The Original Routes Keep Falling Apart

The moment I opened my eyes that morning, I checked the ceiling first.

Fortunately, there were no clouds.

It wasn't raining, and no thunderheads had gathered exclusively over my head the way they had the night before. Just an ordinary dormitory ceiling.

The problem was that what sat beneath it was anything but ordinary.

"Damp…"

The blanket was damp. The pillow was damp. My hair, which I had failed to dry properly overnight, clung to my back, and water still dripped steadily from the tip of the tail hanging off the edge of the bed.

Last night, for the first time, I had moved the clouds by my own will.

Azure Dragon. Divine beast. An ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Eastern dragon who commanded the sky, the rain, and the wind.

Up to that point, it all sounded extremely cool.

It would have stayed cool if I hadn't immediately formed a cloud inside my room and stood alone in the rain that followed.

"Still. A success is a success."

I forced my chest out with as much pride as I could muster. After the flag, I had managed the clouds as well. My power control was still a little—no, a lot—of a mess, but I had found the direction. All that remained was practice.

More importantly, starting today I had something far more urgent than my own power to deal with.

The Original Route Restoration Project.

The moment I recalled the sentence I had written down last night, my mind snapped fully awake. I kicked the wet blanket aside and bolted for the desk.

Thankfully the notebook had survived. The edge of the cover was a little damp, but the writing inside hadn't bled.

I flipped it open and reviewed the plan I had laid out the day before.

Concise and perfect.

Especially the first one—I could start on that today.

Erika, Lydia, Selene. All three heroines I had met so far attended the same academy. And the protagonist, Kyle, wasn't even in the next class over; he was in the same one as me.

With conditions like these, getting them in the same place shouldn't be hard. In a dating sim, the real challenge was always choosing the right dialogue options—not arranging for two characters to stand in the same room.

I closed the notebook and hid it deep in the wardrobe. Under the spare uniform, between the towels, behind the comb I used for my tail. A perfect hiding spot.

Probably.

The first opportunity arrived at breakfast in the dining hall.

Kyle was sitting alone by the window. In front of him sat bread, soup, and three empty chairs no one had claimed.

Tray in hand, I quickly scanned the room. Lydia was a short distance away at the serving counter, choosing a drink.

Perfect.

An open seat beside Kyle. A heroine approaching. A natural breakfast setting. There could not have been a more ideal first event.

I pulled out the chair across from him and sat down.

"Good morning."

"Good morning, Cheongha."

Kyle's gaze flicked to the wet ends of my hair, and one eyebrow lifted slightly.

"Your hair's still wet."

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"That's not important right now."

I immediately pulled out the chair beside him as well.

"If anyone comes over, make sure you sit them right here."

"Anyone?"

"Anyone. Especially if they're blonde."

Kyle's expression turned strange. There was no way I could explain. How was I supposed to say, You're supposed to end up dating a blonde saintess, so start building affection now?

"Anyway, just talk naturally. Listen to her worries. Smile if you can."

"Out of nowhere?"

"If you're the protagonist, you should be able to handle that much on your own."

"What protagonist?"

"You misheard me."

At that moment Lydia approached with her drink in hand.

Here she comes.

I shot to my feet at once.

"Miss Lydia, there's a seat right here."

I pointed at the chair next to Kyle. Perfectly natural. At least it was in my head.

Lydia looked at the empty chair, then at Kyle, then at me, in that order. Then she smiled brightly and sat down beside me instead.

"Thank you, Miss Cheongha."

No—not there.

"The seat I meant was that one over there."

"But your hair is still wet. What if you catch a cold?"

Lydia pulled a handkerchief from her robes and pressed it gently against the ends of my hair.

"You overdid it again last night, didn't you?"

"I only moved the clouds a little."

"Inside your room?"

"That was an accident."

"So it was inside your room."

Why phrase it like a question if you're already certain?

Lydia's gaze shifted to Kyle this time. Her smile remained soft.

"Kyle, why were you just staring at Miss Cheongha's wet hair?"

"I only just met her here."

"You could have gone and gotten her a towel."

"Me?"

Kyle looked at me with an expression of pure injustice. I pretended not to notice and spooned up my soup.

Lydia route restoration, first attempt. Within one minute of starting, it wasn't Kyle's affection that had risen—it was his wariness.

It was fine. There were still plenty of chances left.

The second opportunity came after morning classes ended.

Erika was waiting for us in the middle of the hallway. Arms crossed, leaning against the wall—anyone walking past would have assumed she was about to pick a fight. And of course, the target of that fight was me.

"Cheongha."

"I'm busy today."

"I haven't even said anything yet."

"It's about a duel, isn't it."

Erika grinned. The look on her face said I wasn't wrong.

"I already submitted the application. Once the student council president approves it, we're settling this properly."

"I refuse."

"I said I already submitted it."

"And what about my consent?"

"You can look for it on the dueling grounds."

To this Red Dragon, conversation was apparently nothing more than a warm-up for the mouth before she started swinging her fists.

I took a step to the side. Right on cue, Kyle—walking up from behind—entered my field of view.

Good. In the original, Erika first took an interest in Kyle while fighting him. All I had to do was put the correct opponent back in the correct slot.

I grabbed Kyle by the shoulders and shoved him forward in front of Erika.

"How about this one instead of me?"

"What?"

"Kyle's strong too. Probably."

"Why 'probably'?"

Kyle asked from behind me. I ignored him.

"Same class, mixed blood, carries a sword around. Plenty of reasons to fight him."

Erika looked Kyle up and down. Kyle, for his part, met her stare in silence for a moment.

There it was. Tension between them. Now Erika would challenge Kyle to a duel, Kyle would accept, and the original route would start moving again.

"No."

Erika didn't even hesitate.

"Why not?"

"Because the one I want to fight right now is you."

"We already fought."

"Exactly. That's why I want to fight again."

I could not follow the logic at all. Please ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠do not talk about this the way people talk about a dish that tasted good enough to order a second time.

"Kyle might be stronger than me."

"Then you can fight him after you beat me. Whatever."

Erika gave me no further attention and instead gave my shoulder a light shove.

"Don't run."

"I'll decide that after I see the results."

"So you are going to run."

Still smiling, Erika walked off toward the far end of the hallway first. I watched her red hair recede into the distance, then slowly turned to Kyle.

"Is she always like that?"

he asked.

"She's supposed to be like that toward you."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Second attempt: also a failure. Why did every event refuse to go back where it belonged and instead latch onto me even harder?

My last hope was Selene.

At lunch, I ran into her in front of the Student Council Room with a thick stack of papers tucked under one arm. There was a high chance it included Erika's duel application.

I stepped into her path.

"President. A moment, please."

"If this is about the duel application, it's still under review."

"Not that. What do you think of Kyle?"

When I gestured, Kyle—who had been hanging back a short distance—stopped walking. After being dragged around by me since morning, his eyes now held open wariness.

Selene regarded him. Those cold blue eyes studied him for a long moment.

"Suspicious."

The short evaluation dropped. I brightened at once.

Interest. Selene's route, as I recalled, began with her suspecting the secrets Kyle carried. I didn't remember the exact scene, but "suspicious" was a good sign either way.

"Right? Then how about observing him a little more closely?"

"I already am."

"Really?"

Yes. At last, one success.

While I was still celebrating, Selene's gaze slowly shifted to me.

"Both of you."

"Pardon?"

"Kyle, and you. I'm observing both."

She tapped the top sheet of her stack with a finger. Beneath Erika's submitted duel application, I caught a brief glimpse of a report with my name on it.

"Especially you. You're on the persons-of-interest list."

"That setting was not in the original."

"What original?"

"I mean it wasn't supposed to be a thing."

"I suppose a student who walks around with her Dragon Heart on the outside from day one of enrollment, fights a Red Dragon, and makes it rain over the academy wasn't supposed to be a thing either."

I had nothing to say to that.

Selene adjusted her grip on the papers and walked past us.

"I'll let you know tomorrow whether the duel is approved. Until then, don't cause any incidents."

"I haven't done anything today."

"That's the line I hear most often right before someone causes an incident."

A painful remark born of the student council president's hard-earned experience.

I sighed and leaned back against the wall. Lydia at breakfast. Erika the moment classes ended. Selene at lunch. I had set out to return the heroines to Kyle, and somehow I had only managed to pack my own schedule full of meetings with all three of them.

Kyle leaned against the wall beside me.

"What have you been trying to do all morning?"

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"I've been working for the sake of your future."

"Why are you working on my future?"

"Trust me, I'm not doing this because I want to."

Kyle looked at me as if he couldn't understand a word of it. I couldn't understand it either. The plan had been perfect.

"Tomorrow I'll have to be more natural about it."

"About what?"

"You don't need to know."

For today, I would admit defeat. Restoring the original routes was not something that could be finished in a single day. Even in the game, clearing one route took hours; of course it would take longer in reality.

Consoling myself with that thought, I parted ways with Kyle.

As I walked down the corridor, I felt a few strange gazes on me. A black butterfly perched on a ceiling corner. A small lizard crouched on a windowsill. When I looked directly at them, they went perfectly still, as if nothing had happened.

Ever since I moved a cloud and made it rain inside my room last night, I had been getting curious looks more than once or twice. Someone must have been watching me again. I dismissed it as nothing important.

I only learned that judgment was wrong toward evening.

The corridor leading back to the dormitory was quiet. The sunset outside stretched long across the floor, painting it red.

Today's results had been catastrophic. The Lydia route had only raised Kyle's wariness. The Erika route had looped straight back into a duel application aimed at me. The Selene route had gotten me placed under observation right alongside him.

Still, it was fine. There was still the Black Dragon heroine left. In the original, the Black Dragon had taken an interest in Kyle's mixed heritage. A gloomy otaku who loved romance novels. She had called Kyle—born between human and dragon—the crystallized form of love that transcended species, or something like that.

So the odds that she would have anything to do with me were low.

They would be high.

They had to be high.

I adjusted my grip on the Yeouiju cradled in my arms. Tonight I would go back to my room, finish drying the wet bedding, and draft a new plan for tomorrow. And the clouds—I would absolutely only practice with those outside the window.

This time, the plan was perfect.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

Click.

Something locked into place beneath my foot.

"Huh?"

I looked down. A black line was spreading across the floor. Not a shadow. In an instant the line drew a circle and filled the interior with complex patterns.

A magic circle.

And it was drawn exactly under my feet.

I tried to yank my foot free on pure reflex. Too late. Black light coiled around my ankle. The entire floor seemed to drop away beneath me, and my body was yanked hard downward.

"No—why is there a trap in the middle of a hallway?!"

The Yeouiju in my arms flared with blue light. Wind stirred, but there was no gap to escape through. In a narrow corridor with no sky and no clouds, the only thing I could do was clutch the pearl so I wouldn't drop it.

"Help—"

Before the word could finish, my vision flipped. The corridor ceiling receded, and the sensation beneath my feet vanished.

And in the next moment—

I disappeared from the dormitory corridor of Drakenheim Academy without a single trace left behind.