Chapter 10: The Laws of Academy Possession Stories (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 10: The Laws of Academy Possession Stories (3)
In novels, they say that those who reach a certain level of mastery often feel a sense of emptiness and fall into solitude.
To be honest, I never really understood that.
If you get stronger, that’s a good thing. Why act all pathetic like you’re missing something?
But having reached a distant peak myself, I finally understood.
Indeed, standing at this high level, a strange sense of helplessness and lethargy overcame me.
It was a nostalgia for my past, pathetic self, and simultaneously, a hollow realization that an even higher realm awaited now that I had surpassed my goal.
10kg.
After conquering my arch-nemesis, the 5kg dumbbell, the new rebel I challenged was so powerful that I was not yet capable of overcoming it.
It had been a week since I started this grueling fitness regime.
I had reached a level where I could exercise with ten times my original limit, yet I was despairing at the appearance of this new opponent.
It took a week to go from a patient in need of rehabilitation to a slightly weak ordinary person—an achievement earned by pouring everything into my training.
Of course, I didn’t just tackle dumbbells; I did every exercise related to basic physical strength, including the treadmill, squats, and planks.
Now, I had finally obtained a body capable of engaging in a duel with a goblin.
It was absolute madness.
By the fourth day, it was so shitty that I actually used Reinforcement on my mental strength instead of my recovery.
Fortunately, my talent was near-omnipotent, aside from the defect of having a massive penalty, and I was able to make my fading will boil over once again.
“One million and twenty-five…!”
My body was still weak, if one were to call it that, but there was still a fair amount of time left.
If I dumped all my remaining time into the gym, wouldn’t my basic physical strength at least reach a level similar to other superhumans?
Ah, dammit.
Even as I thought it, I realized a despairing fact.
For a transmigrator, thinking they have plenty of time is nothing short of a shitty omen.
[- One week remains until the start of the Main Quest.]
Regrettably, before I could cancel the thought and spit away the bad luck, that damn voice rang in my head.
Right, I figured this shitty novel wouldn’t just let me train in peace.
If there was any silver lining, it was that there was still a whole week left.
Actually, it wasn’t much of a relief, but in these situations, how you choose to think is what matters most.
“But there’s still a long time before enrollment?”
Before the protagonist enters the Academy, not much that could be called a ‘main story’ usually happens.
Of course, since a month can’t just be skipped after the entrance ceremony, some minor episodes take place, but I recalled that none of them were particularly important.
If I had to pick the most significant event that should be happening around this time, it would be the parent of a student who died in a terror attack using their family’s wealth to pressure Leilan Academy.
“…Wait.”
I think that’s my father?
Since I’m an orphan, to be precise, it would be Kang So-hyun’s father.
But that’s strange.
Because I twisted the story, I didn’t die. I thought that naturally, my father wouldn’t turn dark and try to screw over Leilan Academy, but was that not the case?
Or did it mean a completely different incident was going to break out?
However, based on my knowledge of the original work, I couldn’t predict what kind of incident it would be.
Hmm.
“One million and twenty-six…!”
A classic trait of a transmigrator: If worrying doesn’t help, just ignore it and do what you have to do.
At the very least, I probably won’t drop dead a week from now.
Even if there’s a victim of the main story, it’ll probably be either Lilac or Cheon Yu-hak, right?
* * *
And when the main story was only a day away, I had no choice but to admit it.
Yes, I admit it.
Ten years of reading web novels wasn’t enough to reach a state of true maturity.
Dammit, right. Whenever a transmigrator thinks, ‘It’ll probably be fine,’ and moves on, nothing ever ends well.
“Yes, Cadet Kang So-hyun. It’s a pleasure. Choosing early admission and training every day from the very first day… it’s a very desirable and good look.”
The identity of the beautiful woman smiling brightly was the Chairperson of this school.
With silver hair bordering on pure white, blue eyes, and a gentle impression that made her look like a good person, she exuded a somewhat mysterious atmosphere.
“There’s no need to be so nervous. Even if I am the Chairperson, it hasn’t been long since I took office. You could say I’m a greenhorn, just like the cadets.”
Ah, for the record, that’s a lie.
She is a long-lived species, not a human, and clearly a resident of the Otherworld.
Her setting is that after a certain amount of time, she pretends to retire, then uses magic to change her appearance and returns under the guise of being newly appointed to maintain her position as Chairperson.
A High Elf.
Not just a regular elf, but a High Elf—a being of an even higher dimension.
Long-lived species, who grow stronger just by existing, usually have little interest in worldly affairs, but the woman before me was an exception.
She was the ‘elf with a deep interest in humans’ that appears at least once in every novel.
“Now then, why do you think I called our Cadet Kang So-hyun here? Care to take a guess?”
Her eyes were filled with a burdensome amount of curiosity and interest.
“…I’m not sure?”
I’m sorry, but I really don’t know.
There are too many suspicious things, so I can’t tell which one it is. Dammit.
The most likely possibility is that our secret friend, Professor Cathy, said something that piqued her interest. The second is that she wants to interrogate me about the remarks I made to the professor during the entrance ceremony.
As I narrowed down the candidates to those two, the Chairperson smiled and spoke.
“Your father said he wanted to see you.”
“…Pardon?”
“Ah, of course, not my father. Your father wants to see you.”
The Chairperson cracked a lame joke, perhaps intending to lighten the mood.
“Hahaha.”
And I laughed mechanically, like a low-level employee desperately forcing a laugh at a manager’s dad joke.
More importantly, the reason she called me wasn’t either of the things I had guessed.
“By regulation, cadets who enter the Academy are treated as adults. Assuming they take responsibility for their actions, all rights of choice belong to the cadet themselves. However, there are exceptions to everything in the world.”
I roughly understood what she meant.
“Your father is threatening to cut off support using the Academy terror incident as an excuse if I don’t let him meet you. So, from my position, I have no choice but to ask this favor of you.”
For the record, the moment I refused that ‘favor,’ it would likely cease to be one.
She was the type who lacked the patience to stop herself from toying with something once she found a justification for her interest.
Her actions in the original work were so flamboyant that one would wonder if she really was a long-lived species.
Oh, and of course, she dies in the original work.
There’s no point in arguing why a world-class powerhouse, who never dropped out of the top 30 in the global hero rankings, would die—it’s just what happens in the original.
But this was actually a good thing.
“Yes, I will meet him.”
“Hmm? I’m sorry to say this since it sounds like I’ve been digging into your background, but I understand the relationship between you and your family isn’t very good?”
Oh, I’m just trying my best to get through this smoothly for the Chairperson’s sake, so why is she casually saying things that some people would react to with extreme sensitivity?
The answer is simple.
It’s because she’s confident she can handle it even if someone like me throws a total fit.
In the original work, the father’s rebellion didn’t amount to much in the end.
The Chairperson had simply used it as a small trial to test Lilac, the student she was interested in at the time.
I pondered for a moment on how to respond.
I had to answer well.
The being before me took the form of a beautiful woman, but she was one of the transcendent beings who had lived for ages—a slaughterer who could easily massacre most monsters or villains.
I’m confident in hiding my expressions, but that wouldn’t mean much against her.
Perhaps I had just gained an opportunity to build a massive connection.
However, drawing too much attention was a problem, and being completely ignored was also a problem.
After a brief deliberation, I reached a conclusion.
I didn’t know if it was the right answer, but it was the best move I could think of.
“Chairperson. I know you are interested in me.”
Without lies.
But in a way that didn’t reveal everything.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden? Me, interested in an individual cadet?”
The Chairperson’s poker face hadn’t broken yet.
If I recited her real name or her secrets, I could shatter that expression, but that would be a bad move.
What I needed to draw out was a subtle interest that wouldn’t let her ignore me completely, not an obsession.
“Perhaps you heard something from the professor regarding the incident at the entrance ceremony, or maybe it’s because I happened to enter a dungeon with Professor Cathy.”
“Hmm, Cadet Kang So-hyun, your delusions are a bit severe.”
Information that would pique her interest without putting me on her list of targets.
“I know the future, albeit limitedly.”
The Chairperson…
She dropped her artificial smile and looked at me with a cold face.
“That’s quite a joke. You’re saying you have a talent related to foresight, of which there have only been two in the entire world? You, Cadet Kang So-hyun? I believe your talent is Reinforcement?”
I smiled.
“No? I’m not a prophet, and my talent is indeed Reinforcement. However, someone could have shown me a part of the world’s future.”
She seemed to be carefully weighing the truth of my words.
But I had nothing to be nervous about.
Why? Because not a single word I just said was a lie.
My talent is Reinforcement, and I know a limited future through something someone else showed me—the Setting Book.
Am I worried she might snap my neck and demand all the information?
I can guarantee that will never happen.
I am the person who knows this world second-best, which means I am also the person who has watched these characters for the second-longest time.
Leilan Claudia.
A member of the proud High Elves, but unlike other elves who are deeply reclusive, she has a free-spirited personality and a lot of hidden affection.
She is basically merciless toward those she deems a threat, but conversely, she is quite generous toward those who are not her enemies.
“I see.”
Above all, I already know the question you are about to ask me.
Because I am a transmigrator.
-So, what do you intend to do with that excessive talent?
“You said you know the future, even if only a part of it. What exactly do you plan to do with that information?”
It was slightly different, but she was always a person who sought a convincing answer.
Lilac, who had been asked this question much later in the original work, had answered:
That he would save as many people as his hands could reach.
However, I couldn’t say that.
Even if I forced the words out, they wouldn’t be sincere, and she would easily see through that.
But I was certain she would like my answer as well.
“I’m going to save the heroes.”
“What?”
This was sincere.
I intended to save those who died absurdly in the original work, and most of them were heroes.
Also, I would make sure that Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak, whose lives went to hell because of my friend’s shitty tastes, would live lives that weren’t quite so despairing.
“Because they are in the position of saving others, heroes often perish without receiving help from anyone. I will help them.”
It was a bit of a cringey line, but this kind of thing usually works well on characters like her.
As a ten-year veteran of web novels, I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
“Hah.”
The Chairperson tilted her head, lost in thought for a moment.
It wasn’t the reaction I expected, but she nodded.
“You don’t seem to have a particularly saintly nature, yet there wasn’t a single lie in what you said.”
That’s right! I am confident!
“I see. So ‘saving heroes’… was trying to stop the Academy terror attack part of that?”
Well, technically yes.
Since I was trying to help Lilac.
But contrary to my expectations, she suddenly stood up and approached me.
Uh, shit? Did I blow it? Is she going to do the ‘it’s dangerous to leave someone who knows the future alive’ thing?
Fortunately, unlike my fears, she came up to me and stroked my hair with a gentle touch.
What’s this?
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were a child who would get scared and shrink back so easily.”
“Pardon?”
“I was very impressed by how you tried to answer honestly even while being so wary of me.”
Uhh?
This seems a bit different from the picture I was hoping for…?
It’s true I wanted to be seen as a good person, but I didn’t realize she’d catch on to me being wary.
“Cathy was right. You really are just a ‘good kid.’”
She said that as she pulled something from her robe and handed it to me.
What is this, a potion?
“I didn’t mean to frighten you, but since I unintentionally did, consider this your compensation. It will help recover many of your deficiencies.”
My god, Chairperson Leilan was a big-hearted person who knew how the world worked, a complete adult who understood that every action deserves compensation.
In the original work, she had such a strong ‘thug’ image that I didn’t know, but that was just because Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak weren’t afraid of her!
Wow! Heart-Pounding Secret Friend No. 2!
“Is that small gift really that pleasing?”
Ah, damn.
I was confident in my poker face, but I really can’t hide anything from her.
“Then, returning to the main point, when would be a good time for you to talk with your father?”
“Pardon?”
Ah, right. That was why she called me in the first place, wasn’t it?
“Tomorrow is fine with me.”
Well, it’s not like we’ll be talking all day. I can afford to skip an hour or two of the gym.
“Yes, your attitude of facing even scary or unpleasant things is very good.”
…I’m not really that kind of person, though?
You can see through lies, right?
I didn’t just do something incredibly stupid, did I?