Chapter 52
The Glory Festival began after the triumphant army, returning from the long journey following the victory in the Great War, entered the imperial capital.
It would have taken an enormous amount of time if they had marched all the way on foot, but the time needed was significantly decreased because they returned via the super-sized warp gate at the forward base located on the border with the Dark Land. There was no way for me to know since I was inside the Temple, but outside, in the imperial capital, everyone had to be busy preparing food and drinks to celebrate the returning army.
Of course, a school-themed novel did not describe all the events that happened every single day. If it did, it would be a fantasy diary, not a novel. I only described certain events that would happen at certain times, and the rest I just left empty until the Glory Festival.
I had lived through those empty moments, experiencing various events that I hadn’t been aware of but undoubtedly existed in this world, and now, the Glory Festival had finally arrived.
“In principle, the Temple ought to close for the duration of the festival period. However, as you know, the tuition at the Temple is quite substantial. So if we close the campus for the entire festival period, which is over a month long, it would not only disrupt education, but also lead to complaints from the students.”
‘Um, complaints from the students about a school closure? You mean complaints from the parents who sent them there, right?’
If a school that charged exorbitant amounts of money for tuition decided to take a month off, the ones who actually paid the tuition would be the ones to be extremely aggravated.
And, if I was being frank, I was more empathetic towards the parents. I agreed with them that the Temple taking a month off was basically like being robbed.
The announcement was met by a chorus of long sighs.
Students, especially ones like Number 8, Connor Lint, who love to do anything but study, sighed heavily at the announcement. Royal Class or not, kids were still just kids, and they loved the idea of school being canceled. You could see everyone getting excited about the potential news of a month-long break, only for their spirits to plummet shortly after.
“Hey, you rascals. Don’t jump to conclusions without even hearing the announcement in full.
“Nevertheless, the victory in the Great War is the most celebratory event in all of human history. For that reason, the Temple has decided to make an exceptional provision this time, and will close for five days starting from next week.”
We might not get a month off, but the Temple was taking the whole of next week off.
“Ohhhhhh yeah!”
The atmosphere that had quietened down exploded with excitement at Mr. Effenhauser’s calm announcement.
Vertus didn’t seem too pleased. Since the Glory Festival was a period of grand celebration, and as a royal, he probably had countless duties to attend to. It might actually prove to be an even tougher period than usual for him, unlike for the others.
Among my peers, however, I could sense that Ellen’s mood in particular had sunk. It seemed no different from usual, but having observed that exceedingly calm and composed attitude of hers countless times now, I could now vaguely sense her current feelings.
The reason was obvious. For Ellen, the victory celebration was essentially a festival commemorating the death of her brother, who had died fighting the Demon King.
“Ohhhhhh yeeeeeaaahhh!”
Of course, Connor Lint was making a commotion and acting foolishly, so much so that Mr. Effenhauser had to tell him to sit back down, which deflated his excitement. Ignoring the now-disheartened boy, Mr. Effenhauser continued to relay additional information.
“This also means that, in effect, you can leave this Friday and need only return the Monday after. It’s a long break, so those of you who wish to return to your family homes should report to me. I will grant you permission.”
No matter how capable and talented these students were, many of them had come from far and wide. With a break of nearly ten days, it would be possible for them to return home and then come back.
At those words, several kids’ eyes sparkled.
“Don’t get too carried away. The holidays start next week, so make sure you attend classes properly until then.”
What he essentially meant was, “Don’t get excited and start planning any mischief just yet.” That caused the level of energy to drop. Even though they were the explosively mischievous kids of Class A, they were still kids at the end of the day.
At that moment, they all looked rather cute and childish in my eyes.
And what about me, arguably the most problematic of them all?
“Hehehe...”
It was ten days. Ten days of freedom, with no surveillance.
It was about time I returned to Eleris. It’s been too long since I’d seen her.
I may have agreed with the parents more about the school closure, but at the moment, I was also a student, and the thought of having a break just felt great.
Then, Mr. Effenhauser called me.
“Number 11.”
“Yes?”
Now, whenever that man called me, I felt a chill run down my spine.
‘What is it this time, old man? Did I cause some trouble again? No, it can’t be. I didn’t do anything. I even accepted Ard’s apology graciously!’
Preemptively worrying about whether I had caused trouble again without even hearing about the situation made me feel as though I had the mindset of a typical delinquent, which made me disappointed in myself.
Well, I supposed that, from the moment I had beaten up a senior, my status had transcended from being just a common class nuisance to a supreme troublemaker.
“On Monday, you’re excused from all classes. Follow me on Monday.”
‘... Did I really mess up?’
***
Fortunately, it turned out that I hadn’t caused any trouble.
However, it felt as though I had doomed myself from the moment that I’d begun to worry about any unknown misdeeds I might have caused.
Mr. Effenhauser took me to the outdoor swimming pool beside the classroom building.
“They’ll be here soon.”
Mr. Effenhauser, without revealing who was coming, sat on a nearby bench with me and waited.
Naturally, there was no water in the outdoor swimming pool as the weather was still chilly.
Swimming lessons were part of physical education, but they wouldn’t happen until summer.
Now that I thought about it, the setup seemed odd.
Couldn’t they have just used the all-purpose mana stone to heat the water in an indoor pool and conduct swimming lessons indoors, regardless of the season? It was odd to see that a place like the Temple, which had been invested in so massively, was dependent on the weather to conduct swimming lessons.
This was a plot hole that resulted from my delusional setting that swimming should only take place in summer, according to the unwritten rules of school stories.
... I should have given it more thought before writing it down. Hastily scribbling out the story hand resulted in these illogical situations cropping up.
But now, it made me curious.
This was definitely a strange situation. Surely, the concept of heating water with a mana stone existed, since there were facilities in the Temple that used them to heat water to provide warm water for showers in the changing rooms.
However, I had foolishly set up this preposterous situation where hot showers were possible, but there was no indoor swimming pool. This world created plausible reasons for things I did not describe, but it didn’t amend or modify the things that were written by me, no matter how nonsensical, unless I changed them myself, because they were facts that I, the author, had written.
I stated that the Temple didn’t conduct swimming lessons except in the summer, and so they only swam in the summer.
But this world had the technology and everything else that was necessary to build an indoor swimming pool and provide warm water so that swimming lessons could take place in the winter as well.
Clearly, the fact that the Temple, a school which benefited from massive investment, didn’t have an indoor swimming pool was already implausible. But I, the dim-witted author, had written it that way, and now it was a reality before my eyes.
Some might say that I was overreacting over a swimming pool, but realizing that such an absurd situation was unfolding before me, because of me, made it feel like I was going mad. It was like seeing one’s past cringe moments unfolding in real-time.
I wondered: Would a plausible explanation extend even to a situation that violated common sense and that should not exist, but existed solely because my narrative had made it so? In other words, was there a plausible explanation given even for setting errors or situations where plausibility was lacking?
“Mr. Effenhauser?”
“Go on.”
I didn’t know the reason why it wasn’t possible, but maybe the teacher did. What could it be? Although this issue did not indicate a total collapse of the setting, certainly, it was notably lacking in reason.
Could there be a plausible explanation for it?
“In the Temple, we can take hot showers. So, if we built an indoor swimming pool and filled it with hot water, wouldn’t it be possible to conduct swimming lessons during the winter as well?”
I, an author, was asking their own fictional character in the novel about something that had been written by me.
No matter how I thought about it, my case was just too different from the typical examples of entering-into-a-novel isekai scenarios. Usually, the protagonists in these stories would either be authors who had gone about their writing diligently and remembered all of their settings, or avid readers who had thoroughly consumed the story and remembered everything about it.
But here I was, dumped into the careless novel I had written, and embarrassingly, I was unable to remember plenty of parts to it.
Knowing the future of a slice-of-life story had no merit whatsoever! What was the use of knowing the conversation between Ludwig and Delphine Izadra regarding what to have for dinner? And how did knowing the fact that they gathered friends for a snack party at their dorm help me at all?
Slice-of-life stories didn’t have that many significant events in them, so even if the author entered them, there wasn’t much to do... Of course, I was aware of significant plot points like “the gate,” but knowing that was more embarrassing than beneficial.
So, here I was in this ridiculous situation, where the creator was asking about parts of the creation that they had never described.
To be honest, the fact that I couldn’t even recognize where I was when I first arrived at the main stage of the imperial capital was already extremely ridiculous.
Sigh...
If god was real and he in fact did create the earth, perhaps even god would have been surprised. God would see humans invent airplanes and be like, “What in the world is that? You guys weren’t made to fly!”
This world had clearly surpassed the bounds of my imagination.
Anyway...
“That would be possible.”
Mr. Effenhauser confirmed that an indoor pool with warm water was feasible.
“But why don’t we have one then?”
It seemed like a reasonable thing for the Temple to have, given that it wasn’t short on funds or anything.
Mr. Effenhauser just looked at me quietly.
‘What’s with the suspense all of a sudden?’
“The Temple’s water supply system is unparalleled compared to that of other cities. Even so, maintaining a large-scale swimming pool for all the educational facilities throughout the Temple year-round would incur immense costs. Additionally, there is the issue of the water usage limit itself.”
So the issue was the water supply? Certainly, installing and maintaining indoor swimming pools in all of the Temple’s numerous schools would be excessively expensive.
Making swimming pools just for the Royal Class made sense, but it seemed like that idea had not been taken into consideration.
“Therefore, the Temple’s swimming pools don’t draw water from the municipal supply, but collect rainwater during the rainy summer months. That water is then purified through magic for use.”
The issue was not about weather or temperature; the decision to have swimming lessons in summer was due to issues with the water supply. There had to be a water storage tank somewhere for collecting rainwater for the swimming pool, as it wouldn’t make sense for them to just wait for the rain to fill the outdoor pools.
I hadn’t specified the source of the water or the intricacies of the water supply in the novel, but I assumed that it was from the Irine River, or should I say, the river equivalent to that of the Han River. Drawing water from there would be a feasible way of maintaining the swimming pools.
Now that I knew that the issue had to do with issues concerning water usage, though, I got the picture. The Temple has a number of schools, and if they were all to fill their pools and change out the water regularly, it would mean that other places might only have a trickle of water left. It seemed to be more of a problem of water distribution than total water quantity.
Although the city appeared to be similar to Seoul, it didn’t seem to have a water supply infrastructure on par with that of Seoul.
There would also be significant costs associated with using such a vast quantity of water, as it likely wouldn’t be sourced directly from the Irine River.
Having those who had talent in ice or water magic summon the necessary amount of water for use in the swimming pools also seemed to be impractical, since the volume of water required to be summoned would be massive.
In any case, they used rainwater. They would definitely utilize purification magic or magical tools for similar purposes.
“Then why not just continue to purify that water and use it throughout winter?”
“Even if we use purification magic, no one would want to swim in the same water that’s been purified all year round.”
“Ah, I see.”
That made sense, actually.
Regardless of whether the water was safe or not, going into the same water year-round did sound rather unappealing. So, essentially, they could heat the water using mana stones, but the reason swimming lessons were not held during winter wasn’t because of the cold, but because there was no rain.
As for why there was no indoor swimming pool, perhaps it was just to catch just a little more rainwater. In times when it didn’t rain enough to fill the pools, they would have no choice but to use the water supply instead. After all, Mr. Effenhauser only mentioned that it was expensive, not that it was impossible to run the pools using the city’s water system. Nonetheless, it suggested that the Temple tried to save wherever possible, including on water usage.
In any case, it turned out that there was indeed a reason for the bizarre situation I had set up.
Who was it? Who was the one behind all this, thinking all of this through on my behalf? I almost want to find them and bow to them in gratitude.
“Why are you even curious about that?” Mr. Effenhauser asked, as if it was a very unexpected question.
I couldn’t exactly say, “Because I’m a blockhead who’s trying to figure out who cleaned up the mess I made.”
“Oh well... I was just wondering. Why do we have an outdoor swimming pool, and why can’t we swim in the winter.”
“Are you saying that you want to have swimming lessons in the winter too?”
“Sorry? Oh, well... yeah, I guess it would be nice.”
Why was he asking me that?
Mr. Effenhauser looked at me for a moment and then turned his head away.
“... I see. It doesn’t seem like you have any impure intentions in asking that question.”
“... Impure intentions?”
‘Why would asking about the lack of swimming lessons in winter be construed as having impure intentions?’
Oh... wait. No way.
“Mr. Effenhauser, are you by chance suggesting that I asked that question because I wanted to see female students in swimsuits?”
“...”
‘This guy. I know for sure what he was thinking.’
The way he looked at me earlier, he must have been checking to see if there was any lust in my eyes. And having decided there wasn’t, he just let it go.
Confronted with my sharp observation, Mr. Effenhauser averted his gaze.
‘He’s definitely flustered right now.’
“Mr. Effenhauser, while I do admit that I am a troublemaker, I am absolutely not a pervert. I am completely innocent in that regard.”
‘That’s right! Even though she’s a different species, if I had to choose, I’d prefer someone like Eleris!’
Wait. In this world, that might actually cause more issues. If I said that I preferred demons, especially vampires, not only would they treat me as an outsider, but they might even hang me.
‘Would I be seen as having a necrophilic tendency? But then again, I am a demon too, so isn’t that fine then...?’
Were vampires even part of the demon races in the first place?
Come to think of it, I wasn’t sure what exactly constituted a demon in my setting.
“Hmm... in contrast, I have no choice but to believe that the moment you made known that you had such suspicions about a student, it’s likely that you’re the one who is more perv—ehem.”
“...”
Don’t they say you only see what’s in your own mind?
I was innocent! I was actually just thinking about the errors in the setting and nothing else!
... I supposed that setting the world up such that swimming was only reserved for the summer itself was kind of perverted of me as well... but I didn’t have any dirty thoughts earlier on, not a single one!
Mr. Effenhauser, apparently at a loss for words, did not respond to me at all.
This guy... Despite his poker face, I could feel his internal embarrassment from where I sat. Yes, he was only human after all. It had to be.
“Ah, they’ve arrived. Make sure you attend your class.”
Mr. Effenhauser, having spotted someone coming from a distance, quickly vacated the area as if he were escaping a crime scene.
Was this guy seriously running away?
Nevertheless, just seeing Mr. Effenhauser flustered felt like enough of a win. He wasn’t as fearsome as I had made him out to be.
... Ultimately, he was a character I’d put into the story, so it was funny and ridiculous at the same time that I had been both intimidated by him, and then relieved that he wasn’t actually a bad person.
But what was that about attending class? Weren’t all classes that day supposed to be canceled?
As the person approached, I realized what class Mr. Effenhauser was talking about.
It was the teacher who was responsible for conducting the supernatural power classes for those in the first year of the Royal Class.
The person who had questioned why I was in that class when I didn’t even possess any supernatural powers.
It was Ms. Rolendria.
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