September 29th.

　I received new information from Sai Furman, a fourth-rank adventurer whom I had asked to gather information, and requested additional investigation.

　And so, as planned, I headed to the academy to more reliably investigate the mastermind behind all of this.

　Since I had a classroom lesson in the morning, I decided to meet with my homeroom teacher, Mr. Bennett, first thing in the afternoon.

　When I entered the old town for the first time in seven days, there was a general feeling of restlessness, perhaps because of the harvest festival the day after tomorrow, which coincided with the autumnal equinox.

　This trend was even more pronounced upon entering the academy, where students were seen happily and fidgetily going to their practical classes.

(Come to think of it, I’ve only seen festivals in this world in villages. The eve will start tomorrow… I guess the eve of the festival starts tomorrow. …I guess Liddy, Sharon, and I will enjoy the festival in New City.) (Zack)

　I had plenty of time to spare.

　The fact that I am now in the forest and have been improving steadily has also had an effect on this.

　As for magic, the fact that I was able to form a friendship with an old friend of Liddy’s, Professor Kitley Elvine, was also a big factor. She not only has a wealth of knowledge, but is also very good at explaining it. Thanks to her, I am gradually beginning to understand how to use the dark attribute and gold attribute, which I was not very good at.

(To be honest, there is little point in staying at the academy, at least in the lower grades. Well, I can’t say that I regret the tuition I paid for the year, but if, as rumored, the private school is willing to waive tuition and shoulder the cost of the library, there are a few disadvantages…) (Zack)

　With this in mind, I headed for the faculty room. Then I found teacher Bennett and spoke to him, making a serious expression, “May I have a word with you?”

　When Bennett saw my face, he looked surprised, but then he saw my troubled face and smiled.

(He’s an easy guy to figure out, isn’t he? When he looks so blatantly happy, it makes me lose confidence. I’m starting to think he’s really just a childish man…) (Zack)

　When I dare to show my inner insecurities on my face, Bennett seems to have conveniently misunderstood me, and his expression brightens even more.

(Maybe he’s trying to cheer me up by smiling at me when I’m down, but I doubt that’s the case…) (Zack)

“What’s the matter, Mr. Lockhart?” (Bennett)

　To act like I don’t know what to say to the guy who had made me go through so much with a few days ago, I turn over and say, as if I’m at a loss for words, “Oh, uh… actually…” and then I slowly raise my face as if I’m gathering my courage.

“Actually… Miss Jakes and I are thinking of quitting the academy. So… we came to ask what the procedure would be.” (Zack)

　Bennett pretends to console me, saying something about how it would be a shame for you, the first and second runners-up, to leave the academy. However, he soon replied, “You seem to be very determined. I have no choice but to give you a letter of withdrawal,” he said, pulling out two forms from his desk drawer.

(As expected, he was very prepared. You’re not being picky and sarcastic, and as I thought, it looks like there’s a mastermind behind him based on this…) (Zack)

　Bennett, struggling to keep his voice from bubbling, pushes me along, saying, “Normally, they don’t refund tuition, but I’ll help you with that.”

　I’ll report this to my liaison by the end of the day, he probably thought to himself.

“It’s a festival from tomorrow, so I’ll think about it slowly. Thank you for helping with the tuition fee.” (Zack)

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　In response to my words, he said, “You’re right. You don’t have to rush to a decision, but if you want to go to another school, I think it will be easier to make friends if you do so quickly.”

　I said, “Thank you very much. I’m going to leave with this for now, today,” I bowed my head and left the faculty room.

　Then, as I walked out of the academy, I saw Sai on a stakeout.

(At that rate, I’m sure we’ll find our liaison soon. The problem is after that. Worst case scenario, even if we don’t find the mastermind, we’ve already decided what we’re going to do. Well, I will probably be able to take action the day after the harvest festival.) (Zack)

　I went straight through the Old City and went home.

　When I got home, Liddy saw my expulsion letter and was indignant.

　I looked at her with a relaxed expression as I waved the expulsion letters.

“Thanks to this thing, we know Bennett is a tool. Besides, you don’t usually get to have something like this on hand. Just think of it as an interesting thing to see.” (Zack)

　She calmed down a little at my words and said, “Well, I guess that’s what you would think, isn’t it?” and they laughed with me.

　I turned to Liddy and Sharon.

“We can’t move until we get the report from Mr. Sai, anyway. We have a festival tomorrow. Let’s forget about the bad stuff for two days and have fun.” (Zack)

　They both nodded with a smile.

　September 30th was the eve of the festival.

　In Doctus, the festival is held at two locations, one in the Old City and the other in the New City. We decided to visit the New City side and went to the plaza in the commercial district located just south of the Old City.

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　We arrived at the plaza just before noon, but the place was already full of people. As one would expect from a large city with ten thousand people in the New City alone, the crowd was comparable to that of a Japanese festival.

　In the square, street performers were showing juggling tricks and minstrels were singing songs. A large circus-like tent had been built, and a sign said that monsters were caged in it for the spectacle.

　I was intrigued by the side show and asked them if they wanted to go inside.

　Liddy was not so interested and said, “You won’t see much,” but Sharon was interested and said, “It looks interesting.”

　I told Liddy, “You can wait for us somewhere. There are a lot of stalls, so I don’t mind if you have a drink.” She seemed reluctant to leave me and decided to follow me.

　I paid the admission fee of one large copper coin (50 Eere = 500 yen) and the three of us went inside.

　The smell of animals filled the air as we entered, and we all frowned.

　Inside was like a passageway partitioned off by cloth, and from a distance we could hear the roar of a ravenous beast and the rattling of rattling cages.

　A little further in, there were the familiar goblin and orc cages, and further in, there were beastly monsters such as the Grey Ape and the Saber-toothed Tiger.

　As we went deeper, there were also insect-type and plant-type monsters, perhaps because they became rare monsters, and even a small earth dragon was put in a cage as the biggest spectacle.

　Liddy commented, “That’s amazing. It’s a small dragon, but it’s a real dragon. I can’t believe they captured a second-rank monster alive.”

　As we exited the tent, fresh air filled our lungs and we exhaled.

　I said, “That was pretty interesting,” to which Sharon nodded happily, and Liddy said, “Yeah, I guess it was better than I expected. I think it was better than I imagined,” she admitted reluctantly.

　Smiling at their gestures, I took their hands in mine and we started walking from the plaza where the festival was being held to the stalls.

　There were many stalls along the road leading to the square, selling food, drinks, accessories, and other small items. Some of them were selling dubious tools, calling them rare magical tools, but the people on the street showed little interest in them.

　As one would expect of the residents of an academic city overflowing with magical tools, it seems that they would not be able to sell such dubious items to them.

　The next day, the day of the festival, was also very crowded.

　Drunken people were sleeping in the plaza and children were running around happily, probably having been drinking since last night.

　The festival was basically the same as the one in the village of Rathmore, except in scale.

　Only Sharon was surprised at the number of people and the various acts performed by the performers.

　When I asked her how she felt about it, she shook her head and could only reply, “It was amazing.”

　Thus, during the two days of the festival, I forgot about the events at the Academy and enjoyed myself to the fullest.