Chapter 32: The Wolf Uproar - 2

A ridiculously huge wolf had appeared not outside, but inside the academy.

If this were real life, I would have panicked and run for my life.

But Dante, Angelica, and I kept talking as calmly as if it were nothing.

The reason we could stay so calm

was because the academy buildings were protected by a barrier.

And since it was a barrier personally set up by the headmaster, no ordinary demonic beast could possibly break into the buildings.

Still, a huge-ass wolf suddenly showing up at the academy?

Something about that stank.

No matter how big a wolf gets, it is usually around 1.6 meters—smaller than a person.

Well, in a fantasy world, wolves bigger than people could exist, sure, but for some random gigantic wolf to appear inside the academy out of nowhere was a little too bizarre, wasn’t it?

It was not like there was a zoo nearby.

Besides, the headmaster’s barrier was not only on the buildings. It also covered the academy’s outer walls, so intrusion from outside was impossible too.

Which meant the enormous wolf inside the academy was either strong enough to ignore the headmaster’s barrier, or else it had spawned somewhere inside the academy itself.

It was not the first one.

We were still in the early part of the main story. There was no way an enemy that strong would appear already.

It was not as if there were no defeat events in this game’s early stages, but if I remembered right, the enemy in those defeat events was not some giant wolf.

And if it really were a wolf that strong, the inside of the academy would already be complete chaos.

So that left the second possibility.

Come to think of it.

Wasn’t the first enemy to appear inside the academy three ridiculously huge beasts...?

And one of them was a wolf...

Ah, right. There was one.

There had been one absurdly huge wolf.

The one that served as the first step in the chain of incidents and disasters scheduled to hit this academy.

As always, the academy was a place where an unusual number of incidents broke out.

That was because the villains were targeting the academy.

And the reason was usually some setting like, the academy was storing an important object.

There was no real reason.

It just ended at, the academy happened to be keeping it.

I had no idea why they would stash something that important in an academy—a mere educational institution—instead of, say, the imperial treasury, but whatever. That was just the setting.

The problem was that the villains desperately wanted that important object.

So in order to take it, they struggled and schemed to invade the academy.

But would villains obediently just grab the item and leave?

Of course not. Property damage was the bare minimum, and they would also murder witnesses under the excuse of eliminating anyone who saw them. They caused every kind of nuisance imaginable.

Then the protagonist, who knew nothing, would get caught up in that mess and wind up starting some inexplicable fight.

And through that fight, the villains would become aware of the protagonist’s existence. That was how it usually went.

Naturally, Dawnstar Academia was an academy story before it was a romance fantasy, so it tended to follow that formula too.

Still, these incidents almost never happened without warning, because there were always signs beforehand.

The villains were weirdly considerate like that and did not launch an immediate surprise attack.

Before striking, they left behind a sign that basically served as a notice saying, "We’ll be attacking the academy soon." And the giant wolf Dante mentioned could be called exactly that sort of omen.

#

"You lot again."

A handsome man glared at Angelica and me, his face twisted as if he had a headache.

He had long platinum-blond hair, green eyes like emeralds, and pointed ears that made it obvious, like the headmaster, that he was not human.

Professor Silves Fraxinus.

In the game, he was one of the male leads in the professor position, and in the Department of Magic he taught spirit studies.

And because he was an elf, he looked like he was in his twenties, while in reality he was an elder with 230 years under his belt.

If it had been another professor, we might have been able to sneak away. But of all people, it had to be this guy, a spiritist who handled spirits.

He was the kind of elf who dumped guard duty on his own spirits, so he had scattered them all over the academy. Which meant there was no slipping away, even if we tried.

"If you train hard enough, isn’t it only natural to break one or two wooden swords?"

"Be quiet."

Professor Silves let out a sigh, pulled a pill bottle from his coat, and dumped every tablet inside straight into his mouth.

The label on the bottle said antacid. Apparently his stomach was really burning.

"I was already saddled with night duty by that damned skeleton, and now some bizarre creature called a wolf has shown up. I am not in a mood to entertain jokes."

Ah. So that was why he had been on night duty two times in a row.

Our professor had dumped it on him.

Our professor...

God damn it.

So Angelica and I had caused trouble on the very night duty shift of a professor who was already furious because our professor had pawned his work off on him?

Professor, of all times, why now?

"And to make matters worse, the troublesome students who keep breaking wooden swords just happen to be that skeleton’s pupils... My stomach burns even more."

So he even knew we were taking that man’s class.

Not pupils, exactly.

Please correct that to students.

Shit.

Looks like there was no avoiding demerits.

After glaring at us for a moment, Professor Silves sighed.

"I will let you off without demerits this time too, so hurry back to the dorms."

He waved us off as if he was sick of looking at us.

Wow.

He was letting this slide too.

"You’re really letting us off?"

"I would prefer you not test my patience."

"We’ll get out of your sight immediately."

Absolutely. We needed to disappear fast.

I bowed at once and was just about to vanish from in front of him when—

"Wait."

Professor Silves stopped us.

"I thought we had agreed there would be no demerits."

"I am not sure I would call that an agreement, but that is not what this is about."

He pressed a hand to his forehead and continued speaking with a pained grimace, as if his head were throbbing.

"That damned skeleton will announce it too, but for the time being, do not wander around at night. Stay in your dorms."

"Because of the big wolf?"

At my question, Professor Silves sighed and nodded.

I had no idea how many times he had sighed by now. At this rate the ground was going to cave in.

"It is a cunning creature. We confirmed its existence, but the spirits lost track of where it escaped to. It should not be able to leave the academy because of the barrier, and yet..."

Of course they had.

By now, it was probably in the dungeon.

As long as it stayed in there, no one could catch it.

And maybe it too was blessed by the god of romance fantasy, because until it attacked a protagonist, it could rampage all over the academy and still never get caught.

The chance came when the wolf attacked a protagonist. Before that, you could assume it was absolutely impossible to catch.

But there was one wolf and four protagonists.

Was it one in four again this time?

Still, Iris would have the male leads fussing over her.

And the other three could all handle themselves pretty well, so maybe I did not need to worry this time.

"Then, um..."

Suddenly,

Angelica, who had kept her mouth shut the whole time, finally spoke.

"Then what about sparring at night..."

"Do you think that would be allowed?"

Professor Silves cut her off, his face twisting with irritation.

"If you are caught, there will be no leniency. You will receive demerits immediately, so keep that in mind."

At those words, a tiny crack appeared in her normally expressionless face.

For her expression to change at all...

"Yeah, that wolf. I’m going to kill it."

And with that, Angelica gave a murderous response.

Was not being able to spar with me really that serious to her?

Restrain yourself a little.

I’m the one who feels like I’m going to die here.

#

The next day.

After afternoon classes ended,

I was in the hallway tearing into a piece of bread while reading the newspaper.

Partly because I wanted to confirm whether the wolf that had appeared this time really was the same one from the main story,

and partly because I had absolutely nothing to do until night fell.

Though seriously, I hurt like hell.

Even if we could not spar at night, still.

What kind of nonsense was it to use class sparring as an excuse to beat the crap out of me?

Honestly, this was miserable.

Though thanks to that, I had leveled up.

If I had not had the [Dragon Strength] trait, I would probably be lying in the infirmary right now.

I let out a sigh and ignored the giant, clickbait-style bullshit headline splashed across the front page, then looked at the wolf photo tucked into one corner of the paper.

The wolf in the picture had ash-gray fur and blue eyes, and Dante had not been lying when he said it was enormous. It was fucking huge.

Yep.

This wolf.

It was a photo, and it was dark so the image was a little blurry, but

it looked exactly like the wolf from that CG I had seen in the game.

I had no idea how they had even managed to take this.

Now I was suddenly getting really pissed off.

Originally, I had been planning to leave this to the protagonist bunch and just sleep in the dorms.

[The Oath of Chivalry has been activated.]

[The Stars of Knights are watching you.]

But thanks to those notification windows popping up out of nowhere, I could not even do that.

Those insane voyeuristic bastards apparently really wanted to watch me kill that wolf myself.

Today was going to be a shitshow.

The wolf appeared at night and targeted one of the protagonists.

One out of the four would definitely be attacked, and since the [Oath of Chivalry] had activated, that attack date was today.

If I could have my way, I would gather all the heroines in one place and have them jump it together, but

there was no way they would believe nonsense like, "The wolf is definitely going to attack you tonight, so let’s all stay together." And on top of that, those voyeur freaks would probably find some excuse to nitpick me again, so I had no choice but to pass on that idea.

Angelica had gone back to the dorm first, apparently sulking, and Isabella and Dolnesia had also gone in saying they wanted to rest, so that left only Iris still outside.

But the problem was, I had no idea where Iris was.

The academy was huge, and since we were not in the same club, I had no reason to run into her except during class...

And it would be awkward as hell to suddenly insist on staying by her side all the time. If I happened to run into one of the male leads, that would be a headache too.

Not that I was especially worried, since the male leads would be with her anyway.

Still, I felt like I needed to know where she was.

I could not exactly stop random people on the road and ask where Iris was.

If I went around looking for her with this face of mine, I would probably get mistaken for a stalker.

Damn this lookist romance-fantasy world.

Should I just shamelessly ask anyway?

Even if I wanted to ask Dolnesia for help, her spirit arts level was still too low to send spirits very far.

What a pain.

My gaze returned to the newspaper.

As the sky gradually darkened, the cadets still inside the building started heading back to their dorms one by one.

"Why don’t we try catching it ourselves?"

"If we dissect it, maybe we’ll find something."

Now and then there were hot-blooded cadets who suggested they hunt it themselves,

but most of them seemed too concerned about demerits and gave up, heading back to the dorms instead.

And after a little more time passed, all the cadets had left, and I was the only one remaining in the building hallway.

Then the lights inside the building went out.

They had probably decided that by this point all the cadets must have gone back to the dorms, so they simply turned off all the indoor lights.

It was not completely night yet, and there were still other buildings with lights on, so the inside was not pitch black.

"Then I guess it’s about time I got moving."

"Huh? Ian?"

A voice behind me called my name.

I thought everyone had already left... There was still someone here this whole time?

Recognizing the familiar voice, I turned around.

Standing there behind me was a woman with brown hair and emerald-green eyes.

"Lady Haede? What are you doing here?"

"That’s what I should be asking you!"

It was Iris’s childhood friend, Haede Mercedes.

No, more importantly, why was she here...?

And besides, what she was holding was not a swordsmanship manual, but a book related to the Department of Magic, wasn’t it?

Haede looked at my face for a moment, then scratched her cheek and continued.

"Well, I was studying alone in the classroom next door, and I accidentally fell asleep."

"But that is not a swordsmanship manual, is it?"

"Ah... I’m also taking classes in the Department of Magic separately. I’m using them in place of electives."

She was taking magic studies too?

I had never seen Haede take another major in the game.

Had something changed now that this was reality...?

Still, if she had filled her whole schedule with major courses, that had to be pretty brutal.

She really was living diligently.

"But is there a reason you’re taking magic studies too? Just handling the Department of Swordsmanship major should already be pretty demanding."

"Even so."

Hm?

"I don’t want to disappoint her... If I’m going to put on a brave face in front of Ris... I have to do at least this much."

In Haede’s green eyes,

something sparkled for a moment—determination, maybe, or some other firm resolve—then vanished.

Was there something there?

In the setting book, she was only described as Iris’s childhood friend and unconditional helper.

And since there was nothing beyond her basic profile,

I did not know what Haede had been doing before the academy.

It seemed she had some hidden circumstances the setting book had never mentioned.

"But what do we do...? They emphasized over and over that if we get caught, it’s demerits."

Then Haede started fidgeting anxiously, at a complete loss.

Seeing her like that, I let out a small, involuntary laugh.

It still felt like the wolf would take a little longer to appear.

Maybe I should just escort her back to the dorm first, then go hunt the wolf.

"Then..."

That was when it happened.

Aaaahhh—!!!

Suddenly, a scream rang out from outside the building.

"...Ris?"

And it was Iris’s scream.

Apparently the wolf had appeared sooner than I expected.

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