“Hey, Yuugo clay. Oh, you were disowned, so I guess it’s just Yuugo now, uh?”
“Aren’t you camping outside because you were thrown out of the dormitory? You’re finally paying for everything you’ve done! Serves you right!”
A group of male students hurled verbal abuse at Yuugo in the cafeteria, the day after the duel with Marcos.
Yuugo lost the backing of the noted Clay family, and the powerful magic item Garandil, so the male students laughed at his fall from grace and continued to make fun of him to vent the resentment they felt all that time.
“Do you even have the money to eat here now!?”
“You’re sponging off your little brother, aren’t you? You really are a shameless bastard, making an elementary school student take care of your meals!”
They spoke loudly despite being surrounded by people, so the eyes around them focused on them.
Maybe it was on purpose, so the other students could see them making fun of Yuugo.
And as for Yuugo himself, he turned his eyes to the students making fun of him all they wanted in front of so many other students, opened his mouth, and…
“You’re right actually… This is pretty pathetic…”
“Eh…?”
With a big nod, Yuugo agreed with what they said.
The students were completely caught off guard by how Yuugo responded to their mockery not with anger, not by ignoring them, but by agreeing with them. Not only that, but he then spoke as if chatting to them about his problems.
“You need some money or something if you’re going to survive, and I really should be able to feed myself… As for sleeping outside, I’d like a tent to at least protect myself against the rain and wind, but I don’t even have money for that. Hey, do you know where I can get a nice job? Ah, actually, does this school even allow students to get part time jobs?”
“H-hum…?”
The students were completely bewildered by how Yuugo accepted how pathetic he was, and asked commoners like them to tell them where he could find a job.
To think that same Yuugo that was called the lowest of scum could be so modest… And as both the students mocking him and the ones watching stood there perplexed and with no idea how to react, one girl jumped forward.
“Hey, you! Are you looking for a job!?”
“Eh? Ah, well, I am…?”
“Yay! Then do you wanna team with me!?”
Even Yuugo could feel the surprise in the murmuring students around him.
It was surprising enough to see a student wanting to form a pair with the most hated student in school, but what surprised them the most was that the former was an exceptionally beautiful girl.
Her face was armed with both cuteness and beauty, and as her wavy taffy pink long hair swung, she continued talking to Yuugo with her violeteyes shining with expectation.
“I’m Melt Epee! I just joined this academy starting in high school! Nice to meet you!”
“A-ah… I’m Yuugo Clay. Actually, I was disowned, so I don’t know if I can use the name Clay.”
“I know! You lost a duel a few days ago to a student that recently joined the academy just like me, and you were thrown out of your family, right? And now you want to earn money to survive.”
“Yes, well, that’s pretty much it…”
Yuugo felt as though he was pressed back by not only how energetic she was, but also how she stepped into difficult subjects without any hint of hesitation.
The students watching the interaction feared that Melt’s attitude of not mincing words and having no reserve would make Yuugo explode with anger, as she continued speaking with a bright voice.
“Oh, that’s good news for me! There’s a nice quest that I was thinking of accepting, but it’s real work, that you can’t accept unless it’s two or more people! I just entered this academy, so I don’t have any friends, and I was about to give up on that quest too!”
“H-hum, what’s a quest? I’m currently in the middle of an award winning memory loss, so I forgot all sorts of things.”
“Ah, I see. Then let me make it simple for you. I say that, but I only learned about it recently too.”
Yuugo was hung up on the word quest, and wanted a good explanation, so Melt started explaining it with glee and a sort of proud look on her face.
“Quests are like, when people who live near the Luminous academy ask us for help with work. The academy wants to emphasize autonomy with the students, and for us to see ourselves as magic knights who protect the people, so they collect and put out requests for this type of work in the student affairs office.
When you complete a quest, you get a reward, so apparently some students do that to earn money to pay their living expenses. I’m going to be one of them, and that’s why I found some nice work today! But the problem is that I can’t do it alone!”
“I see…! So you came over to me because we both need money.”
Yuugo murmured to himself, showing that he understood what quests were and what Melt was thinking.
Basically, they were like videogame quests. When Yuugo reached that perfect conclusion, he asked another question.
“So, what kind of quest do you want to accept? Tell me about it.”
“Okay! Hum… Let’s see… Here!”
Melt was happy that Yuugo seemed willing to work with her, and took out a piece of paper from her pocket.
Yuugo took the paper, and read what it said out loud.
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