Chapter 125

RMSBS – Episode 125 . Starling Party (3)

Desir quickly realized they had a logistical problem on their hands . With the increase in party members, their small office simply couldn’t accommodate them any longer .

Given the importance of Desir and his party, the academy happily granted them the entire fourth floor of the west wing building . The Starling Party excitedly moved into their new home .

With all the new members that Desir was expected to train, he became aware that his current method of operating the party could no longer continue . He was already stretched as thin as possible, and the number of new members would only continue to grow in the future .

Desir restructured the party into three different subgroups: the main party, the sub party, and the probationary party .

The probationary party would be composed of new students with low or unreliable military might and were still in need of further training .

Desir instructed them to familiarize themselves with the basics taught in their academy classes, and furthered their education as a group outside of class, focusing on the elements that the academy neglected .

The current notable sub-party members were Freechel and Takiran . They had some military might, but they still lacked the experience to contribute reliably to the overall party . What little experience they had and their trivial achievements put them ahead of the probationary party, but not by much . These factors prevented them from being considered part of the main force . For their level, they could provide limited assistance to the main force as they continued to develop . If there was further growth, these two had the potential to become active members of the main party .

The main party members, of course, contained the core power of the Starling Party: Romanica, Adjest, and Pram as well as Desir acting in the role of party leader . Each core member had the strength and experience to do their part, as well as pull their own weight even in higher leveled Shadow Worlds .

Overall, these classifications made sense and created a natural hierarchy, but Ronde Fizzlebang was different . He found himself working as an individual, rather than as a part of the three levels in the hierarchy .

It wasn’t exactly because Desir favored him . His skills were outstanding amongst the freshmen . Although he had no actual experience, others could easily mistake him for a Shadow Dungeon veteran .

Despite all his skill, Ronde still had a huge anchor holding him back . Due to his rough way of speaking and his constant behavioural issues, he found himself unable to get along with the other freshmen .

New students trained together and talked together while hanging out in the office at the end of each day, forming natural bonds . However, Ronde just wasn’t able to blend in with the crowd and join them .

Over time, an invisible wall seemed to be built between Ronde and the other freshmen .

Desir, who already knew about Ronde’s personality, felt the need to solve this issue somehow; but he couldn’t think of a good solution since his relationship with others wasn’t that much better either .

Things came to a head sooner than expected .

A few days later, out of the blue, Romantica started yelling at Desir . He had spilt a bit of coffee on his desk .

“Oh seriously! Desir, you idiot! Even a little bit of coffee creates a permanent stain . I’m always telling you to drink carefully!”

It was an extreme amount of noise and emotion for what was merely a drop or two of spilt coffee .

Romantica continued yelling while jabbing at Desir’s forehead with her finger .

“Really, I’ve said it again and again, but nothing changes . You really are worse than a slug . ”

Ronde looked up to and respected Desir as both a role model and a brother . He didn’t last long before shooting an antagonistic glare at Romantica .

“How can you speak so badly of my brother over a drop or two of coffee?”

“HA? How pitiful you are to have this stupid guy as a brother . ”

“WHAT? What did you say? Apologize to my brother right now . ”

“If you have a complaint, why don’t you challenge me to duel? Not that you ever would, though . ”

Ronde turned to Desir revealing eyes that appeared to burn hot like naked flames .

“Brother, I will challenge Ms . Romantica to a duel . In the meantime, I will surely fix her behavior . ”

“Don’t do that . I know you are thinking of me, but Romantica is many times stronger than you . ”

“I can’t give up on this, brother . For your honor, I must defeat this woman . ”

After pretending to deeply consider this request, his face creasing in the anguish of his alleged internal conflict, Desir accepted the request . In the interest of both party’s feelings, he had to at least make them think he gave this serious thought . Thus the duel of Ronde versus Romantica was established .

Romantica haughtily faced off against Ronde .

“If you beat me, I’ll apologize to Desir . But it’s not fair for only me to have loser conditions? I want you to add a condition too . ”

“Of course . What should I bet with? You can choose anything . ”

“No need to go that far . I want you to clean our areas up . As you know, I am doing the cleaning of this office alone . If you lose, you have to clean the whole office instead of me . And you are not allowed to use magic . ”

“Of course I will accept it, let’s start . ”

“Good . Then show me what you’ve got . ”

The sparring match began .

Ronde Fizzlebang was one of the strongest amongst the first years . Even though he was still just a Second-Circle wizard, the spells he utilized and the mana he had at his disposal had long reached the level of a Third-Circle’s .

[Flame Ring]

A ring of flames splayed out in all directions around Ronde .

The heat it generated was enormous . In terms of pure power, it was close to outright Third-Circle magic, even though it was a Second-Circle spell . In terms of destructive power, it could not be compared with any regular Second-Circle magic .

[Burst Fire]

Rapid-fire magic . The Sparring place was already showing signs of significant damage .

“So what do you think, Ms . Romantica! Look at this awesome destructive power!”

Ronde Fizzlebang had not even entertained the notion of losing .

He knew that Romantica was a sniper and had determined that in close-quarter sparring, she would not be able to rely on her specialty . He just had to focus on limiting the amount of space that she could use to her advantage and it would be an easy victory .

But it was a ridiculous misconception on his part, stemming solely from his lack of experience .

“Do you think that destructive power is all there is to magic?”

Romantica puffed up into a brilliant smile as she invoked magic directly ahead of herself .

[Swift the Air]

A spell that lets one compress a specified amount of space into a vacuum . The flames that had been soaring uninhibited in all directions, suddenly extinguished .

“Huh?”

Ronde was unable to re-cast the spell that he considered his greatest strength .

An experienced wizard would have adapted to the sudden change in situation, but he was just a freshman who had just entered the academy .

Romantica shrugged her shoulders, exaggerating her easy victory .

“I think it’s over . ”

“Oh, no I can still… !”

“No . That’s enough . ”

Desir spoke up and stopped the duel .

It was Romantica’s victory .

Ronde bowed his head while addressing Desir .

“Br-Brother . I wasn’t able to avenge her properly due to my lack of skill . Please let me… ”

Ronde was beside himself in embarrassment and grief .

Before he could continue, Romantica jumped in .

“I’m sorry for the words I spoke, Desir . ”

“… You? Why did you apologize? You won . ”

“Huh? I should apologize if I take something too far while I’m angry . What are you talking about?”

“However… ”

While still trying to process what had happened, Romantica’s next words snapped him out of his stupor .

“I don’t know what you are talking about . Go start cleaning . You start immediately . ”

“Oh, I see . ”

He couldn’t understand the situation… But a bet is a bet . Ronde was defeated, and he had to fulfill the loser’s duties .

From that day onwards, Ronde cleaned the entire party office on his own .

If he used magic, the cleaning would have been a little easier, but it couldn’t be helped since that was an additional condition . He was not allowed to use magic .

Ronde was forced to sweep and wipe each surface while sweating heavily .

While he was busy struggling to clean like that, a few freshmen approached him .

“Did the seniors ask you to clean this?”

“… Well, yea . Something like that . ”

“Why didn’t you tell us? Are you going to clean up everything here alone?”

“Why you… You are actually kinder than the way you look . ”

“You can ask us for help . We’re not going to just watch you do this . ”

Each of them brought cleaning tools out of the closet and got to work helping Ronde .

At first, it was a bit awkward, but once they realized that Ronde wasn’t that bad, they gradually began to loosen up . After spending time cleaning together, they started to develop an easy-going relationship where they shared jokes and hung out afterwards .

Desir and Romantica looked at them while smiling .

* * *

It was D-Day .

[A World anomaly has been detected .

Open Shadow Gates according to procedure . ]

As the Shadow Gates opened, the full-scale attack of the Shadow Worlds began .

There was no top ranker or single rankers in the first grade, as the Shadow Worlds had appeared before the ranking exam . In addition, since they appeared so soon after the entrance ceremony, the first years had not received a proper amount of training yet .

“First years who have not completed their mental curriculum yet will be barred from entering the Shadow Worlds with difficulty of Level Four and higher . ”

It was inevitable that a special measure had to be taken by the academy .

“I would like Freechel and Takiran to take the newcomers and lead a separate Shadow World clearing . Freechel, you’ll lead the party as the commander with Takiran acting as your assistant commander . ”

“I-I’m the commander?”

“Yes . You’ve spent a lot of time studying tactics . ”

“I have been, but… ”

Freechel loved books, so she was very familiar with various battle tactics . In addition, rather than Takiran who would be positioned in the front lines, it was more reasonable for Freechel to observe and control the situation from the rear .

“Once you’ve got a better sense for leading while clearing a low difficulty Shadow World, go clear the Level 5 Shadow World, Rota Village Battle . This is a Shadow World that we have reserved, so there is no need to rush to complete it . However, please make sure to stick it out and complete it, even if it’s low level . ”

“Roger . ”

Desir entrusted the lower leveled Shadow World to the other party members .

Since the proper information had been delivered, things wouldn’t unfold like they did in his previous life . Desir, Romantica, Pram, and Adjest did not participate in the Shadow World with them . They were the core power of the Starling Party . There was a different Shadow World that they had to clear .

“The Shadow World we will clear is Level 3 . ”

Other party members nodded their heads in consent to Desir’s announcement .

“I guess we really are going to target something like that, after all . ”

“Well, I was expecting something like this . ”

[Estimated difficulty: Level 3

Level 3 Shadow Worlds based on the Ethena province . ]

A Level 3 Shadow World .

At this point, Level 3 Shadow Worlds, which happen to actually be the highest level of difficulty that appear, were qualitatively different from other levels in terms of difficulty .

For this reason, the Central Committee did not easily give parties permission to attempt clearing such Shadow Worlds unless they were adequately qualified .

Desir’s success against a Level 4 Shadow World last year was largely attributed to Toa’s Crest, but his pursuit of this artifact happened to also be the reason why he targeted that Shadow World in particular .

However, things were different from last year . Their power had now been proven through a number of events . The Starling Party was acknowledged as contender for first place in strength against the Blue Moon Party, with a fraction of the members .

The central committee took this into consideration when judging this, and it didn’t take them long to accept Desir’s request . In fact, approval came almost as soon as Desir submitted it .

-Participation request has been approved .

[Desir Arman, Pram Schneider, Romantica Eru, and Adjest Kingscrown . Please head to Shadow Gate 1 . ]

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