Ch.263263 – Stiff Tail

<263 – Stiff Tail>

Since I was going to trigger traps anyway, I deliberately took a moderate amount of damage and bleeding as resistance training. This made Zhang’s expression change to look like an extremely sad cat.

[You have triggered all traps. You’re a third-rate idiot who can’t disarm or avoid traps, but your feelings toward your friends make you a sweet first-class bestie.]

[Trap Detection experience +15]

[Pain Resistance experience +15]

[Bleeding Resistance experience +5]

[Impact Resistance experience +5]

[Paralysis Resistance experience +5]

[Unconsciousness Resistance experience +5]

[Sleep Resistance experience +5]

[Burn Resistance experience +5]

[Frostbite Resistance experience +5]

[Curse Resistance experience +5]

[Poison Resistance experience +5]

[Good Child experience +5]

[Daily quest completed.]

[Acquired 1 Treasure Vault ticket.]

[Acquired 3000 points.]

[You did not become Professor Bronze’s top disciple.]

[The difficulty of next week’s <Professor Bronze’s Underground Treasure Vault Stairs ③> will increase by one level.]

I easily found the mimic and put it in the box.

Titosoga also received treatment and recovered completely.

“Look look~ Can I do this?”

As Titosoga was showing off fancy baton twirling with the light stand, it slipped from his fingertips and spun horizontally before flying into the front yard of the medical building.

With a tearful face, Titosoga ran to retrieve the light stand.

He was as clumsy as ever, but his intention to show Zhang that he was fine so she wouldn’t feel guilty came through clearly.

Perhaps because of that?

Titosoga occasionally glances at Zhang while enthusiastically twirling the retrieved light stand.

Watching from the side, he’s like a pet trying to cheer up its sad owner.

So what animal would Titosoga be closest to?

Definitely not a cat.

Cats are known for being prickly, hence the term “cat punch.”

Harmless combat power with harmful cuteness.

If I had to compare, maybe a timid and cute rabbit?

Imagining Titosoga with rabbit ears and a rabbit tail made me smile a little.

“Oknodie. I need to talk to you for a moment.”

“Huh?”

I thought she’d feel guilty about following me on a dangerous quest and having a rough time, so she wouldn’t immediately come running back with an “This time for sure!” kind of declaration.

But as expected of an assassin with high mental fortitude, she spoke with determined eyes.

“Oknodie, you know.”

“Yeah?”

“Next time, I want you to take me to Professor Bronze again.”

“Oops.”

It wasn’t guilt but responsibility that manifested.

Well, is that okay?

While Titosoga might be questionable, Zhang is quite skilled.

“This incident made me realize how dangerous the Academy professors are. And how weak first-years are.”

“Heh. So it wasn’t a friendship event but a power-up event.”

“I’m being serious, so please don’t say random things.”

“Sorry!”

“I’m going to steal and learn all of Professor Bronze’s skills and someday avenge today’s humiliation. The humiliation of watching Tito lying injured on the cold stone floor without treatment, and Oknodie becoming battered while clearing the path.”

It really is a power-up event after all.

I just smiled and glossed over it, afraid Zhang would get angry if I said it out loud.

“Then let’s go together the week after next!”

“Aren’t you angry? We put you through a terrible experience, yet we’re asking you to take us again.”

“Friends don’t get angry over things like that!”

Zhang turned her head slightly.

“What’s this~? Are you actually embarrassed right now?”

“I don’t know, idiot.”

A throwing knife whizzed past with a whoosh.

Beyond her embarrassed outstretched hand, the naturally thrown knife grazed past Titosoga’s head and embedded itself deeply into a nearby wooden pillar.

Titosoga, who plopped down with a “hoeee,” probably has no idea.

That the knife just pierced through the body of a wasp that was pointing its poisonous stinger at him.

“Zhang is a good child!”

“Stop calling me that. What good is an assassin being a good child?”

“Maybe you can gain the faith of a good deity on Religion Day?”

“Religion Day…? Wait, when you said we should go the week after next, is something else starting next week?”

“Probably? It should be starting soon? The first semester finals are approaching! Next week is probably the only suitable time for the Principal’s hobby of tormenting students?”

Weekly event <Religion Day>.

The wind is hot, and summer heat approaches with cicada sounds in early June, on a summer day.

Religion Day begins—a cowardly day of faith where priests tempt first-year students who haven’t gained stat boosts from the power of faith.

* *

Students gathered at the corridor windows, pressing their cheeks against the glass or poking their heads out the door.

The sight of priests in various denominational robes walking through the corridors was not a common sight at Gift Academy.

Curiosity toward unfamiliar faces in an academy where outside visitors were strictly controlled!

“This is ridiculous. I don’t understand what they’re so excited about.”

Andersen Pretzel, who had already tasted the bitterness of faith, looked coldly at the backs of the interested students as if they were naive children.

Dragon Principal ranted in front of the excited first-years, saying that those weak-hearted students who try to escape through the power of faith won’t get good grades.

Yet he’s the one who created this event.

There was no point in criticizing him internally—that massive dragon wouldn’t even blink—so Andersen just left the classroom.

He didn’t know much, but it seemed to be a week for finding and joining religions that would help with academy life, making it a good time for training for students marked as <Atheist>.

“Everyone, don’t let your guard down. As you’ve already learned in the class on using divine magic without faith, priests drive humans into crisis and make them depend on divine power. Rather than relying on such cowardly beings, it’s a hundred times better to prove human strength and survive with human power.”

“Young Master’s words are correct.”

“We will become a Western Nobles Union that won’t shame Senior Velvet.”

The noble male students following him firmly showed that their resolve remained unchanged.

“Now then, this week is for individual training. Regular classes are also canceled, so I hope to see everyone with improved abilities when we meet again in a week.”

Though he announced dismissal, most nobles were heading in the same direction.

Realizing their destination was the training hall, the noble male students smiled awkwardly and strengthened their resolve, but only Andersen turned toward a different place.

“Is the Young Master not going to the training hall?”

“He must have important business. Like assignments.”

“But the classes the Young Master takes are the same ones we take?”

“…Maybe he’s meeting Senior Velvet privately?”

“I’m envious. A private meeting with Senior Velvet before the vacation even starts.”

The guess about meeting a woman was correct, but Andersen’s target wasn’t Senior Velvet.

While others were peeking into lecture halls—essentially proselytizing rooms—where religious people gathered to guide students on the path of faith, he was following Oknodie who was sneaking off alone in a different direction.

‘Oknodie. A child who could fight on equal terms with a hero. I confirmed that strength at the Grand Sports Festival.’

And now, instead of powering up through faith, such an Oknodie was secretly slipping away somewhere.

She must be seeking something more advantageous for future academy life than flattering gods on Religion Day.

If it helps Oknodie, it would surely help him too.

With such a somewhat weak thought, Andersen followed.

Oknodie’s tracking difficulty was quite high—slipping through holes in walls, making threatening guard dogs pant and follow her, passing by dog houses.

If he hadn’t learned the <Tracking> and <Taming> skills during his mischievous childhood days—quite unlike a noble—he would have lost her.

Thinking this, he put his ear against the container box Oknodie had entered.

“That’s far enough.”

“!!”

A cold sensation on the nape of his neck.

He would die.

If he turned his head, he would die.

If he opened his mouth carelessly, he would die.

As he felt dizzy, the person holding the blade against him asked:

“State your reason for following Oknodie.”

“As fellow disinterested parties in divine power, I wanted to naturally become closer and build a friendship.”

“What shall we do with him?”

Oknodie, whom he had definitely seen entering the container, poked her head out from the top of the container and said:

“Let him go!”

“Be grateful for Oknodie’s mercy.”

When the cool sensation left his nape, Andersen first checked what had threatened him.

‘Is this for real…’

It was a broom.

A broom with many stiff brown bristles.

To display such a threatening aura with just a cleaning tool.

The maid with a cat tail was truly extraordinary.

‘She must belong to the Foundation.’

A woman who doesn’t relax her guard even slightly, with her tail maintaining perfect balance without a single waver.

Unlike other tailed beings who can’t easily suppress their racial instincts and wag their tails, she was undoubtedly a maid who had undergone tremendous training.

“Hmm~ This is troublesome! I can’t be discovered by others right now, yet Young Master Andersen followed me.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not so financially desperate that I’d snitch to instructors or professors for points.”

Andersen Pretzel showed curiosity.

“So, while others are preparing to get through final exams with the power of faith during this period, where were you secretly going alone?”

“Oh come on. Why ask such an obvious question? Everyone knows that when instructors are absent, the only thing to do is steal, right?”

…This child, despite claiming otherwise, hasn’t her way of thinking become closer to that of a righteous thief?

The thought crossed the Young Master’s mind that the day he’d see Thief Oknodie might be closer than Dark Princess Oknodie.