Everything
The way Evelyn reached out her hand and looked at me was incredibly attractive, even to an ordinary woman. Of course, since I was originally a man, it looked even more so through my eyes. Her long black hair cascading down to her waist and the dress clinging to her body like the one often worn by mermaids revealed her seductive figure. It was like seeing an illustration from a game—her large breasts and the slight inward curve at the navel. She had said that if I saw her directly, I would know we were the same. And sure enough, her appearance was strikingly similar to mine. I had black hair and gray eyes too, along with quite large breasts. Of course, her confident aura was completely different from my bullied one, like heaven and earth apart.
Anyway… in the end, it was just a hot body. In this instant, I thought it was fortunate that I had been reborn into a game. “Ahem. I was trying to say something cool when I appeared, but are you staring at me that intensely?” And when Evelyn sensed my gaze, she let out a little embarrassed cough as if she were the one embarrassed.
She had been showing off her own confidence so proudly… but because her face was so beautiful, that embarrassed expression of hers strangely stirred up a dark, shameful feeling in one corner of my chest. “Why? You said you’d give me everything, right? Were you lying?”
“No! In situations like this, ‘everything’ means your inheritance or your hypnosis magic! And usually, women aren’t really interested in other women, right? That was the case when I was in my prime… Did the kingdom suddenly start recognizing same-sex relationships?”
“Um… I don’t think so? And I should warn you beforehand—I don’t like men. I like women.”
“That’s actually pretty good in the sense that you don’t hate me, but… you seem to have a different vibe than when you first came here, right…?”
Evelyn’s words made me think carefully. Maybe it was because this was the first real conversation I’d had since being reborn into this shitty game world. After all, the academy life hadn’t been normal for me at all.
“You were saying you were going to quit the academy right away when I heard you talking to yourself. What exactly happened?”
“Um… there’s a complicated situation. I’ll explain it later. But more importantly… if I take you out of here, do you think you can teach me hypnosis magic?”
“Yeah. That’s right. How well you can use this magic is up to you, but my magic will be passed on in a special way, so I think you should be able to use it without any issues.”
“Okay, I don’t have time. I’ll unlock it right away.”
Because the library was underground, I didn’t know the outside situation, but I figured it was probably quite late at night. The time I’d spent talking with Evelyn felt long enough.
“Well, even so, isn’t it better to write up some kind of contract? Although I may not be an archmage, I know a lot of magic, so you don’t have to worry—“…
“No. The contract… it’s fine.”
“Huh?”
“Even without a contract, I’ll trust you. If I hadn’t met Evelyn today, I would have quit the academy anyway. In exchange, Evelyn, promise me too. Teach me, and no matter what I do with the power, don’t stop me.”
“Haha. What kind of trouble are you planning to cause?”
“Honestly, Evelyn isn’t exactly righteous either. And if I’d been a normal student, I would have reported you the moment you talked to me. I need a way to protect my body. And…”
I took a brief breath and recalled the humiliations I’d suffered while wandering around the academy for a year. This damn world was fundamentally a game where you just fucked around. I wasn’t the protagonist, and there was no one in the academy right now who looked like a protagonist. So what was the thought? Maybe the protagonist hadn’t enrolled yet. Or perhaps they had already graduated, but the academy was too quiet for that. Protagonists usually brought along various problems, so the moment one appeared, I wouldn’t care. After all, according to the story flow, they would probably defeat the resurrected Demon King without me lifting a finger. So what I would do was take revenge in my own way and build a harem using Evelyn’s hypnosis magic. The first part was revenge, but it was about making the bastards who had tormented me eat their words. The second part was the reward being given to someone like me who had been running from daily bullying since being reborn into a game world. Even though I had turned into a woman, that didn’t mean I hated being one. Plus, maybe because the fundamental worldview was that of a game, the people’s appearances were above average. Even the elves, who were called a beautiful race regardless of species, had truly stunning looks. Even commoners who didn’t manage themselves had levels that stood out. So I would take all of that into my hands.
“I’ll enjoy my time at the academy while fucking over the women using the hypnosis magic I learned from you. And I’ll make sure you can watch it right next to me. Or perhaps, with the chance that arises, I might even create a new body for you. It’s a fantasy world, so I don’t see how there could be no artificially created physical forms. In other fantasy worlds, there are beings called homunculi, so it wasn’t impossible that my words were just empty talk. Actually, while studying alchemy, I learned about artificial life forms like golems, so it definitely isn’t just a pipe dream.”
“Hahaha! The way you’re saying it so confidently is odd in content?”
“So what? I’ll live selfishly too. I’ll fuck over the academy students and the professors I dislike. And at this rate, I can just hypnotize everyone who annoys me and fuck them around. You’re not going to stop me, are you?”
“No way! It actually sounds fun!”
“Then it’s a promise.”
“Alright. Then shall we begin?”
Evelyn had already returned to her book form and was wriggling as if urging me to take her out. But when I looked up at the bookshelf she was trapped in, I immediately ran into a new problem.
“U-um… I want to take you out, but how do I open this lock?”
The bookshelf she was in was locked with a giant padlock. Unlike me, who was panicking, Evelyn answered as if I were asking something strange. “Didn’t you open the door with a key when you brought this underground library to the surface?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I only had one key.”
“No. That’s fine. That key is an artifact. As long as you have it, you can open the locks here and the locked doors, right?”
It was funny that the students working in this library didn’t know. Maybe they deliberately kept silent about it because they were afraid someone would abuse it if they found out. “And once you open the lock, move quickly from that point on.”
“Is there a reason?”
“It’s the magic book that the world’s greatest hypnotist used. You might not be able to read the contents, but it’s dangerous, so it must have a security magic on it. Do you remember the hero party’s mage I mentioned earlier?”
“Um… I’m sure her name was Silvia… right?”
“Correct. Silvia Lunespear. She killed the Demon King and married a hero. And I remember she had quite a few children. She even left a will to her children even in death. “Immediately after, she destroyed or sealed all the artifacts she had gathered in her lifetime that she judged to be dangerous if released into the world. And that story became an unbreakable rule for the Lunespear family and is still in effect.”
“Ah. But if it’s Lunespear…”
“You’ve caught on, huh? Correct. It’s the family of Elina Lunespear, the current academy principal. She probably knows this rule too. Actually, she comes down to this library about once a week to check on my condition.”
So at the moment the seal was released, she might notice. “Then what should I do?”
“It might be a bit clumsy, but my magic book on the surface is just a book with a black cover spewing ominous energy, right? Even low-level people can’t feel that energy. Of course, if it’s one of Silvia’s descendants, they can feel it… but that’s fine. Just hiding my presence a little will be enough.”
“Then what should I do?”
“Your task is simple. Once the seal is lifted, get out of here as fast as possible. Apart from that, you’ll need to make the people who know you’ve been here stay quiet. This library cleaning wasn’t originally your job, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“The easiest way is to directly hypnotize Elina. But I, like all archmages, have a hidden ace for that kind of thing. So it’s not a good idea to rush straight into it. So let Elina handle that later. First, hypnotize the guy who gave you this task.”
“I understand.”
“Good. Then let’s start.”
I took a light breath, steadied my mind, inserted the key into the lock, and turned it. With a cheerful clack, the lock opened.