Chapter 50: The Pen, Not the Gun

Some time had passed since the Trinity Allied Forces had taken control of the Arius District and rescued Mika, and finally, preparations for a certain matter were complete.

"Greetings to everyone of Arius,"

"Ugh… the Pop-Pop Cannon…!"

"What are you plotting, Machine Gun Girl…!"

The Arius students sat in chairs inside a classroom that had just been renovated yesterday, in an old school building long left unused. I stood at the teacher's podium and greeted them, but it was clear they weren’t exactly welcoming.

"Well… I am aware of the situation in Arius. It seems things were in a rather terrible state… and even though you are students, you weren’t given a proper education."

"All of this is because Trinity exiled Arius centuries ago!"

"Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas…"

When we entered the Arius District, some students—including the Arius Squad—had managed to escape, but most students and the adults responsible for their training were taken into custody.

The Arius students were brought under Trinity’s protection, both for questioning and to renovate the school buildings where they would study and the dormitories where they would live.

"Yes, that is Trinity’s responsibility. That is precisely why we have decided to once again accept everyone of Arius as our companions and provide you with the education you need."

This decision had been made at a recent meeting of Trinity’s upper management and teachers.

First, the Tea Party and Sisterhood sent relatively moderate students to serve as instructors for Arius. Assigning students as teachers was intended to ease the transition for Arius students, who had long been oppressed by adults.

The Justice Task Force monitored interactions to prevent disputes between former Arius students and other Trinity students. After all, the Arius students had been raised to harbor resentment toward Trinity, so trouble was always a possibility. Moreover, some Trinity students might attempt the kind of harassment Mika had experienced. The monitoring was meant to prevent that.

The Remedial Knights attended to the girls’ malnutrition and injuries, while the Library Committee supplied educational materials.

…This project was truly a joint effort by all of Trinity, aimed at ending centuries of conflict and atonement.

"Even if you say that, we won’t believe everything,"

"Everything is meaningless…"

Of course, things wouldn’t be resolved immediately. The glances the Arius students directed at me were skeptical at best. No matter how long it took, I’d have to carefully unravel their mistrust, little by little.

"Now then, we will start by distributing tests. By completing these, we can see how much academic ability you currently have."

"What’s in it for me if I do that?"

"Vanitas."

I had expected that kind of response. That’s why I had prepared a little incentive.

"As for grades… yes, anyone who scores above fifty percent will receive these sweets."

They were luxury-brand pastries often used at Tea Parties. I had been saving them for a special occasion, but I bought them out of my own pocket this time.

"Just the box looks ridiculously expensive…"

"I-I won’t give in just because you offer me something like that!"

Well, it was only for those who scored well… By the way, this test’s difficulty was roughly equivalent to the mock exam taken by the remedial class. Even Azusa, one of the Arius students who adapted relatively well to the outside world, managed only the thirties after a week of study. Whether anyone could score above fifty at this point… probably not.

The mock exam was conducted, and when the time ended, the papers were collected and run through a reading machine. Normally, teachers would grade each sheet by hand, but there was no time for that, so AI grading was used.

Thanks mainly to Millennium, AI had advanced so much that even written-response tests could be graded with nearly the same accuracy as human review. Though, in tradition-valuing Trinity, such systems weren’t widely used.

Now, the results for this class…

"Uh… the highest score is twenty-two points…"

"Damn it… and I did so well…"

"Sweets… Vanitas Vanit…."

The students were visibly crushed. I had known passing was nearly impossible, and dangling rewards in front of them made me feel guilty.

"…I see. Since everyone took the test quietly and sincerely… this time, as a special case, I will give sweets to all of you."

She opened the box and handed out cookies to match the number of students, with the extras given to the monitoring members of the Justice Task Force.

"Thank you for your work,"

"Ah, thank you…!"

Looking at the Arius students, they were happily unwrapping and munching the cookies.

"Everything is meaningless, but delicious food isn’t…!"

"Maybe she’s unexpectedly nice…? No, I won’t be fooled!"

And so, the remedial lessons for the former Arius students finally began.

The next day, I headed to the classroom with the Arius students, accompanied by Maasa. Yesterday, I had only administered the tests, so there had been only one instructor per classroom. From today onward, we would actually be teaching, so we placed two instructors per classroom to improve efficiency. The content of the lessons was entrusted to the students themselves.

By the way, Maiha was with Koharu. For some reason, she seemed slightly dissatisfied with participating not as a Trinity officer but as part of the Remedial Lessons Club’s activities—but well, Maiha would manage somehow.

"First, let’s go over the results of yesterday’s test and determine the areas you should focus on studying…"

As a trend, many students performed better in mathematics and the sciences than in other subjects. This was probably because such knowledge was important in combat. Mathematics was necessary for trajectory calculations, while chemistry and physics were essential for creating explosives or traps. Still, they had only been taught applied concepts without mastering the basics first, so it wasn’t ideal…

(Beatrice… damn it…)

At this point, she had probably been dealt with inside Gematria after calling Kivotos into play. There was no way to confirm, but as long as she didn’t take anything more from the Arius students, it didn’t really matter.

"Since you’re at least competent in the sciences, let’s start with the humanities… specifically, Japanese language."

Almost half of the students couldn’t write kanji taught at the junior high school level. Even the multiple-choice reading comprehension questions were nearly a total disaster. Classical literature? Almost everyone left it blank, unwilling to even attempt an answer.

It was nothing short of a catastrophe. But sadly… reading and writing had never been necessary skills for disposable pawns, so it made sense that they had been neglected.

"Let’s start with kanji. Given the circumstances you’ve been through, it’s understandable, but this level is far below what’s expected for high school students…"

"I saw it too… it’s absolutely terrible. I can never forgive the top ranks of Arius," Maasa spat, her irritation clear. From her perspective, anyone who had subjected these children to biased education, treated them not as students but as expendable soldiers, and exploited them… could only be evil.

"…Well, anyway. Let’s begin our lessons."

Though, for kanji, all we could really do was have them work through junior high kanji drills—there wasn’t much more to teach at this point.

After watching them work through the drills for a while, I asked something that had been bothering me.

"Everyone, why are you keeping your gas masks on?"

That’s right—they had worn gas masks through both the tests and the lessons. At my question, most of the students looked up at me. Their faces were obscured, but I could sense confusion and unease.

"Should we… take them off?"

"No, I just wondered if it was uncomfortable to breathe… If you prefer to keep them on, I won’t force you."

"Um… but… well…"

After a brief moment of hesitation, once one student removed her mask, everyone else followed. It was a face I rarely saw in the game.

"Ah, um, if wearing them makes you feel more comfortable, that’s perfectly fine."

I said, but in the end, no one put their masks back on. It must have been too bothersome to keep them on after all.

And so, we gradually worked through the lessons, slowly unlocking the closed hearts of the Arius students.

"Teacher Aika, what about this problem?"

"This… use this formula like this…"

"I see… so that’s how it works."

After a while, a few students began scoring over fifty points on the mock exams. The other classes showed similar improvements, meaning this project had begun to produce tangible results.

Of course, the feud with Arius hadn’t vanished entirely, but at least we had taken a definite first step toward resolving it.

"I’m hungry… can I have a snack, Teacher Maiha?"

"No way~! You just had one, and if you eat another now, you won’t have room for dinner."

"…Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas."

…But yes, I thought, we had at last taken that step forward.