It’s been two months since I've entered this school and sadly, the harem plan I created has yet to see any real results. The closest thing I’ve gotten to making progress was a few interactions with Dianne. However, those quickly get fuddled by the large amount of people trying to convince Dianne not to talk to me. And all I can really say to that is mind your own damn business you royal assholes! Geez.
But anyway, me and Lily have been hanging out pretty much every day during our break periods and it turns out we have a lot more in common than I’d originally thought. In fact, it kinda surprised me. Especially since we lived in completely different lives from one another.
Honestly, the only sad thing right now is that nothing major has really happened since I came to this school.
There were a few difficult tests here and there, but my physical education was actually going quite well. Strange considering my body was still physically weak. I was just lucky the school didn’t ask me to do anything the average person couldn't do.
At least that’s what I’d like to say. Sadly, things are gonna get quite difficult pretty fast considering the trip coming up.
What trip, you ask?
Why, that’s none other than the school dungeon trip of course!
The dungeon trip happens every two months at this school. It’s a way to ensure all the students here can be trained for real-world combat by having them seek out treasures and fight terrible monsters in hopes of building up their stamina. In the game, it was just an excuse to hang out with the different heroines. However, this time I’ll actually be participating so it should be quite interesting.
“You seem nervous, Master.”
Hearing a voice next to me, I found a metal square cube floating next to me.
“Of course I’m nervous. I’ve heard a lot of different things about this school's dungeons. And not a lot of the things I heard were good.”
“I see. Would you like me on standby just in case?”
“Nah. Just wait for me back at the island. I should be back above ground within a day or two.”
“Understood.”
For those wondering, the metal cube floating next to me was a miniature version of Sirin. When I returned to the ship a few weeks back, I found the prototype for a portable version of Sirin that I ended up fixing up with her help telling me what to do.
Of course, I didn’t have much time to work on it since I only had a weekend to do everything. But I still think I did a decent enough job.
“On another note, I’ve recently caught three trespassers attempting to sneak onto the island. What would you wish for me to do with them?”
“Three huh? Not that many this time.”
Apparently, while I was living at the school, several people had been attempting to hijack my island and claim it as their own. Not exactly the kindest of individuals.
“Are there any royalty?”
“One, Master. It appears to be Frowses Freidya of the Freidya household.”
Never heard of him. Best not to mention that out loud though. Who knows how someone would react to hearing that if the Freidya household was a big name or something.
“I see. Please make sure his parents are aware of his escapades. If they are, threaten them for their actions. If they’re not, make sure they punish their son. As for the others, you can dispose of them how you see fit…besides killing. That’d be a bit too much.”
“Understood.”
With that, Sirin vanished into thin air. Leaving me on my own.
I stretched out my arms with a yawn and began making my way back to my dorm room. The trip was two days from now and I needed to make sure I was fully prepared for whatever awaited me.
As night came, I decided to get a shower.
As the hot water splashed down onto me, I let out a sigh. It still annoyed me how little progress I’d been making with my harem plan.
It’s been on my mind all this time, but I still haven’t acted on it. If this keeps going, the heroines will be swept up before I can do anything. I’m positive they all’ve met the MC by now so the longer I take to get started just gives the MC more time to win these girls over.
As I got out of the shower and began drying myself off, I made a promise to myself.
“Once this dungeon trip is over, I’ll put all the effort I can into getting myself that harem.”
With that in mind, I figured it’d be best just to head to bed. But right before I did, I found myself looking at the mirror.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t really paid much attention to my appearance since coming to this school. I didn’t really require much prep in the morning so I usually just shoved on my uniform and made my way to class.
Though now that I looked at myself, I noticed a few things that bugged me.
For one, I seemed to have grown out my hair so much that it started shooting into the air like spikes. I almost looked like an anime character thanks to that. And it didn’t exactly help with how my hair was blonde color that didn't blend well with my black eyes either.
One thing I wasn’t too surprised on was my body. It looked a slight bit shrimpy and you could swear I never worked out a day in my life. Not a surprise considering my body didn’t appear to gain or lose muscles.
With a sigh, I stepped out of the shower and walked out into my room before slipping on some pajamas I’d set out.
Picking up the book I had been reading yesterday, I flipped through it a bit more.
Funny enough, this was actually the third volume in the series I’d begun reading two months ago. I actually ended up falling in love with the story and read it whenever I get the chance. Apparently, the series had six volumes as of right now and I’d planned to go grab the next three when I finished this one. Whoever this Pensmen person was, they’re a really good writer. Although, I was surprised when the person who wrote this apparently used a pen name. I just figured everyone in this world didn’t mind sharing their real names when writing books. I guess I stand corrected.
Spending an hour flipping through the book, I easily got through close to almost a hundred pages with only around fifty or so to go.
But since I started reading a bit later than usual, I was already feeling quite exhausted. This wasn’t exactly helped by the shower I took earlier either. So deciding to save the end of the book for another day, I slipped the piece of paper I used as a bookmark into one of the pages and closed the book before putting it down on the coffee table in front of me.
Getting up, I walked over to bed and slipped under the covers in hopes of getting another good night's sleep.
Before I knew it, tomorrow was the day we left for the dungeons.
“Look at this Axel! We’ll be in the same group tomorrow!”
During our first break, Lily practically shoved a piece of paper into my face. Apparently, it was the teams we would be in during the dungeon diving excursion.
“I see. That’s good news,” I replied.
For a quick explanation, the school wanted to test our abilities to work with different classes so they put us into different groups with students from other classes in the same grade.
It honestly wasn’t a bad idea. However, I fear all the glares I’d finally been able to ignore would come back in full force.
Since I’d been in the same class for the last two months, I found it fairly easy to leave the students in my own classroom be.
But when it came to people I saw during the break period, their stares still stung like hell.
“Is something wrong?”
Lily looked a me with a confused expression on her face. Noticing how I’d gone silent.
“I was just wondering what this dungeon has in store. It should be quite an interesting experience.”
Lily grinned.
“Yeah! I’m already looking forward to it.”
After saying this, Lily began to ramble on about what type of things she’d thought about facing and collecting down in the dungeon.
Seeing her so excited couldn’t help but make me smile. It makes me truly glad I accepted her request to be friends.
We continued chatting about the dungeon for a little while longer before it was time to return to class and we cleaned up our stuff.
“Oh yeah. This may sound a bit out of nowhere, but I actually have to help my class during the next break time. Are you cool with that?”
I nodded.
“That’s fine. See ya tomorrow then.”
“Will do!”
With a thumbs up, Lily left for her classroom and I began making my way back to my own.
After a stressful night of worrying about if I had everything or not, I said goodbye to Sirin who went back to the island and I made my way through the dorm lobby.
As I was doing so, however, I heard a lot of strange whispering around.
“So that’s him huh?”
“You think it’s actually gonna happen?”
“I hope what I heard is true.”
What are they talking about?
Deciding it was best to just ignore them for now, I left the dorm and began making my way toward the dungeon following a map the school provided to each student.
About thirty minutes of walking later, I found myself standing in front of a giant rock with a hole inside it that appeared to be spiraling downwards.
Several students were already lined up in their different groups.
Pulling up the list I’d received from my teacher at the end of the day yesterday, I searched for the name of my group.
“Axel! Over here!”
Suddenly hearing my name, I turned to find Lily waving over to me.
Walking over to the line she was standing in, I gazed at the other students who were slowly lining up one after the other.
Once I approached the back of my line, Lily was standing there with a smile.
“Isn’t this exciting!?”
Lily seemed quite energetic considering it was only around seven in the morning.
“I guess. I’m still a bit unsure though. I haven’t fought in a dungeon for a little while now and I might be a bit rusty.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine. We’re only going down a level or two so there shouldn't be any concern.”
“I hope you’re right.”
About twenty minutes later, it looked like the teachers had arrived to explain how things would work.
I quickly glanced at the rest of our group. Neither the MC nor any of the heroines appeared to be on my team. Guess that meant it’d be simple for me to just go in and get out without needed to look cool at all.
After the teachers finished explaining, they slowly let our groups in one by one.
Before long, it was our group's turn and we went inside.
Upon entry, one of the teachers guided us towards a flight of stairs which were apparently meant to take us straight to the first floor of the dungeon.
After the teacher made sure we were all set, he let us pass by and we made our way into the depths of the dungeon.
At least, I thought it’d be deep. But we ended up reaching the first floor a lot faster than I’d anticipated and before I knew it we were already fighting against our first opponents.
“Goblins! Be careful guys!” shouted the person who apparently acted as the leader of our group.
One of the other group members slashed down a goblin before jumping back and narrowly avoiding another one who was attempting to jump at them from behind.
Trying my best to fend the monsters off, I turned my hand towards one of them.
“Fireball!”
Shooting a ball of fire from my hand, the goblin I’d been facing burst into flames before vanishing into the air. That’s right, since this is a game world the monsters vanish into thin air rather than falling to the ground with their guts spilling everywhere.
From behind me, Lily charged at a goblin with a dagger in hand as she slashed off their neck faster than it could react.
She wasn’t the only one using a weapon. Almost every other group member was using some form of weaponry whether it was a spear, sword, or brass knuckles because students were allowed those for some reason.
As for me, I had to rely entirely on my magic.
If I didn’t have that, I’d be in a really big pickle.
Just to be on the safe side, I made sure to bring that item I purchased a while back that let me use magic even within a magic-blocking barrier. Even if it barely lasted any time at all, it was better to have on hand rather than not.
Blasting away another monster with a fireball, I found myself slowly growing bored. It wasn’t that I wanted something more dangerous…or maybe it was. All in all, I just felt like these guys were a bit weak. Then again, I do have several years as an adventurer under my belt so I guess it made sense.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Before long, we’d successfully finished off the last of the goblins and several of the members in my group wiped off the sweat from their foreheads as we decided to take a break before going further in.
I personally would’ve wanted to go a bit further, but to each their own I guess.
I tried sitting down near the others. However, when I did, they immediately moved away from me before giving me looks me looks of disgust. At this point, I’m not even surprised.
I found myself letting out a sigh before hearing someone sit next to me.
“What a bunch of jerks.”
Lily had sat beside me with her cheeks puffed out to the point she almost looked like a chipmunk.
“It’s fine Lily. I’m used to it.”
“Hmph. I know. But it’s still a bit rude.”
I shrugged.
“Don’t pay them any mind. I’ve already accepted being treated like this.”
“I…see.”
Lily seemed like she wanted to say something, but then closed her mouth as she looked towards a nearby cave entrance. Apparently, that tunnel would lead us toward another flight of stairs which brought us to the next floor.
“Say. What do you think we’ll fight next?” asked Lily.
“Dunno. Whatever it is, hopefully, it’s a bit stronger than the goblins we just faced,” I muttered in response.
Lily’s eyes widened when I said that.
“You want to fight something stronger than those goblin things!?”
I turned to her with a look of confusion.
“Well yeah. Those goblins were pretty weak after all. It makes me wonder just how far we’ll have to go before things get tough.”
Granted I didn’t wanna face opponents too tough for me to handle. I just wanted opponents that would give me the same thrill I had during the many dungeon quests I’d done before I began attending this school.
“Think about it, if the monsters weren’t stronger, how would we ever get any good combat experience?”
“Er…I guess you have a good point there.”
After she said that, Lily had a weird expression on her face that I couldn’t quite understand.
“Well, I think that’s enough resting. How about we get going?” Lily asked.
“Hm? Uh…Sure?”
I don’t know why, but Lily suddenly got a little more frantic. What was up with that?
Once she talked with the other members of the group, they all agreed we should continue forward and we went into the cave entrance where we found the stairs we were looking for.
We went down deeper and quickly found ourselves confronting another force.
“Wait. Aren't those-”
My sentence was immediately cut off as I ducked out of the way of giant claws aiming for my head.
“Damn. Haven't seen one of these guys in a long time.”
Turns out I was facing none other than one of those scorpions things I’d struggled against all that time ago. Talk about a weird reunion.
“Everyone make sure to surround these things! We don’t know what they’re capable of!” Ordered the group leader.
Wait…what?
“No! Don’t do that! You’ll just give the chance to-”
My words were too late. The scorpions had already sealed off our only exit by covering it in poison.
“Dammit,” I muttered as I dodged the scorpion’s attack once more.
Why were monsters as tough as this on such a high floor!?
The weak spot is under the chin on this one.
Running toward the monster, I snatched Lily’s knife from her hand and before she could complain, I slid under the monster's stomach and using all the strength I could muster, slammed the weapon into the monster's weak spot before pushing myself away with magic.
The scorpion spewed up a bit of blood before crashing to the ground and vanishing from sight. I know I said it was nice that the monsters didn’t spew many guts before disappearing into nothing, but the fact they could still bleed while they were alive was a bit creepy.
But moving past that, I glanced around to find several members of my group struggling to take another scorpion that had appeared. Just how inexperienced were these guys at fighting with monsters?
I may have had expanded thinking on my side, but even your average adventurer would know to look for a weak spot and attack one at a time when facing monsters like this. Then again, these were a bunch of royal assholes so I shouldn’t be that surprised they lacked skills in real combat.
Despite how easy it’d be to let them go on struggling, I knew that would just make me look bad and push my harem plans back a bit so I dashed towards the group and took a look at the monster.
Its weak spot is located under its arm.
After taking notice of this, I zipped past the other group members who started shouting at me. Ignoring them, I drew the monster's attention and it raised one of its claws to attack me.
Taking that opening, I ducked under its claw and smashed my hand into its body. Gross as it was, I’d left Lily’s knife lying on the ground earlier so this was the only thing I could do to get an attack in.
“Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!”
Launching blast after blast into the monster's body, it began to shake as blood gushed out from its nose and mouth before it collapsed to the ground in a hot mess.
Pulling my hand out, I turned to the other group members.
“Don’t try attacking these things all at once! When you fight them make sure to take them on one at a time and find their weak point! The rest of their body is pretty much impenetrable so don’t try attacking it head on! Now get moving!”
As demanding as that sounded, we weren’t exactly in the best of situations so it was kinda necessary.
Not seeing if they listened, I charged at another scorpion. They just wouldn’t stop coming.
The fight continued on for another forty minutes before it was finally finished.
Taking out another one, I felt like I was gonna pass out any second.
“That’s the last of them! We’ve won!” cheered the group leader.
Everyone followed his cheer as they hugged and cried about how hard this battle was. It was almost like they forgot this was just the beginning of the second floor.
Letting out a sigh, I slumped my shoulders while thinking about what our next move was.
“Axel! Help!”
Hearing my name, I turned to find Lily sitting on the group holding her leg while a giant red scorpion that seemed to appear out of nowhere started heading toward her. It looked like she’d hurt it during battle.
Pushing my feet into overdrive, I ran at Lily while scanning the monster for a weak point. However-
There aren't any weak points.
…Huh?
That’s…that’s impossible. These things all had weak points!
However, now wasn’t the time to think about that. Lily was in danger.
Not sure what else to do, I jumped at the scorpion and-
SPLASH!
Huh?
All of a sudden, I felt something strange grab hold of my foot.
Out of nowhere, something yanked me down to the ground and I crashed into a strange green liquid.
“What the hell!?”
This wasn’t here before. Moving past that though, this didn’t feel like water. It felt more like…quicksand?
Not sure what to do, I tried to use wind magic to escape.
“Wind Leap!”
I waited for my body to be pushed out but…
“Huh!?”
I tried casting it again, but nothing happened. I tried a few more times. But for some reason, no matter what type of spell I tried to cast, nothing happened.
As I felt myself slowly being sunken even deeper into the strange liquid, I turned to my other group members.
“Guys! Help me! I’m stuck!”
My heartbeat was beginning to rapidly grow faster and faster.
I held my hand out to those I figured would at least try and help me. However-
“Why would we help a commoner like you?”
“If life wants you to die here then so be it.”
“Why should we have to get ourselves dirty for your sake?”
The last one didn’t make sense since they were already plenty dirty from the fight. But were these guys seriously gonna let me die!?
With no one else to turn to, I shifted my body towards Lily. Surprisingly enough, the scorpion was nowhere to be seen. It must’ve run when it saw me coming. But never mind that!
“Lily! Please help me!”
I put my hand out towards her. Praying she’d take it.
Standing up, Lily walked over to me and gave me a creepy grin. What the heck was up with that?
Feeling a shiver down my spine, I looked at Lily.
“Now why would I offer my assistance to some commoner?”
…What?
“Lily…What are you talking about?”
“Ugh. It’s always given me the creeps when you call me by name. Well, I guess it was all worth the effort in the end.”
“Huh!? What’re you saying!?”
Lily’s smile grew even wider.
“Did you honestly think I’d stoop so low as to speak with commoner without an ulterior motive? Honestly, you lower folk are just way too simple.”
“What’d you say!?”
I started to feel angry as my body continued sinking.
“In case you haven’t figured this out yet, this was my intention all along. To purge the commoner who entered this prestigious school. This plan was already set in motion before you even entered our school. Are you really that surprised?”
Wait. So this meant Lily spoke to me and became friends all for this!?
“You’ve been wanting to kill me this whole time!?”
“That’s right! It honestly sickened me having to be friends with a commoner! But now that the plan I’ve been preparing for all this time has seen fruition, I can finally drop this little miss nice girl act!”
So it was all an act…I see.
“You bitch,” was all I could mutter.
“You peasants and your filthy language. Seeing you die such a pitiful death makes bribing the teachers to set up this trap all the more worth it.”
So teachers were in on this too huh? How annoying.
Feeling my true feelings well up inside, I gave Lily a glare so fierce it caused her to take a step back.
“You’ll regret this. When I find my way back, I’ll make sure you and everyone else at this academy pay!”
Seeing this threat as just my struggling last words, Lily let out a laugh.
“Just die you filthy commoner.”
With those words echoing in my mind, my face was brought under the strange liquid and my consciousness began to fade.
Before I knew it, everything went completely black.
After that, teachers eventually did make it down to the students and brought them back to the surface. Playing innocent, everyone tried pretending Axel’s death was just an accident and the school ended up calling a two-week break from school to recover from the loss of one of its students.
However, when the news reached a certain man, he couldn’t help but growl in anger.
“Those stupid brats. They just don’t get it.”
“Sir?”
The young boy Iwaru gave the one he served a confused look.
The man turned towards Iwaru and sighed.
“Make sure to have the kids that were part of that boy’s group expelled from the school. Do whatever you have to in order to ensure it’s done.”
Even though he didn’t fully understand why, Iwaru nodded and gave a salute to the one he served.
“Yes sir.”
With that, Iwaru left the room.
Leaning back in his chair, the man let out a sigh before slamming his fist on his desk.
Gritting his teeth in frustration, the man turned his head to the window behind him.
“Looks like there’s a long way to go before commoners and royals can truly understand each other. Don’t you think, Princess Dianne?”
Despite the name he mentioned not being in the room, he was certain she was thinking the same thing.
And as the one he mentioned sat in her dorm room, she hugged her pillow tight in frustration as she pondered how the gap could possibly be removed at school after this incident.
Before anyone knew it, the two-week break had flown by and students were already talking about what happened in the dungeon. A majority were relieved that the commoner was gone. However, one person in particular found the whole thing quite intriguing.
“So the adventurer who was accepted into the school was killed in the dungeon?” Riko asked Xara who had relayed the information to him.
“Yeah. Kinda surprising to hear actually considering out of everyone in his group he was probably the one with the most experience.”
“I agree. It’s quite strange.”
Sadly, Riko couldn’t think much more about it as he had to get to class before the first bell rang.
As for Axel’s classmates, they were overjoyed to finally be rid of him. That is, except for one person inparticular.
“How can you all be so heartless as to celebrate his death!?”
Dianne glared at a group of boys in the halls of the school who were discussing having a party to celebrate the news.
The boys stood there awkwardly as they tried coming up with excuses to soothe her anger.
Not wanting to hear any of their excuses, Dianne left with a huff before arriving to class.
As she walked in, however, something caught her eye.
When she looked up to where Axel had previously been seated, there now sat a boy with somewhat spikey greyish-white hair and crimson-red eyes who had his feet on top of the table in front of him as he flipped through a book.
As the rest of the students walked in, a majority also took notice of this strange young man. Was he some foreign exchange student? A royal from a different ranking that was only recently submitted into the school?
No one was able to figure it out.
Murmurs echoed throughout the classroom. All the while, the boy just continued flipping through his book without a care.
Before long, the teacher walked into the room and turned toward the students. Hoping the teacher would explain who this strange new student was, everyone waited patiently for him to speak. However, rather than talking about any new students, the teacher went on to do roll call.
Still confused, each student raised their hand when their name was called.
Once everyone else's names had been called, they awaited to hear what the teacher would say next. But while they listened, the teacher looked at the paper he was using for roll call once more and turned back to the students. When he did, the next words that came out of his mouth surprised everyone.
“Axel Savoncho?”
He was asking for the commoner's name?
Did he not hear about the incident leading to the peasant's death?
Deciding to break the news to him, one of the students was about to speak up when-
“Right here Teach,” echoed a voice.
All the students turned their heads to the voice and found themselves looking at the boy with greyish-white hair and crimson-red eyes who closed his book and gave a confident grin as he stood up and raised his hand.
“Axel Savoncho. Present.”
As that boy uttered those words, shouts of surprise echoed throughout the room. While people questioned what this boy just said, he sat back down and flipped through his book once more.
Dianne stared at the boy with her eyes wide. While she couldn’t exactly believe what he said, she couldn’t deny he did look strangely similar to Axel Savoncho. But was that even possible?
While she continued to question it like everyone else, Axel let out a yawn and continued reading.
Before long, news shot through the school about Axel’s survival and eventually reached Lily who was relaxing in the spot she and Axel used to hang out at on the school roof. When she heard the news, she glared at the one who told her about it.
“Don’t feed me such lies! There’s no way he survived! That person’s probably a fake!”
Lily was already on edge after hearing she was gonna be expelled from the school for some reason so this news wasn’t exactly music to her ears.
“But…but it’s true! He’s somehow alive!”
“Cut that dribble! That peasant’s dead!”
As Lily continued to deny it, someone burst into her classroom.
“Harsh words Lily. Can’t say I blame you for being mad though.”
Lily felt her blood run cold. She was all too familiar with the voice she’d just heard. She did spend two months with it after all.
Craning her neck, Lily saw a boy with greyish-white hair and crimson-red eyes standing there with a grin on his face.
“I must say, that little stunt you pulled wasn’t too bad. Kinda sad it ended up failing in the end, huh?”
“N-No way!”
Lily couldn’t believe her eyes.
Seeing her scared caused Axel’s grin to only grow wider.
“Now then, perhaps it’s about time I deliver what I promised you all that time ago.”
Out of nowhere, a gust began to pick up around Axel as he approached Lily.
“W-What’re you gonna do?”
Axel chuckled to himself as the wind started to pick up more and more. Until finally...
“Nothing actually.”
As he said that, the wind surrounding the two of them vanished.
“H-Huh!?”
“I already heard you’re being expelled from the school. That’s good enough for me.”
After saying that, Axel walked past Lily before giving some final words.
“Here’s a single piece of advice. If you’re gonna try something as dumb as killing someone again, make sure they're dead before leaving them to rot.”
With those words, he left her behind to crumble to her knees as tears fell from her eyes.
Leaving Lily behind, Axel made his way to one of the school’s many gardens and looked up at the beautiful blue sky.
As he did so, he thought about the hell he’d gone through to get back to the surface. As well as his new companion that he met while down there.
But that’s a story for next time.