004 There Was No Entrance Ceremony
Two years have passed since my exciting dungeon exploration.
I finally turned 15 and was happily admitted to the Adventurer Academy.
I tearfully left my parents’ home and moved into the student dormitory within the academy. My parents were incredibly supportive, and I’m grateful for their love and care, doing all the housework while I was leveling up. I appreciate them for not abandoning me and raising me so well, even though I naturally think of things like this.
Considering that my father went around to various places to see if he could speed up my enrollment by even a minute and my mother was making preparations for the move while I was away, I plan to repay them properly someday.
So, I’ll definitely return home someday, so please be prepared and wait for me.
With such wonderful memories of my family in my heart, I completely ignored the entrance ceremony and was exploring the academy dungeon when I was apprehended by the disciplinary committee members who oversee the academy.
It seems they had learned from my repeated escapes and had devised countermeasures based on my behavior patterns. Even so, abandoning the security of the entrance ceremony and having all personnel lie in wait inside the dungeon walls is insane, I think.
They ganged up on me and chased me with magic! It’s not a manhunt! What do they think I am?! I’m innocent! Call a lawyer!
“You don’t have that right.”
I protested against their blatant disregard for human rights, but I was still being carried away, my hands and feet bound to a pole they were carrying.
Come to think of it, isn’t this position good for training my semicircular canals? See, when I shake my body, I start earning experience points. Oh, I’ve found a new training method. I’ll try it for a while!
“Hey, be a little quieter!”
“Shut up! I’m busy right now! Just carry me away quietly!”
“Y-you, you’re the one who should be quiet!? Why are you shaking with such a smile on your face!? It’s scary, you’re scary!”
“Uhohoho, this is getting fun. If I try hard, can I do a full rotation? Hey, hold me steady on the left and right, okay?”
“What is this guy! Is he crazy!?”
“Damn it, let’s hurry and take him to the disciplinary committee head! I’m going crazy!”
If you can’t understand this fun, that’s why people who can’t see experience points are no good.
But I don’t have time to deal with you guys. Now that I’ve finally found a way to level up my semicircular canals, I have to do as much leveling as possible before I get to the student guidance room.
…No, what is semicircular canal level anyway? I’ve never heard of such a thing. But a level is a level, and if it exists, I should raise it. Alright! Papa’s gonna do two rotations next! Here we go, round and round!
While I was leveling up like that, I was thrown into the student guidance room. How cruel, when a person is enjoying leveling up. I want to see their parents’ faces.
“You’re the rumored boy, I presume?”
When I turned my eyes to the source of the voice, there was a female student.
She had black hair cut at shoulder length, a white flower hairpin, and large, bright eyes on her cute small face.
She was more cute than beautiful, more of a pretty girl than a beauty, and she was directing a sharp gaze at me that belied her appearance.
A blue ribbon was wrapped around her chest, pushing up her pure white uniform from the inside, indicating that she was an upperclassman at the Adventurer Academy.
“My name is Higaki Aoi. I’m the head of the disciplinary committee at this academy.”
“Aoi-chan!”
“Too familiar.”
“Yes.”
I straightened my posture and sat properly on the floor. Even I wouldn’t joke around in front of an original character. I have to be more serious than ever, or I don’t know what I’ll get caught up in.
Disciplinary Committee Head, Higaki Aoi.
She is one of the heroines who appears in the original game, a female swordsman who received training from the legendary figure known as the deceased “Sword Saint.”
Despite her cute appearance, her behavior is like that of a dignified beauty, and that gap gives her a charm that makes her seem like she’s trying to act older than she is.
As a character when she meets the original protagonist, she has received the teachings of the “Sword Saint,” but has not been able to inherit many of his techniques. While pursuing the reason for this, she trains to master the ultimate technique, “Zanka Ranman,” from the notes he left behind.
In the process, she works as a disciplinary committee member to view the academy’s materials related to the Sword Saint, and as a result, she has successfully risen to the position of head… that’s her background.
She is a stoic character, but after all, she is a heroine.
As she interacts with the protagonist, she remembers the reason why she took up the sword, creates her own technique, “Zan ‘Flower’ Ranman,” instead of the Sword Saint’s technique, and develops feelings for the protagonist who was the catalyst for it… well, it’s a typical development, and she officially becomes a companion.
In other words, what I’m trying to say is that she’s a character who only has events that are unrelated to leveling, so I’m not that interested in her.
“I’m sorry. If I didn’t know about the existence of levels, it might be a different story, but now I don’t think I want to date you.”
“You seem to be good at getting on people’s nerves. But considering your actions so far, as someone who protects the order of the academy, I can’t just let you go.”
“Huh?”
“Illegal entry into the dungeon, theft from the practice room, use of explosives in the dungeon, and failure to report undiscovered areas. There’s no end to the list.”
I see. My usual behavior has accumulated and is now turning its fangs on me.
If that’s the case, then accepting it willingly is the act of a noble gentleman. I straightened my back, looked firmly at Higaki-san, and declared in a very serious tone.
“I admit to illegal entry, but do you have any proof for the rest of it!!!”
“Y-you…!?”
A gentleman is a gentleman, but I’m a three-tongued, British-faced gentleman! I’ll trample on the charges head-on!!!
“I admit to illegal entry, it’s a caught-in-the-act situation, and I won’t argue at all. But, as for the theft from the practice room and the explosives and all that, I completely deny it!”
“Do you think that will work?”
“Then why have the disciplinary committee continued to use the method of ‘capture’ until now? If there was proof that everything Higaki-san said was true, I would have been easily caught by reporting it to the knights (police) and would have been leveling up in a juvenile detention center. But, that’s not the case, which means that ‘catching me in the act’ was the only option, right? Do you have any proof that I did all those things?!”
It’s not for me to say, but illegal entry, theft, and explosions are all serious crimes. If there was proof, I should have been caught without saying anything by reporting it to the knights.
However, from the first time I illegally entered until this day, I have never been caught or even given a stern warning. I’ve never been followed home, and I’ve been thorough in not leaving any evidence in the first place.
This is also a simple application of the footwork I learned from Bonus Uncle. In a world without surveillance cameras, it’s very useful to have a movement technique that combines gaze guidance.
“Don’t underestimate us, we have proof. But it’s inconvenient for us to involve the knights, so we’re trying to settle this peacefully.”
“I see, so Higaki-san was suppressing the evidence and preventing the knights from getting involved in this matter.”
“…What, that’s ridiculous.”
“It’s obvious if you think about it a little.”
Recently, I remember organizing the “Trap System with Me,” where I crushed the enemy spawn points on the third floor with earth and sand, adjusted the spawn locations and speed of the monsters, and then cut them down one by one from the front.
Considering my actions so far, it’s no exaggeration to say that the culprit (me) is a dangerous person, and it wouldn’t be surprising if someone decided that the disciplinary committee, which has been outsmarted, could no longer handle it. In such a situation, the disciplinary committee is not foolish enough to think that they can catch me on their own. There must have been voices calling for the knights to intervene.
However, looking at the disciplinary committee’s all-out capture operation this time, there is no sign of the knights being involved.
If that’s the case, there must have been someone who stopped those voices, and the only person who could do that is the disciplinary committee head, who has the final decision-making authority for the committee’s activities.
“If you had proof, it would be strange not to present it to the Knights. Since you didn’t, you had no choice but to arrest me on the spot. And yet, if you say you ‘have proof,’ then I can’t help but think that, for whatever reason, you recognized me as the culprit, and that Higaki-san stopped reporting to the Knights out of personal reasons.”
“Why would I do something like that?”
“No, that’s why I said I don’t know. But, well, let’s see…”
As I said that, I stood up, took a step closer to Higaki-san, met her gaze, and stared intently, making sure not to miss the emotions rooted deep within her eyes, and spoke.
“I understand why you might dislike me, but I have absolutely no idea why you would ‘resent’ me. Could you please just tell me straight without beating around the bush?”
From the moment I was brought to this room and met her gaze, I had been inwardly tilting my head at the fact that she had been continuously directing a resentful gaze at me.
After a long, silent staring contest, she finally seemed to give in, and as if to cool down the heat that had accumulated within her, she let out a long, thin breath from her red lips and began to walk towards the door. She peeked into the hallway, confirming two or three times that no one was around, and then, as if to make sure I wouldn’t escape… no, to make sure no one would interrupt, she slammed the door shut with a loud click.
“Resent, resent, huh… I guess that’s why I wanted to see you so badly, even if I had to force it.”
The mask of the disciplinary committee member was cast aside, and the true feelings of Higaki Ao as an individual were directed at me. Seeing her so driven by personal feelings, I was inwardly pleased that I had managed to steer the conversation away from the accusations.