This World Is Screwed
"……."
This world is screwed.
How can anything be this unfair?
I let out a small sigh as I gazed into the mirror I'd bought just a few days ago.
"You're way too pretty……."
Me in a school uniform was just too cute. In a world already overflowing with beautiful girls and handsome boys, how was I allowed to be this uniquely adorable……?
Yeah. The world really was unfair.
What comes to mind when you hear the word Academy?
Gifted, prideful students! Professors who are rigid on the outside but warm at heart! Couples whispering sweet nothings, classmates debating the things they love! Assignments that pile into mountains the moment you look away, and students wandering the halls looking half-dead after pulling all-nighters to catch up!
An entire school city that occupies a massive island all on its own!
Sweat and passion! Beautiful youth! A paradise of dreams and hope overflowing with love, friendship, and betrayal!
That was the Academy!
Technically, I was just standing at a bus stop waiting for the bus that would take me onto the island where the Academy was located… but still!
Heh heh. From here on out, I was going to make pretty, wonderful friends and live a blissfully happy life forever.
There was just one little problem right now…….
"Huh? What was that? Say that one more time."
A man knelt on the ground, covered in wounds—and a black-haired girl held him by the hair with a gloved hand, a faint smile on her lips.
"I-I'm sor—"
Thud!
Her fist slammed into the face of the man who'd been trying to apologize. He spat blood and crumpled where he stood.
Eek…….
I have to live Academy life with people like this……?
So this really was a world where countless organizations existed out in the open, huh…?
Maybe I'd been staring too hard. The girl who'd just driven her fist into that guy's face turned her gaze on me. A cold look, empty of any particular emotion, raked over me from head to toe.
Meeting those eerily crimson eyes sent an involuntary thrill through me. The way they caught the light and sparkled like rubies even made me think they were pretty.
I'd been too scared a moment ago to notice, given the situation—but this girl… she was seriously beautiful.
Her black hair looked like she'd just swept it back without much care, nowhere near properly styled, yet her overwhelming looks turned even that mess into a deliberate fashion statement. Against the black of her hair, her flawless porcelain skin seized the eye at once. Unlike my own pale red eyes, hers were the deep crimson of actual blood.
The curves of her chest made it clear she was a girl, but instead of a uniform skirt she wore fitted dress pants. Her shirt sleeves were rolled up to her forearms, and her uniform jacket hung loosely over her shoulders like a cape.
A single drop of blood spattered across her cheek and the thick blood clinging to the black leather gloves on both hands were enough to make anyone's hair stand on end. When my eyes met those blood-red irises, even my heart felt like it had frozen solid.
And yet, even in that chilling moment, one thought refused to leave my head.
She's gorgeous.
I would have believed it if someone told me she was a statue, not a person.
I knew her all too well.
Tania—one of the characters from How to Become a Hero. She hadn't been a major character by screen time, but every time she appeared she left a huge impact, and her design was so stunning she'd become one of the more popular figures in the cast.
But more importantly… why did she keep staring a hole through me?
I was doing my best to look anywhere else and play dumb, yet I could still feel her eyes locked on me.
D-did I do something wrong?
The only crime I was guilty of was being beautiful as a flower…….
She wouldn't beat me up just for looking a little, right? I really didn't want to cause an incident on the very first day of school…….
In a way, this wasn't all that different from the situation I'd dreamed of. One of my goals was to get close to people so beautiful that just looking at them purified the eyes. But… when that beautiful person had just finished thrashing someone and was covered in blood on her face and fists, it was a lot less appealing.
It was scary…….
I snuck a glance and saw blood trailing down her cheek.
See? Scary… wait. That's kind of hot?
I found myself staring blankly before I snapped out of it and looked away again. But maybe it was already too late. Tania walked right up and stopped in front of me.
The pressure she gave off was intense—and since I was on the shorter side, she ended up looking slightly down at me.
What now? Am I about to get beaten the same way that guy just did?
I hunched my shoulders a little in fear, but what she did next was nothing like what I'd imagined.
She smiled. Small, and gentle.
Huh? Unnie? Wait—is it noona now? Either way, you're gorgeous……. Will you marry me?
How could someone with another person's blood on her cheek look that radiant?
I just stared at her, dazed, until Tania made a faintly awkward face and whispered in a timid voice that didn't suit her at all.
"Ely… are you mad?"
Huh? No, I'm not?
More importantly—you know me?
"I remember we agreed I wouldn't use violence… but that bastard brought up our family first……."
That bastard deserved to die! Want me to go hit him one more time for you?
The whiplash between the girl I'd just watched and this one left me completely short-circuited. She fidgeted, then carefully took my hand with the one that wasn't covered in blood.
Ah…! Yes! But if possible, could you take the gloves off first…!
"Don't be mad, okay? I'll be more careful from now on……."
I think I'm already over it…. I was never mad in the first place, but.
Just who was Elysia, that she was on speaking terms with someone like this??
In her past life she must have saved the country… no, the whole world…!
Judging by the reactions around us, this cute side of her wasn't how she usually acted. Students in Academy uniforms were watching her with fear in their eyes.
So why was someone like her reading my mood so carefully?
Come to think of it, Elysia hadn't been a particularly major character in How to Become a Hero either. She'd show up whenever the protagonists' mental states were about to collapse and help them recover, or appear when the atmosphere got too heavy and lighten the mood. That was about it. So there had been almost nothing to go on about what she did with her free time.
So behind the scenes of the story, she'd been making friends this cute and pretty…!
Well done, Elysia!
I looked ahead again and found Tania still fretting, still watching my face for cues. For a second I could almost see a puppy who'd knocked over an expensive flowerpot, ears drooping, nervously gauging its owner's mood—superimposed over her.
And then I realized I hadn't said a single word.
From her point of view, convinced I was angry, she might still think I hadn't forgiven her. But if I suddenly beamed at her out of nowhere, that would look weird too, right?
I decided to pretend I was reluctantly accepting her apology.
"…Alright."
"U…uh? Wh-why are you talking so formally?"
She still thinks I'm mad, huh…. The grip on my hand loosened, and her fingers started to slip free.
Grab!
Ah…….
I caught her hand without thinking.
Tania jumped, eyes going round as she stared at me.
But… who knew when I'd get another chance to hold a hand this pretty…….
If I was going to hold it, I wanted to hold it for a long time. That was just my greed talking.
"…I'm not mad anymore."
I was never mad in the first place…!
Only then did she look a little relieved, and she smiled—beautifully. At the same moment, I felt the people around us flinch hard.
Oh my god, she's adorable. …But can we do something about the blood on your cheek first?
From Tania's reaction, she seemed to have completely forgotten that blood had splattered onto her face at all. If I left it, she might only notice after the entire opening ceremony was over and get upset about it!
Honestly, part of me wanted to see her get upset too…….
I carefully reached out and wiped the blood from her cheek as gently as if I were stroking it. Tania shrank back a little, then flushed faintly.
Cute!
Someone who looked that charismatic blushing and getting shy—the gap was enormous.
But there was still one more important problem…….
How had Elysia usually acted around Tania?
I had no idea what kind of relationship the original Elysia had with her. I didn't know how the two of them had gotten close, or what they usually talked about. It was only natural—in How to Become a Hero, the two of them had never once appeared on screen together…….
If I kept going completely blind like this, she might figure out I wasn't the real Elysia…!
Still holding my hand, Tania stood beside me. I snuck a glance to check on her—and flinched.
Her whole aura had flipped again, the complete opposite of a moment ago. If she'd been cute just now, she was back to sexy……!
Tania, it seemed, was a woman with more than one kind of charm.
Her eyes were colder and sharper than when she'd been looking at the guy she'd beaten—clearly on guard. And the place those eyes were fixed on was—
Behind me?
I turned my head to see what Tania was looking at, and—
"…Ah……."
—met a pair of blue eyes belonging to a woman who had somehow already come up behind me. I sucked in a sharp breath.