Ch.118118 – A Reaction That Shouldn’t Be Shown

<118 – A Reaction That Shouldn’t Be Shown>

A week that must have been like a nightmare for the freshmen had passed.

[You have completed the weekly event <Heavy Rain Week>.]

[100 points awarded as survival bonus.]

“Wow!! That’s meal money!!”

“Now we can buy food!!”

The lower class students cheered.

Weekly events aren’t always bad after all!

But as a veteran player, I’m trembling with fear.

“Arcadia unnie. Please absolutely do not enjoy tea time at the outdoor tables this week.”

“My goodness. Ddidda. Haven’t you missed having tea time with me? Has spending time with this unnie become bothersome and annoying? Sob sob.”

“Ah, that’s not it! It’s for safety reasons.”

Arcadia, who was pretending to cry jokingly, popped her head up from under her hands.

“Safety? Could anything be more dangerous than the Giant King Crabs roaming around last week?”

“Rain is scary when it’s falling, but it’s even scarier after it stops!”

Arcadia, who had lived by the sea all year round, didn’t seem to sympathize much, perhaps because she was a water-attribute character. But this place has mountains nearby.

We can’t make innocent remarks like “Non-salty water is falling!” as they might in Florence Kingdom, openly called a maritime power but secretly known as the Seafood Jjamppong Kingdom.

“Welcome everyone. Did you have a good week? Actually, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t. You’re powerless first-years. Just think you did well!”

Monday, first period homeroom.

Professor Mahabharata, the shapeshifter, burst everyone’s bubble with a smiling face.

“Oh right. And this week, a new weekly event <Beware of Mosquitoes> has been issued, so be especially careful when going outside! You’ve already realized how terrifying mosquitoes can be from the entrance exam, right?”

Students who had nearly failed or couldn’t use magic circles properly because of mosquitoes frowned deeply.

However, even they didn’t understand the true terror of the <Mosquito Warning>.

“Oknodie. They say there will be lots of mosquitoes.”

“That’s great. I stocked up on mosquito repellent just in case. Business should be good this week too.”

“Tsk. Can’t go hiking in the mountains then. I’ll have to eat bananas later.”

My colleagues were making casual remarks.

Their attention turned to the Eastern swordsman Sing, who suddenly stood up from his window seat.

Not just three people noticed him.

Sing, the most taciturn student in the upper class.

All students showed interest in his unusually intense reaction.

“Did he forget to turn off the water in the bathroom?”

“Maybe he forgot an assignment.”

“Perhaps he remembered a lover he left back home? That man, though gruff, is quite handsome.”

Unfortunately, everyone’s guesses were wrong.

“Mosquito swarm!!!”

“Whaaaat?!”

He was startled by the swarm of mosquitoes flying in from outside the window.

And they were as big as fists.

* *

There’s a famous saying by an English economist that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The Dragon Principal was no different from that saying.

He had no particular malice.

Rather, it was his consideration for students that moved him, so Professor Mahabharata harbored doubts again today.

“What reason did you have for summoning a mosquito swarm this time, Principal?”

“After a flood, pests and epidemics tend to spread, so wouldn’t it be troublesome if new students wander around freely while facilities are being purified and pest control is being carried out?”

“Your intentions are always so admirable. It’s just too burdensome for the students.”

The Dragon Principal had something to say too.

“If they can’t endure even that, do they deserve to enter the world’s finest educational institution?”

His world’s finest rhetoric never stops.

Has this dragon forgotten the precedent of producing the world’s finest villain from his academy?

“Must I remind you with my own mouth about the precedent of a student who grew up robustly under your education in the academy’s early days and became a proper Demon King?”

“Oh my. That was all a first-time game, wasn’t it? Everyone makes mistakes at first and gets used to it.”

The principal glossed over it with banter.

Mahabharata agreed.

Despite everything, the principal had become much more benign over the past millennium.

Originally, he was a primal dragon who would storm into palaces demanding treasures, destroy a spire, kidnap a princess, and fill his lair with gold and silver treasures looted from storehouses.

He’s been particularly absorbed in this amusement, and has developed somewhat of an educator’s demeanor.

“Still, I hope you’ll be careful not to let students die. We have guardian observation meetings once a month, and what would people think if there were many empty seats with flower vases on desks?”

“Today’s generation is so weak?”

“…They’ll think you’re a cruel dragon who abuses and kills children.”

“I disagree with that opinion!”

The principal flared up angrily.

“How hard am I trying to hold back my desire to torment these freshmen like seniors!”

“…I would appreciate it if you continue to restrain yourself in the future.”

As the first-year department head rather than a dragon guardian, Mahabharata made a sincere request.

* *

Weekly events.

Determined each week according to the principal’s whims, these events cause some characters to crash and others to soar.

But if you obviously avoid those who are disadvantaged and get close to those who are advantaged each time, your player reputation will plummet.

Build friendships diligently during normal times, and don’t abandon or ignore companions who become burdens when circumstances get difficult!

This is difficult advice for novice players to follow, but it’s a survival tip that more experienced players at the academy treat as golden rule.

The academy where elemental rotations occur—just as electric attributes were strong and fire attributes were weak last week, this week fire attributes are strong and water attributes are weak.

Rather than following elemental characters around each time, experienced players respond by cultivating a few selected attributes, like farmers sowing seeds!

Among the many, many weekly events, they analyze which events occur more frequently probabilistically and where the principal’s interests lie.

This is the approach of expert players who consider targeting the principal as the key point.

But veteran players don’t care about that and just develop companions they want to develop.

Why?

Because they intend to overcome whatever event comes with their player skills!

At this point, some get fixated on all-strength characters like the hero Ishtar and only develop strength-based companions, or gather party members based solely on charm like a garden of flowers.

Occasionally there are truly insane veteran players who create concept parties that are <So Obvious Even Idiots Can Understand>, but I’d never do that—they’re too scary even just watching their V-tube videos!

‘Zigoku was part of that concept party, but surprisingly he was the mildest form of insanity.’

Fortunately, the parties I’ve formed now are the <Entrance Exam Party> and the <Group Assignment Loner Party>.

There’s absolutely no possibility of a horrific event where I’m kidnapped by a crazy psycho lesbian and can’t even go to class because I’m being used like a rug.

I just need to prepare to overcome the week by driving away mosquitoes.

“Assignments are scarier than mosquitoes…”

“I finish one assignment and a new one comes, and when I finish that new one, another new one comes, and when I finish that one, yet another new one comes…”

“Did those imperial bastards learn this as early education from childhood? Admirable fellows.”

Well, students are too busy with assignments to care about weekly events or anything else!

That’s why it’s time for this Oknodie to step up.

Fortunately, the <Entrance Exam Party> consisting of Giselle, Isabelle, Son Ocheon, Dorothy, and Rockpell can manage because Giselle has mosquito repellent.

But the <Group Assignment Loner Party> with Hestia, Zigoku, Lotta, and me has absolutely no means to deal with mosquitoes!

Berserker (physical), Trigger Happy (physical), Fighter (physical).

This is the sorrow of physical characters without elemental mana attack methods.

That’s why the all-purpose magic swordsman Oknodie needs to step up!

“Oknodie, did you hear? They say we’ll finally learn magic in today’s third period <Basics and Understanding of Mana Use> lecture.”

“I hope we learn it soon!”

“Yeah. See you later, Oknodie!”

With Jona’s request and all, it’s time to show off the magic skills I’ve been self-sealing until now.

* *

Professor Bronze was displeased with the lecture attitude of his potential star pupil, whose mind seemed elsewhere.

“First-year Oknodie. I’ll ask about the purpose of the lecture. What was the reason for appraising the value of paintings in this lecture?”

“Rich households launder money through paintings, and there are paintings with real value and those without, as well as authentic and fake ones, so painting appraisal is essential!”

“Your mind is elsewhere but your answers flow smoothly. Is the lecture boring?”

Oknodie denied it in alarm.

“No, it’s not!”

“Then focus properly. You don’t need to concentrate as much as those male students over there, but at least pretend to listen somewhat attentively.”

Professor Bronze had prepared quite an ambitious lecture.

Knowing students would be bored with ordinary paintings, he brought a collection of very nude male and female paintings.

Among them were cheap erotic paintings, nude paintings of professional models, and famous masterpiece nudes.

The main age group of Academy first-years is between 18 and 20, an age when they’re just awakening to sexuality.

At the earliest, it’s an age when some might already be married with a first child and acting as the head of a household.

Whether experienced or not, this is an age when one should be very interested in the naked body of the opposite sex, but Oknodie seemed uninterested, perhaps because she was too young.

“Wow. That’s quite an outfit. So they wear clothes like that in taverns.”

“I keep drooling… hnnng…”

“Bigstone. Could you please stop glancing at me while looking at the painting and imagining me naked?”

“N-no! When did I ever do that!”

Today again, the second-year pair Bigstone and Rizna—I just wish they’d hurry up and date and become a couple so they could stop flirting and get to the boredom phase.

“Wooow… Unnie was right. So many boys are gathered around. The more revealing clothes you wear, the more popular you become… Then should I wear clothes like that too…?”

Today again, first-year Titosoga showing sympathy by revealing she’s been deceived by her unnie again.

“More revealing than Southern dancers. And the paintings of shirtless men too.”

First-year Isabelle trying to appear calm but unable to hide her reddened face.

Most students react like that.

That’s normal.

It was Oknodie’s truly indifferent reaction that was strange.

“Tsk.”

Except for first-year Sing, whom the professor considered a psychopath with all interests directed toward swords and fighting.

Whatever Sing’s case might be, Oknodie’s reaction was truly incomprehensible and strange.

“Oknodie. Perhaps you’re not unable to focus on the class, but rather familiar with such paintings?”

There was no shyness characteristic of someone seeing such things for the first time, nor any reaction about it being obscene.

It felt like an attitude of someone looking at something low-quality, something they were so familiar with that they were tired of it.

The professor asked on a hunch, and the answer was quite alarming.

“Wow. How did you know?”

To reiterate, the paintings Professor Bronze had carefully selected were a collection sufficient to make students blush and increase their lecture concentration.

Though not depicting actual intercourse, they were erotic paintings with enough sex appeal to satisfy everyone except psychopaths who only get excited by blood and carnage.

If a girl of about 10 years shows reactions of ‘boredom’ and ‘adaptation’ to that…

“Have you seen worse than this?”

“Ah.”

Oknodie, who had been answering nonchalantly, suddenly became anxious and looked around.

“Professor… you’re not scolding me for seeing adult things too early, are you…?”

There was only one thing he could think of that would be worse than the paintings he brought.

Witnessing actual sexual scenes or seeing such paintings so frequently that embarrassment disappeared.

And for a child of about ten years old.

How could she have had such experiences?

All the cases that came to mind were unfortunate.

Either she grew up as a child in a brothel.

Or someone took her to brothels from a young age, making her ‘observe’ the realities of prostitution.

Even in a world where marriage is legal from age 15, 10 is too young.

And she’s not even a boy, but a girl.

This was close to intimidation.

Telling her that she too would do such work when she grew up.

Or that she might end up doing it.

“…I have one request for the students. Could you all keep this matter about Oknodie secret? For the sake of protecting a young student’s honor.”

Students nodded seriously, swearing to keep the secret.

Among them, Professor Bronze’s face grew even sterner.

Oknodie’s educator.

The sponsor of a talented thief.

An organization that threatened a child with prostitution if she didn’t comply, doing so periodically over a long time until her sense of shame disappeared.

‘The Wiheomhae Foundation, was it?’

A righteous anger rose in him, unable to forgive them.

It was the moment when the next target of the righteous thief was decided.