Chapter 101

“Hector, you’d better not even look into arranged marriages.”

“H-Heh…! Y-You’re being too harsh, Rafia…”

“Harsh!”

Rafia cut off Hector’s protest in a single stroke.

Rafia was of a bamboo-like upright nature, believing that even with friends, wrong was wrong.

Even Roan, who rarely sympathized with either side when his friends fought, took one side this time.

“Rafia is right, Hector.”

“Even you, Roan! Uwahhh…”

Hector sniffled, heartbroken by the betrayal (?) of the two.

Roan looked at him as if he were pathetic, searching his memory for who Hector usually married.

Since Hector was a character who was distant from romance in the first place, and had rarely been involved this deeply, even Roan had to ponder for a long time.

“Ah.”

Finally, he succeeded in recalling one possibility.

“What is it? Did you find someone who suits me?”

Hector stopped crying and asked Roan, his eyes wide with expectation.

‘I did find someone, but…’

Roan, with a dubious face, debated how to answer.

The person he thought of was none other than ‘Pretty Vine-stalk’.

…She was an islander from the same birthplace as Gulba.

‘Even if I tell him, it will only hurt him.’

Roan hesitated for a moment, then decided to cover up the truth for the sake of his friend.

“…They say even a straw shoe has a mate.”

“That makes me feel worse, so stop it, Roan.”

Hector glared at Roan with a cold, dead expression before resuming his walk.

The slumped shoulders seemed to represent his feelings.

“Good job, Roan. Hector needs to wake up to reality.”

Rafia praised Roan as if she felt refreshed.

However, Roan thought a bit differently.

‘If only he were the type of guy to wake up from just that.’

***

As lunchtime drew to a close, Roan and his friends gathered again near Hetrona Hall, where Professor Timothy’s history class was held.

“Did everyone have a good lunch?”

“Yeah. What about you guys?”

“Our senior bought it for us. We also found a new dessert shop, so let’s go together next time.”

“Sounds good!”

“Tasty-kind.”

“…Y-Yeah, Riel. I’m glad you liked it.”

The female students, now completely close, chattered among themselves about what had happened during lunch.

At first, the story of Demona and Soldena was definitely the topic of conversation, but soon another interest arose.

“But what will Professor Timothy teach us today? Will it be theory, following the last class?”

Sion asked.

Naturally, the question was directed at Roan.

Just then, Demona spoke to Sion with a subtly sly smile.

“Sion, why ask something like that?”

“W-Why!”

Sion, who hated being told such things by Demona, raised her voice slightly.

“At the very least, you should ask, ‘Will Professor Timothy even show up today?’ or ‘What will Assistant Joy teach us?'”

“…”

Sion could not say anything in response.

Come to think of it, Demona’s words were indeed correct.

‘Even though she seems clumsy… Is it because of this insight that Demona could become Darc’s right-hand person?’

…Before she knew it, Demona looked like Roan’s right hand even to Sion.

It was a notion that would have made Roan jump out of his skin if he knew.

“Ah.”

However, Roan let out a sound as if he had realized something late after hearing Sion’s question.

At the same time, his friends’ attention was focused on him.

“What’s wrong, Roan?”

Instead of a proper answer, Roan opened his pouch and took something out.

Thud—

It was the hiking gear he had purchased earlier in the commercial district along with a few other items.

Some were packed for him by Zorve, and some he had bought separately.

Feeling a bit bad about buying only for himself, he had simply bought enough hiking gear for all his friends.

Since it was pocket change for Roan anyway, and they would all use it frequently in the future.

“I forgot about this.”

“””???”””

Naturally, it was incomprehensible behavior to his friends.

They knew Roan had bought hiking gear, but why take it out now of all times?

“Roan, we are entering Hetrona Hall right now, not a mountain.”

“I know.”

Roan replied half-heartedly as he steadfastly took off his shoes and changed into hiking boots.

“But why are you putting on hiking boots?”

“We might have to come right back out soon.”

“””???”””

“Anyway, you guys grab one quickly too.”

“””??????”””

However, after entering Professor Timothy’s classroom, his friends could immediately understand Roan’s words and actions.

On the wide blackboard covering one entire wall, writing as large as a gate was written.

— Today is a field trip! Go to the clearing behind Elopine Hall and find Assistant Joy! —

“…Roan, when did you slip into the classroom beforehand?”

“No way. More importantly, we should hurry.”

Indifferent to the suspicious gazes of his friends, Roan walked back out of the classroom without hesitation.

The distance from Hetrona Hall, where the classroom was located, to Elopine Hall was quite far.

To make it on time, they had to move quickly.

‘Since I thoroughly dropped by the classroom first, no one will think I knew about this in advance.’

…Roan felt truly proud.

“Tch, a field trip to the back mountain without a word is too sudden, isn’t it? Do students have to come and go whenever they are told to?”

Demona grumbled.

It was a perfectly reasonable complaint, but it felt a bit awkward to Sion.

‘No matter how I think about it, rather than the sudden class lesson, the fact that Roan knew this is stranger.’

As for Professor Timothy, it would not be strange even if he called the students to an underground cave instead of a mountain.

Sion only thought of it as a joke for now, but Timothy did indeed conduct classes in underground caves.

In any case, Sion watched Roan’s back as he walked ahead, exiting the hallway.

‘An information network… I thought it was that, but does a typical information network know even this kind of thing?’

It was the secret information network theory about Roan that Sion firmly believed in.

However, no matter how great the network was, it did not seem likely to handle information like “the history class this time will be held at such-and-such mountain, so be prepared.”

…Paradoxically, that would be an information network with far too much free time.

Because of this, Sion clung close to Roan and asked.

“Why did the professor call us to the mountain?”

Naturally, a normal student would either not know the reason at all or offer a vague guess.

In Sion’s experience, when Roan received such questions, he answered them very sincerely.

The person himself did not seem to realize how amazing his answers were.

“He probably went to excavate ruins. If it’s the mountain behind Elopine Hall, it would usually be one of three…”

Was this really, truly something that could be resolved with just an information network?

At first, she suspected he might have heard from seniors at the Holy Imperial Palace, but he had long since gone far beyond the level of mere word-of-mouth experiences.

In Sion’s opinion, this was a level that was only possible if one had attended the school for decades, or could read Timothy’s activities like the palm of their hand.

…Both of which were true.

However, Sion, who could not even imagine Roan’s secret, leaned toward an entirely different thought.

‘D-Did his parents really tell him?!’

As if reading her thoughts, Demona chipped in from the side.

“Roan, your parents told you about this class, right?”

“…Well, pretty much.”

Until not long ago, she had thought it was just a casual excuse thrown to the dimwitted Demona and Hector to hide his secret information network.

Prophetic dreams featuring parents, to Sion from the rational and logical Beatrice family?

Such a thing was nothing but an unacceptable superstition.

But by this point, the common sense Sion had believed in until now was slowly beginning to crumble.

‘Well… God actually exists, so why shouldn’t his parents be able to appear in his dreams?’

Just like that, Sion was slowly falling into superstition and unscientific beliefs.

Meanwhile, Roan was thinking about what would happen on the mountain behind Elopine Hall.

‘It is one of three ruins, but usually, it was the “Homeland of Aurora” ruin.’

Week 2 of Professor Timothy’s class was always a field trip.

Of course, Week 3 also had a high probability of being a field trip, and Week 4 and Week 5 too… anyway.

However, even the ruins were not fixed.

Due to the nature of “God and Devil,” which was based on multiple playthroughs, guides would inevitably be created if such things were fixed.

Even the stats of NPCs changed within a certain range each playthrough, so how could such places be any different?

Therefore, Professor Timothy’s field trip would randomly select one of several ruins depending on the location and the week.

Among them, the “Homeland of Aurora” was the easiest ruin.

In fact, it was a ruin meant for a cutscene, cleared simply by enjoying the beautiful aurora with Timothy.

‘The problem lies with the other two ruins…’

On the other hand, the two ruins with low probabilities were dungeon-type ruins of considerable difficulty for freshmen.

Whichever ruin was activated, it would generate enough power to rapidly hatch a divine beast, so if possible, the Homeland of Aurora would be the best.

…Of course, judging by his luck so far, he did not want to raise his expectations.

Roan clicked his tongue and fumbled in his pouch to take something out.

His friends, wondering what Roan was taking out again, tried to hide their anticipation and eyed him.

Roan handed what he took out to Sion and Hector one by one.

It was an egg-shaped frame about the size of a fist.

“What is this?”

Hector cocked his head.

The center of the frame was completely empty, and other than that, it was made of a rough material, so it was hard to guess its purpose.

Sion asked just in case.

“Isn’t this a simple incubator?”

“That’s right.”

Roan nodded, seemingly surprised that Sion recognized it.

As she said, it was a simple incubator purchased along with the hiking boots.

For some reason, Sion’s pride was hurt.

‘I’m only lacking compared to Darc, but this much is common sense!’

A suspicion arose that, in Roan’s mind, she had been grouped in the same tier as the other friends before she knew it.

“Why are you giving us simple incubators? There’s a saying that simple incubators aren’t very effective.”

When she asked this, as a “thought as much” light appeared in Roan’s eyes, her suspicion grew even deeper.

But what could she do?

She really did not know.

As Sion pointed out, simple incubators had little effect in gathering external energy.

There was no benefit in gathering a small amount of external energy only for it to mix with the owner’s, so they were rarely used.

Usually, they were mostly used by professional breeders who hatched spirit beasts rather than divine beasts.

‘You’d better have a good reason!’

Sion held her breath and waited for Roan’s response.

“Today, we are going to hatch the divine beasts.”

“””?!?!?!”””

“What?!”

There was indeed a good reason.

At Roan’s shocking answer, not only Sion but also Hector hastily asked.

It was only last Friday that Roan and Sion had obtained their divine beast eggs.

For Hector, to make matters worse, it was just today.

Since divine beast eggs normally took at least about a month to hatch, Roan’s words were utterly absurd.

“What do you mean, the divine beasts will hatch today?”

“That’s because, naturally…”

Roan was about to explain that the energy released when a ruin closed had a profound effect on the egg, and using a simple incubator could meet the hatching requirement, but stopped himself.

As Roan stopped mid-sentence, the attention of Sion, Hector, and the other friends became even more focused.

Roan pondered for a moment and then vaguely glossed over it.

“When my parents told me about this class, they also showed me about the divine beasts.”

Judging by her reaction earlier, Sion also seemed to be gradually falling for the prophetic dream theory.

“…Roan.”

“Darc…”

Sure enough, his friends looked as though they were about to cry from emotion at any moment.

Hector blushed as if extremely embarrassed and placed a hand on Roan’s shoulder.

“It would have been enough to just hatch your own divine beast, but to take care of a competitor like me, I’m truly touched, Roan.”

Roan momentarily considered snatching back the simple incubator he had given to Hector.

“…Who said you were my competitor?”

“It’s fine. You don’t have to say it. I always welcome friendly competition. I recognize your pride from the bottom of my heart.”

Roan exercised considerable patience and settled for letting out a sigh instead.