Chapter 203: The Academy

I turned toward the familiar, sweet voice and found Lucy running straight at me, Rumi hurrying along in her wake.

"Lee Ho-yeon! Let's walk together~!"

"Hello, Ho-yeon."

Just seeing the twins brought a smile to my face.

"It's been a while since we last saw each other at the academy."

"Yeah, it has."

How long had it been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠since the three of us had walked to school together? The path felt strangely unfamiliar after so much time away, but having them beside me made it easier somehow. Lucy and Rumi fell in on either side of me.

"You feeling okay? Can you even walk?"

"Of course I can."

"Can you use magic again, too?"

"Yeah. I might even be better than before."

We chatted as we walked, and that was when I noticed the twins' awkward arms. They used to keep a little distance when we walked together. Now they were pressed right up against me, constantly lifting and dropping their arms like they couldn't get comfortable.

I checked their status windows.

So they're agonizing over it.

Linking arms or holding hands — the specifics didn't matter. They just wanted to look like we were a couple. Well. We were dating now. Cute.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

There were a lot of people around, which made it a little awkward... but if anyone asked, we could always say we were just happy to see each other as friends.

I looked at the two of them still twisting themselves in knots and spoke up.

"Want to link arms?"

"W-what?"

"Uh, um..."

True to being twins, Lucy and Rumi both reacted with the exact same flustered panic.

"You've been fidgeting with your arms this whole time. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"...Rumi. You want to?"

"I-I can't... There are so many people around."

"...Then I won't either."

Rumi avoided my eyes with flushed cheeks, sneaking little glances at me, while Lucy just sped up so she was walking ahead of me.

Yeah. They're the type who freeze up the second you roll out the welcome mat.

Figured as much. I closed the arm I'd left slightly open.

"Let's consider how to calculate the next value. First, you have to determine the mana sensitivity."

"Hmm..."

It had been a while since I'd sat through a theory lecture, but the work in front of me hadn't changed. I pretended to take notes and started thinking through what came next.

Now that I was back at the academy, it was time to start conquering the heroines again.

Lucy and Rumi are basically done.

Both of their affection scores had climbed all the way to 99. All they needed was one big incident to push them over... and I had a pretty good idea what that would be. We were dating as a set of twins, after all. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠It was going to happen eventually.

Next up are Elise, Su-rin, and Professor Lim Sol.

Elise was about to start the massages, so I could set her aside for now. The real problems were Su-rin and Professor Lim Sol.

The stalker incident — the key to conquering Mun Su-rin — is gone.

In the original, Vice President Shin Dong-min became Mun Su-rin's stalker, and the story had you rescue her once she'd been driven into a corner. But Shin Dong-min had gotten himself blown up before any of that could happen. There had even been an article recently listing him as missing. I couldn't tell if he was actually dead or if he'd just run.

If he were alive, there'd have been some kind of reaction by now.

Professor Lim Sol wasn't a heroine, but her score sat at heroine-tier. I had to conquer her, no question. The trouble was that our relationship had settled into something faintly businesslike. She'd already gone down on me, so crossing one more line would probably get things moving — but neither of us seemed able to take that step. There was a thick line between professor and student, after all.

Not that I was finished with Lim Sol. There was still the Magic Expo, and she'd said her paper was almost done. The real problem was Mun Su-rin...

I'll go see her today.

And not just Mun Su-rin. The other heroines too.

Next on the list was my combat strength. Combat strength wasn't something that showed up as a clean number, so I couldn't be certain — but in raw fighting power, I was probably around an S-class hunter. For reference, that was about where the original protagonist sat in the mid-to-late game. Power creep would start throwing stronger and stronger enemies at me toward the end anyway... but for the time being, I didn't have to worry about anyone being a real threat.

Thinking about combat strength dragged up another problem.

The status window.

At some point, my own status window had stopped opening. All that came up was that bizarre string of question marks. It wasn't more important than the heroine windows, so I didn't really care — but not being able to check my own stats was annoying. I couldn't get an exact read on my mana stat anymore.

"Ah... whatever."

Who cares about stats? Women are what matter. What was the point of staring at a bunch of question marks? Ever since I'd dropped into this world, nothing had made sense anyway. Better to let a petty mystery go than chew on it forever.

I started thinking about what I was going to talk about with Lucy and Rumi once class ended.

Elise's pen scratched steadily across the page as she took notes on calculating a dungeon's mana density. She had prepared ahead of time, and Victoria Academy's lectures were still a struggle to keep up with. If you wanted to hold your grades at the academy rated the best in the world, you had to throw yourself into your studies. That was just common sense.

So why is he like that...?

Watching the rank-one student ignore common sense entirely — rolling his pen with a bored look on his face, not listening to a word of the lecture — left her speechless.

Lee Ho-yeon. The same person who did this in every theory class and somehow held a perfect record across every subject.

Well. Fine. People like that existed.

The truth was, Elise didn't have some grand reason for studying. There was her own satisfaction. The expectations waiting for Elise, successor of the Iris Guild, back in her home country. And the recognition she wanted from her sister. But more important than any of that was treating her Congenital Mana Disorder.

If she hadn't been born with it, her self-esteem never would have sunk so low, and the compulsion never would have taken root. There was a time when losing first place would have made her furious. These days, she had let go of a lot of that anxiety about her grades — because she had found a treatment.

The problem was that the treatment was that rank-one student.

"All right, that's all for today's class."

The gray-haired old professor left the lecture hall, and Elise set down her pen. Lunch was next. She started to stand, thinking of Sebas Chan waiting outside — and the voices of the cadets around her seeped into her ears.

"Lee Ho-yeon looks even better after being gone so long."

"I can look at him all I want and I still can't get used to that face."

"Was he always that close with the twins, though?"

"Those three have always been famous for sticking together."

"Have they? I don't remember them being that close."

"Maybe. They do seem a lot closer now."

She tried to filter it out, but the name Lee Ho-yeon kept catching on her ear. Elise glanced toward his seat.

Lee Ho-yeon was talking with Lucy and Rumi.

"Lee Ho-yeon. What are you doing after this?"

"Well, I need to see a professor, and I should stop by the student council too."

"Ah... that's good. We've got stuff to do too. Right, Rumi?"

"...Yeah. That's good."

"What. You two are planning something weird without me, aren't you."

They really did seem closer. Not physically — or not only physically. The current running between them had changed. Elise had known he was physically involved with Rumi, but in public they had only ever been friends. They had never been this close.

Had something in their hearts shifted?

The face Elise had seen in the video she'd secretly obtained looked like it was sitting right there in the lecture hall. A woman's face that was only supposed to exist in private. Seeing it here felt like glimpsing something she was never meant to see.

"I'll be right back. Bathroom."

Lee Ho-yeon stepped out. Elise watched his back, then quietly rose from her seat.

This is my chance.

She needed to tell him to come to her house. She could have sent it through her smartwatch — but after watching him chatter away with Lucy and Rumi, she wanted to say it herself.

Out in the corridor, his back came into view, and Elise picked up her pace. There was no one around. She spoke immediately.

"Lee Ho-yeon."

"Hm?"

Seeing his face this close after so long felt strange.

"...Come to my house today."

"Today?"

"Yes."

The faint surprise in his reaction finally let her breathe. No matter how many women he had, he couldn't ignore her. That was what mattered.

A relationship I lead.

Even if he plays around, I only need to be the one official wife.

That worldview had been drilled into Elise since she was small. It was what she had always heard from the mother who left her playboy of a father alone.

Raised by a mother that absurdly generous, the idea had taken root. And so Elise refused to acknowledge her own affection. Acknowledging it would have felt like losing.

The bees gathering on the flower named Lee Ho-yeon. She felt like she was becoming just one more bee in the swarm.

"All right. I'll come by today."

"I'll be waiting."

Having said what she came to say, Elise turned and walked back to the lecture hall. The feeling of directing the relationship. The current she had wanted. A faint smile touched her lips.

I watched Elise's receding back and tilted my head. Her status window was floating right in front of me.

She was definitely still prickly. Even with an affection score of 68. It was about the same number she'd had during our one-on-one duel, and her reaction now was nothing like it had been then.

I think the problem here is the woman.

If the man was the flower and the women were the bees, then Elise was the queen.

That was what Elise said to the protagonist in the original. She was a heroine generous enough about a harem — but the important part was that she had to be the queen bee.

This wasn't about worker bees working, soldier bees fighting, and the queen laying eggs. What mattered was being the king of the bees. If a capable man was a flower, then among the bees who claimed that flower, she had to be the best. That was how Elise thought.

Maybe I should have conquered Elise first.

It would have been easier, sure. But I didn't regret it. Baek A-young, Nam Da-eun, Lucy and Rumi were all precious. And a lot of events I couldn't control had kept exploding in my face anyway.

"I'll figure something out this time too."

The massage was an opening, so I would have to work that angle. All I could count on were my mana and my fingers.

When I got back to the lecture hall, Lucy and Rumi were waiting for me, facing each other in the middle of a conversation.

"Rumi. Tteokbokki? For lunch...? Oh? You're back."

"Ho-yeon, where would you like to go for lunch?"

"I said let's get burgers, but Rumi wants tteokbokki. Lee Ho-yeon, you pick."

I picked up my bag under two pairs of bright, expectant eyes.

"Let's just go get some gukbap."

"Ehh?"

"I'll go wherever you'd like, Ho-yeon."

"Hey, Rumi! You can't just fold like that! You were totally against my burgers!"

A familiar atmosphere. Bantering with the twins really was when I felt most at ease. We headed off to lunch, still bickering the whole way.