While Leopin was spending a cheerful lunch break surrounded by beautiful girls...
The classmates from Class 1-20, the class Leopin used to belong to, were also eating lunch in the same courtyard.
However, their hands barely moved as they ate.
Class representative Weiss kept taking off his glasses, wiping them with a handkerchief, and rubbing his eyes over and over.
"It seems the new environment and days of hard work have worn me out more than I expected."
A few meters ahead of him on the grass sat Leopin, surrounded by three beautiful girls instead of just two.
"I must be seeing hallucinations now.
Monaka-san sitting next to Leopin is probably just out of pity for her childhood friend.
It is definitely not affection, but rather the compassionate feeling a princess holds toward a homeless person.
However, the presence of Akemi-san, the alchemist known as one of the academy's greatest beauties, next to him cannot be explained.
Therefore, this must indeed be a hallucination.
The biggest proof is that even Shinobuko-kun, who is supposed to protect Monaka-san from bad influences, is there with them."
Weiss muttered the same thing over and over as if trying to convince himself.
Beside him stood the strongman Monsoon and the thief Shibusu.
Both glared at Leopin with eyes full of resentment.
"Grrrr, that garbage guy is getting way too cocky...!
He's flirting like that with Shinobuko-san, the girl I admire...!"
"Gigigi, why is even Akemi-san...!
No matter how much I approach Akemi-san, she never shows any interest...!"
Then even the girls in the class started acting strangely.
"Leopin used to be totally crazy about me when he was in our class...!
I seriously can't forgive this...!"
"Huh? Big sis Carol, are you jealous, yans?"
"No way, idiot! Who would be into a guy like that! I'm just pissed that Leopin, who used to be my errand boy, is acting all high and mighty!"
"Big sis Carol used to tease Leopin all the time, yans.
Fake confessions, fake love letters..."
"Yeah, he's supposed to be my toy! And yet those girls are just taking him for themselves...!"
"Enough pointless chatter. Let's go, everyone."
"Eh!? Weiss, it's still lunch break!? Where are we going...!?"
"We're obviously going to search for the Wyvern Leather."
"But Weiss! The vice principal just said it's disguised with magic so we won't find it for a week!"
"Monsoon, that only applies if ordinary people like you are searching.
With a Sage like me, it should not even take a full day."
"As expected of Boss Weiss! I'll follow you anywhere, yans!"
"Leopin was trying to pass off some random cloth he picked up as the Wyvern Leather to become student council president.
That's just like him, an evil yet stupid plan.
He probably thinks that once he becomes president, we'll beg him to come back.
But he has not realized just how foolish and shallow he really is."
Laughter erupted from the classmates.
Weiss had unified the scattered hearts of the class once again.
He stood up dramatically and declared,
"From now on, the entire class will work together to find the Wyvern Leather!
Until we find it, Class 1-20 will skip all classes and suspend all pioneering activities! Understood!?"
"Ooooh!" The classmates stood up with renewed energy.
They did not know.
The thing they were searching for had already been obtained by Leopin.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
The members of Class 1-20 ran all over the school building, ignoring their classes, in search of the Wyvern Leather.
However, they could not find it.
Night eventually fell, and they were locked out of the building.
The members were exhausted from running around all day, but class representative Weiss refused to give up.
"Even if we cannot enter the building, we can still search! We will check the outside of the building and the surrounding gardens!"
At that moment, they were in front of the school gate, but everyone had collapsed in exhaustion.
Carol sat down heavily on the ground and muttered,
"I can't walk anymore, class rep. It's already late, so let's call it a day..."
"Carol, what are you saying!? By tomorrow morning, the Wyvern Leather will be in our hands...!"
Monsoon interrupted with "Hey, hey!"
"Weiss! You're not seriously telling us to search all night, are you!?"
"Of course we should, since we have not found it yet," Weiss answered as if it were obvious.
"Didn't you say we'd find it in one day?" "You did say that, yans!"
"That was only if your search efforts met my expectations.
I did not expect you all to be this incompetent."
"Hey! That's not fair! We were searching exactly like you told us to!?"
"Yeah! And we barely even ate lunch!"
"Then I shall give you the wise teaching of a Sage. 'Those who do not work shall not eat.'"
"You... If you keep talking like that...!"
Weiss's words created a hostile atmosphere in the class.
The thief Shibusu hurriedly spoke up.
"Th-Then let's have dinner here, yans! Once we fill our stomachs, good ideas will surely come, yans!"
"Huh? What are you talking about, Shibusu? There's nothing to eat."
"Yeah! We've been dragged around by Weiss all day and never went to get food!"
"I thought something like this might happen... so I prepared ahead, yans!"
Shibusu flipped over the backpack he was carrying.
Several fist-sized blue clumps with caps tumbled out.
"These are... mushrooms."
"That's right, Big Sis Carol.
Yesterday I went into the forest and picked some edible mushrooms, yans.
There are plenty, so let's have a mushroom party, yans."
"Well done, Shibusu!"
"Hmph. If everyone were as capable as Shibusu-kun, we would have already found the Wyvern Leather...
In consideration of Shibusu-kun's quick thinking, let us take a short break."
They did not know.
The mushrooms they were about to eat were the poisonous ones that Leopin had stopped them from eating yesterday.