The Necklace of Someone Watching
The entrance ceremony was still a week away after the academy entrance exam ended. Students were given that time to explore Romance Academy, meet acquaintances, visit their hometowns, or do whatever else they pleased. Most of them, however, had yet to realize the true nature of this place.
Only those with sharp instincts, or the rare few who had gathered information beforehand through connections or deals, understood the real purpose of this grace period. It was preparation time.
“All the dorms inside the academy are already full!”
“All those buildings?!”
“Most of them are reserved for upperclassmen. The freshman dorms filled up ages ago!”
“Damn it! The school’s far, but I guess I’ll have to set up a base outside somehow…!”
Romance Academy had everything prepared: school buildings, dormitories, training grounds, shops, plazas, mountains, lakes, recreational facilities, and even transportation to get around it all. But the academy only prepared these things. It was entirely up to the students to make use of them.
Students had to secure their own lodging, figure out where every shop was located, reserve training rooms, engage in economic activities, and even sign up for classes on their own. Of course, that didn’t mean the academy did absolutely nothing. If you simply secured a place to stay, you could coast through the classes you registered for and graduate without any major issues.
But if you took the initiative to gather information and act on it, you could gain far more.
And today, what I was trying to dig up was part of that very process. Scattered throughout Romance Academy were treasures and artifacts that granted skills—things you could discover through various hints.
It used to be called a treasure hunt.
But in the game’s setting, not many people knew about it. It had been an ambitious event the academy prepared about twenty years ago, but the difficulty was so absurd that most of the treasures remained hidden when the event ended. Since they never repeated the event, it had become a valuable secret known only to those in the know.
To me, however—who had found every single one of them and still roughly remembered their locations—it was the best event imaginable!
…Or so the excited Namgung Min had overlooked one crucial detail.
“So explain yourself. Why exactly were you digging there?”
“……………”
“If you keep refusing to speak, this will only be disadvantageous for you. Wouldn’t it be better to say something appropriate so we can resolve this without any hard feelings?”
“…………”
“Hah…”
In the game, no one would bat an eye if the protagonist pulled out trees or dug up the ground while looking for treasure. But in reality, that was something that immediately brought the police—or in this case, the security forces—running!
…What do I do?
I had been dragged to the nearby security station after digging up the flowerbed, and my mind was spinning. Even though I knew this place wasn’t exactly like the game, I’d still made such a stupid mistake. It was almost funny how dumb I was.
Still… resolving this situation itself wasn’t that difficult.
If I just reveal that I’m an academy student, it should all be fine.
With the immunity granted to Romance Academy students, digging up one flowerbed wouldn’t be any issue at all. But the problem was—
It’ll create weird rumors. No, it definitely will. Without a doubt.
Quite a few people had seen me being dragged away by security, and since I hadn’t received my uniform yet, I was still wearing that eye-catching red dress shirt and black suit. Many students had seen me in that outfit during the special exam, so someone was bound to connect the dots that the fortune teller and the flowerbed vandal were the same person.
If I just laughed it off here with a “Haha, I was actually an academy student all along,” would they really respond with “Oh, is that so? Then please go on your way”?
Not only would I fail to obtain the skill I wanted, but strange rumors would spread throughout the academy. There’s a student who got dragged off by security in broad daylight for digging up a perfectly innocent flowerbed. And that student just so happened to be the fortune teller whose admission to the elite Special Class for top-tier talents no one could understand?
My reputation would be completely ruined.
And if my reputation was destroyed, every plan I had in mind would go up in smoke. For the sake of taking a successful first step after the entrance ceremony, I needed to handle this differently right now.
Think. Think…!
“Are you perhaps an academy student? If so, there shouldn’t be any problem and you can leave right away.”
“…………”
“You really are tight-lipped. If you’re going to be like this, you must know we can’t just let it slide, right?”
“…………”
“…I suppose we have no choice. First, we’ll need to investigate this individual’s—”
While I was desperately racking my brain, the situation continued to deteriorate. I remained silent because I couldn’t come up with anything to say, and the middle-aged security chief let out a rough sigh, clearly irritated.
If my relationship with the security team soured over this, that would be a problem in its own way…! Wasn’t there some way to both secure the skill, protect my reputation, and maintain a good relationship with the security forces?
But there was no way such a convenient solution would just—
“C-Chief!”
“Hm? What is it?”
“J-just a moment—”
“—What?”
The chief, who had been listening to the report with an annoyed expression, suddenly turned pale with shock. He looked back and forth between me and the security officers, asked the guards who had rushed over several questions to confirm, and only then stared at me with an astonished face.
“Second place… in the entrance exam?”
“………Yes.”
…There it was. A way had occurred to me.
“My name is Namgung Min.”
Honestly, the fact that I was an academy student would have come out soon enough anyway. A simple investigation would have revealed it. So staying silent would have resolved the situation eventually. The only downside would have been failing to get the skill, ruining my reputation, and souring my relationship with the security team.
But there was a way to completely flip this situation…!
“You really placed second…?”
“My abilities are still lacking, but I was lucky enough to pass the entrance exam in second place.”
“…Second place isn’t something you can get just by luck.”
“You flatter me.”
Even after learning I was second place, the security chief’s tone remained sharp—probably because of how I had acted until now. It was a natural reaction. From his perspective, some snot-nosed kid had been deceiving both him and the entire security team.
Deliberately getting caught, refusing to reveal his identity, and only speaking up after someone else informed them, “This guy is actually incredible”? No matter how you looked at it, he was the very definition of a chuuni trying to act like a hidden powerhouse.
And of course, that led to the obvious question.
“If you had said so from the beginning, there wouldn’t have been any problem. So why did you remain silent?”
Why did you stay silent? Were you trying to act like some hidden powerhouse even after your second-place ranking was revealed? What kind of answer could possibly be convincing in response to that?
No excuse would work in this situation. However, even though it wasn’t exactly a pleasant memory… I was someone who had survived on words alone and even earned my own university tuition.
There was a way.
“I was reading the fortune.”
“Fortune?”
“I apologize for the late introduction, but I am Namgung Min, the Fortune Teller. I had no choice but to remain silent just now because I was reading a fortune in my mind. This was clearly my mistake, but I had no intention of deceiving the chief or the security officers. I am truly sorry.”
“I-I see. A Fortune Teller who placed second in the entrance exam… that’s quite impressive.”
“My abilities are still inadequate. Even though I placed second, considering the hard work you and the security team put in to ensure our safety, remaining silent was extremely rude. Please forgive my discourtesy and short-sightedness.”
“No, there’s no need to bow your head. I wasn’t offended at all, so stop apologizing.”
That’s a lie. I had clearly seen how irritated and angry he had gotten while I kept silent earlier. But when the guy he thought was rude suddenly offered a polite apology while simultaneously praising the security team? It was more than enough to flip his impression.
Since we hadn’t known each other long, it would be easy for him to think his earlier judgment had been a misunderstanding.
Just as it’s hard to spit on a smiling face, few people can ignore a sincere apology.
People make mistakes easily, but they rarely apologize easily. And that’s precisely why a sincere apology carries such weight. The previously rather hostile atmosphere softened in an instant.
Now apparently treating me as a guest, the security chief brought out simple drinks and snacks, smiling as he continued.
“So you were reading a fortune, you say?”
“Yes. It was about this flowerbed.”
I had prevented any bad blood with the security team, but the issues of the skill buried in the flowerbed and my reputation still remained. This was the time to use a cheat code.
“That flowerbed…? As far as I know, it’s just an ordinary flowerbed. Is there something special about it?”
“Indeed. This morning when I examined the feng shui, I saw that the vitality flowing through the ground in various places was quite beautiful. Even though Romance Academy is an artificially created floating city, as long as there is land and sky, how could it not be influenced by earthly energy?”
“U-um?”
“Since the shops and dormitories lie along the paths of vitality, they are truly warm and welcoming. And by building various facilities underground, they directly receive the vitality from the earth below—this can truly be called excellent geography. Furthermore, when examining the dragon vein centered around the mountain, the place with the most distinct earthly energy is the main building of Romance Academy, which is also superb.”
“I-I see…”
“Out of curiosity, I examined various places around the academy and found a spot where the earth’s veins seemed strangely twisted and gathered. At first I thought it was the main acupuncture point where vitality gathered most strongly, but upon closer inspection, it was clear that something was buried there, obstructing the vitality rather than being an actual vital point. So I attempted to dig it up.”
“Hmm, so… you’re saying that through this feng shui fortune-telling, you saw something in the flowerbed that was interfering with the energy flow and tried to dig it up?”
“Exactly.”
“I see……”
Normally, the expected response would have been “What kind of nonsense is that?” But the security chief was hesitating because I was a Fortune Teller who had spouted all sorts of technical terms with a serious expression, and I was talented enough to have placed second in the entrance exam.
He couldn’t quite believe me if he followed along, but ignoring it felt somehow ominous. Fortune-telling was precisely the kind of scam that exploited exactly this kind of uncertainty.
“So… what were you planning to do if you dug it up?”
“I was only going to dig a little and check. My skills are still immature, so I might have misread it. Or perhaps someone had intentionally twisted the earthly energy a bit to gather vitality in a specific location. I only intended to confirm it.”
“Hmm… I see.”
I made sure to emphasize that what I was doing was merely confirmation. I wasn’t going to drive stakes into the ground or perform some strange ritual—I was just going to check. The conflicted security chief’s thoughts finally converged on one point.
After pondering for a moment, he eventually nodded with a gentle smile.
“If it’s just confirmation, then there shouldn’t be any problem.”
“Thank you. In that case, would it be alright if I have some of the other security officers accompany me? I’m not asking for help, but if something strange comes out of the ground, I’d like to hand it over to you.”
“That’s no problem at all. Your name was Namgung Min, right? I’ll come along too, so let’s go check it out.”
“I appreciate your assistance.”
Perfect.
Having somehow resolved the problem, I clenched my fist tightly. Despite having been dragged in with both arms held, I now walked out of the security station with my head held high, accompanied by the security chief and several officers.
“What’s going on?”
“Hey? Isn’t that the guy who got dragged away earlier?”
“Doesn’t he look familiar…?”
The bizarre sight drew onlookers, but I arrived at the flowerbed where I had been dragged away earlier with a confident smile on my face. While the security officers surrounded me to hold back the crowd, I gripped the shovel with both hands in white gloves and thrust it back into the flowerbed I had been digging earlier.
Thud! Thud!
“What is he doing? Why is he digging up the ground?”
“I don’t know either. He got dragged off by security for digging, and now he’s digging again with security standing right next to him?”
“Isn’t he going to get punished?”
The onlookers whispered among themselves, and as more people gathered, the crowd grew larger. And finally, someone who recognized me spoke up.
“Huh? Isn’t that the fortune teller?”
“Fortune teller?”
“There was a guy among the new students with the Fortune Teller class. I remember him because his outfit was so distinctive.”
“Wait, but isn’t that the guy who took the special exam? Why is someone like him digging in the ground?”
“It’s obvious. Fortune Teller is a total dud class, right? He probably failed the exam already and is doing manual labor.”
“That actually suits him!”
As expected, my reputation wasn’t very good. After all, quite a few people were probably annoyed that someone with the absolute worst dud class, Fortune Teller, had taken the special exam that was supposedly only for the famous and high-status. Since they couldn’t complain to the academy itself, they were taking it out on me, the person involved.
Whether young or old, it was common for people to boost their self-esteem by mocking those beneath them. But I just kept digging. I dug and dug.
Thud! Thud!
“…Hey, aren’t you hot?”
“Of course I’m hot. Why?”
“But why isn’t that fortune teller sweating at all? Look, there’s so much dust flying around but there’s no dirt on his clothes either.”
“……Huh? You’re right?”
Eventually, some people began to notice the sense of incongruity. The sight of someone performing heavy labor—digging up the ground—without breaking a single drop of sweat. The way he remained completely clean despite all the flying dirt. And the way he silently continued digging no matter what people said around him.
Many people were still simply mocking him, but others began to think there must be some purpose behind the digging. And then—
Clang!
“Eh?”
“What was that sound?”
After ten full minutes of mindlessly digging, the shovel finally struck something solid. Since I had dug quite deep, it wouldn’t be visible from outside, so I carefully brushed off the dirt and climbed out of the hole.
“What is that?” the chief asked.
“This is the object that was buried here. It doesn’t harm the earthly energy, but its own energy is so strong that it seems to have been gathering the vitality of the surrounding land.”
“……Well, I’ll be. So that’s what you were talking about.”
What had come out of the ground was a box stamped with the seal of Romance Academy. It was the kind of box the academy used in the game when they hid something. And the security chief, who had worked in this floating city for over thirty years, naturally knew exactly what kind of box it was.
“It looks suspicious. Could the security team take custody of it?”
“Haha, this isn’t a suspicious item at all.”
“Pardon?”
Of course I knew exactly what it was, but that was as the gamer Namgung Min, not as the Fortune Teller who had just taken the entrance exam yesterday. So I put on an expression of genuine confusion, as if I had no idea what he was talking about. The security chief smiled as if impressed and continued.
“This is a treasure hidden by the academy.”
“A… treasure, you say?”
“That’s right. It’s been hidden for nearly twenty years now, and hardly anyone knows about it anymore. It’s been a very long time since I last saw one.”
Even though it had been twenty years ago, the security chief seemed to remember that time as he smiled nostalgically.
“It caused quite a commotion back then. Students dug up the ground, tore down buildings, and even dug into the mountain trying to find these. They practically destroyed the entire academy. I heard that after that, they stopped hiding them.”
“Then this is…”
“Only a very small number of the treasures hidden by the academy have ever been found. I’ve only seen two myself. I never thought I’d see another one.”
The security chief, looking at the slightly aged but still sturdy box that seemed to have preserved twenty years of time, turned to Namgung Min.
“Go ahead and open it.”
“……Yes.”
Opening it wasn’t difficult. It opened with just a bit of force.
Click.
“This is…?”
“It’s yours now.”
What came out of the box was a necklace that had accumulated a bit of tarnish from being inside for so long. On the surface it looked like a cheap trinket, but an unusual power flowed from within it.
A necklace that belonged to someone who wanted to watch over another person forever. Traces of faint lingering resentment and obsession still remain.
• Grants the General Skill 'Observation' when equipped.
• Consumes one skill slot.
• Wearing it continuously for more than 24 hours may affect the wearer’s personality.
As I ran my fingers over the necklace, a status window popped up, displaying its information. It was exactly the same performance I had seen in the game. Namgung Min nodded.
“It seems to be quite the… artifact.”
“Try wearing it. It should activate a skill.”
Just as he said, the moment I put the necklace around my neck, a change began to occur little by little.
So this is what it feels like.
My right eye became slightly clearer, and I began to see more things. This kind of change hadn’t existed in the game, but… there was no doubt that the Observation skill had been applied.
While I was still focusing on my slightly awkward right eye—
“D-did you hear that? He said it’s an artifact with a built-in skill…!”
“No way. He just dug up the ground and that came out?”
“That guy’s class is Fortune Teller, right? Maybe he really did read a fortune?”
“Do you actually believe in fortune tellers? It’s common knowledge that their class skill accuracy rate is less than twenty percent!”
“Well, that’s true, but……”
A commotion was breaking out among the onlookers. They had come to watch because some fortune teller was digging in the ground, but that same fortune teller had just found an artifact that the academy had hidden long ago.
In truth, artifacts with built-in skills weren’t extremely rare. Anyone with the Blacksmith class could make them. But because Blacksmiths were one of the rarest classes, supply could never keep up with the demand for artifacts.
Yet the academy had hidden items all over the place that would normally cost several houses to obtain?
“This is……”
“If you find one, isn’t it a jackpot?”
The crowd buzzed with excitement, and several people slipped away from the throng and ran off somewhere.
“This is huge…!!”
“The academy hid treasures twenty years ago? I’m definitely going to find one!”
Job holders or not, the students of Romance Academy were ultimately teenagers who hadn’t even reached twenty yet. A treasure hunt—especially one that gave out artifacts—was something no one could help but be interested in…!
“I’m the one who’s going to find them!!”
A treasure hunt craze had begun with a single fortune teller’s shovel. And amid the people slowly dispersing—
“……….”
A certain female student was watching Namgung Min as he fiddled with the necklace.