Hell Mode: Volume 7, page 32
“No, you see, the reason I got good grades was...” Thomas fiddled with the rings on his hands and tried to explain the situation, but his father, Viscount Granvelle, interrupted him.
“Thomas, His Excellency has requested your assistance. It would be rude not to accept.”
“Just as I expected, Lord Granvelle. I see that you have passed on the blood of a loyal subject to your son. Now, here are copies of past exam questions.” He gestured toward the parchment booklets stacked on the table. “Whatever you do, try to hammer all of this into that tomboy princess’s head—ahem, I mean, please have her study hard!”
“Past exam questions? You’re quite prepared...” Thomas muttered.
There were around ten booklets in total. He had no idea how they had been obtained, but it was clear that the kingdom was quite serious about this matter.
“I suppose I can keep my position here,” the minister mumbled to himself with a sense of relief as Thomas took the booklets in hand and reviewed their contents. The older man stood up gingerly from his chair. “I’m counting on you. The future of the Kingdom of Ratash rests on your shoulders.” He then patted Thomas on the shoulder and quickly made his way out of the room.
“Please convey my regards to Her Highness.”
With that said, the viscount also left the room. Thomas, now alone, let out a heavy sigh before leaving the room himself, carrying the booklets with him. When he was a student at Nobles College, he had met with the princess and been invited to her private chambers several times, so he knew the route by heart.
The corridor leading to the princess’s private chamber was guarded by royal knights. They silently moved out of the way as Thomas passed by. Apparently, the minister had already spoken to them.
Upon Thomas’s arrival in front of the princess’s private chambers, her knight escort opened the door. He could hear some kind of ruckus coming from inside, causing his heart to feel heavy and making him have second thoughts. Thinking back, he always found himself caught up in some kind of mess whenever he was invited into this room.
Despite that, Thomas headed inside.
“P-Princess, please don’t do this!”
“Let go!” the princess cried. “I must hurry, as the instructor shall be here soon!”
Just as he heard these women’s cries, Princess Leilana entered Thomas’s field of vision from his right before disappearing off to his left. She had a long halberd resting on her shoulder, and she was dragging her servants, who were clinging desperately to her skirt, behind her.
Thomas watched in amazement as the princess made her way to the window of her room. She suddenly stopped and turned to her left to look at him.
“Why, if it isn’t Thomas.” Princess Leilana’s eyes lit up as she stared at Thomas and the parchment booklets in his hands. “Are you my newest instructor, perchance? Yippee!”
She spun around joyfully where she stood as she brandished her halberd, sending her servants swinging. In stark contrast to the princess, Thomas was disappointed that he had not been told to go home. However, he had made up his mind to put his all into this task.
“That’s right,” Thomas said. “I won’t hold back now that I’ve come this far. Please take a seat. I’ll see to it that you can solve all these past questions the minister has entrusted me with.”
Thomas dumped the parchment booklets on her study table. The table was clean; it was clear that it had not been used at all.
“That’s impossible,” Leilana insisted.
“Impossible or not, you still have to do it. From here on out, you will study five days a week.”
“I’ll die if I study that much!”
“No one has ever died from studying too much. But if that’s how you feel, four days is fine. In exchange, please memorize all of these questions and answers.”
After Thomas finished speaking, Princess Leilana obediently took her seat. One of the servants looked relieved when she saw this and offered to make some tea before leaving the room.
“I have to say, this happened much faster than I’d thought it would. I knew you would come eventually. I heard you’re very intelligent.”
Upon hearing the princess blurt that out in such a cheerful tone, Thomas realized something. “Is that why the other instructors were quitting so often? You figured I would go easy on you and listen to whatever you said?”
The princess stuck out her tongue and adopted a confused expression. “Hmm? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Seeing this, an image of his sister, Cecil, came to Thomas’s mind. He felt his eyes soften.“No. Doing so will do you no good, Your Highness. Now, let’s get started.” He then took out one of the study booklets and opened it to the first page.
“Ugh, this is impossible.”
Thomas had anticipated that the princess would say that. He removed one of the rings he wore on his left hand and handed it over to Princess Leilana.
“With this, you can memorize any number of books.”
It was a ring given to him by Allen that increased Intelligence by 3,000. By merely placing it on one’s finger, one would be able to understand things more clearly, infer the causes and effects of various relationships, and perform complex calculations. Of course, the effect was amplified because Thomas was an intelligent man to begin with, but even if Princess Leilana could not do all that, he figured that she could at least memorize the questions and their answers.
However, the princess seemed to have imagined another intention behind Thomas’s actions. “What’s going on, asking me to wear a matching ring with you all of a sudden? Aren’t you being a tad hasty?”
“Huh?” For a moment, Thomas did not understand what the blushing princess was going on about.
“Well, since I’ve got the opportunity, I suppose I’ll put it on. Tee hee.”
As Princess Leilana happily put the ring on her finger, she seemed to change from a girl who looked like his younger sister to a mature woman who gave off an entirely different impression. Thomas felt a smile grace his lips, but he felt strangely nervous at the same time.
Table of Contents
Cover
Chapter 1: A Request for Help from the Holy Land of Elmahl
Chapter 2: Allen’s Decision and Concern for His Friends
Chapter 3: Daemonic Incarnations
Chapter 4: Those Who Can Be Saved and Those Who Cannot
Chapter 5: Battle against Demonic Deity Lycaoron
Chapter 6: The Truth Revealed
Chapter 7: Following the Pillar of Light
Chapter 8: Team Sophie (Part 1): Off to the Muharino Desert
Chapter 9: Team Sophie (Part 2): The King and Queen
Chapter 10: Team Keel: The Kingdom and the Republic
Chapter 11: Team Allen: Journey to the Kingdom of Crevelle
Chapter 12: The Actions of Beast Princess Shia
Side Story 1: Teomenia, Consumed by Black Flames
Side Story 2: Judgment of the Goddess of Arbitration, Falnemes
Side Story 3: King of Shura Bask’s Craving
Side Story 4: Supreme Commander Ardoe’s Loyalty
Side Story 5: Hell Mode Spin-Off—The Heroic Tale of Helmios (Part 1): The Birth of a Miracle
Afterword
Color Illustrations
Bonus Short Story
About J-Novel Club
Copyright
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Copyright
Hell Mode ~The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing~ Volume 7
by Hamuo
Translated by Jason Muell & piyo
Edited by Adam Haffen
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2023 Hamuo
Illustrations © 2023 Mo
Cover illustration by Mo
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2023 by Earth Star Entertainment
This English edition is published by arrangement with Earth Star Entertainment, Tokyo
English translation © 2024 J-Novel Club LLC
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
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Hamuo, Hell Mode: Volume 7
