Prostration Sweet Potatoes

After that, in order to save the residential students from their food shortage, I harvested sweet potatoes.

With the Mana Farmer skill, I could grow as many vegetables as I wanted from here on out.

I left seed tubers in the field and loaded all the remaining sweet potatoes onto a handcart.

One cart wasn’t enough, so I hastily built another one as well.

“I wouldn’t mind taking these to the residential area myself, but the principal and vice principal told me not to go there for a while.

Could someone call for some extra hands?”

Akemi then went and brought over a group of male students who hung around her.

Like worker ants, they carried the heavy carts diligently without a single complaint.

As I watched them leave, Monaka spoke to me with a worried look.

“Um… is it really all right for us to take these?

You worked so hard to grow these vegetables, Leo-kun…”

“Don’t worry about it. I had fun doing it, so it’s fine.”

“…Leo-kun, you really are… truly amazing…

Not only did you build such a wonderful house all by yourself, you even built my home…

On top of that, you saved us from the disaster, and now even from a food crisis…

You’re just too incredible… I feel like I might lose myself…!”

Monaka’s eyes began to well up, so I teasingly placed a hand on her head and gave it a light pat.

“Hey now, is Crybaby Monaka making a comeback? I used to pat your head like this whenever you cried, remember?”

“I-I’m not crying anymore…”

Monaka looked down shyly.

As if trying to calm her racing heart, she pressed both hands to her chest and muttered in a tiny voice.

“B-But… I still want you to pat my head…”

After saying goodbye to Leopin, the three girls—Monaka, Akemi, and Kotone—left the forest.

But the moment they stepped outside, hell awaited them.

The residential area was still buried in rubble, and the removal work was barely progressing.

Only the main paths had been cleared, and even those looked more like a garbage dump.

It was nothing like Leopin’s place, which had been leveled and even had farmland.

Akemi muttered in exasperation.

“Haah… I can’t even tell which place is the dump anymore.”

There were two reasons the cleanup wasn’t moving forward.

Most of the students at the Royal Pioneer Academy were sheltered nobles, so they had never done rubble-clearing work before.

But that was only the minor reason.

The biggest reason keeping the area buried in debris was the cleanup rule itself.

The rule stated that each class was responsible for removing rubble only within its own territory.

The students cared only about their own classes, dumping debris from their areas into other classes’ territories and pretending nothing happened.

In other words, the trash was just being passed back and forth between zones…!

As a result, the territories of the top-ranked classes were cleaned up quickly, while the lower-ranked classes remained buried in rubble.

Some students had even begun living among the debris, turning the academy into something closer to a slum.

Passing through groups of homeless students, the three girls returned to Monaka’s centrally located house.

Thanks to Leopin’s wall, Monaka’s home had escaped damage, and its spacious grounds had effectively become a shelter.

When the carts piled high with sweet potatoes arrived, the students erupted in excitement.

They gathered as if lining up for wartime rations.

Their gratitude poured out.

“That’s incredible! That many sweet potatoes!?”

“I haven’t eaten anything decent lately—this saves us!”

“As expected of Lady Monaka and Lady Kotone! To bring us this much food!”

“Bless you! Bless you!”

But the two girls cut off the prayers.

“Please stop. These sweet potatoes were not brought by us.”

“Indeed. Therefore, you should give thanks to that person before eating.”

“Huh!? This wasn’t your doing? Then who was it…?”

“Leo-kun.”

“Our master.”

Spoken in stereo, the answers were different.

Yet they pointed to the exact same person…!

“Leo-kun gave us the vegetables he grew for himself because we were in trouble!”

“Oh, what a broad-hearted man our master truly is!”

“Therefore, these vegetables will only be given to those who properly thank Leo-kun!”

“Indeed! Those who have received our master’s permission may take them in turn!”

“W-Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?!?”

“Fwaaah… I’m stuffed full of sweet potatoes. I’ll take a nap, then get back to farm work in the afternoon.”

I returned home and lay down on my bed.

Just as I was drifting off, there was a knock at the front door.

“Hm? What is it? Monaka and the others again? Man, I was feeling so good too…”

With a sigh, I got up and opened the door.

Standing there was an unfamiliar female student.

Before I could ask who she was, she quickly bowed her head.

“Leopin-kun! Thank you for the sweet potatoes!”

That told me everything.

“Oh. Don’t worry about it.”

To think someone would come all this way just to say thanks—there really were earnest people out there.

Feeling sleepy, I tried to close the door, but the girl wedged her troubled face into the gap.

“Um, wait! Please say ‘You may rise’!”

“What are you talking about?”

Apparently, she couldn’t receive sweet potatoes unless she thanked me and I replied with “You may rise.”

“I don’t know why it’s come to this, but can’t you just pretend I said it?”

The girl pointed anxiously toward my window.

There, peeking in, was Shinobuko.

“Nin. By Lady Monaka’s order, I am confirming that proper thanks are given.”

“Wh-What a pain…! You don’t need thanks or anything…!”

But the girl looked at me with the face of a starving puppy.

“Ahh, fine. ‘You may rise.’ That good enough?”

The girl’s face immediately filled with gratitude, as if she had just received alms.

“Th-Thank you, Leopin-kun!”

She bowed once more and hurried off.

I thought it would finally quiet down, but another male student pushed his face into the doorway.

He glared up at me sullenly, waiting for my words.

When I said nothing,

“Hey! Hurry up and say ‘You may rise’ already!”

“Why would I?”

“Don’t mess with me! You’re just a dropout from the Special Training Class, yet you’re acting all high and mighty!”

“And who’s the one trying to get food from that dropout?

If you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat.”

“Ah…! I-I’m sorry! I lied! Leopin-kun! Please, the sweet potatoes…!”

“Then prostrate yourself properly and ask.”

“Ggh…! Y-You bastard…! P-Please… please, Leopin-kun…!”

Like the first girl, anyone who thanked me properly got a single “You may rise.”

But anyone who showed a defiant attitude, like that boy, had to prostrate themselves.

Some even spat, “Screw this! Who’d ever bow to trash!” and stormed off.

Yet hunger proved stronger.

After a while, they came back, collapsing flat on the ground in tears.

“Please! Please, Leopin-kun—no, Leopin-sama! I haven’t eaten anything decent in forever! If you abandon me, I’ll starve to death! Uwaaah! Woooooooaaah!”

To think someone could throw away their pride so completely over a single sweet potato…

I was past being exasperated—I was genuinely impressed.