It Was a RoFan
The Academy judged solely on current skill and talent. It made no distinction between commoners and nobles. Yet even the Academy had people it refused to accept: criminals, or those with such severely lacking talent that attending would yield zero improvement. The former was obvious. The latter simply had no reason to be admitted.
Those who failed the entrance process either sought other paths immediately or fell into despair, cursing the Academy that had rejected them. Among the despairing, a small number nursed a burning desire for revenge and formed an organization. That was how the group known as the Scavengers came to be—a gathering of talentless individuals determined to inflict every possible harm on the Academy.
They possessed the will, the motive, and the drive, but not the power to match. That was why the black mages had sought them out. This time, let’s completely destroy the Academy. It was the chaotic period of accepting new students, and this particular generation was being called the golden generation, packed with monstrous talents. Even if they couldn’t eliminate those monsters entirely, crippling even one of them would cause the Academy’s prestige to plummet beyond recovery.
And so the black mages—who worshipped one of the Seven Great Archdemons, Overon the Overlaying—joined hands with the Scavengers. That alliance led to the current situation: a simultaneous invasion of the Academy by both groups.
In the midst of the overwhelming chaos that followed—
-Flash!!
A female student of suspiciously breathtaking beauty sent her long white hair fluttering as she radiated blinding light.
“Is this… divine power?”
The girl standing at the center of that radiance was Ella. Adopted by fortunate chance into a baron’s family, she had enrolled in the economics department to be useful to her household. Just before a fragment of black magic could strike her, she had awakened a mysterious force. It was divine power—the purest holy energy granted by the Goddess. It circled her protectively, as if determined to shield her.
“This is impossible!! A Saintess?!”
“Why now…!”
“Retreat! Everyone retreat!!”
“Hey, black mages! What the hell are you running for?!”
“Don’t drag me down, you failures! If the opponent’s a Saintess, the power you gave us is useless!”
“Goddammit…! Stay out of the light!”
The sphere of light was shrinking, yet the protective radiance around Ella only grew clearer and stronger. The black mages and Scavengers fled in blind panic, desperate to put as much distance between themselves and her as possible.
“I’m… a Saintess?”
Stunned by the invaders’ reaction, Ella stared down at her hands in disbelief. Golden divine power slowly gathered into her palms.
“…I can protect them.”
When she turned, she saw her friend collapsed on the ground, already struck by black magic. Ray had been kind to her from the very first day—the Academy’s first friend. As divine power flowed from Ella’s body, Ray’s pained expression gradually softened. Ella carefully laid a hand over her. In that instant light flared, and the dark energy covering Ray’s body vanished completely.
“…This should be enough.”
Once she was certain Ray was healed, Ella rose and gazed in the direction the black mages had fled. And at that exact moment—
“Don’t run away! Fight back!!”
“Uwaaaagh! That guy’s insane! Run!”
“He’s using a sword, magic, and a magic tool all at once!!”
“I even took economics!”
“What the hell do you want from us, you lunatic?!”
“…?”
With a sword in his right hand and a gauntlet on his left, the madman was chasing the black mages while hurling every spell imaginable. Ella witnessed the bizarre spectacle.
“You won’t fight me because I’m third place?! Does it really have to be first or second?!”
“What is this crazy bastard even— Aaaargh! M-my leg!”
“Leave him and run— Ack! You sneaky son of a— firing a fireball from behind?!”
“He’s got magic stones embedded in his sword and gauntlet! Don’t drop your guard just because he isn’t using a staff— Urk!”
“The gauntlet! Watch the gauntlet! What the hell is that needle coming out of— Gah!”
Aura wrapped his blade. Magic and suspicious needles flew from the gauntlet. At that grotesque yet astonishing display, Ella immediately realized who he was.
The rumored madman!
The one and only lunatic who had enrolled in all four departments of the Academy—Ashen Serdis. Ella had heard the stories. She watched him with fascinated eyes.
“Hoo… Still, I took down quite a few.”
Only after every last black mage and Scavenger had retreated did he finally relax. Their eyes met.
…Why is that person staring at me like that?
Why was he looking at her as if she were the crazy one? He was the madman here.
Q1. When the Academy is attacked, the identity of the suspiciously beautiful woman who suddenly radiates light and is wrapped in divine power?
A1. Correct! The protagonist!
Q2. In a fantasy world, a story where the Saintess is the main character?
A2. Correct! A RoFan! Fuck.
So the world I was in wasn’t a normal fantasy setting after all. It was a romance fantasy novel. No wonder I wasn’t the protagonist—my talent was stuck in that awkward third-place zone. If there was already a proper main character, I couldn’t exactly complain.
Suddenly learning I was inside a RoFan left me pretty shaken, but I didn’t have time to stand around processing it. With the top two ranks of every department mysteriously absent, this was the perfect moment for me to step up.
Once I thought of it that way, the black mages and Scavengers looked like they had EXP bars floating over their heads.
“I’ll kill every last one of you.”
I swung my sword without hesitation. A black mage who had frozen at the Saintess’s birth collapsed straight to the ground.
“!! One down in an instant…!”
“Everyone snap out of it and run!!”
“It’s the Saintess! Run!”
A few black mages who finally regained their senses began fleeing in panic. The rest trembled in terror the moment they saw the Saintess and bolted. They clearly hadn’t processed the situation at all.
“Don’t run away! Fight back!!”
You bastards are supposed to be my EXP and gauntlet performance testers.
“Uwaaaagh! That guy’s insane! Run!”
“He’s using a sword, magic, and magitech simultaneously!!”
“I even took economics!”
“What the hell do you want from us, you lunatic?!”
It was important, damn it. Anyway, as I butchered black mages and suppressed Scavengers, I grew more and more comfortable with the gauntlet. The paralyzing needles embedded inside it struck the mages and left them frozen solid. Since friendly fire was a risk, I only closed in and fired during critical moments. Even without the needles, the gauntlet itself was a sturdy weapon—my punches sent black mages flying.
But sadly—truly, painfully sadly—the invaders had been too numerous. I only managed to take down about half before the rest escaped.
“Hoo… Still, I took down quite a few.”
It was a shame, but chasing them outside the Academy just to catch a few more would have been stupid. I had to settle for this. I wiped the sweat from my forehead with a satisfied smile—then noticed the white-haired woman staring straight at me from a distance.
…No matter how I looked at her, she had to be the Saintess, right?
This world was seriously insane. Couldn’t you have told me it was a RoFan a little earlier?
I stared at her, my gaze a chaotic mix of resentment, shock, and awe. For some reason her own expression gradually shifted into something equally resentful.
…Why?
I had no idea.
As we stared at each other in mutual confusion, a voice cut through the air.
“Ah, so noisy….”
It belonged to a woman whose tone practically screamed I’m sharp-tongued, deal with it. And it came from above.
I looked up. A giant black hand was descending toward me.
“What the…?”
Not knowing what it was, I stepped back. As the hand lowered, a figure became visible on top of it.
“!! That person is…!”
The figure was extremely familiar. Short dark-brown hair, eyes red as blood. Despite her fierce impression, she had a small frame. It was none other than the second-ranked student in the Magic Department—Levia Gloria.
In other words, one of the walls I still had to overcome.
“What took you so long to show up?”
The incident had already been wrapped up ages ago. While I’d been fighting my ass off, she’d been doing who-knows-what and only arrived now. I was just about to look down my nose at her when—
“There still seem to be some black mages buzzing around….”
Levia landed gracefully from the hand and walked up to the Magic Department professor.
“That… ink blot? Whatever it was—the magic beast that got summoned—I caught it… yo. So handle the cleanup yourselves… yo.”
“???”
What the hell are you saying, Levia?
I stared at her in astonishment. She finished speaking and turned to leave, only to make direct eye contact with me.
“You, what are you—”
“What are you looking at.”
“…?”
I was about to say something, but she just nailed me with “what are you looking at” and kept walking. I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even respond before she sighed.
“Haa… I need to go sleep. Must have stayed up too long on yesterday’s experiment.”
“Wait a sec—”
Levia slammed her staff into the ground and vanished on the spot.
…Damn second place.