Ch.102102 – Friends Doing Homework

# 102 – Friends Doing Assignments

There are many obligations in this world.

The obligation of students to follow academy rules.

The obligation of freshmen not to wander around late at night.

The obligation of students to diligently complete assignments.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to fulfill all obligations simultaneously.

“How am I supposed to follow the rule about not wandering around at night when my assignment requires setting up targets 50m, 100m, 150m, and 200m away?”

Zhang was full of complaints.

Hitting targets wasn’t difficult at all.

She had practiced throwing techniques at fixed distances with her master until she was sick of it.

She could hit targets with her eyes closed, while shooting through windows, or even while jumping from tall buildings or high trees.

The problem was that she couldn’t find suitable targets indoors, and once thrown, she had to go retrieve her throwing knives.

‘Looks like I won’t be getting to bed early tonight either.’

Her master had warned that staying up late would stunt her growth, and had urged her to get proper sleep once she entered the academy.

It seemed her title as the third shortest student among the 981st class would remain for a long time.

“Hey. Have you seen Oknodie?”

“Haven’t seen her.”

“Really?”

“I’ve been watching the lounge entrance because I didn’t want to study. I’m certain.”

“Thanks. As a reward, I’ll give you my fish portion when they serve it in the cafeteria.”

“Wow! How nice!”

According to Zenya, the nimble-bodied but dim-witted cat beastkin, Oknodie hadn’t returned to their room.

Considering that Oknodie was also taking the “Ranged Weapon Mastery” course like herself, this was quite meaningful information.

‘So she’s doing her assignment outside before coming back?’

Oknodie knew surprisingly many things about Gift Academy.

Now she knew the source of that knowledge.

The Room of Wisdom where seniors had left their knowledge on double-sided sticky notes.

A secret place that could only be entered at specific times and locations.

The Room of Double-Sided Notes.

‘There must be hints there.’

She couldn’t read and memorize all the notes due to their sheer volume, but it was the only place to find secrets hidden within the academy.

2:22 AM.

She was waiting for that time while throwing knives at targets she’d set up on trees outdoors.

Tap tap tap!

“Stop right there!”

“Unauthorized escapee! If you don’t return to the dormitory immediately, we’ll multiply your penalty points tenfold!”

A student was being chased by security guards.

Someone who had been caught trying to sneak out of the dormitory after curfew.

‘How clumsy.’

If you’re going to sneak out, at least hide properly.

If you get caught, at least run away effectively.

The student was being chased by guards because of their incompetence in every aspect.

Zhang was about to dismiss them with contempt, but when she saw the fugitive’s face in the streetlight, she changed her mind slightly.

She jumped down from the tree, hid in nearby bushes, and when the fugitive passed by, grabbed their arm and pulled them into the bushes.

“Ugh!”

“Shh. Be quiet. You don’t want to get caught, right?”

While Zhang covered the fugitive’s mouth and kept them quiet, the guards ran past.

“Morb, right?”

The fugitive was indeed Morb.

The student who had received an enormous number of penalty points along with Oknodie in the “Ranged Weapon Mastery” course.

“And who are you?”

“Oknodie’s friend.”

“Thanks for helping. I had an urgent assignment but the instructors wouldn’t let me out, so I snuck out and this happened. What a bunch of jerks.”

Zhang examined Morb carefully.

“Hmm.”

“What is it?”

“Strange. Oknodie usually likes strong people.”

“Ugh. I know I’m weak.”

“Are you good at cooking?”

“I can make fried eggs.”

“Do you treat people to meals often?”

“My points are depleted. I only eat once a day.”

“Strange. What did Oknodie see in you to value you so highly?”

Titosoga might be a coward, but he’s wealthy.

You can tell just by the ridiculous treasures he carries around, like that spotlight.

She herself is skilled.

That’s why Oknodie has no reservations about associating with her.

But Zhang knows.

Oknodie is strangely indifferent to students who are neither wealthy nor strong, and while she might respond when spoken to, she never shows interest in associating with them.

‘She must sense it unconsciously? The value of others.’

Assassins are trained that way.

To instantly determine whether a target can be killed easily, requires preparation, or is extremely difficult.

Training to instinctively assess an enemy’s strength and assassination feasibility.

‘Cooking skills and wealth. Among those Oknodie would associate with despite being able to kill them anytime, there were only two exceptions.’

Morb didn’t fit either of those exceptions.

A true exception among exceptions.

That’s why it was strange.

What did Oknodie see in this boy?

He looked ordinary and his skills were ordinary too.

“Ah! Now I remember. You also take the ‘Ranged Weapon Mastery’ course, right? Not with a bow but with throwing knives.”

“You just remembered now?”

“Sorry. You even spoke to me after the race last time, but I was too exhausted to remember clearly.”

“Your memory is ordinary too.”

“Ouch. Sorry for being ordinary. Anyway, thanks for saving me. I need to do my assignment, so I’ll be going.”

If there was anything worth noting, it might be his seriousness.

“It’s a waste of time.”

Zhang tried to provoke Morb.

“Talented people like Oknodie or me might manage, but someone ordinary like you won’t be able to complete an assignment requiring 1000 points for each distance, no matter how hard you work all night.”

“Maybe so. But I still have to try.”

“Why? Even if you fail the assignment, you’ll just get a few penalty points. Weren’t you last in the previous race? Haven’t you already received enough penalties?”

Morb’s score was already beyond salvation.

It was pathetically at the bottom.

“If I give up because of that, then it means I’m accepting that this is all I’m capable of.”

“Huh?”

“I know. I know how the instructors, friends, and everyone else looks at me.”

Morb wasn’t being stubborn out of ignorance.

He was desperate precisely because he understood.

“But one person believed in me.”

“Oh?”

“That person is more amazing than anyone else I know.”

“That would be Oknodie?”

“Don’t tell Oknodie. It’s embarrassing.”

“Do you have a crush on her?”

“No! I just don’t want Oknodie to be ridiculed and mocked because of me.”

Morb remembered.

“During the last race, some seniors watching us said things like, ‘Even the top student in Group A isn’t much,’ and ‘People from the frontier will always be frontier trash.'”

“What annoying jerks.”

“It was because of me. Oknodie got those insults because she backtracked to help me when I fell behind.”

Someone taking abuse in your place.

If asked what the worst way to make a man feel miserable was, Morb would point to that moment as one of the most infuriating experiences of his life.

“They said Oknodie fell back to help someone like him? I don’t want to give people a reason to say such things. That’s why I absolutely cannot give up on this assignment.”

“How boring. Your story is so ordinary and dull it makes me yawn.”

Zhang wiped away a tear and strode forward.

He had no choice but to accept her dismissal.

As Morb gave a bitter smile, Zhang spoke to him.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”

“Coming… where?”

“A place where freshmen can train without worrying about instructors even late at night. I think we might be able to find it.”

There are two types of people in the world.

Those who take assignments lightly and those who treat them as missions to be completed at all costs.

Assassins are the latter.

Because if they fail to eliminate their target, they themselves will be eliminated.

With such principles, she despises lower-class students who aren’t serious about everything.

-This is impossible. I’m giving up.

-Let’s go get something to eat.

-I saw on the way here that we can borrow cards from the store. Let’s play card games.

These are people who would abandon even a simple archery assignment.

Could they complete a mission where their lives were at stake?

Not a chance.

Once a dropout, always a dropout.

Yet the dropout before her was desperately trying to be the latter.

‘I think I understand a little. Why Oknodie acknowledges this guy as a friend.’

At 2:22 AM.

Zhang entered the Room of Double-Sided Notes and obtained the information she wanted.

“Come on, follow me. There’s a secret training ground in the Magic Building.”

“A-amazing. You can enter buildings without making a sound.”

“Ha. Don’t be impressed by something so trivial. It’s provincial.”

Despite her grumbling, Zhang looked back every ten steps to make sure he was following properly and not falling behind.

Morb’s heart swelled with determination in response to her consideration.

“Hm? You’re… from Group C, right?”

“…A night date?”

“No way! We just came to train. What about you?”

Near the entrance of the Magic Building, by the window.

Cassia, covered with a blanket, locked eyes with Zhang.

Zhang was surprised.

Not just anyone could easily meet her assassin’s gaze.

Even instructors sometimes turned away when they accidentally made eye contact with her.

Yet this girl, Cassia, held her gaze without wavering, to the point of stirring her competitive spirit.

“Just. It’s comfortable here.”

“What a strange person.”

Comfortable my foot.

The chair was uncomfortable and her muscles were tense.

It was a place where you couldn’t sleep even if someone paid you to.

There was even an instructor with killing intent behind her.

If someone told her to sleep in such a place, she’d reach for her dagger first.

It was an intriguing sight.

Oknodie would definitely have interfered.

‘If you don’t want to talk, then don’t.’

But that was it.

She wasn’t Oknodie.

And there was an ordinary boy following her.

Not a good situation for a confrontation.

“You’re quite strong, aren’t you?”

“You’d lose.”

“Let’s have a match sometime.”

“…Hmph.”

Leaving behind the prim girl and the intimidating instructor, they headed toward the entrance of the secret training ground.

“The instructor seems pitiful. Having to sleep uncomfortably next to a student sleeping by the window.”

“She’s more uncomfortable than the instructor.”

“Why?”

“Sigh. Never mind if you don’t understand.”

The secret facility was behind the janitor’s closet door in the student bathroom.

‘They made it quite cleverly.’

Opening it normally reveals an ordinary cleaning supply closet.

But if you channel magic in a specific pattern through the magic pass?

The entire closet pulls out, revealing an illegally modified training ground.

“Wow.”

As she entered with the amazed Morb, a male student guarding the entrance looked at them with disbelief.

“How is it that three freshmen have found the secret training ground in just the second week after enrollment?”

Beyond the astonished man, Oknodie, who had been shooting arrows at targets, waved her hand.

“Wow! It’s Zhang and Morb! How did you find this place?”

“I found it using the notes. That’s what you did too, right?”

“Y-yeah! That’s right! Hehe.”

Liar.

If she didn’t use the notes, how did she find this place?

It’s really impossible to lose interest in her.

A smile crept onto Zhang’s face.