NOVEL NEXT Chapter 112
<112 - On the Way to School>
“Get out of the way─!”
I shouted with my eyes wide open.
What the heck is this?
As I blinked, I realized.
I was sleep-talking!
Feeling a bit embarrassed, I naturally tried to stretch and pulled my fists back, but I felt an intense gaze on me.
The Mandragora, which I placed on the desk, was looking at me pitifully.
“Ah, don’t look at me like that! It’s embarrassing!”
“Goo.”
The Mandragora’s gaze shifted to the wall.
I wondered what it was looking at when I noticed it was staring at a fist-shaped dent in the wall.
Knock knock knock knock
The Answering Door, living in the wall, was knocking furiously to express its displeasure.
“Sorry…”
I don’t remember what kind of dream I had, but I vaguely felt like I had been happily running around, bashing things for the first time in a while.
Had I been storing some stress?
“I’ll call the cleaner later to fix it. Really!”
After repeatedly apologizing, the knocking sound coming from the wall ceased.
It seemed to question whether I really would, so I decided to call them as soon as possible.
Squeak. Thud.
As I stepped out into the hallway, the dolphin pants sisters, who would usually be outside at the main entrance enjoying the morning air and preparing for exercise, were staring blankly at the entrance.
“Hey, Oknodie.”
“Oknodie, are you finally awake?”
“Look outside. It’s totally insane?”
Just as the orange-haired sister said, the area outside the main entrance had turned into a sea.
The water was so high it was even above the main entrance, showing fish swimming in the currents.
With the heavy rain continuing, part of the academy had been submerged.
“Guess jogging is out of the question?”
“This is absurd.”
“If we go out now, we’d get eaten up by a Giant King Crab.”
The aspiring knight students returned to their rooms with expressions of disappointment or started doing bodyweight exercises.
“Do you want to join in, Oknodie?”
The orange-haired sister asked as she stretched her limbs between her sisters.
“Hehe. Sounds great!”
“Then come here.”
With a pop and a thump, I quickly sat down on the chair next to the main entrance while the sister helped me stretch my legs.
“Now just bend at the waist and touch your toes! If you lack flexibility, just lightly touch your toes, or if you…”
“Like this?”
“Wow! Oknodie, you’re really flexible!”
When I was muscle-bound, I had given up on flexibility due to my size, but now I had become Goo-Nodie.
Rather than taking attacks head-on, my goal was to be a dodge swordsman who avoids all attacks and breaks heads instead.
Improving flexibility and expanding my range of motion is not an option but a necessity.
“You can still go a bit lower though, right? Let me push down on your back. Tell me if it hurts!”
I smelled a pleasant fragrance coming from the orange-haired sister as she pressed down behind me.
It was a soft scent unique to women, completely different from perfume or soap, bringing a smile to my face.
I couldn’t help but regret not playing as a female character sooner since I couldn’t experience such luxury in the all-male gym.
Satisfaction Level 100%!
The energy I had lost from dreaming and sleep-talking was fully charged now.
“Oknodie is great! Even though you’re not an aspiring knight, you come out every morning to exercise. I want to bring you to our department!”
“Agreed!”
“If only my little sister at home was this spirited and obedient!”
With hearty laughs, they stroked my hair, tugged at my cheeks, and hugged me with their remarkable softness, creating a warm smile on my face.
“Hey, it feels good! Follow me, sisters! I’ll teach you something good!”
The sisters laughed while wondering if Oknodie was about to show some cute antics or planned to reveal a beautiful stone found yesterday.
Of course, I hadn’t brought them here to perform tricks or show them stones.
“Look, the 3rd-floor window doesn’t have curtains, but there’s a curtain cord, right?”
“Yeah. It’s really strange?”
“Exactly. The kids on the 3rd floor asked to have curtains installed properly, but the dormitory supervisor just said no.”
“But this is the lower class dormitory; how does the upper class Oknodie know about this?”
“Did you come to tell us not to be dazzled in summer? How can you be so cute?”
“Not at all! I came to tell you the proper use of this cord.”
This cord, at first glance, looks like a curtain cord, but it’s actually an emergency lifeboat caller for disaster situations.
“This cord pulls down when conditions are met, and for some reason, if the 1st floor of the academy is completely submerged and mana is infused into the cord, a means of transport will appear. Like this.”
I pulled the cord, and suddenly a lifeboat popped out.
A 0/12 display appeared above the magically generated lifeboat, indicating it could hold twelve people.
“Wow! A fantastic boat just appeared out of nowhere.”
“I was worried about how to get to class, but with this, we can make it to the classroom!”
“Oknodie, you’re amazing~!”
With compliments pouring in from all sides, I smiled even wider.
“But if too many aspiring students board, it will be tough to get to class!”
“Why?”
“Can’t the sisters just go together? Let’s take Oknodie with us. Huh? Huh?”
“Haha! I’ll tell you, so don’t tickle me. If the job types are the same, we can’t respond to different dangers.”
“Different dangers?”
“Like that.”
Suddenly, the appearing lifeboat startled the monsters, and feeling quite offended, they rushed toward us.
A large carp slammed into the boat with a body check, and a Giant King Crab showed off its sturdy pincers, cutting holes in the boat and shaking it up and down.
To add to the chaos, a flying monster perched nearby mistook the deflated boat for prey and swooped down to grab it.
Rustle rustle
The Giant King Crab, being pulled into the air, panicked and waved its pincers around.
“Ah, I’m falling.”
The dropped Giant King Crab crashed down with a thud, creating a column of water as it splashed into the aquatic chaos, rising to the surface while bubbling up foam.
It looked quite furious as it waved its pincers into the air.
“Spearmen need to block the carp’s charges, shield bearers have to stop the king crab’s pincers, and archers or magicians should deal with the flying monsters while providing support.”
“…What kind of school commute feels like going to a dungeon?”
“The principal really sucks.”
“This academy is making me lose my confidence…”
“Yet Oknodie is cute, so we’ll let it slide!”
“Agreed!”
The spirited sisters stroked my hair and regained their spirits, and I too felt energized by their touch.
This is what you call a win-win!
The member of the Red Fanged Mushroom Management Association, the Paper Company, brought a 20-passenger boat near the First Year dormitory.
“Is everyone ready?”
“We’ve saved twelve empty seats, just as planned.”
“We’re only helping the students who haven’t messed with the farm. Ice mages and those with iron plates must never be let on.”
First-year bullying strategy by the second-year, part one.
Discrimination on the way to school!
“We will build goodwill with the general first-years while tormenting those guys. This way, if we do anything afterward, people will think it’s their fault, and the first-years will feel they must have done something wrong to be scolded by the seniors.”
Criminal consultant Velocasio proposed a method to win hearts while tormenting the target.
Since the associates considered it a highly feasible suggestion, they came out with the boat early in the morning to pick up the first-years, but something felt off.
“Doesn’t the number of first-years standing by the windows seem a bit low?”
“Yeah. Aren’t they all skipping school and napping in their rooms?”
“This isn’t an academy that takes a rain day lightly. The Class 981 kids are too naïve.”
The second-years, determined to wake their foolish juniors, approached vigorously while rowing their oars.
However, when they finally got to the dormitory, not a single student was seen in the vacant rooms without curtains.
“Is anyone here?”
“What’s going on?”
“Ah, there’s the dormitory supervisor.”
One second-year sadly knocked the window where the supervisor was passing.
“What’s a second-year doing in the first-year dormitory?”
“We came to pick up the juniors, but we can’t find any. Where did they all go?”
The dormitory supervisor looked at them with a pitying expression.
“They’ve already gone to school.”
“Eh?! In this water current?”
“Isn’t it cruel to let the kids drift away like that, Dormitory Supervisor?”
“The real cruelty comes from the first-year students with bad habits.”
The dormitory supervisor responded coldly.
“They stole my precious pet rock. I had cared for it for a year. Oh, Francoise…”
The second-years were in utter shock.
“Francoise? Did you just name a rock?”
“So what? A rock doesn’t bother anyone; it’s a gentle pet. One of the seniors had a 100-year-old oak tree as a pet.”
“Then trees pose no problem, right?”
“What if a cicada is living in it?”
“…Those darn tree-huggers. If I see them in front of our dorm, I’ll set them on fire.”
“Cut it out.”
The Paper Company, who had made a big deal out of bringing out the 20-passenger boat, was downcast at the thought of having failed.
“If there are no students to take, let’s return. We need to get to school too.”
“Good point.”
“Ugh. What a ridiculous ordeal.”
As they sat down, preparing to pick up the oars tiredly, a loud bang signaled the appearance of a boat at the window.
“What is that?”
“I’ve never seen something like that while attending the academy!”
“Is there magic that can create lifeboats?”
“Remember last summer when we had heavy rain?”
“We didn’t have boats back then!”
The second-years couldn’t hide their bewilderment.
In the face of their discontented gazes, the dormitory supervisor responded.
“Never asked for a boat, did I?”
“……”
“The first-years didn’t ask either, so I thought it wasn’t necessary to tell, you clearly have a talent for getting things without asking.”
The dormitory supervisor grumbled dissatisfaction.
But rather than the supervisor’s complaints, the second-years felt betrayed that they had not been informed of such a convenient means of transportation when risking their lives to go to school.
“How could this happen!”
“This devil! Fourth Year! It’s like our graduation project!”
As the second-years continued arguing with the dormitory supervisor, students descended from the window using ropes and landed in the boat.
“Why are you so late? I almost left without you.”
“Sorry. I took a while preparing my assignment.”
“Leave the rowing to me, Oknodie.”
“Hehe. You have some fun toys!”
Delaying their school start, Oknodie set off with close friends like Isabel, Hestia, and Jiang.
“Hey, grab them! Let’s figure out what happened by interrogating those guys! If they don’t answer, we’ll sink their boat!”
As the Paper Company pointed to the lifeboat, they blinked in disbelief.
A small child and a large warrior started rowing, causing the boat to rise dramatically, disappearing beyond the horizon with a splash.
“What kind of strength is that?”
“They’re rowing faster than us?”
The leftover second-years were left in despair.