The day after the Leakweight Kingdom, Royal Pioneer Academy, Educational Results Presentation.
The principal returned from the royal castle to the academy by transfer magic circle, worn thin.
"The presentation ended in a complete failure..."
He staggered back to the principal's office. Someone was sitting in the principal's chair, back turned, looking toward the window.
"Wh-who is that?"
The figure turned without a sound, and the principal let out a cry.
"Acting Vice Principal Yes-man!? What are you doing there!? That is the principal's seat, my seat!"
In front of the principal, Yes-man was always bowing like a click beetle. Today he was different. He sprawled in the leather chair as if he were the one on top.
"No. This is not a place for you to sit, Acting Principal Nekodoran."
"Wha, don't tell me...!?"
"A notice came from the education committee, zamasu. You are down two ranks, zamasu."
The principal had far too many things to connect it to. All he could do was scream. For a while he writhed as if being buried alive, then crawled out of the grave he had dug and turned defiant.
"B-but until the new principal arrives, I am the principal! So get out of there!"
"Is it all right to say that to me as I am now, zamasu? I have received one more concession from the education committee, zamasu. A way to stop the two-rank drop...!"
Nekodoran threw his pride away in an instant.
"Say that sooner! I-it is fine if you sit in that chair a little! After all, you are the future principal!"
To Nekodoran rubbing his hands, Yes-man stuck out another no.
"No! This failure happened because you did not take me to the presentation, zamasu! I want a promise, zamasu! From now on, any public event that looks like a chance to rank up, you will take me along!"
"A-all right, all right! I understand! Next time I will take you properly!"
"Then sign this contract, zamasu."
Yes-man tapped a parchment on the desk, covered in writing.
"A contract!? A contract for a promise like that is too much! We are you and I!"
"No! My family has a warning, zamasu. Bald, fat, nose hair. Never trust a person who has all three...! Come, come, sign this, zamasu!"
Nekodoran felt thoroughly insulted, and still signed the contract reluctantly. Then Yes-man told him the concession.
"You will pay out of your own pocket for repairs to the magic board you broke at the presentation, zamasu! If you do, the education committee says it will stop at a one-rank drop, zamasu!"
"Oh!? It can be solved with money!? That is much better than a two-rank drop! If I become acting principal, my pay stays down! So how much do I pay? Ten million Ender?"
"No! One hundred million Ender, zamasu!"
"O-one hundred million!? That is far too high no matter how you look at it!"
"No! That magic board is a rare thing, only a few of them in this country, zamasu! Repairs cost about that much, they say, zamasu!"
"There is no way I can produce one hundred million! Even if I empty everything I have, fifty million is the limit!"
"Is that so. Then a two-rank drop it is, zamasu."
Nekodoran cried out.
Only today did he understand why Yes-man was so aggressive. He had known Nekodoran could not pay one hundred million.
A two-rank drop would take Nekodoran from S to A+. From the top group, down to the same upper group as Yes-man.
That meant there was no choice left. If he became acting principal, he could not face his family.
And the principal had only just built a new mansion. No matter how he stood on his head, one hundred million was...
No. There was some. A hidden stash, saved for last.
As if he had heard an evil god calling, Nekodoran flew out of the principal's office. He left the school building and tumbled into an empty warehouse at the edge of the courtyard.
There it was. That offertory box.
Nekodoran could not help himself, and dove in. Like a man who had struck it rich with a luck pendant, he drowned in a sea of bills called slave tickets.
"Bahaha! Cash these on the black route, and that is that! Leaking students' slave tickets outside is illegal, but I can no longer say that! Whatever orders the students who paid get from outsiders, it is none of my concern! Me no longer being principal would be the greatest loss to this academy!"
He did not know. Thin hair, and the thin roof above that head.
Beyond those two thin layers, in the blue sky, lightning like a heaven's net was spreading.
The lightning of judgment, again.
No wonder. For an offertory-box thief, it had been far too vicious.
The 46,315,300 Ender in slave tickets in the box turned to ash. The charred principal was carried to the infirmary and barely kept his life.
At a pioneer academy, a vice principal who does not usually teach being sent to the infirmary is very rare. A principal, who has even less occasion for it, being sent there was unheard of.
Nekodoran's choice was taken from him, and he dropped two ranks.
Principal Nekodoran: S → A+
Both of the academy's top officers had become acting. An impossible situation.