Slave Tickets

Since the rubble-clearing still didn’t seem anywhere near finished, the academy became temporarily closed.

However, to pass along announcements, morning assembly would still be held every day in the schoolyard.

On the very first day—today—the vice principal stepped onto the stage and immediately made an announcement.

“Yes! Starting now, I will be handing out special tickets, zansu! Receive the ticket that has your own name written on the cover, zansu!”

With that, something began being distributed from the front of the student lines.

But it never reached me, standing apart from the group at the very end.

Holding up a sample ticket, the vice principal continued.

It was booklet-style, packed inside with bill-like slips marked with perforated tear lines.

“These are called Slave Tickets, and they are circulated at development-type academies, zansu!”

Slave Tickets… I’d heard of them.

At development academies, once development progressed, currency began circulating, and this was apparently one such system.

It had a printed face value like ordinary money, but that was only a rough guideline for its worth.

In practice, it worked as “one ticket equals one use.”

One use of what, exactly…?

“To put it simply, these tickets are ‘coupons that make someone do what you say,’ zansu! For example, if you want something, instead of bartering, you hand the other person this ticket, zansu! And whatever you ask using that ticket, they must comply, zansu!”

Yes—once you handed over a ticket bearing your own portrait, you were essentially granting the other person one instance of command authority over you.

However, these tickets had no real enforcement power, so you could refuse the command if you wanted.

And what happened then was that, as a penalty, the ticket’s value dropped and its face value decreased.

If you kept refusing commands, it eventually became no better than scrap paper.

On the other hand, if you properly carried out what you were ordered to do, the ticket’s value remained stable.

You could keep using it as a substitute for currency.

“Of course, commands that break laws or violate school rules are forbidden, zansu! The moment such an order is given, the ticket becomes invalid, zansu!”

Used well, it was probably convenient—but actually using it would come with serious psychological resistance.

Even if it was only once, you had to do whatever the other person demanded.

In fact, even at other development academies, it seemed these tickets were rarely traded.

After finishing the explanation, the vice principal looked down at the ticket booklet in his hand and feigned shock.

“No! The ticket I used for the explanation belonged to a student from the Special Training Class, zansu! It was basically trash, so I borrowed it for the explanation, zansu!”

The vice principal tossed the booklet at me with a lazy “Here you go.”

My ticket booklet flew over the students’ heads, and snickers rose from the ones looking up.

“Look! That ticket!”

“Whoa, the face value is zero! It’s scrap paper from the start!”

“Of course it is! Who’d want the ticket of that Special Training Class trash?”

“That wouldn’t even work as toilet paper! Hah hah hah!”

I picked up the booklet that had flopped down at my feet.

Caked with dust, the tickets showed a single “0” and a malicious caricature of my face.

“Yes! Starting today, you should use these tickets to trade with each other, zansu! And even if it’s not for trade, you can use them to show daily gratitude, zansu!”

As if remembering something, the vice principal cut in with an “Ah!” and snapped his fingers.

“There is one more announcement, zansu!

At the same time as ticket use is unlocked, a new evaluation metric will be introduced, zansu!” Behind the stage, a board-like object draped in purple cloth was carried in.

When the cloth was pulled away, it revealed a ranking board titled “Asset Rankings.”

But beneath the title, first, second, and third were all blank.

At the moment, no class was ranked at all.

“This ‘Asset Rankings’ board ranks the total assets of each class, zansu! The tickets I just distributed are also assets, zansu, but tickets belonging to yourself or your classmates do not count, zansu!”

So only tickets received from other classes would count as assets.

“If we didn’t do that, Class 1-11—currently the highest-valued—would become the unshakable top, zansu! Only circulated tickets will be counted as assets, zansu! Make all kinds of deals and aggressively acquire tickets, zansu!”

Beaming, the vice principal pulled a catalog from inside his coat.

“To encourage this, the first class to obtain assets and enter the rankings will receive the ‘First Ticket Prize,’ zansu! It’s a chance to increase your assets by ten million Ender, zansu!”

“Oooooh!”

Cheers erupted from the students.

“Furthermore, Monaka-san and Kotone-san, who performed brilliantly in the recent disaster, will receive special tickets with gold foil stamping, zansu! The first student to obtain one of these Gold Tickets will receive the ‘First Gold Ticket Prize,’ zansu!”

At those words, the students buzzed excitedly.

“Amazing—Gold Tickets!”

“Well, those two totally deserve it!”

“The face value has gotta be insane!”

“Of course! If you can give orders to those two, tons of people would pay any amount!”

“But don’t those two already basically have anything they want even without tickets?”

“Yeah, if those two use tickets, it’d probably just be to show gratitude!”

“Man… what kind of person would get a ticket from them!?”

“In the past it would’ve been Weiss-sama, but he’s not cool anymore, so it’s gotta be the Hero-sama!”

“All right, that’s enough chatter, zansu! Morning assembly is now over—dismissed, zansu! Everyone, continue the restoration work, zansu!”

The vice principal clapped his hands, and as if that were a starting signal, two figures burst out from the student lines.

They ran so fast their long hair puffed out in the wind as they rushed toward me.

Before I could even ask what was going on, the two girls thrust their entire ticket booklets at me.

“Please, Leo-kun! Take all of my tickets!”

“I beg you, Master! I want my entire self to be of use to you, Master!”

Their faces flushed bright red, they babbled it all out at once.

Then, still holding the booklets out, they lowered their faces at the same time.

It was like a simultaneous confession.

It was like an ultimate choice.

The students, who had been about to disperse, reacted as if they had become one again, shouting in unison.

“W-Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?!?”