Chapter 64: Is it funny to get punished with cleaning the swimming pool?

Mashiro slammed her hand heavily onto the table.

Mashiro, sitting in her office chair, stared coldly at Charlotte, who was standing before her.

“Is this the result of your investigation?”

“Ah! I didn’t expect the commission to be so simple. The main culprit was that figure in white armor! Although I still haven’t figured out whose familiar that was, the incident can be considered closed now!”

“Oh? Is that what you think?”

“Since I’ve already completed the commission, when do I get my thirty academic credits?” Charlotte stared at Mashiro with an expectant look.

“Who said the commission is complete?”

“Ah? It’s not?” Hearing this, the expectant look on Charlotte’s face immediately froze.

“An hour after you dealt with the white armor, another student had her magical power drained. Clearly, the white armor wasn’t the final mastermind. The matter is far from over!”

“It’s like that? That’s really troublesome!”

“Not only that, but the dormitory wall that was blasted—that was your doing, wasn’t it?”

“Wha! How did you know? Wait, didn’t I already repair that wall?” Charlotte was utterly flustered.

“I don’t know who taught you Repair Magic, but the wall you repaired is as brittle as paper. Some students almost fell out of the building this morning because of your shoddy repair job.”

“No way!” Hearing this, Charlotte’s face turned bitter.

“You! Not only did you fail to complete the commission I gave you, but you also caused extensive damage within the academy! Do you think you have too many academic credits and want me to deduct some for you?”

Hearing this, Charlotte rushed forward and lunged onto Mashiro’s lap, trying to look pathetic to salvage her precarious academic credits.

“Please, Instructor Mashiro, don’t deduct my credits! I’ll do anything if you don’t deduct my credits!”

“Oh? You said that yourself!”

Ten minutes later, Charlotte stood blankly beside a swimming pool-like facility, carrying a mop and a bucket.

“This is…”

“As you can see, this was once a swimming pool!”

“No, I know this is a swimming pool, but in my memory, a swimming pool shouldn’t look like this!”

Charlotte pointed at the pool, which was overgrown with weeds, covered in algae, full of dirty water and trash, and even had a coconut tree growing in the center of the water. She spoke with a look of disbelief.

“The Academy Head predicted that this summer will be hotter than usual. If we don’t clean out the pool, everyone will become lethargic due to the heat. So, for the sake of earning back the academic credits that were deducted, and because you don’t want your mother to know, you’re going to clean the pool!”

“You…”

Charlotte gritted her teeth in anger, but she had no choice. She could only reluctantly accept the punishment.

“Instructor Mashiro, you win!”

With that, Charlotte rolled up her sleeves, picked up the mop, and plunged into a desperate battle with the dirty, messy pool.

“Well, I’ll leave this to you! I’ll come back in the evening for inspection. Good luck!”

Leaving those words, Mashiro walked away, leaving Charlotte alone in the pool, working hard and miserably.

Cleaning out this pool, which hadn’t been used in over a hundred years, was no easy task.

Charlotte tried to use her most familiar magic to deal with the mess. However, neither Holy Magic nor Fire Magic could effectively clean up these strange things.

After all, the weeds growing in a Magic Academy pool naturally possessed strong anti-magic properties. Ordinary magic was completely ineffective.

Unless she used the Special Grade Magic that could blow up the entire Starsea Magic Academy.

But if she did that, Instructor Mashiro would surely deduct her academic credits to negative ten thousand.

With her dream of becoming the Star Witch tightly controlled by Mashiro, she couldn’t afford to be defiant right now!

With no other choice, Charlotte had to use the most primitive method, physically clearing the weeds bit by bit.

Fortunately, the weeds weren’t as hard as rock. After scrubbing them twice with the foamy mop, they all detached from the pool surface.

It seemed that even thriving weeds in a Magic Academy were afraid of white soap foam!

Just as Charlotte was working hard, a figure quietly approached her from behind.

“Trying to sneak attack me? Not so easy!”

Charlotte quickly turned around and slammed the mop down, knocking the person who was trying to sneak up on her to the ground.

However, Charlotte was surprised to see that the person behind her was Yuffie, the girl with the “meow” speech-ending tic she had just met yesterday.

Yuffie, whose head was violently struck by the mop, lay on the ground, her small butt trembling.

“Hey! Are you alright!”

Charlotte quickly helped Yuffie onto a nearby bench.

It had to be said that benches were ubiquitous in this Magic Academy.

“I’m fine, meow, I’m fine, meow! Hehe, Yuffie is already used to it, meow!

“Yuffie, what are you doing here?”

“Yuffie heard everything from Senior’s little maid, meow. Senior is enduring such severe punishment to protect Yuffie, right? I’m so sorry for worrying Senior, meow!”

“Yuffie, you don’t have to deliberately add a ‘meow’ to the end of every sentence when you’re talking to me.”

“Eh?”

“I can tell you haven’t gotten used to that ‘meow’ speech habit yet. Sometimes you forget to add ‘meow’ when you’re speaking fluently.”

“Senior noticed, meow? It seems my disguise isn’t very skillful, meow!”

“I think anyone who cares about you a little would notice!”

Yuffie gave an awkward laugh, then lowered her head sadly.

“Senior, do you know? Before I entered this Magic Academy, I didn’t have a single close friend. I could only stay home alone every day, watching the other children gather and play happily outside the window.”

“How I wished I had a friend to play with! So, to make more friends, after entering this academy, I deliberately pretended to be innocent and lovable, hoping to make friends I could confide in. But now it seems the result was somewhat counterproductive.”

“Although I’ve made quite a few friends, they are all only superficial. I’m still the same as before, confined to a lightless room, enduring everything alone in loneliness…”

“That’s not true!” Just as Yuffie was radiating a gloomy aura, Charlotte suddenly grabbed Yuffie’s hand. Like sunlight, she immediately dispelled the gloom shrouding Yuffie’s heart. “You actually have a friend you can confide in now!”

“Who?”

“Me, of course!”

“Senior…”

“As long as you’re brave enough to say it, I won’t let you be alone anymore! My Night-Glow Tower is always open to you!”

“No, how can someone as weak as me be friends with Senior?”

“As I said, it’s not what you think! Haven’t you already tried incredibly hard up until now? How could I possibly dislike a child who constantly puts in effort?”

“Senior!” Hearing Charlotte, Yuffie burst into tears of gratitude. Then, she suddenly pulled herself together, jumping up from the bench. “Senior! I’ll help you clean!”

“Huh?”

“Don’t let my frail appearance fool you. I used to be very good at housework!” Yuffie unceremoniously snatched the mop from Charlotte’s hand and rushed into the dirty pool like a lone warrior, not looking back.

“Hah-la-la-la! Mere weeds are no match for me!”

Seeing Yuffie so energetic, Charlotte smiled slightly.

She recalled that when she was reincarnated into the real world as an ordinary high school student, she also had a junior like Yuffie who gradually emerged from her gloom under her care.

“Looks like I can’t let you get ahead of me! Yuffie, wait up!”

Charlotte then joined the battle to clean the pool.

“Yo! Working so hard, are we? Does that mean you’ve accepted that you’re going to lose to me?”

A familiar voice suddenly came from behind Charlotte.

Charlotte turned her head in confusion and saw Elsa squatting above the pool, staring down at Charlotte, who was cleaning the algae at the bottom of the pool.

Elsa was wearing a blue dress and a pair of delectable white stockings.

From Charlotte’s perspective, Elsa was presenting a “precious delicacy” to her.

However, Charlotte didn’t pay any mind to it. She had been a girl for fifteen years and was long accustomed to all sorts of feminine postures. A little girl’s temptation like Elsa’s couldn’t get Charlotte excited.

“Huh? What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to watch my future maid work hard, of course!”

“You sound very confident!”

“That’s natural. I won’t lie to you. I’ve already found a new way to quickly find the mastermind, and all I have to do now is look up the relevant information in the library.”

“A new way? What new way?”

“Hehe! I’m not telling you! All you need to know is that starting tomorrow, you’ll be my exclusive maid, Elsa York!”

Saying this, Elsa laughed heartily and walked away smugly.

“Huh? What the heck is that girl up to?”

Charlotte scratched her head in confusion.

However, she didn’t realize that behind her, a subtle change had come over Yuffie’s eyes.