I’m the Slit-Eyed Character at the Academy, but I’m not the Mastermind – Chapter 475

“By the way, how many headbands did you manage to secure?”

“Let’s see… one, two… ten.”

Ten. That was far more than I’d expected.

‘I currently have twenty headbands. At this rate, I should be able to trigger the quest pretty quickly.’

The condition to activate this main quest was simple: secure at least fifty headbands.

If Rezé had gathered about as many as Luna, then we would be able to start the quest before long.

‘Excellent sniping and perfect stealth.’

She should have had a much easier time collecting headbands than Luna.

She might even have more than Luna.

“H-hehe… h-here.”

Rezé proudly pointed at her forehead. An olive-drab headband was wrapped around it.

I see. So she perfectly protected the headband she was given at the start of the exam?

“…”

I waited for a moment, but Rezé only kept grinning instead of pulling out any others.

This rabbit couldn’t possibly…

“You’re not saying that’s the only headband you have… are you?”

“I-it is?”

“…”

“…?”

Rezé looked completely confused.

I grabbed both of her cheeks and stretched them out to the sides.

“G-gkiiiiiik!”

You damned rabbit. If you’re going to be an army rabbit, at least go down fighting in style.

I couldn’t believe she hadn’t stolen a single headband this whole time.

“Y-you’ve only got one life! If y-you protect the one, that means you’ve protected everything!”

Rezé flailed both arms while dangling in the air.

Luna snatched her away from me.

“Don’t be too hard on her. She set up a base camp while I was hunting. She also stayed behind to wait for you in case we missed each other.”

And then—

“Wouldn’t it be better to move instead of wasting time here?”

Luna was actually saying something sensible.

That alone was a clear omen that this hidden piece wasn’t going to be easy.

She was right. Hunting was the priority.

‘I need to accept the quest before I can decide on a definite route.’

Do I give up on the hidden piece and kill Teron and Daike, just like in the original story?

Or do I gather the puzzle pieces, clear the hidden piece, and save Teron and Daike?

Everything depended on the quest.

‘If the hidden piece is still valid, then the quest should change too.’

We currently had thirty-one headbands. We still needed nineteen more.

“I happened to spot three parties nearby while I was hunting. Which one do you want to target?”

Luna gave a surprisingly thorough report.

Traps, numbers, composition, skill level.

Enough time had passed that all of them had formed fairly solid parties.

Still, none of that was going to be a problem.

“We’ll hunt them all.”

Because there wasn’t a single party here stronger than ours.

“That’s more like it.”

“H-hiiiiiik! Th-the Demon opened his eyes!”

I bonked Rezé on the head, then immediately started hunting headbands.

Of course, information came with them as a secondary form of loot.

“Did you know? The hounds of House Vyuern have one thing that sets them apart from other houses…”

Thud!

“There are four ways to stop an enemy’s attack. Counter, defend, evade, and what’s commonly called parrying.”

Thud!

“Why do you think Duke Zeppelin helps Duke Aziz? It’s hard to imagine now, but back then the gap in power between them was almost embarrassing.”

Thud!

“Did you know? Luna’s been dating Zero for five years!”

Thudthudthudthudthud!

We gathered information and headbands, and punished the ones spreading false information.

Everything was progressing smoothly toward our goal.

Then—

Boom!

A spear flew in from somewhere and stabbed into the ground right in front of us.

“Th-this presence…! H-hiiiiiik!”

Rezé dove into a box. She had recognized who it was with her unique mana-sensing ability.

Of course, I knew the attacker’s identity too.

Golden lightning crackled across the spear. There was no mistaking him.

“To think I’d find you in a place this wide. Fortune must be on my side.”

He had once been called the Empire’s Spear, but after being cursed by a Demon, he had taken on the body of a child.

The Thunder Emperor, Adonis.

Golden energy blazed in his eyes.

“It’s been a while. Come, let us have ourselves a proper fight.”

Whirrrr—!

The sound of his spinning spear was chilling beyond words.

Why would Adonis, who was supposed to be an ally, pick a fight with me?

Simple.

‘You damned old battle junkie.’

I guess my current specs really were high. Considering this hidden piece, something I’d only seen about a hundred times in tens of thousands of attempts, had activated.

‘Well, considering our current situation, it’s not that hard of a level anyway, so I don’t really care.’

Could you trust your companion enough to leap into lightning itself? That was the core of Adonis’s gimmick, and also its weakness.

And I had a companion I could trust.

“Zero, get behind me.”

“Hoh… you won’t retreat? You’ve grown a great deal, but you still haven’t reached me.”

“You never know until you test it.”

“Krrr… splendid. A romantic is always accompanied by another romantic.”

Adonis shuddered.

Feeling romance with his whole body…? The more I looked at him, the more he seemed like a pervert too.

Luna whispered to me.

“What do you need me to do?”

“Jump into the lightning. If you draw his attention, I’ll finish it.”

“That’s simple.”

Luna grinned.

Being told to jump into lightning and calling it easy.

She really was the only companion I trusted.

“In recognition of that spirit, I shall specially…”

Craaaack—!!

“Fight you at full power.”

Golden lightning wrapped itself around Adonis’s body.

Even his lowered gaze had changed. One look was enough to tell this wasn’t normal.

“…Come to think of it, romance is supposed to be one-on-one, right? I’ll make an exception this time and leave Zero to you.”

Luna climbed into the box with Rezé and started shouting, “Fighting!”

And just like that, the companion I trusted abandoned me.

I’d never been in a situation like this before, but that didn’t mean there was no way out.

The basics of battle begin with understanding your opponent.

For now, I’d start by gathering information on him.

[Adonis – Lv. 99]

His real name is Douglas de Cassel.

A hero who grew through countless wars and one of the people who helped raise the Annwood Empire to its current position.

He was cursed by a Demon and now has the appearance of a child. He serves as the honorary chairman of the Continental Romance Association.

[There is too much information about this character. Please click ‘More’ for details.]

[The difference in specs between you and this character is extreme.]

[If you open the detailed information, you will be afflicted with the status conditions ‘Fear, Weakness, Confusion, and Stun.’ Would you still like to proceed?]

I closed the Information Window. Looks like he really was prepared to go all out.

My mind spun quickly. The way out of this situation was…

‘…I don’t think there is one?’

As if it wasn’t enough to throw the strongest person in the game at me just because my specs were high, now it was forcing me to fight him at full strength too.

This really was a damned game.

“Keke, it seems this is the end.”

“You’re planning to counter the moment I approach. A deceptive tactic, I see. As expected of you.”

No, actually. I just think that spear is going to skewer me to death.

Whether I said it or not, Adonis fought carefully.

Even after I died, he looked like the type who would keep stabbing me with his spear while shouting, “You’re not dead, are you? I know all your tricks, you brat!”

‘The combination of the Lucky Hourglass and the Adonis Style Counter is the strongest technique I currently have. But even Duke Zeppelin endured it.’

There was no way that attack would work on Adonis, who was even stronger than him.

Maybe it was because my thoughts had reached the point where I was considering that this might really be the end.

A fundamental question suddenly rose in my mind.

‘What is the point of this hidden piece even existing?’

Adonis’s hidden piece—suddenly appearing in the middle of the exam just to challenge you to a fight.

If you failed, it was a bad ending.

If you cleared it, the battle ended with him praising you—“You’ve gotten much stronger”—and you got a tiny amount of honor points.

The reward was absurdly poor compared to the brutal difficulty.

And more than anything—

‘It has absolutely nothing to do with Teron and Daike, the protagonists of this episode.’

In cases like this, it was always one of two things.

Either your specs weren’t high enough to properly proceed with the hidden piece—

‘Or you hadn’t fulfilled the story conditions for the hidden piece.’

This time, it was one hundred percent the latter.

So what was it? What had I missed, and where?

“Are you really going to keep giving me the first move until the end?”

“Keke, think of it as consideration for the elderly.”

“What a polite young man. I’ll graciously accept.”

I really wish you wouldn’t accept things like this.

You’re a sturdy old man to begin with! I’m the frail young one here!

The very moment I lost sight of Adonis’s movement—

“Eek! Stop this at once, will you! What are you doing fighting your own allies!”

A young girl emerged from the forest.

The emperor’s thirteenth daughter, and the youngest child to ever earn the title of priest.

It was Victoria.

This was the first time I’d ever been genuinely happy to see those twin drill curls.

Adonis pulled back the spear that had been a split second away from touching my body and grumbled.

“It’s a test of skill. I have to see whether he is fit to be an ally, don’t I?”

“You already know how capable Zero is! Did you really think I wouldn’t notice you were just itching for a fight?”

“Do not interfere in my battle. This is a fight between men, the realization of romance.”

“So it is a fight after all!!”

Victoria immediately started scolding him.

Maybe it was because Luna was fidgeting behind us, or maybe because her guard, Adonis, had run off and left her behind.

Either way—

‘Well, would you look at that?’

Judging by the mood, I might actually be able to talk my way out of this.

That was this character’s defining trait, after all—and his greatest strength.

His silver tongue.

“Lady Victoria is right.”

“Hmm?”

“It means there’s no reason for me to fight Lord Adonis. There’s nothing more awkward than a fight between an adult and a child.”

To anyone else listening, it might have sounded like I was provoking him.

They’d assume I meant that I was the adult and Adonis was the child.

I slipped an arm around Adonis’s shoulders and put a little distance between us and the others. Adonis immediately bristled.

“A fight between an adult and a child is awkward? And yet you fought Duke Zeppelin!”

“That wasn’t a fight. I just got beaten one-sidedly.”

“I can beat you one-sidedly too! I can even do it without leaving marks on the outside!”

…Is that supposed to be a point of pride?

Maybe he was too angry to contain himself, because static kept snapping around him.

I needed to calm him down first.

I thought about the things Adonis liked. Fighting, strong children, romance, and sweets.

“Now that I think about it, I forgot to give you something, Lord Adonis. It’s a special candy from the Dopamine Merchant Company. I heard it’s three times sweeter than ordinary candy.”

The special candy known in the game as Adonis’s exclusive consumable item.

It was expensive, but its effect was guaranteed.

“Mmm… sweet. Still, it is regrettable that we could not fight… no, that I could not instruct you.”

Adonis’s momentum softened somewhat.

This hidden piece was my first time encountering it, but I seemed to have made it this far without issue.

From here on, though, I was entering unknown territory too.

Still, I knew what topic I needed to bring up.

“The truth is, I need to conserve my strength. A major battle is coming soon…”

“A major battle?”

Adonis showed interest, and I immediately brought up Teron.

That Teron and Daike were waiting in the northern forest.

And that the decisive battle with them was fast approaching.

“So that is how it is! Krrrgh! Yes! This is romance!”

If someone had taken a hit of pure romance, maybe this was what they’d look like.

He started spinning out wild fantasies like Yuridia.

“From the very first meeting at the beginning of the semester, they must have felt some inexplicable thread of fate between them.”

Rivalry and conflict. Building opposing factions.

Even while fighting to expand their own forces, whenever Demons appeared they would stand back-to-back and fight together, feeling each other’s presence.

“They would realize that there was no one else they could trust to guard their backs.”

And today would be the day they saw the end of that story.

“But I do not believe today is the end of their tale.”

One would be the loser who left the academy, while the other remained behind as the victor.

Each would continue to build fame in their own place, yet both would feel an unexplainable emptiness.

Then, suddenly, a Legion Commander would descend! And the war against the Demons would begin!

And in that war, the two of them would become the closest of friends and once again stand back-to-back on the battlefield!

But just as everything has a lethal dose, romance apparently did too.

“After the war that decided the fate of the continent, the two of them would… ugh!”

“Grandfather!!”

Adonis, who had been rambling on with his fantasies, suddenly clutched his heart and collapsed.

Strangely enough, though, there was a smile all over his face.

Adonis’s death.

…There was no way this hidden piece existed for that, right?

“Aah, you must not go like this. There is still so much you have to do… but if you are happy, then this Victoria is satisfied with that.”

“He’s still alive, though.”

“With no priest present, resurrection will be difficult. All we can do is let him pass peacefully like this…”

Victoria planted a cross into the ground and started praying.

I kicked the cross away and shouted.

You are the priest!

–TL Notes–
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