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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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As I walked towards the area where the successful candidates were, I approached Pamela.
“Ah, th-that. C-congratulations!”
Before I could even speak, Pamela opened her mouth.
In her own way, she must have gathered the courage to speak first.
I responded to her courage with a slight smile, raising the corners of my lips.
“Thank you. You too, congratulations. My hunch wasn’t wrong, after all.”
“Ah, yes, yes… I, I passed, just as you said, Mr. Ishihan. With this, phew, I can finally face my master.”
“I’m glad.”
“Yes. Th-thank you. I-I was able to do my best thanks to your words, Mr. Ishihan.”
“No, you don’t need to thank me.”
‘If anything, I should be the one thanking you.’
Thanks to Pamela using Sword of Loss repeatedly, I learned that in this world, skills could be used without a cooldown.
“Huh?”
So, I would say something that would make Pamela even happier.
Words that would allow her to think of herself more positively, even if only a little.
“Even without my words, you would have been able to pass with your skills. So be proud of the skills you’ve honed under your master.”
“Ah. Uh. Yes, yes… Th-thank… you…”
Pamela lowered her head, her face slightly flushed.
She probably wasn’t used to hearing such words, so she must have been embarrassed.
“Anyway, with this, you and I are now attending the same academy.”
I extended my hand to Pamela and offered a handshake.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Pamela.”
“…Huh!? My, my name…!”
“What’s wrong? Did I get your name wrong?”
“N-no! It’s not that! It’s correct! It’s Pamela!”
“Alright. You’ve already said it, but I’m Ishihan. Let me say it again. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Ah, ah.”
Pamela hesitated for a moment, then hurriedly wiped her hand on her clothes and took my hand.
“I-it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Pamela bowed deeply while shaking my hand, but I didn’t point it out.
If anything, this kind of behavior was more like the Pamela I knew, so it was nice to see.
‘With this, the chances of Pamela accepting my party invitation have increased.’
The probability of recruiting Pamela to my party without using affinity stones like in the game had gone up.
“This concludes the entrance exam!”
As the last remaining person finished, Delt declared the end of the exam in front of the remaining successful candidates.
“First, we will bestow upon you the academy badge, the mark of your success. Everyone, come forward and receive it!”
A man who appeared to be an academy staff member brought a box, opened the lid, and inside were countless badges.
The badge of the Lucadia Academy, engraved with the crest of an eagle soaring through the sky.
One by one, they came forward and took a badge from the box.
I also went out with Pamela and received a badge.
After all the badges had been distributed, Delt spoke.
“That badge is the most certain proof that you belong to the Lucadia Academy! Make sure you never lose it!”
‘There’s no way I’d ever lose it.’
There was a reason why Delt was giving such a stern warning.
The badge was a symbol of the academy, but it also played the most important role in my future activities, according to the lore.
‘Because this is also a warp stone pass.’
Warp stones.
One of the artifacts called the Goddess’s Miracle at the Lucadia Academy.
Warp stones were devices that allowed instantaneous travel to a location with another warp stone.
Warp stones were installed in the transfer room of this Lucadia Academy and in the major cities of each country.
Of course, in Valendia as well.
That was why, in the game’s story, after the protagonist cleared the story of one country using a warp stone, they would be able to use a warp stone to go to the next country in the next update.
Of course, according to the lore, all the continents were connected, so you could travel even without a warp stone, but… when you reached the border of an unreleased area, a warning window and a message saying “This area has not been opened yet” would block the player.
That was why, when a new story was released, a post like this would always appear on the community forums.
[Yo, you all saw the new update story, right? It was awesome.]
-So what now?
ㄴ Go farm new materials
ㄴ Finished
ㄴ Do the box gacha
ㄴ Done
ㄴ What is this no-lifer?
ㄴ I’ve organized the locations and posted a guide
ㄴ Thank you
According to the lore, academy students and high-ranking officials from each country could use these warp stones.
In other words, other ordinary merchants or commoners could not use the warp stones.
Thanks to that, there was even a daily quest where you had to deliver regional specialties from other countries at the request of a merchant.
I didn’t really know why they had to set up everything like this in the game, but thinking of it as reality, I could understand it a little.
‘If anyone could pass through, you wouldn’t know what kind of suspicious people might be there.’
And besides, it was probably because of the perception that an artifact like the Goddess’s Miracle couldn’t be used by just anyone, and the number of warp stones in the world was very limited.
‘In the first place, if there were many warp stones, all the people who made a living from logistics would have died out.’
In any case, this badge was absolutely necessary to use the warp stones.
Delt further explained to us, the prospective academy students.
“The entrance ceremony will be held in 10 days! Until then, go to any of the clothing stores in the academy and show them your badge. They will then immediately fit you for clothes. Be sure to come to the entrance ceremony wearing the designated academy uniform. Otherwise, you will not be able to participate in the entrance ceremony! That is all! Dismissed!”
Delt finished his announcement and left, and the successful candidates also went their separate ways.
“Pamela.”
I called out to Pamela, who was standing still, looking around.
“Y-yes!”
“What are you going to do now?”
“Huh? Um… I’m going to send a letter.”
“A letter?”
“Yes. To my master, to tell him that even someone like me… has passed the academy.”
“I see.”
“…”
Pamela was silent for a moment, fiddling with her fingers.
After waiting for a moment, Pamela asked me.
“W-what are you going to do, Mr. Ishihan!”
“I’m going to get an inn.”
“An inn…?”
“I went straight to the entrance exam as soon as I arrived. I haven’t even found an inn to stay at yet. So I have to find a place to sleep.”
“Th-that’s right! Come to think of it, I also… have to find a place to sleep.”
“I see.”
This was a good opportunity.
“Then we should probably find an inn to stay at together.”
“A-an inn to stay at together!?”
I could roughly guess what she was surprised about.
I hadn’t intended for it, but it seemed to have come out that way by chance.
But I wouldn’t point it out.
“Yes.”
“B-but we just met today, and to stay together… that’s…!”
I’d better point this one out.
“What are you talking about? I just meant that we should look for an inn together.”
“…Ah.”
Pamela’s mouth fell open, and with a look of despair, she hung her head low.
“That’s right. There’s no way something like that would happen in the first place. Once again, I’ve made a strange misunderstanding and caused the other person to have an unpleasant experience. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for being a witch lower than a caterpillar who makes selfish misunderstandings.”
One of Pamela’s charms.
The rapid-fire self-deprecation talk that appeared when her low self-esteem worsened.
In a situation like this, even if I were to say she didn’t need to apologize, she would just reply with “No, it’s my fault,” so.
“I’m sorry.”
I apologized on my end.
“Huh?!”
Pamela immediately reacted to my words and raised her head.
“W-why are you apologizing, Mr. Ishihan? The one who did wrong was me, the idiot who made a selfish misunderstanding….”
“No, now that I think about it, what I said could have easily been misunderstood. Even if we’ve become friends, I should have been more delicate with my words to a woman.”
“F-f-f-f-f-friend!?!?!?”
Pamela’s mouth fell open wider than I had ever seen it today, and her fingers moved quickly in astonishment.
“What are you so surprised about?”
“B-but you said… you called me a friend.”
“That’s right.”
“W-why…!”
“Because I thought we had become friends. We’re going to be attending the same academy now… and more than anything, didn’t we just congratulate each other on passing? We even shook hands, saying we’d get along. So aren’t we friends now?”
I delivered the final blow to Pamela, who was listening to my explanation blankly.
“I think of you as a friend. What do you think?”
“Uh, uh, uhh… th-that someone like me is a friend….”
Without pointing out why she was putting herself down so much, I immediately gave her the answer she wanted.
“It’s fine. Or do you not want to be friends with me?”
“N-no! It’s not that! I-I want to be friends!”
“Then there’s no problem. You and I are friends.”
“Ah, ahh. Friend, f-friend… my first… friend… ehe, he, he, hehehehehehehe….”
One of Pamela’s charms, her gloomy laughter, flowed out.
Even in the game, she had laughed like this when she became friends with the player.
Recalling the first time I saw that scene, it felt fresh.
“Pamela.”
“Y-yes, Mr. Ishihan!”
“Now that we’re friends, call me Ishihan. ‘Yi’ is my last name.”
“Just by my name…! U-uh! Yes! Mr. Shih-han!”
It seemed the hurdle of calling me by my first name was still too high.
Since I had succeeded in getting closer to Pamela, let’s get straight to the point.
“Let’s go find an inn.”
“…Y-yes!”
With Pamela, who nodded her head twice in agreement, I left the entrance exam site and went out into the street.
“U-um! Mr. Shih-han!”
Pamela, who had been following behind me, called out to me.
“What is it?”
“Um, l-later, how about we have some snacks together? S-since we’re friends. I heard that friends have snacks together. It was my dream to have snacks with someone like me if I made a friend… ah, I’m sorry! I was being too forward, wasn’t I? Even if we’re friends, there are lines you shouldn’t cross! I’m sorry for being presumptuous! Please don’t end our friendship!”
‘Ah~ this is Pamela.’
Thinking she had finally made a friend, she got excited and suggested what she wanted to do, but in the middle of speaking, her thoughts shifted to how someone like her was being too forward, and her negative thoughts were running wild.
She had the nickname Debuff Queen, but it was a very Pamela-like moment, also called (self-esteem) Ruin-la because of this negative-minded character trait.
“Pamela.”
“Y-yes!”
“Let’s have snacks after we’ve found an inn… and after we’ve stopped by a clothing store.”
“Ah, ahhh…! Yes!”
Pamela smiled a relieved smile as if she had just come back from the dead.
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