NOVEL NEXT Chapter 83
<83 - Flag Battle>
The team with the most flags, Oknodie, became the prime target for all the other teams.
“First one to charge gets knocked down!”
“Can I shoot?”
“Y-you can’t ignore the fighter over here!”
“If you cross that line, I’ll kill you all!”
As they drew a line on the floor with chalk and threatened the others, one of Masugaki’s followers reported to the Principal.
“Principal! They said they’re gonna kill us!”
– Oh dear. Murder is not allowed!
“Huh? Really?”
– You’re still in first year, right?
“Oh right. I forgot!”
The students were shocked by the Principal’s reply.
“So, if you’re not a first year, murder is allowed?!”
“At what grade does it become permissible?”
“This is why Gift Academy has a high dropout rate and a low graduation rate!”
For a moment, they were stunned.
Honer Fried Chicken, a member of the Three Great Meritorious Families of the Empire and as arrogant as ever, took the lead with a spear.
“Alright, you crossed the line. What now?”
“They crossed the line! Princess Hestia, punish them!”
Hestia stepped forward with an expressionless face.
The sight of her casually holding a massive double-headed axe like a steel pipe instilled a considerable intimidation.
Not wanting to lose in the battle of wills, Honer spun his spear, trying to show off.
Then, Hestia pulled out a hand axe from her waist and threw it at Honer.
Clang!
“Th-this is dangerous!”
“I threw it to be dangerous, you know?”
He didn’t just spin the spear for show, did he?
Everyone admired Honer’s skill in deflecting the hand axe, but I could see it.
Honer was sweating bullets.
He was just lucky!
“Want to try blocking the next one?”
When Hestia presented three more hand axe heads from her waist, Honer turned pale and shouted.
“What are you all doing? Charge!”
“Even though he’s our faction leader, this is just embarrassing….”
“If he’s going to act like this, he should just stay out of it.”
“He seems foolish, but since he’s our team leader, we’ll at least try to keep him alive.”
Reluctantly, the team members followed behind him.
Bang!
A bullet hole suddenly appeared at their feet.
Pew pew~ “This way is off-limits. Do I have to fire again?”
“But you already shot!”
“A red-haired pirate wearing a triangle tri-horn… He stole our flags last time, I have a grudge!”
“Not today, Jigoku.”
“Let’s take him down first!”
“Hey, guys? Where are you going? Aren’t you supposed to help me?!”
The Fried Chicken team’s members charged at Jigoku.
Honer, all alone, swung his spear at the trajectory of Jigoku’s slicing attack.
“Ouch, that hurts!”
“I got a hole in my thigh…!”
“You idiots! You need to dodge the bullet, not just run in a straight line!”
And wow, one of the first-year students, proving that upper class status means something, dodged Jigoku’s gunfire with impressive precision.
Thwack!
“Lotto! Are you sacrificing the pride of the Empire Nobles to protect a border pirate?”
“Shut up! Do you think I want to protect him? I can’t get any penalties, okay?!”
“Hahaha! Well done, puncher! If you get on the pirate ship, I’ll give you the deckhand’s spot!”
“I really don’t need that!”
Even while they argued, Lotto pushed the students scrambling to get close to Jigoku away with close combat.
Apparently, everyone worked well together, as there was no need for me to step in; we wiped out a whole team.
“Are you all just gonna watch?!”
“Hmph. How disappointing for the name of the Three Great Meritorious Families of the Empire.”
“That guy’s just the weakest among us.”
“I haven’t lost yet?!”
Ignoring Honer’s cries, the bizarrely oversized Cheddar Potato Pizza and the armored Leff stepped forward.
“Princess Yayoi, as a member of the Three Great Meritorious Families of the Empire, I, Cheddar Potato Pizza, will assist you. I’ll flatten their weapons like pizza dough with [Dough Stretch]!”
“Take this, you wannabe punks! The Iron Charcoal Barbecue’s iron plate charge arts shall be upon you!”
With their loud proclamations, the team of Duke Andersen found themselves facedown on the ground in an instant.
“Ugh. Be careful, Oknodie. Those guys are strong enough to handle even me, who has taken the [How to Use Divine Powers Without Faith] class.”
“…Doesn’t taking such a class just drain your strength and prevent you from showing your true abilities?”
“Taking that class wasn’t a good idea after all…”
“I should have just used divine powers and gotten a free pass instead of engaging in a strength competition to calm a rampaging bull…”
“Because I followed Duke Andersen’s lead and took the [How to Sleep Anywhere] class, I haven’t had enough energy to fight…”
You heard all that too?!
He’s taken every trash class imaginable!
“I’ll make you regret not selling that flag. I’ll give you a good thrashing!”
“Lotto. You might think it’s pathetic to serve as a lowly pirate because you got kicked out of the group, but I’ll wrap up this pathetic scene personally.”
With Vanilla trying to bribe for the flag at the last minute, and Lotto’s old crew backing her up, the confident team members appeared supercharged, while the actual team leader, Princess Yayoi, did not move an inch in front of her basket.
“I’m sorry, Oknodie. Seems like you are our next target.”
“The powerless princess should just guard her basket and watch the might of the heirs of the Three Great Meritorious Families of the Empire!”
With Cheddar’s strong shout, the charge of Yayoi’s team lacking Yayoi began.
Hestia, Jigoku, and Lotto each took one target while my role was left to the mouth-watering Cheddar Potato Pizza, who charged in alone.
“Group Leader Oknodie. Allow me to show you the power of my [Dough Stretch]!”
Cheddar’s Dough Stretch is a technique that flattens the enemy’s weapon as if it were pizza dough just by grabbing it.
The Potato Pizza clan’s special technique destroys the structure of the material by using the Mana Flow Technique, instantly transforming it into something worthless, even turning an expensive sword into trash.
It’s obvious that sticking around would only create losses.
So, I decided.
“Are you running away?!”
Yes, I am going to run.
I absolutely won’t fight!
“Fight fairly and squarely!”
“So, you want me to face off against 4 to 9 and call it fair? Have you thrown your conscience onto a flat surface?”
“You can be exempt being the group leader!”
Since things have come to this, I was thinking of teaming up with Jezel’s group for a united front, but look at this mess.
Jezel’s group had it worse.
“…What Princess Masugaki said is right. Now that we’ve suffered losses because of the fake flags, I won’t let you pass this task without penalties.”
“Oh, ice queen, don’t bind your feet so cowardly. Let’s settle this in close combat!”
Son Ohchun was bound by the Northern Grand Duchess Irene.
“Let’s sprinkle salt to melt the ice!”
“Do you think we could find good salt here?”
“Oh, Isabel has plenty of salt. I borrowed some when cooking in the morning.”
“Do you think they’d scatter the salt? Guys, charge!”
“Don’t let the monkey free!”
As Isabel and Jezel rushed to help Son Ohchun, they were overwhelmed by the second princess Masugaki and her followers.
“Dorothy, run away with the basket… Ugh!”
“It’s sorry to target D directly, but if you’re D’s friends, I won’t spare you. Blame being in a team with a wicked merchant who sold out fake flags.”
“Nyah nyah punch!”
“I’ll show you my Thunderbolt Punch from the Thunderbolt Celestial Divine Church!”
In a high-class level filled with named characters, Jezel’s team became the target of multiple teams and failed to escape or resist, getting beaten senseless.
“Hey, when are you going to drop the basket? I’ll keep poking until you do!”
“Ow! I’ll drop it, just let me!”
Zjiang poked Dorothy’s sides with the hilt of his dagger while tightly clutching the basket.
Finally, Zjiang seized the basket and poured the fake flags everywhere.
“Ah! Oknodie?!”
It was right at that moment Zjiang faced me.
In front was Zjiang, behind was Cheddar Potato Pizza.
A moment of crisis between a rock and a hard place.
Zjiang slowly backed away.
“What are you doing?! Can’t you even block a path properly, you border bumpkin?!”
Even after Cheddar provoked him, Zjiang only retreated further.
His reaction seemed to indicate…
He’s letting me off because we took the same class together!
“Thanks, Zjiang!”
“Thankful? Are you in league with that girl?!”
Cheddar, who had no trust in Zjiang, swung a hand at him.
With a swish, Zjiang smoothly dodged and his expression grew somber.
“Don’t regret it. You started this.”
“With just your border bumbling mouth… Huh?!”
With no sound, Zjiang’s sword flew at high speed.
As Cheddar tried moving his foot to dodge, he stumbled on the sticky ground.
Quickly, he twisted his upper body to evade, as Zjiang circled around him, thrown black cloth and sword slashing while disrupting his line of sight in a rapid melee.
“Haa~? Why are we fighting each other during an alliance? Keep your attention on the mission ♥ You have no idea what you’re doing ♥”
“It’s because she started it!”
“Save the fights for later and talk about where Oknodie ran off to ♥”
With Masugaki’s jab, Zjiang managed to calm down his excitement as he pointed in the direction I had fled.
“Probably over there…”
“There’s no one there ♥”
“Huh? Was it this way?”
“There’s no one here either ♥”
“Uh? Wait? Huh?”
Zjiang, lost in confusion.
But I didn’t think Zjiang would find me even if he searched for a hundred years.
[You are hiding under the immense face of the Dragon Principal for one minute.]
[Stealth Experience +3]
[Bravery Experience +10]
You all lose it when you just make eye contact with the Dragon Principal! Who would come looking here!