Banter on the Walking Path
After leading Eva to the walking path, I kept watch over our surroundings so she could settle her nerves. I kept my distance, too — my very presence beside her would only make her uncomfortable, and I was, after all, still a stranger to her.
“Want something to drink?”
“...”
“Fine. Then I'm drinking alone.”
Clunk.
I fed a coin into the vending machine and pulled out a can.
A button press later, a chilled can of coffee clattered into the tray.
Pssht.
I cracked the tab open and downed the whole thing in one go, like knocking back a shot of soju.
Caffeine was the whole point — taste didn't matter. I poured it down my throat the way you'd hook a nutrient drip straight into your veins, then crushed the can flat in my fist.
<Grabbing a drink from the vending machine and taking it easy, I see.>
“If I don't take it easy now, when am I supposed to? Even if I pushed through that crowd, I'd never finish the application before they threw me out.”
I pointed toward the stadium entrance, not far from the walking path, where a sea of humanity had entrenched itself into a solid wall.
“I was here first! Where do you think you're cutting in?!”
“There wasn't even a line to begin with! What cutting?!”
“Get your hands off! I said get off!”
“Off of what?! Get out of the way!”
A vicious brawl at the mouth of the stadium — people clawing at each other's hair and snapping like dogs, neither side willing to yield an inch. It was enough to make you lose all faith in humanity.
“Even if I shoved my way through those people and got the application in, it'd never go through. It'd get rejected for sure.”
<Whether the application gets accepted doesn't matter. Submitting it does. Even if it's rejected, you'll have grounds to assert your right to challenge the entrance exam later, when it counts with the Academy officials.>
The Writer's logic was impeccably sound. With the Academy's application deadline ticking down by the minute, the right move for maximizing her chances of getting in was exactly what she said.
“But that leaves the protagonist all alone here. I can't just leave Eva by herself and walk away.”
<You know better than anyone, Reader. The protagonist isn't weak enough to get pushed around by strangers. This is needless meddling.>
Eva — a girl the genius class called a monster among monsters. The notion of citizens of this kingdom doing her harm was absurd, and even if someone tried, she had more than enough ability to handle herself.
“That's exactly why this is a good thing — a chance to make contact with her. Someday I'll have to pretend we've met before, and it'd be a problem if she treated me like a suspicious creep when that time came.”
Purity Academy was technically co-ed, but in practice it was practically an all-girls school.
Men born with mana numbered barely in the double digits across the entire world. Mana overwhelmingly manifested in women, and a strong cultural sense had taken root that it was their privilege.
That setting played a massive role in why the original web novel could paint a pink-hued youth so sweet it would melt the polar ice caps. The protagonist had even gone on record about it himself — "with nothing but girls at the Academy, my heart is at ease."
Solis's face, though, was the sort that made people want to keep their distance — a fearsome, thuggish mug. Grown men would flinch at it; he looked like he'd walked straight out of a mafia movie. And a guy like that suddenly walking up to Eva and greeting her like an old friend?
One wrong move and she'd report me to the Academy and get a restraining order slapped on me. Then I'd be shut out of the protagonist's party entirely, left drifting on the sidelines.
If I wanted to change a future where Chloe and Eva married each other, I had to hitch a ride on their story.
I hadn't figured out how yet, so I'd planned to handle the most urgent thing first — getting into the Academy. But now...
“The way I see it, this is an opportunity. Let's score some points with our protagonist while we're at it.”
It was probably a once-in-a-lifetime, heaven-sent chance. Shattering the barrier hadn't only brought bad outcomes after all.
<If you say so, I'll leave it entirely in the Reader's hands. Now that I've heard you out, it does sound like a decent idea.>
The Writer floated up another system window, agreeing that my suggestion wasn't half bad.
<But be careful. Even if you build rapport, it's all for nothing if you never actually get into the Academy.>
“If it comes to that, I'll just tell the Academy officials I broke the barrier and demonstrate it again. They'd admit me then, wouldn't they?”
Talent is what Purity Academy wants, yes — but more than that, they're after special gems, people who show genius-level promise in a single field. A man wielding mana strong enough to shatter a barrier fit the bill perfectly. They'd bend the enrollment cap just to take him.
I turned my gaze back to Eva.
She was still curled up inside her blanket, barely showing so much as her shape.
Still, I had a vague sense that she was staring holes through me.
I couldn't see her — but I could feel it. The sharp senses I'd honed through training back in my old life had amplified beyond recognition after possessing Solis's body. The faint whisper of distant voices, the minute rustle of an insect crawling through the grass — if I focused, I could catch it all.
And my senses were telling me now: a hidden light was emerging through the narrow gap in the blanket. Noble, amethyst eyes were meeting mine.
“I-I wasn't looking! I-I wasn't looking at anything!”
She flinched like a mouse caught peeking out of its hole at a cat, curling herself up even tighter.
“I told you there's no need to be so guarded. I'm not going to do anything to you.”
“I-Is that... so?”
“If I wanted to hurt you, wouldn't I have dragged you off to some deserted alley a long time ago? Somewhere far more secluded?”
“...Th-That's true.”
She understood? At her answer, I let a warm smile spread across my face.
That she'd opened her mouth and spoken to a total stranger was an enormous achievement. It reaffirmed, once again, that pulling her out of that crowd hadn't been a wasted effort.
“Anyway — are you really not going to have anything to drink? I can still get you one right now.”
“I-I'm f...fine. Really.”
Something's off. I frowned as Eva kept refusing.
The only reason I kept pressing was that I fully expected her to order a canned drink. I knew that this very vending machine stocked the beverage she loved more than anything — the one laced with memories.
And yet she was turning down my offer. Simply because she didn't want a drink from a stranger?
No. If Eva truly distrusted and disliked me, she wouldn't have spoken a single word to me in the first place. That voice of hers, pushing her own opinion at me, showed her guard had softened considerably.
“Now that I think about it — why were you standing all alone in the middle of that huge crowd?”
“Th-Th-Th-That's—!”
Eva stuttered even worse than before, as if she couldn't get the words out.
“You came here to apply to Purity Academy, right? Did no one come with you?”
“I-I... there is, someone.”
I knew perfectly well she had a best friend named Chloe. But I played dumb, peppering her with questions like someone purely curious.
“Could you tell me about them? It might help track your friend down, you know.”
A brief silence stretched between us. Just as I was starting to wonder if she'd stay quiet forever, her lips finally parted.
“Bath...”
“Bath... what?”
“The bath...room. I needed the bathroom.”
“Ah.”
A biological need. Of course — when you're that tense, it hits you.
“S-So I stepped away from Chloe for just a moment, and...”
“And then people suddenly swarmed in and shoved you out of the stadium. Got it.”
The blanket lump bobbed its head vigorously.
The broad strokes made sense now. It explained how she'd gotten tangled up in the incident — and why Chloe hadn't been able to come to her rescue.
“But th-then this... mister happened to save me, so I'm okay.”
“Okay. Thanks for telling me.”
Question answered. Having learned the full story, I nodded as if everything clicked into place.
So that's why she wouldn't order a drink — she's one wrong move away from wetting herself.
She'd probably been holding it this entire time.
<Huh. She didn't get offended by that?>
“What, about her calling me 'mister'?”
<Yes. I fully expected you to get at least a little annoyed.>
“Any guy who's done his military service gets called 'mister' by every kid in the country. If that ruffles your feathers, you're the weird one.”
<Wait... was that line just now aimed at me?>
“Huh? Did something I said about 'auntie' sting you? Really? I was giving you a genuine compliment back then.”
<How is 'auntie' a compliment?>
“Well, you're an ancient being who's watched this world's whole history unfold — so old the chicken-coop smell has gone past ripe and straight into rot. 'Auntie' is the kindest way to put it, no?”
<...Right. Sure.>
The Writer, apparently worn down by my antics, went silent and offered no further replies. Her reactions were much more entertaining when she fired back. Tsk.
If 'auntie' wasn't enough to get a rise out of her anymore, what should I poke her with next? What words would actually earn me a compliment from the Writer? I was deep in deliberation when—
Shff!
A creeping, spine-chilling bloodlust bore into my back. That black miasma, like it had swallowed the light of the world whole, sent a shiver down my spine — and I reflexively surged mana furiously toward my heart.
KAANG!
A sharp shriek of steel tore through the air as a jet-black blade came down toward my throat. Calmly, I wrapped mana around my forearm and cut off its approach.
“Who are you? What's your deal?”
Chilling crimson eyes glared at me, their gaze cold and utterly devoid of life.
“Why are you hovering next to Eva?”