"Troublesome."
Cid lay limply across his desk, recalling everything that had happened over the past few days.
First, someone seemed to be plotting something. Possibly something big enough to sink this entire island. He might have to investigate it and see if he could check off another achievement on his Eminence in Shadow list.
Second, his Nee-san had arrived, and somehow she had also gotten tangled up with Alexia. Trouble stacked on top of trouble. A huge headache.
Then Alpha's tragedy had repeated itself. His disciple had left him. His part-time job was gone. His Shadow funding source had dried up again.
A massive loss.
Finally… what was the last thing again?
Cid sat up and tried to think.
He clearly remembered that there was something he was supposed to do once he arrived at school.
What was it again?
Clap!
Cid suddenly slapped his hands together.
He remembered. He was supposed to return Yukina Himeragi's student ID after arriving at school.
...
Then he slowly slumped back down onto the desk again.
It seemed he had forgotten to give it back to her on the way here.
Whatever. He would just find Yukina Himeragi after school and return it then.
"What are you thinking about? You look totally drained."
At some point, someone had walked up beside him.
"Yo, Asagi. Morning."
Turning his head, Cid greeted his background-character friend.
"Morning, Cid."
After replying, Asagi Aiba continued staring at him.
"What was I thinking about? Right, what was I thinking about? That's truly a question worth pondering. Was I contemplating the meaning of life just now? Or perhaps the origin of the universe? I feel like the world has already decayed and must be changed. Youth itself might…"
Sorry, Asagi. I'm not trying to brush you off on purpose, but I really can't tell you what I was thinking about.
Whether it's the possibility that this island might sink, or the fact that my disciple has graduated and is now going off to become a terrorist.
Leaving aside whether you'd believe it, if you actually did believe me, that would create an even bigger problem.
"Stop, stop, stop. I get it. You weren't thinking about anything."
The Background Character's Ultimate Technique: Meaningless Groaning.
Anyone hit by that move could only feel speechless and assume they were overthinking things. After all, what profound thoughts could a background character possibly have?
"No, I was thinking quite a lot. And they were pretty profound thoughts."
Of course, the goal was to make people speechless, but if someone called him out and he immediately admitted it, that wouldn't work. He had to deny it and insist he had been thinking deeply.
That was exactly the kind of vain reaction a background character should have.
"Yeah, yeah, you were thinking deeply. Anyway, forget that. Have you decided who you're teaming up with for the field expedition?"
"It's not mandatory to form a team, but if I remember correctly, nobles like you have a required quota, right?"
Look at that. Completely fooled.
Wait.
Field expedition?
Team?
Quota?
What are those?
Seeing the confused expression on Cid's face, Asagi Aiba blinked several times. Surprise slowly appeared on her face.
"Wait… don't tell me you actually don't know?"
Should I know?
That was what Cid thought, and his face naturally showed the same confusion. He looked at Asagi Aiba with curious eyes, hoping she would explain what was going on.
"You… I… um…"
Sigh.
After realizing Cid genuinely had no idea, Asagi Aiba stammered for a moment before slapping her forehead and letting out a long sigh.
"Could you at least show a little interest in your own affairs? You don't even act like a noble."
As she spoke, Asagi Aiba pulled out her computer and began typing on the virtual keyboard.
"Well, honestly, lower nobles who have no ambition to climb higher aren't much different from commoners anyway."
After saying that, a webpage popped up on her computer screen.
"Just so you know, I don't actually understand this whole thing very well either. I originally thought you would know more about it than I do, so I planned to pick a suitable partner first and then ask you about it."
As she said this, a slightly dejected expression appeared on Asagi Aiba's face.
I'm really sorry, but I'm just the kind of person who doesn't pay much attention to things like that. And where exactly does your confidence come from that I'd know more than you?
"This is a program the school had already been rumored to be launching a few months ago, but nothing was confirmed for the longest time. It wasn't until a week ago that it was officially announced on the school website. Rossweisse-chan even brought it up in class."
Oh, then it wasn't strange at all that he didn't know.
If he had ever seriously listened to Rossweisse-chan's class even once, that would only prove he was still too green.
"This is the squad page, and this is the commission page."
Asagi Aiba clicked into one of the pages. Cid glanced over from the side and sneered inwardly.
Pfft. Which genius played too many adventure games and just copied the interface straight out of one?
"First, you need at least three people before you can apply to the school to create a squad. After that, one of them has to be chosen as the squad leader. Once the squad is established, you can keep adding members, up to a maximum of twenty."
"The purpose of a squad is to accept commissions that the various mythological systems or factions either can't solve on their own or don't have time to deal with. Once a commission is completed, the major factions will provide some rewards."
Are you serious?
You're telling me a bunch of legendary beings from mythology can't solve something, so they're going to hand it off to a bunch of still-growing youngsters?
Are they trying to send them to their deaths?
The part about not having time to deal with it sounded a lot more reasonable.
"Since squads sometimes go out on missions, forming a squad comes with the privilege of not having to attend class. After completing a commission, besides the reward from the client, the school also adds a considerable number of points."
"Wait a second, Asagi, I've got a question."
Cid interrupted Asagi Aiba's explanation.
"This thing was only officially announced a week ago, so some people should already have formed squads and accepted commissions by now. Is it possible to check which factions those commissions came from?"
Asagi Aiba looked at him in confusion for a few seconds, then nodded.
"That kind of information is considered internal squad confidentiality, so it isn't publicly displayed. But the school doesn't seem to care much about that. Uh… I know a little bit about this kind of thing. I should be able to hack in."
When Asagi Aiba mentioned hacking in, she paused for a moment.
Cid understood.
A little bit.
More like a whole lot.
Asagi Aiba clearly had no intention of exposing her ridiculous hacking skills in front of Cid, but Cid didn't care much about that.
He knew perfectly well what kind of relationship he had with Asagi Aiba.
They were just surface-level friends, each taking what they needed from the other.
There was no need for heart-to-heart trust. It was enough as long as they didn't sell each other's information.
"Found it."
After a series of operations Cid couldn't make heads or tails of, Asagi Aiba brought up several pages.
Yeah, these were probably the so-called internal squad pages.
"Let me see if there's anything strange here. Huh? That's weird. Why do most of these squads take their first commission from the faction their captain or one of their members belongs to?"
Cid had already more or less guessed why this department existed in the first place.
Saikai Academy was a half-aristocratic school.
Honestly, even the "half" could be dropped.
Its original purpose was to strengthen peaceful relations between the major factions, so the high-ranking members of each faction sent their children here to improve communication among the next generation.
By the time those children inherited their parents' positions, most of the others in the same year would likely have inherited their own positions too.
To put it more simply, the school's status was basically like the University of Tokyo.
The students here were all future high-ranking figures, getting to know one another in advance.
But there was a problem.
Even before officially inheriting their positions, the children of the major factions still had a duty to protect their own territories.
Especially now, with the worlds having fused, monsters were appearing in huge numbers, and all sorts of strange things buried deep underground had surfaced.
As a result, in today's world, you could just be walking around casually by the roadside and a monster might suddenly pop out.
Under those circumstances, was it really reasonable to have a bunch of supernatural beings sitting around at school studying while their combat potential was being wasted?
Yet at the same time, school was one of the rare ways to openly build outside connections.
Giving that up was out of the question.
So what were they supposed to do?
The solution they came up with was probably this.
First, it could be used as practical training.
Instead of training at school every day only to collapse instantly the moment a real fight turned serious, squads could head out into the territories of the major factions, clear out some weak enemies, and get used to actual combat in advance.
Second, it could strengthen relationships.
What was better for building bonds than fighting side by side?
Third, it was probably a way to poach talent.
After Cid told Asagi Aiba his guess, she was stunned and blurted out that the adult world was truly filthy.
Ignoring Asagi Aiba's dramatic reaction, Cid turned his attention to something else.
At the very least, he was still a noble right now.
Even if he was only a minor noble, his family should have informed him about something like this.
With that thought in mind, Cid took out his phone and opened his messages.
The most eye-catching thing was the dozens of unread messages his Nee-san had sent him several weeks ago.