After the entrance ceremony ended, the semester officially began.
Which meant that my work as a Jam Tiger had officially begun as well.
“So cute~!”
“Kitty, do you want to try this?”
Oh, as expected of Roll Bun Head, the embodiment of trust and generosity.
True to her spring-loaded hair, the food she brings is quite high quality.
I took a bite of the soft bread piece—something I’d never get to taste back at the harbor.
A bit salty.
But still, not bad.
“Isn’t someone taking care of it? It’s so soft…”
“Maybe it’s the gardener’s cat? It doesn’t even shy away from people~”
Head, back, tail—
Their hands mercilessly tickled me.
But unlike Alice’s rough handling on the day of the entrance ceremony, their touches were much gentler.
So I sat calmly on the bench and accepted their affection.
These girls had paid me a fair price, after all.
And unlike insurance companies, I don’t take the reward and then act clueless.
“Hey, Amy, did you hear?”
“About what?”
“Lady Linnaeus… She apparently sent her sparring partner to the infirmary.”
“Seriously?”
Orca, did you beat someone up again?
Having played Academy Chronicle for over a thousand hours, I could picture it perfectly in my head.
Ten to one, some eager noble kid rushed in, going, ‘Lady Linnaeus! Please spar with me!’
And just like she did back in the knight order, she beat them to a pulp.
Then, out of habit, she must have pressed her sword to their neck—
And, with those fierce eyes of hers, delivered an intimidating verdict.
“Pathetic.”
Well, what did they expect?
She was used to sparring with knights.
The gap between experienced warriors and noble kids who weren’t even squires was massive.
If she treated them like her usual sparring partners, they’d end up as nothing more than punching bags.
I didn’t know if the poor guy actually had to be carried away, but judging by how these two were gossiping, it was probably a pretty pitiful sight.
“My father told me to build a connection with Lady Linnaeus, but I have no idea how.”
“Right? She glares at us the moment we get close. How are we supposed to befriend someone who looks that terrifying? I bet my father was just saying it for the sake of it!”
Hmm.
I still wasn’t sure if she was the protagonist.
If she were just a companion, her story path would be fixed.
But in an open-world RPG like this, the protagonist’s role was more flexible.
Since it was an academy-based game, communication played a huge role.
Reputation changed drastically depending on how one acted.
One thing was certain, though—whoever drove the main narrative forward would be the protagonist.
That person would naturally stand out in due time.
Still, I wanted to figure it out as soon as possible.
The story would change significantly depending on who the protagonist was.
In the game, the chapter bosses and even the ending would shift accordingly.
So before the first semester ended, I needed to determine who held the protagonist’s role.
Hopefully, it was Orca.
Her story was the closest to a classic shounen manga.
A girl who had been alienated for various reasons, growing stronger and eventually slaying an evil dragon to become a hero.
Simple.
Classic.
And easy for me to latch onto and reap some side benefits.
Simple stories are the best, after all.
Far better than Alice’s convoluted magic-bloodline-reincarnation nonsense.
Monster Beater?
She should just marry a monster or something.
Madison… hmm.
That storyline was kind of dull.
Irina wasn’t bad, but if I got involved with her, I’d probably end up suffering.
Rebuilding a hunting faculty that had gone extinct a hundred years ago?
That sounded like the kind of thing that would drag me into trouble.
I mean, what use would they have for a Jam Tiger like me?
Still, something about it gave me a bad feeling.
She had a ridiculously sharp intuition, so if I got caught up with her, I might not be able to escape.
Well, no point thinking about it now.
I’d be able to confirm the main route within two weeks anyway.
For now, I just needed to focus on my Jam Tiger business.
“Here, some dried fish for you~”
“Lig.” (Roger.)
Ohh, dried fish!
It was nowhere near as good as freshly caught fish, but a Jam Tiger always accepted what was given.
I bit into the fish and chewed happily.
Man, these girls even gave me dessert.
This was almost too good to be true.
Maybe I should give them a little extra service.
I widened my eyes, perked up my ears, and lifted my head ever so slightly.
“Amy, my heart hurts…”
“Lady Glory, mine too…”
Perfect.
All that practice paid off.
“Amy, don’t you think we should take it with us?”
“Yeah! There are students in the dorms who keep pets too!”
Wow, so this fancy dorm allows pets?
Not bad.
But take me with you?
Who do you think you’re taking?
I smoothly slipped out of their grasp and leaped off the bench, landing behind it.
“Aww…”
Their disappointed sighs tickled my ears.
But a Jam Tiger must never act on fleeting impulses.
People who talk like that rarely know how to care for a cat properly.
They probably thought, “Oh, if I take it home, feed it delicious food, and let it sleep somewhere warm, it’ll keep being cute forever!”
That was just a shallow impulse.
Maybe I sounded like an old man, but this was the wisdom of experience.
So—
“Hey, let’s go already.”
“But I’m not done eating—”
“Hurry up.”
“O-Okay.”
After being thoroughly petted by the girls and nearly crossing the line into becoming a pampered house cat, the brown-furred one and I found ourselves at dusk.
“…”
Being a Jam Tiger isn’t easy.
If I overstep even a little, I might actually get kidnapped.
In just the three days since the entrance ceremony, I’ve already heard “I want to take it home” five times.
And each time, it came from a different person.
Should I be happy about my popularity or annoyed?
I’d received so much food that I even had to stash some away and secretly pass it off to the dumpster.
I guess I should take it positively.
It’s not like I’m some weak-willed cat who’d sell out and become a house pet just because of food.
“Let’s stay hidden somewhere until night falls today.”
“Why? If we stay here, we’ll keep getting food, right?”
“You’re gonna get caught by humans at this rate.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
Ah, so in your head, humans who give food = good humans is a solidly stitched-in formula.
I wonder how much effort it’ll take to unpick that stitching.
“How many times do I have to tell you? Even if you get taken in by a human, they’ll enjoy it for a bit and then toss you out.”
Humans are fickle.
They bring animals home on a whim, but the moment that animal misbehaves a few times, they lose interest.
You already experienced it once—haven’t you learned anything?
I swallowed the rest of my words and gazed at the sunset.
Watching the sunset after finishing work always reminded me of the commute home—something I’d never experience again.
Every time I saw it, it had a strangely calming effect.
“Let’s sleep under the bench behind the fountain today.”
“Okay.”
The brown-furred one agreed without resistance.
————
When I opened my eyes, the blinding moonlight stabbed into them mercilessly.
Ugh, my eyes.
Squinting through the moisture welling up, I crawled out from under the bench.
A silent garden greeted me.
A dark night.
I wasn’t sure what time it was, but it had to be close to midnight.
Stretching as I tried to roughly gauge the time, I started wandering the garden for a stroll.
Compared to right before the entrance ceremony, the flowerbeds were more vibrant, the bushes neatly trimmed, and even the area around the fountain had been cleaned up.
All thanks to the gardener who worked while we slept.
So far, I hadn’t interacted with them much, but it might be a good idea to close that distance soon.
The gardener was also a potential can-opener candidate.
Since I was practically living in the garden, building a connection with its caretaker would be beneficial in many ways.
Having another human who might protect me if trouble arose wouldn’t be a bad thing, either.
That aside, it was about time I started making my moves.
Up until now, I’d focused on my main duties while casually mooching off food.
But now, I needed to begin my fieldwork.
It was time for the Jam Tiger, previously a fixed encounter in the garden, to evolve into a roaming random encounter around the academy.
Open-world games need their random encounters, after all.
I could also observe the protagonist candidates in class, maybe even build some relationships.
Especially with Orca, my planned second can-opener.
She was diligent, which meant she’d be a stable food source once converted.
And if she turned out to be the protagonist, it’d make tracking the story flow much easier.
Lost in thought as I aimlessly wandered, I suddenly sensed movement in the distance.
Who could be here at this hour?
It wasn’t likely that my neighbors were coming to find me.
Curious, I turned my head—
And met a familiar gaze.
“…You.”
“Meow.”
Orca Linnaeus.
A reunion after about two weeks.