Ch.180180 – Students Repaying a Favor

<180 – Students Repaying Kindness>

After Morb, I went to the lounge and distributed a whole armful of likability-boosting items, causing my friends’ affection to rise rapidly.

“Sniff. Oknodie… thank you so much.”

“Wh-what? You normally have this much stuff… Waaah. You poor thing!”

“Oknodie. If you ever have any troubles, please tell us…”

What kind-hearted friends they are.

They’re crying just because I gave them some gifts.

Is it because female students are more sensitive?

But something seems strange.

When I was a male and gave gifts, they would flinch, laugh awkwardly, and even get facial spasms.

After a brief moment of contemplation.

I came to understand.

It must be because girls naturally develop more girlish sensibilities when they’re together!

* *

Pain that isn’t felt personally cannot be empathized with.

For the same reason, even though many students knew Oknodie had been abused by the Foundation, they still harbored some resentment toward her.

“Anyway, isn’t she just naturally talented?”

“The Foundation educated her because she has exceptional talent.”

The difference in innate abilities.

The rationalization that she achieved more at a young age with much less effort than themselves.

Assertions born from jealousy and envy made them label Oknodie not as one of them, but as a cowardly talent-born prodigy.

“Eat this and cheer up!”

“Wh-why do you have so many doping potions!?”

“Huh? I always buy this much.”

“Y-you bought so many to give as gifts, right?”

“I always buy a lot!”

But now they discovered the truth.

That this child was actually a hard worker.

That behind her brilliant talent was effort that didn’t even allow for sleep.

Children of prestigious families.

Children of masters.

For them, training from childhood became a daily routine.

But everything has its proper measure.

Even children accustomed to training don’t continue all-night practice sessions from early childhood.

“It really was abuse…”

“I’ve been misunderstanding Oknodie…”

“I feel so sorry for her…”

Even the female students who followed Arcadia shed tears of repentance as the reality of the abuse was revealed.

At the same time, the hypothesis that all the rumors that had spread might be unexaggerated, raw truth without any embellishment rapidly gained traction.

“Arcadia unnie, please take this too!”

“Oh my. Hohoho. Thank you, dear. But what should I do with this? I don’t drink doping potions.”

“You can give it to the other unnies if you’d like!”

Yet that kind child even gave potions to students who didn’t think highly of her.

“Sob sob. She’s truly a good person.”

“That’s why she can be the top student.”

“Now I understand Lady Arcadia’s heart. The Lady knew about this child’s good nature all along.”

Arcadia’s faction students made a pledge.

They would become a shield wall to protect Oknodie.

But their opportunity to step up came sooner than expected.

“I don’t even have the energy to eat lunch…”

“Ugh. Too many assignments…”

One day during the final stretch of midterm studying.

Arcadia’s followers witnessed a scene of students gathering in a crowd.

“What’s going on?”

“Looks like a fight broke out.”

“They’re so energetic. Fighting at a time like this…”

Those raising their voices were students taking the <Basics and Understanding of Mana Usage> course.

And their opponents were students taking the <Basics and Understanding of Imperial Magic Studies> course.

Mandatory “magic” courses that all students had to take at least one of.

Because there were so many students, there were multiple professors teaching the mandatory courses, and since students could choose which one to take, not all students knew each other.

But it wasn’t difficult to guess why they were fighting.

“Looks like the Frontier faction and the Imperial faction are fighting!”

Students taking courses from Frontier faction professors and those taking courses from Imperial faction professors.

Until now, even though they didn’t get along, they had simply ignored each other like strangers during their difficult academy life, but today was different.

“Aren’t you sorry for wasting materials on your lacking talent and pathetic skills?”

“What? You’re just counterfeits who bought your skills with money and family connections instead of real ability!”

They openly insulted each other, raising their voices, and eventually started pulling each other’s hair!

Surprised by the sudden fight, Arcadia’s followers quickly grabbed an A-group student and asked:

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“The professor gave us an assignment, and we were gathering materials when those guys demanded we hand everything over, claiming they got the same assignment!”

“How could they be so mean?”

“Help us out. Let’s take this chance to beat up those pathetic Imperial bastards!”

The student who jumped into the fight with overflowing enthusiasm soon crawled back out screaming, covered in scratches and bruises.

Most of the students crying and running away or surrendering after being beaten were from the Frontier.

“Damn it! Their mana cultivation method!”

“Both knight aspirants and mage aspirants have stored up mana like they have cheat keys.”

“We can’t win with our skills… So if we don’t have power, we get our materials stolen and our grades lowered?”

The students couldn’t hide their frustration.

“Please help us!”

“You guys are Arcadia’s followers, right?”

“If you’re that strong, you should help us!”

Arcadia’s followers couldn’t muster the courage to jump in after seeing that scene.

They do have skills among the lower-class students.

Lady Arcadia, a princess of a nation.

To be able to stay by her side after breaking through countless admiring students requires more than ordinary specs.

They all have name value, coming from relatively well-known families in the Frontier or being children of high-ranking officials.

Paradoxically, that’s why they couldn’t step in.

The more they knew about the strength of their own power, the more they understood how much stronger the power of the Imperial nobles was.

There is a clear power difference between the Empire and the Frontier.

“I-I can’t.”

“We know how strong they are…”

“The Frontier can’t beat the Empire.”

Some might wonder why those from the Frontier, with skills honed through practical experience fighting harsh environments, would lose to the Empire, but that’s only knowing half the story.

While those from the Frontier spend time helping with territory management, stabilizing civilian life, or family affairs, those from the Empire hire professional educators with large sums of money to give their children private tutoring.

It was also common for them to pay enormous sponsorship or investment fees to receive secret techniques from famous combat class guilds.

Even their classes were different.

Most from the outlands received the <Street Fighter> class and built their skills through street fighting.

In contrast, those from the Empire received the <Dojo Martial Artist> class, learning techniques from officially licensed dojos and building solid fundamentals.

When a fight breaks out between the two, the dojo martial artist almost always wins.

Eight or nine times out of ten, the latter prevails.

Unless you’re a genius street fighter forged in the streets or someone with ridiculous innate physical abilities, that’s usually the case.

“So we just have to be unfairly robbed without anyone to fight for us?”

“The instructors. Ask the instructors for help!”

“Let’s report this to the professors!”

A student with a black eye went to find an instructor, but the help they hoped for didn’t materialize.

“Unless they’re physically restraining you from attending lectures, we don’t interfere in disputes over assignment materials.”

The instructors drew a firm line.

If the fight escalated beyond an acceptable level, they would issue punishments, deduct points, and even imprison students in the underground dungeon, but the fight hadn’t gotten that severe.

Professor Wierd, who had assigned the task, had some words for the student who came to him looking terrible.

“If you had practiced nature magic diligently, you wouldn’t have suffered like this. Your training was insufficient. If you’re upset, train harder in magic from now on.”

“But they took the materials I need for that magic training!”

“You still haven’t given your best effort.”

“Do I have some hidden potential or talent inside me?”

“You’re here in my research office, not locked in the underground dungeon. In nature, when you fight, you fight to kill your opponent.”

“You want me to k-kill someone over materials!?”

“Maybe not that far, but you should be prepared to end up in the underground dungeon if you want to secure materials for the lecture.”

The professor’s mindset was not helpful at all!

No one would help them.

Even the Imperial students taking Professor Wierd’s lecture were the same.

“Help us. You’re in the same situation as us.”

“Give up. We’re outnumbered by the Imperial faction from the start.”

Students from the same Imperial faction who knew each other’s strength had already given up on their grades!

If even prominent students like fire mage Rozini and earth mage Sandcooker were doing so, the Frontier students had no choice but to sob and resign themselves.

“Stop!”

The Imperial faction students were leaving the material storage room with materials in hand.

Until they heard a bold voice calling them to stop.

“Who gave you permission to take all the materials?”

Oknodie, the protagonist of ominous rumors who turned out to have an unexpectedly warm heart.

She stepped up to the fight everyone else had given up on.

Arcadia’s followers became even more conflicted.

It was obvious who would lose this fight.

But if Oknodie stepped in.

Somehow, it didn’t seem like she would lose.

“How dare you hurt my cute friend Dorothy!”

The students thought:

Dorothy must have gotten caught in the chaos and been beaten up.

“Look here. Dorothy’s doodle that she drew on her textbook cover out of boredom has been crumpled under your feet. How heartbroken must she be!”

“S-stop… Oknodie, please stop…”

“No, Dorothy. For the sake of everyone who’s suffered, we can’t just let this slide.”

“No, I’m asking you to stop killing me…”

Oknodie was furious, seemingly unaware of Dorothy’s heart breaking for a completely different reason!

“Phew, that’s a relief. We can trust that child.”

“She’s so dedicated to training that she doesn’t even sleep at night and drinks doping potions.”

“With co-valedictorian level skills honed through the Foundation’s child abuse, she should be able to match the Empire’s early education.”

But one of Arcadia’s followers thought carefully and offered an opinion.

“But isn’t it dangerous to let her fight? She handles dark mana.”

“So?”

“Doesn’t dark mana become uncontrollable if used too much, causing her to suddenly collapse?”

The followers’ faces turned pale.

“If Lady Arcadia hears about this…”

“She’ll hear that we didn’t fight too…”

“And Oknodie’s collapse will be blamed on us!”

They shouldn’t have been happy that Oknodie stepped in.

Even if she wanted to fight, they needed to stop her to maintain their relationship with the Lady.

“We’ll help too.”

“Sigh. We’re specially helping you just this once.”

“Be grateful to the Lady. We’re helping you because of her.”

The followers reluctantly stepped in for Oknodie.

Even if they got beaten up, it was better than letting Oknodie collapse.

This way, the Lady would know they tried to help Oknodie.

They also felt sorry for her.

They had learned from the doping potion incident.

How pitiful this child was.

Consider it repaying a kindness.

Realistically, they’d probably get beaten up if a real fight broke out, but they were still children of well-known powers in the Frontier.

If they compromised appropriately, they might be able to salvage enough materials to save face.

They could set aside Oknodie’s share from that.

“No! You all shouldn’t get involved!”

But Oknodie had no intention of backing down.

“But we want to help you!”

“How can people weaker than me help anyone?”

“Ah, no, that’s…”

They weren’t planning to fight seriously anyway.

“What’s this? Are you going to fight or not?”

“You and your friends. Who’s going to fight?”

The Imperial faction students stood askew, urging them on.

Oknodie fired a spell at them without hesitation.

<Water Creation Magic>

The Imperial students were suddenly drenched in black water.

“Argh!”

“M-my body is making strange noises!”

“Ouch, it stings. Gasp. Th-this. Did you just use poison magic on people!?”

“Oh. This tastes sweet!”

“Idiot, spit it out! What if the sweetness is from your proteins dissolving? Your tongue might be melting!”

“Is that what it is!?”

Dark water creation magic altered by dark mana.

The result was… cola!

Harmless, but shocking to those who didn’t know. The Imperial students, eyes blazing with anger, targeted Oknodie, and Arcadia’s followers realized they were doomed.

Negotiation was impossible.

Now they had no choice but to protect Oknodie and engage in a dogfight.

“Everyone protect Oknodie.”

“Don’t let anyone near her!”

The second round of the brawl began.

Even if it was an unwanted fight, they had no choice.

At least Oknodie would be grateful, and they could take pride in that!

* *

“Stop it… Everyone, please don’t do this. You don’t need to fight for me!”

Stop stealing my experience points!