chapter_0006

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
6

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
6

That day, Erin was waiting in
front of Lucy’s room, prepared from the early morning as usual.

This was because if Lucy woke
up and Erin wasn’t there, she would nitpick about it for days.

After getting severely scolded
for making Lucy wait for about a minute previously, Erin always made
sure to be out there waiting in advance.

Whether it took an hour or two
hours.

Erin would normally wait until
she heard the bell from inside and then enter the room, but that day
was different.

While Erin was waiting
outside, suddenly, Lucy flung the door open and came out.

At the moment Erin saw Lucy’s
face, she thought; ‘I must not have heard the bell when Lucy rang
it. That must be why she’s come out angrily.’

Erin bowed her head before
Lucy could say anything.

She apologised profusely.

Hoping that her anger would
subside even a little.

But Lucy didn’t scold her.

She simply stared at Erin with
a puzzled expression.

It wasn’t the usual
behaviour of Lucy.

And Lucy’s peculiar actions
didn’t stop there.

Throughout that entire day,
Lucy did several things that she would never usually do.

She didn’t find fault with
anything during meals and ate everything deliciously.

When a maid made a mistake,
she lightly admonished and let it go.

She listened quietly to the
lessons from the teacher. She locked herself in the library and read
a multitude of books.

Because these behaviours
continued, the maids began to wonder if Lucy might have seriously
injured her head.

However, no one believed that
Lucy had truly changed.

After all, someone who had
behaved atrociously for over ten years wouldn’t change in just a
day or two.

Erin thought the same at
first.

But when Lucy’s
transformation continued for three days, Erin started to feel
puzzled.

The other maids, who tried to
avoid Lucy as much as possible, said she was still the same as
before.

Even if she nitpicked less
often, her arrogant attitude and tone remained unchanged.

However, Erin, who was always
by Lucy’s side, believed she was different.

Unlike before, when Lucy was
eager to criticise everything around her, she had learned to take
things in stride.

She scolded less. She got less
angry. She left Erin to her tasks without interference.

She even made remarks that
were close to compliments.

“That’s not bad. For a
sloppy maid, that is.”

Erin could never forget the
moment when Lucy, who used to always complain that her hair was done
wrong, had smiled after her hair was brushed.

Because Lucy had caused so
much trouble, no one believed Erin when she said Lucy had changed.

Even if they did believe, they
were certain the change wouldn’t last long.

But Erin didn’t think so.

When asked for evidence, she
struggled to find the right words, yet Erin believed that Lucy’s
transformation wouldn’t just end after a few days.

“Sloppy maid.”

Erin flinched at the voice of
her lady, whom she had just been thinking about.

“I’m thirsty. Bring me
water and a towel.”

“Yes, my lady!”

Erin handed Lucy the water and
towel she had chilled using the only magic she knew, ice magic.

Lucy momentarily frowned at
the sudden chill but soon wiped her face with the cold towel while
smiling gently.

Erin loved this moment.

Usually, Lucy only wore an
annoyed or irritable expression, but at this moment, she smiled
slowly and genuinely, looking happy.

She’s so beautiful when she
smiles like this.

“Sloppy maid. Why are you
smiling so creepily? It’s disturbing.”

“I apologise!”

But if she’s going to
change, couldn’t she change the way she talks too?

On the morning of the sixth
day since I started running, Benedict suddenly came to see me.

It wasn’t strange for my
father to visit his daughter.

There had been a few times
before when Benedict, who was overly fond of his daughter, had
surprised me by visiting.

“My daughter! Is it true
that you drank all three elixirs in the storage?!”

But the problem was what
Benedict said as soon as he saw my face.

Even though the Allen Family
is a sizable count family, elixirs are precious items.

But what could I do? I had
already swallowed all of it down.

It’s not like I could now
spit out the elixirs that had already permeated my body.

Instead, I shamelessly nodded,
which made Benedict’s eyes widen.

“Really?”

‘Yes.’

“And?”

When I confirmed it again,
Benedict bent down cautiously to inspect my body.

“Are you hurt anywhere? It
must have been extremely painful when you ingested the elixirs. How
did you endure it? And…”

I initially thought he was
going to scold me, but that wasn’t the case. All he did was show
concern.

What?

‘Aren’t you going to scold
me?’

“Father, did you not come
here to reprimand me?”

“Why should I scold you?”

‘The elixirs…’

“Because I consumed all the
elixirs.”

“What’s the big deal about
those elixirs! In fact, I’m proud of you for enduring the pain! You
must have been in great pain, so it’s commendable you handled it!”

‘Then why did you come?’

“Then why are you here?”

“I came to check if anything
was wrong with your body!”

Benedict was a straightforward
person, just like his appearance suggested.

In other words, it was clear
he was a fool completely enamoured with his daughter.

Despite me consuming such
valuable elixirs all by myself, all he had was praise and concern.

Benedict apparently thought
that I had taken the elixirs due to the pressure of the Academy exam,
so he held me and showered me with affectionate nagging.

Telling me not to overexert
myself no matter how worried I was about the Academy exam.

Saying it was okay to fail the
exam.

That my health was more
important than anything else, and so on.

The nagging went on for over
ten minutes, then thirty, and was heading towards an hour. At that
moment, I had to make a decision.

If this continued, I felt like
I would be stuck with this troll all day.

‘Hey. I get it, so could you
please stop now?’

“Foolish father. It’s
annoying. Stop it.”

Oh. I didn’t mean to go that
far.

As I thought about how
embarrassed I felt, I glanced at Benedict’s expression.

His face was as stiff as a
statue.

Even someone who could laugh
off being called a fool or sloppy seemed to be wounded by the word
‘annoying.’

Soon, Benedict stepped back
hesitantly, muttering an apology, and fled somewhere like a hurt
child.

In the end, it turned out the
way I wanted…

I guess I’ll have to
apologise later. It would be troublesome in many ways if Benedict
sulked.

After leaving the mansion, I
went to the Allen family’s training grounds as I usually did these
days. I grabbed my mace and shield and started running around the
outskirts of the training grounds.

Initially, I started running
to stick to the game build, but recently it was different.

I was beginning to enjoy
running.

In reality, it’s not easy to
feel any changes by just running for a day or two.

It would usually take at least
a month or two before you could notice even a small improvement in
your stamina.

But it was different here.
Every day. No, not even every day. Just a couple of hours of running,
and I could feel my stamina improving.

It felt like gaining
experience points and levelling up in a game by hunting monsters.
Running gave me an immediate sense of increased endurance.

People generally dislike
exercise because it’s challenging and changes are hard to perceive.
But here, since I could feel the changes in real-time, exercising
became fun.

After completing my goal of
ten laps and taking a short break, the knight who had helped me on
the day I collapsed approached me.

“Lady Lucy, you’re
working hard again today.”

This knight continued to look
out for me, even after I had given him a cold reply.

I appreciated his
consideration, but to be honest, his behaviour was suspicious.

Why would someone approach
Lucy who had a poor reputation and a difficult personality who never
even thanked him, no matter how considerate he was?

It was impossible unless he
had other motives.

I speculated two
possibilities:

Either this knight had taken a
liking to Lucy, the count’s only daughter, and hoped to turn his life
around, or he was simply a mad masochist who enjoyed being mistreated
by a Mesugaki.

Considering it from a
common-sense perspective, it was unlikely to be the latter. This guy
must be an ambitious person aiming to be the male equivalent of
Cinderella.

There was a faint, faint
possibility that he was just a noble knight, but I didn’t believe
that.

How could an NPC who doesn’t
even appear as a supporting character be a noble and pure knight?

“Your stamina has
improved significantly. As expected of a lady from the Allen family.”

‘Thank you for the
compliment.’

“Is that supposed to be a
compliment?”

My intended words of gratitude
came out confrontational, but having grown accustomed to the language
distortion of the Mesugaki skill, I didn’t even get angry.

“Of course. How could I
mock your passion, my lady?”

Despite my confrontational
attitude, the knight responded with a gentle smile.

He must be cursing me inside,
though. His poker face is impressive. Is this what you need to
maintain if you dream of a life-changing marriage?

No matter how hard he tries, I
have no intention of marrying him.

Seriously. Even if I’ve turned
into a Mesugaki, I have no interest in dating a man.

It’s bad enough that I’ve
become a Mesugaki, but now I’m supposed to date a guy?

I’d rather bite my tongue and
die. Seriously.

Noticing my hostility, the
knight gave an awkward smile and changed the topic.

“My lady, did you know
that the knight order will be entering the dungeon in two weeks’
time?”

“A dungeon?”

The concept of dungeons is a
central element of Soul Academy.

A dungeon itself isn’t much
different from those in other games:

It’s a place where monsters
and treasures await.

They appear and disappear
unpredictably without any specific rules.

If left unattended for too
long, the monsters inside might escape, so they need to be quickly
eliminated.

Dungeons are divided into
levels, and the size and enemies within vary by level.

The unique aspect of dungeons
in Soul Academy is that nobles are responsible for clearing them.

In Soul Academy, dungeon raids
are both a right and a duty of the nobility. Just as they must
protect their people from external invaders, when a dungeon appears
within their territory, the nobles who own the land are responsible
for subduing it.

Of course, they don’t deal
with all dungeons personally.

If the dungeon’s threat level
is low, the rewards inside are also mediocre, so they often hire
mercenaries known as adventurers to handle it.

However, it’s a different
story when it comes to larger dungeons.

When a dungeon of a certain
size appears, the noble must personally lead their private soldiers
to clear it.

Just now, this knight
mentioned that the knights led by Benedict will be entering a
dungeon.

That means a dangerous dungeon
has appeared within the territory.

‘Is it a very dangerous
place?’

“What kind of place is it?
Is it so big that even a sloppy knight like you is trembling?”

“Haha, no. We don’t always
go to dangerous places. High-level dungeons like that don’t appear
often. This time, we’re going to a medium-sized dungeon for
training.”

No wonder he didn’t seem
tense when talking about entering the dungeon.

‘Where is it?’

“Where are you going?”

“You might not know, but
we’re going to a place called Evans. There’s an Unfading* Dungeon
there.” (*Doesn’t disappear when cleared)

‘Evans?!’

“Evans?! Sloppy knight, are
you serious?!”

I stood up abruptly, shouting,
and the knight nodded, albeit looking a bit confused.

There is only one Unfading
Dungeon near Evans.

And I know well about the
dungeon near Evans. How could I not?

Because a Legendary Mace is
hidden there.

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