Chapter 34
"Ugh, ughhh..."
The delinquent was dragged along by the scruff of his neck by Gaechu.
"Good job, Gaechu."
"I love labor! I love overtime work!"
I nodded in satisfaction as I looked at Gaechu, who had been properly reformed, and then turned my gaze toward the delinquent.
"Ughhh... I hate shiny things..."
The delinquent was half out of his mind.
Well, anyone would lose their grip on reality if a bald guy in rainbow-colored underwear was chasing them.
Shouldn’t have run away, huh?
I smirked as I looked down at the delinquent, who was a mess of tears and snot.
"Alright, shall we start the settlement?"
"W-why are you doing this to me?!"
"Give me the money."
"What?!"
"Give me a lot of it."
"Thief!!"
I glanced at Gaechu as the delinquent screamed.
"Gulp!"
As expected, the education paid off, and Gaechu quickly covered the delinquent's mouth.
Since the fish was already caught, I could take my time plucking it clean.
I casually glanced around, and since most of the Imperial Academy freshmen were gathered, the commotion didn’t seem to draw much attention.
Good.
As I turned my gaze, I locked eyes with the black-haired guy.
His expression looked quite complicated.
"What’s with that face? Are you worried I won’t give you your share?"
"No, it’s not that..."
The black-haired guy scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"Then what is it?"
"Well..."
"Is it because of the delinquent? You don’t seem to get along, but your expression says otherwise."
"Yeah, well... We’re not exactly close, but still, he’s my brother from a different mother..."
I couldn’t help but smack my forehead at his words.
He’s really playing the name card in the most unnecessary places.
But so what?
"So what?"
"Can’t you just let him go this once?"
Tch, look at this guy! Acting all righteous like some kind of saintly protagonist!!
But there’s no way this guy’s the protagonist, so I didn’t say anything.
If this guy’s the protagonist, then I’m the Demon King.
Anyway, "let him go," huh?
Has the word "mercy" ever existed in my life?
Still, since he’s someone I have some rapport with and it seems like there’s some family drama involved, I’ll make an exception this time.
"Fine. I’ll let it go this once."
"Thanks, Raniel."
"If you’re grateful, show it with money."
"I don’t have any..."
"Didn’t expect you to."
I already knew the black-haired guy was broke—the earth knew it, and the heavens knew it too, so I didn’t expect anything.
"But you don’t mind if I get some gratitude money from him, right?"
"Huh, uh...?"
"Come back, Gaechu!"
"I love work! I hate going home!"
I sent Gaechu back to the Master Box and looked down at the delinquent, who was slumped on the ground.
"I’ll forgive you this once."
"Th-thank you."
"Just words?"
"W-wasn’t that what forgiveness meant?!"
The delinquent’s eyes widened in shock as he stared at me blankly.
What are you looking at? I said I’d let it go, but I never said I wouldn’t take anything.
"Of course, I’ll forgive you. But you said you were grateful, right? If you’re grateful, shouldn’t you show some sincerity by paying a friend fee?"
"A f-friend fee?"
"Right. It looks like an unmanned department at first glance, doesn't it?"
"Y-yes, that's right."
"Then from now on, make sure to pay Linia a friend fee every day."
"W-what?!"
The bully stuttered and looked shocked.
Good. Now he's a stuttering bully.
Anyway, that's that, but why are you looking at me like that?
I stared straight into the bully's eyes.
"You don't like it?"
"N-no, it's not that..."
"No? Then what is it? Were you lying when you said thank you? If so, I can't forgive this."
"H-how much do I have to pay?"
Fortunately, though he stutters, he doesn't seem to be completely clueless.
"The friend fee isn't a fixed amount. Pay it sincerely."
"Ugh..."
The bully groaned at my words and reluctantly nodded.
"If your sincerity towards friendship seems lacking, I and Geichu will have a little chat with you, so make sure to express your sincerity properly."
"O-okay! I-I'll pay sincerely, so please, no more of that weird colored thing!!"
"The friend fee must, of course, come entirely from your own money. If you extort money from others, that will also lead to a chat."
"O-okay..."
The bully seemed inwardly guilty at my warning and avoided my gaze.
Anyway, you shouldn't give these kinds of guys an opening.
"Then you can go now. By the way, my preferred friend fee is money earned through labor, so I recommend working for it."
"O-okay! Thank you!!"
The bully didn't even look back as he hurriedly ran away from me.
"Who's going to eat you? Why are you in such a hurry?"
I shrugged and turned around.
Then, I met El's eyes, who was wearing a very serious expression.
"What? Why so serious?"
"Your actions just now seem no different from extortion."
Oh, is that why?
I thought something serious had happened.
"That's a friend fee."
"Is a friend fee synonymous with extortion?"
"No, it's different."
"How is it different?"
I took a moment to organize my thoughts in response to El's question.
"Extortion is forcibly taking money, while a friend fee is a voluntary offering, similar to a donation, given with the hope that a friend will stay on the right path."
"Is that so?"
"You'll understand if you watch."
"Alright then. I'll keep an eye on it."
Being a princess, she seems sensitive to these things.
Come to think of it, what you gave me when we first met was pretty much a friend fee, wasn't it?
I had a lot to say, but I didn't bring it up.
"Then it seems this topic is over, so let's take a break now."
"Yeah, sure. There's a good spot, so we can rest there."
Guided by the black-haired guy, we settled in a quiet clearing and lounged around.
Time passed like that.
"Shall we head out soon?"
After tidying up the spot, we arrived at the meeting place a bit earlier than the scheduled time.
"......"
As expected, the kids weren't there.
Looking at the empty clearing, I let out a deep sigh.
"I didn't believe in them anyway. These guys."
Fulfilling my non-expectations, these terrible guys.
* * *
"The mana stone power plant, you mean?"
In a secluded alley in the Cliché territory.
A man and a woman were having a conversation there.
“You were so confident, but you even failed to kidnap two kids from the Academy! You need to pull off a big achievement now! And conveniently, the target is there too.”
A woman wearing a deep hood spoke irritably to a man.
“What’s the point of setting the stage if the ones executing it are idiots! Honestly, they’re worse than lightbulbs!!”
The woman continued to scold the man, who kept shrinking back.
“B-but causing trouble in the Cliché territory is on a completely different level of danger compared to what we’ve done before!”
“That’s why I’m setting the stage for you! We’ve even used the sect’s artifact for this mission, so make sure you do it right this time!”
“A-an artifact?!”
The man looked shocked at the woman’s words.
“Why are you asking again? Just do what you’re told!”
“Y-yes, ma’am!”
Under the woman’s irritation, the man hurriedly left.
The woman watched him go, then pulled out a lightbulb from her pocket.
“Sigh… Oh, god of magical engineering. Please, make these incompetent fools act like proper humans.”
She treated the lightbulb as if it were a sacred relic, gently stroking it before putting it back in her pocket.
* * *
“Wow! So this is the dungeon entrance!”
“Judging from the reactions, this isn’t an ordinary place, Inea!”
“But if we wear protective gear, it shouldn’t be too dangerous, right, Hanea?”
Fortunately, the kids weren’t far away.
They were all gathered in a clearing near the dungeon entrance.
“Why aren’t you all gathered up? What are you doing here?”
“I’ll answer that question.”
In response to my question, a guy who looked like an engineer pushed up his glasses and stepped forward.
“Alright. Speak up, Engineer.”
“My name isn’t Engineer.”
“That’s not important. Just answer my question first, Engineer.”
“I see. That’s a valid point when considering efficiency.”
Typical of someone who looks like an engineer, he understands the logic well.
Compared to that Gelato or Ice Milk guy from the unmanned department, his attitude is quite satisfactory.
“We were taking a break and checking out the dungeon entrance. Raniel Leventhesia, class representative.”
“I see. But why aren’t you gathered up? It’s assembly time.”
“Since we’d all end up coming here anyway, I figured it’d be more efficient to just stay here.”
As expected, nonsense.
But it’s the kind of nonsense that makes sense, so I accepted it.
From an efficiency standpoint, it’s true that gathering here wouldn’t make much difference.
But considering my position, I still have to do things that might seem inefficient.
“It’s inefficient, but you’ll have to follow me to the assembly point. Any objections?”
“Not really.”
Luckily, there were no major objections.
I led the kids to the assembly point in the clearing.
When we arrived, the other students were already gathered.
Even the students from the other magical engineering class were there.
Is our class just weird? But from what I’ve heard, any magical engineer would have acted the same way.
I glanced suspiciously at the students from the other magical engineering class.
First, Class B.
Those guys are a hassle to deal with.
While the classes are divided by academic performance, Class B is special.
It’s for high-ranking noble kids who didn’t make it into Class A but aren’t placed in lower classes either.
In short, it’s a class for the children of the powerful.
You might wonder why El and the black-haired guy from our class are here, even though they’re also high-ranking nobles.
Well, El passed the entrance exam with top honors, and the black-haired guy… I’m not sure about him.
Anyway, even though the Empire has relatively weak noble authority and power, nobles are still nobles.
It’s best not to get involved with them—it’s just trouble.
Here's the translation of the provided text into English:
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This is Class C, D, and E.
Excluding Class B, they are divided by academic performance, so I can't say there's a huge difference in ability, but from my perspective, there's no need to pay much attention to them.
I’ll only need to care when I’m teaching them later.
Hmm, seeing it like this, the kids in our class are indeed something else.
While I’m at it, I turned my gaze to the other departments as well.
First, the Martial Arts Department...
It’s the same as the Magical Engineering Department.
That punk, isn’t he the younger brother of the black-haired guy?
I didn’t know because I wasn’t interested, but now I see he’s in Class B.
I guess that’s the noble class.
Below that, there’s a bunch of leftovers in Classes C, D, and E.
The Martial Arts Department is divided not only by class but also by factions—Orthodox, Heretical, and Demonic—making the seating arrangement quite complicated.
For a group that’s the least intelligent, they’re divided in the most complex way.
Next is the Magic Department.
Here, there are only three classes.
From what I’ve heard, the Magic Department isn’t divided by academic performance.
I guess that’s because magicians themselves are rare.
Looking at it this way, the number of first-year students in this vast Imperial Academy seems surprisingly small.
That’s why there’s a separate second group.
But I don’t remember much about them, probably because I’m not interested.
They’re not even here right now.
I’m too busy filtering out the slave candidates in the first group—why bother looking into the second group?
If this were a novel, I might have skimmed through to find the main characters, but whatever.
“If the headcount is done, we’ll start moving from the Martial Arts Department!”
Following the lead of a professor whose name I can’t remember, we began moving from the Martial Arts Department.
Then, the Magic Department and the Magical Engineering Department followed.
Since I brought the kids directly, the dungeon entrance wasn’t too far, and we arrived quickly.
“Students, please wait by class, and escort professors, please quickly double-check the headcount and distribute safety equipment.”
After arriving at the dungeon entrance, we went into waiting mode again.
“More waiting, huh?”
“It’s a dungeon, so it’s natural to check everything thoroughly, isn’t it?”
“I know that, obviously. Just take the equipment.”
“Thanks.”
After a brief wait, another round of safety equipment distribution and headcount checks were done.
“Now, students, please form groups of no more than 10, evenly mixing no more than 5 from the Martial Arts Department, 5 from the Magic Department, and 4 from the Magical Engineering Department.”
The instruction was given to form mixed groups across departments.
“They’re making us form groups? How annoying.”
“Does anyone know anyone?”
“Anyone joining our group! Martial Arts, 5 people waiting!!”
The kids, looking annoyed, quickly started forming groups.
I already knew from the information I received beforehand, but when you think about it, it’s like a group assignment—of course, it’s annoying.
“We’ll just go like this.”
“Rinia is coming too, so that’s 4 confirmed, right?”
First, I’ll include the black-haired guy, El, and Rinia, making 4. Who should I fill the rest with?
After quickly scanning the students bustling around to form groups,
“Hey, you, join our group.”
I immediately started recruiting talent.
