Ch.8282 – False Flag

# 82 – False Flags

Vanilla ultimately failed to purchase the flag.

“I’m sorry, Hero.”

“It’s okay. I was the one who asked for your help.”

“I’ll return the points I received as a down payment.”

“The 10 points are my down payment to you. Regardless of success or failure, please accept them and use them for dinner tonight.”

“Thank you!”

Ishtar couldn’t hide her disappointment.

She had asked someone else to attempt buying the flag to avoid raising suspicion, but the clever Oknodie had seen through the proxy purchase.

However, her disappointment was lessened by the crucial information she had gained.

“To think Oknodie knew all the lectures Vanilla was taking—her intelligence network is quite formidable.”

“I was so scared I thought I would die! Please pat terrified Vanilla’s shoulders, Hero!”

“I’ll pass on that.”

Ishtar firmly grabbed Vanilla’s shoulders with both hands to prevent her from embracing her, coldly pushing her away. She maintained an expressionless face until Vanilla left, but once the dejected girl had gone, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.

“Ishtar. What are you so pleased about?”

“Yufi, did you hear? Oknodie must be interested in me.”

“…That child is an assassin.”

“She’s also my top candidate for a water-attribute teammate.”

“When assassins gather preliminary information, there’s usually only one reason.”

Unlike the Hero who was delighted that someone who had openly refused to be her teammate was secretly investigating her class schedule and classmates, the Saint remained tense.

“I think… Miss Oknodie is definitely an assassin sent by some organization. One who’s received orders to assassinate the current Hero.”

“Yufi, aren’t you worrying too much? Oknodie is just a 10-year-old child.”

“Don’t underestimate the A-group valedictorian because of her age. She’s a powerful individual comparable to you, the Hero.”

Skola, who had been on the same team as the two, supported Yufi’s opinion.

“That child’s archery skills were extraordinary. I believe she’s easily the second-best archer in the 981st class. First place, of course, belongs to me, heir of the divine bow.”

“See? If she’s skilled in archery, she might be capable of <sniping>. We can’t let our guard down.”

Hero Ishtar’s official party member was only Saint Yufi.

Skola believed that as the top-ranked archer of the 981st class, he could secure a position as Ishtar’s companion, but…

Flinch.

Ishtar, looking at Skola, seemed more interested in the second-ranked Oknodie than in him, the first-ranked archer.

“Really? How was Oknodie’s archery?”

Skola recalled her archery skills.

“It was a moving target test race. First of all, she was swift on her feet and light-bodied. Her core muscles were so developed that she could put sufficient power into her arrows even from unstable positions.”

“She was strong enough to skillfully execute power shots… Well, another notable point would be her wide field of vision.”

“But she was naive enough to backtrack during the race to help classmates who were falling behind, running alongside them. In the end, I suppose that shows she’s still a child.”

Having felt he’d praised her too much, Skola slipped in one of Oknodie’s weaknesses at the end.

It was meant to emphasize that he was the superior archer compared to Oknodie, but contrary to his intention, the Hero’s expression turned cold.

“How disappointing, Skola.”

“…Hero? You misunderstand! I wasn’t trying to disparage that child…!”

“If not disparagement, then you consider it common sense to treat someone with a righteous and kind heart as childish? Does that mean you see me, a Hero who upholds justice, as childish too?”

“Not at all!”

“You don’t need to make excuses. If that’s how you choose to live, I don’t want to deny that fact. It’s just that we’re not compatible.”

Skola felt sick to his stomach at the thought of losing his chance at joining the Hero’s party.

‘After all, a companion needs to be strong.’

Meanwhile, Ishtar was in a good mood.

With the water attribute quota, archer quota, and strength bonus points, she had plenty of reasons to recruit Oknodie.

At this point, she was beyond the first choice—she was the zero-priority recruitment candidate.

She must have feelings for me too, since she investigated my social circle.

What a tsundere!

‘I thought if I demonstrated the Hero’s competence in this lecture, Oknodie would stop pretending and honestly agree to become my companion… Too bad it didn’t work out.’

This wasn’t the only opportunity.

The Hero decided to wait for another chance in the future.

* *

-I have arrived!

In the end, Ishtar failed to overturn the flag count with a last-minute comeback before the Principal appeared.

-Place the flags your five-person team collected into your respective baskets. I’ll rank you according to the total number of flags.

Dragon Principal expected at most ten to twenty flags per team.

That’s how it had been last year, and the year before that.

He never expected to see baskets overflowing with flags, some even piled high like towers.

-Why are there so many flags?

The students secretly hoped:

If only the fake flags could be counted as real, their rankings would skyrocket with these flags!

-Someone has circulated fake flags.

-As many as three hundred of them.

-How audacious.

If a merchant’s quality was determined by how many fake flags they could sell, Giselle would have been an excellent merchant.

===

□Honer FriedChicken’s Prince Team(B) – Total 122

□Arcadia Ceviche’s Princess Team(A) – Total 112

□Yayoi 3rd Princess Team(B) – Total 69

□Oknodie Valedictorian Team(A) – Total 63

□Ishtar Hero Team(B) – Total 58

□Massgakki Heugmag 2nd Princess Team(B) – Total 55

□Giselle Team(A) – Total 8

□Andersen Pretzel Team(A) – Total 6

□Cassia Team(C) – Total 5

===

Fake flags everywhere!

Only the bottom two teams who couldn’t afford to spend points, Giselle’s team who sold all their fake flags, and Oknodie’s team who had many flags to begin with competed honestly.

Everyone thought so, but there was still one team that didn’t possess any fake flags.

-Fake flags are obviously all invalid!

-If you confess now, I’ll appreciate your sincerity and waive the penalty points.

As Dragon Principal offered leniency, students began removing flags one by one from their baskets.

“Huh? Wait. Was this fake or real?”

“I don’t know. They all look the same.”

“P-Principal. What happens if we remove real flags from the basket?”

-Naturally, they won’t be counted.

“Then what if fake flags remain in the basket?”

-You should be prepared for penalty points.

The students turned to Giselle with resentment. They had poured their points into a gacha with neither ceiling nor 10+1 pulls, only to receive harsh penalty points in return!

“We need to find a pattern. What did the real flags look like? Is this one real? Is that one real?”

“Damn it, we’re all doomed! Honer, you bought too many flags and messed up the real ones too!”

“You all joined in happily! I spent the most points in the first place!”

“Who cares! You’re the team leader, so you take responsibility!”

“The cerebral watashi becoming a delinquent with penalty points in the first week of Academy? I cannot include such content in letters to my family desu!!”

Students were in chaos—rummaging through flags, wailing in denial, or grabbing each other by the collar.

Amidst the pandemonium, Massgakki banged on the desk with a thud.

“Attention!”

The imperial students in disarray turned to Massgakki. No cadet could ignore a summons from the 2nd Princess.

“You all look so pathetic, like you’ve failed miserably. Isn’t that too pathetic~? Losers♥ Failures♥ There’s still a chance for a last-minute reversal♥”

Massgakki came up with a shocking plan.

“If we mix fake flags into other teams’ baskets too, all teams will receive penalty points~?”

“!!!”

“Such a brilliant idea!!”

“As expected of the Princess!”

“The teams without fake flags are Oknodie’s team, Giselle’s team, Andersen’s team, and that team with five C-group students!”

Seeing the situation turn unfavorable, Giselle hastily raised her hand and addressed Dragon Principal.

“Hasn’t the submission already ended?”

-I told you to bring flags by Thursday, but I never said the deadline was when the lecture started, did I?

If there was one thing Giselle overlooked, it was that the Principal’s personality was worse than anyone could imagine!

-In life, you’ll be backstabbed by deadlines more than once or twice.

-A paper submission deadline might suddenly change from 1 PM to 2 PM due to unexpected schedule changes, and then mysterious assailants might attack the conference and burn all the papers during that one hour!

-Protecting your team’s achievements despite arbitrarily changing deadlines.

-This is a valuable experience you must go through to survive not only the Academy but also the harsh society in the future.

The example was strangely specific and plausible enough to make listeners wonder if it had happened to him.

‘Didn’t the Principal change the time himself?’

‘He might have burned them himself.’

‘He probably burned the paper on <Whether Dragons Mate in Dragon Form or Human Form> because he found it embarrassing, and now he’s pretending he didn’t!’

While students looked at the Principal with suspicious eyes, and one particularly short student with certain eyes, the Principal announced the final submission deadline.

-The submission deadline is 30 minutes from now.

-Until then, you’re free to burn other teams’ flags, forcibly take them, or mix in fake flags as you please.

-Judging will take place in 30 minutes, based solely on the flags in each team’s basket.

In short, for the next 30 minutes, teams with 100% genuine flags must defend them against their formidable classmates from advanced classes.

Naturally, the team drawing the most attention was Oknodie’s team, which had collected the most genuine flags.

‘Oh? This might be a chance to make Oknodie honestly become my companion?’

Hero Ishtar’s eyes also gleamed with opportunity.