Chapter 5

“What did it just say?”

“Sableheart is going to the Maze of the Bear?”

“The student council president’s little sister?”

“Isn’t something wrong?”

Ignoring all the eyes on her, Daisy staggered down from the stage and returned to her seat.

Then she looked down at her name tag.

At some point, the name tag had turned black, the color of her new dormitory.

【Daisy Sableheart】

God.

Daisy prayed with a calm expression.

Are you crazy?

Her thoughts were anything but calm.

I asked you to help me avoid the crazy crows, and you gave me the crazy bears instead? What, are you saying, “At least you won’t be exploited, so why don’t you get torn apart by monsters instead”? Is that it?

A dorm full of villains who will destroy the entire world? Fine!

But having one of those villains sleep in the bed next to mine is a completely different problem!

My quiet and ordinary academy life…

Daisy slowly raised her head.

“……”

Then she lowered it again.

It’s over. It’s completely over…

Every single student in the academy was looking at her.

If people could burn someone to death just by staring, she would have died about 182 times already.

No, this isn’t the time for this.

I need to pull myself together.

From now on, I have to survive among crazy villainous bears instead of crazy crows.

The original Daisy had answered “yes” to everything, allowing people to take advantage of her.

She lived a miserable life and eventually died.

So what would the new Daisy do?

Daisy clenched her small fist firmly and made a decision.

From now on, every suggestion and request will receive the same answer: “No.”

Daisy Sableheart would never become an easy target.

And…

I need to blend in as much as possible without standing out.

I need to have no presence at all…

“Just be completely ordinary.”

Daisy’s normally gentle eyes flashed with an unusually intense light as she made this decision.

“……”

“……”

Daisy didn’t know that the moment the surrounding students met her eyes, they instinctively lowered their gazes.

Hey, her eyes look crazy.

She’s insane.

Don’t make eye contact with her.

So this really is the Maze of the Bear.

Daisy had been accepted by her classmates surprisingly quickly.

For someone who was worried about being taken advantage of, she had already earned quite a reputation.

And that was how Daisy Sableheart became a student of the Maze of the Bear.

The new students weren’t the only ones shocked by the helmet’s final announcement.

A huge commotion broke out among the returning students in the spectator stands.

It definitely said…

Yeah.

Sableheart went to the Maze of the Bear…

“……”

Hearing the whispers around him, Kaillen’s sharply shaped platinum eyebrows twitched.

His eyes remained fixed on one person.

The platinum-haired girl staring down at her black name tag.

Daisy Sableheart had been assigned to the Maze of the Bear.

Daisy.

That Daisy.

“Hey, isn’t that your sister…?”

The person beside Kaillen was shocked.

But after seeing Kaillen’s face, he became even more shocked and immediately shut his mouth.

This wasn’t the usual face of the calm and rational student council president.

Why?

Kaillen simply couldn’t believe it.

He had been certain Daisy would go to the Hall of the Crow.

At worst, he had thought there was a small chance she might end up in the Garden of the Bee.

But…

“Wow, your little sister got into the Maze of the Bear?”

At that moment, a voice filled with amusement came from right beside him.

Kaillen turned his head.

A silver-haired man with golden eyes was smiling playfully.

“……Your Highness, Crown Prince.”

“I told you to call me Ash.”

“I thought you weren’t going to attend the entrance ceremony.”

“I thought so too.”

The man called the Crown Prince blinked his long silver eyelashes with an innocent expression.

Every time he blinked, his face was so beautiful that it looked as though tiny stars were falling from his eyes.

People often described him this way.

The Crown Prince, Ashburn Pendulum Wislmoor.

What nonsense.

Kaillen looked at the Crown Prince’s annoyingly perfect face.

Of course, he had absolutely no intention of saying those words aloud.

But Ash smiled even more deeply, as if he had somehow heard Kaillen’s thoughts.

“How did this happen? The Maze of the Bear? I thought she was a quiet and kind girl.”

“……”

I thought so too.

Kaillen remembered Daisy’s gentle face from before the entrance ceremony.

“Brother.”

“……”

“Someone asked me to give this to you…”

Before the entrance ceremony, Daisy had constantly carried letters to him.

Kaillen frowned.

The expression on Daisy’s face as she stared at her black name tag didn’t look like the Daisy he knew.

Come to think of it…

When was the last time that girl, who used to come to me with letters almost every day, stopped coming?

Ash watched Kaillen’s reaction and quietly chuckled.

“Hmm. Interesting.”

No.

This isn’t interesting at all.

Clap clap clap clap clap clap!

“You’ve been assigned to the Maze of the Bear!”

Suddenly, a loud round of applause came from above Daisy’s head.

The winged sparkle was floating about five centimeters in the air, happily clapping his hands.

“The Maze of the Bear is a truly wonderful dormitory! A really wonderful dormitory!”

A bad feeling suddenly ran down Daisy’s spine.

Don’t tell me that sparkly guy…

“That’s right. I’m the dorm supervisor of the Maze of the Bear.”

Wink.

The winged sparkle winked.

“……”

Why are bad feelings always right?

“I didn’t know you thought so highly of me. I’m honored.”

“I don’t think highly of you.”

“I’m touched.”

“I said I don’t think highly of you.”

“Even God must find you incredibly adorable!”

“What? What does that…?”

“Come on! New students of the Maze of the Bear! This way!”

Before Daisy could finish her question, the winged sparkle pushed her forward.

She had no choice but to start walking.

Among the sea of colorful name tags, there weren’t many black ones.

That was only natural.

If there were too many black ones, the world wouldn’t just have a problem.

The academy itself would probably be destroyed.

“About twenty people?”

Daisy roughly counted the new students gathered around her, all wearing black name tags.

Then she suddenly noticed a girl whose eyes were red as if she had been crying for a long time.

Daisy flinched.

The girl was glaring at her as if she wanted to kill her.

“What…?”

Then Daisy suddenly realized where she had seen her before.

She was the girl who had been sitting on Lydia Penmarch’s left.

Lydia was nowhere to be seen.

I see how it is.

Daisy raised her platinum eyebrows as she looked at the black name tag beneath the girl’s messy brown hair.

Lydia had abandoned her the moment she was assigned to the Maze of the Bear.

“This is all…”

The girl muttered with a twisted expression.

“This is all… because of you…!”

What would the original Daisy have said at a time like this?

She probably would have apologized.

But I’m not her.

Besides, the dormitory assignment was an MBTI test, for crying out loud.

“No. How is that my fault?”

Daisy answered firmly.

The girl looked up in surprise, as if she had never expected Daisy to answer back.

“W-What?”

“You chose your answers, didn’t you? The answers to those questions.”

“N-No…”

“Then what? Did Lydia Penmarch choose the answers for you?”

“No!”

What do you mean, no…

“No! It’s not! It’s not! I said it’s not!”

Suddenly, the girl screamed.

Her high-pitched voice was mixed with sobbing, causing the new students nearby to turn and stare.

“It’s not! Waaah! I’m not supposed to be in the Maze of the Bear!”

“Waaaah!”

The girl stomped her feet and cried as if she were completely devastated.

Daisy was the one who became flustered.

“W-What? Why are you crying…?”

“Look, Daisy Sableheart must have made her cry.”

“Wow, what’s wrong with her personality?”

“As expected of someone from the Maze of the Bear.”

“……”

This is bad.

Daisy’s only goal, “graduate quietly and normally,” was rapidly getting farther and farther away.

I need to get away from all these eyes.

So…

“Waaah! Sob… Urgh!”

Daisy immediately spread both arms and pulled the girl into a tight hug.

Then she patted her back comfortingly.

“Yes, you’re sad because you were assigned to the Maze of the Bear. I understand.”

Her voice was almost completely emotionless, like a machine.

“And you were already sad about being assigned to the Maze of the Bear, and then Lydia abandoned you too. So that made you even sadder. I understand.”

The girl struggled in an attempt to escape.

“Ugh… Are you making fun of me…?”

“Oh dear.”

Daisy ignored her and hugged her even tighter.

Then, with their faces close together, Daisy growled quietly into her ear.

“Be quiet.”

Hic.

The girl hiccupped.

I barely said anything. Why are you so scared?

Apparently, Lydia’s former companion was even more timid than Daisy had expected.

To prevent the girl from starting to cry again, Daisy hugged her even harder.

Squeezeeeee.

“U-Ugh…”

Daisy didn’t realize that at this point, she was closer to crushing the girl than the girl was to bursting into tears.

What is happening?

The girl, Nora Spence, blinked her eyes, which were almost popping out from the pressure.

Was Daisy Sableheart always this strong?

No. That’s impossible.

The Daisy Sableheart she knew was…

A hamster.

Not because she was cute.

Rather, Daisy had simply been someone weak and harmless.

A stupid little hamster that couldn’t say anything no matter how much people squished her, poked her, or messed with her.

But now that hamster was suddenly using incredible strength to try to crush Nora.

A hamster was harmless.

But a hamster that was trying to crush you?

That changed everything.

God, if you just get rid of this crazy hamster, I swear I’ll live a good life from now on.

“I really just want to graduate quietly.”

Nora wanted to say that if she wanted to graduate quietly, she should at least stop crushing people.

But Nora couldn’t open her mouth.

She felt like she would literally explode if she did.

“So cooperate with me.”

“……”

“Do you understand?”

Daisy’s low voice sounded as though it carried a hidden threat.

Even if you don’t understand, you should say you do. Right?

“Sniff… sob…”

“Answer me without crying.”

“S-Sob… y-yes…”

“Good.”

It was absolutely not good.

“Okay, then stop crying now.”

Thump! Thump!

Daisy continued patting Nora’s back so hard that it felt like her organs were being shaken loose.

As she endured it, Nora thought Daisy really was like a hamster.

A crazy, super-strong hamster.

Crazy Strong Hamster.

Or, for short…

CSH.

And so, despite Daisy genuinely trying to be kind, a completely unfair nickname was born.