Chapter 26: To the Academy
“That was how it started, telling my friends at first.”
Dorothy spoke carefully, laying out what she knew.
At first she had told her neighborhood friends about the angel-nim, and the rumor had spread like wildfire across the net.
The common threads that emerged from the villain reports and the interviews with rescued children that kept coming in from Area 7 were simple.
“It was the incredibly sparkling, snow-white angel-nim who saved me when I was about to die!”
“She’s small, cute, and strong!”
“That little unnie suddenly appeared with a ‘zzang!’ and then beat up those bad uncles and disappeared!”
The rare eyewitness accounts and the children’s testimonies combined revealed only one thing.
The savior was a girl of small stature.
Even though she could freely alter her appearance with mimicry ability and hide in the shadows, the conclusion that a small child had saved another child sent the entire net into chaos.
Although no one had revealed the identity of the rumor’s protagonist, what did that matter?
To the cyber warriors who dominated the net and controlled every news cycle, it was the perfect juicy topic.
The story had gained flesh, and thanks to my own vigorous activities the bait had stayed fresh.
And so the rumor had continued without interruption until now.
Hah.
“Tiss… that expression is really cute…”
“Noisy.”
“Aigoo, my head.”
I had been too busy to notice the net issues, so I never imagined something like this would happen.
I was already annoyed that I hadn’t grown taller, and now this.
After the first molt Tiss and I had gone through several more.
But unlike the first molt, when my height had suddenly shot up, the second and third had left me exactly the same size.
Not even one centimeter had changed.
Even my mimicry ability, which hid my monstrous features perfectly, couldn’t stretch my height.
Shan had said something then.
“Yeah, the small one really does look cuter after all.”
I had been the only one seriously worrying about my height, and now this ridiculous fandom had been born.
Thinking about it made my head spin a little, but what could I do?
It was already done.
“Angel-nim… are you all right?”
“I’m fine. Nothing serious.”
I reached out and stroked Dorothy’s head.
Dorothy hadn’t spread the rumor out of malice, and my real identity hadn’t leaked.
With my mimicry ability I had hidden myself perfectly, so no one knew I was the center of the storm.
There was only a vague, floating image.
After toppling so many villains and saving so many children over the past two years, the rumor would have spread even if Dorothy hadn’t been the one to start it.
That thought eased my heart a little.
After all, I was going to the academy now.
If I kept a low profile, the rumor would die out quickly.
“But… when I start moving again, they might just think I transferred to another region…”
Ugh.
Shan was right, but there was nothing I could do.
Net topics changed every day, so I had no choice but to hope it faded fast.
Yeah, it would be fine.
I pushed the faint unease rising in my chest aside.
“Now you’re heading to the academy entrance exam, right? You won’t be able to see each other for a while. You’ll come back during vacation, won’t you?”
“I’ll visit at least once during break. I’ll contact you often.”
“But when I think there won’t be Tiss around for a while, I feel the empty space already. Honestly, I wish you’d just stay here and sit.”
Mary let out a long sigh, her face full of regret.
We had hunted monsters together and fought off sudden calamity waves, so I had grown closer to Mary than I expected.
She complained to Emily that I used casual speech with her but not with Mary, and before I knew it she was treating me like a friend.
Actually, I was probably closer to another little sister than a friend.
“Um…”
Dorothy approached me hesitantly while I was sipping tea.
“What is it?”
“Could I… take the academy exam with Angel-nim?”
“The exam?”
“I want to go to the academy with Angel-nim too!”
Dorothy wanting to enter the academy was an unexpected outburst.
What surprised me more than the request itself was that Mary hadn’t stopped her.
“Mary, what’s going on?”
“I tried to talk her out of it.”
Mary’s face was heavy with worry and concern.
“I told her over and over how dangerous it was and how young she was. It was useless.”
Even Mary, who doted on her sister, had dropped her guard in front of Dorothy’s tears.
“So I told her I’d go with her if you agreed.”
“Mary?”
Wait a minute.
She had finally given up on persuading Dorothy and was dumping the responsibility on me.
“Tiss, please. I won’t interfere. Just tell Dorothy straight whether or not the exam will be too much for her. If it looks dangerous, refuse immediately.”
Mary clearly hoped I would say no.
What should I do?
“But… would it be okay if Dorothy comes with us? She’s still pretty young.”
“It’s difficult, but not impossible.”
Dorothy had only recently begun to sense her own power.
She accelerated the growth of the flowers and trees she tended, so she was probably a plant-type ability user, but her exact power hadn’t been confirmed yet.
“Still, it’s a chance to test her ability.”
The academy’s cutting-edge equipment and the experience of working with seasoned heroes and hunters would be the best way to measure Dorothy’s power accurately.
Passing the exam would be tough, but if she could learn what her ability was and feel “This is the academy” before the final selection, it would be a valuable experience.
As long as she didn’t trigger some rare special ability disaster, she would probably make it home safely before the final round.
“All right, I’ll allow it. But if the exam looks dangerous, quit immediately. And if you fail, you have to come back to Mary right away. Understood?”
“Yes! Thank you so much!”
Dorothy nodded vigorously, unable to hide her joy.
She had wanted this so badly.
I wondered if her admiration for me had turned into longing for heroes and hunters.
I understood Dorothy’s passion, but the academy entrance exam wasn’t something to treat lightly like “Maybe I’ll try it once.”
Even in the original game, countless new players had been careless because it was only the prologue and had dropped out during the test.
The prologue had many random elements and heavy elements like the “Wall of Lament” and “Newbie Slaughterer.”
The developer’s philosophy was that if you couldn’t even clear the prologue, you didn’t deserve to enjoy the game.
Clearing the prologue affected your actual class placement in the academy—A class or E-class newbie.
Playing around with half-baked ideas could cost you your life.
“Don’t worry, Mary. I’ll take responsibility and bring Dorothy back safely.”
But who was I?
A user who had played this game for nearly three thousand hours.
To me, no matter how hard it was, the prologue was still just the prologue.
With Dorothy at my side, I was confident I could pass and enter A class.
“Trust me.”
Pat pat.
Mary smiled and stroked my head, and I accepted her hand without pulling away.
“Cute.”
I let her pat Dorothy’s head with the other hand.
“You don’t dodge anymore?”
“What… even if I try not to get used to it, I have to get used to this much.”
People who came up to me saying I was cute because of my appearance weren’t rare.
At first I had been sharp and warned them not to touch.
But it took more mental energy than I expected.
Meanwhile, instead of being scared or hesitant by my sharp reaction, they seemed to double down on being tsundere-cute and tried to touch me anyway.
I couldn’t just kill anyone who got on my nerves.
So I changed my strategy.
I decided to allow light touches that didn’t cross the line.
Of course, if they crossed the line, I would make sure they never touched me again, no matter how many times they died and revived.
Thanks to that, most people had learned to respect the boundary.
Dorothy, who had been listening quietly, puffed her cheeks a little in displeasure and looked at me with teary eyes.
“Angel-nim… why do you think I’ll fail? I can pass too.”
“Honestly, passing with just one try is tough.”
“Hic. That’s mean.”
Dorothy was still too young to take the infamous academy exam.
Even playable characters Siu and Sia had entered at fourteen, and following the curriculum at her age would be difficult no matter how talented she was.
Plus, since I didn’t know her exact ability or potential, high expectations were unrealistic.
I could only guess that as Mary’s little sister, she might be above average.
“Angel-nim, I’m surprisingly heavy and strong!”
Ugh.
Dorothy had been trying to make her soft arms look toned.
“Cute.”
“Cute.”
Her appearance was simply adorable.
“I know. Still, this exam is less about passing and more about figuring out what your ability is. The bigger the expectations, the bigger the disappointment.”
“Yes.”
Looking at Dorothy made me understand why Mary wanted to stroke her head so much.
Who wouldn’t open their heart to a creature armed with this much cuteness?
“Tiss is pretty cute too, though.”
“N-noisy!”
“Hehe… Tiss, the way you get embarrassed is even cuter.”
Shan was being shamelessly provocative again.
I still hated it.
I could tolerate being hugged or touched, but hearing the word “cute” directly still gave me chills.
“But is Dorothy really weak?”
“No? Even a mediocre 3rd-rate villain would lose to Dorothy.”
Dorothy ruled over the orphanage kids.
Thanks to the techniques she had learned under Mary and the poacher uncles’ protection, her growth was astonishing.
She had developed superhuman strength, enough to tear a phone book apart with her bare hands.
In the harsh Area 7, she had no choice but to grow strong to survive as the leader’s little sister and a poacher.
She wasn’t overwhelmingly strong, just enough to hover around the borderline, which was why I couldn’t flatly refuse her.
“I have to pass so Angel-nim will look at me again.”
“Have you prepared for the academy?”
“Yes! I packed the luggage in advance!”
She had packed without knowing if I would allow it… how much had she been hoping?
When I opened the trunk, the outerwear and underwear were neatly arranged.
“Tiss, we should leave soon.”
“Ah, right. Thinking about the train schedule, it’s better to go ahead.”
To prepare for the academy entrance exam in two weeks, it was better to head to Area 1 first and secure a spot.
“Then I’ll drive you to the terminal.”
Mary had offered to take us to the terminal on her way to see us off.
“I’ll go and come back.”
“I’ll go and come back too. Mary unnie.”
“Be careful. Dorothy, please contact unnie every evening if possible.”
“Yeah, don’t worry unnie. Don’t feed me instant food when I’m gone, eat properly. Okay?”
“Okay. You nag till the end.”
Mary laughed, wondering who the unnie was.
“Hug.”
“Take care.”
We shared one last warm hug.
Leaving the place I had grown to love behind, I headed toward the monorail.