Ch.297297 – A Change of Heart

<297 – Change of Heart>

As soon as she heard about Oknodie’s weakness, Ishtar felt her path forward becoming bleak.

She had no idea.

She couldn’t even begin to guess what Oknodie’s weakness might be.

At close range, she displays the traits of a tricky swordswoman who deceives the senses with high-speed movements that leave afterimages, represented by her [Acceleration Afterimage Sword].

At medium range, she pulls out a wand and employs the wicked arts of dark magic, represented by [Dark Ball].

At long range, she suddenly disappears with [Hiding], making it impossible to find her.

Whether she’s left the battlefield, hiding and waiting for an opportunity, or circling around to attack from behind—she’s a frightening child with no predictable patterns.

‘Even saying she’s weak against holy swords, holy magic, and divine arts because she has a lot of dark mana can hardly be called a weakness.’

What good is knowing a weakness anyway?

She doesn’t let herself be hit in the first place.

A physical weakness of such a child would be nothing but a shiny but useless prize, even if obtained at auction.

‘I need something like what the Rebel Forces have against Oknodie—a fatal weakness she hasn’t even considered.’

Without that, it has no value whatsoever.

But would Oknodie be unaware of this fact?

She’s a child who plotted to kill a professor more than a month in advance.

Unlike the public perception of her as a good child wrongly labeled as the Dark Princess, today’s events made it clear that Oknodie’s true nature is indeed that of the Dark Princess.

She must have meticulously planned for this moment as well.

“Ishtar. 3.4 million points.”

She invested all the points she had.

She couldn’t bid any higher.

Be satisfied with this much.

Just let us go back with the weakness.

In response to Ishtar’s desperation, Oknodie smiled broadly and raised her hand.

“Oknodie. 3.7 million points.”

Ishtar’s head drooped.

“I’m sorry, Yufi. My strength wasn’t enough.”

“It’s not over yet.”

“Yufi…?”

“I’ll give you all my points.”

Right there, Yufi transferred all her boarding points to Ishtar.

400,000 points.

Adding all of Yufi’s points miraculously gave them one more chance to raise the bid.

Ishtar felt like she might cry.

Even while thinking herself worthless for making her childhood friend suffer and borrowing her points, she simply couldn’t refuse them.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. The hero party consists of you and me, the two of us together. The risk of missing this auction item belongs to both of us.”

Yufi, who told her not to feel guilty and lifted the weight from her shoulders, truly seemed like a saint today.

We must succeed.

I’ll make it big.

And someday I’ll repay this debt to Yufi.

Tenfold, with generous interest.

“Hehe.”

But why does that child, Oknodie, keep smiling?

Her resolute determination and burning will wavered severely, like sand thrown on a campfire.

She felt goosebumps.

It’s not over yet.

That terrifying smile directed at her seemed to say exactly that.

Why?

Why on earth?

“So 3.8 million points is your limit after all!”

“You, don’t tell me…!”

Even at this point, you won’t let us have it?

Regardless of Ishtar’s astonishment, Oknodie mercilessly raised her hand.

“Oknodie. 4.9 million points.”

There were no more points to raise.

Even combining with Yufi’s strength wouldn’t be enough.

The two women lowered their heads helplessly.

Oknodie tilted her head at the hero party.

“Giving up?”

“You cruel girl. Do you really need to confirm the kill to be satisfied?”

“Well, she is an assassin after all.”

Ishtar raised her head, about to get angry at Zhang’s casual comment from behind.

Oknodie, who had somehow approached right in front of her and crouched down, stared directly into the hero’s indignant eyes.

…Too close.

The lack of distance is uncomfortable.

The discomfort she felt inside might have been premature.

Compared to Oknodie’s subsequent statement, that was really nothing.

“If you don’t have enough points, you can earn them here.”

“You, don’t tell me… you were aiming for point collection all along?”

Oknodie put a vuvuzela she pulled from her chest to her mouth and made a “pwoooo” sound.

“Correct!”

You’ll understand this much since you’ve made my friends suffer plenty, right?

Oknodie’s blatant statement clearly conveyed her intent for punishment.

“By the way, I won’t update my bid anymore. If you can turn this around, I’ll let you have the item!”

The exact value of Ishtar and Yufi’s combined points was 3,898,900 points.

They were short 1,101,100 points to reach 5 million.

━━━

Collection Menu

━━━

Blood drawing: 10 points per 1ml

Hall serving: 100 points per hour

…

Breaking finger joints: 100 points per time

Pulling teeth: 1,000 points each

…

Receiving Foundation scholarship: 100,000 points

Agreeing to arranged marriage: 1,000,000 points

━━━

If Oknodie keeps her promise.

If there are no more bid updates.

She could receive the scholarship.

If she accepts the collar, she can be freed with that.

If she gives up the chance to choose her future spouse, the hero party can at least continue their adventure.

The young girls who fell victim to the empire’s evil laws won’t have to be heartbroken again.

At least she can help her childhood friend Yufi live as a successful saint.

“Don’t think such foolish thoughts, Ishtar!”

“How frightening. A bid amount that thoroughly considered the prices on the collection menu. If she had guessed the points we gathered from the beginning, it means everything is going according to her plan, right?”

“Ishtar!!”

“Even knowing that, we have no choice but to give in. If we don’t yield here, we’ll suffer even greater damage. So please understand my decision, Yufi.”

“I’d rather…!”

Yufi, who was about to shout that she would take the scholarship instead, collapsed.

Ishtar, who clearly anticipated her childhood friend’s thinking, had quickly pressed on Yufi’s blood vessel to make her faint.

“The Foundation scholarship was 100,000 points, and arranged marriage was 1,000,000 points? Breaking finger joints was 100 points each.”

1,101,100 points.

Before time ran out, Ishtar mercilessly broke her own finger joints with a crack.

A violent action of repeatedly breaking fingers that quickly returned to their original angle thanks to the hero’s recovery ability.

If there had been enough time, she might have been able to earn all the points just by breaking fingers.

“If there are no higher bids, the auction will end in one minute from now.”

But the time to update the bid price in the desert island auction was only one minute from when the butler spoke.

One minute was ridiculously insufficient to break finger joints 1,100 times.

‘My determination was lacking.’

Despite having skill, she had to pay a greater price.

Because she had been complacent.

Because she had been arrogant about her position as a hero.

Because she had been captivated by the number of points in her hand.

Because she had underestimated the strength of Dark Princess Oknodie.

It was all her own karma.

Ishtar vowed with tears of blood in her heart.

Never to be careless again.

Never to underestimate again.

Oknodie is not beneath her.

She is a mortal enemy who must be eliminated with all her might.

“Give me the reward for breaking fingers 11 times.”

“11,000 points acknowledged.”

“Eleven thousand…? Not eleven hundred?”

Oknodie answered her question instead.

“If your points aren’t negative, you can receive 10 times the reward on the collection board. Isn’t that great?”

What?

So I only needed to break my fingers twice…?

The disappointment was brief.

A great joy followed.

“That’s good. I don’t have to agree to an arranged marriage!”

“…I’ll take the Foundation scholarship.”

“100,000 points have been paid.”

To pay the remaining 100,000 points, she chose items worth 10,000 points from the collection board, and all the missing points were filled.

“Ishtar. 5 million points.”

“I forfeit!”

“The sixth day auction item <Rebel Forces of the Hero Party> has been sold to participant Ishtar for 5 million boarding points.”

Oknodie put her hands behind her back and said arrogantly.

“Bad hero. Live kindly from now on!”

“…I will never forget what happened today.”

The hero returned to the cruise ship, carrying the unconscious saint on her shoulder like a sack.

[Ishtar has developed a grudge against you.]

[Ishtar’s relationship with you is now ‘Mortal Enemy’.]

If this were a game, such a message would surely have appeared at that moment.

* *

Looking at the darkened cruise ship, Ishtar’s heart was also dyed in pitch-black darkness.

In her childhood, a powerful figure obsessed with the evil power of dark mana exchanged the lives of villagers living in a remote hamlet for dark mana.

The girl who appealed for justice and hoped for a fair trial witnessed the reality of power trampling justice.

With power, you don’t get hurt.

Without power, you only suffer.

When that fact materialized before her eyes, Ishtar began to earnestly wish for the first time.

That she wanted to gain power.

That she would become stronger than anyone.

Though she hadn’t learned how to distinguish right from wrong or what justice was, she had the talent and opportunity to become strong faster than anyone else.

‘Oknodie was stronger than me.’

Not in physical power, but in mental calculation.

With evil wisdom that she herself lacked.

She keenly realized why the term ‘intellectual power’ existed.

She needed power.

A new kind of power she hadn’t possessed until now.

‘When I return to the academy, I’ll find a strategist. Yufi can fulfill her role as an advisor, but she’s not a formal strategist.’

While physical strength can be increased by learning mana tempering methods, intellectual power is different.

To walk a path one hasn’t pursued before, someone who has walked ahead must reach out their hand.

Who among the first-years could be such a strategist-type person?

First, there’s Giselle.

The one who cleaned out all the points with gacha products.

But that man is Oknodie’s strategist.

The Heugmag princess is also quite clever.

But I’ll never bow my head to an imperial princess.

…Should I recruit hidden talent from the lower class?

Tsk.

With my reputation, it won’t be easy.

But if I look, a suitable opportunity for talent recruitment might come along.

“Ah, this time the hero has returned!”

“Wow. Did Oknodie win?”

“That’s insane.”

“But doesn’t this make things harder for us?”

“We don’t have an ace to help with the ship rebellion.”

“Ah… I got excited for nothing…”

Students openly expressing disappointment.

Individualistic Ishtar won’t help us.

To the students who thought this way, an unexpected change occurred.

“Ship rebellion? What have you been doing?”

“Huh? Ishtar is talking to a lower-class student…?”

“W-well… we’re trying to somehow conquer the ship and avoid paying the negative boarding points…”

Well, this works out perfectly.

An opportunity to improve her image with the lower-class students has arrived.

And incidentally, a chance to strike back at the Foundation that put a collar on her.

“I’ll help you.”

An unexpected figure that no one had anticipated, Hero Ishtar, joined the ship rebellion.