Elise Is a Heroine

I struck up a conversation with Elise, whose gaze was locked on her smartwatch.

"That's pretty unexpected."

"...What is?"

"You don't seem like the type. The PR Department sounds like a pain."

Elise's days were a relentless loop of commute, study, train, and go home. I understood she was an exchange student who needed to get stronger for her guild back home... but she also shut down every cadet who tried to approach her, which left her with barely any friends. And yet she'd joined the PR Department? That was just adding more interruptions to her routine.

"Haa. Listen carefully. It's not that I hate bothersome work. I hate wasting time on things that don't matter."

"Huh. I think I get it."

"I refuse to spend my time hanging out with classmates who clearly won't do a thing for me, wandering from café to café for hours just to hunt down some sweet dessert, or tearing through shopping malls for pretty clothes."

"Ahh. So then why the PR Department?"

In other words, she hated anything that stole time from her self-improvement. Which still didn't explain why she'd shown up here.

"Why ask when you already know? I joined for the connection to President Mun Su-rin, obviously. She's Korea's top prospect. Isn't that why you're here too? From what I overheard earlier, you two seem close."

Elise had joined the PR Department to lock down a connection with Mun Su-rin, and she clearly assumed I'd done the same.

"We're close, yeah. But I didn't join for the connections."

If I had to be honest, I'd joined the student council to seduce the president.

"A common excuse."

Elise heard my answer and turned her head away, interest already fading.

Wow. This rude little— no. Patience. I had to be patient.

Then again, a beautiful girl acting this shamelessly somehow made her more attractive. She knew exactly how pretty she was, which was why she could get away with it. That wasn't an insult. A face like hers was a kind of power in its own right.

I'd just learned something useful from Elise. Watching her pull this, I figured I could afford to be a lot more shameless going forward myself.

Anyway, the conversation was not going well. To clear the quest I needed to talk about things that suited her tastes, and right now she looked thoroughly uninterested in me.

But that was fine. Fly or crawl all she wanted — Elise was still one of my heroines.

"Hey, do you know anything about cocktails? I've gotten pretty into them lately."

Twitch.

Elise's ear flicked. She was pretending not to care, but she was listening to every word.

"There's a new cocktail bar in the academy plaza, and their gin and tonic is incredible. Premium gin and top-shelf tonic water, obviously, but they also use mana ice — supposedly a world first. The freshness is on another level."

"...Where is that?"

Elise was starting to take an interest. The truth was I'd memorized every one of her preferences, which meant this quest had been unwinnable from the start. Elise's route lived intact in my memory. From cocktails to books, movies, and classical music, I had every last one of her hobbies locked down.

"...I think gin-based cocktails have the most class. Old folks write them off as cheap booze, but nothing beats that aroma and the clean finish."

"Our tastes match, surprisingly."

"I used to drink Pink Ladies and Singapore Slings a lot."

"...I used to like those too."

And just like that, I spent over thirty minutes chatting with Elise. She kept pretending she couldn't care less the entire time, but the system window floating in front of my eyes didn't lie.

Elise had enjoyed talking with me. Whether she admitted it or not.

I stepped out of the PR office to head back to the dorms. The moment our conversation ended, Elise announced it was time to train and left for the training hall ahead of me.

"Heading out already?"

"Yes. I've got things to take care of, so I should get going."

Mun Su-rin called after me as I left the student council room.

"Well, now that you're in the PR Department, I'll be running into you a lot more."

A bright smile bloomed across Mun Su-rin's face. No matter how I looked at it, that wasn't simple fondness. There was genuine affection in it.

...Alright. Now I was sure.

Mun Su-rin. This shameless noona. She'd created the PR Department just to get me into the student council. Putting me in alone would have looked strange, so she'd slotted in one pretty freshman girl to make up the numbers.

That girl had been Elise.

The butterfly effect really was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this terrifying. I'd met Mun Su-rin at the café earlier than in the original story. As a result, she'd fallen for me that much faster. Her trauma hadn't set in yet, so she'd come on stronger. Then she'd created the PR Department to pull me onto the student council, and to make the excuse hold up, Elise had ended up joining too.

Ugh. My head hurt.

...Nothing will come of it, right?

It was something that had never happened in the original, sure, but Elise didn't play a major role in the club arc anyway... It would be fine. It had to be fine. It wasn't like I could undo it. Looking on the bright side, I'd just gained more ties to the heroines. That was a win.

"Yeah. See you next time, noona."

"Mm. Take care, Hoyeon."

Mun Su-rin only ever said my name quietly like that when the two of us were alone. I called her President whenever other people were around, so I supposed we were even.

I left the student council behind, Mun Su-rin's bright smile at my back. I still had things to finish today. Once I submitted the application for Lucy's social club, I'd be done.

But where was Lucy? She and Rumi would be together anyway, so I figured I'd just message Rumi. Her number was saved in my smartwatch. I flicked on the hologram and sent a text.

A grim feeling settled over me, the kind that said something was about to go wrong.

I took the elevator to the second floor, rounded the corner, and knocked on the door of room 205.

"Come in...."

Lucy was inside, her usual energy drained right out of her.

"Lucy, what's wrong? Did something happen with starting the club?"

"Well, actually... yeah. There's a problem. We already locked down a club room and a faculty advisor, and then the club office over in Student Affairs suddenly said there was an error and rejected us. And then the advisor said something came up and he couldn't do it after all.... What do we do?"

Watching a girl who was usually bursting with energy look like this made me want ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to jump in and fix everything. Not that I wouldn't have helped anyway.

"Was there anything that could've been a problem? Even a little thing?"

"No. We had a club room, we had an advisor, the name was just a regular social club, and we hit the three-person minimum...."

"Hrrrm....?"

Then there shouldn't have been anything to reject. Wait a second. That three-person minimum included me.

"Just checking, but the three-person minimum is you, Rumi, and me, right?"

"Yeah. Don't tell me you changed your mind? You can't.... If we lose you too, the club is finished...."

Lucy grabbed my arm and sank to the floor, sobbing at me not to abandon them. She was small enough that she didn't weigh much, but the position put my hand right against her chest.

Even with that sensation, though, my mind was elsewhere. I'd been collecting questions about the clubs since this morning. Getting played by the fishing club, the Club Association President taking one look at me and fleeing the scene, a social club with my name on it getting rejected. At this point, even someone as pure-hearted as me had no choice but to be suspicious.

And I had a pretty good idea who was behind it. The Mana Research Club. They'd looked like they had a bone to pick with me, and they supposedly had the most clout of any club on campus. It was entirely possible they'd been throwing their weight around to mess with me.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠quest arrived the instant I put it together. So there really was something going on. I'd been planning to help even without a quest, which made this a freebie.

"Lucy. I told you, didn't I? Think about how good it'd be to have the student council in your club."

"Hueeh? You're not gonna ditch us?"

"Don't worry. I'll handle it."

"Oh!"

"Let's go to the club administration office together."

"Okay."

The club administration office was on the sixteenth floor. The student council sat on the seventeenth, so it was the floor directly below. The club system here was a massive operation, and plenty of cadets came through for club support or to register new ones.

A girl happened to be walking out of the new-club desk, so I called out to her.

"Excuse me. Did you just register a new club?"

"Y-yes? Oh, um, well, our club is just a casual hobby club I made with friends for fun, but, um, if you really want to join, I could kick one of them out...!"

"No — hang on. Please calm down."

"Ah. Yes...."

I'd picked up a thing or two from Elise about leveraging a handsome face, but I was still an amateur. Elise probably would have extracted a lot more from a cadet reacting like that.

"Could you tell me how long the new-club registration process took?"

"Uh, I just filled out the new-club paperwork and they approved it on the spot...."

"Hmm. Thank you."

I left the girl still staring after me and went back to Lucy. Something was definitely going on. If the paperwork was filled out properly, there was no reason for a rejection. I'd have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to talk to them myself.

I walked up to a cadet working the desk. Fortunately he was a guy this time, so there was no dramatic reaction. The look he gave me was sour, but I understood the feeling. Tough break, buddy.

"Hello. I'm here about registering a new club."

"Right. You've filled out all the relevant paperwork?"

"Here. It's a social club some friends and I put together."

"Sure. This'll just take a moment, so hang on... ah. I'm sorry. The system says there's nothing wrong with the documents, but we're getting a strange error. It doesn't look like we can register it right now. Could you come back tomorrow?"

"..."

A pathetic excuse. Those were the exact same papers Lucy had already submitted and been rejected with. I'd turned them in on a hunch, and I genuinely hadn't expected this reaction.

After the first rejection citing an "error," the faculty advisor had suddenly developed circumstances that made him unavailable. Which meant that if those papers were entered into the system as-is, they should have come up as fraudulent documents from the start. And yet there was nothing wrong with the paperwork — just an "error"? A genuine glitch wasn't impossible, but the guy's face and body language were dripping with awkwardness.

"You already rejected us once saying there was an error. And now you're telling me there's another error?"

"Yes. That's how it turned out."

"Mind if I enter it myself? Something about this feels off."

"I already told you no. If you keep this up, I'll call a student council officer."

"I am the student council. Go ahead and call an officer. Let's see what happens."

"What? No, that's...."

I had a reason for picking this ridiculous fight and making a scene. I wasn't a hundred percent certain, but someone was trying to keep me in check. I'd already revealed I was on the student council, which meant there was only one person in the club office who could come out here to stop me.

"That's enough, underclassman. Why don't you calm down? Our newest junior is being a bit much, don't you think?"

The person I'd been waiting for stepped out. The Club Association President — the same one who'd taken one look at me and fled. I didn't know his name. I didn't want to remember it either, so Club President would do.

"Hello, senior. Our club application keeps getting mysteriously rejected."

"Looks like there's been a system error. I'll look into it as your senior on the student council, so why don't you head back for today?"

The Club President wore a perfectly pleasant smile, but I could see what sat behind it. The mockery was unmistakable.

Fine. I'd leave for now. I had preparations of my own to make. Pushing any further right now would only put me at a disadvantage. There was still time until Friday. I just had to get this resolved by then.

Elise had been right again. If I hadn't had connections to fall back on, I would have been stuck swallowing this nonsense. It was time to put every connection I'd built to proper use.

And from now on, I was going to take everything Elise said as gospel. Whether it was her actions or her words, she hadn't been wrong once.

Elise finished training and climbed into the luxury foreign car waiting for her at the academy's front gate, ready for dinner.

"You've worked hard, miss."

The middle-aged man waiting in the driver's seat spoke with the ease of long familiarity.

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Did today's training show any progress? Lady Irene back home has been quite worried as well."

"You're bringing up my sister to piss me off, aren't you?"

"I would never. Such an irreverent thought has never crossed my mind."

The man offered a faint smile and held out a water bottle.

"As if that sister of mine would worry about— ha. Forget it."

Elise carried a deep trauma from Irene, the older sister who had tormented her since childhood. Even as they grew up, Irene had always delighted in snatching away whatever Elise wanted — her toys, her things — and the image of that enjoyment was still carved deep into Elise's mind. One of the reasons she had come to study at Korea's Victoria Academy was to escape her sister's grasp and find some freedom of her own.

"I hear you joined the student council? As expected of you, miss."

"It's nothing. They just picked me for my face."

"And how is that cadet, Lee Hoyeon? If you're working in the same PR Department, I imagine you'll be seeing a great deal of each other."

Elise drank in long swallows, washing down the thirst of a hard training session, and went on.

"He's good-looking, I'll give him that. Seems talented enough, too... but something about him gives me the creeps."

"Oh? From the sound of it, he's exactly your type, miss."

Elise's eyes flashed. She hurled the water bottle at him, but the man simply caught it with a faint smile.

"Nnh... no reason, really."

"Perhaps he's some kind of punk? Those types always give themselves away, no matter how hard they pretend otherwise. Believe it or not, back in my day..."

The man tossed out theories and launched into tales of his own glory, but Elise's head was too full of something else to hear any of it.

It was a story her pride would never let her say out loud. Elise had grown up drowning in praise and envy alike, armed with overwhelming talent and beauty from the time she was small. She had matured early, and she had understood that other people's jealousy and criticism came from their own inadequacy. She was simply better, and so she never got angry.

But there had been exactly two times she had looked at someone her own age and felt jealousy — or irritation.

The first was that girl she'd met at Korea's Victoria Academy. Nam Da-eun. Her overwhelming talent and combat power had been enough to make Elise want to curse God for choosing that woman instead of her. The girl's complete lack of manners and social grace had only made it worse.

And then there was Lee Hoyeon.

She wasn't jealous. His talent wasn't the kind that warranted it, and they weren't even in the same field. But for some reason, he irritated her.

The conversation itself hadn't been bad. For the first time, it had felt like she'd met someone whose tastes actually matched her own. Starting from cocktails and running through books, movies, even classical music — every topic had been genuinely interesting.

And yet she couldn't shake the feeling that he was playing with her from somewhere above her head. He talked as if he knew her, and the maddening part was that he was roughly right, so she couldn't even argue. When she tried to get angry and met his eyes, his face was uselessly, infuriatingly her type, which made it even harder to snap at him.

She was clearly irritated, and yet she couldn't get angry, and somehow she felt good — and that strange cocktail of feelings was deeply unpleasant.

"Back then, you see, they called me Blood Wind. Blood Wind. Wherever I showed up, everything around me ended up soaked in—"

"Would you— stop. Just stop. I'm hungry, so hurry up and take me to dinner."

"Tsk. As you wish. The usual restaurant, then."

"Yeah. And for dessert, we're going to a cocktail bar called Emilia."

"Where is that? I don't believe I've heard of it."

"...If I say we're going, just go."

"Yes, yes."

Elise closed her eyes completely and folded her arms. The man seemed to take the hint at last, and the car pulled away.

Haa... what even is this feeling?

Elise hadn't realized it yet. But she had already fallen into the heroine's trap.