chapter_0136

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
136

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
136

Most of the Academy students
were as lax as I had anticipated. They never expected battles between
students, allowing us to ambush them effortlessly.

Of course, there were some who
were wary of the threat of pillaging. These were either those who had
upperclassmen friends who had warned them beforehand or those who had
failed to advance to the second grade and remained in the first
grade.

Unlike the others, they eyed
me warily, knowing the possibility of an ambush.

The most useful asset in this
process was Phoebe. As the Saint of the Church of Armadi and someone
highly respected among students, hardly anyone could stay tense in
front of her smile.

Thinking there was no way a
Saint would engage in pillaging, they readily believed our claim of
merely passing by and allowed us to approach.

Without Phoebe, we would have
been in serious trouble. Even with some improvement, my reputation is
still in the gutter.

If not for her title as a
Saint offsetting that, we wouldn’t have been able to carry out these
comfortable massacres as we are now.

“These people…”

“What the heck. These sloppy
fools are weak, but they’re carrying a lot of loot?”

“No! That’s—”

“Even their quota…”

“What is this? Trash. Do you
want to hand over even the minimum quota?”

“Ugh…”

Maybe because there were some
repeaters in the party, the amount of loot they had was quite
substantial.

It was definitely a treat,
probably because they were experienced field trippers. Well, still
not up to Arthur’s party’s standard, though.

Arthur really is competent,
after all. How did a first-year student who just entered the Academy
manage to gather over 50 pieces of loot in just one day?

Well, everything the Pitiful
Prince worked hard to earn all day ended up in the hands of the best
Mesugaki Strategist.

You should’ve done your
homework before you invested.

“I’m sorry. We had no
other choice.”

Phoebe clasped her hands
together as she looked at the people groaning on the ground.

I’ve convinced her that this
is all for the growth of other students, but it seems she still feels
uncomfortable.

But, you know, Phoebe, I get
that you’re genuinely sorry, but to those hearing it, it might come
across as teabagging (exploiting their loss and rubbing it in).

When the person who set the
trap pretends to be concerned, it’s bound to be infuriating, isn’t
it?

“It’s okay, Saint. We know
there was no other way.”

“Yes, Saint, it’s not your
fault.”

Judging by their reaction,
maybe it’s not so bad after all.

‘Grandpa, stop hitting me
with facts.’

I understand why they’re
reacting this way. Phoebe has too good of a reputation, and mine is
way too bad.

If Phoebe had done this alone,
people would wonder why the Saint is acting this way, but with me by
her side, it’s no surprise.

That bad woman must have
threatened the Saint into doing this!

For me, it was a really unfair
situation.

Of course, it’s true that I
made her do it, but I didn’t threaten her! I persuaded her gradually!

Sure, I did say something
along the lines of, “I’ve gone through this disgrace because of
you, so you at least owe me this.”

Anyway, it’s unfair! I
didn’t do anything wrong!

‘If you ever get an answer
to that, please let me know.’

I’m curious too. Why me of
all people?

Was there some grand purpose,
or did he just want to use a Mesugaki as a toy and enjoy the insults?

‘Phoebe…’

“Sloppy Saint, we don’t have
time for this. There are still plenty of people to exploit.”

“Oh. Right. I’ll just treat
these people quickly.”

The contrasting way people
looked at Phoebe and me became even more pronounced after her final
comment. The person who allowed her to treat them was me in the first
place.

Alright, so you all think I’m
the villain?

Fine. Let me show you what a
real villain is.

The field trip has only just
begun; only one day has passed. You all have to spend three more days
with me in this forest.

Get ready. I’ll make you see
how tough and gruelling things can get.

‘I gave up on that a long
time ago.’

Bisi, who had been staying
wide-eyed beside the campfire, finally couldn’t fight her
exhaustion and began to doze off.

She was really energetic while
wandering around the forest today.

Adri, who was floating midair
and saw Bisi dreaming happily, started to laugh, seeing the drool
coming out of a smiling, dozing Bisi’s face.

‘It’s nice to be able to
roam outside with Bisi.’

Just a short while ago, Adri,
who had been turned into a dungeon boss by the Apostle of the Evil
God, had escaped her fate as an Earthbound Spirit.

Being both an Undead Spirit
and powerful enough to rule a dungeon, Adri could resist the
constraints of being Earthbound.

However, her essence remained
that of an Earthbound Spirit, so she needed a place to stay even if
she left the mansion—a place connected to her.

Fortunately, Adri had someone
who shared that connection with her.

Bisi.

She was grateful to the person
who, despite knowing she was an Undead Spirit, still considered her a
friend.

Thanks to that, Adri, who had
found a place beside Bisi, was able to finally set her long and deep
loneliness aside and explore the world.

The world she faced after
having been confined in a dilapidated mansion for so long had no
place devoid of beauty.

Buildings. Forests. Roads.
Skies. People.

Even now, staring at Bisi like
a doting big sister would, Adri still remembers her first time in
this forest when she made a huge fuss.

She had forgotten that she was
supposed to pretend to be a cheerful little girl next to Bisi and
caused quite the commotion.

Fortunately, her innocent
demeanour matched that of the character she was playing, so Bisi
wasn’t suspicious. Had it been otherwise, Bisi would have tilted her
head in confusion.

While marvelling at the stars
in the night sky, Adri reflected on how wonderful the outside world
truly was. Then, sensing something approaching from afar, she stood
alert.

‘This presence is that
arrogant kid. Walking straight in this direction, could they be
coming to see Bisi?

No, that kid doesn’t hold much
affection for Bisi. She just considers her a convenient tool, so she
wouldn’t come this late at night just to see her. There must be
another reason behind this.’

Adri remembered what had
happened earlier today when Bisi’s party encountered another group.

Instead of greeting Bisi’s
party, they attempted to attack right away.

When Bisi’s party asked why,
they simply replied that this was the nature of the field trip.

The reason Bisi’s party
managed to win that battle was because Adri had secretly helped Bisi.

If not for that, Bisi’s party
would have been easily overpowered by them.

Afterwards, Bisi’s party was
able to hear their story.

“We were also pillaged last
night.”

That was their explanation.

They said that last night,
Lucy Allen’s party had been pillaging several groups.

After that, several parties
realised the true nature of the field trip and began attacking other
parties, leading to widespread chaos throughout the forest.

“There are only two types of
people in this forest right now: victims of pillaging and pillagers.”

The ones who attacked Bisi’s
party explained everything and begged to be spared at least their
assigned quotas.

There must be only one purpose
for the enormous chaos lurking in this forest.

Pillaging.

‘Should I wake Bisi?’

As Adri pondered this, she
looked at Bisi sleeping soundly against a log and shook her head.

‘That arrogant kid can be
reasoned with by me. Let’s send them back with words. There’s no
need to wake up someone who’s sleeping well.’

Floating into the air, Adri
then moved towards where Lucy was.

Did Lucy sense Adri flying
towards her? Lucy was standing alone in the middle of the forest,
apart from her party members.

“Lonely hag? What brings
you here? Shouldn’t an undead spirit like you be staying in a dusty
corner?”

“I am neither a hag nor
lonely, how many times do I have to tell you, damn brat!”

As soon as she saw her, Lucy
immediately picked a fight.

‘Oh, seriously. If it
weren’t for the favour I owe her, I would have smashed her to pieces
by now!’

“Just answer me, hag. You
can still talk even with dementia, right? Or do you need me to fetch
your dentures?”

“Ughhh.”

With each word exchanged, Adri
felt increasingly worse, so she decided to quickly state her business
and leave immediately.

“In front of you is Bisi’s
party. So don’t touch them.”

“Why?”

“Aren’t you acquainted
with Bisi?”

“Yeah. I do know that NPC.
But what difference does that make? This is a field trip. If you’re
angry, you should have been stronger. Have you been holed up in your
room for so long that you can’t tell the difference anymore, Lonely
Dementia Hag?”

‘This heartless woman. It
sounds like she doesn’t care at all; Seems like she’ll attack
regardless of what I say.’

Adri, looking at Lucy who
wasn’t intimidated at all, spoke in an irritated voice.

“If you keep this up,
I’ll intervene.”

Adri warned her, but she
wasn’t confident the warning would work.

After all, she was facing Lucy
Allen.

Even when she was at her peak
as the dungeon boss, tormenting Lucy was nearly impossible; Lucy
would always come out on top, a nightmare to contend with. Even if
Adri gave it her all, beating Lucy would be difficult.

Harming Lucy’s party members
might be possible, but actually defeating Lucy Allen would be a
gruelling task.

Adri was on edge, but
surprisingly, Lucy stepped back more smoothly than anticipated.

“Since the lonely hag is
shivering and pleading so pitifully, I’ll retreat.”

“As if I’d beg!”

After mocking her to the end,
Lucy left. Adri returned to Bisi’s location.

What she saw then was Bisi
sprawled out on the ground, giggling to herself.

Watching her, Adri couldn’t
help but laugh, feeling as if all her recent hardships were swept
away.

“Bisi. You should be
grateful to have such a good friend. Got it?”

“What a mess.”

It was the night of the second
day of the field trip. Anton, the Combat Studies professor, openly
lamented in a gathering of various Academy professors.

“Isn’t this progressing
just as we guided it to?”

“That’s true, but
everything is moving too quickly. At this rate, won’t distrust among
the students be rampant by the end of the field trip?”

It was indeed a fact that the
Academy professors had incited disorder. The very purpose of this
field trip was to have students gain experience through ongoing
real-world combat scenarios.

However, the scale of the
conflict had now grown too large.

The current situation where
parties behaved like beasts, eyeing each other’s loot with every
encounter, was never what the Academy professors had envisioned.

“Lady Allen was too
active on the first day.”

The so-called beginning of all
this was instigated by Lucy Allen’s pillaging.

She attacked countless parties
during the first night’s lapse in vigilance. Furthermore, she hinted
that if they were upset, they should just pillage weaker parties than
themselves.

Those pillaged by Lucy then
attacked others, and those others attacked more parties, and so on…

This vicious cycle continued
to spiral out of control.

“Our Miss is
exceptionally capable.”

“Professor Karl. Saying
something like that… ha, never mind.”

Several professors sighed as
Karl, raising his shoulders proudly, showing no concern for the
atmosphere among the faculty.

The professors who had spent a
few months with Karl knew well how much this skilled knight admired
his lady.

They also knew that any words
said to him would go in one ear and out the other.

“Let’s discuss how we
should manage this. It’s getting out of hand.”

There are still two days left
of the field trip. If this atmosphere continues, it will not have a
good impact.

As most of the professors
nodded in agreement with Anton’s words, Luca raised his hand.

“Professor Luca, what is
it?”

“Is it really necessary?
From what I see, I think the students will come together even without
our intervention.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Anton blinked in confusion as
Luca smiled.

“There is a common enemy,
isn’t there?”

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