Ch.231231 – Shh

<231 – Shh>

‘With such a harsh schedule for 5 consecutive days, even Lady Arcadia will inevitably get exhausted…!’

She was in trouble. No matter how skilled Arcadia was, this was too much for anyone.

She needed help.

Someone needed to stop Arcadia, or at the very least, protect her.

But she wasn’t someone who would give up easily.

Arcadia was determined to put herself at risk to gain the trust of Zaku, the foundation scholarship student, and wouldn’t easily reduce her participation events just because someone asked her to.

“Frill, Carnelian. This might sound shameless, but I have a favor to ask… I want to participate in the same events as Lady Arcadia to prevent her from getting hurt from overexertion. But there are too many for me alone. Could you help…?”

“What nonsense are you talking about? Titosoga, you idiot.”

“You don’t even need to ask. You haven’t forgotten, have you? We’re also followers of Lady Arcadia.”

Frill and Carnelian shared Titosoga’s feelings.

“Wherever the princess goes is where we must follow. If she’s this determined, whatever her intentions may be, isn’t it our duty as followers to help her to the best of our abilities?”

“Besides, if we’re with the princess, she might give us second place as her followers.”

Titosoga realized that the princess had introduced her to truly wonderful friends.

* *

In Giselle’s private room.

Amidst mountains of paperwork, Oknodie lay sprawled on the resting bed, wiggling her feet while flipping through an information sheet.

“Hmm. There are some strange events too.”

“Is there something bothering you?”

“Arcadia is participating in too many events!”

Oknodie had appeared on her own without being called, somehow having heard rumors about the information sheets.

Despite Oknodie browsing through the information sheet that cost 50 points without paying a single point, Giselle didn’t scold her.

After all, he had asked if he could sell information about which events Oknodie was participating in.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that over 20% of his sales came from people wanting to know which events the top student Oknodie was participating in. Instead of charging her 50 points, he should be paying her points.

“If you’re that worried, why not participate in the same events?”

It was definitely concerning.

The sports festival had a strange gimmick where the risk of injury increased with each additional event entered.

If players or their teammates carelessly entered any event that looked good, they would frequently end up injured.

Getting injured in individual events would lead to being unable to perform well in class and grade competitions, resulting in greater overall losses.

Worse, if you were unlucky enough to hit that 0.1% chance of critical failure, you’d suffer a fatal injury and face medium to long-term penalties in future academy activities.

The prevention method was simple.

In the game, you could set your stats and required skills very high, click “Auto-Result,” and automatically get first place.

It would drain your physical and mental strength significantly, but you could recover with prepared potions.

But this was reality.

Reality doesn’t have an “Auto-Result” button for life.

In situations like this, a more troublesome approach was required.

“Rather than that, I just had an interesting thought.”

“Interesting…?”

“I’ll go ahead first!”

Giselle’s expression turned somewhat serious, but since that man always took life seriously, she didn’t pay much attention to it.

* *

Giselle was deeply shocked.

“Rather than that, I just had an interesting thought.”

“Interesting…?”

“I’ll go ahead first!”

This was about Arcadia.

Someone she cared for as much as Isabelle.

The girl who should be running to her whimpering at the mere mention of Arcadia getting a knee scrape, blowing on it gently, had just dismissed Arcadia’s schedule as “that” and prioritized some “interesting thought” over helping her.

She had changed.

Her treatment of Arcadia.

Her dependence on her.

“Oknodie… you mustn’t lose your humanity. If you walk the wrong path and lose your purity, you’ll lose the reason you came to the academy.”

Giselle muttered words he hadn’t managed to say to her, overcome with a bitter feeling.

* *

The day of the sports festival arrived.

Now, I declare the sports festival open.

Little morsels, chase after those points!

With Dragon Principal’s shout, colorful magical fireworks exploded high in the sky.

Students began running toward their pre-selected events.

In contrast, I ran toward the faculty building in the opposite direction, where no one was headed.

“Hat, are you sure no one’s there?”

“…I’ve confirmed it. There are no instructors left here. At most, just cleaning maids.”

“Great. Then let’s infiltrate according to the map we obtained!”

From Monday when the sports festival was announced until this Monday, for the past week, I had been counting down the days.

If injuries and bad luck to the player and NPC companions were the problem, then I needed to find ways to prevent them!

Starting from this simple conclusion, my plan first distinguished between injuries from “accidents” and those from “interference.”

“We can’t help accidents, but we can prevent interference. I’ve earned way more points than expected anyway. Taking it easy at the beginning of the sports festival won’t cause much loss.”

The original owner of the Second Mad Hatter who had possessed the Responding Wall originally had abilities like <Etherealization> and <Telepathy>.

The reason the First Mad Hatter trapped in the wall couldn’t speak was because he lacked telepathy, and the reason he couldn’t freely spy through the dormitory walls was because he lacked etherealization.

It’s no wonder players possessed by the wall were essentially treated as game over.

Since escape depends on the abilities of the person possessed by the wall rather than the wall’s original abilities, if you lack sufficient abilities at the time of possession, you’re stuck with a game over.

Naturally, someone with such abilities wouldn’t waste a year trapped in a wall waiting to steal a body from the next freshman.

‘The Second Mad Hatter can spy using etherealization regardless of the wall!’

The soul of the Second Mad Hatter briefly left the hat to explore the faculty building and returned.

“It looks like this.”

Thanks to him drawing a map on the floor with the hand attached to the hat, I could perfectly understand the internal structure of the faculty building, which was randomly generated each playthrough.

Since the location of the destination was fixed every time, this work was meaningful in finding an infiltration route without getting lost inside.

“I couldn’t peek beyond this point.”

“That’s fine. I know what’s in there!”

“What are you trying to steal?”

“Items confiscated from students by the instructors!”

The confiscated items storage room.

Commonly known as the “confiscation room,” it’s a hidden gem among players.

Normally, it’s extremely difficult to infiltrate because of the many instructors passing by, and even when instructors are away, various security devices make it easy to get caught.

If detected by intruder detection magic, you’d be immediately restrained or dragged away unconscious by instructors and imprisoned in the underground dungeon’s first floor for at least a few days.

‘Hmph. Back when I was 230cm tall, I successfully raided the confiscation room with pride.’

[You bypassed the laser trap with flexible movements.]

[Balance experience +1]

[You used a survival sheet to hide your body heat and bypassed the heat detection trap.]

[Thinking ability experience +1]

[You bypassed the rumbling rock trap and ankle binding trap by walking on the ceiling.]

[Mana control experience +1]

[You bypassed the lobby by avoiding the gargoyle statue’s focus.]

[Sensory focus experience +1]

[Infiltration experience +1]

Of course, I didn’t enter like this before.

Back then, I smashed the trap damage detector with my fist, broke the laser trap, the heat detection trap, the ankle binding trap, and threw rocks at the gargoyle.

I still vividly remember the maids fleeing, thinking Northland’s dark mages had attacked when they saw the devastated faculty building, while I swept confiscated items into a sack with my huge body.

‘Tsk. I’m too short now.’

Though I can’t forcefully push through with strength like before, I’m making remarkable progress by combining my small stature, nimble movements, veteran knowledge, and the Second Mad Hatter’s information.

No need to worry about noise penalties alerting maids who might call instructors!

I can leisurely collect everything I want!

“…Oknodie. Look over there.”

But I never expected to see a maid tiptoeing around with her heels raised like a cat.

Just as I was about to enter the confiscation room after avoiding all the gargoyles, I made direct eye contact with a maid from the opposite instructor’s office.

“!?”

“!?”

We were both shocked to see each other.

But looking closely, this maid was different.

She had a flashlight in her mouth.

And she was rummaging through the instructors’ secret documents that maids shouldn’t touch.

Aha.

Even rarer than the 9.9% chance of encountering a slacking maid, this must be the 0.1% chance spy maid!

Shh!

I put my finger to my lips, signaling to pretend we hadn’t seen each other, and the maid nodded while sweating profusely.

And so began the strange faculty building raid, with one side stealing from the confiscation room and the other stealing documents from the instructor’s office.