Ch.114114 – The Effect Was Excellent

<114 – The Effect Was Excellent>

The member of the Red Tooth Mushroom Illegal Cultivation Business Association <PaperCompany> was determined to make up for his failure on the way to school.

While the seniors monopolized the Giant King Crabs, they began to monopolize the shellfish that was prey for the freshmen!

“If you want fish, pay points and buy them! Fishing is not allowed!”

“Hey, you with the fishing rod! Put it away or I might cut your line with magic!”

Naturally, the freshmen protested.

“Who are you to monopolize the fish! Do you want to die! I’ll give you a kitty punch nya!!”

Zenya, a cat beastkin who was jumping up and down in anger, and the freshmen who raised their voices with her, put up a cute resistance. PaperCompany responded cruelly.

“Boys, our freshmen want to taste some spice. Give them a lesson!”

“Waves, rise!”

“Water, surge!”

Waves rose on both sides of the 20-passenger fishing boat and crashed through the windows where Zenya and the freshmen were poking their heads out.

“Ahhh! The waves are crashing in!”

“Hold onto the windowsill tight!! If you get caught in the ebb tide, you’ll fall into the water!!”

“Ptooey! It’s too salty nya!!”

PaperCompany and his fellow cultivators laughed loudly.

“Hahaha! At this time of year, freshmen are struggling just to memorize mana patterns and draw magic passes, let alone cast water spells. You can never win against sophomores!”

“If you understand your place, obediently pay points and buy fish. And tell us who the ice mage is!”

“Also tell us who owns the grill that stir-fried my mushrooms! I’ll give you one fish for free!”

The freshmen, now soaking wet, made sad faces but still tried to be brave as they shouted.

“Do you think we’ll tell you just because you ask?”

“You jerks. There are strong people among the freshmen too. We’ll tell them about you!”

“The one who uses the grill is Reph CharcoalBBQ, a guy who smells delicious nya.”

The other freshmen gave her disapproving looks for selling out a classmate to upperclassmen.

“He’s an Imperial nya! He called me, a frontier-born Zenya, an uncivilized cat and said I’d be perfect with the male cat that meows at his house nya!”

“What era does he think this is, making racist remarks that ended a century ago!”

“Those Imperial guys are really annoying.”

“He deserves to be exposed.”

“So I asked to see a picture, and he showed me a baby that’s only 1 year old nya! I can’t forgive someone who treats Zenya like a pedo nya!”

“…That was the issue?”

While the freshmen had mixed feelings, Zenya proudly leaked Reph’s personal information and received fish in return.

And now, after finishing explaining what had happened, she held out the fish to Isabelle.

“So before we go, could you cook just one? Isabelle is good at cooking nya.”

Isabelle, who had listened to Zenya’s moving true story from beginning to end, replied with a blank face.

“No. I’m going to help Oknodie.”

* *

<Claim Shellfish Fishing Rights Event>

Mean sophomore seniors are trying to monopolize seafood.

Thugs of the fishing zone.

Time to teach these sea gangsters a lesson.

Fight for the survival rights of freshmen!

Even without the event notification encouraging a fight, we couldn’t leave them be.

But rushing in recklessly wasn’t the answer either.

To teach these problematic seniors a lesson, we needed enough time to fight properly.

We couldn’t end this with just a brief scuffle during breaks or transit times.

So I endured through the remaining lectures, waiting for evening to come.

“Oknodie, we’re all ready!”

“I heard you’re going to fight the sophomores? We’ll help too!”

“The seniors lent us a battering ram because they thought it would be fun! If things get tough, we’ll ram them with it!”

The battering ram that Dorothy borrowed from seniors in other classes after hearing about the situation during the 3rd period <Basics and Understanding of Mana Usage> lecture was a bit perplexing.

“We’re having a naval battle though?”

“Still, wouldn’t a battering ram be intimidating?”

“I guess that’s true!”

Well, better than nothing!

“We’ll help too. If there’s a rule that allows shooting and killing sophomore seniors, we’ll provide fire support. A senior TA from third year even procured a ballista for us.”

Skola, the heir of the divine bow who attended the 4th period <Mastery of Ranged Weapons> lecture with me, brought a large ballista.

“…Thanks for the help, but if we shoot and kill seniors with a ballista, we’ll be disciplined!”

“What about arrows?”

“As long as we don’t cause permanent injury, it’ll end with just a light disciplinary action?”

“Then I’ll just shoot with a bow.”

“Aren’t you guys from Group B? Why are you helping us?”

“Regardless of the bad blood between the frontier and the Empire, we can’t forgive sophomores who interfere with freshmen’s food supply rights. Reph CharcoalBBQ was also attacked.”

It seems Zenya’s cowardly sale of personal information led to the Imperial faction joining us.

…If they find out the truth, that terrifying archery unit might target us, so we absolutely can’t let them find out!

“So. How are we going to retaliate? Are we going to ambush them by floating a boat on the water and firing all at once?”

“No!”

“Since we brought the battering ram, how about luring them near the window and then charging the ram through it to drop them onto the boat?”

“The seniors might die!”

“You’re too soft.”

“Right. If you say this won’t work and that won’t work, what do you want to do?”

Skola and Dorothy expressed their dissatisfaction.

As expected of archers, they both have quite a fierce temperament.

In their minds, have the sophomores become prey to be shot and killed on sight?

This is why ranged DPS players are scary.

It’s a thought I have every playthrough, but when forming a party later, I must never forget to do a personality test for the archer position.

“How about an assassination plan? Sneaking under the boat, drilling a hole, and sinking it.”

“Leave the escort to me. If we’re caught drilling holes, I’ll block them with my life!”

“I appreciate the sentiment, but please hold back!”

It’s troublesome that there are too many students like Zhang and Morb who are getting carried away with enthusiasm.

“I’ll try talking to them first!”

So we launched a boat and approached the 20-passenger fishing boat that the sophomore seniors were driving around.

“Seniors! Let’s talk!”

“Hoping for a group purchase? I can’t do much, but I’ll give you a 10% discount!”

“We’re not here to buy fish!”

The senior wearing a paper captain’s hat made an unpleasant face and snapped back.

“Then why are you here?”

“Please stop monopolizing shellfish fishing rights against freshmen immediately! Otherwise, we’ll go to the student council and report everything you’ve done today!”

“Oh. You know about the student council despite being a freshman? That’s cute, but what a shame.”

The senior made a smug expression and spoke arrogantly.

“We conducted proper transactions for fair compensation. We set reasonable prices too. If you think the student council will take your side when you report us, you’re mistaken.”

There seemed to be no room for compromise.

But we had thought this through and decided to try resolving it through dialogue first.

“Then would it be okay if everyone found out that seniors were illegally cultivating Red Tooth Mushrooms?”

“You little… So you’re one of the freshmen who attacked our cultivation farm.”

The seniors’ expressions suddenly turned fierce.

This is an event that happens occasionally even when I’m a muscle-bound character, so I came to negotiate without much thought, but unlike when they would back down because they were intimidated, the seniors are being extremely aggressive.

“No! I heard what the others did and came to mediate!”

“Mediate?”

“I’ll keep your illegal Red Tooth Mushroom cultivation a secret if you stop bullying the freshmen!”

“And what about our losses? The damage from our precious Red Tooth Mushrooms, which we were carefully growing to make magic spore sacs, being kidnapped and eaten?”

“Can’t you let it go just once for your cute juniors?”

“As if we would!!”

A few sophomores behind the senior with the paper captain’s hat muttered.

“She is cute though.”

“She’s small but speaks very clearly.”

“Hey, I have some jerky, want one?”

“What kind of jerky?”

“Squirrel jerky.”

“I’ve already had that, so no thanks.”

Hmph.

I actually have quite refined taste!

“Geez! You’re all getting soft. Why are you playing with this kid? They’ve damaged our business. There’s no compromise until they compensate for that damage!”

The senior pushed me with his palm as I stood on the boat.

Yes, this is exactly what I was waiting for.

There are several ways to end violence in this world.

Either suppress it with greater force.

Or seek help from professors or the student council.

“Owww!”

Or overreact by spinning 360 degrees and falling down even when lightly tapped.

“You, you!! When did I hit you that hard! Stop exaggerating and get up quickly!”

When he roughly tried to pull me up, I kicked off the ground, flew backward about 10 meters, and fell into the water with a loud splash.

After about 3 seconds in that state, Zhang and Morb quickly jumped into the water and lifted me onto the lifeboat.

“Oknodie has been attacked!!”

“What cowards! Using violence against someone who came for peaceful negotiations!”

A problem-solving strategy I often used in my muscle-bound days.

The self-harm blackmail strategy.

The shortcut where only the opponent gets blamed and everything is resolved smoothly without having to pay fines to the student council or academy for mutual assault charges with precious points!

…That was the intention, at least.

But perhaps because I performed it with a delicate child’s body instead of a muscular one, the effect was far better than expected.

“You trash!!”

“What reason could they have to hit such a small child!!”

“Let’s avenge Oknodie!!”

“Seniors or not, let’s beat them all down!!”

My classmates suddenly became enraged and charged toward the seniors’ 20-passenger medium-sized fishing boat.

Without distinction between upper and lower classes, frontier and empire, everyone was thoroughly angered and rushed in.

…A brawl broke out.