Chapter 106

Chapter 106

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 106Marie Nate.

One of the characters in the Academy who had an individual story.

In the original story, she was an extremely timid character who was very wary of people, so she was one of the characters I had intended to approach slowly.

Even in the original, if you recklessly tried to talk to her or become close with her, she would show extreme wariness, making it difficult even to see all of her story, but later the reason was revealed.[Title: Broke Through Marie Nate.][Author: Anonymous][Content: I took the Academy handsome-guy route because I was going to play it like a dating sim, and I unlocked Marie Nate Chapter 2?]

That's right.

Marie Nate. She was a character who would show wariness and even avoid conversation unless you were reasonably handsome.

I had no idea why that was... but as it happened, the notoriety I'd accumulated at the Academy had risen tremendously thanks to the trait 【Bad Boy】, and I could confidently say my charm was far higher than an ordinary character's.

And as a result...

“Um, should I call you Han Eugene?”

“You can just call me Eugene. Ah, I can call you Marie, right?”

“Marie... yes!”

Conversations like this had become possible.

“Academy First-Year Class A! From this moment, survival class begins! Move out!”

With the survival class beginning, the students started climbing the mountain one by one, and just as we were about to head farther up the mountain to find ingredients.

“Haa...! Haa...! This is too hard...!”

One minute after we started climbing the mountain. Even though we were still close enough to see the starting point, Marie shouted at me in a voice like she was dying.

“...

You're already tired?”

“Haa...! Haaah! Yes...! I'm really going to die at this rate!”

Come to think of it, I didn't think I'd ever seen her walking around the Academy except when coming to or leaving school.

Could it be that she always stayed seated even during breaks?

Seeing that her stamina was even worse than I'd imagined, I sighed and spoke.

“Can't you just do what you normally do?”

“But if I'm the only one going around like that, it'll be a little embarrassing...”

“I don't care. I won't get tired from something like this anyway.”

“Ah. In that case... excuse me.”

Only after hearing my words did Marie finally plop down where she stood.

Then, when she touched the ground with her bare hand, there was a cracking sound and soil began rising, shaping itself into a golem slightly larger than a person.

Goooo──The golem let out a strange sound as red light shone from its eyes.

Marie climbed on top of it and finally clung to it with an expression saying she could live again.

“...

Ahh, much better.”

This was her ability, ‘Puppet Master.’

It was an ability that allowed her to create puppets capable of controlling anything within the limits of her mana.

Moreover, because the puppets created that way were considered inanimate objects, they were completely immune to curses, poisons, and diseases. Later, she would use that advantage to grow into a hero who cleared numerous dungeons and fought villains...

Of course, even then, unless your charm was high enough, it was hard to keep a proper conversation going with her.

“I was so tired that I forgot to ask. What are we cooking?”

Atop the golem as it silently walked with thudding footsteps.

Marie, now looking as though she'd finally regained some composure, looked at me and asked.

“Since the class is outdoors, something simple to cook would be best. Hmm... Cacciatora should be fine.”

“Caccia... what?”

“Just think of it as an Italian meat dish. Since I'm planning to make it with rabbit, it'll be Coniglio alla Cacciatora

, though.”

I had no idea why I knew it, but this was the only dish that remained faintly in my memory, so there really wasn't another answer.

It originated from the way hunters cooked the game they caught, so the recipe was fairly simple as well.

And since Cacciatora meant hunter, the instructor might view it pretty favorably too.

“Coniglioallacaccia... ugh, I don't know about that. So what do I need to do?”

“First, spread your familiars throughout the forest and gather ingredients as efficiently as possible. What we need is...”

I explained each and every ingredient that should be found here.

“Wine Flower, Evil Tomato, Blue Lime, rock salt, wild green onions, and whatever vegetables you like should be enough.”

These were all ingredients easily found even in the mountain behind the Academy, so they shouldn't be difficult to obtain.

“Uh... that's kind of a lot?”

“If we're going to do it, we might as well do it properly. By the way, how many familiars can you control in total?”

“For golems like this, three. If they're about the size of mice, nine.”Nine...

“The ingredients aren't that large, so mice should be enough. Can you do it right now? You know what the ingredients look like, right?”

“I may look like this, but I'm near the top of the class in written exams...”

As if wondering what I was talking about, she said that, and nine deformed mice wearing combat helmets emerged from beneath her golem.

Unlike ordinary golems, their eyes showed signs of intelligence

.

“Numbers 1 through 9. The ingredients I sent into your heads. You can find them, right?”

Squeak──! Squeak squeak──!

Among them, the mouse that looked like the leader stepped forward, stood on two legs, and saluted Marie.

Judging by the number [1]

written on its combat helmet, that one seemed to be Number 1.

After watching the mice scatter in every direction, Marie looked back at me.

“Then, do we get to rest now?!”

“Of course not. Now we have to go find the main ingredient, rabbit meat.”

“...

What?!”

Was the fact that we had to move again really that shocking?

“I know where the rabbit is, so just follow me slowly. It's not that far away anyway.”

“...

Okaaay.”

And so I decided to head a little deeper into the mountain with Marie riding her golem.

The farther we went in, the rougher the mountain terrain became.

Shouldn't a real mountain be at least this much?

Just as I was thinking that.

“Ah! Number 6 spotted a rabbit! What should we do? Should we go that way?”

Apparently another rabbit had been discovered through the vision of one of her familiars.

“What does it look like?”

“What? A rabbit is just a rabbit, isn't it?”

Marie asked back as though wondering what I was talking about.

Judging by her reaction, it wasn't the rabbit I was looking for.

“Then I think we can leave it alone. It doesn't sound like the rabbit we're looking for.”

“Huh? There's a specific rabbit we're looking for?”

“This is an evaluation, after all. If we cook with an ordinary rabbit, we'll just make an ordinary dish, so we should use a special rabbit if possible. Ah, is that it?”

Just then, a large cave appeared ahead of us.

There was nothing around it but withered, skeletal trees and dry earth.

Apparently the sight was strange enough that Marie subtly crouched deeper into the golem.

“Um... this place is kind of weird... there's nothing around here, so there's no way a rabbit would live somewhere like this...!”

“What do you mean, nothing?”

I pointed toward the mountain-like pile of bones in front of the cave and said.

“There's a pile of bones over there. That's proof a rabbit lives here.”

“What? No, what kind of rabbit eats meat! More importantly, aren't those Needle Boar bones? Those are monster bones!”

“Is it strange for a monster to eat another monster?”

“It's not just strange! What's strange is that a rabbit ate a Needle Boar! What the hell lives in there that──”

“──Quiet.”

I quickly raised a hand and stopped Marie from speaking further.

“It's here.”

At that moment.

Thud! Thud! Thud! The ground began trembling with each sound.

“...

What the hell is inside there?”

Apparently deciding to listen when I told her to stay quiet, Marie whispered her question.

“A rabbit.”

“...

There's no way an ordinary rabbit would shake the ground like this.”

Right, it's not an ordinary rabbit.

“It's called the Ten-Thousand-Geun Rabbit.”

“...

Ten-Thousand-Geun Rabbit?”

Ten-Thousand-Geun Rabbit.

It was a creature nicknamed the Mountain God, said to be the ruler of the mountain behind the Academy.

Its defining feature was exactly what its name implied, ten thousand geun. It weighed six tons, and another distinguishing trait was its unique appearance.

“It's coming out.”

The thudding gradually drew closer as the creature revealed itself.

Pure white, fluffy fur reminiscent of a snowy field. Two long ears and red eyes. And...

“...

It's a rabbit?”

“Didn't I tell you? It's a rabbit.”

Even its adorable size.

Its appearance was unmistakably that of a rabbit.

“...

How does something that looks like that hunt? No matter how I look at it, it seems weak.”

“That's the trap.”

Its hunting method was extremely simple.

It simply stood still, and predators would rush toward it trying to eat it. When that happened, what it did was a body slam.

Six tons of mass compressed into that tiny body was practically a dump truck concentrated into a single point.

Even an ordinary mage's shield would shatter completely from nothing more than its body slam.

Still, for someone like me who knew how to hunt it, it wasn't that difficult a target.

“Marie, I need a favor.”

“Yes? What kind of favor? Y-you're not going to tell me to go out there, are you? Right? I'll die. I'll seriously die...!”

I hadn't even said anything yet, but Marie was already trembling in fear.

A sigh naturally escaped me at the sight, and I pointed not at her, but at the golem she was riding.

“I want to use that golem as bait.”

“...

What? Not me, but this one?”

“Yeah, that one.”

What the hell had she been imagining?

Even I wouldn't think of throwing a classmate out as bait... though I feel like I might have done something similar before.

Anyway, this time I was only using the golem as bait.

“Because of its weight, once the Ten-Thousand-Geun Rabbit charges, it'll inevitably leave an opening. And I'm planning to exploit that opening.”

It felt like the risk attached to a one-hit-kill attack.

Since the mountain behind the Academy was originally a beginner hunting ground, no matter how strong a monster was, all of its patterns were simple.

“If that's all, I don't mind. If the golem breaks, I can just make another one.”

“Then I'm counting on you. Slowly, very slowly, move the golem in front of it.”

“Yes! Heave-ho.”

After Marie climbed down from the golem with some effort, she gestured, and the golem slowly began walking toward the rabbit.

At that, the rabbit twitched its ears and looked toward us.

Once the golem had fully stepped down from the cliff, the rabbit raised its guard and began scraping the ground with its hind legs.

A pattern it showed before charging.

At the same time.

Boom────!!

The rabbit shot toward the golem like a cannonball, and the instant they collided, a sound like a bomb exploding rang out as an enormous cloud of dust erupted.

“Kyaaaah───!!”

Marie ducked down in shock at the terrifying power.

Leaving her behind, I used [Skill: Aura Sonar]

to locate the creature and immediately charged toward it.

Against something with such overwhelming mass, the most reliable way to deal damage was through impact.

To finish it in a single blow if possible, I coated my fist in aura and drove it toward the fluffy rabbit.

“──Got you.”