Chapter 334

Chapter 334

‘……Even so, is there really any need to dislike him that much?’

Roan wondered if his friends were overreacting a bit too much.

Well, since he himself was in a position where he didn’t know when Bel might be extorted, he could understand being careful about everything.

Honestly, except for skipping classes, Timothy had never really done anything bad to the other students.

Rather, isn’t it good that they could take classes comfortably when the professor didn’t come?

At any rate, as could be seen from the name written on the tiered lunchbox, this camping site ruin was none other than Timothy’s!

“I thought it was a great ruin.”

“Disappointed.”

His friends let out sighs one after another.

It seemed their passion for excavating ruins had completely died.

“But why are Professor Timothy’s things buried so deeply?”

“Indeed. Although he is old, it shouldn’t be to this extent.”

His friends turned their gazes to Roan, quite curious about the reason.

Roan replied with a shrug.

“About two hundred years ago, there were some circumstances. Related to the Principal.”

“Hmm.”

“I became not very curious.”

Without even hearing it, they could guess that Timothy had angered Harden so much that he received something like a divine punishment.

His friends nodded and began to clean up around the tent again.

“It is a rather interesting story, though.”

Roan was a bit disappointed that he had lost the opportunity to talk about the lore.

“I am curious! Tell me!”

“You go and do some work.”

“Heeing… Roan’s intuition is too good, that’s the problem.”

Demona approached with her eyes twinkling, but since her intention to slip out of the hard work on her own was so obvious, he sent her back.

The more they dug around the tent, the more things like automatic cooking utensils, stakes that never came loose, and repellents that blocked the approach of monsters came out like a vine.

And inside, there were winter clothes, a permanent torch, books related to ruins, and most importantly.

“It’s an excavation tool set!”

An excavation tool set Timothy used back then remained intact!

Since Timothy was also a professor at the time he used this tent, they were high-end items that were hard to obtain now.

“First, let’s organize all the items. We will divide what to submit for the test after that.”

“Hmm? Then what about the rest?”

When Rafia asked, Roan replied as if asking why she was asking such an obvious thing.

“Of course we will use them.”

“Ah…”

His friends’ hands became a bit faster.

With the six of them and their spiritual beasts joining forces, a small personal excavation base was quickly organized.

After arranging the items outside the pit, his friends wore proud expressions.

“Phew, now that we’ve organized it all like this, it feels rewarding.”

“Although it was hard…”

Looking at his friends who were still far too weak, Roan said.

“This much is not even hard. There were no golems, guardians, or traps.”

In “God & Devil,” ruins that came out by just digging the ground did not even count as ruins.

So it was indeed a level perfectly suited for a pop quiz.

But perhaps thinking Roan’s words were a joke, his friends burst out laughing.

“Hahaha! Is there a ruin in the school where you have to catch golems and guardians?”

“Right~ Even at the last Friendship Experience Hall… well, there was one there.”

“Still, there probably aren’t many of those, right?”

At the mention of the Friendship Experience Hall, his friends began to look at Roan with anxiety.

“…”

Roan was staring at them with his usual cold and serious expression.

“Hmm…”

“Ummm…”

His friends each fell into thought with complex expressions.

Does one really exist?

Of course, it really did.

‘I just defeated a golem yesterday too.’

Acherandir, where ancient golems appeared like wild boars on a normal mountain!

Was it perhaps that his friends were living their school life too comfortably?

Meanwhile, Sion said, looking at the items displayed on the ground to change the awkward atmosphere.

“A-Anyway, with this much, a perfect score won’t be a problem!”

“Indeed… But Sion, didn’t you say you didn’t like perfect scores very much?”

“Eh? Why would I?”

“It’s nothing…”

Even as his friends chattered, Roan began to classify the items with sharp eyes.

First, Acherandir’s old map book, a camping spoon set, monster repellent, and so on were set aside.

Since they were clearly the most poorly preserved and seemingly low-value junk among them, Hector spoke up.

“Oh, are these the items we will keep?”

Roan shook his head.

“No.”

“Then…?”

“Of course they are for submission.”

“““…”””

His friends were speechless at Roan’s firm reply.

Even though it was a pop quiz, shouldn’t they submit something of value?

Clicking his tongue as if they were pathetic, Roan said.

“Even this much is enough for a perfect score.”

“With this much…?”

“Yes. Anyway, once we submit them for the test, they will leave our hands, so why on earth should we give them good things.”

His friends looked at each other’s faces and thought about it.

It made sense when they heard it.

“And even if it seems low in value, it is only because it is mixed among these. It is still over two hundred years old. By absolute standards, it is sufficient.”

“T-That seems to be the case too.”

Since Roan went that far, his friends were reasonably persuaded.

Then, they began to help with Roan’s classification work.

“Roan, how about this cover sticker?”

“Put that together with the twine over there. We can submit them together.”

“What about the preserved food here?”

“Its expiration date shouldn’t have passed yet. It’s edible, so leave it to Ssaeng-ssaeng-ie.”

“Yes. Ssaeng-ssaeng-ie, here.”

Neigh—!

“Roan, what about this empty can?”

“Throw away the trash instead of burying it, Demona.”

“You said the bottle cap was precious earlier…!”

The five of them, excluding Roan, each came to share items of moderate value.

And finally, Roan took the case of Professor Timothy’s excavation tool set.

“Eh? Roan, are you submitting that?”

“I plan to.”

His friends wore expressions of surprise at Roan’s reply.

“Why? It’s the most valuable thing, isn’t it?”

“Well, yes, but it is of no use to us.”

Other camping tools could be useful in preparation for unexpected distress, travel, or camping.

But there was no reason to use something like an excavation set unless one was an archaeologist character.

Yet his friends tilted their heads even at Roan’s reply.

“Eh? No use?”

“That might be the case for us, but isn’t it necessary for you, Roan?”

“…Why?”

Demona wiped under her nose and replied triumphantly.

“Because you are a history ghost, Roan~”

It seemed that in his friends’ eyes, they could not understand why someone who liked history as much as Roan would submit the excavation set.

“I like history, I don’t like excavation.”

“““…?”””

It was still incomprehensible to them.

‘What’s the difference between the two?’

‘Right?’

‘Well, mathematics and arithmetic are different…’

His friends decided to roughly understand, thinking there must be another complicated reason only Roan knew.

Roan let out a sigh and said.

“Anyway, since preparation seems finished, let’s head down quickly.”

“What? Can’t we rest a bit before going? We’ve only worked until now!”

Demona sat down flat as if she had no energy left to lift a single finger.

Roan nodded.

“Yes, rest a bit.”

“Really?!”

“I don’t want to be inspected by Professor Timothy, so I will go down first.”

“I-I will too.”

“I will go down now too!”

“Me too!”

“Timothy…”

“Riel, even so, how can you speak so harshly of the professor!”

“…?!”

Roan and his friends hurriedly packed their bags and began to head down.

The remaining items were divided moderately and stored in Roan’s lucky pouch and Ssaeng-ssaeng-ie’s dreams.

Seeing that his friends were really trying to climb down the mountain without paying attention to her, Demona also followed in a panic with a tearful face.

“Everyone is too much! You should show consideration for weak people~!”

Regardless, his friends paid no attention!

‘Demona, you live here. We are going.’

As time went on, they were becoming more adept at handling Demona.

And Roan thought a bit more.

‘Can’t she just really live here?’

* * *

The empty lot where the students had first gathered.

There, Joy was already grading the students who had finished excavation nearby and returned.

“Hmm… what is this?”

—Right?

“…Did you bring it without knowing?”

—Eh? Do we have to bring only things we know? The excavation shovel just reacted…

“This is a holy firecracker used about a hundred years ago.”

—Wow!

“Because it was too noisy, the Principal banned its use and possession by school rules, and that rule is still valid without being deleted.”

—…

“It’s a fine of 10 talants. I’ll give you a pass, though, since it’s discontinued now.”

Well, it was roughly like this.

Since they were items buried on the mountain behind the school, most of them were traces of students playing pranks or trying to do suspicious things away from the school’s eyes.

Therefore, it was important to grasp the prohibited items listed in the school rules beforehand and bring back items while avoiding them.

…Although the fact that there were over ten thousand such prohibited items was a problem.

“Hmph, to bring back such things. Everyone is pathetic.”

Hector looked triumphantly at the student submitting the fine.

“Do you think you would have been any different?”

“Gasp!”

At Roan’s single word, Hector quickly lowered his tail.

“But we’ll have to wait a little longer.”

Sion said, looking around the empty lot.

Was it because Roan and his friends had gone too far?

Most of the students had already returned and were waiting around Joy for grading.

“It won’t take that long.”

Roan sent his friends ahead and stood at the very back.

This pop quiz strictly had a time limit.

He himself was fine because he had a backup plan, but his friends didn’t.

Still, thanks to Joy’s exceptionally good eye, the students in front decreased rapidly.

“Why did you bring back old toilet paper?”

—That… I thought we might learn about the toilet culture of the past…

“Fail.”

—Hieek!

‘Isn’t it more curious how toilet paper remained?’

Looking at all kinds of bizarre items, Roan was reminded of the cultural programs he used to watch on weekend mornings back on Earth.

—Well… the excavation shovel reacted so I brought it, but I don’t really know what it is, Teaching Assistant.

“Oho, this is a sacrificial item used during the Early Imperial Era. It is a very valuable historical record.”

—Oh? Then is it a perfect score?

“Yes, you get a perfect score.”

—Yay!

‘If you sold that, it would easily fetch 10,000 talants. He is happy just because he got a perfect score.’

Roan shook his head.

This was why a person had to live accumulating knowledge to avoid taking a loss.

Sion, who was quietly watching this, asked.

“Roan, do you know what that item is used for?”

“That…”

Roan was about to explain instinctively before he glared at Sion.

“Why… why…?”

‘This is why you have to be careful of saintesses’ smiles!’

There was no telling how insidious the true intentions behind that giggling face were.

She would act as if she was purely curious, and then when he answered, she would surely condemn him, asking ‘How do you know that?’

Roan shook his head.

“I don’t know well. Didn’t the assistant say it was a sacrificial item?”

“Ah, as expected, even you don’t know this well, Roan.”

Twitch—!