The Perfect Plan Goes to Shit
It was Marionette Opera. The kind of suggestion magic that basically screamed, “I’m about to lie straight to your face.” In other words, if the lie was plausible enough, the target would gradually convince themselves it was true. On the flip side, if the suggestion was too ridiculous to believe, they’d notice something was off. It came with a lot of conditions. I’d chosen this finicky type precisely because its effects lasted longer. If they genuinely believed it, the suggestion could stick for life. Convenient as hell.
But right now, I didn’t have time to nitpick the details.
“Why the hell are you barging in?!”
“Huh?”
“I’m in the middle of a personal interview! Wait your damn turn!”
“Ehhh~? Whatever, who cares? It’s just the idiot class anyway, it’s not like you’re actually gonna—”
BANG!
Too loud. Too annoying. I quickly chased her out and slammed the door shut, locking it tight. Like I said before, I’m normally a calm guy. The reason my voice was cracking and my heart was hammering like a jackrabbit was twofold.
…………She didn’t see anything, right?
Thump. Thump… I was terrified she’d caught me in the middle of committing a magical crime on a student. Suggestion magic had a very obvious tell. The victim’s face turned into a total slack-jawed idiot. Anyone with basic common sense in this world could figure that out.
The second thing worrying me was—
“Hey, hey! Snap out of it!”
“……Huh?”
When I called out in a shaky voice, her pupils slowly regained focus. She was waking up from the suggestion. Rin Bellier shook her head like she’d just woken from a nasty nightmare and pressed her palm against her temple.
“You… feeling okay?”
“Mmm… where the hell am I…? Must’ve spaced out for a second.”
“Y-yeah! You suddenly zoned out in the middle of our interview. I got worried, so…”
“……Worried?”
I was fidgeting like an idiot in front of her, so Rin Bellier slowly wrapped her arms around her own chest. Her eyes narrowed back into those sharp snake-like slits.
“You didn’t cop a feel while I wasn’t looking, did you? You trash teacher.”
Like I’d want to touch your ape ass.
At least her attitude was the same as before the suggestion—rude as hell. Same foul-mouthed, zero-shame delinquent girl who looked like she wanted to punch me in the face.
Wait… then maybe…?
“You’re really okay, right? No weird side effects?”
“There’s no problem at all. And stop pretending to worry. It’s gross.”
“No, no, I’m just making sure. Um… Miss Rin Bellier.”
“?!”
THUD!
The chair clattered backward helplessly. In complete contrast to its pathetic fall, the delinquent girl shot up like a live fish flopping on a deck, glaring down at me with fiery energy.
I wondered why she was freaking out. Was it because a commoner dared use her full name? Or maybe some bad memory attached to it? But then she suddenly tucked her long hair behind her ear with an oddly demure gesture. Her cheeks flushed pink, and her plump lips trembled.
“We’re… dating, so… calling me by my first name is… i-is enough, isn’t it…?”
Fuuuuck… I’m so screwed.
The blush kept spreading. She must’ve been embarrassed by her own words because her eyes darted away. I’d hoped it would somehow get denied, but this was reality. That one random interruption had completely wrecked the suggestion.
And then—
“Wait. Hmm… but why would I—why the hell would I be dating a teacher?”
The question mark that followed her own declaration. Her brow furrowed like she was staring at an uncrackable code. Classic collapse phenomenon. It happened when the suggestion level was too forced. This was dangerous. If I let her think about it any longer, she’d realize I’d cast magic on her.
“Because you were the one who kept whining for us to date!”
“Wh-whaaaaaaaaat?!”
I quickly took the lead, frantically making up nonsense on the spot to fill in the collapsing gaps of information.
“M-me? I clung to y-you and begged?!”
“Yeah! You said if I didn’t date you, you’d pour soy sauce all over yourself and jump off the roof! You threw a whole tantrum!”
“Don’t fuck with me! There’s no way I’d do that! We haven’t even known each other that long—…huh?”
She shook her head like her brain was overheating. Then she pointed straight at me.
“Forget all that—there’s no way I’d confess first to a bastard like you!”
“You did, though. You definitely confessed! Don’t you remember? Early-onset dementia or something?”
“Uuuugh… th-that can’t be right…?”
I doubled down, pushing the lie harder. It wasn’t just a desperate survival move or a half-assed excuse. What came first was a simple, burning refusal to accept it.
There’s no fucking way I confessed to this monkey and started dating her.
I’d rather have my mouth ripped open in ten different directions than admit that. Even if rumors spread that I’d used magic on a student, the humiliation of a naturally superior intellect like me confessing to this chimpanzee was unacceptable.
“……”
“……”
After we both raised our voices, we fell into a tense silence, staring each other down. The delinquent girl—Rin Bellier—scanned me with those sharp snake eyes. From my face to my shoulders. From my stomach down to my lower half. She studied me intently. Her forehead wrinkled like she was judging me, or trying to dig up some buried memory.
Shit… maybe I should just knock her out and figure out how to shut her up.
I was still on edge, wondering if the suggestion had broken. I was already thinking of switching to a backup plan if she did anything sudden, when she suddenly turned her back.
Rin Bellier—or just Rin—walked straight to the door and muttered,
“Hmm… I’m not feeling great, so let’s finish this later.”
Then she slipped out into the hallway. She hid her face behind the wall like she didn’t want me to see her expression and added in a tiny, embarrassed voice,
“So… um, we can talk more on our… official first date…”
She went ahead and scheduled a date that wasn’t even in the plan, sounding like a shy mouse crawling into a hole.
“Haaaa… damn it, damn it all!”
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
I was losing my mind. The first plan had gone spectacularly wrong, and it felt like every wire in my brain had twisted into knots. After Rin left, I slammed my forehead against the desk over and over, cursing myself. I hated that stupid unlocked door. That tiny little gap had ruined everything.
And because of this screwed-up step, another problem had branched off.
Now I can’t control the other monkey either!
The delinquent girl number two who’d burst in without warning. After digging through the student records, I’d confirmed she was probably Rin’s friend—Haren Lancia. There was no way I could cast a suggestion on her now. The success rate of suggestion magic dropped sharply if the target was highly suspicious or didn’t trust you at all.
I had no idea how much she’d seen when she barged in, but Haren Lancia had clearly witnessed the crime scene. For the rest of the interview she kept her distance, openly wary and displeased with me. I couldn’t afford to take any risky moves in this situation. If I forced a suggestion and got caught, it could trigger a chain reaction that affected Rin too.
So I changed the plan and decided to put Haren Lancia on hold for now.
Which meant I had to fix this mistake starting right now.
“……Ah, you must be the new homeroom teacher.”
“Uh, y-yeah.”
Now that we were alone, her impression was strong despite the gloomy vibe. The two previous delinquents had been caked in makeup despite being students, making them visually striking. This one wasn’t any less intense in her own way. The gloomy girl sitting by herself. I hadn’t noticed when I was at the teacher’s podium, but she was tall. Messy, frizzy hair. Eyes that seemed to swirl around in circles. She looked about the same height as me.
But as everyone knows, there’s an optical illusion that makes women look taller when standing next to you. I’d have to be careful not to walk beside her in the hallway.
“Um, before you sit down, could you lock the door?”
“……The door?”
“We’ll be discussing your student record. We wouldn’t want any personal information leaking.”
“……I see. How thoughtful.”
She tilted her head, then nodded without any apparent suspicion. Click. The sound of the door locking properly this time. She walked over and sat down.
“So, you’re number three, Meian, correct?”
“……Yes.”
“No last name means you’re a commoner?”
“……Yes. There were various circumstances, but I forced my way in.”
“Alright, then—Marionette Opera.”
I pretended to start the counseling normally and immediately cast the spell. No need to drag it out. Finish the job fast.
“……Huh?”
It went smoothly. That single stupid syllable that signaled the magic had taken hold.
“Phew… good. Back on track.”
The spell had worked. The door was properly locked. I already had the exact suggestion planned out.
“Listen, Meian. You’re actually a diligent honor student.”
“……Eh? …Me? An honor student?”
“That’s right. An honor student. From now on, you’re going to graduate from Class Z as a proper, diligent student.”
I made her believe she was a model student. Falling into Class Z had just been a small act of rebellion against society. In reality, she was a serious student. Once she believed that about herself, she’d graduate properly. Perfect. Simple and clean. This was how I’d turn the students into perfect candidates for official hiring at my academy.
The best part of this command was that even if the suggestion broke later, no one would get hurt. Truly killing two birds with one stone. A flawless plan with zero leaks.
This would make up for my earlier blunder—
“……Teacher.”
“Oh, you’re awake?”
The moment I gave the command, it looked like the suggestion had taken perfectly. I was about to give her a light scolding for spacing out with that fake acting face when—
Flash!
“……What?”
It happened suddenly. Her eyes snapped wide open. While Rin had always glared at me with narrow slits, this was the complete opposite. Those usually droopy, lifeless eyelids were now filled with sharp focus. She stared at me with eyes so unsettling they made my mouth go dry like desert sand, and then she spoke in a perfectly clear, articulate voice.
“You just cast suggestion magic on me, didn’t you?”
“…………Huh?”
This time the stupid syllable came from me. Her voice had suddenly become fluent and precise. Her swirling eyes looked like they’d never accept a clumsy lie. I really hadn’t seen this coming at all, so only a dumb response slipped out.
She leaned her upper body forward, drawing even closer. Those dark-circled, hollow eyes stared at my sweat-drenched face as she whispered again. Her tone was brutally accusatory.
“……You cast a spell on me just now, didn’t you?”