After leaving the mud-doll squad behind, Leopin ran at full speed back to the academy. The day was already ending.
He had thought the schoolyard would be empty at night, but Monaka and Kotone were standing there with the finish tape. Leopin broke it.
The time he posted would have rewritten the world record for the Hell Marathon. The record never went public. It was buried in the dark.
To Leopin, that did not matter. The two girls had waited for him to come back, and they celebrated him without holding back. That was the real reward.
The three of them stood close and watched the fireworks coloring the night sky, like a victory salute.
"Wow, pretty...!"
"Whatever the letters say is unsettling, but it is very beautiful. Like a flower that blooms all at once and then scatters..."
"Not just Monaka. You like fireworks too, Kotone?"
"Yes, Master. To tell the truth, watching fireworks with you like this was something I had longed for."
"I'm glad your wish came true, Kotone!"
"Yes, thank you, Lady Monaka. Today became a truly wonderful day."
"Come to think of it, I never thanked you two. I only finished today because of you."
Monaka leaned her head against Leopin, white whorl of hair turned toward him. Seeing that, Kotone followed, hesitant, like a kitten copying the cat who already lived there.
"There, there. Thank you, both of you."
Leopin stroked Monaka's head with his right hand and Kotone's with his left. The girls gripped his dress shirt tight and held each other's hands, sharing the joy.
Nickbacca, a teacher, had used a distress signal faster than anyone. From there he scrambled to pin the blame on Leopin.
It was impossible. The rescue team had seen him getting beaten by goblins, and at that time Leopin was in the academy schoolyard. No excuse, however clever, could shift the responsibility onto him.
The vice principal, who had started the whole thing, did not defend Nickbacca. He moved at once to cut him loose.
"No! Mr. Nickbacca! A physical education teacher, making students do something as reckless as a Hell Marathon, zamasu! You ran them until they could not get home, then got attacked by goblins and called for rescue, zamasu! It is a wonder you were ever hired as faculty of our Royal Pioneer Academy, zamasu!"
"Th-that can't be, Vice Principal! I only did what you told me to...!"
"No! Be quiet, zamasu! Pinning the blame not only on the tra... on Leopin-kun, but on me as well, what a disgrace of a teacher, zamasu! I would like to drop you two ranks, zamasu, but since you offered to resign yourself, I will let that go, zamasu! Now pack your things and get out, zamasu!"
Nickbacca cried out in disbelief.
The Royal Pioneer Academy had its first dropout.
Many people had expected that. The first to vanish, they thought, would be that boy whose only merit was dexterity.
When the lid came off, the dropout was not him. Not even a student. The physical education teacher.
Nickbacca came from a famous family of athletes, and he himself had once served in the army.
The Royal Pioneer Academy, where he had taught, was a future elite school, sure to make its name known across the world. A teacher from its founding days could even have dreamed of standing among royalty.
Where had an elite among elites taken the wrong road?
Yes. Leopin. He had made an enemy of Leopin, and everything in his life fell a full lap behind.
Early the next morning, after his expulsion from the academy was decided, Nickbacca clung to a thick pillar and shouted.
"N-no! I don't want to! I don't want to, I don't want to! If my family finds out I was fired from this academy, they'll expel me too! If that happens, I can't go on living! It's over! Everything is over!"
In the end the academy guards peeled him off by force, shut him in an animal cage, and carried him out. Like a gorilla sold to a circus, he kept shouting from behind the bars.
"H-help me! I was wrong! Thinking back, I had a feeling from the first P.E. class! That you were more excellent than anyone at this academy...! That feeling became certain after the Hell Marathon!"
What irony. At the very end, he had noticed that excellence.
"Someone like you could break these bars and get me out without even trying! So please! Let me out of here right now! I'll do anything, anything! Keep me by your side! Let me work at your house! Leopin! Leopin!"
I thought I heard a shout like someone calling for help, and woke up.
"Hmm. What was that, just my ears?"
And, as usual, I noticed my body was glowing.
Leopin
Job: Ninja
LV 16 → 17
HP 1010
MP 1010
Status
Life 101
Endurance 1001
Toughness 101
Spirit 101
Resistance 101
Agility 1001
Focus 101
Strength 101
Magic Power 101
Divine Power 101
Intelligence 101
Education 101
Five Senses 101
Sixth Sense 101
Charm 1
Luck 5
Dexterity 300 → 400
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