“I-Huh-Er-Erm... Actually, there is something we would like you to avoid even being close to. N-N-Not because it’s dangerous but, it’s quite valuable for us…”
The nerdiest one says this, he stutters at the beginning and as he tries to justify his own reason for what he’s asking, he also does the same thing. To make it even worse, awkward in this case, rather than tell her what it is like a normal person, instead, he points towards it and he does so with an odd look on his face... Just a nerd being a nerd, I guess? Anyway, what he points to is towards a magic stone inside of a glass display, shaped in a cube like shape. This magic stone is rather “peculiar”, it has a strong shade of dark red colour to it, not only that, it’s filled with magic and a tremendous amount of it. Yep, it’s a high-quality magic stone and one where you can only get from monsters, with this, we can easily understand why said stone is inside of a display. This display as I said it’s made of glass, one that has quite the thickness to it and with metal at the base, one that also seems to be sturdy then, with the cherry at the top, it’s also protected with magic. While to Taniah and Alice this is a simple “pretty gem”, to Kiana however, she quickly and easily identifies what it is.
“(Alice, that is a magic stone, one that was dropped by an A rank monster.)”
That’s correct Kiana, good observation. The moment she understood this, she quietly and slowly got near Alice then, getting rather closer to her and whispering this to her left ear. Alice was at first a little confused then to my surprise, she got a little embarrassed as Kiana's pristine face got near her own face rather close and to make it even “worse”, the rather serious look on her face for some reason adds more fuel to her embarrassment. Although this embarrassment quickly turns to surprise as her brain processes what just Kiana said.
Alice- (Really? Did you use your Magic Sense skill to figure it out? Hmm, now that you said that, I can also faintly sense some magic from it although not to that extent. Is there something on the display that prevents us, me in this case, from fully sensing it?)
Kiana- (Hehe! Be amazed at my skill ability! But yes, the display has a type of magic that blocks the magic of the stone from coming out. I think it’s more as a safety measure as a normal human can get a little sick just from being near the magic stone. It’s far too much magic and one that is quite dense, for your average human. Anyway, I’ve been using Magic Sense to see if there is anything weird and out of place but, I’ve found nothing at all.)
Alice- (That explains why I can’t sense it. Although, why do they have something like this with them? They are not strong enough to defeat a monster like that, I also doubt they bought it. That leaves only the option that they stumble upon it. Taniah did tell me that this class does expeditions from time to time and when they do so, they have the tendency to find some rather interesting things to say the least.)
“Are you talking about the gem inside of the display? We will be careful then. Before we do anything, I have a few questions for all of you that I would appreciate if you answer them. Is that a problem for any of you?”
Nerd Student- N-N-No! As-as-ask away! W-W-W-We will answer all of your questions!
Oh god, he sure is anxious to say the least. Not only he struggles throughout the entirety of his amazing sentence, his voice also changes timber throughout it, it first starts high and acute then, it comes back to normal only for the next very word to the same thing.
Taniah- First questions then; in this year, and I’m not referring to the academic year as it only has started a few weeks ago, how many expeditions have you done so far? It’s almost the middle of April, so I wouldn’t say too many of them, but I do want to know the exact number so that I can compare to last year.
Nerdiest Student- We have done 5 expeditions so far. Thanks to our hard work from the previous year, the Academy has provided us with more funds and with them, it has allowed us to do more expeditions and even of higher quality. That “gem” over there is proof of that.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Taniah- I know that, I just wanted to make sure my info was correct. You might not know but in fact, I actually was the one who gave it a go. I noticed your achievements and was able to show the Academy administration that this class deserved a “raise”. Good job everyone, keep working hard and your progress will only keep going up. Another question though, do you report to the Academy everything that you find in your expeditions?
Quiet Nerd Student- Not really... Only the... Most important one...
Huh, now this one is rather quiet as he speaks so much that, the only ones that were able to hear a single thing were the other two nerds next to him and let me tell you something, the faces they made towards him sure were something else. Or in other words, they mad at yer!
“(Oie! Speak louder you dumbass! Even this close to you I can barely hear you! Get your mouth out of your rear end and speak, dammit!)”
Quiet Nerd Student- (I would if I could! I’m trying my best you idiot! I just can’t speak to her like you can! She’s too much for me, man! I’m not used to people like her!)
Nerd Student- (I agree! She’s too much for any of us! Although I still prefer the 2d ones! In this front, she cannot compete with my waifus! Never I say!)
Nerdiest Student- (You idiots! This is not the time for that! Gather all of your courage and just speak normally. We have to impress her so that we can keep getting more funds for crying out loud!)
And let the show begin! No, seriously, what a charade. The moment the quietest nerd spoke or was trying to do so in this case, the nerdiest one quickly grabs him to the side and at the same time, the other one follows them. They whisper to each other all of this and it was quiet enough for at least Taniah not to hear it, let alone the other ones. Breve on the other hand, he simply stays in place menacingly looking towards Taniah but, why is he doing so? Taniah on the other hand, she patiently waits for them to be finished with their charade, it seems she’s used to this type of events. Alice is right behind Taniah keeping in check all of them while Kiana looks around, with her golden eyes filled with excitement as she sees everything that is inside of the room. Once they seemed to be finished, Taniah was the first one to speak.
“I’m sorry but, would you mind repeating that? You spoke a little too quietly for me, I was not able to hear what you said.”
Nerdiest Student- Aaaa! I’m so sorry Miss President-san! He has a sore throat, that’s why he’s speaking so quietly. I-I will be speaking on his behalf instead! About your question, no, we don’t report everything we get from the expeditions to the Academy.
Taniah- May I ask why is that? As far I am concerned, the Academy has the right to everything you find since they are your sponsor. There are a few exceptions in this regard, for example, if you do an expedition with your own money but, I don’t believe that is the case, correct?
Nerdiest Student- You are correct Miss President-san however, the deal we have with the Academy allows us to do that. In this case, anything that has low market value we don’t have to report to the Academy and we can keep it to ourselves while everything above that we either are “forced” to give them to the Academy or we can use for ourselves. I will be more precise, anything with a market value below 100 coins we can keep it for ourselves, anything higher than 10k coins we have to give it to the Academy while anything between those two, we can use for this class if we want otherwise, the Academy will store it either for later use or for the other classes if they need.
Taniah- Good one, I knew all of that and it’s good that you haven’t forgotten however… Just like you said, anything above 100 coins you still have to report to the Academy and as far as I’m concerned, nothing has been reported on that object over there. What happened then? What’s that red gem? It’s quite pretty and I more than guess that, it’s also very valuable.
She simply glances at the display with the magic stone as she says this, as her voice is a little colder but also sharper. In a sense, she “got” them, this is Taniah that we are talking about so, it’s more than normal that she did her research before coming here and when she was doing so, she didn’t find anything related to that magic stone or gem as she calls it. The moment she glanced at the display and said it, you can physically see the panic on the three of them. I mean it, sweat starts to quickly fall down their faces, one of them even starts to shake from the sheer panic and anxiety. It more than seems with a little “forcefully” persuasion or a little intimidation, they might just outright tell her everything about it and some more. If it wasn’t for Breve that is.
