Ariel Dalton Wants to Graduate

The dreaded Leprechaun Festival is back. For a fifth grader like me, it was a period of career counseling and parent visits as well. My career was so determined that I didn’t even need ten minutes to talk to Professor Humphreys.

Professor Humphreys was well aware I was attending the academy solely for graduation, and she seemed unwilling to even hand me pamphlets from the institutions. Instead, we talked about something else.

“Ramos had an interesting interview recently.”

Professor Humphreys said this with a look on her face that indicated she doesn’t find a sliver of fun in this situation.

“Thanks to that, Cleveland and Walsh were given a pretext.”

“Nonsense! Even Christa Edwards knows that interview is a lie! He just, because of the rumors…”

“Whatever the reason, we can’t punish Cleveland or Walsh as long as Ramos confesses.”

In the first place, I didn’t expect that Walsh and Cleveland would be punished satisfactorily when the only evidence was the testimony of Ramos and myself. But I don’t think I can keep myself together anymore. I was so angry that my heart was racing.

Why did Ramos have to make a ridiculous and false confession? It was all those bastards’ fault.

However, the reason they couldn’t catch those bastards was Ramos’ false confession. So I couldn’t accept it with my heart, even if I understood it with my head.

“All I can do is give Ramos the weakest punishment possible.”

Professor Humphreys soothed me in a very soft voice. First of all, the case of confinement in the practice magic tool storage room was officially concluded with Ramos as the culprit, so it was right that he was disciplined, but I didn’t like it at all.

Everything in the world isn’t going my way. Well, I can’t even live peacefully until I graduate.

I left her office feeling depressed and defeated. As I was walking weakly, a person sitting in a simple chair in the hallway who was shaking his legs saw me and stood up.

“Ariel, why do you look upset again? Did Professor Humphreys ask you to join the Wild Monsters Bureau?”

“Kyle? Didn’t you say you’d consult?”

“I already did. Today is a non-training day, so I want to have lunch with you.”

“You mean a day of skipping training?”

When I sarcastically said that, Kyle slyly winked at me. I wondered how on earth he was holding his place in the Griffon Cricket Club and how Norman Casey was taking it.

“Let’s go quickly. I heard we were having roast turkey today.”

“It’s not even September, what turkey? Is that a real turkey? Or maybe it’s just a chicken?”

“The dwarf merchants must have confused the harvest month banquet and brought in a bunch of them. They lack the concept of dates.”

“That’s why I think it’s time for them to live in the sunlight.”

Dwarves often lost their sense of the date or the season as they lived underground all year round. There are a few dwarf staff at the academy, but they usually change people every half year because they can’t stand the continent’s rapidly changing climate in summer or winter and would return to their caves.

Kyle and I talked while we walked to the cafeteria about the bizarre summer robe that Professor Dwyer, who was in charge of making magic tools, wore last year. The cloth was sewn onto a regular robe, and mana, which acted as a refrigerant, was put between the cloth. Professor Dwyert looked like a very muscular baby when he wore it.

“It would be nice if he could wear it again this year. It sounds like it would be perfect for the Joke Month banquet.” Kyle licked his lips and said.

I imagined Kyle wearing Professor Dwyer’s robe and laughed, then choked.

After he patted me on the back for a while, our conversation turned to the Joke Month banquet. The banquet will be held in October, which was still far away, but there was much to say as it was an event as big as the love month banquet or graduation banquet for those who went to the academy to have fun or play pranks.

I was going to dress up as Professor Humphreys, who had a stretched forehead this year (as the person responsible for the case, I thought that 3 years was enough), but I had to change course because she still seemed to have a grudge against me.

Kyle said that he had bought 20 fake snakes to dress up like Medusa. It seemed like a pretty good idea, so we agreed that I would take over the snakes if he dressed up as Professor Dwyer.

Since I’m not good at magic, I couldn’t memorize petrification spells, but it would be realistic and fun to go around sprinkling a moderate amount of paralyzing powder.

“How much is ‘moderate amount’, Ari?”

“Well, how much to make Walsh’s dick shrink?”

“If you don’t want to get rid of it all, you have to use a very little amount.”

Kyle flexed his little finger and made it tremble. I almost passed out laughing at his perfect expressiveness.

In the hallway leading to the cafeteria, there was a bulletin board and a snack table that hadn’t been there until yesterday. As I approached, I saw that it was a ballot box to recommend candidates for the king and queen of the 5th graders at the Month of Love banquet.

It was too early. Since the Love Month banquet was held in mid-May, it was common to receive candidates in mid-April at the earliest or at the end of April at the latest.

Questioning that, Kyle, who was packing more roast turkeys behind the back of the magic doll in charge of the food distribution, sarcastically said that Bryce Nardon wanted to make Rosemary Blossom a queen.

After thinking about it for a while, I agreed. Of all the fifth grade girls, Anais O’Brien is the most talked about queen, and since she entered school, she’s never been less famous for her looks and popularity, so as long as there’s no unexpected event, she’s most likely to win that position.

Rosemary Blossom was a transfer student who only showed up at the academy this year, so she was at a relative disadvantage in popularity compared to Anais O’Brien. So Nadon of the student council, who oversees the preparation and progress of the banquet, seemed to be trying to increase the opportunity for Blossom’s charm to be exposed to more students by lengthening the candidate registration and voting period.

I stuck out my tongue. Even in the last five banquets, which had been conducted normally, the Queen was always Blossom. There was nothing wrong with Anais O’Brien; it was just that she was not dazzling enough to break the stone that symbolizes the beauty and loveliness of Rosemary Blossom and her reputation as a non-nobility student.

If left alone, it would work out as much as he wanted, but Nadon brought advantage to Blossom while undermining his own reputation. As Kyle said, he seems quite obsessed.

Or it could have been a choice to solidify her position as a member of the student council. Although it was late by about ten days, Blossom became the secretary of the student council this time too. As a matter of course, there was a debate over whether she, a commoner, was worthy of the student council, where only the noblest blood among the blue blood of Fitzsimmons gathered.

The position of queen of the banquet was certainly an honorable one, and once elected, public opinion would be silenced. It has always been like that.

Anyway, it had nothing to do with me. Since the beginning of the year, all that mattered to me was how robust the dress I had prepared for the banquet was.

Back when I was the first Ariel Dalton, a dress that wasn’t sewn properly caused me to show my back to the world. It was, of course, during the Love Month banquet.

Someone quickly drew the scene with magic ink (I’m pretty sure it was Christa Edwards, although there’s no evidence), so it was stuffed into the Fitzsimmons Times, and I was constantly humiliated.

The Love Month Banquet in May and the Graduation Banquet in December were among the most special of the banquets held monthly at Fitzsimmons.

In particular, since the theme of the Love Month Banquet was ‘love’, it was a place where many students used to explore who their potential lovers and future spouses were. In the second banquet, the problem was sewn up in advance, so I had not encountered the same problem since then, but it was better not to let go of my vigilance because it could have a significant impact on my marriage.

I was biting off a roast turkey with those things in mind when suddenly a tray was placed next to Kyle, who was sitting across from me.

“Brennan? You’re alone, where is Liz?”

“Career counseling. She asked me to eat first since it seemed like it would take a long time.”

Brennan Stokes, who is in a passionate relationship with Elizabeth McCarthy, said after knocking out a leprechaun aiming for his pocket.

Count McCarthy had nothing to do with business other than managing the estate. Since Liz, who was not her eldest son, would not inherit her family, she had to think about her career path, unlike me and some students.

“She has a talent for magic. Isn’t she going to the magic tower?”

“No matter how talented you are in Milua, you would still not be as good as 10-year-olds living in Nadon and Illestia, you know.”

Brennan said grimly. All three of us were from Milua, so we couldn’t bear to argue with that.

“Anyway, there’s a reason I came all the way to the cafeteria to find you.”

“Isn’t it because you don’t have other friends to eat with?”

“Do you think I am you, Ariel?”

I stopped Kyle’s sly smile with a piece of roast turkey. Brennan looked around with a rather serious expression and asked us to come closer. Three heads met in the middle of the table.

“I’m going to propose to Liz at the Love Month Banquet.”

“Huh, really? How?”

“Do you think I’ll be doing this if I know how? Any good way you can recommend? Ariel Dalton and Kyle Villard are all about creativity. I’ll offer you my precious roast turkey, so think about it.”

Brennan, who’s only offering a bird’s leg to Kyle in exchange for a decent proposal idea, was truly evil. I moved half of his roast turkey to my plate and glanced at Brennan.

“What kind of marriage is that if you can’t even propose all by yourself?”

It came out pointedly, but my head was already thinking about what kind of proposal would most likely impress Elizabeth McCarthy. Kyle, who stroked his chin, seemed to be doing the same.