The Shut-In Prince’s Splendid Social Debut — Me, a Villainous Imperial, Have Spent the Last Fifteen Years Fighting the “Wicked Thoughts” Eating Away at My Mind. When I Finally Returned to High Society, There Were Way Too Many People I Didn’t Recognize

Another week passed after that.

Three weeks remained until the end of the “Exam.”

It was a large chamber on the dungeon’s twenty-fifth floor.

There, a navy-haired girl with twin tails was fighting a pack of monsters.

“Garuru…”

In front of Lala were more than ten Rock Wolves.

Every one of them was a monster above Lv. 30.

There was no agitation in Lala’s expression.

Spinning the “Trumpet” round and round, she ran across the battlefield.

Pon♪ Pon♪ Pon♪ Pon♪

Several instances of Sound Wave Magic were being “set” throughout the space.

They rippled like waves as they advanced in straight lines.

“Garuru…?!”

The Rock Wolves were thrown into confusion.

The speed of Lala’s magic was by no means fast.

With the agility of a Rock Wolf, it should have been easy to dodge.

And yet, for a certain reason, that did not work.

The problem was the number.

The directions they could dodge in were limited by the magic lined up at regular intervals.

The Rock Wolves were being herded into one area.

Among them, some saw an opening and tried to rush Lala.

However, before they could reach her, “that magic” was released.

Pon♪ Pon♪ Pon♪…

Magic set in place with nothing more than that light sound.

For some reason, Lala’s magic was slow.

In terms of speed, it was only about as fast as a person jogging.

Normal magic was faster.

It struck its target in an instant, burst, and vanished.

However, because Lala’s magic was slow, it remained in space.

And what made that troublesome was that it also functioned as a shield.

Because of that, the Rock Wolves’ attacks were restricted.

If they tried to force their way through—

“Gauaaa…………!”

Another Rock Wolf turned to mist and disappeared.

Naturally.

Because that magic also served as a spear.

Close range, which ought to have been the weakness of magic-based jobs—

for some reason, that weakness did not exist for Lala.

Pon♪ Pon♪ Pon♪…

Even in the middle of all that, Lala kept mass-producing magic.

By moving herself, she was able to suppress the battlefield by area.

And before they realized it—

there was nowhere left to run.

“…Gyaauuu…!” “Gyauu…!”

One comrade after another dissolved into mist.

Only the Rock Wolf leader remained.

Now that its escape route had been cut off, the leader had no choice but to leap into Lala’s torrent of magic with desperate resolve.

“…Garuruua…!”

Pon♪

With that sound as the end of it, the Rock Wolf leader also turned to mist and vanished.

◇◇◇◇

Watching the whole exchange, I let out a sigh.

“…Magnificent.”

I offered the highest praise to that girl’s small back.

She had maneuvered with complete composure even against stronger opponents.

…Honestly, it was beyond my expectations.

“Uyu…! I did it, Yoan-sama…! Lala reached Lv. 30…!”

Lala came running over, her navy twin tails swaying.

“Yeah. You did well.”

“…Uyu.”

As usual, I praised her with a yoshi yoshi pat on the head.

(…I didn’t think she would transform this much.)

I had known that a Bard’s “Notes” were strong.

Because it was magic that combined three major strengths: fast recast time, low mana consumption, and high firepower.

Its only bottleneck was its slow projectile speed.

That was fatal for a long-range job, but it had more than enough strong points to make up for it.

So players in ERT changed the way they thought about it.

—Then why not use it as a close-to-mid-range job?

And that was exactly what happened.

In ERT, the Bard transformed into the strongest build specialized for solo farming.

Simply put, it became a build with high endurance that could aggressively push into enemy lines despite being a magic job.

…Though since it had paper-thin durability, evasion remained essential.

However, that was strictly how it worked in ERT.

Lala had easily surpassed even my expectations of that.

(To think she’d use “Notes” like that…)

What Lala had chosen was a method of trapping groups of monsters in a single net through area suppression.

Rather than fighting at close-to-mid range as I had imagined, she had instead developed a safer long-range style built around suppression.

That was easier said than done.

If I tried it myself, it probably would not go well.

Part of that was a difference in fighting style, but the bigger issue was that the idea itself would never even occur to me in the first place.

Because cutting off the enemy’s retreat and killing them with certainty required spatial awareness to begin with.

And in that regard, Lala had clearly surpassed me.

So all I could do was call it magnificent.

(…At this point, she should be fine.)

“Lala. There’s—nothing more I can teach you.”

“…Heh?”

The smile vanished from Lala’s face.

“You faithfully followed everything I taught you. …But the fighting style you used just now was largely different from my own, wasn’t it?”

“Au… N-No, that’s not…”

“That’s fine.”

“Eh…”

Lala’s expression changed rapidly.

“I don’t know everything about the ‘Role Archetype,’ either. I figured the day would come when my teaching and your own instincts would start to diverge. So eventually, Lala would need to optimize it for herself. But… —you realized that in a short time.”

“…”

It was what people called Shu-Ha-Ri—follow, break, transcend.

Lala had faithfully followed the basics I taught her.

And then she brilliantly applied them, proving she could create a style of her own.

So from here on…

“During battle, you were paying attention to me the whole time, weren’t you? That means you had that much room to spare. …But at this rate, I’ll only hold you back. Lala understands that too, right?”

“…!”

—It was time for her to leave the nest.

And realistically, I also had to face my own problems.

“Lala, you should be able to dive into the dungeon alone now.”

“Uuh… But………… but…”

Large tears began spilling from Lala’s eyes.

It was not as though we were parting forever, so why was she this sad?

That said, thinking of Lala’s future, I should at least leave her with a few words as her master.

“Lala—do not stop walking. There will probably be times in the future when you lose your way or suffer. But whenever that happens, think with your own head. The current you can do that. Because Lala has already…”

—begun walking her own path.

“…Uuu…… Uuuuu…”

Lala slowly nodded through her tears.

I patted her head with a yoshi yoshi.

(This is fine…)

Lala would probably grow even stronger from here on.

Of course, there was a practical reason for that too.

If Lala became the singular standout of D Class, attention on me would naturally lessen by comparison.

And there was something else.

Through Lala’s growth, I myself had made a major discovery.

That was—

(—Raising someone is fun.)

That.

Of course, I was fully aware that I was hardly in any position to teach or guide others.

Even so, the knowledge I possessed had value for the people of this world.

That was not arrogance or anything of the sort—just an objective fact.

A little over a month had passed since I enrolled in the academy.

It would not be very interesting to spend the next three years drifting through to graduation without purpose.

There might be other sleeping talents out there, just like Lala.

And if there were promising talents, I thought it might not be so bad to pull them into my faction.

Of course, preserving my own survival route remained the top priority.

Still, even if I added “raising people” as a sub-quest, it should not interfere too much.

(Yeah… the academy might actually have become interesting.)

…But before that, I first had to clear the “Exam.”

“Uuuu………… Uu………… Ueeeeeeeeen…………!”

At last, Lala clung to my waist and burst into tears.

So that crybaby side of her still had not been cured, huh…

While patting Lala on the head, I headed back to the academy with her.

◇◇◇◇

We returned from the dungeon to the school building.

Somehow, a crowd had formed.

(…What’s all the commotion?)

I made my way through the crowd.

At the center of the disturbance was someone I knew.

“What exactly are you bastards trying to pull?!”

The one shouting was the delinquent-looking young man with the buster sword on his back.

Ted—the large, short-haired boy from D Class.

“Aah? You got a problem with us?”

Facing him was a rough-looking young man wearing jangling necklaces.

Behind him stood three male students, all wearing mocking smiles.

The whole scene was wrapped in a dangerous atmosphere.

Since I spotted someone I knew nearby, I decided to ask.

“Vince-kun, what’s going on here?”

“Ah, Yoan-kun. It’s trouble with the C Class guys again.”

Vince Laddman.

A slender young man who looked intelligent.

Among the boys in D Class, he was one of the ones I spoke with relatively often.

Incidentally, he was paired with that Yunoshi, and apparently he had all sorts of troubles of his own.

“Don’t screw with us! Because you people keep following us around and hunting monsters, our levels won’t go up! Stealing prey in the dungeon is against the rules!”

I see.

So it seemed they were being sabotaged by C Class.

“Oi, oi, don’t say it like we did something wrong. We’re just defeating monsters in the dungeon, you know? Don’t use us as an excuse for the fact that D Class can’t beat anything.”

“…! What did you say?!”

Ted bristled at the C Class boy’s words.

“…Who is that?”

“—Lewis Kyle Marcashen. He’s badly behaved and one of the core guys in C Class. He’s been using classmates he already knew to sabotage our whole class.”

So he was the central C Class figure arguing with Ted.

Speaking of C Class, that was also the class of my second brother, Second Prince Elmef.

(Is this the Second Prince’s doing…?)

Unlike the First Prince, the Second Prince was still shrouded in mystery.

I would have liked to investigate, but during the “Exam” period, there were simply too many things to deal with.

“T-Ted-shi, this is bad! If you use violence on campus, you could get expelled.”

“That’s right, Ted, calm down!”

Otaku Edda and the frivolous Mick were restraining Ted.

Ted clenched his teeth and glared at Lewis.

“Hah. People who struggle with an ‘Exam’ this easy don’t belong in the academy. If you’ve got no ability, then hurry up and drop out already…”

For some reason, Lewis cut himself off mid-sentence.

And for some reason, he turned his gaze toward me.

“Nn? Oi, oi, I was wondering who that was—ain’t it you, that ‘Nose Hook Bastard’ from back then?!”

Eeeh?

Hoping I had misheard, I glanced around.

“…Who else would I be talking to but you, Nose Hook Bastard.”

“Right…”

Unfortunately, there was no one else here with such a humiliating nickname.

Lewis had probably been at Serbul’s party.

(Guh, dark history…)

“Third Prince Yoan, huh? I didn’t think you were really Lv. 1. Still, you’ve got a little more promise than the rest of D Class. I’ll show you some special mercy.”

“…”

I see. So he was not planning to interfere with me and Lala.

Well, Lala had already moved far beyond that level, so it would not have mattered either way.

“If you want, should I help you with your ‘Exam’?”

Lewis asked that with a smirking smile.

Despite clearly having no such intention whatsoever.

“I’m grateful, but no need. I want to clear it with my own pair.”

“Hah… Big talk. Well, do your best to entertain me, Nose Hook Bastard.”

“…”

Lewis left with his lackeys in tow.

…Could he please stop using that name already.

“Damn it…!”