She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

MIRA AND LUMINARIA had thought that Emilia might very well know something about the guy named Sven.

Sure enough, after meeting up and telling her about everything they’d done and learned, their prediction proved to be extraordinarily accurate. It seemed that she did know of a guy named Sven.

Sven was a student in the School of the Immortal Arts and was pretty popular with the female students.

“Oh ho… Is he perhaps a bit of a heartthrob or something?”

“And does he have a fan club? If so, we might need to come down on him harder than we’d planned.”

They wondered if there were fan clubs devoted to particular students, which was a common trope in shows and movies about academies. Mira and Luminaria didn’t bother hiding how much they detested such a thing.

But the truth was very different. And from what Emelia said, it appeared to be the complete opposite.

“No, there isn’t anything like that. Well, he… That pervert always tries looking under girls’ skirts. All the girls hate him,” Emilia said, explaining about Sven. What’s more, he was known by the nickname, The Downstairs Peeper.

It’s fairly easy to imagine how he earned such a name. But he always seemed to appear beneath the stairs where he could peep up girls’ skirts.

“That guy is a serious pervert. A couple of weeks ago he even did it to me.”

Perhaps remembering this as she spoke, a look of open disgust washed across Emilia’s face as she remembered the incident. Feeling an indescribable chill go down her spine, Emilia had turned around and found Sven looking up her skirt from a very low angle.

She mercilessly clobbered the boy, who was the scourge of the female students.

“I see…”

“He certainly has a motive.”

After hearing about this whole incident, Mira and Luminaria came up with a hypothesis.

Perhaps in an attempt to get back at Emilia, Sven had scribbled graffiti on the portrait of Danblf, the person Emilia most admired. A week before yesterday, in order to prepare and scout out the place, he’d most likely come up with a plan while in front of the banquet hall. 

“No way…”

Feeling the pieces fall into place, Emilia was shocked to think that it had all been because of her. She couldn’t believe the portrait of her beloved Danblf had become a victim of her flying off the handle a couple of weeks prior.

But that was only one possibility.

“Well, we won’t figure it out by just standing around talking here.”

“In situations like this, it’s best to go right for the guy.”

They weren’t likely to figure it out by standing around talking about it. It was only a hypothesis. And in order to get their next target, Mira and Luminaria both grabbed Emilia by the hand and dashed off.

Their first stop was the School of the Immortal Arts.

Having arrived at the School of the Immortal Arts, Mira and her companions began feverishly questioning others to determine Sven’s whereabouts. They learned he belonged to the badminton club.

“Badminton?”

“Badminton.”

For some reason, that modern-day sports had become quite widespread.

They also learned the badminton club always had practice in Gymnasium One.

From what they heard, Sven was a serious member of the club. But from what they knew of Sven, Mira and Luminaria guessed there was most likely some other factor at play. Badminton was a more active sport than most people imagined. And Luminaria knew the uniforms they wore were essentially the same as those people wore in the real world: exercise shorts and short skirts.

That’s where his real interest lay.

At any rate, they had an idea of where Sven might be. All they had to do now was go to Gymnasium One.

“All right, shall we head over and check it out?” Mira said, taking a step forward.

As she did, Emilia said, “Um, Miss Mira,” bringing her to a stop.

“Hrm, what is it?” Mira said, turning back to see what was up.

She saw Emilia staring at her, who then elaborated on what the present issue was…

“Miss Mira, did you bring gym clothes? You’re not allowed to go into Gymnasium One unless you’re wearing gym clothes.”

“Hrm, no, I did not…”

Mira hadn’t expected that. Emilia said that not only students but teachers as well had to change into school gym clothes in order to go into the gymnasiums. 

What’s more, the designated gym and club uniforms used by Alcait Academy were woven with a magic enchantment. They worked with the magic enchantment placed around the gym to deploy a protective membrane that protected its wearer from injuring themselves due to falling, sports accidents, not paying attention, and so on.

The gym was a place where people exercised their bodies vigorously, and so there were occasions where rather high-risk competitions and such took place. And so, it was required that everyone wear those school-issued gym clothes.

“The gymnasium is equipped with magic that checks whether or not your uniform is functioning properly, so you won’t be able to fool it by wearing similar-looking clothes,” Emilia added in closing.

If any abnormalities were detected, the Stalwart Dolls that the academy used for security would be summoned to forcibly eject whoever had been detected. In order to reach Sven, they’d need to get their hands on some school-issued Alcait Academy gym clothes.

Tilting her head as if pondering this sudden, unforeseen roadblock, Mira turned her gaze toward Luminaria. She had been the one to arrange the school uniforms. Mira wondered if she might be able to help with this as well.

“Nope. I brought my own, but I don’t have any for you,” Luminaria said, immediately opening up her item box and deftly taking out her gym clothes.

Once again, Mira was creeped out that Luminaria had such things on hand.

While this was all happening, a look of surprise appeared on Emilia’s face as she looked at Luminaria’s arm.

“Riana…is that…a User’s Bangle?!”

When Luminaria had briskly taken out the gym clothes, Emilia had caught a glimpse of her item box and was taken aback.

“…Yeah,” Luminaria confirmed, though not strictly true. A look of deep respect bloomed on Emilia’s face.

User’s Bangles served as proof that one was an active, first-class adventurer, and it was a good reason for Emilia to be impressed.

“All right, in that case, we don’t have much of a choice. Emilia and I will head to the gym by ourselves,” Luminaria said, quickly putting her arm around Emilia’s shoulder, before suggesting that the gym clothes-less Mira stay behind and continue investigating.

“Yes. We’ll go have a word with that pervert about what happened, so please wait for us, Miss Mira,” Emilia answered, nodding, as if they didn’t have any other choice in this situation. Then she took a step forward at Luminaria’s urging.

“No, I can’t go along with that. This whole incident is personal. I can’t leave it all in someone else’s hands. Hey, don’t you agree, Emilia?” Mira said, stopping her.

This was all true, but she had one other reason for saying it. And that was she couldn’t abide leaving her beloved pupil alone with Luminaria, who might very well be even more of a pervert than Sven.

“…Yes, that’s true. I understand how you feel, Miss Mira!” Emilia said, sympathizing with Mira’s sentiment that she couldn’t just let other people take care of avenging the graffiti incident.

So how would they get Mira into the gym?

“How about you just lend them to me?”

If she could just borrow the clothes Luminaria had brought, then she’d be able to go in without issue. Mira stated this as if it were a brilliant suggestion…but it wasn’t quite that simple.

“Aww, too bad… Wrong size,” Luminaria said, laughing as she dismissed the suggestion while looking up and down every inch of Mira.

Emilia confirmed that if they didn’t fit well, the enchantments within the clothes wouldn’t function. Considering how physically different Mira and Luminaria were, there was no doubt that if Mira wore them, she’d be detected.

So what were they to do? The two had begun to ponder this when Emilia exclaimed, “Ah!” as if she’d thought of something.

“Oh ho, what is it, Emilia? Have you come up with a good idea?”

It was quite clear from the look on Emilia’s face that she’d come up with an idea. But right afterward, she said, “Um, no… It’s just…” before looking away.

“Don’t worry. Anything works. Out with it!”

Emilia was much more well-informed when it came to anything having to do with the academy. And so she should surely be able to come up with something they couldn’t. Mira eagerly pressed Emilia for more.

Emilia did seem to have an idea of how Mira might get herself into the gym, but for some reason, she just kept mumbling things like, “It’s just, well…” without saying what it was that she’d come up with.

“You’ve thought of something, haven’t you? Come on, tell us. You want to make whoever drew that graffiti pay, right?!” Mira said, pressing her further.

She wanted to serve justice to the vandal with her own hands…and keep Luminaria’s hands off Emilia.

“…O-okay.”

It seemed as if Mira’s passionate appeal had reached her, as she then shared the method she’d thought up with resignation written all over her face. The girl seemed to have realized that her body and Mira’s body were just about the same size.

“…And so, I was thinking that if you were to wear my spare pair of gym clothes, the enchantment might still work.”

That was the long and short of her plan. Truth be told, Emilia was physically more mature than Mira…but not nearly as much as Luminaria was. So if Mira were to wear her spare set, their problem would be solved. It certainly didn’t seem like there’d be any issue with this solution.

However, the moment after explaining this, a gloomy look passed over Emilia’s face. “But I used them during PE class today,” she continued.

Emilia had forgotten to bring the gym clothes she’d used the day before home, so today, she’d had to use her spare pair. Both pairs of Emilia’s gym clothes were dirty.

“And, well…I couldn’t possibly lend you a dirty pair of gym clothes, so…”

It’d been a good idea remembering she had a spare set, but upon thinking about it, she realized they were in no condition to lend out. This explained her utter reluctance.

“Um, I’ll go ask if anyone else has a spare set.”

They were in a large academy full of students. She had to have some friends who were more or less Mira’s size. And so, Emilia ran off to find a spare set…or at least she was about to when Luminaria called her to a stop.

“No, why waste any more time? Just lend her yours. Mira won’t mind.” She then turned toward Mira and asked, “Right?”

“Hrm? Hrmm… Good point. No need to worry. I’m more concerned with hurrying up and putting the screws to Sven.” Mira dismissed the minor inconvenience since she was much more concerned about whoever it was that’d been drawing graffiti on the portrait of Danblf.

“Um… Okay, sure thing…!”

Emilia seemed to be a tad flustered at this turn of events. She had reservations about having Mira wear the dirty gym clothes. After all, it was embarrassing to lend someone such things.

However, having been outvoted by Mira and Luminaria, she reluctantly ran off to her classroom to grab her gym clothes.