The Wanted
On the first day of enrollment at the Academy, there was only one thing to do: choose a department. Selecting the Thievery Department had been a foregone conclusion ever since I'd obtained the Ghost Soul Dagger.
I reviewed the events that had unfolded so far.
I'd gained Sierra as a companion and copied her trait. I'd visited the Leoris Mansion and built a bond with Ralph Leoris. Through my duel with Bohn Zaborg, I'd made an impression on the Academy's students and professors alike. And I'd enrolled in the Thievery Department.
Among this series of events, some were ones I'd experienced in the original game, and others were not. Most of them were events through which I could glimpse the future's direction via the game, but the events tied to Sierra were ones I was experiencing for the very first time.
And going forward, such events would only grow more frequent. Sierra, an original-game mid-boss, enrolling at the Academy itself signified a deviation from the future. No—before that, the very existence of a character named "Johann Baker," who had no place in the original work at all, was a massive variable reshaping the future.
What awaited me ahead was an unknown future, yet strangely, I felt no fear at all. Instead, my heart trembled with excitement.
A new ending I didn't know about.
That was what waited for me.
"So this is it."
While my mind wandered, I'd arrived at my destination.
Those who placed first, second, or third in the Academy entrance exam received a private dormitory. Naturally, the quality of the dormitory corresponded to one's ranking.
The Academy valedictorian's exclusive dormitory: Seven Star Hall.
I stood before it.
"Impressive."
Seven Star Hall was a massive manor—roughly twice the size of a typical detached house one might find in Korea. Its sprawling footprint and ornate exterior immediately evoked a noble's villa. In truth, most of the students who had previously occupied Seven Star Hall were of noble birth, and so the setting was arranged to accommodate even the slightest noble inconvenience. For someone like me, who had lived in an apartment my entire life, it felt almost too large.
Stepping inside, the interior was as lavish as the exterior. Paintings hung along the entryway corridor leading deeper into the house. It was a dormitory, yet it even had a reception room.
I slumped onto the living room sofa, replaying the day's events in my head. It had been a day full of happenings, one way or another.
"I actually made it to valedictorian enrollment at the Academy."
My progress rank up to this point could easily be called SSS-rank.
I'd acquired the opportunities I needed to acquire and set the flags I needed to set.
I thought about what I needed to do next: acquire opportunities, maintain good relationships with key characters, copy traits…
"Trait copying is the core of it all."
Trait copying was as important as acquiring opportunities. There were many traits I wanted to copy, but copying a trait required extensive preparation.
To copy a trait, I needed to raise affection to 80 and then kiss the character. In particular, this kiss event was an absolute obstacle when it came to copying male characters' traits. Unless things got truly desperate, I didn't think I'd copy a male character's trait.
An affection of 80 was by no means a low number. Sierra's affection had risen at a bizarrely rapid pace, and that was probably due to her yandere trait.
While I could raise affection easily through culinary offerings, that only worked up to 60. Beyond that, raising affection required investing time and effort. Of course, the very fact that I could easily reach 60 was itself a tremendous advantage of the cooking trait.
"Let's do what I can do right now."
I stood up from my seat. What I could do immediately was acquire opportunities.
This Seven Star Hall hid an interesting hidden piece—one of the reasons I'd aimed for valedictorian. First things first, I'd find it.
"Hehehe…! I finally got students of my own, too, hey…!"
Professor Izumi Reina's footsteps were as light as feathers. She had become an Academy professor and, for the first time, taken on students. Two of them, no less.
Not many people welcomed the Rogue class. Those who possessed the Rogue class generally worked in dark, shadowy places, and ordinary people rarely became entangled with such individuals in any positive way.
People's perception of rogues was that they were the big-headed thugs lurking in back alleys, or dangerous troublemakers at best.
At their most generous, people might view them as errand runners who handled dirty work.
In reality, that public perception wasn't far from the truth. Working in far more extreme environments than other classes naturally warped one's personality. People didn't avoid the Rogue class without reason.
If that was the case for ordinary people, what about nobles?
There were only a handful of noble houses that passed down the Rogue class as a family trade. In noble society, the Rogue class was nothing but a target for scorn and finger-pointing.
It was a blessing if they were regarded as little more than hunting dogs who handled filthy tasks. Especially since nobles were frequent targets of assassins, the culture of despising rogues was even stronger among the nobility than among commoners.
At the Academy, it had long been a class that wasn't properly treated. The Rogue class had only been established three years ago, thanks to the forceful advocacy of Dean Glass and a few professors.
However, even though the class was created through the dean's influence, recruiting students was no easy task. No student who came to the Academy wanted to enroll in the Thievery Department. On top of that, fierce opposition from other professors meant they couldn't even secure a proper classroom.
"For all your talk, a Rogue class at the noble Academy? I can't accept this, Dean!"
"Most of our Academy's operating budget comes from donations. Using donation money to train assassins is a bit much, isn't it…?"
"Rather than creating a Thievery Department, why don't you support our Alchemy Department more?"
And so, three years passed without teaching a single student, the time slipping away in vain. If no students enrolled this year, she'd be fired on the spot.
Reina had actually braced herself for termination.
And then, they appeared. Freshmen enrolling in the Thievery Department.
Not just any freshmen—the valedictorian among all incoming students.
"Hehehe…! Johann-kun! That talent was real, hey…! Absolutely dazzling talent, hey…!"
The "counting cards" that student Johann had demonstrated was nothing short of the essence of thievery itself. If he properly honed his skills, Reina couldn't even begin to imagine how far he'd go.
"Hehehe…! I was so happy I bought a cake, hey…! From the trendy bakery that's popular these days… The students will be thrilled, right?"
She had personally walked a long way to buy snacks for her two adorable new students. It was her secret weapon to avenge the cold-water treatment she'd received today.
"Hehe…! I asked for the most popular one, so they'll definitely be happy, right? I just wish tomorrow would come already…"
Step. Step. Step. Step.
Four light footsteps sounded.
Four people appeared around Reina—front, back, and sides. All of them wore black masks covering their faces.
"Prey walking into an alley on her own. Lucky us."
The voice was so flat it barely registered as having any inflection at all—so devoid of humanity that one might wonder if it came from a magical device rather than a person. It belonged to the man standing directly in front of Reina.
"Team leader, are you sure this is the right woman?"
"By her appearance, it's certain."
"A hundred gold on the neck of a woman this ordinary? Does that even make sense?"
"When did we ever question such things?"
The four men exchanged meaningless words. Hearing their conversation, Reina shrank back and cried out.
"Hiiit…! Who are you, hey…? I-I haven't done anything wrong, hey…?"
"Team leader, are you really sure you didn't misidentify her? There's no way a hundred gold is on the neck of a scrawny woman like a tree branch, right?"
"Don't make my mouth sore. It's definitely the face on the Shadow Street wanted poster. We just need to take that woman's head."
This was a rarely-traveled alley. Even if someone's neck were slit, no one would notice. And besides, they were professionals at this sort of thing.
"Hiiit…! The only thing I can give you right now is this cake, hey…! But this is for my students, hey…! So I can't give it to you, hey…!"
"This woman seems a bit off in the head."
"Agreed. Maybe she's gone blank from terror. Either way, we do our job."
The man called team leader gave a signal—a command to attack.
Yet despite the signal, his subordinates didn't move. Sensing something was wrong, the team leader turned his head and spoke.
"What are you doing? Attack."
"Um…"
Reina opened her mouth in a delicate voice toward the team leader.
"Didn't you hear the order to attack…"
"Um…!"
Reina raised her voice sharply, though it wasn't very loud since her voice was naturally soft.
"All your subordinates over there are dead… Are you okay, hey…?"
"!?"
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The heads of the three assassins surrounding Reina dropped to the ground with a thud.
Their faces rolled across the ground like deflated balls, expressionless. No pain, no anger, no sorrow, no shock.
As if time had stopped, they simply lay dead.
Just looking at them made it clear: until the very moment of their death, they hadn't even known they were dead.
"Wh-what…?"
"And one more… You're dead too, are you okay, hey…?"
"Huh?"
No sooner had Reina's words ended than the team leader's field of vision was forcibly directed toward the ground.
Strange. He hadn't bent his neck, so why could he see the ground?
And the ground was getting closer…
"Hiiit…! I need to get out of here quickly, hey…! Even if it's self-defense, they'll never believe me, hey…!"
Professor Reina clutched the wrapped cake tightly to her chest and fled the alley. Four corpses lay sprawled on the street like still-life paintings. Not a single person recognized the bodies that hadn't even managed to scream.