Ch.266266 – Chaos

<266 – Chaos>

“April. What are you doing? We need to escape quickly.”

“…I can’t move.”

April’s face turned pale as her tail got caught in the sack.

Andersen tried pulling harder as she trembled and couldn’t move, but April’s face contorted in severe pain.

Her reaction was so serious that he feared pulling any harder would cause serious damage!

‘This is troublesome.’

Andersen agonized over the situation.

Just the thought of entering the senior year area made his body tremble involuntarily.

Even he, a first-year advanced class student, had struggled against the Minotaur that was merely practice material for the upperclassmen.

He couldn’t imagine what would happen if they were caught by seniors who casually used such monsters for regular lectures.

But with her body so stiff, she would get seriously injured if she jumped off the cart.

“Go ahead, Oknodie.”

“Aren’t you coming, Andersen?”

“I can’t leave April behind.”

The loyal young man, Duke Andersen, resolved to stay until the end.

Oknodie made a very surprised expression at his decision.

“What’s with that face?”

“Hehe. It’s just really unexpected. In any timeline, Your Grace has always had a cold and ruthless side. I thought you’d pretend not to know us, like with Sister Arcadia!”

“…I have nothing to say about that. I certainly did wrong by Arcadia. She was in a situation beyond my reach to save.”

This time is different, Duke Andersen insisted.

But even April, who was receiving his help, didn’t agree with that assessment internally.

‘For a lowly minor noble, it wouldn’t matter what they do, but someone of a duke’s status should be careful not to get dirt even on a falling leaf.’

A woman outside his circle, and a mere maid at that.

Moreover, since she was disguised as a beastkin, she would appear to others as a cat-person.

Helping someone affiliated with the Foundation would be a scandal that would shake the Academy if discovered.

It would negatively affect his family.

It certainly wouldn’t be good for Andersen’s own future either.

Yet he still offered help?

Because she was within his reach?

Because it was something he could handle?

‘That can’t be true.’

Though he wasn’t caught up in as massive an incident as with Lady Arcadia, this was practically just as dangerous for him.

Yet he still helped, which made April think there must have been a change in Duke Andersen’s mindset.

“If you’re doing this out of guilt, you don’t have to.”

“That’s not it.”

“Then let’s just say it is, whatever!”

Perhaps he was being kind because he felt sorry for not being able to help Arcadia.

‘Or maybe he has feelings for me…?’

No way. That couldn’t be it.

April shook her head at such childish thoughts.

* *

The opportunity to jump off the cart had passed.

They finally arrived at the senior year exclusive area.

The lecture hall for <Understanding Monster Behavior Patterns>.

“This isn’t it.”

“Then where are we?”

Andersen was puzzled by Oknodie’s words.

A teaching assistant who had parked the cart in an open space took out a flute and made suspicious sounds.

Rustle.

Shortly after, suspicious students began appearing one by one from a gloomy path.

Could their identities have been discovered…?

Were they planning to gang up on a first-year who had fearlessly entered the senior area?

Andersen tensed up as his imagination ran wild.

“The goods?”

“See for yourself.”

Andersen trembled in fear.

One student approached the cart, cut open a sack with a dagger, and swallowed some jelly.

“Premium quality. The skill in cutting along the grain is extraordinary. Whose work is this?”

“Don’t know. I just collected what was already there, scheduled for delivery.”

“This works out well. Not bad for us ‘scholarship students’ of the ‘Foundation’.”

The students laughed wickedly.

All three of them were surprised at those words.

“!!”

To think they would encounter senior Foundation scholarship students like this!

Andersen realized the situation was more serious than he thought.

While Oknodie and April might be okay as Foundation affiliates, he was an outsider.

If discovered, he would certainly face terrible consequences.

His hand gripped tightly in shock.

April, whom he had been trying to calm down earlier, now held his hand and gave him a reassuring look, silently telling him to stay calm.

‘There must be more Foundation spies at the Academy than just the ones I know.’

April was aware.

Her assignment was mainly focused on the first-year lower class.

There might be different handlers within the same year, not to mention other years.

‘What kind of operation are they planning that requires so many senior scholarship students gathered like this?’

An evil Foundation plan she knew nothing about.

Even April’s palms grew sweaty at the thought of witnessing its true nature.

Andersen and April, drawing strength from each other’s warmth as they faced their fears together.

They finally witnessed the true nature of the Foundation’s evil plan!

“Finally, we won’t have to wait for free meals anymore.”

“If monster specimens go missing, it’s the teaching assistant who gets in trouble, not us.”

“Kekeke. It was a brilliant plan. Transforming into teaching assistants with sticker magic and boldly stealing specimens right from the front.”

They were stealing specimens!

Exactly what Oknodie had done!

‘I’m not sure if this means Oknodie is on the same level as seniors, or if the Foundation’s thinking is all the same.’

‘…I got tense for nothing. Then again, the scholarship students I handle also understand the importance of points, so most of them live like misers.’

Though it seemed somewhat pathetic, Andersen reminded himself that this was no reason to underestimate them.

The fact that they were seniors in this treacherous Academy was reason enough to be cautious.

April also remained vigilant, considering the possibility of deception.

“They’re wearing uniforms but never imagined we weren’t even students, did they?”

“Kekeke. It’s your fault for preventing students on leave from getting meals for 5 points.”

“Wow, look here. There are even cockatrice eggs. This assistant must have been really skilled? To steal eggs from a bird that burns you to death if you make eye contact!”

“Does eating them half-boiled increase fire resistance?”

“Should we throw them in lava?”

“You idiot, if they melt, no one but a lava golem could eat them.”

Andersen wasn’t sure whether to be surprised that these people were students on leave, or by Oknodie’s skill in stealing eggs from such dangerous monsters.

“Oknodie. The sack will be completely emptied soon and we’ll be discovered. Wouldn’t it be better to come out voluntarily now and ask for forgiveness?”

“Just wait calmly a little longer. Other presences are approaching!”

The senior scholarship students who had been transferring cargo from the cart suddenly turned their heads.

“This presence…!”

“It’s the student council! The Truancy Enforcement Division is here!!”

Andersen, unaware of the student council’s power, couldn’t understand the seniors’ reaction.

‘Why are they so wary of each other when they’re all upperclassmen? I could understand if it were instructors or professors, but just the student council?’

That was a thought only a clueless first-year could have.

“Fire the signal flare!”

“Over there! Students on leave who have illegally entered the enrolled students’ exclusive area!”

“Wait, how did they know we’re on leave!?”

“Could there be a traitor among us!?”

The Foundation scholarship students fell into extreme confusion, noticeable even to Andersen eavesdropping from the cart!

“We’ll identify the traitor later. For now, scatter… ARGH!”

“Ahahaha~hahaha━! To think you didn’t notice the lurking Mandela Castella, seniors! You’re so weak it brings tears to my eyes!”

‘D-did I just see that wrong?’

The distinctive laugh and characteristic drill-shaped hair.

There was no mistake.

That person was indeed Lady Mandela, the sophomore class representative he had seen at the sports festival’s dodgeball competition.

In an instant, as the students on leave were looking for an escape route, Lady Mandela appeared from thin air using <Short-range Teleportation>.

A cheat-like technique that warriors who value positioning could only dream of.

“Ha, she’s just a sophomore! A surprise attack is one thing, but now that she’s shown herself openly, there’s nothing to fear!”

A long-haired senior on leave lifted dozens of pebbles from the ground and fired them like bullets.

Following him, another senior with a shield tore off his fake uniform to reveal armor and initiated an armored charge.

Against the powerful consecutive telekinetic magic and armored rush technique, Mandela with her hammer as tall as herself looked as vulnerable as a candle in the wind.

“Now, let’s escape while we can!”

“What, you don’t want to see the outcome of such an exciting battle?”

“Whoever falls, we’ll be discovered next.”

At April’s words, Andersen reluctantly pulled out the sack to free her tail.

As they crept out of the cart, exclamations of shock came from behind: “No way!” “Impossible!” “To think that charge that broke Professor Platton’s statue would be stopped!”

…He was so curious.

He wanted to watch the fight!

April grabbed Andersen’s hand as he kept trying to turn back.

Seeing he still couldn’t focus, April took an even bolder action.

“!!”

Fingers interlocking with fingers.

Duke Andersen stared blankly at April, surprised by the hand-holding gesture typically reserved for lovers.

“Don’t slow down. Lady Mandela’s laughter is getting louder.”

They might face worse consequences than being caught by Foundation scholarship students.

Despite her brusque voice, April, who was running ahead, resolutely pulled Andersen along even as she occasionally twisted her waist in pain.

Seeing April struggle because of him despite her injured state, Andersen finally shook his head and regained his focus.

“Oknodie. April. I’m sorry to both of you. If I had noticed the approaching students on leave earlier, we wouldn’t have gotten caught up in this.”

“Oh, that’s fine. I managed to swipe something more valuable than all of today’s gathered ingredients from the senior who collapsed from Lady Mandela’s surprise attack!”

What Oknodie pulled out from her magic backpack was a bundle of stickers with special effects that the student impersonating a teaching assistant had been using.