Chapter 113

Alcohol Is the Problem

An absurd haul of rewards.

That must mean this school trip had been a huge event.

I lay sprawled on the bed and counted the stacked notifications one by one.

Ding!

[Main Quest]

-Title: Calamity from the Deep Sea

-Objective: Infiltrate the Cultist Branch hidden in the deep sea.

[Through your astonishing performance, you wiped out the branch!]

-Rewards will be issued. Please check your status window.

Main Quest.

I had cleared one big hurdle.

'If someone told me to do that twice, I couldn't.'

It had only gone so smoothly because of all the buildup I had stacked until now. In the original, this was an event where casualties reached the tens of thousands.

And we had stopped an incident like that with zero civilian casualties. With only six people, no less.

Maybe the status window valued that part highly, because it showered me with rewards.

It felt like it had thrown in a few more than what had been announced in advance.

With a satisfied smile, I claimed the rewards all at once.

Ding!

[Chain Quest 'What Lies Buried Beneath' cleared.]

[10000 Merit Points obtained.]

[Points will be additionally settled as a special reward.]

[15000 Merit Points obtained.]

[Remaining Merit Points: 26083]

'Kya.'

My point wallet had grown stupidly fat with one click.

Combined with my existing points, it had broken past 26,000.

That was more than the total amount of every point I had invested into the [Saint] system so far.

Of course, considering I had saved an entire city in this incident, even that might feel like a small amount...

'The Saint system only adds points for direct salvation.'

There was no price attached to lives in a broader sense.

Meaning, just because I prevented some incident, it did not calculate the share of the people who should have died in that incident.

Merit accumulated when I helped people in danger. People who were not yet in danger were not targets.

By the same logic, I should not have been able to gain any points in this incident.

'In this incident, I only pulled off broad salvation. Direct salvation didn't apply.'

I had saved tens of thousands of people, but nothing had actually dropped from it.

Had the system taken that into account?

The status window had included it as a quest reward.

Thankful for the flexible judgment, I operated the Saint system.

[Base Stats]

Stamina: D-

Strength: E+

Agility: B-

Mana Sensitivity: E+

[Remaining Merit Points: 26083]

My hand moved without hesitation.

I had planned where to invest the points a long time ago.

Ding!

[Merit Points consumed.]

-Base stat 'Mana Sensitivity' grade increased by +1.

-Base stat 'Mana Sensitivity' grade increased by +1.

-Base stat 'Mana Sensitivity' grade increased by +1.

-Base stat 'Mana Sensitivity' grade increased by +1.

-Base stat 'Mana Sensitivity' grade increased by +1.

-Base stat 'Mana Sensitivity' grade increased by +1.

-Base stat 'Mana Sensitivity' grade increased by +1.

-Base stat 'Mana Sensitivity' grade increased by +1.

-Base stat 'Mana Sensitivity' grade increased by +1.

-Base stat 'Mana Sensitivity' grade increased by +1.

-Base stat 'Agility' grade increased by +1.

[20300 Merit Points consumed.]

[Remaining Merit Points: 5783p]

Whoooosh!

A bluish gust swirled around my fingertips.

A feeling of fullness came over me, like something was being injected into me. Then the texture of the world changed noticeably.

[Base Stats]

Stamina: D-

Strength: E+

Agility: B

Mana Sensitivity: A-

The letters updated in an instant.

Mana Sensitivity, in particular, had jumped a whole ten stages.

It had even pulled two stages ahead of Agility, which had been my highest stat until just now.

'Perfect.'

Other people might have recoiled if they saw this.

They would ask what a guy who was not even a mage planned to do after pouring that many points into Mana Sensitivity.

'They don't know what they're talking about.'

I was sure.

Among the base stats, what I needed most was mana.

Specifically, mana with a purity of at least B+ grade.

'And I succeeded.'

With this, I could make up for one of my weaknesses.

From now on, dealing with calamities would become much easier.

My mind relaxed, far more at ease.

I smiled for a moment, then flipped the screen and moved on to the next reward.

Ding!

[Chain Quest 'For All the Alices' cleared.]

[Item 'Broken Crown' has been partially repaired.]

[Item 'Broken Crown' grade has increased.]

"What."

A black crown floated up before my eyes.

Originally, it had been cracked and broken, so damaged that its form was hard to recognize.

Pitch-black shadows writhed over the crown, then filled in bits and pieces of the shattered fragments as if restoring them.

Ding!

[Broken Crown]

-Category: Accessory

-Grade: A

-Status: Destroyed

-Description: The crown worn by the Black Queen, sovereign of the Nightmare. Now destroyed, only her remnants remain. Can be worn for up to 15 minutes per day. When equipped, the skill 'Nightmarification' becomes available.

It had increased.

The maximum daily wear time, which had been 5 minutes, had tripled to 15 minutes.

'The grade shown in the info window also went up by one stage.'

A proper A-rank item.

My eyes widened at the unexpected gain.

Besides, the Broken Crown was a card I used in almost every situation.

'And that card's performance just got tripled...'

This batch of rewards was especially profitable.

Should I say it really made the quest feel worth clearing?

Humming, I continued the settlement.

Ding!

[Sub Quest 'Catch Me If You Can!' cleared.]

[Consumable item 'Mid-Range Teleportation Sigil (B+)' obtained.]

Ding!

[Hidden Quest 'Ruler of Evil' cleared.]

[Item 'Plague Tablet' obtained.]

Two items entered my hand.

One looked like a ritual dagger, while the other resembled a nameplate painted black.

Ding!

[Mid-Range Teleportation Sigil]

-Category: Sorcery-Mixed Weapon

-Grade: B+

-Status: Clean

-Description: A dagger once used in sorcery rituals. If it leaves a blade mark on a nonliving object within 3 km, the user can teleport to that location at will. The effect is not canceled unless the blade mark is damaged, and it can be used 3 times.

This one seemed useful in many ways too.

A dagger that made teleportation possible at any time under the right conditions.

For something gained from a simple quest, it looked like a reward with a pretty wide range of uses.

"Hmm-hmm."

Most of the reward gacha seemed to have landed as wins.

The problem was the last one.

Ding!

[Plague Tablet]

-Category: ???

-Grade: ???

-Status: ???

-Description: ???

Plague Tablet.

A strange pattern was carved into the jet-black nameplate.

Forget detailed descriptions, every piece of information except its name was displayed as question marks.

Only the words Plague Tablet let me guess that it was connected to The White Knight.

"Mm..."

A nameplate with an unclear identity.

Actually, it was an item I had encountered a few times in the original too.

When the player summoned The White Knight through a bug, this item dropped at a low chance.

'Problem is, even in the original, nothing about it was revealed.'

The nameplate's use, meaning, grade, and so on.

Not a single thing had ever been properly explained.

Countless players had tried interacting with the nameplate, but apparently, not one case had succeeded.

'......I'll keep it for now.'

I examined the tablet briefly, then quietly tucked it into my robe.

Since it had been given as a reward, I did not think it was a meaningless item.

It seemed I would need to research how the nameplate was used.

"Whew..."

The reward settlement ended with the Plague Tablet.

As soon as the blue screen turned off, my eyelids sank.

'I'm dying.'

Heavy fatigue pressed down on my mind.

I did not resist the sleepiness coming over me.

I only shifted on the bed and pulled the blanket over myself.

'What a hard day. Fuck.'

A groan slipped out on its own.

I sank into the deepening dream.

'Still, the rewards were tasty...'

Only a faint smile remained on my lips.

***

All school trip activities were suspended.

Whatever the result, traces of the Cultists had been found in the deep sea near the travel destination.

Of course, maybe because the faculty had decided not to make the matter bigger, the professors and responsible staff gathered among themselves and began searching the area.

'It should be safe now. Even if they search, there won't be anything left to find...'

I clicked my tongue in regret.

While the professors ran around busily, the students were shoved into their accommodations under the name of rest.

The activities that had originally been scheduled were canceled, and we were apparently supposed to kill time inside the very high-class lodging instead.

'Of course.'

This was not bad either.

Hanging out with students somewhere that was not the academy was pretty fun too.

If it was peaceful, then it was peaceful. If it was boring, then it was boring. But because of that, it felt like the time closest to the essence of a vacation.

'Nice.'

I lazed around with Her Highness and Lua, taking a rest.

As we killed time like that, the other children came by my room.

"Sir Viktor! I came to chat with you!"

"It was boring being alone in my room after all."

"I brought the squad members who were with us too!"

"S-Sir Viktor..."

"Um, well... Lady Quijano asked me to come along..."

"I wasn't forced to come! I said I wanted to come too, but..."

"Why did you drag me here?"

"No, I get that we're chatting. But why in this bastard's room..."

"Haa... fine. Just go in. Fuck, or you'll bother me again."

My room naturally became the meeting place.

Well, I think we had quite a bit of fun.

We played board games powered by magic, chatted about this and that, and drank tea.

Caitlin, who seemed like she might refuse at first, ended up blending in well once she was swept up in the flow.

"Hey! You just cheated, didn't you! That hand makes no sense!"

"Oh dear... do you have any proof? In games like this, not getting caught is what matters."

"So you have finally realized it. The only person Viktor treats sincerely is this lady."

"Waha! Did Dad win?"

"Ahaha!"

Laughter chattered through the room.

Yes. It definitely had.

'How did it end up like this?'

A blank mutter.

I looked around the messy room.

The first thing that caught my eye was a glass bottle rolling on the floor.

'Alcohol.'

It must have held fairly strong alcohol, because the scent hit me hard.

Not a single drop of its contents remained.

And the ones who had helped empty it.

I was being held by the drunken children.

"Sooooo... did this lady not say Viktor was mine...!"

"N-no, no, nooo... I also, Sir Viktor is, monopoly bad... Hic, monopoly is bad..."

"Fuggin, bastard... asshole, always, works me to death, son of a bitch... why're you like this to me? You like me?"

Everyone was completely drunk.

Bound by the children, I was receiving a three-layer hug.

Leaving the hands squishing my cheeks alone, I chewed over a meaningless question.

'Where did it go wrong?'

Good question.

I have no fucking clue.