2.2 The Academy and Sora

Sora returns to the adventurer’s guild with Yami the following day.  Even though he defeated the S rank examiner, he’s officially still registered as a G rank.  To make his promotion official, he needs to update his guild card.

Some rowdy men drinking at the bar despite the sun still being up wave to him as he enters.

Sora waves back despite his confusion.  I can still at least do this much…  He then looks towards the counter and sees Rieza is also waving.  Since this is their usual greeting, he returns her wave with more confidence.

Sora proceeds to the counter and asks Rieza to update his guild card.

Rieza says, “Wow, I never thought you’d actually pass the S rank exam.  You’ve totally become a celebrity.”

A celebrity?  Ah, it’s because I did something unprecedented and shot up straight to S rank from G rank.  The few adventures who do challenge higher ranks tend to settle for B rank.

Sora says, “That’s too much, I just got lucky.”  Sora is being serious.  I definitely would have lost without metastasis [Teleport].

“You’re too much~.  So, if Sora-san is this strong, can we expect the same from you, Yami-chan?”

Yami gives a serious, sara, expression and says, “Other than Masta and Surah, I can take on everyone here.”

Rieza says, “Oh my, what a thing to say…”

They are lucky Yami is a little girl.  The adventurers are too busy laughing to pay attention to her unhesitant and provocative remark.  Sora sighs out in relief, “Fuu~.”  A doubt then pops up in his mind.  “You can’t beat Sura?”

Sora’s honest opinion is that in terms of strength, Yami could classify as a Maou.  Sura is an original slime with powerful magical abilities and should be capable of defeating orcs, but orcs can’t compare to Yami.

Yami continues with her serious tone.  “Surah is currently a few levels ahead, but I’ll pass her after a bit more.[1] ”

Sora, accepting Yami’s words as true since he refuses to believe Yami would lie, pulls Sura out from his hood.  He pokes her while saying, “I’m looking forward to the future.”

Rieza smiles as she says, “Hee~!  Everyone’s quite strong!”  She then goes to the back with Sora’s guild.  She returns after a few minutes saying, “Sorry for the wait.”

The card’s gold plating makes it flash as he confirms the contents:

=====

Sora=Basard

15

Human

S

=====

A firm S is pressed next to the rank.  Ooh, it say’s S…  What should I do next?

Sora turns to Yami and says, “Here, hold Sura for a sec.”

“What’s wrong?”

He runs out the door saying, “Nothing, I just forgot something.”  He returns to his room and digs through his rutsack for the large mana stone he got from Cerberus.  I forgot to exchange this.

Rieza calls out to Sora as he re-enters the adventurer’s guild.  “Hey, welcome ba— What’s that!”

Sora says, “A mana stone?” while placing it on the counter.

Rieza stares, jiro jiro, at the mana stone as though it were a mysterious artifact.  “I’ve never seen such a large mana stone before.  What did this mana stone-san come from?”

“Cerberus.”

“Eh?”

“A Cerberus.”

“A Ce- Cerberus, you mean that Cerberus!?”

“Yeah, the one with three heads.”

“Eeeeeeeeeh!  Seriously, just who are you….?”  Rieza, despite her shock, takes Cerberus’s mana stone and packs it into the conversion pouch.  She returns with large a bag and says, “Please don’t be surprised by what you’re about to hear… Here’s 120 gold coins.”

“Cool.”

“Ahre, you’re not surprised?”

Sora says, “Because you told us not to be surprised,” but in truth, he figures that the amount is appropriate considering Cerberus’s strength.

“Haha, that’s true.”

–We have Cute Star ★, Who’s next?–

Sora, having free time, decides to take a request.  Since any request is good, he lets Yami choose.  She looks at the bulletin board and weighs her options.  After a while, she points at one.

Sora grabs the request commission while saying, “Let’s see…”  Requesting the subjugation of a massive orc outbreak.  He takes the request commission to Rieza while recalling his recent trip, Does it mean… that forest?

Sora and his party leave for the forest once the request is approved.  Despite hurrying out the Nelga Kingdom gates, they stop soon after.  Yami says, “Masta, what’s wrong?”

“Yami, make sure you hold on tight.”  Once Yami grabs his clothes, he pictures the forest in his head.  “Metastasis [Teleport].”

They appear in the forest and Sora says, “Fuu, looks like there weren’t any problems.”

Yami says, “Masta, that was amazing.”

While Sora feels bashful at the praise, an orc appears only to be incinerated.  As expected, Yami… Wait!  “Those flames are red… Sura!?”

At some point, Sura slipped out of Sora’s hood and dropped down to his feet.  I wasn’t sure Sura could actually beat an orc, but she eliminated that guy with just one attack!

Sora’s “Awesome!” makes Sura leap with joy.

They walk through the forest eliminating every orc they chance upon.  Night falls after completing a lap and they metastasis back to outside the Nelga Kingdom.  The rest of the trip is on foot.

Ahre?  Noise from the tavern can usually be heard from the adventurer’s guild, but right now, the guild is quiet.  They’ve been making a racket all day, if anything they should be even louder now that it’s night…  Could something have happened? 

Sora keeps his guard up as he enters the adventurer’s guild.  At the counter, Rieza talks to a woman with brown hair held in a ponytail.  Only able to see her back, he has no idea who she could be.  The men at the bar, however, stare at her with fear.

Rieza says, “Ah!  You’re back!”

The woman turns at her words.  She has sharp brown eyes and well-ordered features.  She looks him over while saying, “Hoo, you’re the rumored Sora-kun?”

Who is this person? 

Sora says, “I am?  Who are you?”

“Oh, excuse my discourtesy.  I am Lydia=Sacrollo.  Just like you, I’m an S rank.”

Hee, an S rank just like me?  I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m getting a bad feeling about this.  “So, why is S rank-san here?”

“…I’d like to invite you to my school.”

“I refuse.”

“Could I hear why?”

“It’s too troublesome.”  In the first place, why would someone from another world go to school!?  It’ll be really annoying if they find out I’m not from this world.

“Really?  Unfortunately, it’s already too late.”

“Ha?  What do you—”  Sora finds himself in a room that isn’t the adventurer’s guild.  Before him is a splendid desk.  Metastasis?  Along the walls are a large sofa and a bookcase full of books while behind him is a large, arching, window.

“This is the chairman’s office.”

Sora looks towards the unexpected comment’s source and finds the woman from earlier, Lydia=Sacrollo.  “You’ve kidnapped me, we’re done!”

“My, my, calm down.  I believe you’ll want to enter my school once you hear what I have to say.”

“Haa?  And what’s that?”

“Well—” The school will take responsibility for all enrollment expenses and only require you attend an hour’s worth of lessons each day.”

Everything Lydia states is a demerit against her school.  “How do you benefit from this?”

“There are no particular merits.  I just want to give Sora-kun preferential treatment.”

Sora doesn’t believe Lydia, but if she’s lying, I can’t tell…  He doesn’t care for her proposal either, but getting free food at the cafeteria wouldn’t be too bad.  He says, “I understand, but if I’m going to enroll, I have a condition.”

“What is it?”

“Yami enrolls with me and I bring my pet.  They’re my irreplaceable companions and I won’t join without them.”

At first glance, Sora appears to be acting like a good guy, but the truth is that he’s just too shy to go to an unknown school by himself.

Lydia says, “Ahh, that’s no trouble.  Those were my intentions from the beginning.”

“Really?  Then I’ll enroll.”

“Great!  Alright, we’ll see you tomorrow.  Since it’s already late, feel free to sleep here.”

Sora lays back on the sofa with the thought, then I’ll sleep here!  He drifts to sleep while thinking, it’s surprisingly comfortable…

— Cute Star ★ is a character in the .hack translation–

The Kouhalia Kingdom is a far distance from the Nelga Kingdom.  There is where the Sholidaya Academy, the second largest academy in the world, is located.  It is a school known for having raised many excellent swordsmen and magicians, but over the years has been suffering a drop in quality.  At present, it is nothing more than a gathering of dropouts.

Within the chairman’s office of that failing school, the director [Lydia] wakes up Sora.

“Uugh… Who disturbs my slumber?”

The director [Lydia] pokes Sora’s forehead as she says, “I do, fool.  Any longer and you’ll be late.  Hurry and get up.”

The action revitalizes Sora into waking up where he then spots Yami wearing a school uniform.

Sora is captivated by her appearance.  “Ooh…”   I’ve only ever seen her naked or in a robe.  “Yami, it suits you.”

Yami fidgets, moji moji, as she says, “Thank you, but masta, yours would suit you even more.”

Another uniform is next to him.  The director [Lydia] must have brought it for me.  Sora gets changed without hesitation.  He doesn’t mind that the director [Lydia] and Yami are in the room.

The director [Lydia] covers Yami’s eyes while saying, “Sora-kun… we’re woman?”

“No problem, it’s not like anything will change if you see me.”

“So this doesn’t bother you… well, you do have a good body.  Not to mention, your artificial arm is also quite cool.”

Sora looks himself over at the director’s [Lydia’s] remark.  Up till then, he never gave himself any attention.  He doesn’t have any bulging muscles, but his frame is toned and his abs defined.  I guess my body evolves as I level up?

Sora says, “Not bad.”

The director [Lydia] says, “Let me feel…”

“No.”

“At least let me lick you all over!”

Sora realizes her true nature and says, “Haa!?  Are you a pervert!?  Not a chance!”  He finishes changing without forgetting to put on his gloves.

To Sora’s surprise, his uniform is a perfect fit.  Then, wondering what time it is, he checks only to decide, I don’t give a damn.

Yami says, “As expected, masta.”

Sora gives a bashful “Thanks,” and strokes Yami’s head.  “Alright, how about we get going?”  He places Sura on his shoulder and together with Yami, follows the director [Lydia] out the room.

The corridor outside the chairman’s office is long and lined with a few doors, but it’s nothing like Maou’s Castle.  They pass by a few people and each one bows their head to the director [Lydia].  They must be the faculty.

The director [Lydia] talks about the class Sora will be attending as they walk.  “The two of you are being assigned to our worst class.  ‘Why the worst class?’ is written all over your face.  I’ll explain—”

“No, it’s fine.”  I’m only going to be attending class for one hour, anyway.

“Ehh…”

They reach a T-junction and turn right.  They walk a bit more and then go down a flight of stairs. The director [Lydia] leads Sora past a lot of classrooms to the inner most classroom.  Unlike the others, it’s in tatters.  Uwaa… Not what I expected, well whatevs~.

The director [Lydia] opens the door to the crumbling, boro boro, classroom and says, “Let’s go.”

Sora, Yami, and Sura follow just a bit behind her.