5 Chapter 5 - Mushroom Gratin

I have finally become 15 years old, and have matriculated into the Midgar Magic Swordsman Academy. It is known as one of the top leading magic swordsman academies in the continent, gathering talents from both inside and outside of our country.

In the two months that I've been here, I have purposely maintained my grades somewhere slightly below average, the most optimum position for a mob character. And in the meantime, I have been keeping an eye out for protagonist-like characters.

Among the few that I have my eyes on.

Princess Alexia Midgar. The most promising one is her.

Even a chimpanzee would be able to figure her for a big potato just from hearing the title 'Princess Midgar.'

Incidentally, above her is someone even bigger and more famous called Princess Iris Midgar, but unfortunately, she has already graduated from the academy.

And finally, the one I'm most interested in is my own little brother. Anos Voldigoad.

Yes, Voldigoad.

For some reason, my brother refused to be called anything but that.

It has caused a big uproar in both the Academy and the aristocratic world alike. A child of a noble origin refused to inherit the name of his own family line. It was no different than giving up his own right to inherit the position of the family head too.

Normally, doing something outrageous like that would bring severe consequences or even banishment from the country of the culprit. But, because of the supposed incredible potential and never before seen capabilities that the Academy stubbornly vouched for. The Midgar Kingdom eventually relented. However, envoys from the royal family were still sent to our household to force my brother to step down from all of his inheritance rights.

When the arrogant envoys were mockingly waiting for my brother to get scared and accept the Kagenou name already. They were utterly shocked when my brother casually signed the official documents without even blinking.

"Is that all? If so, then promptly go back to your human king's castle. I'd rather not delay my cooking session with mother."

In an instant, he completely decimated the King of the Midgar Kingdom's scheme to force him into submission.

Such absolute overbearing confidence. He really lived up to his last-boss status. I'm really moved by your dedication to our dreams my little brother. It takes a whole other kind of talent and skill to act like a last boss openly in public like that. This hidden last-boss eminence in shadow drops his hat for you.

Dear brother, I only ask that you would stop trying to expose my mob status and then everything will be perfect. Alas, he just wouldn't take a hint.

Fortunately, because of what happened with the royal envoys. The King of the Midgar Kingdom sought to save face by influencing the Academy to issue a three-month suspension, which means my brother will be unable to attend classes or engage in school activities for at least another month. So my mob-character status is safe for now.

Anyway, it is this Princess Alexia that I am going to have participated in a super important mob event. To be more specific, it is a penalty game.

Yep, you guessed it. It's that one where the loser has to confess to a girl.

Thus, I am now on the school roof, standing a certain distance away from Princess Alexia and facing off against her.

Her silvery white hair falls gracefully to her shoulders, and her red eyes have a captivating quality to them. Her features are striking and exude an alluring coolness. However, due to my exposure to Alpha and others, I have grown accustomed to seeing attractive people. Perhaps if she relaxed her expression and displayed more emotion, it would make her appear more approachable and relatable.

Well, let's set that aside for now. Naturally, I am not the first to attempt this foolhardy challenge. After entering the school for 2 months, already more than a hundred retards have approached her and gotten shot down with the same emotionless phrase. "Not interested."

It's not like I don't understand. She's probably already got a political marriage lined up for after graduation, and she simply isn't interested in this kind of child's play. But the large majority of the nobles that tried to confess to her should also be in the same boat. After graduation, it'll be straight off to arranged marriages for most of them. That's why they are hoping to have a love affair or two while still in the academy.

Well, whatever their motivations, in the end, it is all but the mere frolicking of those who know nothing of the world of shadows.

However, as a mob character, I am also fated to take part in this frolicking. Forced through a punishment game to confess to the school idol and get turned down in the harshest and most heart-crushing manner.

It is truly a mob-like event, is it not? By completing this event in the most mob-like method possible, I would get one step closer to the most ideal image of a mob character inside my head. And that, in turn, would bring me that much further down the path toward becoming a power in the shadows.

Seeing my brother's 'Fuck Kagenou' event ending with such great results. I felt that I also have to stir things up a bit and upgrade my mob status too.

Ah, now that I look at it carefully. I have two statuses to cultivate whereas my brother has only one. That's somehow unfair. This must be the perk of taking the daylight route and also the price for the eminence in the shadow route.

For the sake of this moment today, I stayed up all night deep in thought. What can I do... How can I confess to making this into the most mob-like confession ever?

Word choice is of course important, but there is also articulation, pitch change, and vibrato, to list only a few. After the whole night of research, I have attained the ultimate mob-like confession, and am now standing at the decisive battle.

Battle.

Exactly. For a mob character, this is nothing short of a great battle.

Power in shadows has power in shadows battles to fight, while mob characters have mob battles to fight.

And thus I, at this moment, as a mob character, must give it my very best.

With resolve in my chest, forward I face.

Princess Alexia... you might be standing there looking composed and all, but if I really wanted to cut you down, your head would leave your body before you even know what happened. In the end, that is your limit as a person.

Therefore, watch closely.

This is the world's most mob-like confession!

"P, P, P... Priness Alexia..."

I reveal the 'Stutter' attack card, then display my nervousness through the (in)articulation of 'princess' followed by a pitching change when saying her name.

"... I, I like you...!"

My eyes leap away from Princess Alexia to swim all over the ground, while my whole body trembles at a barely perceptible degree.

"P-, please go out with me...?"

My word choice is kept to the basics, with no fancy additions, while my pronunciation, pitch, and articulation are flying off to god knows where. Then I ended it all with a rising inflection to exhibit my lack of confidence.

It was perfect...!

Now this, this was the perfect mob-ness that I have been aiming for!

Satisfaction. I feel pure satisfaction.

"Very well. Please take care of me."

"Nn?"

Feeling satisfied, I was preparing to go back when I suddenly heard an auditory hallucination.

"You, what did you just say?"

"Please take care of me."

"Ah, ok."

Something doesn't seem right here.

"F-, for starters, let's go back together after school."

I'm still having trouble comprehending this recent development. After school, I rendezvous with Princess Alexia and we walk to the dorms together. We part with a smile and a promise to see each other the following day. When I return to my own room, I dive into my bed, bury my face in my pillow, and let out a scream.

"I can't believe I've ended up on the MC route of a love comedy! How the hell did this happen?!"

*Zing*

When I was lamenting alone like that by myself. A teal-colored circle suddenly appeared beside my bed as a cylindrical barrier appeared above it. When I turned my eyes to it, a tall handsome guy instantly appeared inside it before the barrier disappeared.

Since I was still in mob mode, I acted surprised and scared.

"Hiiyahh! W-Who are you?!"

I screamed as I dropped awkwardly from my bed and looked fearfully at the guy. He was at least 2 feet taller than me.

Hmm… somehow, he looks familiar.

"Oh. Sorry, I scared you. It's me Anos. Big brother."

Huh?

Seeing my confusion, The guy chuckled before explaining,

"I know you don't recognize me, but I'm really your younger brother. I used 'magic' to grow my body like that time when I was born."

I stared at him in disbelief, trying to process everything. Anos seemed to sense my confusion and quickly added.

"I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. Let's see… Our family ancestors, umm… have been blessed with vast magical powers for past generations. And I just happened to be the one to inherit them in this present generation."

Oh, nice backstory.

I'll play along with you, my little brother.

"I-I see, I u-understand. A-A….. Anos!"

I said so in the most mob-like way possible. Anos nodded satisfied and put some kind of ordinary basket in my hands. I stared at it curiously as I could smell a delicious aroma coming from it. There was faint smoke coming from the fabric inside.

"Here, mother told me to give you this."

"This is…"

"It's mushroom gratin."

"..."

What? Mushroom? Why?

It seems that my inner thoughts slipped into my face as Anos avoided my gaze and scratched his head awkwardly.

"We made a little… too much for dinner and so I proposed to deliver some to you and sister."

"..."

How?!

"I am not acquainted with our sister yet, so I can't give it to her. Make sure to share some with her. Cid."

It's an entire few days' trips by train from the Kagenou domain to the Academy!

If I jogged at full speed, I can probably cover that distance in a few hours. But even then, I'm not confident I can deliver this mushroom gratin before it gets cold like he just did. Especially with such a primitive basket that has zero heat isolation.

As I reached that conclusion, a strange smirk unconsciously crept into my face.

My brother grimaced as his mouth twitched.

"Not again…"

"Kukuku~"

"Okay, s-see you later Cid. Gatom!" *Tsu*

Anos said awkwardly as that same circle from earlier appeared around him and he disappeared without a trace.

This time I was prepared.

*Baaam*

I narrowed my eyes and then I immediately disappeared from my room. I held the basket in my right hand tightly as I jumped from one building to another with inhuman speed. While I was in the air my slime suit uniform transformed into my Shadow guise.

*Zap* *Zap* *Zap*

I instantly reached the top of the tallest tower in the capital. Then from there, I quickly expanded my mana sense to the absolute maximum range.

From my body. Countless invisible lines of purple light manifested and expanded in a grid-like pattern at the speed of light. Covering thousands of kilometers out of the city in less than a second. Shocking every dark knight and all beings in it that are capable of understanding mana.

*LOOOM*

With this. Not to mention a living creature, even an intercontinental ballistic missile flying at Mach 23 or 24,000 km per hour will not pass over this distance in that short amount of time.

"Interesting..."

However, even with that terrifying range and my near-omniscient mana sense. I can't find him at all. He vanished completely from this whole territory. There is only one realistic explanation…

Teleportation magic.

The mythical power to move instantaneously from one location to another without actually physically occupying the space in between.

Moreover, a fairly high-level one at that.

Possibly a global scale one.

With a simple one-word invocation requirement.

The possible implications of such a magic spell existing are absurd at worst.

"The wheel of fate is moving. The era of darkness and destruction is nigh."

I said mysteriously as my crimson eyes slowly turned to the warm basket in my hand.

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