Ch.112112 – The Way to School

<112 – The Way to School>

“Charge─!”

I opened my eyes wide and shouted.

What is this?

As I blinked my eyes repeatedly, I realized.

I was talking in my sleep!

Feeling embarrassed, I naturally withdrew my fist as if I was just about to stretch and yawned, but I felt an incredibly sharp gaze.

The baby Mandragora placed on one side of the desk was looking at me pathetically.

“Aah, don’t look at me like that! It’s embarrassing!”

“Waaah.”

The Mandragora’s gaze turned toward the wall.

I wondered what it was looking at, but it was staring at the fist-shaped hole in the wall.

Knock knock knock knock knock

The “Responding Wall” living inside the wall expressed its displeasure by knocking frantically.

“Sorry…”

I don’t know what kind of dream I had, but I vaguely feel like I was happily running wild, beating up this and that.

Perhaps stress had been building up?

“I’ll call the janitor later and ask them to repair it. Really!”

Only after apologizing repeatedly did the knocking sound from the wall stop.

Really? It seemed to be expressing doubt, so I decided to call as soon as possible.

Creak. Thud.

As I stepped into the hallway, the dolphin pants unnies who would normally be outside the main entrance breathing the morning air and preparing for exercise were staring blankly at the entrance.

“Hi, Oknodie.”

“Oknodie, are you just waking up?”

“Look outside. It’s totally insane?”

As the orange-haired unnie said, the area outside the main entrance had become a sea.

You could even see fish swimming in the current because the water had risen higher than the main entrance.

The continuous heavy rain had finally submerged part of the Academy.

“No jogging today, huh?”

“No way.”

“If we go out now, we’ll probably get eaten by a Giant King Crab?”

The knight department aspirant unnies returned to their rooms with disappointed faces or began bodyweight exercises.

“Want to join us, Oknodie?”

The orange-haired unnie asked as the unnies stretched their arms and legs.

“Hehe. I’d love to!”

“Then come over here.”

When she patted the waiting bench next to the main entrance, I quickly sat down, and her delicate hand helped me stretch my legs.

“Now bend your waist and grab your toes! If you’re not flexible enough, you can just lightly touch your toes, or…”

“Like this?”

“Wow! Oknodie, you’re really flexible!”

When I was all muscular, I had given up on flexibility long ago because my body was too bulky, but now I have a baby Nodie body.

Instead of being a Durability Swordmaster who takes all attacks head-on and breaks skulls, I’m aiming to be an Evasion Swordmaster who deflects all attacks, evades, and breaks skulls.

Increasing flexibility for possible movements and range of motion isn’t a choice but a necessity.

“But I think you can go down a bit more? I’ll press your back. Tell me if it hurts!”

A nice fragrance came from the orange-haired unnie as she approached from behind and pressed down on my body.

It was a soft fragrance unique to the female body, different from perfume or soap, making me smile involuntarily.

I even regretted not playing as a female character earlier, experiencing this luxury that couldn’t be felt in a training room full of men.

‘Job satisfaction 100%!’

My energy, which had been depleted from causing trouble with sleep-talking, was fully recharged.

“Oknodie is amazing. Not even a knight department aspirant but comes out every morning without fail to exercise. I really want to take you to our department!”

“I agree!”

“I wish my little sister at home was this brave and obedient.”

They laughed heartily, patted my head, pinched my cheeks, and hugged me with their soft chests that had an incredible presence, making me smile contentedly.

“Alright, I’m in a good mood! Follow me, unnies. I’ll show you something good!”

The unnies chuckled and followed, saying things like “I wonder what cute act she’s going to put on” or “Is she going to show us some pretty pebble she found yesterday?”

Of course, I wasn’t really going to put on a cute act or show them pebbles.

“Do you see how the third-floor windows don’t have curtains but do have curtain cords?”

“Yeah. It’s really strange, right?”

“Right. The third-floor students asked for proper curtain installation, but the dorm supervisor refused.”

“But this is the lower-class dorm area. How does an upper-class student like Oknodie know about this place?”

“Are you here to warn us about the summer glare? How adorable.”

“No! I’m here to show you the correct way to use this cord!”

This cord, at first glance, looks like a curtain cord, but it’s actually an emergency lifeboat caller used in disaster situations.

“This cord can be pulled when certain conditions are met. For some reason, when the first floor of the Academy is completely submerged and you infuse the cord with mana, a transportation method appears. Like this.”

When I pulled the cord, a lifeboat popped out with a “poof.”

A 0/12 indicator appeared above the magically created lifeboat, indicating it was a 12-seater.

“Wow! A mysterious boat suddenly appeared.”

“I was worried about how to get to class, but with this, we can reach the classroom!”

“Oknodie, you’re amazing~!”

I smiled again at the shower of praise coming from all directions.

“But if only students from the same department get on, it’ll be hard to reach the classroom!”

“Whyyy~?”

“Can’t we just go by ourselves~? Let’s take Oknodie with us too. Hmm? Hmm?”

“Ahaha! I’ll explain, so stop tickling me. If everyone has the same job class, you can’t deal with different dangers, right?”

“Different dangers?”

“Like that.”

Monsters that had backed away in surprise at the sudden appearance of the lifeboat seemed quite offended and rushed toward us in a group.

A large carp hit the boat with a body slam, and a Giant King Crab with sturdy pincers punctured the boat and shook it violently up and down.

To top it off, a flying monster that had landed on a nearby tree mistook the deflating boat for prey, grabbed it with its feet, and flew away.

Clack clack clack

The Giant King Crab, carried along into the air, frantically waved its pincers in confusion.

“Ah, it’s falling.”

The Giant King Crab, having lost its grip on the boat, fell with a thud, creating a water column as it plunged into the sea, then rose to the surface creating bubbles.

It was clicking its pincers toward the sky, apparently very angry at the flying monster.

“Spearmen need to block the carps’ body slams, shield bearers need to block the king crab’s pincers, and archers or mages need to catch flying monsters and provide support.”

“…What kind of school commute is as tough as going to a dungeon?”

“I really hate the principal.”

“I’m losing confidence in attending this Academy…”

“But since Oknodie is cute, I’ll let it slide!”

“I agree!”

The brave unnies regained their spirits as they patted my head, and I too was energized by their touch.

This is what you call a win-win!

* *

<Papercompany>, a member of the Red Tooth Mushroom Management Association, came out near the first-year dormitory with a 20-seater boat.

“Is everyone ready?”

“Twelve empty seats, left as planned.”

“We’ll help everyone except those who messed with the fish farm get to school and make them outcasts. Never let the ice magic user or the one with the iron plate on board.”

The second-years’ first strategy for bullying first-years:

Discriminatory school commute strategy!

“We’ll build goodwill with regular first-years while bullying those guys. This way, no matter what we do afterward, public opinion will be that they deserved it, and the first-years will think they’re being punished by seniors for doing something wrong.”

Crime consultant Valocassio suggested a method to capture public sentiment while targeting their victims.

The association members thought it was quite a feasible proposal, so they brought boats out early in the morning to transport first-year students, but something seemed off.

“Aren’t there fewer first-year students standing by the windows than expected?”

“Yeah. Are they all giving up on going to school and sleeping in their rooms?”

“This Academy isn’t lenient enough to cancel classes just because of some rain. These 981st batch kids are so naive.”

The second-years, determined to wake up their foolish juniors, diligently rowed closer, planning to make the first-years row on the way back. However, there wasn’t a single student to be seen in the empty rooms without curtains.

“There’s no one here?”

“What’s going on?”

“Ah, there’s the dorm supervisor.”

One of the second-years knocked on the window of the passing dorm supervisor with an oar, looking dejected.

“What business do second-years have at the first-year dormitory?”

“We came to give our juniors a ride, but we can’t see them. Where did they all go?”

The dorm supervisor looked at them with pity.

“They’ve already gone to school.”

“What?! In these currents?”

“Letting kids drift away in the water, isn’t that too cruel, supervisor?”

“The cruel ones are those first-years with their sticky fingers.”

The dorm supervisor replied coldly.

“To steal my precious pet pebble. I raised it preciously for a year. Ah, François…”

The second-years were very confused.

“François? Did she just name a pebble?”

“What’s wrong with that? A pebble is a harmless and docile pet that doesn’t bother others. I heard one senior elf took a hundred-year-old oak tree as a pet.”

“Then a tree shouldn’t be a problem either.”

“Even if cicadas live in it?”

“…Damn tree-huggers. Just let them show up in front of our dorm. I’ll set them on fire right away.”

“Enough.”

Papercompany, who had gone to the trouble of bringing out a 20-seater boat, felt deflated at the thought of having wasted their effort.

“If there are no students to take, we should head back. It’s time for us to go to school too.”

“That’s right.”

“Sigh. What a waste of effort.”

Just as they were about to sit down with their oars, a boat appeared at the window with a “pop” sound.

“What’s that?”

“I’ve never seen anything like that in all my time at the Academy!”

“There’s magic to create lifeboats too?”

“We went through heavy rain last summer too!”

“But there were no boats like that then!”

The second-years couldn’t hide their bewilderment.

The dorm supervisor spoke to their disgruntled gazes.

“You never asked for a boat.”

“……”

“I wasn’t going to tell the first-years either since they didn’t ask, but they’re unnecessarily perceptive.”

The dorm supervisor grumbled with discontent.

However, more than the supervisor’s complaints, the second-years felt betrayed by the fact that such a convenient means existed but wasn’t revealed to them when they risked their lives to get to school.

“How could this happen!”

“You demon! Fourth-year! Like a graduation project!”

While the second-years were arguing with the dorm supervisor, students climbed down from the window using a rope and landed on the boat.

“Why are you so late? We almost left without you.”

“Sorry. I was preparing for an assignment.”

“Leave the rowing to me, Oknodie.”

“Heh. Found an interesting toy.”

Oknodie, who had delayed going to school and waited, departed with close friends like Isabelle, Hestia, and Zhang.

“Catch them! Let’s grab those guys and ask what’s going on. If they don’t answer, we’ll sink their boat if we have to-“

Papercompany, who was pointing at Oknodie’s boat, blinked repeatedly.

The small child and the large female warrior started rowing, and the boat disappeared beyond sight with tremendous speed, creating a water column.

“How are they so strong?”

“Their rowing speed is faster than ours?”

The left-behind second-years were dumbfounded.