It wasn’t that Godlo valued Siloque’s qualities as a good student.
In fact, every time he came to class, he never saw Siloque lift his head.
This student definitely wasn’t listening to the lecture.
Morning classes were already few and far between, yet Siloque always skipped class for various reasons, which left Godlo with a poor impression.
The reason he called on Siloque was because he had once asked him to help fetch teaching materials from the Staff Room.
The moment his name was called, the drowsy students reacted as quickly as sodium dropped into water, each one opening their eyes and lifting their heads.
It was the same this time.
After the name was called, the other students immediately became much more energetic.
Though he didn’t know the principle behind it, Godlo used Siloque as a sort of refresher.
Conveniently, since you don’t listen in class anyway, I’ll make you focus.
Today, he wanted to see what talent this girl, who wore a male uniform all day just to look special, actually possessed.
As for Siloque, he tucked his long hair behind his ear and flipped through the textbook in confusion.
He truly hadn’t been listening at all.
The class content went in one ear and out the other.
‘What a pain. I should just say I don’t know…’
Hm?
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the sway of an orange ponytail.
Bried, seated two desks away to the upper right, was using her slender white finger to circle a page number in the textbook, then pointing out a specific paragraph.
—The ionic equation for the redox reaction in “Oxidative Cobalt Precipitation” is—
He had seen this question before.
‘3Q, Bried.’
“Student Dasvey, have you thought of it yet? Time waits for no one.”
Godlo was clearly just giving a normal reminder, yet it sounded very much like mockery.
He also tapped the whiteboard, presumably telling Siloque to come up and write it out.
It wasn’t that Siloque didn’t know the answer; he was thinking about another problem.
‘Should I deliberately answer incorrectly or correctly? If I answer incorrectly, I’ll be seen as an eyesore and he’ll constantly pick on me. If I answer correctly, he might think I’m a good student and constantly drag me out to answer questions. Hmm? Why does it feel like both choices are thankless tasks…’
There was no other way; he would just answer half of it.
Siloque walked up to the podium, picked up the magnetic pen, and scribbled:
3Co2++Mn048+7H20=3Co (OH) 3 v +Mn02v+5H+
He left the remaining column of the answer blank.
Siloque scratched his head, deliberately showing a conflicted expression as if he were completely baffled, before finally saying weakly, “Sorry, Teacher… I don’t know the rest of it…”
“Er…”
It was clearly the question Godlo had called on him to answer.
Now that it was actually answered, his mouth hung half-open and his eyes were wide, wearing an expression as if he had seen a ghost while he murmured, “This is impossible…”
‘Did I get it wrong?’
Just as Siloque thought this, Godlo’s voice rose slightly with nervous tension as he said, “Ah, it’s okay. Thank you for answering. Everyone should study hard and learn from Siloque. I’m sorry, please go back down.”
“Oh.”
On the way back to the desk, none of the students dared to look Siloque in the face except for Cass and Bried.
Kersey was busy tugging at her own cheeks to reduce her sleepiness.
Today was another day of harmonious atmosphere in the class.
Siloque returned to his seat and continued to make edits on his Ring Chart.
Feeling that it was about finished, he closed the Status Window and took out a form from his drawer to fill in.
It was a long-term leave application form for after accepting a Dungeon Task.
This Dungeon Task concerned Parenoa’s life and death.
To deal with the large-scale sacrifice incident that would happen on campus, the bugs inside her had to be pulled out.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a ridiculous level of existence like Matou Sakura, but rather a type that grew slowly inside the body and eventually devoured the mind.
As long as he completed this Dungeon Task, he could obtain the Sacred Tool capable of exorcising the bugs from Parenoa’s body.
After all, the person who had implanted the bugs in Parenoa was a very difficult opponent.
With the current level of Cass and the others, they would only face a total party wipe whether they fought head-on or used underhanded tactics.
What Siloque wanted to complain about most was that it was fundamentally impossible to save Parenoa in the First Playthrough.
If one followed the normal flow of the First Playthrough, the critical bug-removal tool wouldn’t be obtained after completion.
It was all for the sake of forcibly triggering the human-insect intercourse scenes—and collective ones at that—concocted by some person with a twisted fetish in the Production Team.
At the end of that storyline, before Cass could cut Parenoa down, at least 30% of the students in the entire school would die.
“Tsk.”
Siloque gritted his teeth in resentment.
Compared to his former self who would feel nauseous just thinking about these things, he could now endure it just by gritting his teeth.
He supposed he had grown.
Or perhaps, he was gradually becoming numb.
He wondered if Hill’s side was having a smooth time requesting leave.
Siloque had obtained the same application form from the office in the Dungeon Hall and given it to Hill.
The priority of an Explorer’s mission was very high.
After reviewing the mission, the staff at the Dungeon Hall would provide a leave application form.
Once it received official approval, it could be taken to the respective branch school to be stamped for the leave to be granted.
But that was only for “most” cases; some schools simply wouldn’t grant leave…
‘I hope my sister’s side goes smoothly, otherwise this mission will be very troublesome.’
They would have to deal with at least two Purple-clad Executives and one Green-clad Executive, all of whom possessed Refined Tree Nests.
Therefore, their side not only needed manpower but also needed to meet a certain standard of quality.
He had asked Asmodi about it a long time ago, and she didn’t have any Sacred Tools that could safely remove the parasitic state either.
If she did have anything, it would be the kind of stuff where the side effects were uncontrollable and irreversible, leading to mental derangement, incontinence, or missing limbs.
Ring, ring—
The bell rang, and the most sleep-inducing first period ended.
The students were like wheat that couldn’t resist falling over, collapsing onto their desks for a nap, while those who still had energy went out to get a drink of water.
Siloque picked up the completed leave form and headed for Priss’s office—
“Siloque-Dasvey, please come to the Staff Room for a moment.”
Godlo left those words and departed.
Siloque felt it was inexplicable.
Was he still looking for trouble after all?
“What did you do this time? You should listen carefully in class and stop looking down to draw doodles all the time.”
Bried crossed her arms and walked over to Siloque’s side, wearing an expression of helpless frustration as if dealing with a child who wouldn’t learn.
‘Speaking of which, she’s been taking the initiative to talk to me on campus lately, even though I told her it’s best not to speak to me…’
And once Bried spoke up, it created a chain reaction.
Siloque glanced at Cass’s seat.
He was wearing the smile of a watching guardian.
It was a bit gross.
‘He doesn’t think that just because my relationship with his teammate has improved, I’ll join his team, does he? He’s overthinking it.’
Kersey, meanwhile, had slumped directly into her arms, her full chest rising and falling rhythmically with her breathing.
Over the past two days, no one had mentioned the “Teacher” incident to him, not even Cass.
It seemed Kersey truly hadn’t discovered his true identity.
Siloque felt relieved in every respect.
“Thanks, Bried. If you hadn’t pointed out the question just now, I wouldn’t have known what he was asking at all.”
Bried didn’t answer.
She looked at the books piled high on Siloque’s desk, picked one up at random to flip through it, and the depth of the frown on her brow increased by another notch.
“Center Exam questions? Compendium of Human Secret Accupoints? A Brief History of Tractors… Why are you reading these? Do you want to participate in the Common Knowledge King Showdown?”
“No.”
These small mountains of piled books were to supplement his learning of Alchemy.
To better use the skill, he had to force himself to digest book knowledge and memorize the principles; it was extremely painful.
As for the Common Knowledge King Showdown, it was a television program broadcast every Wednesday at 8:30 PM.
He remembered it being an educational variety show for all ages, similar to “One Station to the End” that he had seen in his previous life.
Siloque preferred to call it a question-memorization contest.
“Or is it that you want to drop out and go to another school? Although that would indeed be safer…”
Bried’s voice trembled slightly.
“That’s not it. I just (forcefully) love studying.”
‘I really don’t like this school.’
But there were a bunch of Taurens he hadn’t killed yet.
How could he run away and drop out like a beaten dog?
“Oh… that’s good then.”
Bried put down the book and nodded with satisfaction.
“I mean, I’m quite wronged too. As you saw, I answered the question seriously, didn’t I? Out of so many people, why did he have to catch me?”
“Do you need me to go with you?”
“No need. I just happen to be going to see Priss, and the Staff Room is right next door. It’s on the way.”
“…Fine.”
Bried bit her lip tightly and looked away.