Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 26

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

First, I needed to come clean about something.
“I’m an idiot.”
“H-huh?”
“During the Collegiate Mathematics midterm, I planned to put everyone except myself into critical condition so I could take the exam alone.”
“I see.”
“It’s graded on a curve. Even if one or two people avoid the poison, I’m guaranteed an A+.”
“Oh, I get it! For Evan, I-I’ll create a poison so potent they’ll cough blood and die at seventy percent strength!”
“There’s no need to kill them. They’re all my precious classmates, after all.”
“E-Evan is…! You’re, you’re too kind!”
Hmph, she seemed moved by my virtue. But thinking rationally, I couldn’t kill people just for a single exam. My classmates hadn’t even tried to harm me.
Bandits and other thugs had tried to hurt me, so killing them was fair game. Since I nearly died because of them, they must have accepted the risk when they came at me.
But my classmates were different. They weren’t trying to harm me—they were merely a minor inconvenience. Since I felt bad about hurting them, the most reasonable approach seemed to be putting them to sleep on exam day instead.
“S-sleeping pills… I, I can’t make them, but, but I have a way to get them!”
“…”
“W-why, Evan? Killing them is better, isn’t it?”
“No. Thanks for the sleeping pills. Let’s go with that.”
I couldn’t help but suspect she was the pride of an assassination family, but that wasn’t really important.
When I praised her for suggesting the best sleeping medication, Kanna grinned and promised to prepare the right dosage before the midterm.
With Kanna’s help, I gained experience by consuming toxins of appropriate potency, and watching her combine poisons while barely gripping two pencils made me marvel at how her skills were nothing but broken abilities. She could weaponize anything she touched and extract toxins from her surroundings to combine them—it was the very essence of overpowered skills. I shouldn’t have been so arrogant about having many abilities across two status windows. I needed to gain weight faster.
She could weaponize anything she touched and extract toxins from her surroundings to combine them—it was the very essence of overpowered skills. I shouldn’t have been so arrogant about having many abilities across two status windows. I needed to gain weight faster.
“W-wait, before you go, one last thing.”
Kanna warned that if I consumed any more poison, my body wouldn’t be able to handle it, yet she handed me that red drink she’d given me when she first entered the room. As I gulped it down and stared blankly at her, she brought out a candle and spun it in front of my face, chanting some best friend incantation before speaking to me.
“E-Evan, I, I am, you, what am I?”
“…?”
“I, I am, your, best, friend, right?”
What was she doing? I alternated my gaze between the candle and Kanna for a while before realizing she wanted to hear me call her a friend, so I obliged.
“Yeah. You’re my friend.”
“B-best friend!”
“Best friend. BFF. Soul sister. Lifelong friend—or bestie for short.”
“I, I did it!”
Well… I’m not sure what that was about, but since you’re happy, I’m happy too. I gave Kanna a cheerful goodbye and left the room. I heard her squealing and the sound of her pounding on the wall from inside Kanna’s Room, but I decided to ignore it.
I’d gotten what I needed. I didn’t want to get involved any further.

◇ ◆ ◇

The next morning, early at dawn. Following the Department Head Professor’s advice, I headed to the Magic Department Practice Grounds at six o’clock sharp, only to find a gathering of people assembled for morning calisthenics. Most of them were homeless mages living in a settlement called Starlight Village, and they were here to receive “Well Done” stamps on their attendance cards in exchange for points at the shop.
They were dregs who had either caused trouble in the Department and been expelled from the Dormitory, or were still enrolled at the Academy after five, six, seven, or even ten years because they hadn’t met graduation requirements. But having lingered at the Academy for so long, their abilities were undeniably solid.
Attending morning calisthenics would build my stamina, and collecting stamps on my attendance card would let me gradually accumulate points as insurance. If I was lucky, I could even spar with these long-time residents.
Grateful to the Department Head Professor for introducing me to this exercise session that offered nothing but benefits, I informed the staff member of my first participation, received my attendance card, hung it around my neck, and joined the formation.
The staff member, dressed in athletic wear with a whistle around his neck, inserted a record into a portable LP player and started the music.
“A first-year youngster participating in calisthenics—how admirable.”
What is this lunatic?
The man, laughing like Santa Claus with a ho-ho-ho, introduced himself as the Village Chief of Starlight Village and proceeded to explain things like an NPC with tedious detail.
“Since this is your first time, you wouldn’t know the origin of this song. This is a venerable tune left behind by the previous Department Head for the Magic Department students.”
This guy looks barely over twenty, so why does he speak like an old man who’s lived a full life? Is it because he’s the Village Chief? Did the position of Village Chief transform him into a grandfather figure?
“This song, composed and written by the previous Department Head, is titled ‘Magical Aerobic Exercise.’ Follow my lead. It’s going to be somewhat challenging.”
The man in his mid-twenties, pretending to stroke a beard that didn’t exist, began stepping to a disco beat.
I thought morning calisthenics would be something like national exercises, but this song is incredibly fast. Isn’t this around 166 bpm?
“Listen carefully, newcomer! This song was created by the previous Department Head after he was dragged to the battlefield by order of the former Emperor and came back furious!”
You could tell that just from the first verse. The song was harshly satirizing imperialism and hegemonic nations from the very beginning.
How they couldn’t properly manage the land they already possessed but were obsessed with territorial expansion, how they stationed troops in weaker nations under the guise of protection and extorted them, how the lyrics were nothing but warnings about being captured if called from abroad.
The Academy being extraterritorial must be why such audacity was permitted. According to the Village Chief, the previous Department Head was dragged to the imperial palace the moment his term ended and locked away in a political prisoner’s prison.
“Down with the Crowell Empire!”
“Down with the Crowell Empire!”
“Down with the Crowell Empire!”
“Down with the Crowell Empire!”
“D-down with the Crowell Empire!”
Is this really okay? Everyone gathered for calisthenics was singing the chorus, and before I knew it, I was shouting “Down with the Crowell Empire!” too, my heart pounding uncontrollably. This really won’t get us arrested, right? It’s fine because this place is extraterritorial, right?
“Newcomer! When the next verse ends, thrust your fingers toward the sky! Huu! Go!”
The continuing verses were heavily infused with the previous Department Head’s personal feelings. Of course, his regrets and anguish had permeated the earlier lyrics as well, but never with such raw sincerity as now.
When the lyrics rang out across the grounds—how they taught us in school that killing people would get you arrested, but kill a thousand in war and suddenly you’re a hero—people spun in a circle and thrust their fingers toward the sky.
I too stretched my hand out with the mindset of a disco queen.
“Huu!”
Morning calisthenics are incredibly fun! I continued stepping to the repeating beat, shouting “Huu! Huu!” As I quickly picked up the movements, the Village Chief laughed with satisfaction, and after the calisthenics ended, everyone high-fived each other, encouraging one another to do their best for the rest of the day.
“What a promising newcomer! Starlight Village welcomes you anytime!”
“I will not become homeless.”
“Sleeping outdoors has its own charm, you know.”
“That’s still being homeless, isn’t it?”
“It’s not homelessness! I’ve set up a tent with a proper ceiling!”
“Don’t talk to me, homeless person. Homelessness is contagious.”
I coldly rejected the persistent Village Chief and went to the staff member to receive my “Well Done” stamp. I needed to collect a hundred stamps to earn one point, but still, one point is one point. If I came every day until break, I could offset the demerits I’d earned from causing trouble last time.
Even if I got caught up with Reina and received the same demerits, this crucial one or two-point difference would mean Reina would become homeless while I remained in the Dormitory. When that day comes, I’ll have the spacious room all to myself. When Reina gets expelled, I’ll call Kanna and throw a celebration party.
I tucked my precious attendance card into my clothes and ran across the grounds. The Department Head had said that even with body-enhancement skills, relying solely on skills would ultimately ruin your body.
At that time, the Department Head had misspoken and gone on about some common misconception humans make, and he’d threatened to beat my head in until I forgot it, so I’d promised to forget it cleanly. But since I still remember it now, that won’t work. I need to try harder to forget it.
I continued jogging while vigorously shaking my head to erase that day’s memory. After sweating it out and showering, I ate a massive breakfast and stepped on the scale, but unfortunately, my weight hadn’t changed.

◇ ◆ ◇

Time passed, and the cherry blossoms fell. The entire Campus Grounds, where I was sweeping, lay buried beneath a carpet of petals. Cherry blossoms symbolize midterm exams. Their ending is you, you, you.
The scattered petals strewn across the ground resembled the bloodstains I had coughed up not long ago.
My maximum skill usage limit, which I couldn’t measure during that first Practical Magic class, was safely verified the following week with Kanna, and I submitted the report without incident.
The Department Head Professor brainwashed me into believing calories were paramount—that high-calorie consumption was absolute—so I drank salad oil by the gallon and used my skill. Even when I struck out, I didn’t lose consciousness. I decided then and there to have faith in the Department Head Professor.
While we bled and toiled away, apparently much happened in the other departments. Apparently, the other departments held something called an orientation before classes began. I heard this from the Administrative Office where I work part-time. Of course, the Magic Department couldn’t dream of such things because they couldn’t gauge their students’ temperaments beforehand—if they carelessly released those beasts and they started killing each other, it would be catastrophic.
The other departments also held something called a freshman gathering, a modest party to foster camaraderie among undergraduates. The Magic Department had no such thing. If the seniors carelessly got the juniors drunk and they started fighting, they’d end up killing each other again.
And apparently, the other departments also went on a trip called an MT—a two-night, three-day excursion to nearby areas. This, too, had nothing to do with first-year Magic Department students. We’re forbidden from leaving campus until our conduct scores are assessed.
Is this truly a university or a correctional facility? When I asked the staff about this, they chuckled and said common sense standards only applied to the Academic Department. I was grateful to at least have a peer. The Combat Techniques Department also faced many restrictions, they said. Though admittedly, less severe than ours.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————