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 68

“Are these the freshman badges?”

“I think so”

When William, the tallest of the five, reached out to take the bag, Scott cut in, saying, “I’ll do it.”

Struggling a little, Scott tugged the bag out with a grunt of effort.

“Alright, I got it!” he shouted in triumph as he pulled the bag free.

“We should check the contents just in case”

Mark calmly advised.

“You don’t have to tell me that”

Scott snapped back angrily.

When Scott opened the mouth of the bag, inside were many badges bearing the crest of the Junior Division of Loa Academy.

It seemed these really were the freshman badges.

Then, by chance, they noticed another bag of about the same size hidden on the shelf.

“Could this be one too?”

“Maybe so”

“Let’s open it and see”

This time William picked it up and began to open it.

“……!?”

The moment William hurled the bag far away, the staff’s lamp gave a sharp ping sound and lit up red—almost simultaneously.

“Eh, what’s going on?”

“What happened?”

Ed and Isaac, who were at the back, had no idea what was happening.

William turned back toward them, his face deathly pale, and said:

“Th-there were centipedes inside… swarming all over…”

“Centipedes…”

A swarm of centipedes was terrifying.

Just imagining it made Ed shudder.

“Let’s just take that bag back”

William had just started to say when—

“Eh, c-centipedes!? Uwaaah!”

Hearing the word centipede, Scott panicked and flung away the bag of freshman badges he had been holding.

Unfortunately, it flew in the direction of the centipede bag.

“Aah!”

Everyone cried out.

“Damn it!”

Scott hurried to retrieve the freshman badge bag.

“Wait!”

Mark grabbed his arm tightly to stop him.

“What’s your problem, if we don’t bring that back we’ll get marked down!”

“Don’t pick it up. If you think about it, there could be centipedes in that one too. Look—the staff’s handle is glowing red. This place is dangerous. We should retreat for now”

Mark was calm and his judgment was sound, and the others were convinced, but—

“No way! I don’t want to get marked down!”

Scott shook off Mark’s grip and dashed toward the freshman badge bag.

He grabbed the bag and was just about to rush back when—

“Bii-bii!”

the staff let out a loud noise.

“Wh-what?”

At that sound, Scott panicked and froze in place.

From the mouth of the bag thrown deeper in, a faint rustling noise began, and centipedes started crawling out.

What’s more, their color was a grotesque, poisonous-looking purple.

“Hii…”

Scott was so terrified by the grotesque centipede that his legs gave out beneath him.

The centipede then lunged straight for Scott.

At that moment, something glowing gold streaked past Scott at high speed.

“Eh?”

“Aah!”

“What was that?”

“A stuffed animal?”

“Kumatarou!”

It was the teddy bear Kumatarou, made by Kachua!

Kumatarou was holding the golden brush pen Ed had received from Gilbert. Gripping it like a spear, he thrust it straight at the centipede!

“Kyurururu”

Ordinary centipedes don’t have vocal cords, so they shouldn’t make sounds. Perhaps this wasn’t a mere centipede at all, but a centipede-type monster.

With that eerie cry, the centipede collapsed.

Kumatarou defeated the centipede!

But there was no time to rest—another centipede immediately lunged at Kumatarou.

This one was larger than Kumatarou, but the bear leveled his spear and pierced the monster’s vital point with precision.

If Ann had witnessed this scene, she would surely have said,『He’s striking right at the core』praising him. It was a splendid display of spear technique.

“This way”

While Kumatarou was fighting the centipedes, Mark and William lifted Scott to his feet and pulled him back.

“That bear’s incredible”

William muttered in awe.

“Why is it moving? Is that some kind of magical tool?”

Isaac asked Ed.

“It’s a stuffed animal my mama made, but I don’t really know how it works…”

“Eh, your mama’s amazing, isn’t she?”

In no time at all, Kumatarou had defeated a total of ten centipedes.

Once the enemies were gone, the staff’s glow returned to blue.

At that very moment, Kumatarou collapsed with a soft thud.

“Kumatarou!”

Ed rushed to his side in a panic but there were no tears in the fabric, and Kumatarou didn’t seem injured. It looked like he had simply returned to being an ordinary stuffed animal.

The purple centipedes had indeed been centipede-type monsters. They vanished, leaving behind a drop item: 『Centipede Extract』.

“What should we do with this?”

Ed picked up the drop item and asked for everyone’s opinion.

“It was your stuffed animal that defeated them, so it’s your loot, Ed. You should take it”

William said.

When Ed looked at him, impressed at how knowledgeable he was, William scratched his head a little shyly.

“My parents are adventurers”

he explained.

“Let’s head back. If we take too long, it might count against us”

Scott said hastily.

“Again with the deductions”

Mark muttered, sounding fed up, but—

“Well, it’s better not to get marked down than to get marked down”

Isaac pointed out.

“Staff, guide us back to the entrance”

Led by the staff, Ed and the others made their way back to the entrance.

＊＊＊

On the other side of the door, Swarm-sensei and Neil were waiting for their return.

Neil blinked in slight surprise when he saw Ed and the others.

“You took a little longer than expected”

Swarm-sensei said.

“W-will we get marked down for that?”

Scott asked in a panic.

“No, not exactly. It’s just that the freshman badges should have been closer to the entrance”

Mark shook his head in denial.

“It didn’t really feel like it was near the entrance. Maybe it’s just because we’re not used to the place”

“Oh? Perhaps someone moved the storage location. Well, no matter—you brought them back safely, so no deductions”

“Yes!”

Scott cheered in delight.

“Did anything unusual happen?”

the teacher asked.

“About that…”

Ed began to speak but William quickly clamped a hand over his mouth.

Stepping forward smoothly, Isaac smiled and said, “Nothing happened.”

“I see. Well then, that’s all for today. Have lunch before you go back”

After that, Ed and the others were taken to the school cafeteria.

Since today was a holiday with no classes, and a little later than the usual lunchtime, there were only a handful of people besides them in the large dining hall.

Lunch was provided as part of the activity—it was the same cafeteria food eaten by the Junior Division students.

Robert, the Special Scholarship Student, had once said he was『getting a bit tired of it』but for Ed and the others, it was still novel, and they looked forward to it every time.

It gave them the nice feeling of experiencing what it was like to already be Junior Division students.

Since it was break time, both the teacher and the Special Scholarship Students had gone off somewhere.

While the five of them were eating lunch together, Ed asked them:

“Why didn’t you say anything about the centipedes earlier?”

“Because if we said something happened, it might have meant a deduction”

Scott replied.

“But…”

“I get how you feel, but I was against telling them too”

Mark added.

Mark pointed at Ed’s bag.

“Ed, did you fill out a Magical Item Registration Form?”

Ed blinked in confusion at the question.

“Magical Item Registration Form?”

“I knew it” Mark sighed and said.

“Strictly speaking, your Kero-chan and Kumatarou are the kind of creatures and magical tools you’re not supposed to bring onto school grounds without registering them”

“Eh, really?”

Ed was shocked.

“Of course, dangerous creatures or magical tools are absolutely forbidden. Even those that aren’t particularly dangerous, if they’re discovered it usually won’t turn into a huge problem, but rules are rules”

William, whose parents were adventurers, seemed knowledgeable about how monsters and magical tools were handled. He explained the reasoning clearly.

“In the worst case, they might get confiscated”

Isaac added.

“I see… I didn’t know that. Thanks a lot”

Ed’s school was an affiliate of the knight academy, and it had little to do with magic. Some knights could use magic, called magic knights, but those kinds usually went to schools that trained mages instead.

The teacher probably never even imagined Ed might bring in magical tools or monsters.

“All you need to do is register them, so next time, ask your school teacher about it”

“Yeah, I’ll do that”

Ed decided that the next time he went to school, he would ask his teacher right away.

“But why was the bag of freshman badges in a place like that? It was dangerous”

Ed voiced his doubt.

“I don’t have any proof”

Mark muttered under his breath.

“But?”

Everyone’s eyes turned to Mark. He shrugged his shoulders.

“I think it was someone’s harassment”

“Harassment?”

“But if someone got bitten by the centipedes, they could have been hurt”

Isaac pointed out.

“I don’t know if the centipedes were deliberately arranged, but probably ‘that person’ just wanted to give me—no, give us—trouble. After all, the bag was placed in the middle of the warehouse, right within our reach. It felt far to us, but if it had been ‘that person,’ they could have easily put it much deeper inside, or higher up on the shelves」

“When you put it that way, you’re right, the way it was done seems half-hearted”

William said.

“See, that’s why it’s harassment”

From Mark’s tone, it was clear he knew who the culprit was.

Most likely, it was the Special Scholarship Student, Neil.

But since the teacher hadn’t seemed particularly concerned, it was probably one of those common『pranks』played by the Special Scholarship Students.

If that was the case, then one more mystery remained.

“Then who put the centipedes there?”

“I don’t know. Maybe the Junior Division has classes for exterminating centipedes?”

Even Mark didn’t have a clue about that one.

“I’ve heard they sometimes have classes where you fight monsters”

Isaac said.

“Hmm, really”

“Ugh, I don’t want to deal with centipedes ever again”

Scott grumbled, flopping onto the table.

Everyone nodded vigorously in agreement with him.

And so, thanks to Kumatarou’s efforts, Ed and the others’ slightly dangerous day as Special Scholarship Candidates safely came to a close.