Healing at the Academy convenience store

After a lengthy and exhausting day, it had finally drawn to a close.

As I made my way back to the convenience store, I felt a lightness in my step following a satisfying day of work.

“Well, it’s time for me to head off.”

“You put in a lot of effort, Aila.”

“No need to mention it.”

With those words, Aila departed gracefully.

Upon reaching the convenience store, I let out a sigh.

“Phew.”

I was incredibly fatigued, yet there were still tasks left to complete.

As the food wrestled with my digestive system, I indulged in a cake imbued with a half-berserk spell.

Swoosh.

My magical power dwindled.

Wolfram’s magical prowess decreased by 3.

Half of the consumed magical power bolstered my stamina and strength, infusing my body with an astonishing vitality.

“This is the realm of 3.5.”

I grasped it roughly.

The buff’s duration still stretched to 20 minutes.

“Is there enough of a gap to move during the most perilous moments?”

I was currently in a weakened state, so I needed to play all my cards right. This half-berserk cake, surprisingly boosting my stamina by 1.5, might prove more useful than I initially thought.

I willed myself to stand up. Time was of the essence. My immediate task was to prepare for tomorrow.

I tidied up, readied the store, stashed donut dough in the freezer, and placed the cream alongside it. I adjusted the cooling settings to mimic a refrigerator and completed the cleaning within 20 minutes.

“Just because I won today’s battle doesn’t grant me a respite tomorrow.”

Such is the life of a self-employed individual. The sun would rise again, and I’d be back in business. That’s how I lived.

With everything in order, I lay down on the mat, content. Another day would dawn tomorrow.

The following day, I rested due to muscle soreness.

“······.”

***

My head throbbed. My body felt like it had been soaked in water and stretched to its limits. I knew this was to be expected.

The official berserk skill of D/Z SAGA always came with a ‘backlash.’ In other words, if you boosted your stamina by consuming magic, you’d pay the price later.

In my case, I had forced my stamina from 2 to 3.5, a whopping 75% increase, and I was now experiencing the full extent of that backlash.

With some effort, I managed to get up. There was still time until the midterm exams.

“The priority is Act 1 Scene 3.”

The entrance ceremony. Aila’s defeat in the tutorial. The common dormitory ghost incident. Midnight dorm escape.

And the impending conclusion of Act 1.

Each act predominantly featured boss battles, so naturally, Act 1 Scene 3 included one.

“It’s quite a pivotal turning point.”

As I organized my thoughts, I heard a tapping sound. Turning my head, I saw a pink chick peering in at me through the door, looking quite wary.

“Mille-feuille.”

“···Hello, senior.”

She had a chick-shaped bandage on her face and appeared utterly worn out, but she still managed a smile.

***

Mille-feuille joined me, and I served us both smoothies as we sat down.

“Why do you seem so agitated?”

“Me? Well…”

“Have a sip.”

“Yes, ye-yes.”

The chick still appeared jittery as she took a sip of the smoothie at my insistence. She let out a few deep sighs and then nodded as if feeling better.

“Senior, I, um, don’t know where to start.”

“First, tell me the outcome of your fight.”

“Ah, ah, yes. Um, I won. ···Hehe.”

“Is that so?”

Though I said that, I couldn’t help but be quite surprised.

The dropout Mille-feuille emerged victorious over Hero Kelters.

“How did you win?”

“I, I did as you taught, senior.”

Did I actually teach her anything?

Ah.

“Bang.”

“Bang.”

We both uttered the word simultaneously. It was just one word, but we both understood.

I see. “Bang.”

It’s a strategy that can also be applied in the game.

When facing a hybrid magic character, if you manage to successfully defend or evade their melee attacks a few times, the AI opponent usually retreats to prepare magic. During that casting time, launching a surprise attack or assassination can have a high chance of success.

But this was just a story within the game. How many times had this kid rolled the dice against Kelters? How many attacks did she endure just to provoke him into using magic?

Kelters was fundamentally different. His very existence was a cheat. Yet, he was defeated by sheer determination, struck down by a single blow. It’s no exaggeration to say that a miracle had truly occurred.

“How many times did you fall?”

“······Huh?”

“How many times did you get knocked down while fighting Kelters?”

“I don’t remember the exact number, but I think I got hit about a hundred times.”

“······.”

Saying that, Mille-feuille chuckled lightly. One hundred times. In twenty minutes, the half-berserk state would wear off, making it nearly impossible for Mille-feuille to secure a victory. Yet, she endured over a hundred attacks within that timeframe and still managed to land a blow on Kelters.

“Your knees must be scraped, your palms torn. It must have hurt a lot.”

“···Yes. It hurt like hell.”

“And yet, you did it. Good job. You worked hard.”

“······Yes!”

Mille-feuille raised her gloved left hand and formed a ‘V’ sign, smiling more brightly than I had ever seen. Ah, the gloves.

“Those gloves must have been helpful.”

“Yes, y-yes? …Ah. Yes! They helped, helped a lot… well, maybe not a lot, but they did help.”

“Be clear.”

“Uh, what I mean is, thinking that you were there beside me, so I felt like I could attack faster.”

“You felt you could attack faster because I was beside you?”

“Yes, yes… I felt that you were beside me, so…”

“That makes sense. You would have attacked faster.”

As I nodded, Mille-feuille blushed bright red.

“That is to say, our hearts were connected at that moment…”

“The gloves add +3 to skills below 10. You actually did become faster.”

“······.”

“What is it?”

“I made good use of the gloves. Thank you, senior.”

Suddenly, she became very polite.

“I’ll give them back to you.”

A bit chilly?

“Ah. I’m glad to hear you found them useful.”

“Yes. Thank you. I won because of them.”

No, that’s not it.

“Nonsense.”

“What?”

“It’s all your effort that made this happen. You achieved this yourself.”

“······Uh.”

The chick puffed up her cheeks and glared at me with a flushed face. Why was she acting like this?

***

After Chick left, I made the decision to take a break from business for the day. I was feeling sore, and as I casually cleaned up the area outside the convenience store, I grabbed a chair and took a seat.

In Jephryn, the seasons and date notations are the same as Earth, from January to December, 1st to the 31st. Surprisingly unoriginal, but it did simplify things, which was part of the charm of D/Z SAGA.

So, it was early May now, the most pleasant time in spring. While enjoying the gentle fragrance of the flowers, I found myself dozing off.

“Is Wolfram around?”

“···Ah, Aila.”

“My, are you meditating here? Planning another rebellion, Wolfram?”

Aila asked with a smile. Her thought processes were remarkably convenient.

“What’s going on?”

“Ah, first, take this.”

Aila handed me a stack of bills.

“5 million Rin. It’s the prize money.”

“Why are you delivering this to me?”

“I manage the distribution rights for all products appearing under Magical Sweets, remember? So they sent the prize money to me and told me to pass it on.”

“That makes sense.”

The professors probably thought it would be easier to give it to her, considering she monopolized the distribution rights. Silly professors.

“And there’s another matter. The professors asked me to tell Wolfram to ‘please cooperate.'”

“Cooperate? With what?”

“They want to somehow acquire the pair of ‘Wings of Rebellion’ that you crafted. It’s quite distasteful. These old-fashioned folks. I declined.”

“I see. So that’s the deal.”

“Yes, that’s what’s going on.”

Interestingly, I’m a bit confused by her words. What does she mean?

“Countless revolutions and innovations will be led by Magical Sweets. Under the banner of artistic rebellion, such fossils are unnecessary. Even if offered, only the truly selected are worthy.”

“······.”

Ah.

So, to put it simply, it seems the professors want to get their hands on my Magical Sweet. But it sounds like Aila turned them down on my behalf.

“That was a wise decision.”

“Yes, because only a limited number of heroes can gather under the banner of rebellion. Of course, I’m the first in line.”

“······Hmm. True.”

“It’s disgraceful of those professors. Trying to join this grand journey with just a few tens of millions of Rin or a 7th-tier magic tool.”

“···How much?”

How much are we talking about?

“But this is all likely a scheme concocted by Wolfram, who seems to be short on funds on the surface. I almost fell for it, didn’t I? Complaining about high rent or deliberately stirring up my emotions. Isn’t that a bit much?”

Saying that, Aila smirked.

No.

That’s not it.

I really don’t have any money.

“Due to this false information, the second-raters will offer money. Then we’ll weed them all out and only allow the true elites to join. All of this is Wolfram’s guise to separate the wheat from the chaff, right?”

“······.”

“I am the only one who saw through this disguise and instinctively grasped the truth. Hehe.”

The disguise was unraveling.

What should I do now?

Should I really leave at this point? She might even say something like she’ll double the rent given the situation.

“Aila Tristar. You know what.”

“Since you told me about this plan, I’ll only charge half the rent from now on.”

“What?”

“It hurts my pride as a merchant to make it completely free. But I also don’t want to take advantage of a partner who has trusted me and revealed everything. So, half. Five hundred thousand Rin.”

“······Aila Tristar.”

“Yes.”

“You are the best partner.”

“Don’t mention it.”

With that, Aila gracefully turned around.

Why is she beaming like that?

“So, we’ve settled the five hundred thousand Rin, the rent issue is resolved, and how will we distribute Magical Sweets?”

“We won’t distribute it.”

Are you crazy, distributing that?

What if all sorts of strange people come in?

“So you won’t distribute it at all?”

“Um. Not unless they have some level of skill. Also, this skill has upper tiers. It becomes twice as strong with each evolution.”

“What… did you say?”

“And there are two more evolutions left.”

Upon hearing that, Aila’s eyes widened.

“···Yes. Understood. Then let’s conclude today’s meeting here. I’ll take my leave.”

“Take care.”

Was this even a meeting?

I seemed to be the only one who didn’t know.

Facing the headwind, Aila walked out of zone 8.

Before departing, she left me with a word.

“Ah, speaking of which, the season is approaching.”

“The season?”

“The season of blossoming flowers. I wouldn’t worry about you showing your crude side, considering you’re Wolfram, but be careful. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Hm? ······Hm. Okay.”

After Aila left, I pondered for a moment.

May. The season of blossoming flowers?

What was that again?

“Something that happens in early May based on the original work?”

After musing for a while, it finally came to mind.

May.

A condition that covers the entirety of Jephryn.

A kind of calamity, in a way.

“At the end of the eastern forest, the Great Emperor’s flower sanctuary blooms, and the wind carries the pollen toward the residential area. And then···.”

Pollen doesn’t trigger the barriers that have identified humans as non-hostile, and Jephryn becomes enveloped in pollen.

That’s the season of blossoming flowers.

A time when the sounds of sniffles and coughs fill the air, reaching the skies.

In particular, there was a subplot where Eve becomes ineffective in battle after succumbing to the pollen.

The image of Eve, sniffly and sneezing.

“···I’d rather not witness that.”

That’s definitely the case.

Why would I want to witness something like that?

“It’s something that can be dealt with.”

Both the main story and the seasonal events have been resolved.

Handling a subplot or two should be a breeze.