Return Path.
Andersen honestly expressed curiosity.
“Is that sticker really such a precious item?”
“Of course! If you write a desired magical formula on such a small area, it automatically completes the spell and activates its effect!”
Even now, knights, the flowers of the battlefield, have competent magicians painstakingly carving spells into their heavy armor, striving to include as many formulas as possible.
This skill, which far exceeds the permitted number and limit of mana techniques allowed per unit area, is practically a superior version of myself who engraved an overwhelming number of mana techniques onto a paper airplane.
To put it bluntly, I, the player, had begun to copy this incredible mana control technique from a senior.
“If that senior possesses such outstanding skills, they must be an upperclassman, right?”
“Uh, speaking purely by year, I’m actually a 2.5-year student.”
“Only 2.5 years? That doesn’t sound like much of a difference from us. Are you a working 2nd year!?”
“To be precise, I completed the 1st semester of my 2nd year and am currently on a leave of absence.”
“With such amazing abilities, why hasn’t that senior risen to the 3rd year? Or did their skills actually improve because of the leave of absence?”
“Ah, please don’t dig too deep. We might end up entering a DLC content route.”
“DLC? That’s a term I don’t know.”
“It means you shouldn’t understand too much.”
“The academy is vast, and the foundation’s secrets are truly many.”
Andersen nodded and promised to keep the secret of my debt to them today.
“A matter regarding the foundation is both a huge liability and an unavoidable burden for you. If exploited, I could easily put you in a pinch, but having received this favor, I have no intention of doing such an ungrateful act.”
“Then I thank you very much!”
However, the senior we should be wary of was not the creator of the sticker.
“Aah~hahaha~!”
Laughter spread across the entire forest.
The high and refreshing tone made my skin crawl.
“This characteristic laugh… Could it be from just now!?”
“Step aside, Oknodie.”
This owner’s laugh existed only in one person at the Gift Academy.
“I never expected the first years to be collaborators of the students who fled from the scene! Even I, as a student council officer, couldn’t have anticipated such a situation!”
“Ugh! Senior Mandela…”
“Oh dear. I helped you enjoy the joy of victory at the grand sports festival, but did I raise your guard? You don’t look very welcoming. Or perhaps… did you sense the punishment for being a ‘naughty child’?”
Mandela, the daughter of the Marquis, pulled the string tying the leave-of-absence seniors together, urging them on.
“Is this truly all the intrusion tools you have, weak seniors~?”
“We gave everything! You took all our possessions, how much more must we be tormented to be satisfied!?”
“Oh? It doesn’t seem like you’re in a position to shout like that~?”
With a flick of her wrist, leave-of-absence seniors toppled over one by one.
Shedding tears of humiliation at such a defeat from her junior, a student council member from the leave-of-absence enforcement unit chuckled and stopped her.
“That’s enough. Don’t push too hard on seniors who show such disgraceful behavior despite lacking talent and effort. Judging by the quality of the
Despite exerting absolute power against classmates, Mandela Castera readily obeyed the words of the senior in front of her.
A senior wearing glasses perceived as dull and unattractive, usually someone she would have annihilated for acting superior over just a one-year difference, but this individual was not an ordinary glasses-wearer.
Among glasses wearers, this was the only one who managed to occupy the position of a student council officer, the most skilled member of the glasses faction!
As the sunlight reflected off the glasses pushed up by fingers, a notable presence emanated from 3rd-year student council officer Burte Glass, adding an imposing aura.
“It’s strange~ No matter how you look at it, the strongest weapon these intruders have is the sticker, yet there are no more stickers among the confiscated items. There was certainly a mana reaction, but it suddenly cut off, indicating they must have hidden it away to avoid confiscation!”
“Finding them is the duty of our leave-of-absence enforcement unit. Just helping with the arrests is enough accomplishment for you. Your skills, aiming for the student council presidency two years from now, are impressive, but don’t be overly greedy. Your work ends here for today.”
“Oh~ hohohoho~! I, Mandela Castera, would gladly welcome any student council affairs that earn me tons of points. Please keep them coming, Glass-senpai!”
In front of Glass-senpai, Mandela handed over the rope to another 3rd-year with a smile, but once her student council duty was over, a sadistic curiosity emerged on her face.
“Hmm~ No matter how I think about it, it’s strange. A man clearly afflicted by
Her steps, prowling near the incident site, suddenly halted.
The damp ground.
Touching the dirt revealed a sticky, viscous liquid that splattered between her fingers.
“Bingo♪”
Activating her detection magic, she spotted similar liquids scattered at regular intervals across the soil.
An interesting leave-of-absence senior hiding at the end of this trail must be there.
So what had they spilled here?
“Perhaps they spilled slime jelly or something~?”
What a careless senior.
I must teach them a lesson.
Of course, since the official duties of the student council are done, I’ll keep the loot all for myself.
Steps tracking the trail became livelier.
Chatter chatter.
The cheerful voice of a girl speaking joyously slowed down the tracking steps.
Mandela was taken aback.
The shortest in the academy.
A first-year standing at 133cm.
The Oknodie who had defeated three of the second-year Four Kings during the grand sports festival was at the end of the trail.
“Certainly. It appears that way?”
Mandela’s smile brightened as the truth dawned.
As soon as she realized, she revealed her presence.
“I never expected the first years to be collaborators of the students who fled from the scene! Even I, as a student council officer, couldn’t have anticipated such a situation!”
“Ugh! Senior Mandela…”
“Oh dear. I helped you enjoy the joy of victory at the grand sports festival; did I raise your guard? You don’t look very welcoming. Or perhaps… did you sense the punishment for being a ‘naughty child’?”
“We were merely innocent victims who got caught up in this!”
“None of your lies will work on me. You might fool the boy who came with you, but it’s simply impossible to trick me!”
Already in her mind, the real situation became clear.
“The vanished mana reaction at the scene and the loss of the most valuable magical device. If this was the intervention of the chief scholarship student to help the foundation’s scholarship students, it would make sense.”
“Huh… was it really like that, Oknodie!?”
“Don’t be such a foolish prince. How can you fall for a light teasing remark like that?”
“Gah, sorry.”
“With no sense at all, you must be a Tier 4.”
Andersen, who didn’t know what was happening, received unwarranted verbal attacks.
Seeing the guilt-ridden expression on their face only solidified her conviction.
“You came here today with two purposes. One was to inform the foundation’s leave-of-absence students that they have not been abandoned and to provide support and instructions.”
“Uh?”
“I didn’t report it to Glass-senpai, but my eyes, Mandela Castera, have already seen the truth. I know they are scholarship students of the foundation!”
“How do you know that?”
“If you assert that suspicious students in the academy are foundation scholarship students, then nine out of ten will be scholarship students!”
An outrageous act of logic.
The one singled out as an official, Oknodie, answered boldly.
“No, that’s not true!”
“Really?”
“…Probably not?”
The evasive expression only firmed her suspicions.
“Another goal is to exert dominance over your Anderson before they can be snatched away by the student council. Just seeing you fidget confirms that a significant level of gaslighting has succeeded. The intent to strengthen your grade’s unity and not let prominent 1st-year talents be taken away has been fully noticed!”
“Whatever you say, I can’t hear?” Oknodie complained shamelessly, playing the innocent victim.
If that was the case, then so be it.
“I might just overlook it.”
“Really?”
“As long as I fully enjoy the capability to support the dark intentions of the 1st-year’s façade of innocence while behind the scenes, progressing the foundation’s plan!”
The junior chief and the second-year chief.
Their unintended battle outside of the arena suddenly began.
