CH 75

[Academy Festival]

As I continued thinking about the inevitable future, being chased around by the monsterology teacher with a textbook in hand around the clock, and also getting my plans of robbing Fool’s Necklace obstructed by Higaki, somehow or another, the day of the academy festival arrived.

I, completely disregarding the opening ceremony, as is the obvious thing to do, am observing the city from the roof of the academy building.

The academy festival is a big athletic meet that involves not only the inside of the academy but also the surrounding facilities.

Because of that relationship, the city is generally in a festive mood, and the main street that visible here is crowded with people and merchants’ stalls aimed toward them.

The people in this world who basically need to live inside the wall are unconsciously bottling up stress, so there are quite a lot of people who like festivals.

Therefore, they would take advantage of events such as the academy festivals to start making merry like this.

Taking that into account and looking at the flow of people from the rooftop, the flow of people actually heading to the academy is small, it basically making circles around the main street where stalls are set up and taverns.

As I thought, the academy festival itself is not very important for the majority of the residents; they just wanted a pretext to gather and let themselves loose.

“Well, let’s take a look at the opening ceremony.” (Sakurai)

I move my line of sight to the opening ceremony held in the academy grounds.

In front of the gathering of not only the academy students, but also the participating students from the military academy who are aiming to become knights, there is a podium where the academy director and the military academy director standing in line.

There are glass cases installed beside the podium. They contained Diamond Magic Staff[1] and Fool’s Necklace for the presentation of this year’s academy festival supplementary prizes, and I can see teachers and members of the disciplinary committee guarding around it. Of course, Higaki is also in that group and is keeping a watchful eye on the surrounding.

“……Only the reserve team will go if there’s an uproar elsewhere, huh. As expected, I have to give up.” (Sakurai)

I want Fool’s Necklace, but I couldn’t think of a way to certainly get it without getting myself caught.

Therefore, I eventually, or more like, when the day of the event arrived, decided to get it in a straightforward manner.

Then, while looking at the students gathering in the academy grounds below, I get worried that I might think of them as experience points, so I decide to return to the academy building quietly.

When you look at a surging crowd from a high place, you will end up imagining yourself as a hero from musou game after all, right?

I start wondering how much experience points I’d get for each person’s head, and I’m sure that I’d end up putting that into practice.

Therefore, I decide to leave the rooftop for everyone’s sake.

“Phew. I’ve grown yet again so as not to bother others.” (Sakurai)

While muttering such a thing, I walk inside the almost deserted academy.

I’m devising strategy in my head in preparation for the upcoming competition while wondering if Iris and Luisina are carrying out what I instructed well a bit worriedly.

———

Amanai, who was attending the opening ceremony, began to get a little tired of the lengthy greetings.

On the podium set up on the academy grounds, the academy director and the military academy director each were giving directions.

The academy director wore a rough dark blue suit and spoke in a less formal tone, whereas the military academy director wore a ceremonial full-body armor adorned with quite a number of medals and spoke in a formal tone.

Their appearance was as though displaying the contrast between adventurer and knight, and the students who were listening to them were also in contrast, there were those who were beginning to get particularly antsy because they were unfamiliar with this kind of thing and there were those who were standing upright in attention.

After the directing were over, next was the announcement of the competitions.

The setting was three competitions were randomly selected from multiple candidates every year, but for this year only, Amanai knew in advance of what would be selected.

In case the competitions changed, he’d truly begun to doubt that there might be another reincarnated person beside Sakurai in the academy, but thankfully, what announced by the academy director were the same competitions as in the original game.

“This year’s competitions are chariot race, capture the flag… and round-robin tournament, huh. Hayato, do you know their contents?” (Reika)

Reika standing next to him spoke the same line as in the game.

Amanai naturally knew the contents, but he decided to ask Reika for explanation to make doubly sure.

“My bad, can you explain it to me?” (Amanai)

“You sure never pay attention to things like this. Can’t be helped, I’ll explain it to you.” (Reika)

While smiling at Reika who was making a proud face, Amanai focused on listening to her words.

The first was chariot race, which would be held from tomorrow at a rented racetrack nearby.

While it was called race, it was actually an endurance race where players riding on the prepared simple horse-drawn chariots continue to race until there was one last pair left on track.

In the chariot race where sabotaging during the race was allowed, 9 pairs of athletes competed against each other, and the participants in the last position were disqualified every lap.

“You will be given points according to your ranking in the race.” (Reika)

“But I never held a horse’s bridle or something of the like before. I neither have a horse or wagon after all.” (Amanai)

“That’s why the first day of the opening ceremony is preparation period, you can get training using the loaned chariot until you can at least handle it.” (Reika)

However, it heavily depended on one’s individual skill whether or not they could get the hang of it in one day.

As an additional information, the knight apprentices at the military academy usually got in contact with horses to some extent, so it could be said that the adventurer academy was disadvantaged in this competition.

“But in reverse, capture the flag that will be held the day after tomorrow is advantageous to us.” (Reika)

“If I remember correctly, it’s a group battle using a part of the mountains in the outskirts, right?” (Amanai)

“Un. It’s a group battle where a group of about 20 people, divided into the academy side and the military academy side, clash. The existing map is not very useful because the teachers who can use magic have modified the mountain, and victory goes to the ones who managed to find and steal the opponents’ flag while defending their own flag, of which location is unknown.” (Reika)

In capture the flag held in the real-world’s competition games or the likes, one started from the place where their flag stood, but in capture the flag in this game, one started from the state where ‘one did not know where their own flag was’.

Therefore, adventurers who were accustomed to challenging and exploring dungeons would have a higher chance to detect small clues left by the teachers involved in modifying the terrain.

Also, since adventurers’ equipment was basically light clothing, they had easier time to move on bad roads than knight apprentices who wore full-body armor, and add to that their high flexibility in decision making because they were used to acting in a group with a small number of people, which didn’t exceed the number that made up a platoon, the adventurers were basically had the upper hand in this competition.

The distribution of the point was not only based on the outcome of the capture the flag, but also how active a role each person played in the competition, which would be judged by the teachers who would be watching over from high grounds.

Therefore, even in case of losing the capture the flag, points might be added to the whole party or individually.

“So, the last one is round-robin tournament, huh.” (Amanai)

“It’s a party-based battle royal that takes place in and around the academy for a day. If you get your badge stolen, you’ll be disqualified immediately. The total number of points written on the badge held by the end of the time limit will be given to the owner. It is the last competition where a one-shot turn-around is possible.” (Reika)

Also, the battle area narrowed from the outside over time; even if one had a badge, they would be disqualified immediately if they get out of that range.

To get a better image, imagine it like battle royale game that had been popular for a while.

(…so is setting-wise.)

After listening to Reika’s explanation, Amanai muttered in his head.

Since the actual game was an RPG, it was just a matter of choosing an option that served as an action guideline in any competition and defeating the enemies that appear as a result.

In chariot race, you chose one from several rental chariots, chose the action guideline during the race before the start, defeated the enemies that appeared as a result, and then you would reach the goal safely. The number of turns used during the battle determines the 1st to 3rd place… other competitions were generally like that, too.

Therefore, with the game having turned into reality, Amanai was a little anxious about participating in the ‘real’ competitions.

However, it was similar to the tension one had before a match; he was optimistic about the outcome of the competitions itself.

(The academy festival is only a stage for introducing characters. It has no part that will affect the story later; even if the military academy wins in all the competitions, I would just not receive any bonus items.)

In his stance of adhering to the original and keeping the flow, there was nothing to worry about in the academy festival as the story would not be affected even if it was skipped entirely.

And so, as a student, he should take part in the competition seriously and deepen his ties with his comrades.

It would be nice if the academy festival proceeded smoothly and ended without any trouble, becoming something to be reminisced.

(Whether that would be interesting as a story is a different matter, though.)

However, that’s enough. For Amanai, that might be the best result.

“——to! Hayato!” (Reika)

“Hm, a-ahh, sorry. I was just thinking about what to do from now on.” (Amanai)

“Mou, get a grip. It looks like that the teachers saw us talking, so if you want advice, you should go find Ethel-chan after the opening ceremony, okay?” (Reika)

“Got it.” (Amanai)

Amanai raised his face and turned his gaze toward the podium. The academy director was introducing the supplementary prizes on the stage.

The opening ceremony should be over soon. While thinking so, Amanai made a wry smile to the small sigh that he leaked out unconsciously, and continued to listen to the speech absentmindedly until it was over.

“Hou, so he’s Amanai Hayato-kun…”

That was why he didn’t notice the line of sight of a beautiful girl who dressed in male clothing.