Impossible. A slave ticket refused an order.
The vice principal screamed, close to fainting. This time it looked like he would be knocked out here. With nothing left behind him, he held on with the last of his sanity. He spread the tickets and stared holes through them, like a man handed counterfeit bills.
"Ggh...! There are several reasons a slave ticket refuses an order, zamasu...! The order must have been too heavy for the face value, zamasu!"
Right. Both of Onesco's tickets in his hand had a face value of 100,000. A slave ticket's face value decides how heavy an order it can carry.
Forbidding a certain word for life, on a girl still in high school, was too cheap at 200,000 Ender.
That judgment is made by the magic cast when the slave ticket is created, against a fixed standard. As a side note, the earlier order on Kurumi, forbidding her to approach Leopin, was a fairly cheap order.
That is because Leopin is in the Special Training Class, someone nobody deals with. An order that she must stay by Leopin's side would cost far more.
The vice principal shouted, as if shaking off the madness closing in.
"A-again, zamasu! Pronouncing and writing the word Leopin, and any word that sounds like it, forbidden for fifty years, zamasu!"
The portrait's answer was no again.
"Th-then forty years...! Ugh, thirty! Th-then ten...! Enough, zamasu! Today! Forbidden for today only, zamasu...!"
Only after he gave that much ground did the portrait give a heavy nod.
Then another accident. Both tickets turned into soap bubbles and vanished.
"D-damn it, zamasu! Pronounce and write were judged as two orders, zamasu!"
The vice principal stamped his feet. From the murmuring below the stage came voices.
"What has that man been doing this whole time...?"
"Maybe he's a comedy actor they planted?"
"Ah, that explains it! No wonder he's acting that stupid!"
"Right! If that were real, he'd be out of his mind!"
"This must be a surprise sideshow!"
The seats got lively. The vice principal mistook it for support and faced Onesco again, undaunted.
"There. Onesco can no longer speak of that trash, zamasu! The moment you do, the face value drops hard, zamasu! If that's fine with you, go ahead and say it, zamasu!"
Onesco finally caught on to the vice principal's scheme and clenched her teeth.
"Gh...! C-coward...!"
"It isn't cowardly, zamasu! I'm trying to save Onesco, who got done in by that trash, zamasu! The one you should respect is me, zamasu!"
"Who I respect is not something I'm instructed in! I look, I listen, I touch... I judge by what I feel! And I'm not done! Lend me the loudspeaker!"
Having succeeded in sealing that word, the vice principal handed the loudspeaker over easily. Onesco turned to the audience, resolved.
"Pardon me! I'll continue! I cleared the trial entirely thanks to a certain person! That person's name is...!"
A voice like humming brushed her ear.
"Oh dear, is it all right to say it, zamasu? If you break the order, I won't be responsible, zamasu. Your pioneering life from here on will go pitch black, zamasu. Your master, Monaka, will surely be sad too, zamasu!"
Onesco looked at the glassed special room. Monaka and Kotone had stood up and were pounding the glass.
The thick glass did not even carry the vibration. Both of them opened and closed their mouths like goldfish seeking air, shouting something desperately.
The vice principal smiled to himself.
Custom glass, with soundproof magic, zamasu. Even if he sealed Onesco, Monaka and Kotone might shout that trash's name, so he had shut them in there, zamasu.
The chance of that trash's name coming out was gone, not one in ten thousand, zamasu. For a moment he had wondered how it would go.
In the end, his complete victory.
Onesco looked down, shoulders slumped.
Sorry, Leopin-kun. She had wanted everyone to recognize him, even a little, after he had been ground down for so long.
She had meant to use this place to tell them how amazing he was.
She could not. If she broke the slave ticket's promise and the face value dropped, she would make Lady Monaka sad.
Forgive me, Leopin-kun. A knight cannot betray the master she serves.
Onesco lifted her face. She was a shell, nothing like someone on a shining stage. Vacant eyes, pale skin, weak lips, spinning out a thin closing line.
"That is all from me... Today, truly..."
The principal and vice principal were hugging.
"We did it, zamasu! If Onesco's greeting ends safely, we've as good as won, zamasu!"
"We did it! That trash will not pop out now!"
"We didn't anger the supporters!"
Even now, they still looked down on him.
The boy they never stopped calling trash was not just a boy.
If that boy felt like it, showing his face here was easy. Not popping out. Showing it like the sun.
A sound like a whistle came from nowhere. In the next moment, everyone there saw it.
A Leopin, huge enough to fill the sky.
They cried out in shock.