Chapter 211: Ribbon Snatching

“Now, now. Anyway, since the team division is done, I’ll explain the game we’re going to play today.”

“A game?!”

“If you think you have to train all day at an age where you should be playing, you’re bound to lose motivation, right? So, I’ve put some thought into how we can conduct a mock battle in the form of a game! Hahahaha!”

When Pret showed interest at the word “game,” his eyes sparkling, Bjorn spoke in a boastful tone while letting out a hearty laugh.

According to the setting of the original work, Bjorn is not just any mercenary. He is a captain who leads a fairly large-scale mercenary group. And a very responsible one at that.

‘So, he probably wasn’t too pleased about the situation where he had to leave his subordinates behind and come to the Academy to teach students…’

‘Do you remember how I mentioned back in chapter 172 that there was a person introduced as an Awakened professor despite not being an Awakened yet at that point?’

That person is Bjorn.

After the outbreak of the Demonic Realm incidents, Bjorn worked as part of a “rescue squad” along with his mercenary members.

Then, one day, he got caught up in a Demonic Realm manifestation and Awakened. Even then, instead of joining a subjugation squad, he remained in the rescue squad to lead his members.

The reason he was allowed to work as a rescue squad member despite being an Awakened was because the presence of an Awakened is necessary even when escorting rescued people out of a Demonic Realm. If there is an Awakened among the rescued, they can escape safely.

‘But if that’s impossible, they have to hold out until the subjugation squad defeats the Boss Monster…’

There are cases where the Boss Monster is hiding and it takes days to find it. The problem is that it’s quite common for the subjugation squad to fail in clearing the Demonic Realm — either being wiped out or being forced to retreat without defeating the Boss Monster.

Usually, the subjugation squad and rescue squad act as one team, so they look after the rescue squad on their way out. But if the subjugation squad is wiped out, that is the end of it.

Furthermore, Bjorn’s rescue squad was not affiliated with a specific Einherjar Team. Since they were originally a mercenary group, they were hired as “mercenaries.” Consequently, they were often abandoned in the middle of a Demonic Realm.

Whether the subjugation squad had yet to encounter the Boss Monster, been wiped out, or fled…

Without knowing any of that, the rescue squad had to continue their indefinite wait inside a monster-infested Demonic Realm. No one failed to understand how terrifying that was.

‘That’s why Bjorn was able to continue working as a rescue squad member even after Awakening!’

That’s not to say he didn’t participate in Boss Monster subjugations at all. He would provide support if the Awakened arrived late and only started the subjugation after evacuating the people, or if the subjugation squad was short-staffed.

This should be enough to explain what Bjorn’s path was like in the original work.

To get back to the point and continue the narrative:

‘Turning the mock battle into a game was likely the original author’s decision to make the scene more entertaining. However, that doesn’t mean the time Bjorn spent agonizing over the students — who were forced to participate in training — loses its meaning.’

Therefore, there is no doubt that Bjorn has accepted his responsibilities as a professor and is trying to treat the students with a sincere attitude.

“Ah! I should tell you in advance: the team that wins the morning game will have food from the dining hall delivered to them. But the losing team will have to settle for the rations they have in their Inventory or graze on grass in the mountains. You’d better not take this lightly.”

…Or is there? No doubt, I mean.

I suddenly became confused.

“I feel that holding our meals hostage is a bit excessive. Especially without any prior notice…”

Perhaps it was something she hadn’t been briefed on beforehand, as Fjodra raised an objection.

However, despite her status as the Imperial Princess, Bjorn’s attitude was very firm.

“Do Demonic Realms appear with a prior notice?”

“Well, no…”

“Exactly. Since they don’t, shouldn’t you be fully prepared to fight at any moment? Rations are the most basic of basics. You’ve even gained the convenient storage ability called an Inventory, so if you didn’t pack food, isn’t that the real problem?”

‘Was it because Fjodra didn’t seem to mind him speaking informally to her?’ Bjorn didn’t back down and spoke his mind boldly, almost making his previous hesitation to use informal speech seem unbelievable.

His argument was even quite logical.

Fjodra nodded, showing an attitude of understanding.

“Those are indeed wise words. Since this lecture also doubles as survival training, it would be best to proceed as you wish.”

It was quite the statement that made me wonder what the point was of listening to someone else’s opinion and accepting it immediately.

Even if that way of speaking — as if addressing a subordinate — was an unavoidable part of her character…

‘If she wants the professors to treat her the same as other students, she should probably refrain from saying things like she’ll “specially permit” the way the lecture is conducted…’

If she had just kept asserting her authority as an Imperial Princess, everyone would have just accepted it since this was a class-based society.

However, since she claimed she wanted to be treated like any other student while simultaneously treating the professor like a subordinate, it felt contradictory. She didn’t seem to realize that it only caused more discomfort.

“…The game you’ll be playing today is ‘Ribbon Snatching.'”

***

After appearing hesitant about how to respond to the Princess’s statement, Bjorn changed the subject.

Then, he pulled out a teal ribbon and a purple ribbon from his Inventory and handed them to us one by one.

I suppose the game involves tying this somewhere on our bodies and taking the opponent’s ribbon without losing our own.

‘I doubt he’ll let us hide it inside our clothes… Would tying it around the ankle be best? It’ll be harder to take without crouching!’

While clutching the purple ribbon I had just received, I had such thoughts, but they turned out to be pointless.

The professor designated exactly where we should tie the ribbons. Even the method of tying it.

“Tie the one you just received around your neck. Tie it in a butterfly knot so it comes off immediately when the string is pulled.”

After following those instructions, everyone in their training uniforms looked a bit cute because of the butterfly-shaped ribbons.

Even though I heard the reason, the thought ‘Did it really have to be like this?’ automatically came to mind.

This thought grew even stronger when I saw Liolikin.

However, his teammate, Pret, evaluated it very positively.

“Wow! It’s going to be hard to untie Liolikin’s ribbon. The ribbon tails for grabbing are so short!”

The lengths of the ribbons provided were all the same.

However, neck circumferences were not the same. Among them all, Liolikin, who had been diligently building his muscles, had an extraordinary neck circumference.

Once the ribbon was tied in a butterfly knot around that thick neck, as Pret said, there were almost no ribbon tails left.

“Is that a good thing…?”

“Of course! Plus, your Aether Attribute ability allows you to create armor out of Aether, doesn’t it? If you protect your neck with that, wouldn’t it be practically impossible to take the ribbon?”

“Hehehe…”

When Pret praised him in a slightly exaggerated tone, Liolikin smiled broadly and looked pleased.

It hadn’t been long since he was in despair because he didn’t have anyone he was close to on his team. He certainly opens his heart quickly.

“But I’m a junior and a commoner, so why do you use formal speech with me, senior? Are you uncomfortable with me?”

“No. It’s just… this way of speaking… is more comfortable for me.”

“Aha! So you’re the opposite of Professor Bjorn!”

“That is so.”

Seeing this, I felt relieved that Pret would likely take good care of Liolikin.

Though he would probably extract all sorts of information from Liolikin under the guise of small talk.

‘He doesn’t sell information on people he’s personally befriended, so it should be fine.’

As an example, in the original work, his information guild never sold information on Reysir. Even after Pret died.

The guild maintained a friendly relationship with Reysir and provided him with the necessary information.

‘Of course, they didn’t give it for free; they sold it.’

Still, even when people came offering massive amounts of money to buy information on Reysir, they never agreed to the deal.

While it was a setting that was undeniably convenient for the author, from the perspective of the personalities of Pret and his guild members, there was no other way to describe them than being overflowing with loyalty.

However, since the current original protagonist was unaware of this fact —

“What about Pret? Don’t you think he’s trying to figure out a way to get close to you through Liolikin? Would it be better to tell Hailga to keep a close eye on him?”

He expressed his wariness toward Pret by saying such nonsense.

It was truly a pity.

The fact that he decided to tell Hailga instead of warning Liolikin directly in this situation… I felt like I could really tell what Reysir thought of Liolikin.

“Since it seems everyone has finished putting on their ribbons, I’ll finish the explanation. As you can tell from the name of the game, ‘Ribbon Snatching,’ the team that takes more of the opponent’s ribbons wins.”

Fortunately, Bjorn started speaking again before Reysir could approach Hailga to talk nonsense.

“Also, those who have their ribbons taken are not eliminated. Instead, they must immediately return to the starting point and put on a ribbon again.”

Since Reysir’s skills are overwhelming, it was a restriction meant to prevent a repetitive situation where he alone remains and takes all the opponent’s ribbons to win.

No matter how perfectly Reysir defended his own ribbon, if his teammates kept losing theirs, they would have no choice but to lose.

“You must not intervene in combat while your ribbon is taken, and you must re-tie a ribbon within 10 minutes of losing it. If you fail to follow this, a penalty will be given, so keep that in mind.”

Since the game was called “Ribbon Snatching,” “Capture the Flag” was the first thing that came to mind.

But hearing the explanation, I thought it felt more like a Team Deathmatch mode in an FPS game.

Except the respawn method was manual.

‘But if the winner is decided this way, isn’t it actually a disadvantage to have more team members?’

The other team even included Risi and Hale, who had never even participated in a duel.

Fjodra and Lausa’s [Space Leap] skill had the potential to be used advantageously in this game, but since they were basically long-range dealers, there was a possibility they could be caught and have their ribbons taken, wasn’t there?

‘Of course, our team has a hole like Svein, so I expect Fjodra and Lausa will target him intensely…’

Liolikin had to hold a shield and a mace in each hand, so it wasn’t easy for him to take others’ ribbons. Pret wasn’t a specialist in close-quarters combat, either.

Even without Reysir’s martial prowess, I was thinking that our team seemed overwhelmingly superior in many ways when…

“Ah, right! There are numerous traps installed in the mountains, so you’d better fight while keeping a close eye on your surroundings.”

These words came out of Bjorn’s mouth.