
“.. Then don't you know what he did, too?”
“I don't have eyes everywhere, so you'll have to tell me.”
Naia let out a sigh and nodded.
It was extremely easy to explain.
“I assigned them a task to condense mana,”
- Scritch.
“and that guy stuffed mana into a ball, cut it open, and turned it in.”
“.. That's a magic circle.”
“Right?”
“That is a magic circle too.”
“In a broad sense.. yes.”
The chairwoman folded her arms and looked at Bin.
“I've never heard of anyone being able to create a magic circle.. on the spot..”
“Well, anyone capable of doing that would probably be able to use magic on the spot too.”
- Snicker.
The chairwoman laughed after hearing Naia's words.
She was right.
“That makes sense too.”
Rather than laying out tennis balls packed with mana on the floor,
and doing the crazy thing of casting magic over them,
it would be better simply to use a powerful spell.
If it was magic complicated enough to require a magic circle..
it would be difficult to cast it that way,
while if it was simple magic that could be used that way,
one could simply cast it directly.
“He probably used this method because his magic was too weak~!”
The smile returned to the chairwoman's face.
Seeing that, Naia felt a little more at ease.
Because it meant the chairwoman's interest had cooled.
“There'll be no need to watch any more~.”
The chairwoman cleared away the hologram.
—-
“Uwaaahaaam!! I slept well!”
When morning came, Kanghan woke up with a stretch.
And.. the same was true of everyone else.
“.. I slept far too well.”
Mizha opened her eyes and looked around.
Something was strange.
“We've been had.”
Ena said this to the group with a deep sigh.
She had woken up a little earlier than the others.
And she had also realized that their survival was a matter of sheer luck.
“Look over there.”
Ena pointed at two people with her finger.
One was Mist, covered in blood.
The other was Bin, whose entire body was battered like a rag.
The two had fallen asleep leaning against each other.
And three monster corpses had gone rigid right behind them.
Anyone could tell that something had happened during the night.
“Why didn't they wake us?”
“It's not that they didn't wake us; they couldn't. Were they affected by an ability?”
Kanghan furrowed his brow and looked around.
But there wasn't a trace of anyone's presence anywhere.
“.. I don't know.”
Mizha slung her bow over her back and took a step toward the cave exit.
“As for waking those two.. let's wake them a little later.”
“For now, we need to check the surroundings.. I'll check first.”
Mizha said that and briskly walked out.
The people inside the cave began moving as well.
“I'll keep watch.”
Only a few people remained inside the cave,
and the rest began heading outside.
- Chirp. Chirp!
The rain had stopped completely overnight.
Cold air filled the surroundings.
As if.. nothing had happened last night.
That was when it happened.
“.. You're leaving us behind?”
Bin and Mist slowly walked out of the cave.
As he did so, Bin called out playfully.
But there was one person who couldn't take it as a joke.
“Ah, it's not that we left you behind..”
When Mizha tried to explain to Bin, Mist lightly poked Bin from beside her.
“That was a mean joke.”
“.. Was it that bad?”
“Yes.”
Mizha tilted her head at the sight.
Hadn't those two been speaking formally just yesterday?
Of course, Mist was still speaking formally.
But the fact that she'd allowed him to speak informally at all was surprising.
Well.. that wasn't important.
“What happened last night?”
—-
Once everyone had gathered,
I told them about what had happened yesterday.
How everyone had fallen asleep for an unknown reason.
And how three monsters had appeared on top of that.
And how we'd barely held them off,
until I came to my senses and found myself in this situation.
But..
As I explained, I could tell everyone had the same thought.
The real problem was simply that I was weak.
“Hmm..”
“You had a hard time against three monsters..”
“So there really weren't any other enemies?”
“That's right.”
“So Mist held out well against three monsters, but things got difficult because you couldn't finish them off?”
“.. That's right too.”
Ena smiled and put an arm around my shoulders.
“Ahaha! From the way you fought yesterday.. I can see how you must've struggled.”
At Ena's words, everyone seemed to nod in agreement.
Of course, that was only Kanghan and the members of my group, who had fought alongside me—not Mist's group.
‘… So everyone knew I was that terrible at fighting.’
“Come to think of it.. it's amazing you managed to kill them.”
Ena tilted her head and looked at me.
She had watched me fight right beside her.
That was why she knew how pathetic my magic was.
“Hmm.. Did Mist do everything while you did nothing? That.. doesn't seem possible.”
Ena said that and looked at Mist.
Hearing her words, Mist vigorously shook her head.
“No. Even I couldn't defend against three while attacking at the same time. Mr. Bin killed the monsters.”
“Oh, really? How?”
“I don't know much about magic, so it's hard to explain, but.. he.. kept throwing tennis balls, then created a powerful spell.”
“.. Well, it turned out there was a way to survive after all.”
Ena tilted her head after hearing what I said.
Then, after about three seconds, she nodded as if something had clicked.
“Ah~ So, like in that class, you did something amazing again?”
“Something like that?”
“Ahaha!! I can definitely see it. You showed us a lot of unusual things from the entrance ceremony onward.”
Ena sidled right up beside me as if she were enjoying herself.
Then she hooked an arm around my neck like she was putting me in a headlock.
“But if you keep relying only on tricks like that, your actual skill won't improve.”
“I'm worried about that too. Since it isn't the kind of experience that improves your fundamentals..”
Mist and Ena looked at me uncertainly.
I could sense familiar emotions in their gazes.
‘.. If you only freeload, things really do get difficult later.’
In fact, I knew the problems with only freeloading better than anyone.
Even before I fell into this game.
My whole life had been freeloading.
‘Hey, right now you can get good grades by guessing on tests. But you're going to be in trouble later, you know?’
‘If you screw up a Level 1 dive as Pantheon, aren't you just throwing the whole game?’
‘What are you going to do if YouTube fails?’
But.
Did I not know that myself?
Of course, who doesn't know that doing well honestly would be best?
If I had the brains to score 100 on tests, I would've done that.
If I had the mechanics to win games normally, I would've done that.
If I could've gotten a job and made money instead of YouTube, I would've done that.
“Jeez, it's not like I always do this because I want to~”
Since my talent, circumstances, and time had never been available to me,
it was simply something I chose because I had no other choice.
“Well.. I survived somehow, didn't I?”
I sighed and looked into empty air.
Thinking of the hologram that had appeared last night,
all I could do was let out a hollow laugh.
Why was I always put in situations like this?
Did these problems really happen because I freeloaded all the time?
I didn't know.
It was a meaningless question on the level of asking whether the chicken or the egg came first.
One thing was certain.
The truth was, even I..
There are days when I don't want to freeload.