The Grade Announcement (2)

Morning class was Modern Hunterology.

"Hello, everyone~. Professor Kang Hyo-rin here. It's been a while."

Dr. Kang Hyo-rin, who taught the course, walked into the lecture hall in a neatly put-together outfit.

It really did feel like ages since I'd last sat through a proper class. That was how long the survival exam and the festival had dragged on — a full two weeks.

"Ah, before we start, a quick announcement. Grade results will go up after morning classes wrap up, and since I'm in charge of the first-years, any questions about your scores can come to my office. All right, let's get started!"

I hadn't studied in a while, so a few things slipped past me, but most of it was familiar ground.

I should make time to at least crack a textbook.

That would be more efficient than sitting through lectures. So instead of listening, I started working through my plans.

Scribble, scribble. I wrote the word terrorism in my notebook.

No need to worry about that for a while. Once Pandemic pulled off an attack, they stayed quiet for at least a month. Even when their strikes looked indiscriminate, they actually took their time, methodically probing for gaps. That was how they'd managed to survive in the shadows after making an enemy of the entire world.

Next: the heroines.

I tapped my pen against the page in a sharp little rhythm, staring at the word.

The heroine routes aren't going too badly.

There were a few problems — Mun Su-rin's mental state, Elise's voyeurism, Lucy's still-ambiguous route — but I could work through all of them. The real snag was that as more girls started getting close to me, they might start circling each other. Which meant I had to be even more careful with every approach. Just becoming lovers didn't mean a route was finished. Making them all mine was a completely different thing from simply dating them.

What was that letter about, asking me to meet at lunch?

And then there was the mysterious letter. No matter how I turned it over, none of the heroines would do something like that. If it wasn't a heroine, that left Kim Young-han, and I really couldn't see him pulling a stunt like this either.

"Hmm...."

"What's wrong? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Is it hard?"

"It's nothing."

I shook my head at Lucy, who was watching me from the next seat. No point chewing on a question that had no answer. I'd know once I went. It wasn't as if an enemy would come after me inside the school.

"P-please go out with me!"

"...."

Why had I been so tense?

Even though I'd told myself it wouldn't be anything, I'd come up to the rooftop ready to throw up a Cotton Guard at a moment's notice — just in case. And now some girl I'd never seen before ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was holding out a sheet of letter paper stamped all over with hearts.

Seriously? Even in an eroge, is this how you're supposed to confess?

I really, really hated this. If some guy you'd never spoken to, whose name you didn't even know, walked up and asked you out — would you say yes? How out of touch with reality did you have to be to pull something like this?

I swallowed a sigh, put on an awkward expression, and turned her down.

"...Sorry. I don't think now's the right time for me to be seeing anyone."

"B-but why..."

Why? Because I don't even know your name.

When she lifted her head in shock, I got a better look at her face. I did recognize her, actually. She used to hang around with Lucy. They'd stopped spending time together at some point — so why was she suddenly confessing to me?

"You get along so well with that bitch Lucy, so why not with me?!"

"...?"

Why was Lucy coming into this all of a sudden. Of course Lucy mattered more than some extra. Even setting aside the fact that she was a heroine, Lucy was prettier and had a bigger chest.

"Uh, sorry. Lucy's just a friend, and... I'm not really ready to date anyone yet. It's a bit..."

"Y-you're so mean! Sob!"

The girl flung the letter she'd been holding at me, burst into tears, and fled down from the rooftop.

"Haa. The crazy ones just keep coming."

Had she been watching too much anime? Did she seriously think I'd say yes if she did that? Tsk tsk.

I sighed and headed down from the rooftop. I was already regretting wasting time on this instead of eating with the twins. If it was going to be over in less than five minutes, I should've just told them we'd eat together.

Lucy and Rumi had said they were grabbing a quick bite at the student cafeteria and heading straight to the lecture hall, so they were probably already eating. I wasn't particularly hungry, so I just picked up a triangle kimbap from the convenience store and called it lunch.

Figuring ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the grades might be posted by now, I headed for the central corridor, but it looked like they weren't up yet. I trudged back to the lecture hall — and found Lucy facing off against the same girl who'd just confessed to me. Their voices were climbing. Some kind of fight.

"Y-you... that's enough out of you!"

Lucy clenched her fists, glaring at the other girl.

"What? Am I wrong? You cursed him out with every word you knew back then, and now you're clinging to him like nothing happened. Calling that disgusting is wrong?"

"What the hell do you even know? What did I ever do to you?!"

"It's filthy. It's pathetic. You don't even realize Hoyeon was just being nice by letting it slide, and watching you act all high and mighty makes me sick."

"I know that, okay? From the start, between us..."

Listening in, I pieced it together. This was from back when Felix was around.

Lucy had gone around to her close friends praising Felix and talking shit about Lee Ho-yeon. Then once Felix was exposed as a Demon, she'd suddenly gotten close to Ho-yeon and started wagging her tail at him.

That was the gist of their fight — that Lucy's behavior was disgusting. And of course I'd known about all of that. It had been unavoidable. I'd deliberately acted like an asshole, and Lucy had been under Felix's magic. On top of that, he'd cast another spell specifically to tank her affection for me. The result had been pretty much inevitable.

But right now, how the person involved actually felt wasn't the point.

"Wow, for real? I thought Lucy was a nice girl."

"She's just been overshadowed by Rumi. She's always been a piece of shit."

Whether they'd been sitting on grudges against Lucy for a while, the nasty comments — mostly from the girls — started snowballing.

Should I step in?

If the person involved said it was fine, maybe things would settle down. Or should I use this?

I looked at the two of them, turning it over.

"What did I even do wrong to deserve this...!"

That was when Lucy's eyes met mine. At the same time, the cadets who'd been gossiping noticed me and shut their mouths.

Guess I had no choice but to step in now.

"Hey. Everyone just calm down."

I needed to defuse this first. We couldn't keep fighting here.

"Hoyeon, didn't you hear? She went around talking shit about you, and now she's sitting next to you grinning like nothing happened!"

The girl who'd been fighting with Lucy shouted it at me. Same girl whose confession I'd just rejected. A little while ago she'd been blushing, asking me to go out with her — so why did she look so vicious now? And she'd been speaking formally to me earlier. Why was she talking casually in front of everyone?

"Haa... Who do you think you are, inserting yourself into this? Lucy and I already made up. Don't go running your mouth when you don't know anything. And the rest of you — stop spreading weird rumors."

I needed to get the attention off Lucy. The truth was, she and I had never actually sat down and talked this through. It had just sort of fizzled out. But I couldn't say that in front of the other cadets, so I lied to get us out of it.

I took Lucy to our usual seats and brought Rumi along too, who'd been trembling behind us. Once I showed up and said something, the cadets drifted back to their places one by one.

The situation had settled. Now I could talk to them.

"You okay?"

I looked at Lucy, whose energy had completely bottomed out, and at Rumi, who was still sniffling.

"...."

"...."

Both of them just sat there with their heads down. Lucy I could understand, but why was Rumi like this too?

"Don't let that kind of talk get to you. I don't care about it at all."

"...Yeah."

"Okay. I understand."

Tch. What was I supposed to do with this. One crazy girl and now the whole mood was wrecked. Was this what they called a yandere these days? Some kind of obsessive type?

I pulled up the status windows to check on the twins.

Hmm....

Rumi seemed fine. I just needed to comfort Lucy a little. Her fatigue had climbed all the way to 85 — she must have been under a lot of stress.

"...Hoyeon."

But before I could say anything, Lucy spoke first.

"Yeah."

"A-about Felix... I'm really sorry. It was all my fault, and I..."

I was watching Lucy stumble through her words when a system window suddenly popped up in front of me.

A quest? Which quest....

Something flashed through my mind. There was still one quest I hadn't cleared.

This was the only quest among the ones I'd received that I hadn't cleared. No wonder no new quests had been showing up lately — the judgment on this one still hadn't gone through.

But if it succeeded... wait a second.

Screech—!

"Hey! Grades are up! They're posted in the central corridor!"

"Aahh! Grades!"

"Jisoo, hurry, let's go check!"

A stampede. Most of the cadets poured out of the room, and a wave of unease started creeping into my chest.

"I-I'm really sorry. And... sniff."

But I couldn't just leave Lucy there, crying and apologizing to me. She was an important heroine too. So I listened to her for a few minutes, and once she'd calmed down a little, I went out to check the grades.

"Whoa, Lee Ho-yeon got first in three categories? Is that for real?"

"That's insane. Is that an academy first?"

"The Student Council President was the first to take first in every subject, but three firsts on the first-year opening exams — that's gotta be Lee Ho-yeon."

No. Where had this gone wrong? Why?

But no matter how much I wanted to deny it, reality was cold.

I had no idea where things had gone off the rails. The results were already posted.

Wait. Where was Nam Da-eun.

From the lecture hall all the way to the central corridor, there was no sign of her.

Thump. Thump. My chest pounded with anxiety and tension.

"See? You just rewrote history."

A familiar male voice came from beside me.

"...Hey. You seen Nam Da-eun?"

I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been focused on Lucy, so I hadn't noticed — but Kim Young-han might know something.

"Nam Da-eun? She looked at the grade sheet earlier, grabbed her bag, and took off somewhere."

"...."

"Anyway, first place three times — your value to the guilds is gonna skyrocket..."

Kim Young-han kept talking beside me, but none of it registered.

I remembered Nam Da-eun's innocent face from yesterday, lighting up when she received that wallet. She'd said she was going to show it off to her little sister. Just a little while ago, she'd been wondering where she'd take her sister once she got the outing pass as a reward for coming in first.

Over that innocent expression, the Nam Da-eun of the bad ending flickered into view — the one who'd slaughtered the guild members to protect her purity, then taken her own life.

"Ah, fuck."

I'm so screwed.

I turned right around and sprinted for the lecture hall.

This was no time to be sitting around at the academy.