Volume 1 Chapter 4.1
Honey Traps are the Ultimate Entertainment After School for
Scoundrels Part 1
Translator : PolterGlast
"It's
your own fault, you know? You should have known better before you pointed your
psychic abilities at me."
Nina said so
in a cold tone as she looked down at a blonde-haired male student cowering on
the ground.
She lightly
kicked him in the shoulder, and the blood-soaked boy screamed so loudly that
his throat went hoarse.
"Gyaaaaa~!
P-Please, no more!"
"Ahaha,
you're overreacting. I just stirred your internal organs a little bit. It
shouldn't hurt that much."
Nina seemed to
have already lost interest in the male student who was still groaning. She
looked at him as if he were a broken toy and laughed cruelly.
"Look, it
seems the next person has arrived. Since you're in the way, could you please
get the hell out of here?"
Nina casually
snapped her fingers, and the blood-soaked boy suddenly began to roll on the
ground.
The boy rolled
three meters through the copse of trees while screaming and finally stopped
when he crashed into the trunk of a spruce tree.
His body did
not move a twitch after that.
"......My
apologies. Our previous guest took a little longer than usual."
Nina turned a
perfect smile to the male student hiding behind a tree a short distance away.
"A......
Aa............."
Nina could
imagine precisely the fear he was feeling right now.
When he
arrived at the <duel> location at the appointed time, he found an unknown
male student being mercilessly beaten up. Anyone with a sane mind and
imagination would be convinced that they too would be beaten to death upon
witnessing such a scene.
"Why have
you been hiding all this time? Even though you were the one who challenged me
to a <duel>. Are you perhaps a shy person?"
She decided it
was time to end this.
"I'm
bored of waiting, so can I attack you now?"
"Wait......,
stop! Surrender! I surrender!"
The male
student, who had been hiding behind a tree, fled the scene, abandoning all
semblance of pride. Without once looking back at her, he cried out loudly and
disgracefully.
A series of
numbers suddenly appeared in Nina's mind.
It meant that
she had succeeded in taking half of the points from the student who had just
fled.
[Grue
Haysworth has conceded defeat. According to the rules, you are the winner. You
are awarded half of Gru's points, thirty-four points.]
Jake, the
strange tin cat who identified itself as the witness of the <duel>,
announced in a mechanical voice, and then flew away. Perhaps he was heading to
the place where the next <duel> would be held.
"............Fuh~."
The tension
loosened and Nina let out a long sigh.
She always
felt drained after giving her all in her acting. It's only natural, since she
has to erase her own identity and build a different persona from scratch.
"Well,
that was easy work. As expected from your acting skills."
The male
student, who was covered in blood all over, stood up before she knew it. With
steady steps, he came closer to her. Where were his previous wounds go?
"Your
acting was barely cutting it, though. The way you agonized was way
exaggerated."
"......
That's harsh. I thought I was good at this."
"I wonder
if we fooled that Jake thing? That doll seems to be able to see through
everything."
"A~, no
need to be wary of that one. It doesn't have the ability to record
images."
"......Huh?
How do you know that?"
It has only
been about three days since the two officially became accomplices. She had
noticed that Jin had been doing something behind the scenes, but she never
expected him to have dug up such a new discovery.
"Once,
Emma and I decided to try a <Duel> with only one point at stake. We
played tag in a wooded area. After she was out of sight, I checked Jake's
capabilities in detail. I tied him to a tree, laid him face down on the ground,
and submerged him in water......"
"Whoa,
what a poor thing!"
All she could
do was exclaim in disbelief.
While most of
the students were in the midst of frantically thinking about strategies to gain
points through <duel>, only Jin was fighting in a completely different
field. Although he had said he was aiming for the top of the school, Nina
understood that Jin had no intention of reaching it by any proper means.
"No
matter how roughly we treated the doll, it never once raised a voice of protest.
In short, it was just a radio that could fly and move around. It just listens
to our voices, and forwards it to someone in a distant location."
"No way,
I thought it was monitoring us this whole time ......."
"If Jake
had such a capability, there would be no need for the instructors to check our
psychic abilities with their own eyes. By making us believe that the doll is
always watching us, they can suppress our malicious thoughts of cheating - it's
a clever way of exploiting psychological illusions. Looks like our headmaster
is quite a shrewd person."
"Umm,
what about the pledge?"
"Unfortunately,
that one is real. I tried to break the rule in the pledge, and I had to forfeit
a point for it. There seems to be no penalty other than defeat."
"A-Are
you so eager to walk on a tightrope that much?"
"It's the
other way around, I don't understand why people would accept such an
incomprehensible system without doing any research."
Nina was once
again convinced.
This boy named
Jin Kirihara is completely insane.
He is a man
who will not choose his means to achieve his goal. He spends enormous amounts
of money and time to perform a single farce, or takes risks without hesitation
in order to gather information. ......
Just what kind
of life has he lived that would lead him to such a thought process?
Nina could
hardly believe that Jin had only lived the same number of years as her.
Her
accomplice, who had taken off his gaudy colored wig and removed his disguise,
lifted his mouth and grinned.
"Well,
with this, there won't be any more fools who would challenge you to a
<duel> for a while."
For their
plans to proceed smoothly, it was necessary to spread rumors so that no one
would carelessly challenge them to a <duel> - Jin had suggested this only
two days ago.
The scheme was
a success, but it was by no means without dissatisfaction.
"Don't
you think everyone will think I'm some kind of freak murderer or something?
What I just did was definitely going too far."
"The more
extreme the fear, the more vividly it will be remembered. So give it up."
"But
pretending to be a murderer is a bit......"
"No, no,
I was just playing dead. I even went to the trouble of staining my uniform with
paint. No matter how much that guy claimed what he saw, nobody can find any
evidence of murder."
"Well,
that's true, but ......"
Just as she
was about to be convinced, Nina realized the worst possibility.
"......
No, wait. If the body was not found, then wouldn't that mean people would say,
[The Stingrays must have covered up the crime]? I mean, wouldn't that be rather
more terrifying?"
"............Ah,
looks like lunch break is almost over. What's our afternoon class again?
History?"
"Don't
change the subject so abruptly! We haven't sorted everything out yet!"
"It's all
right. I'm going to add some more rumors that will improve your image."
"Eh,
really?"
"You get
up at 4:30 in the morning to pray for the person you killed."
"That
won't change anything! Rejected!"
"You
founded a new religion to teach children righteousness and purity of
heart."
"Wouldn't
that make me more dangerous!?"
"On your
days off, you spend your time in the forest, talking to birds and other small
animals."
"That
would be dangerous in a different sense! Everyone would be worried about
me!"
"You're
demanding too much. Have people ever told you that you are selfish?"
"Y-You
damn fraudster......!"
Perhaps to
avoid any further questioning, Jin walked away with a suspicious smile on his
face.
─I got carried away by
my temporary emotions and teamed up with an outrageous guy.
Although it
was partly inevitable since he held her greatest weakness that she was not a
psychic, she still felt that she was being pushed around too much.
Why did Jin enroll in the Heiberg Academy in the first
place?
And where did the desire to reach the top come from?
Is that his true aim? Is there a reason behind it?
Nina felt that
his motivation was fundamentally different from hers, who had no other choice
because of her family background.
"......I
will definitely question you about it someday."
After
confirming that she has one more goal for the future, Nina also returned to the
classroom building.
◆
"......The
first time the existence of a psychic was observed in our country was in 1887
of the Star Calendar - exactly 30 years ago, on July 15, 1887. Yes, as you all
already know, it was the year after a new type of bomb developed by the Allied
Forces was dropped on our capital city."
A
stubble-bearded male instructor, dressed in a military uniform, was reading
from a textbook in a tedious manner.
The
combination of the tedious late-afternoon class and the slow, drawn-out voice
made Jin feel as if he were being hypnotized.
Jin, with his
chin in his hands, was attending class with a behavior that was the opposite of
that of an exemplary student.
"The
first ability observed was a manipulation of matter, which is nothing special
nowadays. A young girl, eight years old at the time, surprised people by
levitating her favorite pen in the air. Soon after, a countrywide investigation
led by Dr. Van Dyne Strauss was conducted, and forty-seven children with powers
that could not be explained scientifically were taken into custody."
What is the
point of studying the history of heretics and the like at the Heiberg Academy,
where the main focus is on fighting for points through actual battles?
Jin suddenly
looked around the classroom from his seat on the far right of the last row.
Emma, sitting
in the front row, seemed to be fighting desperately against drowsiness, perhaps
bored by the banal content. Nina, wearing the mask of an honor student, is in
the front row pretending to listen to the class attentively.
The instructor
dutifully reads through the tedious text as though he has forgotten the
existence of the blackboard.
"At the
time, those who had awakened to their psychic abilities were despised as
<heretics>. They were regarded as children who had been cursed by the
chemicals released by the new bombs throughout the country. However, as time
went by, the number of heretics increased, and when people with inherent
psychic abilities, such as you here, were born, the situation surrounding the
country changed completely. It was also around that time that it was discovered
that psychic abilities would develop in a wide variety of forms depending on
factors such as family environment and childhood stresses."
The
explanation that followed was too unpleasant for Jin.
First, the
military and police, then large corporations, mainly in the manufacturing and
transportation industries, began to make use of these psychics. These monsters,
who had powers beyond human understanding and could create something out of
nothing, quickly swept the market and came to dominate the majority of people
who were supposed to be normal.
As soon as the
boring classes were over, Jin went to his usual place.
A fountain
that had long since dried up, was located in the corner of the path leading
from the classroom building to the student dormitory area.
Due to the
trees blocking the view from the pathway, coupled with the desolate atmosphere,
the area around the fountain was extremely unpopular.
When Jin
arrived, there was already a visitor ahead of him on the bench set up in front
of the fountain. Nina Stingray glanced at him and then hurriedly hid something
in her bag.
"What,
are you talking to yourself through your doll again?"
"Tsk,
wrong! I was just studying this child's modeling from an artistic point of
view......"
"I
couldn't care less, but if you need to go to a hospital, please just let me
know."
"H-Haaaaa~......!?"
Nina, who was
glaring at him with a frightening expression, looked, as usual, like a
completely different person from when she was in the classroom. Her polite tone
and graceful demeanor were completely gone.
"Truly,
you have a terminal personality. That's why you can't make friends!"
"What are
you talking about? You're the one whose only friend is that frog doll, aren't
you?"
"......T-There
are others! For example ...... umm ......"
".......
Alright, that's enough. Let's not talk about it, because it's only going to
make both of us feel sorry for ourselves. Don't forget that we're grave sinners
who don't deserve to enjoy our youth in the first place."
Nina was
unable to find a rebuttal to the bluntness of Jin's statement.
As Jin said,
the two had committed countless crimes since they became accomplices in front
of this fountain.
Nina, for
example, has been spreading rumors that are convenient for both of them with a
disguise technique that is so precise that it can never be detected unless
people match the faces and names of the entire school students.
The rumors
changed form as they spread from person to person, and before long, Nina had a
tamed tiger in her dorm room, the Stingrays' pressuring of the railroad company
was responsible for the few delays of the steam locomotives here in Heiberg,
and the recent sunny weather was due to rain clouds that were afraid of her.
"Yeah,
this is getting a little ridiculous, isn't it?'"
Nina asked at
one point, and Jin voiced his opinion with a sigh.
"It's
just fine to be the butt of someone's jokes. But it's better this way than to
be deified so much that we can't even move properly."
"But who
would believe such rumors?"
"Of
course there are none." Jin chuckled deep down in his throat. "If
anything, it's better to have rumors with zero credibility spreading around.
From now on, we don't have to worry about the consistency of the rumors
whenever we devise a scheme. Besides, the fact that such strange rumors are
spreading is sufficient proof that you are well-known as a monster, no?"
"Hmm, I'm
not entirely convinced, but ......"
"Information
manipulation is all about planting the seeds. If we keep accumulating such
seeds, they may come in handy later on."
Seeing that
Nina had no rebuttal, Jin continued.
"......Well,
the real game starts next week."
Jin smiled
fearlessly, like a gambler with a big job ahead of him.
"First of
all, next week, we'll have to go through the first hurdle, which is called
<Ability Assessment>. Once a month, we have to demonstrate our psychic
abilities in front of the instructor. Then on Friday, the <Practical
Exam>, which is the best opportunity to earn points, begins. This one comes
once every two weeks, I think."
"<Ability
Assessment>, huh? Doesn't it sound bad? How are we going to get through
that?......"
"You
never thought of that before you enrolled?"
"......Ugh,
I can't say anything back."
Jin, who has
the psychological type's psychic ability (or so the instructors think), can be
fooled as much as he wants, but for Nina, who has to perform psychokinesis
alone with the instructors, it's a different story. Paranormal phenomena such
as levitating or destroying objects are beyond the scope of what can be covered
by lying or acting.
"Well, we
can't keep fooling the instructor with tricks every time."
"Huh?
What should we do then?"
"We have
to blackmail the instructor."
"Black-......"
──── Blackmail.
The word Jin
casually said brought an unpleasant feeling to her eardrums.
Nina hurriedly
objected.
"Don't
say anything strange! I don't want to help you with that kind of crime!"
"I
misspoke, actually it's that. We’re just going to talk peacefully with the
instructors and ask them nicely so that we can go through the <Ability
Assessment> every time."
"That's
definitely a lie! There is no way you are willing to have a peaceful discussion
with them!"
"I wish
you would believe me there. I was on the student council in middle school, so
I'm used to having discussions with adults."
"Didn't
you mention that you never went to school before!?"
"Of
course not. Even this country has at least a compulsory education system."
"I-I
can't...... I don't know what the truth is anymore ......."
Ignoring Nina,
who had her head in her hands, Jin began to explain.
"In the
<Ability Assessment>, about five instructors per class are supposed to
check the students' psychic abilities. So, we only need one sla- ....... I
mean, instructor, to cooperate with us. We just need to ask that one instructor
to be in charge of us every time."
"You were
about to say [slave], weren't you?"
"......And,
I have some information about the instructor we'll be targeting."
Nina had no
idea where he got the information from, but he handed her a memo with detailed
information.
The
instructor's name is Rudy Beumer. He is a thirty-six-year-old male. He was
teaching history in their class just a few minutes ago.
Although he is
not a psychic himself, he was hired as an instructor at the Heiberg Academy
because of his leadership skills in the military, to which he once belonged.
He has a
gambling addiction, which led to his divorce three years ago. As a matter of
course, he is in debt, and is forced to repay his debts every month, even
though he has a stable job.
Incidentally,
he has been hiding these facts from the school for a long time. ──
"......You
sure investigated a lot, huh?"
"Stop it,
you're making it sound like I'm omniscient and omnipotent."
"I never
said that!"
After
instructing her to rip up the memo and burn it once she had memorized its
contents, Jin flashed a wicked grin.
"It's an
ironclad rule of fraud to target people with guilty secrets."
Just like
that, Jin began to outline the plan in a sing-songy tone.
While
listening to this, Nina was so stunned that she had long passed the point of
anger and confusion.
Beginning with
the information on Instructor Rudy's background and the outline of the
<Ability Assessment>, then laying an ingenious trap for him, and finally
formulating a plan to blackmail him........
Just how much
time had Jin spent preparing for all of this?
Of course, as
he explained his plan with a grin on his face, Jin seemed to be truly enjoying
the act of deceiving people.
But could he
really go to such lengths for such a reason?
"Nina,
this plan depends on your acting skills."
Various
questions were swirling in her mind, but Nina could only nod her head for the
time being.
◆
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