Chapter 126
“By any chance.... How many more people are expected to show up after this..?”
“Ehh. No more?”
“N-no! It’s not that! I just thought it would be nice to know, even approximately..?”
Sujeong unnie was sweating buckets. As soon as Grandpa Galahad’s identity registration was completed, another person appeared, so she had to do the work all over again.
“Hmm, I was wondering about this last time too. What class do you have?”
“My class? Is it okay for me to tell you that...?”
“No, it’s a special class, right? Not a normal one. It should be okay to tell you this.”
“Ah, um….”
Unsure, I glanced at Ophelia, and she nodded repeatedly.
“Ah, yes. That’s right. It doesn’t seem to be a normal class. It’s similar to a Golemancer, but a little different..?”
“I see. A special class.... For now, the Association president instructed us to accommodate you as much as possible. I’ll finish the paperwork as soon as possible.”
“Yay!”
Grandpa Galahad’s ID card was completed, and since Bradamante had already gone through the process once, hers might be made even faster. But Bradamante also has mana, so her Hunter rank needs to be measured.
So she’s in the testing room right now. The problem is, to ride Suri around, she needs to get a license like Ophelia and I did, and I’m not sure whether Bradamante will be able to manage it.
* * * * *
“I could tell right away just by looking. It was covered in the technical manual too, so it wasn’t difficult.”
“Keh.”
But Bradamante took one look and immediately knew what was what, breezing through the written test. No way..! Did she miss a few questions like I did last time, and they just gave her a pass..?!
‘But I got mine that way too….’
“H-how many points did you get?”
“They said I got a perfect score.”
“I-I see.... Bradamante, you’re smart….”
“Gasp..! Thank you for the compliment, Princess!”
They said she didn’t need to take the practical test, so she didn’t. Suri had already been legally recognized as an emergency summon mount when I took the test, and she had received perfect scores in every category, including intelligence and functionality.
“So you’re the original owner of this golem? I’d like to see her sometime, but I’m sure I’ll have plenty of chances later.”
The man who set the test was also an emergency summon mount rider, so he wanted to see the true abilities of Suri, the world’s greatest emergency summon mount. The output we’d seen in the dungeon was merely closer to her original form; it wasn’t as powerful as the actual original.
‘Then just how much stronger will she get..! I’m terrified of my own growth!’
I wasn’t sure if I could really call this my growth, but either way, it was a little strange. Still, she was my golem, so I suppose it counted...?”
“Ophelia, what percentage is Bradamante at right now?”
“I believe she’s around fifty percent.”
“So she’ll become twice as powerful.”
“That is not how it works.”
“Ehh.”
According to Ophelia, her physical abilities, mana capacity, judgment, and everything else would each double, so the closer she got to one hundred percent, the more her output would increase exponentially.
The former Sarap... Ah, no. Should I call it the Invaded Outpost now?
Anyway, apparently the output she showed inside the dungeon was around seventy percent. Is the difference really that huge..? Still, the material costs don’t increase all that drastically, so it seems like we should be able to complete her to one hundred percent right away.
“Unfortunately, that would be difficult.”
“Did we spend too much money?”
“That is not the issue. Your Highness would have difficulty managing subjects whose output is close to that of the original.”
“Gasp, it was my problem..?!
As the Powerless Princess skill rose to B rank, the mana costs of maintaining the golems and enhancing them had steadily become more efficient.
But we were still nowhere near capable of maintaining knights who were close to the original. My total mana had increased, and I used it more efficiently, but it was still impossible.
“Should I take a look at my status window for the first time in a while..?”
[ Status Window /Name : Eve
Age : 10 / Gender : Female
Class : {Princess of the Fallen Kingdom}
Rank : A
Skills : {Golem Creation : EX}, {Powerless Princess : B}, {Command Issuance : S}, {Summon : A} ]
“Mmm….”
Unlike the unimpressive F-rank status window I had before, my ranks had risen quite a lot, to B, S, and A. Command Issuance in particular was an S-rank skill that almost nobody else possessed, and yet I was still far from sufficient.
Are these skills actually kind of bad..? After all this, shouldn’t I be completely overpowered by now?
“Sigh, I still have a long way to go.”
“If anyone can do it, Your Highness certainly can.”
“Hehe, you think so?”
“That’s right, Princess! You’ll definitely do it!”
“Heehee.”
I mean, I’m incredibly smart and super strong! Of course that’s a given! Just who could possibly stop me?!
* * * * *
“Eve, can’t you just not go?”
“I don’t think I can….”
“Hurry and tell the teacher you’re sick. Stay with us.”
“S-sorry.... But I have to go….”
But my classmates are kind of scary. The delinquent clique in particular is really scary.
“Yisol, Minseo, are you bullying Eve again?”
“We’re not! Eve likes me, right~?”
“R-right….”
They say you learn social skills at school. I didn’t understand it when I first started going, but now I think I’m beginning to get it. Sometimes, even when you don’t really feel that way, you still have to answer as if you do….
Still, the ultimate boss of the Yoo Choa cartel is Choa. When Choa grabbed my wrist and tried to drag me away, Yisol and Minseo obediently gave me up.
“Eve, let’s go.”
“Ah, okay. Sorry, Yisol and Minseo..! I’ll be going..!”
“Bye~ Don’t trip on your way there~”
Today was theory class, so I didn’t need to change clothes, and there wouldn’t be any physical activity. I could just sit there like in a regular class, except the Yoo Choa cartel wouldn’t be there.
It’s not like they mistreat me or anything, but I guess they’re difficult to get close to. I’m not an elementary schooler, after all, so maybe it’s hard for me to befriend them. I’m way too mature, you know? I’m really different from an actual elementary schooler.
“Eve, how was the Inpo investigation?”
“Huh? What?”
“The Invaded Outpost investigation. You were on the investigation team, right? Was it okay?”
I’d been back at school for several days, but I hadn’t brought this up even once. Preliminary dungeon investigations came with all sorts of confidentiality clauses, and since I hadn’t looked over my contract in detail, Ophelia had said it would be better not to answer questions just because someone asked.
“It was.... Really difficult..?”
“Really? You had such a solid lineup, and it was still difficult?”
“Well.... Yeah.”
“Did you manage to do anything impressive?”
“Me? Hmm.... Probably?”
“Really? Hmm~ So you’re strong after all?”
Choa narrowed her eyes as she looked at me and stared intently, going hmm~. Did I do something wrong, by any chance….
“I heard you completely blew off Uncle Hyeok-seon?”
“Huh?! How did you know….”
“Didn’t I tell you that my mom is in Orders’ First Raid Team?”
“Right.... You did say that.”
Thinking back, I vaguely remembered. I think Choa had said that her mother was a healer in Orders’ main raid team.
“I’m sorry….”
“What are you sorry to me for? Apparently that guy muttered about it all day. Mom even told him he was being noisy.”
“Really..?”
Maybe I’d gone too far. Thinking about it, I hadn’t actually done anything that serious. Still, was refusing to take a business card really such a terrible thing?
As we walked and chatted for a while, we arrived at the Hunter Class theory classroom. It was in a separate location from the building used by ordinary students, and the students there seemed relatively tall, with far more upperclassmen around.
There were far more older people among the Awakened, after all. The ordinary building I used was filled with nothing but elementary schoolers.
“Wh-whoa….”
I didn’t know whether they were middle or high schoolers, but the intimidation they gave off as they swept past was no joke. When you’re an elementary schooler, the scary ones are middle and high schoolers, not adults. I could probably beat them in a fight, but that was beside the point.
There were more theory classrooms than auditoriums, packed closely together, so I could run into Awakened students from other Hunter Classes as they passed by.
“Hey, isn’t that her?”
“Yeah, it is. Is this the first time we’ve seen her in person?”
But every time I walked by, the other students whispered while looking at me. They weren’t badmouthing me; they just seemed fascinated to see me.
“Eve’s really famous.”
“No, I’m not that famous.... Hehe….”
“You really can’t hold back your laughter, can you?”
“Gasp.”
ㅡRrrrk….
The second-year high school students and a few other upperclassmen had already arrived in the A-Class classroom. The classroom was newer than the ordinary student building and had much better facilities. The old school’s ordinary buildings were already equipped extremely well, but this place was even better.
Apparently the building had been completely destroyed once three years ago. Maybe some students had gotten into a fight, or maybe someone had used a skill they couldn’t control properly. Either way, it seemed something happened every now and then. Still, I heard the building was so sturdy that nobody had died or anything like that.
“Choa, Eve! Come on in~!”
“Hi, unnie~”
“Hello….”
Choa had started speaking informally with the other upperclassmen too. It seemed like she’d gotten really close to them while I was away on the dungeon investigation, so I felt a little left out. That was just how I felt, though; everyone was very kind.
“You’re here. Eve.”
“Uh, ah.... Hello..?”
“Yeah. Hi.”
Isana unnie was there too, and it looked like she had even more bandages on her arm today. Hadn’t she said her ability was some incredibly powerful magic that deleted the very concept of wounds?
But why did she keep walking around with bandages? I didn’t know, but if I brought it up, I felt like Isana unnie might not speak a single word to me until graduation, so I didn’t want to ask.
‘Wait.... Wouldn’t that be a good thing, then..?’
But I’m a good person, so I can’t do something that mean.
And I don’t know whether it was part of her persona or what, but she always seemed to sit in that slightly bizarre pose. Honestly, wasn’t it a little uncomfortable? Still, it wasn’t any of my business.
“Sana~ If you sit like that, your panties will show~”
“Ngh….”
But Yeonwoo unnie wasn’t having any of that. The greatest enemy of chuunibyou wasn’t grown adults, but upperclassmen who had already experienced their own second year of middle school. After taking a verbal hit from Yeonwoo unnie, Sana unnie carefully lowered the leg she’d propped on the chair.
“Ha Yeonwoo.... Witch of Curses….”
‘Wow.... That’s so embarrassing.’
Then Sana unnie began muttering something to herself.
“The chest, swollen by overdeveloped femininity, offers no benefit in combat. In the distant future, it will become a major hidden danger on a battlefield drenched in blood….”
Honestly, I didn’t want to hear the details, but I was sitting close enough to hear her muttering to herself. I glanced sideways at her a few times, then accidentally made eye contact with Sana unnie.
“Eve, you have a body specialized for combat.”
“Uh.... Yes?”
“It’s also called a tactical size. With a smaller target area, you’ll be able to protect yourself effectively from the enemy’s concentrated fire.”
“I-I see….”
“As expected, you’re the same kind as me.”
Please don’t lump me in with you.