An Adventurer Mom, Who Awakened [Housewife] Skill Through a Login Bonus, Is Making the Most of Her Adventurer Life With the Weekly Flyers She Gets! - Chapter 67

From the author:

I’m sorry if, when reading the previous chapter, it came across as if the children had suddenly vanished (!) in some mysterious way. In truth, they only failed the Special Scholarship Candidate test. No bizarre or gruesome incidents have happened.

…At least, not for now.

“Hey, you two, you and the one next to you, come over here”

A Special Scholarship Student standing a short distance away called out to Ed and Mark.

It wasn’t Robert, the guide from the previous times, but a different student.

Since the groups were formed by Special Scholarship Students gathering candidates, the members changed each time. Because the two of them had been called as a set, today Ed was in the same group as Mark. Ed felt a little happy about that.

Ed obediently started to approach the beckoning Special Scholarship Student, but—『Hey』—Mark tugged on the hem of his clothes to stop him.

“You shouldn’t go. I’ll go alone”

Mark suddenly said something strange.

“Eh, why?”

Lowering his voice, Mark answered.

“I don’t want to drag you into this. That guy hates me. He might try to pick a fight with me”

His expression was very serious, not at all as if he were joking.

Ed had just turned nine on his recent birthday.

Mark’s birthday might not have come yet, so he was either eight or nine. Ed thought of himself as less『childlike』compared to his friends, but Mark was even more mature.

“Do you know him?”

“Our parents know each other. I’m from the Noble Faction, and he’s from the Academy Faction”

“Eh, what’s that supposed to mean?”

Ed asked back in surprise, but it was Mark who looked even more surprised.

“You don’t know? In the labyrinth city of Loa, various factions are all tangled together”

“Hehh”

“Hey, you two over there, hurry it up!”

the Special Scholarship Student shouted angrily.

“See? Let’s just go”

To Ed, staying together with Mark was more important than understanding these confusing faction disputes.

“Good grief, don’t blame me for what happens”

Mark said in exasperation, though he looked just a little pleased.

“I am Neil Brown. Nice to meet you”

The somewhat small-built Special Scholarship Student with gray hair greeted the candidate students of his group.

He looked like an entirely ordinary boy, but when Neil glanced at Mark for just a moment, he gave a nasty grin.

Previously, even though they were split into groups, the destination had been the same, and the Special Scholarship Candidates had all been guided around the school together, but this time it was different.

It seemed that each group was heading to different places. When Ed looked around, before he realized it, only five students and the Special Scholarship Student Neil were walking together.

On top of that, the path looked like a back road inside the school grounds, and it was rather deserted.

“Um, where are we going?”

Ed nervously asked Neil.

“Today, I plan to have you Special Scholarship Candidates do some work. You will go into the warehouse and fetch a certain item”

Neil said.

“A certain item?”

The five candidates tilted their heads in puzzlement.

“The warehouse stores various things used in lessons. Once you become Special Scholarship Students, the teachers will sometimes order you to carry things out or bring things in from here. So it’s better for you to remember where the warehouse is”

After a while, a large, sturdy stone warehouse came into view, and in front of it stood a man wearing glasses and a robe who looked like a teacher.

The gentle-looking man smiled and spoke when he saw Ed and the others.

“Ah, welcome. I am a teacher at this school, Bill Swarm”

As expected, he was indeed a teacher.

Swarm-sensei pointed at the warehouse and said:

“Let’s get right to it. There’s something inside that I want you to bring back. It’s the badge that you will be wearing when the new term begins”

“Badge?”

“That’s right. It has a feature that prevents you from getting lost by making your location known. The campus itself is safe, but if you were to go outside or into the Academy grounds, it could be dangerous. So even if you get lost, your whereabouts can be tracked」

“Hmm”

Ed thought it was convenient, but the teacher continued speaking.

“However, the educational philosophy of this school is to nurture students who have the ability to think and act on their own, with independence and creativity. That’s why the badge is worn only during the first year”

＊＊＊

The warehouse was locked.

Swarm-sensei unlocked the door and urged them, “Now, go on in” gesturing for everyone to enter.

Neil, the Special Scholarship Student, seemed completely at ease, as if he had been inside many times before. Ed and the other five nervously followed behind him.

Inside, the light was dim, and after stepping in from the bright outdoors, it looked like complete darkness.

Swarm-sensei walked over to something like an umbrella stand right near the entrance of the warehouse. Several umbrellas were placed in it, and the teacher casually pulled one out.

What he drew out was not an umbrella, but a staff.

“Awaken, and guide us”

When the teacher placed his hand over the staff and chanted the magic words, the staff suddenly bounced up high with a hop.

“A m-magical staff?”

Ed exclaimed in surprise.

For mages who explored dungeons, it was a familiar tool, but for ordinary people, magical implements were extremely expensive and rarely seen.

Of course, it seemed to be different for the wealthy, as the other students showed no surprise.

Swarm-sensei nodded.

“That’s right, this is a magical staff. The staff knows where everything in this warehouse is stored. All you need to do is follow it. Now I’ll teach you something important, so gather around me. You see this lamp here?”

The teacher pointed to the upper part of the staff’s handle.

Embedded there was a stone that looked like a magic stone.

“This shows the current status. Red means danger, yellow means caution, and blue means normal. Right now, it’s glowing blue, isn’t it?”

The five Special Scholarship Candidates leaned in to look at the staff and saw that it was indeed glowing blue.

“Well, it rarely ever glows red or yellow. Even if the caution mark appears, it’s usually just because an insect slipped into the warehouse. But if the color changes, leave the spot immediately and report it to a teacher or an upperclassman. Got it?”

“Y-yes”

Since this was their very first task, everyone responded nervously.

Swarm-sensei nodded in satisfaction and said to the children:

“Now then, tell the staff the item you want”

Urged by the teacher, one of the students stepped forward and spoke to the staff.

“Badge”

But the staff didn’t move. It seemed the word『badge』alone wasn’t enough.

“Uh…”

“Freshman badge”

The voice came from behind—it was Mark.

In that instant, the staff reacted.

The tip of the handle shone brightly with white light, and the staff began hopping deeper inside on one foot, bouncing as it went.

The light was surprisingly bright and illuminated the way ahead.

In the glow, the warehouse interior came into view—shelves that seemed tall enough to reach the ceiling, crammed full with supplies. It looked every bit the part of a warehouse.

And inside, it seemed unbelievably vast.

“New students’ things are placed toward the front of the warehouse. The badges should also be nearby”

Following Swarm-sensei, they heard Neil call out, “Stay sharp.”

“We’ll be waiting outside”

Swarm-sensei said. It seemed they wouldn’t accompany them further.

It felt unsettling, but there was no helping it.

The five Special Scholarship Candidates followed after the staff.

The narrow passageway could only fit one or two people walking side by side at most.

At the very front was a boy Ed didn’t know, who had ended up in the lead simply because he happened to be standing at the edge.

He was a little taller than Ed, but still just a nine-year-old boy. Looking frightened, he cautiously followed after the staff, warily checking his surroundings.

Behind him came Mark and Ed, but once the teachers were out of sight, the boy who had spoken to the staff earlier shoved his way in and poked Mark.

“Hey, you, that was unfair”

The blond-haired boy with bluish-gray eyes pouted unhappily.

“What was unfair?”

Mark replied flatly.

“Because you cut in and said it, it made it look like I was wrong”

“It doesn’t matter who said it, something like that”

Mark said in exasperation, but the blond boy didn’t seem willing to let it go.

“This is a test to see if we can become Special Scholarship Students, you know”

Mark snorted through his nose.

“If you can’t even answer something that simple, then you’ll be in trouble from here on. Wouldn’t it be better if you just dropped out quickly?”

“What did you say!?”

He was on the verge of losing his temper.

Unable to bear it, Ed tried to calm him down.

“Don’t fight in such a narrow place. If you keep arguing, you’ll lose sight of the staff”

The boy walking right behind Ed chimed in as well.

“That’s right. If we don’t safely get the badges, then that really will be a huge mark against us”

“………”

Apparently unable to argue against that, the boy who had tried to start a fight with Mark fell silent.

“Um, I’m Ed. This is Mark. And this is Kero-chan, the lantern frog. What are your names?”

Ed, though a little late, began introducing himself. At the same time, he introduced Mark and Kero-chan, whom he had taken out of his backpack.

In dark places, Kero-chan, who glowed, was a great help. Today again, the frog had slipped into Ed’s backpack on its own, but it was very useful.

It seemed the other children were seeing a lantern frog for the first time.

“Eh, what’s this?”

“It’s glowing”

“Even though it’s a frog”

they said in surprise.

“It’s a monster from dungeons, but it’s very docile”

“Hmm, that’s convenient”

Mark said with interest.

Kero-chan croaked,”Keroro” as if greeting everyone.

The atmosphere softened somewhat, and—

“I’m Isaac. Isaac Wayne”

said the boy who had agreed with Ed.

“William Anderson”

added the boy at the front.

Lastly, the blond-haired boy turned his face away and muttered:

“…Scott Lee”

The teacher had said the items were near the entrance, but it felt like they had walked quite a distance.

“How far are we going, I wonder”

Just as the boys were starting to feel a little uneasy, the staff came to a halt.

The warehouse still seemed to stretch further back, so perhaps this was still considered『near the front』to the teachers.

The staff pointed the light of its handle toward the middle of a shelf and then stopped moving.

It was about the third tier from the bottom, roughly at the boys’ eye level.

On the shelf, there were items stored inside sturdy-looking cloth bags.