Ch.155155 – Weekly Hidden Event

<155 – Weekly Hidden Event>

Visitation week.

Contrary to the original purpose of allowing guardians to observe lectures and daily life, most parents left after spending just a day or two of the week.

Those with busy schedules outside voluntarily left early, but most departed because they ran out of visitation tickets, even though they wanted to stay longer.

“Hohoho! My lovely Titosoga, Papa has survived until the second day!”

“…Papa, can’t you please go back even a day earlier? I’m so embarrassed…”

“Impossible! I won’t go back until I see our Titosoga chatting with ten friends!”

“T-ten friends?!”

“Why are you surprised? In your letters home, didn’t you write ‘Thanks to the lighting team, I’ve become popular, thank you sis, sorry for doubting you’?”

“That was then and this is now!”

Titosoga made a tearful face.

The children who once laughed and enjoyed themselves just seeing light from the lighting team had now become competitors.

If your grades are insufficient, you have to make up with points.

With one meal costing 5 points, it requires an enormous sum that’s hardly affordable.

“How can I maintain friendships in this situation… Plus, there are so many people I don’t like.”

“Then shall Papa help you reconcile?”

“Oh really! Please don’t. It’s so embarrassing!”

“Papa is embarrassing…? T-Titosoga… Have you already reached that age…?”

“N-no… It’s just that you keep saying embarrassing things…”

Unable to bear watching Titosoga suffering from suffocating paternal love, I scurried over and grabbed Titosoga’s hand.

“Hello. I’m Titosoga’s friend and I’m going to borrow her for a moment!”

“Oh! A friend for Titosoga!”

Leaving Titosoga’s papa’s cry of excitement behind, we ran hard until we were out of his sight, then Titosoga stopped, gasping for breath.

“Stop… stop! Huff, huff… You’re too fast. I can’t keep up with Oknodie’s speed with my slow feet…”

“Ah, sorry. You looked troubled so I tried to help!”

“Is it okay to spend this much time when you have another lecture?”

“Huh? It’s fine. I don’t need to attend that.”

“Whaaaat?! How can you skip lectures!”

“The professor said students who’ve already completed the curriculum don’t need to come to the next lecture.”

It’s true.

Professor Warerd’s 3rd period lecture.

Professor EveningShooter’s 4th period lecture.

Both professors said it themselves.

Making talented students waste time under the pretext of curriculum is unbecoming of a professor, and only makes struggling students anxious.

They even drew a hard line saying they’d deduct points if we showed up.

“Thanks to that, I’m free until evening!”

“Evening… you mean that, right…?”

“Yes. Professor Sadaco’s 5th period.”

“That’s actually good. We can stay together until we have the same lecture.”

“Speaking of which, Titosoga’s papa is staying quite long? Does he have many visitation tickets?”

“I don’t know. Our family hasn’t been that well-off for the past few years… I’m worried Papa might be pushing himself too hard because of me.”

“Why don’t you suggest he sell the visitation tickets to other nobles?”

“I already told him that last night. But he said not to worry about that and just quickly show him lots of friends. He absolutely won’t leave until he sees ten friends!”

As Titosoga complained, an event window popped up with a stinging headache.

<Titosoga’s Papa’s Wish>

Titosoga’s papa is extremely worried about his daughter’s academy life.

He’s such a doting father that he won’t even think about returning home until he knows if his child can safely make friends and is doing well at the academy!

For the sake of your friend Titosoga, who’s suffering from this embarrassment, how about introducing ten of Titosoga’s friends to her papa?

*Friends shown so far – 1 person / 10 people

Making friends.

Certainly a difficult quest for a loner.

Even as a veteran, I couldn’t proudly say I had many friends when I thought about it.

Giselle, Isabelle, and Son Ocheon were colleagues, not friends.

Hestia, Zigoku, and Lotta were group project teammates.

The Dolphin Pants sisters were sisters, not friends.

Senior Bigstone, the Dark Social Club senior, and the Paper Company senior who helped with assignments were just seniors.

At most, I could only think of Titosoga, Zhang, Dorothy, and Morb as friends.

“What should we do? I only have three friends too.”

“That’s a lie! Oknodie has tons of friends!”

“No, I don’t! I only have four friends: Titosoga, Zhang, Dorothy, and Morb!”

“Eh, really…?”

“Yes. Really!”

Titosoga, who had been nervously fidgeting with her fingers, soon smiled shyly.

“Thank you. Oknodie, you’re really a good friend…”

[You cherished your friendship.]

[Good Child Experience +1]

Titosoga seems genuinely moved.

Hmm, I feel a bit guilty.

It’s true that I consider her a friend.

But actually, I don’t have purely innocent motives.

There’s actually a hidden event during visitation week.

60% of guardians who can’t visit.

30% of guardians who do visit.

9.9% of guardians who stay one more day.

…And 0.1% of guardians who stay longer.

Titosoga’s papa revealed himself to be in the 0.1% exception case the moment he set a “condition” for his return.

I’m half certain he’s the trigger for the hidden event.

Sure enough.

By the 5th period Adventure Night Action class, I could add the other half of my certainty.

“Since you walk the path of darkness, I can tell you… Keep this secret from the first-years, don’t go around saying you heard it from me.”

“U-um, path of darkness… We’re here to learn night action, right? We’re not unknowingly learning suspicious knowledge, are we?!”

Professor Sadaco pressed two fingers against Titosoga’s chattering cheeks to silence her, then opened the hidden event trigger.

“When the parents visited the academy yesterday, for some reason, a large amount of negative energy spread.”

“And?”

“It’s large, but quite a lot of large.”

Zhang showed curiosity.

“How much is ‘a lot of large’?”

“Enough that the dead could walk among the living without being noticed.”

The curiosity on Zhang’s face froze like a statue turning to stone.

“You’d better be careful. Some powerful ghosts must have been born… Anyone who speaks with a ghost will face terrible revenge if they can’t resolve the ghost’s grudge…”

“C-can’t you exorcise them, Professor?”

“Why would I?”

Professor Sadaco’s eyes flashed beneath her long black hair.

“When negative energy is abundant, black magicians and necromancers are happy. Resources and materials overflow. We can even do our work easily without having to rob graves or kill living beings…”

Somehow, the eyes visible through her hair were shining with a healthy color that seemed more vibrant than usual.

While Titosoga and Zhang were simply afraid of ghosts, I already guessed what these ghosts referred to.

<Ghost Liberation Hidden Event>

There was a trap hidden in the weekly parent visitation event.

Ghost parents mixed among ordinary parents.

These terrifying parents, manifestations of worry for their children, must be “exorcised”!

These ghost parents, drawn by massive negative energy, are so powerful that first-years would be instantly crushed if they tried to subdue them by force.

But the world doesn’t run on violence alone!

If you fulfill the ghost parents’ “wishes,” they will “find peace” on their own and leave the academy.

Exorcism and liberation.

Choose your method and resolve the ghost parent commotion!

Ghost parents.

Not actual parents but collective ghost entities formed from the lingering attachments of parents worried about their children sent to the academy.

The real event of week 5 is to somehow deal with these false parents who claim to be specific students’ parents.

And Titosoga’s papa is one of these ghost parents.

How lucky!

Thanks to that, I discovered it very early.

The condition is both tricky and easy.

Ten friends.

Just nine more to show him!

“The academy is in trouble. Titosoga’s papa must be worried too.”

“Yeah… what if he says he’ll stay for another month because he’s worried?”

“Can’t you just let him stay?”

“I heard visitation tickets are extremely expensive. It’s not funny if a family goes bankrupt because of child visitation. Papa loses his mind when it comes to me, so he might really do it…”

Ghost parents are quite clever.

By imitating Titosoga’s papa, who was easy to exploit from the start, they completely fooled Titosoga.

She didn’t seem to think he was a fake parent at all.

Actually, the strangeness would be obvious with a little thought.

Unless you’re a powerful person or extremely wealthy, parents with visitation tickets are hard to find, so it’s contradictory that Titosoga’s ordinary papa has plenty of visitation tickets.

It’s something that couldn’t normally happen.

“Who else is your friend?”

“Hmm. Hmmmm…”

“Titosoga?”

“Be quiet! I’m thinking right now.”

At this point where the thinking is dragging on, it seems like people who are hard to call friends will come up.

“T-two people…”

“Wow. Two more?”

“Zhang and… Lady Arcadia…?”

As she continues, she sounds increasingly uncertain.

“I’m what?”

“Ah, it’s nothing!”

“We’re looking for Titosoga’s friends!”

“O-Oknodie… How could you say thaaaat…”

“Why? Zhang doesn’t have any friends besides us either!”

Zhang, who was walking home with us and suddenly heard “you don’t have many friends,” had veins popping on the back of her hand.

“…Oknodie. Want to play tag?”

“Suddenly?”

“I’m ‘it’ and I throw daggers. If Oknodie doesn’t get hit, you’re not caught.”

“Sounds good!”

“Is that really tag?! It sounds like you’ll die if you get caught?!”

[You enjoyed a pleasant walk home with Zhang.]

[Running Experience +3]

[Hiding Experience +3]

[Reflex Experience +1]

The walk home was quite enjoyable.

* *

“Lady Arcadia! Titosoga’s papa is very worried, could you help reassure him?”

The next day, during Professor Platton’s advanced class.

Since we were face to face, I asked Arcadia for help, and she burst into tears.

“How pitiful…! I’m so moved by your kindness, caring for a fellow loner friend when your own social relationships aren’t smooth, I can’t hold back my tears!”

“I sometimes think Arcadia is too quick to cry.”

Using the cheat key of borrowing the connections of Arcadia, the ultimate insider of the outcast group, this hidden event is practically a free win.