Kapitel 47: Chapter 45: Preparations Underway
Did ya think some sort of flag had been raised, huh? Well, NOPE! You can stop hoping right this second! 'Sup! Ellize here!
My birthday festival had ended without a hitch, and I was back at the academy. Nothing of note had happened after I received a present from Verner either. We'd simply walked through the streets while commenting on how the city had changed in recent years. There weren't even any restaurants in this country, so it wasn't like there was anything to do besides walk around and watch the others enjoy snowball fights.
In case you were wondering why there weren't any restaurants, well...obviously it was because people used to starve not so long ago. The Bilberrian people used to pile up the bodies of those who'd died of starvation in the streets. Winter used to be especially dreadful. Assuming a family had five children, they'd lose two on average during the winter. Some also resorted to selling or abandoning their kids to have fewer mouths to feed. How could anyone open a restaurant under such circumstances? Food was much more precious than money in those times, and anyone would eat whatever they managed to get their hands on.
The situation had gotten a lot better thanks to the introduction of potatoes, but people still couldn't waste resources to open restaurants—they were focused on getting through the winter.
Anyway, the winter holiday was over, and it was time for the third semester to start. Four-Eyed Pervert, who'd eventually been caught by the guards, had been released and allowed to return to the academy to teach.
They should've kept him in jail.
The third semester was supposed to be the climax of the game.
The first major event was the school-wide martial tournament. In the game, it was a pretty important moment. At this point, Ellize was out of the picture and Eterna had taken back her rightful place as the saint. However, the saint's guard was severely understaffed, mostly thanks to Ellize.
In the game, she'd used to kick out everyone but the yes-men that let her get away with everything—Viscount Fox, for instance, had long since been driven out of her guard. As a result, the saint's guard was mostly composed of weak-ass rotten knights who just happened to hail from decent families. Ellize also had a liking for handsome men, and she'd tended to pick them for their looks.
(By the way, since I chose them based on their abilities, the members of my current guard were completely different.)
Anyway, Eterna obviously hadn't been able to trust Ellize's shitty guards, so she'd demoted them all—minus Layla—to the position of regular knight. That left only one person in her guard. Even with Ellize out of the picture, Eterna couldn't bring herself to trust the current knights. As far as she was concerned, they'd supported Ellize for far too long. Instead of picking out new guards from their ranks, she declared that she'd appoint the four best-ranked students.
Verner was a compulsory pick (if you messed up the fights and ended up ranked lower than fourth place, it was game over), but if you were close enough to Eterna and got first place, you could snatch Layla's position from her and become the head of Eterna's guard. If you were going for Eterna's route, ranking first definitely made your life easier.
However...this stuff only pertained to the game, obviously.
At the moment, the saint's guard was far from lacking in manpower, and I wouldn't add any students to it even if they performed well.
It wasn't like this tournament would be useless, though. It'd still have an impact on the students' future, obviously. Besides, I needed to find skilled students to carry out my anti-teleportation plan. This would be a good opportunity to see them at work and pick out talented people.
That said...I probably needed to rethink the whole anti-teleportation plan. Why, you ask? Because it only made sense back when I'd thought I wouldn't be able to find the witch if she teleported. And it just so happened that I'd gotten my hands on a certain turtle that could see what happened throughout the world in real time.
The best course of action would probably be to protect Eterna's village to avoid triggering a bad ending and allow the witch to teleport. She'd weaken herself all on her own; I'd just need to ask Profeta to find her for me afterward. It sounded like the perfect plan, right?
I was currently on my way to the pond to ask our resident turtle what he thought about it.
"I could certainly do that," Profeta said after I'd explained my plan. "No matter where she goes, I should be able to find her."
The little me inside my heart struck a triumphant pose. All righty! My biggest headache is gone!
If I could track the witch down, there was no need to create a magic vacuum or to put Verner and the others in harm's way. I could take care of everything on my own. As long as I could get my hands on her, the witch was done for.
I couldn't go as far as she could in one go, but I also had my own teleportation spell—Festina Lente. Even if she fled to the end of the world, I could get to her.
The turtle just had to rain on my parade, though. "But there's one exception," Profeta added. "I can't see through what you call 'barriers.' You put one up every night before going to bed, don't you? I've never been able to see what you've been up to when you do."
Right. I'd already deduced that. As expected, the prophet wasn't all-seeing. I was pretty happy about that, since it meant I still got to have some sort of privacy.
Layla—who'd been standing next to me the entire time—didn't seem so pleased. "Prophet... Do you mean to say that you've tried to peek into Lady Ellize's bedroom during the night? Even if you're the prophet, I can't condo—"
"H-Hang on! Calm down! I'm a turtle! A female turtle! I have absolutely no interest in humans, let alone girls!" the turtle explained in a hurry. "Hey, Ellize! Do something about her!"
Was Scotterbrain seriously out to kill Profeta? The turtle could predict the future and seemed pretty damn worried...
Scotterbrain, stay. We don't want the turtle to hate us and stop cooperating.
I stopped her with my hand, and Scotterbrain lowered her fist at once. She continued to glare at the turtle, though.
Still, I was pretty surprised. The turtle was female, huh? I was totally convinced she was a dude this whole time!
Profeta sighed. "What a hot-tempered young lady... Putting that aside, I simply meant to tell you that I can't see everything. If the witch is also able to put up barriers, I could lose her. So I don't think making her teleport on purpose is such a good idea. As I see it, the first thing the witch will do after teleporting is try to conceal herself so that you won't be able to get to her again. If she chooses to use a barrier to do so... Let's just say you'll be in a pickle."
"Can't you estimate where she'll teleport?"
"It's not impossible, but there are quite a few places she could choose. I couldn't be certain. It's a risky bet."
I was so sure I'd found a foolproof plan, but in the end, it was a bust.
Dang, Alexia's wussy tendencies are starting to get on my nerves! A runaway boss has to be the most annoying thing in existence. Don't you know bosses are supposed to sit on their fancy thrones and wait for you to invade the castle?! What kind of boss has her luggage packed just in case she needs to vanish in the middle of the night, huh? You're so freakin' lame, Alexia!
"So this means I shouldn't change my plan...right?" I asked, just to confirm.
"Indeed. You should finish things right here, in this academy. Try to stop her from teleporting. I'll be here to help out if worse comes to worst and she does escape."
In the end, I couldn't change my plan. That was just how life was—sometimes you thought you had a great idea, but things didn't work out the way you'd hoped.
There was so much I could do, and yet when push came to shove, I had to rely on others to do the job for me. It was kind of pathetic, really...
I guess the least I can do is to get them some good quality equipment...
◇
I'm sure it won't come as a surprise, but Verner and his friends monopolized the top ranks of the tournament. Our main character came in first position, followed by Aina, Marie, and Eterna in that order. Fiora and what's-his-face had also managed to make it to the top eight. Their exact ranks were slightly different from last time, but that had all come down to luck. Marie had faced off with random dude in the quarterfinal before ending up against Verner in the semifinal. That was how she'd missed second place.
Eterna had grown a lot ever since the last tournament, and she'd only lost to Aina by a hair's breadth.
Thus concludes my not-so-detailed report of the martial tournament. I wish I had more to say, but I really don't. Verner and his pals were just much stronger than the rest, so they won. The end.
Anyway, after the tournament, I invited the top eight to my room. I intended to train them and task them with the important job of tiring the witch out.
To be fully honest, I wanted to gather a larger group of students and/or teachers, but the turtle had warned me not to. If too many of them headed down to the basement at once, the witch would never believe they'd simply gotten lost and she'd risk fleeing.
How about you stop chickening out first chance you get, Alexia?
Besides Verner and his friends, there were two students I wasn't very familiar with. One of them was a burly third-year called Crunchybite Dogman.
Is it just me, or does his name make him sound like the kind of character that gets hyped up by the author when they first appear on-screen, only to end up doing absolutely nothing?
The other one was also a third-year who wore a super suspicious-looking hooded robe that covered their face...
Wait a sec.
"What are you doing here, Mister Supple Ment?" Layla asked.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm a third-year student who just participated in the tournament. My name is Tom Toy," Four-Eyed Pervert said, concealing his face with his hood.
Yeah, you're not fooling anyone.
I had no idea how he'd made it into the tournament. Are the teachers in charge of the tournament blind or what? Ah. Come to think of it, he was the one in charge of organizing the tournament.
"O glorious saint! Please bestow upon me the weapon you promised to the best-ranking students! A weapon made with your own two hands..."
Promising a reward to the winners had somehow backfired on me.
Before the tournament started, I'd told the students I'd reward the top eight with hand-crafted weapons. I'd hoped it would motivate them, and since I intended to ask them to help me out with the witch, I figured it was only natural to give them a little gift for their trouble.
I didn't want to force anyone, and I intended to give them the option to refuse, but...in this world, it was pretty much impossible to say no if the saint asked you for help. Especially if what she wanted was for you to fight against the witch.
In the game, Ellize had continuously used that to her advantage to ask for ridiculous things.
The academy existed for the sole sake of nurturing knights who would then go on to serve the saint. If the knights-to-be refused to help out the saint, then why were they even here?
I knew full well that they'd have a hard time refusing, so I wanted to prepare a little gift for them—if only to ease my guilty conscience.
I'd never expected things would turn out like, uh...this, though.
Oh, well. Maybe it's for the best. I get to involve one less innocent student. At the very least, I don't feel the slightest bit bad about involving this pervert.
"Are you an idiot? There is no way we'd let a scoundrel like you get away with—"
"It's all right, Layla. I don't mind."
I felt bad for the student who'd lost to him, but at the end of the day, it meant that Four-Eyed Pervert was stronger. He'd have a better chance of making it out alive if he faced the witch.
Besides, if I complained about him now, I'd end up with one less fighter. It was better to accept the situation and make do with this.
Four-Eyed Pervert was one of the bosses in Kuon no Sanka. He is strong.He even had two phases. His first phase was so easy to beat that it wasn't even worth mentioning, but his second phase—during which he merged with a giant golem—was pretty strong, I had to give him that. He technically shouldn't have been able to do something like that, but they'd justified it in the original story by saying that his love for the saint had made him stronger than ever.
Anyway, my point was that Four-Eyed Pervert was strong enough to hold his own against Verner and his friends—when he was cornered, at least.
"Layla, if you please."
"At once."
Layla opened the box that had been set on the floor next to me. It was filled to the brim with ores and metal.
The last time I'd made a sword for Verner, I'd rushed and used soil. Today, I'd give it my all.
I held my hand out toward the box and started merging the materials together with earth magic, turning them into a sturdy alloy. I'd tried out quite a few alternatives, but in the end, this had been the best alloy I'd found in terms of toughness and solidity. Still, I had no clue what the alloy I'd just created was supposed to be called. I'd used ores and metals that didn't even exist on Earth, after all.
Since I have carte blanche, I'll go for a cringy name! From now on, this alloy shall be known as...orichalcum! Now that that's out of the way, let's make some orichalcum weapons.
I made one for each of the seven students + Four-Eyed Pervert. While I was at it, I made one for Layla as well. She had a perfectly good sword she'd received as proof of her status as the head of my guard, but she wasn't using it these days. I figured it couldn't hurt.
(2.5k word count)
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein