Popularity Poll Number One
The sight left me utterly dumbfounded.
After all, I’d just shoved my hand into a trash can and pulled out a potion.
Besides the official event rewards, it turned out the game had also implemented field scavenging. The major hotspots were trash bins, lockers, sewer lids, flowerbeds—pretty much anywhere a seasoned gamer would instinctively rummage through.
“It’s nice, but…”
Even a low-grade potion was worth grabbing for free. It wasn’t just about the money. The academy held a near-monopoly on potion manufacturing and sales. With purchase limits per person, anyone planning to leave soon—like us—needed to stock up on as many as possible.
“Still feels gross, though.”
I fished another one out from under a manhole cover and rinsed it thoroughly with water. In the game it was just “Item No. 1 obtained from trash,” and even in reality the glass bottles were perfectly sealed, so there was no actual performance issue. But who in their right mind would want to drink something that had been sitting in the mud?
It was purely a matter of mood, yet that made it all the more important. The last thing I needed was to hesitate mid-battle, thinking, This came out of a sewer, didn’t it? and end up taking a fatal wound because I froze for half a second.
Any prediction that “in a life-or-death situation I wouldn’t think about it” was meaningless. The mere possibility that the thought could occur was the problem.
Still, I can’t just throw them away.
The smart thing was to use them up quickly in the right situations.
Thud.
“Ugh…”
For example, the girl who had just tripped spectacularly over there—the very same girl currently shining at the top of the popularity poll. Silwin Celestine.
* * *
“Are you all right?”
Again.
“Yes, I’m fine. My legs are a little weak.”
Silwin Celestine swallowed her miserable feelings and trotted out the same excuse she always used.
Of course, there was nothing wrong with her legs. Claiming they were weak simply worked better than admitting she had tripped over nothing.
“Let me help you up.”
“Thank you.”
The familiar sequence that followed was nothing new. Most people offered a hand the moment she mentioned her weak legs.
But this voice… I don’t recognize it.
The only difference this time was that the person sounded unfamiliar. Since Silwin didn’t know every single student at the academy, she simply took the offered hand and looked up.
“Huh?”
It was someone she had never seen before.
And it was an impression she could never have imagined seeing.
Because the person standing in front of her was, at a glance, a walking mountain of muscle.
“Be careful. The academy is a dangerous place.”
“If you see anyone suspicious, scream first.”
“Browning-senpai was absent the day before yesterday. Apparently she was kidnapped!”
“It’s an evil god follower!”
Considering everything Silwin had heard and experienced so far, there was only one possible identity for such a suspicious person.
“T-Terror…”
A terrorist.
Having reached that conclusion, Silwin slapped the offered hand away.
“Huh? Uh?”
The man looked startled when his hand was suddenly knocked aside. Naturally—he didn’t possess the danger sensor that only academy students had.
But the terrified Silwin didn’t even register his reaction. In fact, it was the opposite.
I slapped it away! He’s going to get angry!
Because she had unconsciously struck his hand, she spiraled even deeper into panic.
“Ugh… ugh…”
Extreme fear and confusion tightened her throat. Her airway closed up. She couldn’t even breathe, let alone speak. Her terror reached its peak.
A curse!
He must have cast a curse to stop her from revealing his presence! That was perfectly logical to Silwin, who had witnessed a similar scene just four days ago.
At that point, only one option remained.
With neither apology, scream, nor plea able to escape her throat, the only thing she could do was run.
Crash!
“Oh my god, are you really okay?”
Because of that, she made a mistake she normally never would.
Silwin had her own practiced process for falling safely, since she tripped so often. But she had been so frightened that she forgot it entirely and took a spectacular spill.
“Ugh…”
As a result, the wound on her knee from the first fall split open wider, and the tip of her nose turned bright red.
Why am I like this…?
More than the pain, more than the terrifying person in front of her, the first thought that rose was self-reproach.
She hadn’t even managed to shout that a dangerous person was here, and she hadn’t succeeded in running away either.
And it wasn’t as if today was the first time.
I’m a failure…
Fortunately, she had been protected by her parents’ strict training until now.
Spreading rumors that her legs were weak, maintaining a cold expression no matter what happened, keeping a poker face even after making a mistake while preparing an excuse—thanks to faithfully following her parents’ teachings, no one had ever realized that Silwin was actually a massive klutz.
But she couldn’t keep fooling everyone forever.
Just like right now.
“Ugh… uuu…”
She lay sprawled in the middle of the road, trembling violently. Adorably, she kept her eyes squeezed shut, desperately wishing only that it wouldn’t hurt anymore.
“Uuu… eh?”
Yet no matter how long she waited, nothing happened. Finally, as the fear subsided and curiosity took its place, Silwin cracked her eyes open just a little and cautiously glanced behind her.
“…………”
The mountain of muscle was still there.
His body looked three times larger than a normal person’s, yet his face somehow still carried a strangely youthful innocence. The combination was grotesquely surreal.
He stood there in an odd state—potion bottles crudely stuffed into every pocket of his clothes—staring at her with an awkward expression.
“You’re finally looking this way.”
“……”
“Ah, I’m a new student. My name is Helio Helisbort. From the HeloHelo brand—you know the one.”
“I… I’ve never seen your face before…”
Silwin had heard the rumors, of course.
The youngest son of the Helisbort family—the genius behind the HeloHelo brand who couldn’t handle mana—was famous in many ways. She and her friends had all assumed he hadn’t enrolled because none of them had ever seen him. So he really had been here the whole time?
“Well, training… not kidnapping, training. It took about two months. I just arrived.”
“Then… you’re not a terrorist?”
“Of course not. Do I look like one?”
“Honestly… yes.”
“…………”
The self-proclaimed Helio’s expression darkened.
Was that too harsh?
When Silwin felt a pang of guilt and tried to correct herself, he suddenly smiled brightly.
“You’re badly hurt. Would you like me to help?”
For some reason, he shook the potion bottle held in his left hand rather than his right.
“…Yes. Please.”
It was a slightly strange sight, but Silwin nodded.
Her leg and nose really did hurt.
Splash.
The man who had introduced himself as Helio immediately poured the potion over her the moment she gave permission.
It doesn’t seem poisoned… and there’s no physical deformation. He really meant well.
Silwin had been focusing on the holy relic in her pocket, wary of the potion terrorism she had witnessed last week, but it seemed her worries had been unfounded.
Maybe he’s not a bad person?
No, he was definitely a bad person.
The muscle-bound Helio was the kind of guy who found potions salvaged from the sewer too wasteful to throw away but too disgusting to drink himself, so he passed them off to others. He had even felt a twinge of conscience and tried to switch it for one picked up from the grass, only to get sulky at Silwin’s reaction and stick to his original plan. He was also incredibly petty.
That potion… it wasn’t exactly cheap to use on a stranger.
But in Silwin’s eyes, he had generously handed over a potion that wasn’t cheap at all when a single healing spell could have done the job.
“So, Helio… you’ll be attending the academy from now on.”
I should help him!
Even though it had only been two months, that was more than enough time for Silwin to understand exactly what kind of place the academy was.
It had started with the giant demonic beast attack during the entrance ceremony, followed by evil god followers’ terrorism:
Suicide bombings.
Water supply curse terrorism.
Voice phishing scams.
Replacing students with doppelgangers.
The physical manifestation of a “lucky letter” urban legend.
And when you added in anti-imperialist terrorism, noble faction power struggles, and even radical heteromorph extremist attacks, the total number of incidents was easily four times higher.
All in just two months!
Silwin did not want this kind person to suffer or die amid such terror and violence.
Hmm… he probably won’t suffer, though.
She canceled that particular thought after looking at Helio’s muscles.
“Ah, well… I am the right age to enroll, but I’ll probably be leaving again soon.”
“What? Is that even allowed?”
“Yes. There’s something I need to do outside.”
Silwin might be clumsy, but she wasn’t stupid. She possessed the common sense that nobles were required to attend the academy.
That was why she was surprised such a thing was possible, but at the same time, another thought occurred to her.
Maybe…
He might be the only person she could safely confide her worries to.
Not only was he a good person, he would soon disappear far away.
…At the very least, he won’t laugh at my true self or spread rumors. And even if he does spread them, it doesn’t matter. No one knows what I really look like!
Thanks to her parents’ thorough education, she had never been caught by anyone.
That had been the source of Silwin’s confidence… which made what came next truly unfortunate.
Contrary to what she believed, quite a few people had already figured her out long ago.
“If we leave her like this, she’ll die!”
Her friends, who had discovered her clumsy nature, were taking care of her with one heart and one mind. That was the only reason the truth hadn’t spread.
The first-place spot in the popularity poll had not been won easily, and this anecdote proved that the principle held true no matter the world.
“Um… would you mind listening to my worries?”