Chapter 9
Chapter 9: Your Account Is Frozen
Adults' time isn't really anything all that special.
Just set out some snacks, pass around the drinks, and talk about life.
The snacks included fried beef, fried beans, fries, and fried crackers—and unfortunately, the drinks weren't beer but cheap wine.
Professor Daisy was either playing it dignified or just picking at the snacks.
The problem was that her picking speed was so fast her hands were barely visible.
Swordsmen who'd entered the realm of the superhuman possessed tremendous agility. Those who crossed even beyond that superhuman realm and reached Transcendence could send people flying with the shockwave of a blade.
Regardless, watching Daisy elegantly inhale the roasted green beans made me crack a wry smile.
"If you're just going to keep stuffing your face with snacks, try my new menu item too. And take a glass of wine."
"Yes, of course. One glass of wine. And… I'd like to order an extra plate of the new snack you're so proud of."
I poured her a glass of wine and tilted one back myself. I swirled it lightly and took a sip—the distinct smell of cheap wine hit my nose. Who knew I'd ever miss the six-thousand-sel wine from the convenience store.
The new snack that came out wasn't anything particularly impressive.
A tomato scored with a knife, brushed with oil, and grilled over a flame.
Sprinkled with a little salt and pepper on top. A truly simple dish.
But this kind of thing just calls for more drinks.
"Wow… it's delicious! What is this? It's a vegetable I've never had before—grilling it gives it this… flavor. And the sweetness… I won't be able to stop myself. Proprietor! One more glass of wine!"
"Sure. Here."
Daisy took a bite of the grilled tomato, chased it with wine, then let out a Kyaha! and wiped her lips.
"Phuah. This is what living feels like."
"……."
Daisy's sudden exclamation made me stare at her without thinking, and seeming to notice my gaze, she cleared her throat and turned away.
"Hmm. W-well… it's good? The food and the drink—not bad at all, I'd say."
"Your true nature's already been fully revealed, so do you really need to keep up appearances?"
"Urgh… at times like these, pretending not to notice is the path to becoming a good adult."
"Don't you think an honest adult is a better adult than a lying one?"
"Ugh…"
Completely outmaneuvered by my words, Daisy knocked back another glass of wine and let out a Puha.
"Fine. Okay. I'll be a little honest then. Is that alright?"
"This is a restaurant and you're a customer. Your working hours as a professor are over, so it's fine to loosen up a little."
"So the proprietor is still in boss mode? It's just me being embarrassingly relaxed on my own?"
"Well. Halfway, I suppose. The other half is just plain Yujin Kalintz. Can't you see I'm drinking too?"
"That's true. Then let's say you're half proprietor and I'm completely off the clock."
Daisy gazed up at the sky for a moment, maintained a brief silence, then suddenly opened her mouth.
"This incident with Silen… I'm truly grateful."
"Weren't you setting aside the professor thing?"
Daisy gave a wry smile at my words.
"Was I? Well… anyway, I came to offer my thanks. When I thought you might report Silen—I was so on edge… heh heh."
"Is that surprising?"
"Yes. The world is harsh toward rogues."
"That's just how it is. A job is decided from birth, yet just being born into the Rogue job means you face discrimination."
"Silen is a talented Rogue. The academy wants to support her however they can, but… as you can see, circumstances haven't been favorable and we couldn't even properly catch it when she was going astray. But now she and Yuna seem to get along so well. Heh heh."
They get along?
"How did they end up getting along?"
"During lunch break they no longer pull blades on each other—they just exchange verbal jabs. Ufufufu…"
"……."
"There were things I couldn't do… that you managed to do. Thank you… it's all thanks to you that Silen didn't end up getting expelled…"
"That's enough gratitude."
"Then as a token of my appreciation, I'll buy you another round!"
Glug glug glug… Wine refilled the glass, and Daisy downed it in one spirited go.
"One more!"
"Fine. Here."
Kyaha!!
A bold sight—drinking wine like it was beer.
Then picking at the snacks, then drinking wine again, then grabbing more snacks.
In that endless cycle, before long an entire bottle of wine had been emptied.
And then.
"Heh… Proprietorr… you're sush a good persohn!"
Professor Daisy buried her face in the table and began mumbling.
"Is that so?"
At my question, Daisy snapped her face up—flushed bright red—and shot a glare in my direction as though somehow dissatisfied.
"Of courshe! I, Daisy Swordcraft, acknowledge it! Proprietor ish amazing! Not jush anyone can make snacks like thish! For real!"
Swordcraft?
I see. Young for a full-time faculty professor, and I'd already been surprised by her skill—but she was from the Swordcraft family.
"So that'shhh why! Proprietor should not! Be here! In a place like thish!!"
"That's rather sudden."
"Demeter has, like, literally nothinggg. For real… for real no future, no vishon! You should jush buy transportation in Demeter! So, so you jush go back and forth! If you're near Rudra Dungeon next door you can make the round trip in a day!!"
Between all the drunken rambling I'd half-expected, she was actually saying something that showed she cared about me more than I realized.
Not at Demeter Academy, but open the shop near Rudra Dungeon next door.
And just commute back and forth to Demeter. Is that what she meant…?
Not a bad idea.
Of course, excluding the risk that if I drew too much attention, my master might show up to drag me away at any moment.
"I like this Demeter. It's quiet and there's nothing here—but perhaps that's exactly why everything is here."
The right to live as a person. Freedom. And many other things besides.
"Proprietor… you, you're really… hic. You're really such a good persohn…!! Compared to me…! I don't even get weekends! One day off a month is a lot for me! Just because I'm juggling full professor and club advisor and dormitory supervisor and only get four hours of rest a day…!! I'm a failure as a professor!!"
No, honestly, that sounds like tremendous effort.
Daisy was shouting things of her own accord when she just started bawling outright.
"Hmm… are you alright?"
"I'm not alright… the thought of my life rotting away in a backwater academy like this! I'm not alright at all!!"
"Is that so…"
"Hic… my youth… my life…! My liiiife! I can't do anything for my students! The students are rotting away too!! Pufuh… hic…"
She then face-planted into the table and fell asleep.
Looking at her like that, I let out a laugh without meaning to, and one conviction formed within me.
"I'm never selling you alcohol again."
Truly.
I swear on my life. Truly.
.
.
.
.
If I carried her back to the dormitory like this, it was obvious strange rumors would circulate around campus.
More than anything else, if people found out I had any connection to someone from the Swordcraft family, my master might fold me in half and stuff me into Subspace—so I decided to just leave her there for now.
The night air was chilly, so I lit a modest bonfire for her, then leisurely sipped the last glass of wine left in front of me while gazing up at the sky.
What I was thinking about: Demeter Dungeon.
The first floor was cleared—what kind of ingredients might come from the second floor? And then what dish would come next?
Oh right, I need to make money too. Where would I earn the most?
While turning these miscellaneous thoughts over, a scream rang out from the corpse dying beside me.
"Ugh… w-water…"
"Right here."
"Th-thank you… urgh… uuurgh…"
Clutching her throbbing head, Daisy sat up.
With no choice, I watered down the beef bone broth I'd boiled down to near-concentrate and brought it out to her again. Daisy, still half-dead, seemed to instinctively know it was food—that it was water of life—and began drinking it down…
"Haaa… it's warm… I'm melting. Kraaaahh… I might just survive…"
She let out an exclamation.
"There. Back with the living?"
"Yes. Truly, thank you. I'm com—"
The moment her eyes met mine, Daisy's words died in her throat, and those eyes grew steadily wider.
"Don't drink cheap wine in large quantities. The hangover is brutal."
"Ah… that's, that's not the issue here?"
"What's not the issue?"
"So, none of it is. You understood that, right? All of it is not."
"Getting rowdy while drunk? Suddenly bursting into tears? Falling asleep after that? Even the snoring? Which part exactly are you referring to?"
"All of it."
"All of it?"
"Yes. Because none of it happened."
Daisy said so—face bright red, yet feigning composure.
"What if I said it did happen?"
"Even so, it didn't."
Her eyes were even welling with tears.
If I pushed further it was going to turn into a disaster.
"Alright. Alright. For now—do you want another bowl of broth?"
"Yes……"
Daisy hesitated for a long moment before finally giving a small nod.
And then she ate two full bowls of bone broth.
.
.
.
.
A short while later. Having fully recovered, Daisy stretched out wide and let out a long breath.
"Phuu. Proprietor. Thank you. I've gotten my energy back thanks to you. The effects of the alcohol are completely gone too."
That, too, is one of the privileges of the superhuman.
Most internal ailments that arise within the body can all be regulated.
She hadn't fully entered Transcendence, but she was an impressive superhuman.
Come to think of it, there was something I'd been meaning to ask Professor Daisy.
"If you have some time, I'd like you to come somewhere with me for a bit."
"Yes? Ah… is it something requiring physical strength? I'm happy to. You've treated me to a good meal after all."
She agreed readily enough, and we walked a short distance before arriving at the entrance to Demeter Dungeon.
"Are you forming a party with me to challenge it? Faculty members clearing dungeons have to file a request form in advance…"
"Professor Daisy. Do you remember everything you said while drunk earlier?"
"None of it happened, I said!!"
"No, I'm asking sincerely. Do you remember?"
"Yes… I do."
"Right. You said you were rotting away in this backwater academy. You and the students both."
"……"
Daisy went quiet for a moment.
The weight of reality must have been keeping her lips from parting.
So in that case, I had to be the one to speak.
"Even seeing that—do you still feel that way?"
"That… you mean?"
I pointed to the Stele, and Daisy's gaze followed the line of my fingertip.
"Yuna and Silen cleared the first floor…?"
"I did give them a buff through my food, but those girls pushed forward brilliantly on their own. They never rotted."
"Ah…"
"Even now—do you still think there's nothing to learn at a backwater academy like this? That you'll only rot here?"
Daisy stared at the Stele for a long while, then shook her head.
"No. I was thinking too hastily."
"Right?"
"Heh heh. Even so, to think it was those two. In the middle of their community service because they caused trouble, and with heavy hearts at that."
"The two of them are problem students, but they're the strongest."
"That really is the case. Students grow and flourish beyond what their teachers can teach them. If anything, it's me who needs to grow more."
Daisy, moved by the sight.
The preamble was done—from here on was the main point.
"Those two can push through even deeper floors. Silen cleared the first floor in just one day, and Yuna in just over a week."
"If that record is accurate, it means Silen without a doubt has the potential to grow into a Hero-level fighter."
"And Yuna?"
"She lacks the talent to reach the pinnacle of the sword."
A sharp but accurate assessment.
"Even so, I believe if she can grow stably she clearly has room to exceed the superhuman level. But here's the thing. Yuna's community service hours are almost up. Once they end, that girl has no more obligation to enter Demeter Dungeon. You understand what that means?"
At those words, Daisy's expression darkened slightly.
The momentum of students who had only just tasted growth would be cut off.
"That won't do. Not for the students' futures either."
"That's why—as the proprietor of a shop officially established within the academy, I'd like to issue a formal contract. The authority to enter Demeter Dungeon with designated students."
"That's quite a big ask…"
"Of course, I intend to submit proper reports afterward."
Daisy fell deep into thought for a long moment, then gave a small nod.
"Understood. I'll handle persuading the principal. We have results to show, so I should be able to manage somehow. However—you understand that issuing a contract means you have an obligation to pay the students compensation, correct?"
"I'm aware."
"Understood. As long as that part is confirmed, persuading the principal shouldn't be too difficult."
Daisy declared as much, then lowered her head in a deep, formal bow.
Caught slightly off guard by the unexpectedly formal and respectful gesture, I stood there as she continued speaking.
"As a professor, it had always weighed on me that I couldn't guide students who had stagnated—but thanks to you, I'm able to open a new future for them. On behalf of the academy faculty, I offer my sincere gratitude."
"Growing students is something adults are supposed to do, so there's no need for thanks."
The words just slipped out casually, but Daisy's eyes went wide, and then she let out a quiet laugh.
"Yesterday it was something said in drink, but now I think I can mean it sincerely. Proprietor—you're a good person."
That bright smile made me smile back without thinking.
Right then.
There was now only one pressing problem left.
Once this was resolved, both I and the students had a bright road ahead.
Money.
How to earn it…?