The Protagonist Is a Woman

The protagonist. Luden von Roden. She was a freshman who had just entered the academy with outstanding grades. But to her, academy grades meant nothing. They were merely a stepping stone to fulfilling her true purpose. With that in mind, she attended the entrance ceremony.

The ceremony ended surprisingly quickly with just a few words from the chairman. As she headed toward her temporarily assigned classroom, whispers began spreading around her. Curious, she looked over and saw a blind student sitting at the very back of the lecture hall.

Luden felt a flicker of doubt in her mind. She had never imagined a blind person would enroll in the combat department. 'What is this? Did the academy make a mistake?'

She shared the same thoughts as the other students, but soon shook her head. It had nothing to do with her anyway. Frankly, he didn't seem any different from the rest.

Just as she was thinking that—

A lycanthrope suddenly burst through the window. The completely unexpected situation left her—and most of the students—stunned in shock. They tried to flee the classroom, but the door wouldn't budge. In the end, Luden and a few others changed their minds. Instead of running, they would fight the monster.

Luden was a swordswoman who specialized in swordsmanship. That meant she had to hold the front line and buy time until the mages finished their preparations. As soon as she drew the lycanthrope's aggro, the mages completed their spells.

All kinds of spells slammed into the lycanthrope. Everyone, including Luden, thought it was finished. No matter how tough a lycanthrope was, there was no way it could withstand that many spells unscathed.

But contrary to their expectations, the creature didn't fall. In fact, it didn't even seem to have taken any damage. Still, they couldn't give up now. Taking advantage of the brief opening, Luden launched a surprise attack from behind.

'Huh?'

It was as if the beast had been waiting for this exact moment. It swung its claws toward her. Caught off guard by the counterattack, Luden thought, This is impossible to dodge. I'm going to die here.

For a split second, her life flashed before her eyes. The moment she squeezed her eyes shut—

Instead of the expected searing pain, nothing happened. Wondering what was going on, she slowly opened her eyes. A mana arrow was now embedded in the lycanthrope's shoulder.

'An arrow? Who...?'

She turned her head to see who had saved her. There stood a man with bandages wrapped around his eyes. The moment Luden saw him, her eyes widened in disbelief. She had never imagined the person who saved her would be blind.

'A blind man using a bow?'

It was already unbelievable that a blind person had even entered the combat department. Not being able to see was an enormous handicap. Yet here was this blind man, not only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠attending classes but using a bow of all things. How could she not be shocked?

'Just who is this guy?'

Although Luden didn't pay much attention to worldly affairs, she had at least heard the names of famous talents. Lillia, the daughter of the Eldorado Merchant Guild. Sherry von Patrick of the Patrick family. Shannon von Gloster from the prestigious wind-attribute family. She had heard many other names as well. But she had never heard of this blind man.

'To twist a lycanthrope's attack with a single shot... He must possess extraordinary skill. But why haven't I heard of him before?'

While she stared blankly at Baran, a sharp voice rang out from behind.

“Hey! What are you spacing out for?!”

Sherry, who had been hurling spells at the lycanthrope, glared at her. Startled, Luden quickly refocused on the front. The lycanthrope had been pushed back by Sherry's magic. If Sherry hadn't intervened, Luden would have suffered a fatal wound just now.

'Whew. Right. I'll think about it later.'

She shook her head vigorously to clear her thoughts, then charged at the creature once more, sword raised.

I frowned at the quest window that had appeared before me. They hadn't given me anything for a whole month, but now they drop one at a time like this?

'If I ever meet the author, I'm smashing his head open.'

With that firm resolution, I looked at the lycanthrope. Even though it was getting ganged up on, it wasn't taking much damage. At this point, it was only natural to wonder if clearing the class assignment test was even possible.

'I can't see any solution here.'

Honestly, even though I'd cleared many routes back at the company, I had never taken down a lycanthrope this early. It wasn't a monster that was supposed to appear in the beginning in the first place.

'Whew. Let's think this through.'

Albaon Online was indeed a game with many variables. But it wasn't designed to be impossible. If I used my head properly, there had to be a way to clear it.

'Let's give it a shot.'

I concentrated mana into my eyes. Then I activated Mind's Eye, and the surroundings became crystal clear. But that wasn't all.

'Ugh. I still can't get used to this.'

A flood of information from everything around me rushed through my mind. If I kept it active too long, my head would probably explode. Gritting my teeth against the throbbing headache, I scanned the classroom.

The next moment—

'There it is. Of course.'

I spotted a crystal orb hidden behind the blackboard. Normally it would have been invisible, but nothing could hide from a 5-star trait like Mind's Eye.

'It's connected to the lycanthrope with mana. So it's using illusion magic through that thing.'

Having pieced it together, I created a mana arrow. I nocked it on my bow and took aim.

“Hoo...”

With a shallow breath, I targeted the exact center of the blackboard. The other students were keeping the lycanthrope's attention. If I could just destroy the defenseless crystal orb, the test would be over.

I released the bowstring.

The sound of shattering glass echoed through the classroom. Everyone looked around in confusion. Then—

“Huh? What just happened?”

“What’s going on?”

“What the hell was that?”

While the students were panicking, the front door of the classroom slid open with a rattle. Our eyes all turned toward it. A man with squinty eyes appeared.

The students were stunned by the sudden stranger. Ignoring their reactions, the squinty-eyed man gave a sly smile.

“Wow. I didn’t expect anyone to actually clear the class assignment test.”

At his words, the students immediately realized they had just been taking the class assignment test. While they stood there dazed, the squinty-eyed man introduced himself.

“Ah, my apologies. I should introduce myself first. I am Dale, one of the professors in charge of the combat department.”

The students snapped back to attention at his introduction. Before they could say anything, Dale raised a finger to his lips.

“I can already guess what you want to ask. ‘Why did you conduct the class assignment test like this?’ Something along those lines, right?”

““......””

The students clamped their mouths shut. Just as he said, that was exactly what they had been about to complain about. Dale swept his snake-like gaze over them and continued.

“The purpose of this test was to observe your ability to respond to unexpected situations. The world doesn’t always go as planned. Sudden ambushes during war, the appearance of unforeseen enemies—these things happen frequently in reality. That’s why we designed this test to see how you would handle it.”

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

As Dale spoke, he scanned each student one by one. Then, suddenly, his gaze stopped on me. He continued speaking.

“Most students usually struggle desperately to run away at this point. No matter how great your potential is, until now most of you were ordinary people. But I never expected someone to not only fight the lycanthrope but also break the illusion magic.”

In an instant, every student in the classroom turned their eyes toward me. It felt like my plan to live quietly as an extra had completely gone up in smoke.

'Come on, why are you looking at me while saying that?'

As I thought that, he went on.

“Anyway, I’ll start announcing the scores now.”

He called out names one by one and gave their scores. Naturally, most students had tried to run outside, so very few received high marks. Well, that wasn’t my problem.

The reward message appeared. It seemed that because I had cleared the test, I received more experience than expected.

'I struggled so much to level up just a month ago...'

Leveling up this quickly felt strangely bittersweet. While I was staring at the system window with mixed feelings, Dale spoke again.

“Luden von Roden, 90 points. My feedback is that you must never lose focus while fighting.”

“Yes...”

An utterly unexpected name came out of Dale’s mouth. What? Luden von Roden?

The name was far too familiar. I quickly turned my head toward her. In that instant, lightning seemed to strike through my mind.

“Fuck...”

I almost cursed out loud without realizing it. And for good reason.

'What the hell? Why is the protagonist a woman?!'

Wondering if I had misheard, I used Mind's Eye on her. Her status window appeared.

What? It really was the protagonist. Just as I suspected, the status window was identical to the original protagonist’s. The only difference was the name, which was probably because she was female.

'But what the hell? I definitely remember the protagonist being male...'

In every route I had played so far, the protagonist had always been male.

'Could the protagonist have been cross-dressing?'

I considered it for a moment but quickly shook my head. No, that wasn’t it. I had looked at the protagonist’s settings countless times. There was never any setting about the protagonist cross-dressing.

'Wait a second...!'

A thought suddenly flashed through my mind. Come to think of it, when you first start Albaon Online, you’re given a choice. You can choose whether the protagonist is male or female.

'Damn it. So that’s what it was.'

Now that I remembered, everything finally made sense. No wonder strange things had been happening from the beginning. It turned out this was the female protagonist route.

'If I had known, I would have played the female route too.'

Every time I played the game, I had always chosen the male route. That was because someone else had already completed the female route first. So I had only played the male routes, never dreaming I would get hit with something like this.

'Whew. Calm down.'

Even though I had been unexpectedly blindsided, the main episodes wouldn’t change drastically. There was no need to be too scared.

'Right. I’ll just stick to the plan.'

Saving the protagonist was a little concerning, but it should be fine. As I was trying to rationalize it to myself, Dale spoke again.

“Baran, 100 points. From calmly destroying the illusion magic to your perfect sniping ability despite being unable to see—outstanding work.”

Dale looked at me and clapped with exaggerated enthusiasm. In the next moment, every student in the classroom turned to stare at me. Even the protagonist and her supporting cast were looking at me intently.

'Can I still live as an extra after this...?'

After receiving feedback from all the students, class finally ended. Well, calling it class was a stretch—it was basically just the class assignment test.

'Now I have to decide which classes to take...'

Tomorrow marked the start of a two-day weekend. Dale had told us to each choose two liberal arts courses before the next lecture.

'Hmm, what should I take?'

As I was thinking that and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠preparing to leave the classroom, a voice called out to me.

“Um, excuse me. Can I ask you something?”

The very last person I wanted to encounter—the protagonist, Luden—approached me and spoke. And just like that, I got entangled ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with the protagonist on the very first day.