Chapter 274: Treasure Hunt

“Ooh~ Look who it is! If it isn’t Fire Fist Hailga!”

Friday, Mock Battle and Survival Training time.

Instead of greeting the students or announcing the start of the lecture, the professor, Bjorn, appeared and opened with the above statement.

Here, ‘Fire Fist’ was a new nickname that had been attached to Hailga.

Her Ether Characteristic Ability involved handling fire, and that was part of it.

The reason was that the red-hued ether she had coated her fist with when beating up the villain yesterday reminded people of fire.

“Please don’t call me that!!”

Hailga’s face turned red as she shouted in protest.

Although she had decided to completely abandon her pretense after yesterday’s incident, it seemed she was embarrassed to be called by a nickname that sounded like something a third-rate thug loitering in back alleys would have.

“Why not? Fire Fist sounds cool. It gives off a really strong vibe.”

“It’s tacky, I hate it!!”

“Isn’t it endearing and nice…?”

Bjorn’s reaction showed he couldn’t understand at all why Hailga was so disgusted and hated it.

He genuinely seemed to think the nickname ‘Fire Fist’ was cool.

“By the way, from now on, give me a heads-up before you start any interesting business like that. I heard about it from others talking later, and I was so disappointed I couldn’t see it myself…. Tsk.”

“Professor Bjorn, weren’t you at the Dining Hall last night?”

“Nah. I needed something for today’s lecture, so I went out to buy it and had dinner outside while I was at it. Had some beer too, for the first time in a while.”

No wonder.

Given Bjorn’s personality, if something like yesterday’s event had happened, he would have stepped forward to observe.

But the one who actually took on that role alongside Skadi was the Swordsmanship Professor, who hadn’t even made a proper appearance yet.

‘I thought maybe Author Senna deliberately excluded Bjorn to bring the Swordsmanship Professor into the story quickly in some way……’

‘But maybe it was just impossible for Bjorn to step forward because he wasn’t there.’

‘Or maybe the original author forgot about Bjorn’s existence for a moment.’

‘Then, while planning the next episode, remembered Bjorn and hastily added the setting of him being out.’

‘Anyway, it’s already in the past, so the reason isn’t that important.’

‘What’s important is the present.’

‘And the item Bjorn took out from his inventory, unable to hide his lingering disappointment.’

‘A capsule…?’

He said he went out to buy something, so I thought maybe he bought ribbons in colors other than turquoise and purple.

But a truly unexpected item popped out.

“Since we’re on the topic, shall I explain today’s lecture content?”

Tossing and catching a capsule slightly smaller than a fist, Bjorn began his explanation.

It was a statement that made you want to ask if he had no intention of explaining the lecture content if the topic hadn’t come up.

But Karbaldr wasn’t the type to say such things, so I silently closed my mouth and waited for the explanation to continue.

“This morning, I hid capsules that look exactly like this all over this mountain.”

“Your job is to find as many as you can and return here before lunchtime.”

“However! Just doing a friendly treasure hunt wouldn’t be much of a training exercise, right?”

In other words, it meant they should fight each other and steal them.

Sure enough, the following words came from Bjorn’s mouth.

“If finding them yourself is difficult, it’s okay to take what someone else has found.”

“Just so you know, anyone who has found fewer than five ‘treasures’ by the time we check at lunch will face a penalty, so you’d better collect them diligently.”

“Because, you see, there are also ‘duds’ among these.”

Last time, a ‘penalty’ was mentioned, but since it was enough to just follow the rules, I wasn’t particularly curious.

But this time was different.

No matter how well I followed the rules and diligently searched for capsules, if their contents were all ‘duds,’ I would inevitably face the penalty.

I wasn’t the only one with this worry.

“Professor! But what is that ‘penalty’?”

“You have to wear this on your head for the entire afternoon lecture time, and instead of your name, you’ll be called by the characters written here.”

In response to Pret’s question, Bjorn took out a headband from his inventory.

But it was one with the characters ‘★Cool Guy★’ and ‘☆Pretty One☆‘ written on it.

I have no idea why such a thing exists in the world of a fantasy novel.

I have even less idea why it needs to appear during an Academy lecture time.

‘Is Author Senna…, not in her right mind?’

Only such questions filled my head.

If it was an attempt to change the genre of Nas-e to ‘Gag Slice-of-Life Academy Story,’ it might be a welcome thing.

But there was also the possibility that she couldn’t think of an appropriate penalty fitting the world setting and just decided on it without much thought.

Perhaps, regardless of Senna’s will, Bjorn just happened to find it and bought it because it looked fun.

“Anyway, to continue, putting found capsules in your inventory is prohibited.”

“I don’t need to explain why, right?”

“Instead, I’ll give each of you a bag, so carry them in there or hide them somewhere else.”

“Just don’t put them in your inventory.”

Probably because if capsules could be put into an inventory, the rule about fighting and stealing them would become meaningless.

It was a necessary rule.

“Ah! Just so you know, I didn’t hide the capsules myself; trap installation experts hid them.”

“So be careful.”

Meaning that some capsules might trigger traps when touched.

“That’s the end of the explanation.”

“Now take your bags and head into the mountain.”

Saying this, Bjorn took out hip bags from his inventory.

They were items made to be worn like a belt around the waist, but the students who received them naturally slung them over their shoulders like sling bags.

And I, like them, wore mine from one shoulder to the opposite hip, so the bag crossed my torso.

Not because I didn’t want to be behind the trends.

But because if worn on the waist, there was a higher risk of someone secretly taking the contents, so this was to prevent that.

Only Liolikin wore his in the proper position, and even that wasn’t because he wanted to.

His chest was too large, making the strap length insufficient to wear it cross-body, so he had no choice.

“Um, but aren’t we forming teams today…?”

The one who brought this up was none other than Risi.

It was the first time I’d seen her step forward and ask a question.

She probably thought she was the weakest in terms of combat power here.

Even if she found capsules, they would likely be taken, and the penalty seemed quite humiliating.

It seemed she was hoping for team battles where she could receive help from others….

“For now, it’s individual combat.”

“‘For now’… means…?”

“I’ll explain the details later when we gather here again.”

“Anyway, the treasure hunt is individual combat, so don’t worry about things like teams for the moment.”

Bjorn ruthlessly crushed Risi’s hopes.

“If you have more questions, you can stay and ask, I don’t mind….”

“But don’t you guys mind?”

“The sooner you start, the more capsules you might find.”

No one had anything else to ask.

And even after hearing this, no one intended to stay and waste time.

Everyone rushed into the mountains as if competing.

I was one of those people too.

‘For the entire afternoon lecture time… that’s a full four hours…?!’

No matter what, I must avoid the penalty.

There was also the method of waiting for others to find them and then stealing, but if I relied solely on that and acted leisurely, I’d be in big trouble.

Although time was somewhat delayed due to the Fire Fist chatter and explaining the treasure hunt rules, the morning lecture also lasted four hours.

‘But the penalty threshold was only five?’

If the number of ‘treasure’ capsules was plentiful from the start, why would anyone try to steal from others?

‘Either most capsules are duds, or the total number of capsules is extremely low. One of the two.’

So I thought I needed to find as many capsules as possible first, and that proved correct.

***

After diligently searching for an hour with Yor, I found fourteen capsules, all of which were duds.

“Phew~!”

After checking the memo for the fifteenth ‘dud,’ a sigh escaped me.

By this point, I began to doubt the very existence of ‘treasure’ capsules.

‘First, let’s not discard the found capsules but keep them in the bag. Someone might approach targeting the bulging bag, so they can serve as bait……!’

‘If someone is targeting another’s bag, they must also be short on “treasures.”‘

‘But who knows? They might have one or two.’

Thinking that, the moment I was about to resume the search…

“I-I found…! Gasp!”

A sound came from a location not far away.

Someone, disappointed by numerous dud capsules, had finally found a treasure and let out an exclamation without realizing it.

The owner of this voice was probably…

‘Svein?’

I turned my head to look at Yor.

With a very reliable expression, Yor nodded once and then shot like an arrow toward the source of the sound.

When I chased after him and arrived at the scene, my baby dragon already had a capsule in his hand.

“Heh, meow meow.”

Yor, holding the Yeouiju in one hand and the capsule in the other, flaunted his triumphant posture.

Svein, who had been hunched over, made a “Huh!” sound, sprang up, and couldn’t hide his bewilderment as he looked at his now-empty hand.

Judging by his actions and pale complexion, it seemed he had been hit by [Dragon Fear].

‘So it can be used without shouting…?’

Just as we heard Svein’s voice and came here, he must have subdued Svein in the quietest way possible to prevent others from flocking over.

Truly, my baby dragon was extremely competent.

“I just found it…!”

Knowing how hard it was to find a treasure capsule, my heart wasn’t entirely comfortable about taking the one he had barely managed to find.

It was also awkward because the other party was the original work’s traitor.

But—

“Isn’t this the style of training? Besides, you practically shouted for someone to come take it by announcing you found it, so you can’t resent me.”

“……”

“Hurry up and go. Next time you find a treasure capsule, don’t shout about it as if boasting.”

“……Yes.”

Whether he lacked the confidence to challenge me and Yor to get the capsule back, Svein looked at the capsule in Yor’s hand with a gaze full of reluctance, then quietly turned away.

He could have deliberately shouted that there was a winning capsule here to lure me into taking it.

Seeing him retreat without doing that made me feel unnecessarily sorry.

“…Still, I should check what the ‘treasure’ is.”

“Meow.”

As I spoke while looking in the direction Svein disappeared, Yor immediately opened the capsule.

Inside was a piece of paper folded twice.

The memo with ‘dud’ written on it was exactly like this, so the thought ‘Did Svein trick me?’ briefly crossed my mind.

Fortunately, the characters written on the paper I unfolded with half-doubt were something other than ‘dud.’

「Seasoning Set」

Well, it was definitely not a ‘dud.’

But I wasn’t sure if this really qualified as a ‘treasure.’