I Became the Academy's Pink Airhead

Chapter 5

If you live in the academy city, there’s a race you’ll often encounter next to the terrifying high school girls.

These strange life forms scurrying about the shopping district on mechanical legs are that race.

The mechanical race of dwarves.

After drawing simple facial features on an iron circle, they look like 4-head-tall mechanical humans stuck into short cylinders.

No matter how you look at them, these robot-like beings were undeniably human in this world.

Immune to ether addiction, dwarves can live without problems in even without the ether abilities of high school girls. They all maintain their livelihood by running shops around schools and streets.

‘No matter how I look at them, they’re really robots...’

I often encountered them as NPCs in the game. But in reality, it was difficult to distinguish who was who, or even whether they were male or female, until I heard their voices.

But after some time, I could distinguish them by the differences in their behavior and attire.

One of the reasons I became familiar with them was because I had been running all sorts of errands around the shopping district near the school for the past year.

-Thank you, at this age it’s hard to go out far.

-Thanks Clara! Grandpa really... why did he put things up so high...

-Thank you, Miss Clara. It’s indeed difficult to move flour sacks alone.

I could receive plenty of gratitude and goodwill just by helping with tricky tasks for them with their short limbs, like simple deliveries and organizing. The food and daily necessities they gave along with their thanks were a great help given our school’s poor conditions.

‘Alvit was disgusted, saying living for free was shabby.’

Being able to ask for help from someone in unexpected situations. Being able to receive tangible and intangible help from those around you was a great strength.

Humans can’t always live solely on fixed transactions and compensations like a knife.

It would be my role to maintain this until she realizes that.

‘Except for food, I’m gathering everything in the supply room. It will be a big help someday.’

Whenever I helped the shopping district people, I always did so in the name of .

‘Even though the shopping district people know I’m the only one attending the school.’

Even if it’s just pretense, there’s a big difference between [Clara’s goodwill] and [Goodwill given by a student of Central Prism Academy].

By removing ‘my name’ from the subject of goodwill, you can pass on that connection to someone else from the same affiliation.

So I want to pass that on to my juniors.

The juniors who will come to someday will inherit the goodwill of the shopping district people.

‘Before teaching how to fish, you need to create a fishing spot first.’

Hilde must also be continuing such things as the president of the , representing the academy city.

Of course, she would be doing much more than me.

With such thoughts in mind.

On an early spring morning.

On the third day since Alvit’s enrollment.

I was still visiting the shopping district, running errands for the dwarves.

“Ho ho ho...”

This dwarf with impressive white beard made of optical fiber is the tailor shop grandfather. As compensation for my errands, he repairs my stuffed animals for free, including altering uniforms.

He was one of the people I was closest to among the shopping district folks.

The tailor shop grandfather with a stature like Doctor Hua Tuo.

His current concern was delivering laundry requested by a regular customer living at an awkwardly far distance.

The regular customer had personally brought the laundry before moving far away, then forgot about it.

I received the item wearing the red tracksuit designated as ’s gym uniform.

“Oh, really? Thank you, Clara.”

“Huhuhu―☆ This is easier than eating cake!”

“Even if it’s a regular’s request. At my age, tens of kilometers is a bit... And it’s burdensome to use the ether train for such a small delivery... I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it! Then I’ll be back before the macarons get cold―☆”

“But macarons are usually already cold before eating...?”

“Hehe☆ It’s just a saying―!”

I could sense the tailor shop grandfather shaking his head.

Ching

Ching

I put the laundry in the bag attached to the side of the bicycle. Then, loudly ringing the bicycle bell, I pedaled forward vigorously.

Whirr―

The dark horizon of early dawn.

I thought she was grumbling and pretending not to listen at the time.

But she heard everything.

“...”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t know? You were planning to tease me for a long time about wanting to know a girl’s secret over tea time or something, right?”

“...”

Damn.

I was planning to tease her all morning about the girl’s secret and whatnot.

I quietly pulled my bicycle in, feeling somewhat deflated.

“...”

“Ah, she’s sulking.”

Alvit giggled, hung her sweat towel around her neck, and glided towards my side with quiet footsteps.

Presence and breathing.

Footsteps and distribution of force.

‘She’s skilled in [Basic Ether] operation, but not yet at the [Vibration Ether] level.’

I unconsciously assessed Alvit’s level while gauging the ‘distance’ within which an exchange was possible.

Due to the difference in skill so great that measuring was meaningless, I felt no sense of crisis even if she stuck right next to me.

She still has a long way to go.

But her potential is limitless.

Not knowing my thoughts, Alvit smiled brightly and pointed at Red Hare as she spoke.

“Come to think of it, you ride a bicycle. I didn’t expect that image.”

“It’s my wonderful steed that’s been with me throughout school life―☆”

“Somehow I imagined you as someone who would call for an electric car to take you even for distances you could easily walk.”

“I see☆ That means I look like such a noble and cute princess―☆”

“Senior, you write notes normally but always speak in that manner.”

‘Do you have a problem with my pretty filter?’

Alvit, as if dumbfounded, took out a crumpled letter from her tracksuit pocket.

By the way, that letterhead is also something I brought in bulk from other school events.

[Going to the shopping district. Don’t be surprised if I’m not there in the morning. – Clara]

Alvit waved that paper and said:

“If you spoke this neatly usually, you’d look more like a reliable senior...”

“Then am I the type you want to protect? Kyaa―☆”

“Ah, yes. There it is right away.”

Alvit sighed and crumpled the paper back into her pocket.

Considering her usually neat personality, she would never carelessly litter on the street.

Watching me lock the bicycle, Alvit spoke as if remembering something.

“Oh right. Senior. A letter came at dawn, and when I checked, it was a notice sent from the ?”

“Hm? From the Union?”

“I haven’t opened it yet because I wanted to look at it together, shall we check it now that you’re here?”

“Yes! Let’s do that☆”

So we entered the student council room in our tracksuits.

On the student council room table was a notice with the emblem in an envelope.

I opened it and spread it wide so Alvit could see too.

The content was a warning about motorcycle gangs using illegal ether vehicles.

It was a warning that delinquent students had expanded their activity range from the slums to near the central area. Their main pattern was to kidnap innocent students from each school, then contact their schools to extort cash under the guise of ransom.

Alvit frowned at the behavior of these delinquent students and muttered.

“What cowards. Kidnapping students...”

“...”

I agreed with her muttering but didn’t open my mouth.

‘An incident is about to happen soon.’

The junior I want to meet.

‘Rota’ will enroll in because of the commotion caused by these guys.