Chapter 165: Pink Vorath

Haru spun his sword, performed a dash, and attempted to chain it into another move. However, his next maneuver went wrong.

“Argh!”

A sharp pain shot through his shoulder.

It wasn’t exactly the weight of the sword. He was already used to wielding Vorath. The problem was the combination of the weapon’s weight, the fatigue accumulated after an entire day of training, and a move he still hadn’t mastered.

Despite the pain, Haru didn’t stop.

He attacked again. Spun his sword, advanced, and repeated the movement. Once. Twice. Ten times.

He kept going until his shoulder protested with every strike.

And he only stopped when paint began splattering onto the ground.

“Ah, shit! I should’ve let it dry longer…”

Haru lowered his eyes to Vorath.

That very morning, he’d had to look for paint to cover his sword. Since he was being punished, he couldn’t leave the academy to go into town, so he’d had to make do with whatever resources were available at the dormitory.

Fortunately, he’d found paint in several colors.

Unfortunately, with the academy’s new points system, students had become rather stingy with their resources. Paint wasn’t exactly cheap, either.

And since Haru wanted to save his points for other things, he’d opted for the cheapest solution: pink paint. It was on sale.

Then he painted Vorath however he pleased.

The result was… well… questionable, to say the least.

And with what remained…

“Do we have to bathe the horses, too?” asked one of the students participating in the same activity—the cleaning duty—as him.

“No. The saint only told me to clean the stables and take care of the other tasks related to my punishment.”

The boy looked around. Several students wearing the orange cleaners’ uniforms approached Haru.

“Well, our work here is done.”

One of them held out his hand, a coin resting in his palm.

“We agreed on fifty percent before cleaning and the other fifty afterward. We’ve finished cleaning. Now pay up.”

Haru looked at him as though he’d just heard the most outrageous thing of the century.

“Come on, guys! We’re classmates!” he protested. “And on top of that, we’re all cleaners. You shouldn’t even be charging me for this!”

“Oh, fuck off! You went drinking, didn’t take us with you, got punished, and then hired us to clean in your place. That’s called karma… pay up! Mazukashu!”

“Exactly!” another student added. “Next time, invite us drinking. Then we’ll do the work for free.”

Haru remained silent for a few seconds.

‘What a bunch of bastards.’

For some reason, the cleaners’ duties seemed to cover almost the entire academy, except for the stables. And since his punishment included several of them, cleaning just one wasn’t enough.

There were stables scattered throughout different parts of the academy.

And Haru had absolutely no interest in spending the next few days cleaning every single one of them.

He wanted to train.

So he’d decided to hire his classmates and use the points he had left to buy himself some free time.

As soon as the first group finished, students he’d paid to clean the other stables began showing up to demand their payment.

“So, Mazukashu, where’s our money?”

Haru reached into his pocket.

Empty.

He checked the other one.

Empty, too.

He patted down his uniform pockets, searched his waistband, and even checked whether he’d put the coin somewhere else.

Nothing.

“Where the hell did I put that damn thing?!”

It was the Custodians’ coin he used to make payments and verify identities. And, as usual, he’d somehow managed to lose the exact thing he needed.

‘Did I give it to Yukihime? Or did Kira take it because she already knew I’d lose it?’

Haru grabbed his head with both hands.

“Ah, damn it!”

All the students stared at him. And precisely because of that, he didn’t dare check whether the coin was in his inventory.

One of the boys stepped forward.

“Mazukashu… we want our points. Are you fucking with us?”

‘That name again…’ Haru almost muttered.

It wasn’t the first or even the second time someone had called him that morning.

What the hell did Mazukashu mean? Was it this world’s equivalent of ‘bro’? Just some kind of exclamation?

“Mazukashu, I don’t have the coin on me. I forgot it,” Haru explained, trying to remain calm.

A student pointed toward the path leading to the men’s dormitory.

“Go get it.”

“Are you crazy?! Mazukashu, if the saint catches me outside the punishment area, I’m screwed!” Haru complained.

“And if the saint catches us helping you, we’re screwed, too!” Another student crossed his arms.

“Mazukashu, if you don’t pay us, I’ll tell him everything. And I’ll even explain the whole story in a way that makes you look like the only one responsible.”

Haru looked at the faces in front of him.

He was surrounded by creditors.

And he didn’t even have the money to pay them.

If fighting weren’t forbidden in that area, they probably would’ve beaten the shit out of him by now. However, since they all lived in the men’s dormitory and could easily find him there, they’d decided they could afford to wait.

After all, where could he run?

He couldn’t leave the academy.

“All right, all right!” Haru relented. “I’ll pay you this afternoon or tonight at the latest. I promise!”

“Mazukashu…”

The students finally began to disperse.

“Mazukashu, don’t forget!”

“Mazukashu to you, too!” Haru replied without a hint of enthusiasm.

“Why’s Mazukashu talking about himself in the third person?” one student whispered to another.

“Who knows… Maybe it’s part of Japanese culture.”

“Must be…”

Haru didn’t hear their whispers, since they weren’t talking to him anyway. And when the last student had walked away, his shoulders slumped.

‘What the hell does Mazukashu mean?’

‘Fuck it. Who cares?’

Haru sat on the ground, placed Vorath beside him, and picked up the bucket of pink paint he’d bought.

With a sigh, he dipped his brush into the paint and resumed painting the sword.

He still had five days until his retest.

Five days to prepare for a labyrinth he knew practically nothing about.

He didn’t know the route, the possible opponents, or the conditions he’d have to face. All he knew was that he needed to be ready for anything.

And since he’d probably be using a sword, he might as well start by taking care of it.

Haru ran the brush along the blade, covering the last patches where its original color still showed through.

The truth was, he didn’t know how many Gamers might recognize Vorath.

But he was almost certain he wouldn’t be the only one thinking about it.

Gamers had committed all sorts of acts since appearing in this world. Some might have left witnesses behind. Others might have been seen fighting. And if someone recognized a weapon used in one of those incidents, its owner’s identity could be put at risk.

So it made sense that they would start disguising their weapons.

Perhaps not just at Eldrath Academy, but throughout the entire world.

Haru continued painting.

‘Otherwise, why the hell would paint be so damn expensive?’

It was a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Or at least, it was the explanation he’d chosen to justify the money he’d just spent on a pink sword.

“Are you painting your weapon, too?”

Haru raised his head.

Genius stood in front of him.

Haru looked at the boy, then at the sword in his hands.

“Don’t tell me you painted yours, too, Baguette.”

Genius ignored the comment and approached him.

“This has become a trend around here. The NPCs… I mean, the non-Gamers have started thinking that painting weapons is the latest fashion. I’ve seen some designs you wouldn’t believe.”

Haru looked at Vorath.

The sword was now completely pink.

Pure pink.

He hadn’t even tried adding a design.

“I see,” he replied, finishing the last section of the blade.

He set the brush aside and waited a few moments, watching the fresh paint.

Then he decided that was enough.

Vorath disappeared into his inventory.

Haru stood up and dusted off his clothes.

“So, Baguette, what brings you here?”

“Did you forget that I’m in charge of installing the electricity in this area? I’ve got work to do here, too. And I came to paint my weapon.”

Haru raised an eyebrow.

“But don’t you have a house where you can do that?”

“I do.”

“Then?”

“We also need to talk about the System update.”

Haru’s expression grew a little more serious.

That was true. There were several things about the update they still needed to discuss.

However, before he could answer, Genius seemed to remember something.

“Oh, wait. Before that…”

He looked at Haru with a suspicious smile.

“Let’s go find that waifu of yours. The nun. Maybe she can consecrate the paint and somehow make the color permanent.”

Haru stared at him.

“Who? Lilithine?”

“That’s the one.”

Haru waved his hand dismissively.

“Hehe… she’s a complicated case.”

Genius furrowed his brow.

“But why?”

“Come on. You’ll understand when we get there.”