The Saintess and Aileen
Three days after the Saintess and Aileen’s midterm exam at the Great Lake was abruptly halted, the retest—originally scheduled for a week later—was moved up. For me, that was incredibly good news. It meant I wouldn’t have to read the romance fortunes for Lucas and the prince!
…Though it was only pushed back by a few days. Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul.
“Things wrapped up faster than I expected.”
“Indeed. The culprit was caught on the spot, and since it was deemed a rogue operation, the investigation concluded quickly.”
A rogue operation, huh.
I took a sip of coffee and recalled the serial killer I’d captured a few days earlier. Well, the Hero and Lane had done most of the actual work.
The perpetrator was that serial killer, but the true mastermind was Gregory Arthur.
It seemed the real backer hadn’t been exposed, just like in the game’s story. But why? The serial killer hadn’t been under any curse or holding any hostages. Wouldn’t a proper interrogation—physical, of course—have made him spill everything?
I decided to ask Charles Teddybear outright. He’d been graciously keeping me company during my free time.
“Did the academy handle the interrogation?”
“The Arthur family requested to conduct it themselves. They’re specialists in interrogation and torture, so we handed it over without worry.”
“I see.”
So that’s where it got twisted. Gregory Arthur might be a branch family member, but he held the head’s trust. He wasn’t a successor or anything—he was more like the family’s dirty-work specialist, their shadow enforcer. If he was the one pulling strings, the head of the family must have been involved too. They’d probably intercepted the killer before he could say anything incriminating.
The victims included a daughter of the Arthur family, so they had justification to handle the questioning instead of the academy.
What a shame.
Gregory Arthur was the kind of persistent villain who showed up in every incident, the type you almost grew fond of through sheer repetition. If I could uproot him now, the future would be so much easier. Well, things can’t always go perfectly.
Besides, Gregory was ultimately just one of the head’s pawns. Unless the head himself was removed, another Gregory would simply appear.
Anyway, this event ended well.
I’d stopped the skill theft, and no students were expelled. A perfect clear!
…Though honestly, even Hector Arthur probably wouldn’t have tried to steal his own daughter’s skill. It was probably just an unfortunate coincidence. Come to think of it, was that why Gregory had fled in such a panic? Of all the countless students, the one who got caught was Lane? Talk about terrible luck.
………Hmm. Speaking of which.
“Instructor Charles?”
“What is it? Need another cup of coffee? I’m willing to personally brew one for the hero who caught the culprit himself.”
“Then why can’t that hero take the retest?”
“Hmm.”
Down below, countless students were taking the retest. So why was I sitting at the very top floor of the failed students’ lounge, drinking coffee with an instructor?
“You understand the reasons for this retest, don’t you?”
“First, the exam was interrupted due to the Skill Thief incident. Second, Instructor Yamato Daisuke’s strong request on behalf of the Free Student Comrades for Fair Grades and Student Rights.”
“…Yes. That long name.”
Wait, did he just shorten “Free Student Comrades for Fair Grades and Student Rights” to “that long name”? Charles looked at me as I stared at him in disbelief.
“The students affiliated with that long name were the ones dragged into the failure regardless of the exam’s original purpose.”
“Right?”
“But you’re different, aren’t you?”
“………No way.”
Was I excluded because my elimination was “justified” through legitimate teamwork? The other students could at least claim they’d been caught up in the chaos, but I was eliminated because the other students had teamed up against me for “survival”?
They used such an amateurish excuse?
That kind of sophistry could justify anything. If you followed that logic, the students who got caught up in it ultimately failed to “survive,” didn’t they? Yet the academy had singled me out—the only one among the entire student body—to be treated this way.
…Is this a warning?
It was the same during the entrance ceremony maze and now during the Great Lake survival test. If I caused trouble, I stirred up public opinion and pushed my agenda. Had I gotten on their bad side?
From the academy’s perspective, I suppose it made sense to be annoyed. I’d destroyed walls and buildings, and I’d incited students over sensitive grade issues.
Wait… now I’m getting angry?
…There was no way I could just smile and say, “Oh, I see. I’ll be more careful then.” This was only the first semester of the first year, and there were still countless major events where I needed to stand out. So the “right thing” to do was to gather the students again and rally them against this unfair treatment.
If they wanted to blame someone, they should blame the academy itself for preparing such an amateurish excuse that could ignite the issue of inequality. Want to see what real incitement looks like?
“………Just to clear up any misunderstanding, we don’t hate you or anything.”
“Huh? You don’t?”
“On the contrary, we’re grateful.”
…Grateful? Well, I did catch the criminal in the act, so I suppose the academy had reason to be thankful.
“You’ve brought fresh wind to the academy.”
“………Pardon?”
“Ah, I don’t mean the students. I mean us instructors.”
…Why did I suddenly feel uneasy? Something felt very wrong. I looked at Charles with eyes that had sensed impending disaster. He gazed up at the sky with a deeply moved expression.
Hey! Don’t raise such obvious death flags!
“We instructors had fallen into a terrible rut. The exams, the surprise events—everything had become nothing but rehashes of the past. At some point, we’d begun handling them mechanically.”
“Instructor?”
“Take the entrance ceremony maze, for example. For the past hundred years, we were absolutely certain no student could escape it. How foolish we were.”
“Instructor? Hello?”
“But you—a mere fortune teller—have breathed new life into us! At first, we were afraid of you. We didn’t know how the element of fortune-telling would affect the exams, so we tried to restrict your abilities… That was absolutely not the behavior of an academy or of educators.”
“I-Instructor?”
“But this time, all the instructors gathered and held a meeting. We reached a clear conclusion.”
With a heavy thud, Charles Teddybear rose powerfully from his chair, crossed his arms, and looked up at the lofty sky. I told you to stop staring at the sky!
“From this moment forward, the academy will no longer interfere with Namgung Min’s fortune-telling.”
“Excuse me?”
“It means you may read fortunes as much as you like without issue.”
…This was strange. The variable called “penalty” had disappeared. It should have been good news. So why did I feel so anxious?
“Then… I could potentially read the exam contents in advance…”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Huh?
“If you know the contents beforehand, we simply need to make the exam difficult enough that no amount of fortune-telling can solve it.”
“………….”
“With this, the exams at Romance Academy will evolve to the next level. On behalf of the academy, I thank you.”
“……….”
So, in other words, they were going to make the exams so difficult that whether I read the information or not wouldn’t matter? Even if I knew the strategy, clearing it would still be incredibly hard?
Wait, hold on.
Didn’t this mean all the major upcoming exams would completely change? They’d diverge from the game’s original story. And if that happened, even the fortune-telling strategy would disappear. They were designing exams with the assumption that someone knew the strategy, but what if no one actually knew it?
…Wasn’t this completely screwed?
Should I get on my knees and beg right now!?
Obviously, grades were extremely important to me. Low grades meant being stuck at the academy until late at night, and there were events that only triggered if you ranked high enough. Most importantly, I’d promised the Hero I’d become the top student in the entire school. Knowing the exam contents was essential…!
…What the hell was I supposed to do about this?
“I can tell what you’re worried about.”
“………You can?”
“If only you know the strategy, it would be impossible for everyone to receive fair grades. Isn’t that right? Instructor Yamato seemed particularly impressed by you.”
“………….”
“In that sense, from now on we will announce the exam dates and basic information in advance. Anything more you learn through fortune-telling will be a matter of personal ability, so there’s no problem.”
“…Yes.”
…Should I feel relieved hearing this? At least they were giving out basic information so I could prepare… But still, this absolutely wouldn’t work.
Just the Hero and me won’t be enough.
What if the next test was another individual survival format like last time? What if it was a tournament? What if it required forming teams? What if it was a full cooperation game?
No matter how I considered the variables, having more allies was always better.
…I need to seriously recruit the entire Special Class group.
Yes. I should turn the entire Special Class into my team. Fortunately, I already had some level of friendship with all of them, so it wasn’t impossible.
…Huh? This might actually work.
If I managed their favorability well, it should be entirely possible. In the game, high favorability made it easier to get cooperation during exam events. Besides, if you excluded me, the Special Class students were all childhood friends who had known each other since they were young. Even if not everyone was close, couldn’t I somehow bind them into one team?
You guys used the fortune teller too! Now it’s my turn to use you guys!
Even if we get split up, we just won’t target each other.
…Now that I thought about it, wasn’t this basically a cartel? If the Special Class stuck together and refused to attack each other even when on different teams, it was undeniably a cartel.
Who cares?
I need to survive first! Cleanup comes later!
“Thank you for telling me in advance.”
“It’s nothing. This information will be announced soon anyway… And above all, you’re the one who caught the culprit.”
Good. To summarize the information I gained this time into three lines:
1. Exams will change and become insanely difficult from now on.
2. Therefore, to maintain good grades without game knowledge, I need allies.
3. To achieve that, I must grind favorability with the Special Class students!
Of course, I wasn’t only recruiting from the Special Class.
…Which meant I really needed to have a talk with this man.
“Um, Instructor?”
“Hm?”
“Your daughter… what has she been doing lately…”
“………I’m sorry, but even if you ask me… I know nothing……”
Ah, aah. The confident demeanor from moments ago vanished. The moment his daughter was mentioned, Charles Teddybear’s shoulders slumped. It was like witnessing the sad reality of a father with a daughter.
I’d asked because I hadn’t seen Aileen around lately, but it had the opposite effect.
…Is she avoiding me?
But why? I hadn’t done anything wrong, and we hadn’t fought. After the day we caught the Skill Thief, Aileen hadn’t come to the fortune-telling shop. Come to think of it, she hadn’t shown up even when I asked for help with the Skill Thief.
I was planning to just wait, but…
It seemed I should go find her myself. If I could get Aileen—the central figure of the Fighter class—on my side, she would be an enormous help.
As I organized my thoughts, Charles, who had slightly lifted his previously drooping shoulders, muttered weakly.
“…It seems some students have started failing. I’ll head down first, so rest comfortably.”
“………Thank you for your hard work, Instructor Charles.”
“Thank you.”
Favorability grinding. It had been necessary before, but now it was critically important.
Come to think of it, my favorability with Charles Teddybear is high enough that he gave me this information in advance.
If my favorability had been low, I would have only learned about this change later and had a much harder time responding. But because my favorability with him had increased while resolving the Aileen issue, I was able to gain valuable information and buy myself time.
As expected, favorability is god. Favorability is invincible.
“When it comes to the Special Class…”
The boys shouldn’t be a problem. I spoke casually with Lucas, the prince treated me with considerable consideration, the Hero was practically my ally, and while the Saint outwardly acted hostile, we were secretly cooperating. Those guys should be easy to persuade.
The problem is the girls.
Liu Yen, Lane Arthur, and Princess Kim Eun-ha. Only three, but each one was difficult. Fortunately, I wasn’t on bad terms with any of them, but would they really follow my lead so easily?
Liu should be fine, I think.
Liu Yen was the person most different from the character I knew from the game. Honestly, I couldn’t quite read her intentions… but we’d spent time together in class and after school, so there was some affection there. Maybe I could work with that.
Lane… I really have no idea.
Right now, the relationship I understood the least was with Lane. It was good that I’d cleared up her misunderstanding about me being a strong person, but I had no clue what she was thinking. She was the character whose personal events I wanted to resolve first, so I wanted to get closer to her. But lately, every time we met, she gave me strange looks that made me nervous.
What about the princess?
Would someone with Kim Eun-ha’s personality really accept this kind of collusion, this cartel? She had a surprisingly upright side, so she might refuse… or she might accept it. I had no idea how she’d react.
…Well, no matter how much I worried about it, there was only one thing to do.
Time to move.
Thinking about it a hundred times was less effective than taking direct action. I’d talk to them as soon as this exam was over!
*
“No.”
“I refuse.”
“I’m sorry.”
Lucas, the prince, and the Saint shook their heads.
“Sure.”
“Understood.”
“Sounds good.”
Liu, Lane, and the princess immediately nodded.
“………….”
…What? What the hell is this?