Chapter 35
35 Graduation Exam 4
When her name was called multiple times in a loud voice, she had no choice but to go out there. Otherwise the audience might remember it. Right now they would still soon forget her as just another graduating student.
Thinking this, Mile reluctantly entered the arena once again, where Guren shouted towards her.
「I’ll make you a member of our party. Just come to our home base when you’ve packed all your stuff.」
「Eh…」
Hearing Guren’s words, the audience went crazy.
For a student barely having graduated to be scouted into that 『Mithril Roar』. That was the big dream of all new Hunters, to make it big at once.
Since S Rank Hunters were extremely rare, there were no S Ranked parties, making the A Rank the highest realistically reachable party Rank. To be scouted by 『Mithril Roar』, a party just one step away from that Rank.
It was possibly they were watching the start of a legend right now. This opinion was shared by more than a few in the audience.
「I decline.」
「「「「「Eh………?」」」」」
Everyone doubted their ears.
Guren did, the audience did, the King, minister of finance, Count Christopher, Elbert, and the foreign visitors did, everyone did…
「I have a prior arrangement.」
While saying this, Mile snapped her fingers, causing the trio of Rena, Maevis, and Pauline to jump out from the resting area. They positioned themselves surrounding Mile.
「Even though we were not born on the same day or in the same place!」
「Even though we share not a drop of blood between us!」
「We are comrades walking along the same path!」
「Even if our ways might part in the future,」
「as long as red blood flows through our veins,」
「「「「our friendship is eternal!」」」」
「We are four comrades tied together by our very souls! And our name is,」
「「「「RED OATH!!」」」」
Dooon!
Behind the posing quartett, Mile had caused and explosion with magic and caused four colored smoke to rise up.
They had studied lines and poses for situations like these. Nobody had been able to deny Maevis, who had become hooked on Mile’s hero stories…
Mile hadn’t thought that there would ever be an occasion to use them.
「O….okay」
Guren was baffled.
How else was he supposed to react to that.
「Since it’s like this, I decline. If there is another occasion sometime in the future, I might take you up on your offer then.」
Taking this as a cue, the four girls made their way back to the resting area.
Mile’s group dodged recruitment offers from nobles as well as the masses when they left the arena. In contrast, some of their classmates had set up tables in front of an enormous amount of luggage.
And now, samples were quickly arranged on the tables and banners erected.
『Detailed Statues of Red Oath
1 piece 3 silver coins
Complete 4 piece set 1 gold coin』
What greeted the visitors were Earth-style detailed figurines about 20 centimeters in height, of the four girls.
Wit Hunter equipment. Casual clothing version. The number of statues was 1000.
「Come and see, 『Red Oath』 statues, one statute is 3 silver coins, and if you buy all four it’s a whopping discount price of only 1 gold coin! How about taking one home with you as a charm!」
「G-Give me on! Mile-chan please!」
「Rena-chan please, both versions!」
「Two of each version of Maevis-Oneesama!」
「I want to be scolded by Pauline-chan!」
「A set for me!」
They sold like hot cakes.
Three days prior.
On the evening of the day Elbert had asked them to go wild, Mile sorted through the contents of her Item Box since graduation was approaching and they needed to return the items that were property of the school.
「Oh? This is….」
When Mile inspected what she had pulled out of her Item Box, the other three came to look.
「What is that?」
「It’s quite cute…」
「Did you make that Mile?」
It was the figure Mile had carved out of boredom on her travel from home to Ekland Academy.
「It leaves a quite refreshing impression. Compared to existing dolls, it has a very different feeling to it.」
「Yes, it’s really fun to look at. Don’t you think it would sell well?」
「……..」
Maevis and Rena evaluated it fairly highly, meanwhile Pauline…
「Leave it to me Mile-chan!」
「「「Ehh?」」」
Having given free reign, Pauline moved fast.
She asked the 22 students who wouldn’t take the graduation exam, assembled the willing ones, and started mass production via Earth magic with Mile’s work as the blueprint.
The production of the figurines themselves was left to the magicians while those with artistic sense helped them and the others wrapped the finished product. The twelve people involved worked arduously through the nights. Since they couldn’t allow this work to interfere with the exam, Pauline had only asked those not taking the exam, but with the magicians at the front, several of those taking the exam joined in later on.
「Pauline-san, is this really okay?」
「You decided to go wild right? At the graduation exam. Then everything will be fine, I can guarantee it!
After graduation we’ll need money for a lot of things. Equipment, holding everything together until we have a stable income, putting something aside in case of injuries or illness…
And those graduating as D Rank will have it even worse than us. Can you imagine how much having some starting funds would help them…. For their sakes too, we can’t let this chance to make money slip from our hands!」
「Well, I left everything to you, so I don’t have any right to complain. I just hope that we don’t make everyone work for nothing.」
In the end, all 1000 figurines were sold out, they earned 2800 silver coins, factoring in the set discount. Paying each of the 18 involved students 100 silver coins each left Mile’s group with 1000 silver coins
Converted to Japanese Yen, that would be around 1 million. A small fortune.
Even for the other students, starting out with 100 silver coins was a big help. All of them thanked the girls, and those who hadn’t thought their business would work and declined the offer were filled with regret.
And it wouldn’t be long before the culture of Magic Remodelling spread throughout this world.
「So, can we hope for the school budget to remain high enough to remain operational…」
Elbert brought up the delicate topic in the back room of the arena, after Mile’s group had left.
Even though Elbert was usually filled with confidence, even he would falter when faced with royalty and nobility, more so when it was about asking for money.
「Huh? Enough to remain operational? What nonsense are you spouting?」
「C-Can you please rethink this…」
Elbert tried his best to somehow change the minister of finance’s mind, but….
「Just remaining operational is out of question. An increase, a big one at that! Right, your Majesty?」
「Yes, of course. And if I remember it correctly, there was a petition submitted to move the Training School from trial status to a real institution. Review that again and then resubmit it. It might be necessary to call in a meeting with Guild members from other countries in the near future. I need you to advise me on the agendas and suggestions for that occasion.
Can I count on you for that, Count Christopher?」
「With pleasure!」
Next to the overjoyed Count Christopher, Elbert’s mouth opened and closed like a fish.
「For people like that to have been buried among the masses. If it means uncovering talent like them, a little bit of money is a cheap price to pay.」
The King’s words worried Elbert.
「U-Um, those girls this time were quite special… Finding people like them each time….」
「That much is obvious! If you don’t overlook a once-in-a-decade talent, that is enough. And even if they weren’t on their level, the other students fared quite well too. It takes time to raise skilled people, so don’t get impatient.」
「Y-Yes, I am humbled by your wisdom!」
It seems like they were blessed with a good King.
「They are going to work in this country for a few years out of a sense of duty for being able to go to the school free of charge? Have them create a lot of shackles in that time and make it so they won’t be able to leave to other countries.」
It seems like they were blessed with a capable King.
In the arena’s rows of seats, after the audience hat left.
There was a spaced out man and a woman shaking him.
Having come the far way of an 8 day trip, they were the Guildmaster of a certain rural town and his companion, the receptionist Laura.
They didn’t come here only to watch the exam, as he had simply shifted a regular visit to the capital by a little.
「……」
「Master, let’s go already!」
「…….」
「Master!」
It would still take a little more time for the Guildmaster to reboot.
Some time had passed since the graduation exam.
And Vail hesitated.
He, who would usually have graduated as the lower end of D Rank, had now debuted as a full fledged C Rank, thanks to that girl
The value attached to the tile of the 『Man who beat Guren』 was awesome.
Where in truth he only had hit Guren who was exhausted and had let his guard down, but the nature of rumors had already turned him into some kind of superhuman.
The top of the country and Guild that were in attendance knew that the truly amazing one was the girl before him, but for those only knowing it from the rumors, it was obvious who was more amazing between a girl who fought for quite a while against the man, and a boy who beat him in short order. Such was the human nature.
Due to this, even if didn’t couldn’t get him to join them full-time, many parties added him as a temporary member. When one of their members fell out with an injury or they lacked a bit of fighting power they often called him, which lead to a rise in his reputation as he more than accomplished what was expected of him. When he gets a little more experience under his belt he probably could form a low Rank party with the orphans.
Then the F Ranked children could carry their prey, and he could train the E Ranked children, so they’d soon reach D Rank, his vision of the future continued expanding.
And the one who freely handed him this dream was the cheerful, bright, honest, cute, strong…. and nice to him, little girl.
He wants to meet her.
But what was he going to say?
Thank her? He already did that at the graduation ceremony.
Since they both were living in the capital they’d meet sooner or later, or maybe not at all. He knew the inn the girls had chosen to be their stronghold, so if he wanted to he could always go there to meet her. But…
(It’s still too early…)
That’s right, it was still too early. For now at least….
Turning back the time to a few days after the graduation exam, inside a room of a certain inn.
「Then let’s make this inn our base for now, okay?
A room for 4, a little bit on the bigger side, food separate, with the discount for booking a whole month in advance came to 3 gold coins. This cheap inn is our starting point. The place where we’ll start our legend!」
The other three nodded obediently.
「Even if we limit ourselves to the minimum, we’ll need 2 gold coins per month for food. If we want to go a bit beyond minimum I’d say about 3 gold coins. So that alone will eat half of the money we made with the figurines. Other than that we have Maevis’ worn out sword which needs replacement as well as a reserve for dire times. Any one of us could suddenly get sick or injure herself after all. Well~, we do have Pauline’s Healing Magic, but there’s nothing wrong with being prepared.
With that we’ve basically spent what we have. So we’ll have to earn at least 5 gold coins, enough for another month, during the coming month. If we want anything more than just bare survival, like a change of clothes, we need to earn even more than that.
And we really need to save up money for better gear, any maybe we want to feast on our birthdays. So our goal should be to get more than 10 gold coins.
When we earn more than that on a regular basis, we can switch to an inn with a bath. A girl having to wash herself with only the water inside a basin is inacceptable!」
Maevis and Pauline nodded once again.
As for Mile….
「Umm, when we go on hunts we can use magic to create hot water to wash our bodies, and even normally use Cleaning Magic to dissolve and dispose of sweat, dirt, and other waste clinging to our bodies as well as clothes, so it is quite convenient.」
「Y, y….」
「Y?」
「Yoouuu! If there is such a convenient magic, hurry up and teach thaaaaat!! And here I thought that I hadn’t seen you wipe your body all that often in the dormitory, and now you tell us you cheated!」
Regardless, the new C Rank party 『Red Oath』 starts here.
It was also the start of Mile’s 『normal C Rank Hunter life』.
「But they really were amazing, those students… Seems like we need to think about implementing a similar system to faster promote talented people in our country too….」
In a rumbling carriage on the way to the capital of his home country sat the Guildmaster of a certain country’s capital Branch.
Inside the luggage crammed into the carriage was a set of four figurines.
And the carriage continued on. Towards the capital of a certain country that was host to both Adorei and Ekland Academy.