Is This What Academy Life Is Like?

After the commemorative entrance ceremony of Grand Arc Academy, the freshman life officially began.

In that life, Noel recalled the original work and expected a joyful romance fantasy campus life──.

"It's different from what I imagined. Something's strange."

She wasn't enjoying it.

It's strange.

Too strange.

The academy life Noel imagined and anticipated wasn't this.

What Noel dreamed of was enjoying the process of getting close to her favorite Professor Lucia while watching the original events unfold, spending happy, laughter-filled days.

But reality?

"Author-nim, there are two days left until the deadline."

"Teacher Sophie──Chief Editor-nim. We just saw each other a few days ago, and that's the first thing you say when we meet...?"

"I don't want to be like this either, but Golden Page is begging me."

"What, anyone would think I'm going on an unannounced hiatus."

"Whether there's notice or not, a surprise hiatus is the same thing, isn't it...?"

"I can't help it. What can I do if the writing won't come out because school life is tiring?"

This isn't an excuse.

Well, it's half an excuse.

It's true that I'm tired, but it's not that the writing won't come out; I'm going on hiatus just to make you all suffer because I'm tired.

If Noel's happy academy life with Professor Lucia ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had unfolded as she'd expected, she wouldn't have done that.

But getting close to Professor Lucia, as she'd hoped, wasn't as easy as she thought, and on the flip side, other professors she hadn't even considered kept bothering her.

Even though she has no interest, they keep pushing these spells and those spells, try-this-try-that, causing her stress.

They should just give up already, but even when she tells them flatly, they won't quit.

They cling to her like they can't let go, and Noel is so exhausted she could die.

If that professor clinging to her and tempting her with the path of a graduate student were Professor Lucia, she'd have jumped at the chance in an instant....

But the one who should be calling her, or rather, the elf, doesn't come, and only the other professors are causing a ruckus, which makes Noel so angry she goes on hiatus.

Because of that, both the readers and the serialization platform, Golden Page, screamed for help, eventually contacting Ilias Publishing, leading to the current situation.

"It's not my fault. It's the fault of the professors ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who won't give up even though I told them I don't have that deep an interest in magic."

"Sigh..."

As Noel's former home tutor, she's torn between being happy about her excellent academic achievements and, as the current editor-in-chief of Ilias Publishing, lamenting the delayed serialization.

Because the faster Noel serializes in the newspaper, the faster they can collect the installments and publish them as a book.

"Anyway, please do something about the deadline. And regardless, it's a relief to see you seem to be doing well at the academy. The Lady and the Viscount were very worried. And the young lady says she misses her older sister too."

"Honestly, my family too.... I'm already sending them letters almost every day."

Still, being worried about by her family didn't feel bad, so a smile bloomed on Noel's sullen face.

Seeing that, Sophie thought she seemed to be doing well and checked up on Noel's recent situation in detail.

The reason she made time on the weekend to come see her in person was, as mentioned earlier, because the Viscount Grace's family had asked her to confirm that their daughter was really doing well.

There's a world of difference between just reading letters and sending ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠someone to see for herself.

Academically, well... it's a relief to see she's apparently doing so well that the professors are hounding her.

But still, she never expected the professors would send such love calls.

'The young lady really does have a great talent for magic.'

The Libra Order said that God is fair, but looking at Noel, she keeps thinking that's not true at all.

Then again, maybe it is fair, considering she sacrificed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her femininity in exchange for all that overflowing talent...?

As a noble lady, that part was inevitably quite fatal.

"How are your friendships?"

Noel, who rarely attended parties and found it distressing to socialize with other young ladies her age.

So before she made acquaintances like Lydia, she had absolutely no one she could call a friend.

It wasn't for nothing that Viscountess Natalie was so worried about her daughter.

She wondered how it was at the academy, but—

"It's not working out as I'd hoped."

At that question, Noel narrowed her brow.

It was a problem that Professor Lucia felt burdened by Noel—more precisely, by Homeros—but there were other problems too.

Literally, friendships.

She wants to make connections, especially with the Beastkin, the original male lead, and the childhood friend heroine, but it's not easy.

She never knew being in different departments would make it this hard to make contact.

Even with Clara, she only manages to meet up once on weekends.

It's not that the departments have bad relations or anything; it's just that everyone is too busy adapting to their new environment and curriculum to go visiting other departments.

Once this adjustment period is over, they'll have more free time, but until then, Noel can't help but feel dissatisfied with the slow progress in relationships.

But──.

"So, I'm thinking of making some friends through club activities."

And that time is almost here.

Club activities.

Through that, Noel plans to actively help the original male lead and his childhood friend develop into lovers.

For that, she first needs to get those two to join the same club as her, and she's already thought about that too.

"I want to do something that feels like academy life, so I'm going to do club activities. But there aren't any clubs I like? So I'm thinking of starting a new one."

And if she asks Lucia Bennett to be the supervising professor for that club?

A perfectly complete picture.

"You're going to start a new club? Even that...?"

"Yes! I've already thought of the club's name and activities."

Namely,

"The Club for Intercultural Exchange."

A club where they approach unfamiliar cultures without prejudice, experience them, and learn about them.

"Hmm..."

Sophie blinked her eyes, thinking that, in a way, it was a very Noel-like club.

"But to start a new club, we need at least five members besides the founder."

Lydia.

Clara.

Irina.

Three are secured for now.

The remaining two are a problem, but honestly, if Noel asked, she could grab any random passerby and make them a member.

But Noel has a plan.

"I don't want ghost members, and I want people who are really serious about it, not someone approaching it for a different purpose. So I'm going to go find the missing members."

The person she's looking for under this pretext—it almost goes without saying who it is by now.

The original male lead and current Knight Department special student, Theodore Valencia.

And 'Theo's' childhood friend, one of the heroines of the original romance game, and an artistic genius with the potential to turn Clara into a villainess, Evelyn Perry.

The reason why the Beastkin princess, the chieftain's daughter and great prairie warrior, isn't among the candidates is simple.

The difficulty of recruiting her is too high.

In the first place, the chieftain's daughter didn't come to study abroad because she wanted to.

Her father, the chieftain, forced her to come to learn about the world in response to the changing international situation.

Unlike her father, the daughter is quite stuck in her ways, and so she only thinks of it as carrying out her mission as a warrior according to her father's wishes, with no real intention of learning about or interacting with the world.

Even the original setting book explicitly stated that if her route were implemented, she would be the most difficult heroine to conquer, meaning difficult to enter her route.

So while he ultimately planned to recruit her into the club's activities, he had no intention of forcing it from the start.

Honestly, wanting to be friends with the Beastkin was Noel's personal desire, not something absolutely necessary.

Rather than such personal motives, priority number one was, for the sake of the world's fate, making sure the original male lead didn't go down some strange route.

Well... games are games and reality is reality, and a lot is already different, so he thought it might not matter.

But,

'If I let my guard down and he goes down the saintess route, planting a flag for the Demon King's revival, who's going to take responsibility for that?'

Rather than letting things go and regretting it later when trouble arises, it's better to put in a little extra effort and have it be for nothing.

And while playing romance games in his past life, he had some thoughts.

Push-and-pull is fine, it's all good, but this is a bit frustrating.

He also felt like taking this opportunity to intervene and resolve those feelings he had while playing.

For example, making the childhood friend and the male lead see each other as the opposite sex much earlier, turning them into a cockroach couple quickly, or accelerating the period where the male lead seeks guidance from Rosalyn and grows.

Twisting the original to suit his own tastes.

'Isn't that the prerogative of a transmigrator?'

And that's why he's preparing so hard to establish this club now.

"Hmm...?"

Sophie looked at Noel as if she found it strange. Because, from what she had observed of Noel so far, this wasn't her style.

'Has the young lady changed a bit since entering the academy?'

If you thought about it, it could be considered a good change, so Sophie nodded and encouraged Noel.

"That's a great idea. I'll support your club activities."

This was enough to check up on Noel's situation on behalf of her family.

Now it was time to work as an editor-in-chief again.

"Here, these are the completed manuscripts for The Candy Girl so far. Please review them."

Nodding, Noel began reading the manga—sorry, editing.

With Noel in front of her, she also brought up other publishing business.

"We're currently reviewing which local publisher to partner with to publish your Oblige of Deception in the Kingdom Union's publishing market. Here's the list of candidates. Please take a look and choose whichever you prefer."

"Are we going through another publisher?"

"Yes. Apparently, the Kingdom Union finds it a bit burdensome—or rather, wary—of us directly diving into their publishing market. So since the important thing is to publish your works in other kingdoms, we decided to take a detour."

"Market encroachment is scary, I suppose. Well, I don't mind. Oh, and please tell them that if they request modifications, I can make changes based on my own judgment, but I won't tolerate arbitrary censorship."

"Yes."

Having written web novels where modifications were free and that was one of the advantages, Noel had no particular qualms about slightly altering words or content if the platform or readers had issues.

But that's only after prior discussion with the author herself.

Arbitrarily cutting things up is a completely different story.

Sophie nodded at Noel's clear line-drawing and continued her work as editor-in-chief.

Following that, Noel finished her work as an author.

With the weekend coming to an end, it was time to return to being a student.

"What? Miss Noel is starting a club...?"

"It seems there's no existing club that suits me."

"If that's the case, I can't miss out on this! I was actually planning to talk to you about doing club activities together."

And so, she began executing her plan to establish a new club.