Chapter 963 True Worth part 1
Kisuke wondered what they needed help with and followed them inside.
The moment Kisuke entered the living room, he was greeted by a bunch of books related to Magic Engineering and Artifact Manufacturing tossed randomly on the table, couches, and floor. However, what caught his attention first was that the 'late teenager' Ophis and Lilith had already changed back to their appearance of when they first reappeared in this era and patted the seat in the middle of them while looking at Kisuke.
Kisuke smiled and sat down with the 'twins' and promptly took a leg for each of them.
Thanks to their constant contact with society, Ophis and Lilith knew that following Claire and the others' appearance wouldn't allow them to sit on his lap so whenever Kisuke was around and they were in private, they'd always return to their previous appearance.
Kisuke pampered them as they wanted and both of them took out one banana each from their shared inventory to enjoy. A few years ago, when they discovered that they could buy bananas with their allowance, it became a problem for everyone and her education because she would only buy bananas with her money. As such, they were limited to only a few hands of banana each week and they would only eat it when there was a special occasion.
That way, there would be no danger to the global supply and price of bananas, even if they started earning tons of money.
After settling them on his lap, Kisuke's eyes then caught Flanna laying flat on the other couch, sleeping away. Ever since she discovered the idea of sleeping, she has been a fan and would at least close her eyes for at least 14 hours a day and would sometimes snooze away for days or weeks at a time.
But because they don't really work nor listen to just anyone, and that she's not bothering anyone when she's sleeping, nobody really tried to fix this problem, since it isn't a problem in the first place.
Aside from that, she had already graduated from her strange fashion sense, albeit she would still dress weirdly from time to time. Even then, she still kept her greatsword and dual pistols that she'd affectionately named the 'Bonehead Sword' and 'Pew Pew Pistols' due to how they looked and sounded. Many tried to dissuade her from using those names but they only got angry stomping in response that would destroy the floor or ground without any exceptions.
'It's amazing how nobody else has discovered her identity yet. Maybe being stupidly simple helped her a lot even before Shiva, Indra, and Ajuka's intelligence agents.' Kisuke thought while looking at the True Dragon that everyone thought had died and disappeared, snoring her life away.
A few minutes later, Claire brought Kisuke a small wooden box and opened it in front of him. In it was a silver necklace with a blue gem embedded in it, "This is?" Kisuke asked them while carefully picking up the necklace and inspecting it.
Claire sat beside them and said, "This is my classmate's necklace. She said it is a keepsake from her late grandmother... But now it's broken."
While listening, Kisuke figured out a few things about the necklace, 'It was made based on old technology, and from the looks of it, its creator was just on the level of a hobbyist. Its main functions were a small Magic Amplification and Memory Storage Module. From the looks of it, the runes were burned from a displaced Magic Power flow.'
From then, Claire started telling her story. It all started with their annual competition for combat-related classes to rank the students for their combat effectiveness regardless of the course they are taking.
Claire, Tanis, and Kunou were effectively fixed on first, second, and third positions respectively. As they were also all members of the Student Council of the most prestigious but controversial school in the world, they were getting a lot of attention and not just a few challenges every day. Aside from that, they were also veiled in mystery to the eyes of the public as aside from their races, no one knew their affiliations since it was deliberately hidden.
The owner of the necklace was the fourth place and also a member of the Student Council named Maria. However, the attention she was getting was quite different from those on top of her as she's the strongest Human student of the Ouroboros Academy and also became the hope of the normal people in the Human World.
If not for the unconventional monsters that were trained using unconventional methods since their childhood, which they also didn't find strange, she would've taken the top spot.
In this year's competition, Maria challenged Claire, the Student Council President, and used everything she had to defeat the latter. And one of the things she used was the necklace which ended up broken in Claire's retaliation. While Maria was able to show great results, she still wasn't able to win. Not by a long shot.
"Hold it." Kisuke interrupted her with a frown, "This isn't your fault then? Why are you the one fixing it?"
Claire smiled wryly and said, "I know that. And even after apologizing to her, Maria-chan strongly denied any fault in me."
"Then why?" Kisuke still couldn't understand. The fact that they were here means they intended to ask Aika to help them, but after seeing that she was too busy, they decided to go out of their way to study Magic Engineering on their own accord instead of just returning the necklace.
"Maria-chan asked everyone she knew to not even fix it but to retrieve the stored memories. However, no one seems to want to take on the job as they said it was very tricky."
'Of course, it is. It was made by a hobbyist using an old technology so asking for fail-safes and redundancies in case of damage and corruption is too much. If they tried fixing this and made a single mistake, they may end up losing everything permanently instead.'
"She asked everyone, including our teachers but none could fix her problem. She asked me too, but the only one I know who could fix it is Aika-neesan but she's also very busy with the more important stuff."
Claire paused for a few seconds before continuing with a bitter face, "But I saw her secretly crying... Although I can't really imagine the pressure she has on her shoulders since I've been very lucky, I also just can't ignore her after seeing that so I offered my help and told her that I know someone who may be able to fix it. We came here in hopes that we'll be able to ask Aika-neesan to fix it but she hasn't come out since a week ago and we've been coming here every day to borrow her library."
"Maria-chan is amazing, you know!?" Tanis chimed in, "She was able to push Claire-chan back multiple times and even wounded her! And she's not yet a Soul Gear owner so she did all of that using her Magic and Martial skills!"
Kisuke finally understood where Claire was coming from, but was also a bit shocked by Tanis' words, "Even though you're holding back, she still managed to do that much to you without any Soul Gear?"
At Kisuke's question, Claire started panicking and began swinging her arms defensively, "E-eh? Holding back? I'm not really holding back though!"
"Who are you kidding? Aside from Issei-kun, Vali-kun, and Cao Cao-kun, you three are stronger than the so-called Golden Generation when they were at your age."
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AN: (03/19/2023)
Thank you for waiting for this delayed release. I just finished Volume 15 and while reviewing my outlines for Volume 16, I found numerous holes that I have to scrap many parts and re-outline various things.
Due to that, you may see more delays until I could settle the whole plot for Vol 16.
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