To Be a Power in the Shadows!

After the match, it seemed that I was going to be forcefully brought to the infirmary, so I gave them the slip and escaped.

That was dangerous.

If someone sees that I’m pretty much unscathed, how could I explain it? I almost had to cut myself back there.

I exit through the participants-only door, then walk down an empty hallway.

I guess the remaining 33 techniques would have to be saved for next year. Hopefully a good opportunity comes before then.

“U-, um……”

“Nn?”

Suddenly, a student that I’m not familiar with calls out to me.

It is a cute girl with pink hair wearing the school uniform. I feel like I might have seen her before. Or maybe not? Not sure.

“Your injuries…… are you alright?”

“J-, just barely…… avoided any deep wounds…… I think?”

I nonchalantly take the pose of pressing on the wound on my chest.

“That’s a relief. Um, I saw your match.”

“I, I see.”

“I don’t watch matches often, but the way you kept standing back up, I thought it was really cool.”

“Erm, it was cool……?”

“Yes……”

She nods with a slight blush.

What a strange girl she is to find a mob ‘cool.’ Well, there were indeed a lot of people in the audience, so I guess it wouldn’t be strange for one or two to have such eccentricities.

“So, um, this……”

The girl timidly holds out a small package.

“This is?”

“I baked some cookies…… in return……”

Is this like a gift for a good match?

“Thanks.”

Since she already went to the trouble, then might as well.

The girls smiles happily.

“I-, if it’s alright with you, can we start as friends?”

“Friends? Sure.”

Aside from a certain exception, I generally live by a policy to not cause girls embarrassment.

“Yes! Step-father, we became friends.”

Step-father?

The girl is looking towards a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair in a swept back style who is walking towards us.

Now this thin man, I recognize.

“Vice Principal Ruslan……”

He is this academy’s vice-principal, and also used to be a master fencer who had taken the championship once at the Festival of the God of War.

And if this girl is calling him ‘step-father,’ then it must mean she is……!

“Sherry Barnett……!”

“Yes?”

According to my own investigation, she is arguably the biggest character in the Scholar Academy.

I had arbitrarily imagined her to be someone who offers fitting advice to a protagonist, or solves huge mysteries, or crafts powerful equipment to defeat bosses.

Since I’d most likely never have to fight directly with a student of the Scholar Academy, so honestly I had kind of let them slip from my mind.

“So you are Sid Kagenou-kun.”

Vice Principal stands next to Sherry.

“Yes, sir.”

“Are your injuries fine?”

“D-, due to some miracle…… Ohhhh, she must have held back on me?”

He rubs his chin in contemplation.

“Fumu, it’s true that Rose-kun would be unlikely to mistake her strength. But you should still get yourself properly checked out by a doctor.”

“Yes, for sure.”

For sure I will not.

Ruslan nods, then places a hand on Sherry’s shoulder.

“This girl only knows how to do research, and doesn’t have any proper friends.”

“Step-father!”

Ruslan laughs jovially before continuing.

“Now she can laugh as you can see, but she has also gone through a lot. Please be a good friend to Sherry. This is my wish as a mere father.”

Ruslan’s face is the very definition of serious, and Sherry is giving an embarrassed smile next to him.

‘It’s impossible because I’m a mob and she’s not’…… is not something that this atmosphere would allow me to say.

“…… Yes, sir.”

“Well then, I’ll leave the rest to you two youngsters.”

After giving my shoulder a pat, the Vice Principal walks off.

“Umm, yoroshiku onegaishimasu.”

“Yep, yoroshiku.”

“So, what should we do?”

She tilts her head……

“Oh, right, doctor! You have to go to a doctor first! I’m sorry for forgetting, I got a bit too excited.”

…… then smiles apologetically.

“No, it’s fine.”

“Eh, but……?”

“Don’t worry about the doctor, I’ll go later. I’ll definitely go. So let’s have some tea.”

“Umm, are you sure?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.”

“Magic swordsmen are pretty amazing, aren’t they.”

“I know, right?”

This beauty who is way beyond the league of a mere mob smiles brilliantly at me.

After that, we had tea and her cookies together and chatted lightly. I came to realize that she’s actually a normal girl, but just that she’d recently accepted a request from some knight order to research an important artifact. Wow, that’s pretty impressive, I told her. By the way, the cookies were simple but quite delicious.

Well, she’s far from what can be considered as ‘friend of a mob,’ but with the size of the academy, we’ll probably never meet again, so it’s fine.

The next day, in order to not raise suspicion, I applied for 5 days of leave, on the pretext of recuperating from my injuries.

When I did go back to school, my classmates’ looks were a bit gentler than before.