NOVEL NEXT Chapter 63
<63 - How to Eat Flags as Easily as Cake>
As Lotto, Hestia, and Jigoku met during dinner to share their flag counts, they were shocked and despairing.
“How many did everyone collect…?”
“5. I trudged around the mountains for it…”
“4. The easy targets were busy getting robbed…”
“I got 3. I worked hard doing errands for the Instructors…”
That level of effort was utterly insufficient.
After all, there was only one conclusion.
“We’re going to have to steal other people’s flags.”
“Our reputation can’t get any worse. If it’s for Oknodie, I won’t hesitate to get my hands dirty.”
“We’re doing this together? Then we can take on some stronger ones too!”
Just working hard wasn’t enough.
Now they needed a solution that went beyond that.
“Let’s go. If we each take some from 16 people, we can each get 16 flags.”
The time for legitimate efforts had ended.
The trio of flag thieves was formed.
After school, academy students can join clubs and enjoy additional content.
Newbies, being desperate for survival, surprisingly have a high participation rate in clubs because they are easily fooled by the cowardly senior members luring them in with food.
“Lift the rake with more spirit!”
“Yaaah!”
“Plow the field!”
“Yaaah!”
The first-year students, struggling to turn over the frozen fields during winter, asked their seniors.
“Seniors, how long do we have to keep plowing the fields?”
“Right? Isn’t this supposed to be the hunting club?”
“Ha, look at these kids.”
When they were recruiting new members, the kind seniors had treated them to grilled meat and free samples, but now their expressions had completely changed as they yelled at the poor new members.
“Hey. Did you eat the meat or not?”
“W-Well, we did…”
“Then?”
“We did eat it!”
“Then you have to pay for that meat, don’t you?”
“If that’s the case, why are we farming instead of hunting…”
“If hunting fails?”
“Huh?”
“If we fail the hunt and come back empty-handed. What will we eat then?”
“Ummm… cafeteria food…?”
“Don’t talk nonsense about cafeteria food. Are points going to come out of the ground? We have to be self-sufficient by farming!”
The first-year students realized.
The kind seniors were all actors, fake, like professors who didn’t genuinely exist with kindness and integrity.
The seniors had tricked them into signing a labor contract from the very beginning!
“I-I didn’t join the hunting club to farm! Please let me go!”
“Oh? Then show me the penalty fee.”
“W-What is this nonsense about points!!”
“What nonsense? You signed it.”
“This is fraud!”
“Not fraud. It’s a contract guaranteed by the academy administration, and you signed it. If you want to leave, you can start repaying your debt with this amount of points.”
“Ugh!”
“Or bring two friends to work in your place.”
“F-Friends! If I just bring friends, can I escape without working?!”
The senior smiled a kind smile.
“Of course. If two friends sign the contract, and they only write your name as the referrer, you can escape without paying a single point.”
“I’ll do it! I’ll definitely find them!”
“But remember, while you’re finding them, you still have today’s club activities to finish. You know failure means another penalty, right?”
Truly filthy, they had to find a way out no matter what.
The students caught in the club’s trap were filled with indignation.
“These seniors are demons. How can they make us do such terrible things without a shred of guilt?”
“Exactly. If they got victimized by seniors themselves, they shouldn’t be doing this to us.”
Mob and Jakku.
Overcome by the smell of meat and the temptation of juice, the two first-year students felt genuine discontent.
“What can we do with all these strange flags? Where are we even supposed to use them?”
Mob grumbled while holding onto the flags given by the seniors, convinced there must be a use for them somewhere.
“Hey! Look over there! There’s someone carrying a ton of flags on their back.”
“I know. That’s A Group’s top student, Oknodie.”
“The youngest and shortest new student, half-orc, right?”
The two raced toward Oknodie.
Seeing them approach, Oknodie took off even faster in the other direction.
“Hey! Wait a second!”
“Ugh, what the heck, how can someone run that fast?!”
“I don’t want to! I won’t do it! Please stop!”
Mob felt wronged.
“We just wanted to ask what you do with those flags! Is that so wrong?!”
“Really?!”
“Yeah! And to say if you join the hunting club, you get to eat meat, asking you to put Jakku as a referrer!”
As Mob’s words slowed Oknodie down, hearing Jakku’s voice made her pick up speed again, dashing away without a glance.
“Hey, you idiot! Shut your mouth!”
“Ahhh!”
Angry, Mob shoved Jakku to the ground and hurriedly chased after Oknodie, persuading her while insisting it had nothing to do with him.
Finally, he managed to stop Oknodie.
“Ugh, ugh, huff…”
“So, what do you want?”
“J-Just hold on a second, huff, huff…”
“Can I leave now?”
What kind of physical prowess does this kid have? Mob shot Oknodie a glare filled with resentment, then said.
“This flag is from our hunting club activities. The seniors said it would be useful for somewhere. We thought you might know since you have so many flags.”
“Oh, I see. So it was gathered from the hunting club this time.”
“So you know? Please teach us how to use them!”
Oknodie extended her hand.
“Just give me 5 flags.”
“Why me?”
“I’ll tell you then.”
“Fine. But I’ll hold on tight so you can’t run away.”
“Suit yourself.”
Mob grabbed Oknodie tightly, trembling from running so hard, before finally handing over the flags laboriously.
“So, what do we use these for?”
“They’re for assignments in the upper class. Upper class students submit flags as part of their assignments.”
“Seems pretty good, huh?”
“Well, it’s a lot, but their value isn’t that high.”
Then again, Oknodie was like someone doing business, having collected a lot of flags.
“Even so, since it’s a hassle to gather them, I’ll just buy them with points. A meal costs 5 points, so can I trade that for all of it?”
“No way. 5 points only cover the basic meal.”
“How can you set a high price when you gather so many flags in half a day?”
“I just want to gather them to attract new upper-class students. Here, I’ll give you this if you bring a few into the club.”
Oknodie clicked her tongue in displeasure.
When things don’t go as planned, she immediately turned into a sulky child, which made Mob smirk.
He envisioned the youngest top student at the academy as a brilliant genius or a half-orc with no physical prowess, but in reality, she was just an ordinary kid one would see in her hometown.
“Points aren’t needed. Just get two friends to sign up under my name, and I’ll give you all the flags.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I won’t say it twice.”
How many friends can this kid even find? How good could she even be at tricking?
Mob felt a bit guilty for tricking a child, but when Jakku chimed in, saying, “Anything she says, I’ll take the same deal!” the guilt vanished.
Escaping from the demon-like club was more important; who cared about integrity?
But that was underestimating Oknodie far too much.
Just 30 minutes later, four students came trailing behind Oknodie.
While wandering around the club, checking which seniors belong to which club, unexpected luck came walking into my path.
From a low probability gift given to club freshmen, the rare “flags collected by seniors” were uncovered.
“Hehe! Freebie!”
I had already gathered a lot of flags, but the more I collect, the more useful it becomes.
After luring those annoying students from the Empire into the hunting club, I kindly handed each of them a flag.
“Here’s your promised reward.”
“Wow! Joining a club gives you a free flag? I’m so happy!”
“Thanks, Oknodie. You’re surprisingly nice, huh?”
I felt no guilt about selling off the poor students.
They all act nice.
Behind, the border regions talk about the nobles and commoners lacking grace, saying Oknodie has a cute face but that her physicality is fit for an orc. Do they really think she won’t catch on?
Even now, they’re chuckling behind, pretending to look innocent while mocking like foolish kids.
“Next time, be kinder. Otherwise, you’ll fall victim to someone worse than me.”
I packed the flags I had set aside into my bag, feeling ecstatic.
Thanks to that, my flag count doubled overnight.
Close to 40 in total.
“Thanks, Oknodie!”
“Thanks to you, I survived!”
Four flags seemed insignificant compared to the twenty-some flags Mob and Jakku had handed over.
Exchanging four flags for twenty was clearly a massive gain.
After handing over all the flags, the two people waved goodbye with cheerful smiles.
Poor patsies.
I shouldn’t reveal that each flag could later soar to 100 points.
You’ve brought this upon yourselves.
You mocked me for being half-orc!