Ch.244244 – Equivalent Exchange of the Heart

# 244 – Heart’s Equivalent Exchange

Thursday.

A day when most individual events had ended and team competition events were being held in succession.

Lower-class students helped each other through mutual cooperation, working together so the entire class could achieve second place in each event and collectively earn 80 points.

While 80 points might not seem like much to someone who dominated all school events or to children of wealthy nobles, royalty, or merchant magnates with generous allowances, for commoners or impoverished nobles, it could be their daily bread (5 points for a standard cafeteria meal)!

“But why aim for second place? Since we’re competing anyway, shouldn’t we try for first?”

The classroom atmosphere turned ice-cold at one student’s remark, as if someone had thrown cold water on everyone.

“Who is that? That clueless idiot.”

“I heard he just returned from the medical wing after fainting during midterms.”

“Wow… how has he not been expelled yet?”

“They say he did really well on the written exam.”

“What a jerk.”

As the student was being verbally abused and starting to tear up, Morb approached with the clanking sound of armor joints.

“W-what! There’s no need to hit me!”

“…First place belongs to the upper class.”

“Phew. Sorry. I got nervous because I thought you were some violent psycho in full armor.”

Maybe I shouldn’t have helped.

As Morb’s gaze behind his helmet was turning regretful,

screams from many students could be heard in the distance.

“Follow me. We have an event to participate in too. Seems like some fools are getting thrashed.”

Morb’s group of 50 lower-class students found other students rolling in the dirt and coughing at one side of the field where a long rope was laid out.

The ground was covered with deeply carved rope marks as if a dragon had danced there, making it difficult to imagine what the students who had been dragged around had experienced.

“Waaah! My knee is scraped!”

“Even when my mom beat me, I only got bruises!”

“What kind of tug-of-war is this…”

On the opposite side stood students with regretful expressions wondering if they’d gone too far, and Oknodie with a displeased look on her face.

“Oh come on. The spinning reward is better than the speed-run reward, or even the flying reward. Either get dragged around nicely until you form a circle, or get lifted into the sky completely. When you keep trying to plant your feet on the ground, the reward becomes ambiguous!”

The upper-class students, led by the super-strong girl Oknodie, had gathered all their monsters together.

Naturally, the lower-class students who had to fight such a team were arguing about how not to get hurt worse—keeping their feet on the ground, pointing out scraped legs, saying some might die in the second set if they continued, and suggesting they should just let themselves be dragged around without resistance—a suffocating battle just to hear about.

“This is why we don’t aim for first place.”

The student who had just been discharged from the medical wing blinked and said.

“Then are they idiots? Why compete against the upper class?”

“There’s a handicap bonus. It’s a special sports festival rule that gives you a bonus for fighting against a strong team. But… if you forfeit, the reward drops to one-tenth. They’re gritting their teeth and enduring because they don’t want to get 3 points instead of 30.”

“…Looks like it’ll all go to medical expenses anyway?”

“That’s why they’re pitiful. Poor fellows who made the wrong choice. Tsk tsk.”

“But didn’t you get your armor from Oknodie too?”

The number one poor fellow who made the wrong choice hung his head dejectedly.

If no one else, at least Morb couldn’t treat those pitiful students as if they were someone else’s problem.

* *

Before the team competitions began, Isabelle and Dorothy seemed quite worried.

“Won’t the Imperial faction just sit back and let us frontier faction handle all the grunt work anyway?”

“It would be fortunate if they just sat back! Those sneaky bastards even set traps in the forest I frequent. Seeing how they act so selfishly when people could get hurt, it wouldn’t be strange if they interfered!”

“And the special C group has no motivation either.”

Cassia gave them a blank stare as if asking what they were looking at.

Isabelle sighed and turned her head away from the listless gaze that was draining her motivation.

“It’ll be fine! We all receive points together!”

“I really hope so…”

“Anyone who interferes with earning points here becomes an enemy of the entire upper class, you know?”

Not even Oknodie would dare to do such a thing.

Even a fool would realize they’d made a serious mistake if their screen became covered with relationship decrease messages after trying to act tough just once.

“Hmph. I’m only helping until the sports festival ends. Don’t get the wrong idea.”

“What’s that hero so proud of?”

“She abandoned us all and finished alone in the midterms. At least Oknodie helped the frontier kids get points.”

“And then she lost the joint top position because she scored low on the Dragon Principal’s cooperation score.”

“What a jerk.”

The hero’s face showed shock.

She clearly hadn’t expected such cold gazes and condemnation from the Imperial students who she thought would always support her.

It was only natural that the Imperial students, who were all used to being praised back home, wouldn’t look kindly on a hero who had abandoned them.

“Pfft. Stu~pid♡ If you’re going to act recklessly, you should have expected this♡”

Of course, behind the Imperial students’ cold treatment was the Imperial Second Princess Massgakki, who was instigating antipathy toward the hero.

“They live such exhausting lives over there. It would be nice if everyone just got along like friends in the forest.”

At Dorothy’s words, Isabelle thought to herself.

Aren’t animals in relationships where they eat each other?

“Sigh. Anyway, all the good times are over now.”

Even the upper-class students who had thoroughly enjoyed dominating the events trembled in fear of the approaching Friday.

Tomorrow’s schedule featured the year-group competition.

The highest-scoring event with 1,000 points for first place, 800 for second, 500 for third, and 0 for fourth!

For safety reasons, first-years would fight second-years, and third-years would fight fourth-years, but the intention was clear.

The rankings would inevitably follow the year order!

“Oknodie. Can we win?”

“Impossible, right?”

“If even you say that, it must really be impossible.”

“Because they’re second-years! Isabelle, could you defeat yourself from a year in the future?”

“If my future self doesn’t let her guard down, it would be impossible.”

That’s the kind of battle it was.

The second-years knew everything.

What the first-years had learned and what skills they possessed.

The upper class might be somewhat special.

But the year-group competition wasn’t a class-by-class battle limited to 50 people, but a large-scale war involving over two thousand students from each year.

Individual strength becomes meaningless when the numerical difference is this large.

Moreover, the upper class wasn’t exclusive to first-years.

Second-years had an upper class too.

“The orthodox noble lady Mandela, the White Knight Roo, Blue Fist Io, and the terrifying Deadcat. The second-year upper class students aren’t much weaker than the hero or Oknodie based on their lineup. Those four I just mentioned are especially strong and are called the Four Heavenly Kings of the second-year.”

Dorothy quietly shared the rumors she had heard.

Isabelle, listening beside her, felt something was off.

“Didn’t that senior Deadcat almost get completely destroyed by Oknodie before forfeiting…?”

If someone like that was one of the second-year Four Heavenly Kings, perhaps they might have a chance in terms of top fighting power?

“Don’t get your hopes up too much. The year-group competition is something everyone participates in together.”

Isabelle couldn’t understand Oknodie’s attitude of giving up before even starting.

Her passive demeanor was like when she used to hide from everyone, as if she felt she didn’t deserve to enjoy the sports festival event because everyone hated her.

Isabelle was more worried about Oknodie’s lack of confidence, which frustrated those watching.

“But with Oknodie here, would everyone give up so easily…?”

Isabelle was skeptical.

“Oknodie, didn’t you really enjoy the individual dodgeball event?”

“She certainly did. That little mouse was having fun as if she was just playing while others were fighting for their lives.”

“Dorothy says that regardless of how Oknodie felt, others won’t help.”

“If that’s the case, why not ask Giselle? There’s no one more knowledgeable about information than that bookworm.”

The information-savvy Giselle spoke coldly.

“Give up. More than half of the first-years already consider defeat a foregone conclusion.”

“Even with Oknodie? And though I don’t like her, we have the hero too. Aren’t the 981st batch first-years considered the strongest first-years in history?”

“They think that even if they try hard and lose, they won’t be able to participate in the remaining individual events today. Even though medical wing use is free during the sports festival, no one wants to miss opportunities to earn points.”

“Still…”

“That’s not the only problem.”

“What else is there?”

“First, there are quite a number of first-years trying to sabotage the sports festival—scholarship students from the Foundation—whom Son Ocheon and I have been dealing with instead of Oknodie. We’ve caught 50 so far.”

Among over 2,000 first-years, 50 spies.

That’s roughly one spy for every 40 students.

It’s impossible to expect a normal competition with such numbers.

“When you say ‘first,’ does that mean there are other reasons?”

“C group is also a problem. They generally lack enthusiasm for school activities. They’re all people who were either sold to the academy or enrolled as a means of escape.”

“Ah…”

It would be difficult to persuade them with “help us earn points” when what they wanted was simply admission itself or just to stay alive and breathing!

Even if one wanted to persuade them, they were opponents who wouldn’t be persuaded in the first place.

“Cassia.”

A girl with short blue hair and indifferent eyes as if she had achieved enlightenment.

Every time sparks randomly crackled around her body, the instructor standing behind her tightly gripped the restraining rod in his hand, creating a constantly tense atmosphere.

Isabelle approached this girl who could easily rank first as either the person with the least attachment to life or the person with the most difficult life.

“Isabelle.”

“You know my name?”

“I heard it.”

“I know it’s shameless to ask when we’re not even close, but I actually came to make a request.”

“Okay.”

“Oknodie is a child hated by many, but when given the chance, she enjoys herself more than anyone. I hope you can help her… Huh?”

“I said okay.”

“Really? You’re okay with it? Why?”

To the confused Isabelle, Cassia replied with an indifferent face.

“She resembles me. The Foundation and the Research Institute are similar too. She’s just slower to realize than I am. Someday she’ll understand how fleeting the freedom she currently enjoys really is.”

“…!”

“You can close your eyes if you want to look away. She’ll realize it when the time comes, whether she likes it or not. I can help with the games of such a pitiful child.”

Isabelle, who had approached to lighten Oknodie’s heart, found her own heart growing heavier, as if making an equivalent exchange.