That World of Otome Games is Tough for Us - Volume 4 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

The Descendants of Adventurers

HOLFORT WAS A KINGDOM of adventurers. If they traced their lineage back, most noble families would find an adventurer among their ancestors. Consequently, the profession was highly respected and valued. It was customary for all noble children to register as adventurers when they entered the academy. Refusing to do so without a valid reason would lead to ostracization from high society, regardless of gender.

Still, registration was largely a formality. Outside classes, few students actually engaged in any adventuring—that is, save for the school-wide requirement of “dungeon clearing.”

The capital had its own dungeon, which provided many necessary resources to the kingdom as a whole. It contained magic stones used as energy resources, as well as iron and stone. Monsters infested the tunnels, which made the dungeon dangerous, but it was worth venturing inside for all the loot. That dungeon was the foundation of the royal family’s power. Yes, the royal family’s—not the power of the kingdom itself.

In any event, the academy issued a requirement to all students who wished to advance to the next grade. The dungeon was much like a labyrinth hidden inside a mountain, with floors that sloped deeper and deeper; students needed to clear a specific number of those floors. 

The number depended on a student’s year, but they were expected to meet that requirement regardless of gender; if they failed to do so, they’d be held back. As forgiving and permissive as the academy was with its female attendees, pride as the descendants of adventurers apparently took precedence over everything else.

“We planned to take care of that during the winter break, but we were so busy with other stuff that we didn’t get to it,” I said. “If we don’t hop to it soon, we’ll both be held back.” Marie and I were in an empty classroom at the end of the school day, and for emphasis, I’d written “be held back” on the blackboard behind me. 

Marie sat in one of the classroom’s chairs. She dropped her head into her hands. “You don’t have to go out of your way to explain it,” she snapped. “I get it! Students get three terms to meet that requirement, but if they don’t, they’re screwed. Right?”

“Yep. Screwed,” I confirmed. “The biggest problem is that getting held back basically ruins your reputation. So, no matter what, we’ve got to get this done.”

It was nothing too difficult, really. Most students met this requirement with little hassle. That was also why most people looked down on anyone who didn’t manage to do so and repeated a year. Those stuck in that position were usually too ashamed to stay at the academy and left of their own accord. It was that bad.

I shrugged at Marie, who was still raking her fingers through her hair. “There’s no reason to stress over it. We can clear it in a day. If we get Luxion to pitch in, we’ll be done in half a day. Maybe just a few hours.” 

Still, I’d called her to this empty classroom to light a fire under her so we could do this promptly. If Marie had known from the get-go that the dungeon would be a piece of cake, she’d have been likelier to put it off to the last minute, and there was no telling what unforeseen circumstances might’ve popped up. I wasn’t afraid to admit that I was a coward. That was why I liked to deal with any burdensome tasks quickly.

Marie wasn’t worried about us, though. “We’ll be fine,” she said. “Yes, I’ve no doubt we’ll be fine.” 

She’d sure emphasized that “we” part. I cocked my head, not seeing where this was going.

She heaved a huge sigh. “I’m worried about those girls,” she explained.

“What girls?” It took me a moment to process. “You mean Cynthia and the others?!”

Marie was close with a group of three peculiar girls. More to the point, she mothered them constantly. Cynthia was lazier than a sloth, Ellie constantly locked herself in her room to read books and cared about nothing else, and Betty likewise never left the dorm and constantly focused on her art. The three rarely ever made it to their classes, and our professors considered them problem children. Marie was responsible for looking after them—not because anyone had assigned that task to her, but because she couldn’t leave well enough alone.

Her eyes shimmered with tears. “They can get around their terrible attendance through quizzes and makeup exams, but the school made it perfectly clear that they’ll make no exceptions on the dungeon-clearing requirement! To make matters worse, since those girls never come to class, they’ve basically only been in the dungeon once or twice before!”

Yikes. That complicated matters. If it were only Marie and me, we could have used Luxion to blast right through the dungeon and finished with that requirement. But bringing others along would be another matter. Revealing the full extent of Luxion’s capabilities would raise suspicions. Unfortunately, I doubted Marie would be willing to abandon her friends.

“So do you want to invite them along?” I asked. “With them, we should be able to wrap up in two days, don’t you think?”

I had no idea how strong those three were in battle, but if Marie and I acted as their bodyguards and didn’t rush things, I figured we could knock out the dungeon-clearing requirement easily enough.

Marie slapped her hands over her face. “I already did that,” she groaned. “I invited them time and time again! And they just scrunched up their faces at me and said, ‘I’ll pass.’”

“Yeah, they don’t really seem to care about their reputations. Why not let them repeat the year, then?” Being a coward, I did care what other people thought of me. But Cynthia, Ellie, and Betty weren’t constrained by societal values. They probably didn’t care about being held back.

Marie, however, did. “No way could I let that fly!” she burst out. “I already made my mind up that we’ll graduate together! I’ll tie them up and drag them if I have to—but they’re coming with us!”

“You really plan for us to drag three tied-up girls with us? No thanks. That sounds like a huge pain.” Plus, trying to force them to come along with us would be dangerous. It would be way more work than it was worth; I could already picture it.

“Then what do you propose?!” Marie snapped at me. “To be clear, leaving them behind isn’t an option.”

“Why are you so set on looking out for them?” I had to ask. It boggled my mind that she wouldn’t drop them.

She flushed. “When all the other girls bullied me, they looked out for me.”

“Really?”

“It’s not like I owe them my life or anything so dramatic. But if girls were waiting to ambush me, they’d let me know. They’d also tell me where other girls had thrown away my textbooks. Stuff like that.”

Knowing how apathetic those three were, it was hard to believe they’d gone out of their way to help Marie. I’d figured that, while she was being bullied, they’d done what they always did: holed up in their rooms and ignored her.

“That’s how you three got so close, huh?” I said.

Marie nodded. 

I’d always wondered how she’d gotten close to them. When she’d first started attending the academy, and tried to cozy up to Julius and his friends, she’d apparently earned the whole female student body’s ire. I didn’t expect that that was when she’d befriended them. It made sense, though. No wonder she’d known the perfect girls to bring along to that group date before.

“If they were with you through that, I get why you’re reluctant to leave them behind,” I said. “We need to find some way to get them to participate so that they can move to the next grade with us. Problem is, they’ve got no interest in cooperating.”

If it were simply that they didn’t have the skills to clear the dungeon on their own, we could’ve helped to compensate for that, but the three girls didn’t even want to take part. They had no motivation. Dragging them along against their will could potentially endanger us and them if they refused to work with us. I still saw that going poorly.

Marie looked as though she was at her wits’ end over the matter. “Do something,” she demanded. “If they’re held back, their families might pull them out of school entirely. It’d be so shameful to have that happen. And I’ve heard it’s taken place before.”

Any noble who repeated a year was treated as a failure in society. There was no recovering from that. Parents, meanwhile, didn’t want to risk leaving such children in school, lest their presence provoke rumor and gossip.

“Considering all the consequences, I’m actually kind of impressed that they can’t work up the motivation,” I said thoughtfully. “Not that I envy them for being that thick-skinned about it.”

Marie slumped forward against her desk, pressing her face to the desktop. “It’d be nice if they were motivated. However much I try to get them to see things my way, they just shrug and say, ‘Whatever happens, happens.’”

“It’s kind of weird how they act like they’re above it all, as if the situation doesn’t affect them. Maybe by saying that, I’m just generalizing about free spirits, but that’s how it feels.” At any rate, it was weird for a teenager to shrug and say, “Whatever happens, happens.”

While I racked my brain for some way around this problem, I shuffled to the window and gazed out. We were on the second floor, facing the courtyard, and I spotted Olivia. She was accompanied by her love interests, as always; it looked like they were heading out to the city together. I had to assume the story was going well, then—especially the development of Olivia’s romances with them.

“Looks like everything’s going well on her end. Must be nice,” I muttered.

Something was weird about seeing five guys fawn over a single woman—something that didn’t quite sit right with me—but that was neither here nor there. Now that the imminent threat to Holfort was gone, I was relaxed enough to enjoy their romantic entanglements without investing personally. I actually found the sight of the six of them kind of endearing.

Without me realizing it, Marie had gotten up and come to join me. She gazed down at the group, too, but she wasn’t quite as charitable as me. “She’s showing off, walking around with five guys like that, heading out on a date. It’s like she wants to scuffle with the rest of the girls at school.” She was sulking.

“Weren’t you the one who said watching them was entertaining? Why complain when you actually get the chance to do that?”

Marie glowered at me. “I’m complaining ’cause you’re ogling her boobs and drooling over them!”

Oops. She’d apparently pinpointed right where my gaze was focused. I was impressed that she could tell from this distance.

“I was trying to be discreet about it. I guess I’ll just have to try to be more careful in the future,” I said, more to myself than her.

“You’re too transparent. I could tell immediately. And instead of promising to be more careful, can’t you promise to stop looking?”

I shrugged. “A man’s eyes are naturally attracted to a well-endowed chest. What can I say? It’s instinct.” The ability to lock on to breasts like that was like a superpower. It wasn’t that I wanted to make women hate me for appreciating what they’d been born with, but I couldn’t help it.

When I refused to act apologetic, Marie’s expression went completely blank. Low down, she swept her leg to jam her foot against my calves. For being petite, she could kick way more powerfully than you’d think. Blinding pain shot through my legs.

“Yowch!” I cried. “Don’t kick me without saying anything!”

“So if I do say something, I can kick you?” She grinned and raised her fists—as if she were going to punch me now.

I lifted my hands in surrender. “Using violence like that isn’t fair!” Then, more meekly—since I feared further retribution—I added, “Erm, forget I said anything. Sorry. I promise to do my utmost not to look in the future.”

“Honestly.” She rolled her eyes at me. “You’re a horrible man, you know that? You’re already engaged, and you’ve got the gall to drool over another woman. But you don’t even…y-you don’t even look at my chest at all.”

Her voice dipped to a low, barely audible whisper toward the end of that sentence, but I caught everything she’d said.

Smiling, I replied, “You want me to ogle something that doesn’t exist? You’re kind of asking for the imposs—yowch!”

Marie’s fist slammed into my stomach, sinking deep. “You should either have pretended you didn’t hear me or given a more considerate response!”

The pain was so overwhelming that I collapsed to my knees, gasping for air.

She ignored my anguish and stared out the window. “Looks like things are still going okay with them, anyway.”

“Y-yeah,” I wheezed through the pain. It took everything I had to say that one word.

***

When I returned to the dorm, my two friends came to join me in my room. Raymond was the smaller of the pair and wore glasses. When he heard what I had to say, he leaned forward. 

“Those three might leave the academy entirely?!” he cried, his voice as loud as a thunderclap. I feared I might get a noise complaint from one of the neighboring rooms.

“Lower your voice,” I snapped. “Nothing’s decided yet. It’s just a possibility.”

As I tried to calm Raymond down, my other friend, Daniel, snapped, “The fact that it’s even a ‘possibility’ is a huge problem!”

They had good reason to panic. High society here was far too permissive of women’s worst behaviors, yet there were still societal norms they had to observe. You weren’t considered fit to be part of the nobility if you couldn’t graduate from the academy, where you were supposed to learn the bare minimum necessary for your position. It was far easier for women to graduate than men; nonetheless, anyone who couldn’t pass that low bar would be rejected from high society entirely. Leaving or being expelled meant the end of one’s life as a noble. If that happened to those three girls, they’d no longer be considered marriage material.

Raymond raked his hands through his hair. “We’ve got to do something quick! Rumor has it that the school doesn’t give much leeway when it comes to their dungeon-clearing requirement, so this isn’t a risk we want to take.”

I sighed at the two. They were losing their heads over this. “Even if we try to force the girls, they’ve got no interest in clearing the dungeon. It’d be dangerous. Our hands are tied; there’s not much we can do.”

Daniel’s nostrils flared. He snatched me up by my shirt collar. “Don’t give up so easily, Leon! At times like these, we need your cunning. There’s got to be something, right? You never play by the rules. Surely you can think of some way.”

Raymond nodded vigorously. “He’s right! I know that if anyone can think of a way to keep those girls from leaving the school, it’s you. Come up with something—we don’t care if it’s conniving or underhanded as usual with you.”

“Y-you guys,” I stammered, gaping at them in shock. “Do you really think I’m such a horrible person?” I needed to clear up this misunderstanding immediately. We couldn’t go on with them viewing me so negatively. I thought discussing it would be the best way to handle it—surely they’d understand. Daniel and Raymond had no patience for that right now, though.

“Who cares about that?! This is more important!” Daniel howled at me. “You’ve gotta come up with some way to keep them here!”

“You guys just described me with a bunch of vile words! Don’t dismiss that so easily!” I sighed, exasperated. “You know, suddenly I’m not that motivated to help you. If you feel like treating me like the scum of the earth, I don’t know if I want to lift a finger.” I made a show of pouting.

The two exchanged looks and nodded at one another. I waited patiently to see what they’d decide. Daniel finally released my shirt, dropping me unceremoniously, and I sank back into my chair. 

“Oh? Had a change of heart? Going to apologize to me now? If so, I want six hundred words or more before I forgive you,” I said condescendingly.

Daniel and Raymond turned to leave.

“Huh? Where’re you two—”

Daniel set his hand on the doorknob and glanced over his shoulder. “We’re going to get the other guys together and fill them in on the situation.”

“Are you crazy?!” I shouted at him. “Don’t make this a bigger issue than it already is!”

When he said “the other guys,” he meant the group of poor barons’ sons we hung with. We all had a lot in common, so we tried to support each other here at the academy.

“This is a group-wide issue! We can’t let those three leave the school. Leon, we’re serious about this,” said Daniel.

“Uh, okay,” I blurted back awkwardly.

They left, their footsteps echoing in the hallway briefly before slowly fading out. Daniel and Raymond were more passionate about this issue than I’d expected. I’d riled them up intentionally, as part of my plan, but I hadn’t intended for this to blow up quite so much.

“Guess this will mean more manpower than we planned. That should work out, right?” I rubbed my chin, thinking. “I hope so, especially since Marie’s depending on me.”

If I rallied the troops for this endeavor, I’d land myself in a leadership role. The last thing I wanted was to be in charge of a huge raiding party. Much better for me to be able to relax in a supporting role. That’s why I’d gone to Daniel and Raymond in the first place. I figured they could kick things off. And they were about to do that and more.

Things were going a little too well. It was great that our expedition wouldn’t lack the necessary numbers, but the more people went, the more room there was for problems to arise.

“I just hope nothing too bad happens.”

***

“We can’t let those goddesses leave the school!”

A few days had passed since my meeting with Daniel and Raymond, and we’d now all arrived at the entrance to the capital’s dungeon. I didn’t shout those words of motivation, by the way—it was a third-year named Lucle. His eyes appeared to be perpetually closed slits, which always made him a bit shady-looking, but he was normally calm and quiet. Not right now, though. He was pumped to get this expedition underway. 

The other guys present were just as enthused.

“We could never stand by and let that happen!”

“One of them will be my future wife. I swear I’ll protect her!”

“Hold it right there! Some knucklehead’s trying to stake his claim!”

Every guy present was a part of our group, and none were willing to miss out on this opportunity. They were all desperate to protect Marie’s friends from being held back and thus forcibly removed by their parents. I’d never seen any of them this fired up, Daniel and Raymond included. There was a strange fervor in the air.

Nearby were soldiers dispatched to guard the dungeon entrance, and many ordinary adventurers passing by to go on treasure hunts of their own. Everyone gave us a wide berth. Most whispered under their breath, sneaking surreptitious glances at us.

“I don’t normally see academy students here this time of year.”

“They’re awfully zealous about protecting those female students.”

“I couldn’t care less what they’re here for, as long as they stay out of my way.”

As far as the normal adventurers were concerned, blue-blooded adventurers were nothing short of a pain in the butt. They wanted to avoid us as much as possible.

I studied them until Marie tugged my arm to get my attention. She was decked out in a full suit of battle clothes, ready for our dungeon trip.

“How’d you get all the guys to agree to help?” she asked.

“When I told them what was on the line, they were eager to pitch in,” I replied with a sigh. Not to be ungrateful, but they were a little too fanatical about this. I mean, I understood why they were all so desperate to land a match. I just hadn’t thought they’d be quite so, uh, rabid about it.

Marie’s forehead wrinkled. “Are you sure this’ll be okay?” She sounded worried, too. “If all their excitement gets them nowhere, and we don’t pull this off, it’ll be no good for us.”

“I’ll check in with Mr. Lucle and raise our concerns,” I assured her, since he was the one rallying everybody. 

Before we all headed in, I slid over to Lucle. He raised a hand to wave at me. 

“Leon, I appreciate you inviting us all to help out,” he said. “None of us dreamed we’d get a chance to show off our adventuring prowess in front of the goddesses like this.” That was really all this was to the guys—an opportunity.

“Nah,” I said. “No need for you to thank me. I’m grateful for the help. But, uh, while we’re on the topic, isn’t everyone a bit too hyped up about this? I’m kind of concerned that some people will get injured if they don’t cool off.” Their enthusiasm was wonderful and all, but as Marie had expressed, it would be for naught if we didn’t succeed. I was hinting that everyone needed to calm down and go in with clear heads.

Lucle seemed to catch my drift. He scratched his head, frowning to himself. “You think so, too, huh? I’m ­actually a bit worried about that myself. But what can you do? Everyone’s pumped up over the chance to win over the goddesses’ hearts.” 

Lucle’s gaze landed on the three girls in question, whom Marie had forcibly dragged here. Cynthia, Ellie, and Betty looked none too pleased to be at the dungeon, but—much to my surprise—they were at least dressed for the occasion. They lacked the luggage and tools necessary, given the extent of our expedition, but the important thing was that were present. I wouldn’t expect them to fight at all in the dungeon; they were basically here for the ride.

Lucle cupped a hand over his chin. “I’m surprised they agreed to come at all. Miss Marie convinced them, I assume?”

“Yup. But that means we’ll have to go as deep into the dungeon as the third-years do to graduate. That was the girls’ condition for coming; they never want to have to come here again if they can help it,” I explained. 

Being lazy shut-ins, the girls just wanted to get this over with quickly, completing all three years’ worth of requirements. It was a big ask; I thought Lucle would refuse their demands.

Apparently, though, he didn’t mind. “It’ll be tough,” he admitted, “but it’s much easier than what most women would ask of us. I appreciate that it’s at least realistic and within the realm of possibility.”

“But we’re all first-years,” I reminded him. “Even for third-years, I don’t think it’ll be easy to make your way that far while babysitting us.” I had to point that out; I thought he was taking the whole thing a little too lightly.

He smiled understandingly. “It’s pretty normal at the academy to have to protect female students while clearing dungeon levels. You say you’re all first-years, but you’ve got dungeon experience, don’t you? You’ll be more help in there than some third-years, I bet.”

Apparently they were counting on my help in battle.

“I’m hoping to take it as easy as possible, actually,” I teased.

He smiled thinly. “I’m not sure that’ll be possible, considering that I planned to name you this expedition’s leader.”

“What?!” He didn’t sound like he was joking. “No. There’s no way. I’m a first-year. The upperclassmen would never let me lead.” 

They wouldn’t want someone younger than them to order them around, however many accomplishments I had under my belt. There was a strong hierarchy around age and school year here at the academy. I knew it’d sting for the older students to be under my command. That was why I’d gone out of my way to stir Daniel and Raymond to recruit everyone—so that I wouldn’t be in this position. Now here we were, about to embark, and all my carefully laid plans were coming to ruin.

Lucle flashed a contrite smile, then pressed his hands together in a pleading gesture. “I get where you’re coming from, but if we let anyone else lead, I’m afraid this’ll turn into a massacre.”

“What?!” I stared at him, wide-eyed. Why would the other students start killing each other over something like this? Surely he was exaggerating.

Lucle turned to look behind him at our group. They were brimming with excitement, but their eyes were bloodshot; it was kind of terrifying.

“They’re all worked up because they know this is a chance to win one of the girls’ hearts. If we aren’t careful about who leads us, they’ll start bickering over who gets what role when,” he explained. 

If someone with an ulterior motive took the wheel and deprived the other guys of their moment in the spotlight, they’d simmer with anger, especially if that leader took advantages for himself. Worst of all, if someone tried to be as genuinely fair as possible, their efforts would still earn the group’s resentment. However they split things up, someone would feel slighted and have complaints.

I immediately understood the dangers of leading the group. It would be a pain in the butt, make no mistake, but the bigger issue was the likelihood that I’d earn widespread resentment.

“I can’t do it,” I said plainly.

“No—you’re the only who can do it,” Lucle argued. “Anyway, I already asked all the other guys if they’re okay with it. The upperclassmen all agreed that they’d take orders from you.” He smiled at me, his eyes still narrowed into slits. He obviously knew what bad luck of the draw it was to be saddled with leadership in this situation. I couldn’t help thinking that something more sinister lurked behind that smile.

“No, I—” I started to say, before he abruptly cut me off, turning to the other guys.

“Does anyone here object to Leon leading us?” he asked, voice booming.

That drew everyone’s attention to me. Their gazes were hard and uncomfortable. Still, they knew I had no motivation to screw any of them over; I was already engaged, so I didn’t need to look good in front of their “goddesses.”

“That’s fine with me!”

“Couldn’t picture anyone else doing it!”

“I’m counting on you to tip the scales in my favor, leader!”

They all grinned at me as they voiced their support. It might’ve been touching if not for the unfortunate circumstances and what was at risk if I played this wrong. My stomach twisted into painfully tight knots.

“Urgh,” I groaned. “I really hate this kind of responsibility.”

I’d developed my aversion to responsibility long before reincarnating into this world. And what could be worse than needing to lead a group of desperate guys who wanted to land themselves a woman into a dungeon? This level of responsibility was absolutely crushing.

Marie saw the devastation on my face, and she gently rubbed my back. “Knowing you, I’ll bet you were hoping for an easy ride. I’d like to say you got what you had coming, but even I feel sorry for you. This sucks.” She’d read me like a book. At least she understood the difficulty of the task I was being given and tried to comfort me. It was actually kind of…heartwarming.

“I wonder if I’ll make it home alive after this,” I mused aloud. “They won’t mutiny and kill me, will they?” I was only half joking. Considering the way they’d all looked at me, I got the feeling that they really would come to hate me before all this was over. That terrified me.

Marie smacked my back. “Pull it together! If push comes to shove, I’ll give them an earful for you!”

“It’s a relief to know I at least have you to rely on,” I said honestly. “Well, I guess we should get on a move on, then. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover if we’re going to meet all the school’s requirements in one go.”

Marie shot a glance at her disinterested friends. “You girls are asking the impossible of these guys, so you’d better be on your best behavior for this!”

Cynthia, Ellie, and Betty waved half-heartedly. Was that a sign that they agreed to behave? It wasn’t a real response, at any rate, which made me nervous.

“You sure those three will be okay?” I muttered under my breath to Marie.

Her brow furrowed as if she was none too certain, either. “Well, they don’t take our lessons seriously, so I’ve got no idea how much they’re capable of in battle. Considering what they’re normally like, uh… Yeah, you’ve got good reason to be concerned.”

I heaved a muted sigh. “I guess I should assign them extra guards just to be on the safe side.”