I got into school for nothing - Chapter 161
I got into school for nothing (161)
Lesson 33. Jade Star - 1
Rucell said the star's name was Jeda.
She said it meant 'jade' in her tribe's language.
“I can see why they call it Jade.”
“I wonder if there’s another star as intensely expressive as this one.”
As they passed through the dimensional wall and drew closer to the star, Ban Yuwon and Dokgo Yeon wore expressions mixed equally with wry smiles and awe at the sight.
The entire star was covered in green.
“Rucell, are there no oceans on this star?”
Rucell, who had been nestled in Ban Yuwon's arms ever since drinking the hot chocolate, spoke in a timid voice.
Breaking through the atmosphere and descending below, they saw trees that seemed to pierce the sky, growing so tall they densely filled the land.
Seeing trees that grew for kilometers, Ban Yuwon truly felt that he had come to another world.
“Let’s see, I’m currently heading to the coordinates the professor gave me. If we go this way, will we be able to meet your father?”
“Yes. The beast-kin mark their territory with ornaments hung on trees...”
Rucell took Ban Yuwon's hand and pointed at the screen.
A part of the surface expanded, and the branches at the very tops of trees, soaring several kilometers, or even tens of kilometers high, came into view.
A round, bracelet-like object, woven from pink and black fur and sharp beast fangs, was hanging there.
Ban Yuwon instinctively checked Rucell's hair.
“That’s not my hair!”
Rucell, realizing his meaning, uncharacteristically raised her voice at Ban Yuwon and covered her face.
“It’s Mother’s, Mother’s and Father’s hair woven together...”
“So that’s how they mark their territory. Those trees look like they’re 10 kilometers tall; it must be a pain just to hang that up there. Can you even see it from the ground?”
“They emit mana mixed with a unique scent, so we can perceive them without issue.”
“I see...”
Ban Yuwon imagined Rucell's parents as he looked at the tightly intertwined pink and black fur, as if proving them to be a married couple.
Now that he thought about it, he'd heard about Rucell's father, but never her mother.
It must have been her mother who passed down the pink fur to Rucell, right?
She’d probably resemble her a lot in appearance, and naturally, in physical attributes too...
Ban Yuwon gently closed his eyes and imagined a more mature Rucell.
“Nope, can't do it.”
Just thinking about it was already R-rated, so he immediately stopped.
Meeting them would be terrifying...!
“...Yuwon? You’re not imagining anything weird, are you?”
“What weird imagination?”
He wouldn't say who he had imagined, even if it killed him.
Ban Yuwon turned his head, avoiding Rucell's steady gaze, and feigned ignorance.
“Oh?”
As they gradually drew closer to the surface, skimming over the towering trees, at that moment.
The trees at their destination seemed to tremble, then moved their branches to either side, opening a path.
“Ah, it looks like they’re opening a barrier for us.”
“A barrier? Ha!”
“Whoa...”
As the view instantly opened up, revealing the ground several kilometers below, Ban Yuwon and Dokgo Yeon uttered quiet exclamations of awe.
They had worried about how to land the spaceship with nothing but trees everywhere, but who would have thought it would be resolved like this?
But as the tree barrier opened, on the clearly visible ground, a single beast-kin could be seen standing in a peculiar posture.
Even from a distance, they could tell that the beast-kin was wrapped in tree branches.
“Wood Release?!”
“It’s the Authority to control trees.”
It *was* Wood Release!
“The Authority to control trees is a unique power inherited only by the Nataehu (Sloth Monkey) race among beast-kin... They can also cast spells on trees over a wide area to prevent outsiders from intruding and to generate alarms, so essentially, without the Nataehu race, a tribal nation cannot be established on this star.”
“So, they’re a noble class.”
“Yes. They live for an exceptionally long time, but they’re so lazy that they don’t have many descendants. My father worries a lot about that...”
“Reproduction is a species’ instinct, but if they find even that bothersome, hmm, wait a minute...?”
Nataehu.
Lazy monkey...
A sloth!
“So they gained the ability to control trees because they always live in trees...”
“How did you know?!”
As Ban Yuwon pondered that the secret of unique Authorities might not be so grand after all.
The spaceship lowered its altitude and entered the sea of trees.
The spaceship, having closed a distance of several kilometers in an instant, gently landed on the ground.
As Ban Yuwon and his companions exited, the spaceship shrank to the size of a palm and automatically entered Ban Yuwon's inventory.
—Ah!
“It’s school property, so you can’t eat it, okay?”
—Pout...
Ban Yuwon issued a warning to Lilyth, who had, at some point, started devouring all mechanical metals that entered his inventory as if they were her own. As he looked up, the Nataehu who had cast the Wood Release... or rather, the spell, was approaching them.
...Very slowly.
Watching her approach, Rucell whispered to Ban Yuwon.
“That’s Slothy, the only Nataehu in our tribe.”
“She certainly lives up to her name, huh.”
The fact that she was beautiful enough to be recognized even from a distance was perhaps the only element that deviated from Ban Yuwon’s expectations.
Otherwise, she truly fit the name "sloth."
Her wild, golden hair, as if it had never been cut since birth, trailed along the ground, and her slender body was so casually covered by manipulated branches and leaves, as if even wearing clothes was too much bother.
Her large, round brown eyes were half-closed as if she were sleepy, and her dark-smudged eye area, as if she had smoky makeup, completely nullified any potentially sharp impression with that drowsy expression.
“It’s not like the Birth of Venus or anything...”
“Does that woman have a problem with her legs?”
“She’s just slow...!”
Perhaps she heard their whispers, or perhaps she thought she was too slow herself, but she walked diligently towards them and opened her mouth to speak.
“W-w-welcomeee...”
Even her speech was slow.
“Hello, Slothy. Could you call my father for me?”
“Huh...? R-rucel-ll...?”
When Rucell spoke to her, Slothy finally seemed to recognize her, opening her eyes wide.
She seemed surprised, but even her wide-eyed expression was so incredibly slow that it looked like she was acting in a play.
“Can I cut her?”
“Hold on, Dokgo Yeon! It’s probably not intentional!”
“Rucel-ll, whyyy...?”
“It’s probably because this is my home dimension that the Chancellor sent us. So don’t be too surprised.”
Unlike Rucell, who replied with a wry smile, Slothy wore a somewhat gloomy expression.
“Sorrryyyy...”
“Did you call Father?”
“Y-yes, probablyyyy nowwww...”
Just as Slothy was about to draw out the word, “soooon...”
With a loud *BANG!*, a gigantic beast-kin man landed a short distance from her.
“You’ve come, Rucell.”
“Dad!”
She called him "Father" in front of others, but now...
Ban Yuwon chuckled, thinking that to himself, as Rucell bounded forward and leaped into the man’s arms.
“Forgive me, my child. It is due to your father’s lack of strength that I had to ask for my daughter’s help.”
“Dad...!”
The man, with an enormous physique that would take at least five slender Rucells to match, seemingly over 2.3 meters tall, had strikingly long, flowing pink hair and eyes... Wait?!
It was her father who had pink hair?!
“As if I weren’t already too busy with the tribal wars, now those dimension pirates are apparently coveting this star’s resources. Even I had no choice. But to think they’d send you, those damn bastards at Union Academy...”
“It’s okay, Dad. I brought my master with me. Now you don’t need to worry about the ‘Ruler of the Forest’!”
“What?! You mean you found a master?!”
“Yesh♥”
The man’s startled shout made the forest tremble greatly.
Rucell, having first detached herself from the man, trotted over and pulled Ban Yuwon’s arm.
“No, hey, wait a minute, Rucell, time out.”
“Come this way, Yuwon. No, Master...♥ This is my father.”
“Hoooh...”
“Ah.”
Ban Yuwon’s stomach churned under the man’s intense gaze.
Was he really supposed to greet this ferocious-looking man, who appeared capable of effortlessly folding his spine in half, with, ‘Hello, I am the one who has become your daughter’s master’?!
Wouldn't simply jumping off a cliff have a higher chance of survival...!
“Hmph. No wonder that ‘fellow’ has been in a bad mood lately, so this was why...”
In the overflowing tension, where his spine might be folded in half at any moment.
The man simply stared down at Ban Yuwon for a long while, then eventually let out a sigh with an incredulous expression.
“Does this make any sense? This kid’s status is higher than everything I’ve built up in my entire life? This isn’t just a high level; this is ancestor-level, isn’t it?”
“Hee, this is my master. Didn’t I choose well?”
Rucell had been gloomy all the way here.
But at this very moment, introducing Ban Yuwon, she wore a genuinely proud expression, hugging his arm and smiling.
Alright, if Rucell is happy, then getting his spine folded once or twice wouldn’t be so bad.
So, Ban Yuwon decided to just smile.
“You rascal... I was so worried when you were suddenly dragged off to Union Academy, but to think you’d find such an excellent man. I’m proud of you, Rucell.”
“Ehehe.”
“Alright, I am Kanid, Rucell’s father. I lead the largest beast-kin tribe on this star, the ‘Wolf Fang’ tribe. Please take good care of my daughter’s master.”
Kanid, the chieftain of the Wolf Fang tribe, abruptly extended his hand to Ban Yuwon.
“Ah, yes. My name is Ban Yuwon. Please call me comfortably.”
Ban Yuwon, flustered, still extended his hand and grasped Kanid’s.
He braced himself, wondering if his hand would be crushed instead of his spine, and manifested the concept of durability, but nothing of the sort happened.
“Not many beast-kin find a master they can serve for life. Especially for my daughter, it would have been even harder... So, I am truly grateful that a young man of such outstanding skill, and of the same age as my daughter, has taken her in. I look forward to working with you, Yuwon.”
“I look forward to working with you as well.”
Ban Yuwon tilted his head as he exchanged greetings with him.
Somehow, the atmosphere was softer than Ban Yuwon had expected.
No, his daughter brought home not a husband, but a master who was some wild, reckless kid, and yet such a warm atmosphere was forming...?!
Ban Yuwon was astonished by the unforeseen turn of events, but in truth, the reason was clear.
It was because beast-kin inherently placed immense importance on the status of one’s soul.
Ban Yuwon, whose soul's status was high enough for Rucell—who had carried a strong soul since birth—to serve as her master, was considered the best potential groom for the beast-kin. And her father, who knew how much Rucell had suffered because of a Constellation, had even more reason to welcome Ban Yuwon's presence.
“Hmm... I see.”
After shaking hands with Ban Yuwon, Kanid looked at his daughter, then nodded as if he understood something, and spoke.
“I wondered why your Wildness had grown so much; it was thanks to the Heart Furnace being resolved.”
“Yes. And my master even helped save my Wildness...”
“You’re saying something that overturns the very foundation of our beast-kin race.”
“But it’s true!”
Rucell, thinking "now's the time," diligently highlighted Ban Yuwon's abilities.
Dokgo Yeon, quietly observing the scene from behind, snorted at Rucell, who looked exactly like a prospective bride trying to convince her parents by listing her boyfriend's merits.
The Nataehu, Slothy, went a step further: she moved the trees to restore the barrier, then leaned against a branch extending from one of them and promptly fell asleep.
“So, have you... mated?”
“Pfft!”
“Shamefully, not yet...”
Next to Ban Yuwon, who cleared his throat at the blunt question, Rucell shook her head with a wronged expression.
“Hmm, it’s unavoidable given your student status, but it’s not good to delay too long. Alright, I’ll speak to your mother so you can receive preliminary education while you’re here.”
“Yes!”
Ban Yuwon realized that the aura emanating from someone behind him had grown significantly stronger, and he vowed not to look back, even if it killed him.
But perhaps sensing it as well, Kanid, who saw someone standing behind Ban Yuwon, leaned his head towards them and whispered in a low voice.
“...Is your master very popular, then?”
“Yes, incredibly so.”
He wished they would stop discussing such things right in front of him.
But the parties involved seemed very serious.
“So, who’s the first one?”
“That would be me.”
“Well done!”
Kanid, laughing heartily, vigorously patted Rucell’s head, then looked up.
“My daughter, who has come home after so long, bringing her master no less, can’t be sent straight to the battlefield. Today is a banquet! Slothy, inform the family of this news!”
“Huuuaaaahhhnnn...”
Slothy, who had been sound asleep, utterly ignoring those around her, slowly raised her head at the sound of her name being called, then, with an equally languid motion, snapped her fingers.
At that moment, all the trees forming the forest began to violently shake their bodies as if stretching in her stead.
It was a signal for a great tribal gathering.
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