Chapter 327: Gossiping Lane

———Wiina———

<12: 32 pm>

“Argh! Not again!” Jeff yelled out as he lost another round. “One more time! Come on!”

“You asked for it. Just don’t waste too much time.” Gregori said with a smirk before they started another round. We still have some time before Rico’s torture session began, but being so preoccupied with these games won’t help steel themselves for that.

“...When will someone else actually find this place? It’s not that hard to access.” Useph said as he stared at the teleport pad.

“We do have to solve a few puzzles for it, so it’s not exactly in plain sight.” I pointed out. While this is one of the easier mysteries to solve on campus, it is also not something that you can notice without high attention to detail.

“Okay, but all of us literally got in here just a few weeks into the semester, how is everyone else slacking off?” He said in dissatisfaction.

“No practical benefits to solving it, even if they notice something amiss.” Orrel answered it for me. Even if it had been months the fact remains that these secret areas don’t bring much benefits to the students. It’s supposed to be fun little things we can discover if we have nothing better to do. For the people in our class we have plenty of time to do these frivolous tasks.

“...There’s gotta be a point of unlocking access to these places, right? I think Emmie managed to get the most unlocks out of all of us.” Useph brings up.

“How would we know? None of us have found any evidence to support that assumption.” Orrel said. “The most we get out of unlocking new areas to teleport to is cosmetics in the simulator. That doesn’t amount to much when it adds very little.”

“The fact that it even does anything at all should account for something, right?” Useph said, still clinging on to that possibility.

“Hard to say, at least they are keeping track of it.” Orrel doesn’t seem all too keen on betting one way or the other. “I think the only person who could know of possible benefits outside of the school staff is you-know-who.”

“Yeah, might as well have no lead at all.” I said while scratching the back of my head. I have no stake in them figuring it out, so it’s none of my business.

“...Ah, right. Jass, what’s your dungeon like? The record, I mean.” Useph suddenly spoke up about that…

“About one-forty.” I flatly replied. Most of them have surpassed that number by now, so this should be where I am expected to be.

“Yeesh, were you out of practice?” Nicks suddenly spoke up after standing there silently for a while.

“Cut him some slack, he’s probably practicing magic more than he goes into a dungeon. I don’t think any of us have seen him at the guild that often to begin with.” Orrel said. “Seni is the same way. I think it’s fair to say that healers growth path is different from most. Practicing healing is almost as important as killing to gain experience.”

“...Speaking of Seni, you think she can stop being a bad influence?” Useph asked.

“Not our problem, and we don’t have to dabble in her business.” He said, clearly finding the topic way out of his scope. “By the way, Useph, have you double-checked the intel from your mother?”

“Of course. Even if she dismissed it as unimportant in the grand scheme of things, I still made sure to check it again.” He replied. “The consequence will no doubt be ugly, but she is very confident that nothing will happen to us.”

“Are they really thinking about extorting her?” Orrel asked one more time due to how ridiculous it sounds.

“Yeah? She has abundant resources they want in their coffers, and with how much they want it to recoup their losses, it’s not that surprising.” Useph said, not sounding particularly bothered. “It’s not just about her, obviously. Anyone with a working brain knows that for someone to create a place like this overnight has an absurd level of connections and resources that eclipse all nations combined. Even if they had to burn through a lot of their human resources, getting even a small chunk of that would’ve been a success.”

“I don’t even think that could be called that. Most countries have their troop count heavily lowered due to desertion and other matters, now is really not the time to spend them on anything.” Orrel gave his opinion on the matter. “Not that I think war would start again any time soon, just that they should be used for national emergency instead of creating one.”

“Heh. That is obviously not what is happening. No idea why they can’t be rational about it.” Useph said, showing disdain for how the situation is unfolding.

“Desperation can cause chaos.” I commented. If there wasn’t so much violence uprisings and terrorist attacks causing so much damage then they obviously wouldn’t try to coerce the people here for resources and assistance. No one here has an obligation to the government, since they hold no real power over them. The only reason they’re allowed to run rampant until now is because they haven’t done anything insane to this degree yet, or simply because the ancients don’t feel like it at the moment. If anything those guys are more pressured by whoever can entertain them at the moment, be it via games or books or movies or whatever else.

…That reminds me. I wonder if those creatives that dream up their stories realize that some of them were actual prophecies of what will happen in the future, or that they are reflections of events in other worlds. I wouldn’t say that to dismiss their creative minds, it takes effort to bring those out of their mind.

“So, Useph, you got any more scoops?” Nicks asked. He isn’t in a gaming mood today, more of a gossip mood.

“None. I don’t think anything else will happen this week.” He said, sounding disinterested in digging deeper. “At most they are trying to barricade the supply route right now, but that was interfered with.”

“Oh, so that first move doesn’t work, no wonder nothing was said by anyone related to shops.” Nicks commented. “So how serious are they about doing this? No matter what, it's a really bad look, right? Kicking down on other nations was already a bad look, and now this is happening?”

“Like I said, I doubt they were thinking things through. No need to scrutinize it any further than that.” Just let them keep acting like uncivilized barbarians, all that will happen is them hitting a brick wall if they don’t push their luck. Now we still haven’t come up with who will intercept the upcoming invasion. It’s getting clearer that they are seriously thinking about employing a decently-sized army to conquer the area, casualties be damned. They think taking the initiative and being the aggressor will give them better control of the situation. No one has thought about pointing the gun right back at them, which no doubt bolster their confidence to go through with it. Unfortunately the reason they aren’t doing that is because there is no need for them to, so whatever advantage they think they have is pure delusion.

“Pretty spicy topic, but do we actually learn anything new today aside from that?” Nicks asked.

“Not really.” Useph answered. “We don’t even know when they’ll invade. It probably won’t be longer than next week with how my mom was talking about them. They’re clearly desperate.”

“Weird, wasn’t there less report on hostile takeover as of late?” Nicks pointed out.

“Because there aren’t a lot of places for such a thing to occur left, at least that is probably the main reason for it.” Orrel gave out his hypothesis. “The topic itself would no doubt cause a lot of stir among the general public. I hope no one speaks up about it.”

“I’ll keep my lips sealed.” Nicks spoke first. If even Kenni isn’t saying anything then no one here is saying anything. Except for the wildcard that is Emmie I can accurately gauge what they would do, and they won’t cause a stir when it comes to this exact topic. Not really something that everyone is interested in beyond its scope. If it weren’t involving the big wigs then they wouldn’t discuss it so feverishly for an hour yesterday.

“Same here.” I said half-heartedly.

“Come on! One more game!” Jeff shouted out as he lost another set. Maybe at this point they should’ve switched games, or hop off for the day.

———Lynda———

<12: 49 pm>

“Why are you always eating out so late?” I asked, now that seeing her here so often became a common sight.

“What? It’s just how I like to operate. The less people roaming about to hit my wings, the better.” She answered. I guess those things do come with a few problems… Can’t she fold those into her back though? I know it’s not the most comfortable thing but that is an option. “Why are you so late today then?”

“Got stuck with a few missions, you know how it goes. Got the blood pumping and the best way to stop that is to tire yourself out.” And by that I mean it’s so boring I need to do a few more just to feel something. Compared to yesterday’s mission it doesn’t have quite the kick to it.

“Hmm… What even happened there? Still need to buy some items from the reward shop?” She asked.

“I already did that yesterday. I just want to do it some more.” I answered.

“...Hope you didn’t end up with too many casualties.” She remarked.

“Hey, don’t act like your shield ain’t sharp as hell, and that’s not even accounting for its mechanism.” I pointed out. My axe is very deadly, but so is every weapon bestowed to us.

“Heh. It is still easier for me.” Galed said.

“...Why are your wings so big anyway? Kenni’s is way smaller.” I shifted the topic, not wanting to talk about the possibility of killing, accidental or otherwise. I know Luik doesn’t seem to care that much, but she’s weird.

“How the heck should I know? Thankfully they are way more flexible than what bird wings probably are like, otherwise my life is going to be hellish.” She explained with an annoyed tone. Thankfully I didn’t get changed at all by the Eclipse, otherwise I probably would be quite irritable as well. She has been keeping her composure well despite the few difficulties she has, which is mainly the fact that that guy exists. She is the only in her class that can keep up with him and keep him docile if no capable teachers are around.

“A price to pay for such an amazing ability to fly.” I remarked. Not even all the people in Perfect Class can fly, at least not in the way someone like Kenni and Emmie can where they have perfect control of their midair trajectory.

“Didn’t get to use it much during P.E. class, unfortunately. It’s a very spacious room, but there aren’t a lot of opportunities to use it.” Galed replied. It’s just a random comment I throw out. “But speaking of flying, it is pretty damn awesome. You get to go wherever you want without needing to care about foot traffic. This town is so tightly packed that there are a lot more people walking than riding, at least more than other places.”

“Yeah yeah, really sweet deal.” I said, feeling regretful of ever bringing the topic up. “...So, how has dealing with the loose cannon been?”

“Nothing too bad. As long as he isn’t badly rattled then it’d be fine. It’s been a long while since I needed to personally step in.” She answered. With that pink-haired teacher in the mix the amount of damage he can do is heavily limited, thankfully. Not a whole lot of people know about it just yet, which is for the best even if the incident involving him was a long time ago.

“I see… what about those bad influences near him?” I haven’t heard much about him being strung along by those small gangs. They might not cause much trouble, but if it’s with him specifically it can be a lot more troublesome.

“Don’t worry about that, the teachers had made sure no one oblivious to his condition could get close. I don’t even need to get involved.” She confidently said.

“...I guess it’s not as much of a headache as I would’ve thought.” I commented.

“If it was, I’d probably be even moodier than that wolfgirl.” She jokingly said.

“Let’s not talk about that now.” I quickly shut the topic down since I don’t want a chance to earn the ire of that girl with a chain. I know this place is nowhere near as crowded as half an hour ago, but I don’t want to take chances with that.

“Ah, fine.” She quickly complied. Let’s all stick to our own businesses right now, no need to overreach. If something is going to happen, we’ll probably see it parade around sooner or later.