Arc 20: Recruitment (1)

“... My father?”

When I arrived at Constel, Aten told me about Ampere. To my surprise, he had apparently visited the school.

“Yes. Everyone was talking about it for a while.”

“... Hmm. I did notice things seemed a little noisy.”

No one talked to me during class, and I headed straight to the training room after school, so I was a little slow to hear rumors like this.

Aten pressed her lips together slightly before speaking.

“... He came without saying a word to his son?”

“Well, that’s just how he is.”

Atzier probably hadn’t known either. Ampere had never been one to talk about his own affairs.

Aten blinked her half-lidded eyes several times, as though thinking something over.

“... They’re alike in some ways.”

“Who is?”

“... My dad and your father.”

... Oh.

You mean Emperor Terst, Aten!

How am I supposed to make that connection when you just call him Dad, Aten?!

Still, her point made sense.

I hadn’t met the emperor very often as a player, but I had met him. Emperor Terst was a textbook example of dignity, strictness, and meticulousness. The stereotype that readily came to mind when someone said “emperor,” you might say.

His coldness, however, went too far. Beyond cold, he was downright heartless. Ampere at least showered Atzier with affection, but Terst never opened his heart to anyone.

In other words, Emperor Terst bore some responsibility for Elysia going off the rails.

Anyway, it didn’t seem I needed to concern myself with Ampere for now. He had probably come because Atzier was teaching here. His love for Atzier knew no bounds, after all.

I had something more pressing to worry about.

“More importantly, our finals are coming up.”

“Yes. They say we’re allowed to start recruiting today.”

Finals would begin soon, in about fifteen days. Once they were over, our grades for the entire year would be announced, deciding whether I had succeeded or failed at the mission Ampere had given me.

Since I had placed sixteenth in the midterms, I needed a very high rank to make the top ten.

... No.

“I need to come first.”

“Pardon...?”

“That would be the safest, surest way.”

Aten’s eyes widened at my words.

Taking first place. That wasn’t something I could say lightly, with so many incredible students ahead of me. Still, it wasn’t impossible. Unlike the midterms, finals were team-based.

For the practical portion of the finals, students took the exam in teams of three. Three was the minimum number of professionals needed to carry out a mission—the smallest group that could monitor one another’s condition while dividing into frontline, rear guard, and support roles.

One of those three would be an upperclassman. Two students would form a team first, then approach an upperclassman with a request. If the upperclassman accepted, they could join the team. This was the “recruiting” Aten had mentioned.

Naturally, everyone wanted a skilled upperclassman on their team, and the competition was fierce. In other words, the exam had already begun before either the written or practical tests started.

Of course, upperclassmen weren’t awarded points themselves. If they did too much, they would end up taking points away from their teammates, so balance was key.

These finals were why I had spoken with Elin in the training room the other day. At last, it was time to settle that discussion.

“Shall we go, then?”

“Yes.”

We nodded with firm resolve.

* * *

After hearing Aten and me out, Elin blinked her calm eyes a few times before speaking.

“I can’t.”

It was a remarkably straightforward rejection. Beside me, Aten visibly drooped in disappointment.

Then Elin raised a hand.

“Oh, please don’t misunderstand. I’d have had to refuse no matter who asked. In fact, I’ve been turning everyone down.”

“Why?”

“I was selected for an internship recently.”

An internship?

The somewhat unfamiliar word gave me pause before I asked,

“Do you mean an internship with a professional?”

“Yes. I can’t do the actual internship work while school is in session, but I need to start training beforehand.”

I was genuinely surprised.

Most Constel graduates became professionals and took on commissions for a living. Quite a few students therefore did internships to experience professional work in advance.

But that usually happened in their third year.

Elin was only a second-year.

“... Hmm. I suppose I can tell you two.”

Elin looked from me to Aten before continuing.

“When you were fighting Renzo, Frondier, I stepped in, remember?”

“... Oh, yes.”

I had blown away Renzo’s right arm, but he still had the other one. I had expected losing an arm to destroy his will to fight, but his mental fortitude had far exceeded my expectations.

If Elin hadn’t stepped in then, I would certainly have died.

“It seems Eden Hamerlot thought highly of that.”

I see.

Eden Hamerlot, the top-ranked professional. He had been there at the time.

Elin had certainly begun distinguishing herself much earlier than in the original game. Her fight against the golem Edwin controlled, the move that forced Renzo to retreat...

Unlike in the game, she was already starting to attract public attention.

Was this the butterfly effect?

“Then you’ll be working with Eden Hamerlot?”

“Hmm, well, yes. Only for the duration of the internship.”

“When does it end?”

“At the end of summer vacation. While school is in session, I’ll only participate on weekends.”

That should give her enough time to gain considerable experience.

“Congratulations, Elin. You’re getting a head start.”

“...”

Elin stared at me when I said that.

What was it?

I had meant it as a sincere compliment.

“... Um, thank you.”

She spoke after a brief silence. As she turned her eyes away from me, her expression decidedly didn’t match her words of thanks.

Just then, an announcement suddenly rang out.

[“Frondier. First-year student Frondier de Roach. Please come to the infirmary immediately.”]

The announcement came rather out of the blue. Being singled out was strange enough, but the infirmary?

And that voice was definitely Malia’s.

“... I’ll get going, then. Good luck with your internship.”

“Yes. You too.”

I said goodbye to Elin and left with Aten. Elin’s awkwardly raised hand bothered me a little.

* * *

“An internship? Me?”

Elin had heard about the internship the very day after the Renzo incident. She had been on her way back from checking on Frondier at the hospital.

She had only just left the hospital when she met Eden, so he had clearly come to see Frondier too.

“... How is he?”

“They said he was simply sleeping peacefully. I left some flowers and came out.”

“I see. That’s a relief. Is Frondier alone in his room now, then?”

“No. Aten is staying by his side.”

“I see.”

Eden nodded with an expression that gave no hint of why he had asked in the first place.

Elin asked,

“But what do you mean by an internship?”

“Hmm. Exactly what it sounds like. Your ability to detect my killing intent when we first met, your decisiveness and judgment in drawing your sword without hesitation—I thought highly of all of it. Above all, you forced Renzo himself to retreat.”

Elin’s expression grew complicated at Eden’s praise. She knew, of course, that he was sincere, but one question came to mind before anything else.

“Then why not offer Frondier an internship?”

“Hmm?”

“If I forced Renzo to retreat, Frondier was the one who blew off his right arm.”

There was a simple reason Elin described it as “blew off.” She didn’t know how he had removed that right arm. Whether it had been a sword or magic, whether he had slashed through it or pierced it—she had no idea.

Eden probably didn’t know either.

“That’s precisely why.”

“Pardon?”

“He blew off Renzo’s right arm. What could I possibly teach him? One wrong move, and I might lose my own right arm! Hahaha!”

Eden laughed jovially. Elin narrowed her eyes.

“You don’t really think that, do you?”

“Hmm. It isn’t the whole reason. But it isn’t a lie, either. I haven’t been able to gauge that student Frondier’s abilities. No, never mind his abilities—I don’t even know what he is. A swordsman? A mage? I can hardly offer an internship to someone I know nothing about. I wouldn’t even know what to teach him.”

That was a better answer than before. Still, Elin’s intuition told her he was hiding something.

‘Well, it’s not as though pressing him will get me anywhere.’

She decided to back off for now.

Eden spoke.

“Oh, would you mind keeping this conversation a secret? Especially from that student Frondier.”

“... Why?”

“It might cause an unnecessary misunderstanding. I’d really appreciate it.”

“All right.”

When she thought about it, Elin had proposed an internship on Frondier’s behalf, and Eden had turned him down. It wouldn’t be a particularly pleasant thing for Frondier to hear.

* * *

“... Is that really true?”

I spoke with a grimace.

Malia spoke in an animated tone, as though she wholeheartedly shared my feelings.

“It is! I knew something was wrong the moment that man came here. No wonder I had such an uneasy feeling.”

The conversation sounded like something from a daytime soap opera, but I really did feel frustrated.

... Ampere had never intended to give me a chance. Telling me to place in Constel’s top ten was an excuse. He had simply needed a pretext to disown me.

My head suddenly began to ache.

“... Still, I’m surprised you’re telling me this, Mom.”

Normally, Malia didn’t interfere in Ampere’s affairs, even when Frondier was involved.

She might look benevolent, but she was a woman with clear standards and boundaries. She wasn’t Ampere’s wife for nothing. Knowing that was probably why he had brought up disowning me in front of her.

Malia merely shrugged.

“Well, if my son had stayed the Human Sloth even after being told to place in the top ten of his year, I would have been the first to push for disowning you. There are plenty of ways to make a living even without the Roach name.”

“Oh, I thought so.”

She said it so confidently that I wasn’t even surprised. Somehow, it even seemed like the right thing to do.

“If you really were disowned, I was still going to make sure you had a place to live and food to eat. Of course, once you came of age, you wouldn’t get another thing.”

Malia nodded slightly, as though reflecting on her earlier plans. Then she clenched her fist, apparently overcome by another surge of indignation.

“But this time is different! Your father is so busy working that he never sees his children growing up. My son has changed so much! And during that monster attack, if it hadn’t been for my son—”

Malia had suddenly become a doting mother, grumbling away in earnest. Being the subject of it was incredibly embarrassing.

Still, while she vented, another thought occurred to me. If Ampere’s offer had been a lie, why had a quest definitely appeared?

[Side Quest: Father's Order]

? Description: Frondier’s laziness over the years has pushed his father Ampere’s patience to its limit.

? Objective: Place in the top ten overall at Constel by the end of this semester.

? Reward: Gain Ampere’s recognition.

? You will be disowned upon failure.

... The quest was definitely there.

If Ampere’s offer had been a lie, a quest like this would never have appeared. Since the consequence of failure was being disowned, I wouldn’t be disowned if I didn’t fail. This game, at least, didn’t play word games. That was absolute.

That meant either Ampere was lying about disowning me, or completing the quest would change his mind.

Either way, I had no choice but to do my best on the finals.

“So, have you found one?”

“Pardon?”

Coming out of my thoughts, I realized Malia was asking me something.

“An upperclassman. You need to form a team, don’t you?”

“... Oh. Not yet.”

Elin had been the best option, but that path had been unexpectedly blocked.

As for the remaining upperclassmen...

“What about Quinier?”

I hadn’t expected that name to come from Malia’s mouth. Startled, I asked,

“... How do you know Quinier? No, I mean, how did you think of her for my team...?”