Preliminary Assembly
“Ugh… uuugh.”
“Stop whining and put it on already!”
Kang Jiye’s hands busily worked around my waist. I crumpled the thing that swished around my thighs into a fist.
Damn it. A skirt?
I’d never imagined this in my life. Me — the absolute monarch of my room, a man’s man through and through — forced into an outfit like this.
Sure, I’d worn a skirt inside the Gate before, but no one had been around to see it then. And the magician’s look was one of Pecia’s essential equipment pieces, besides.
Kang Jiye scolded me as I kept resisting.
“Hold still!”
“It’s not that — just give me pants.”
“I already said no. What’s with you? You’re usually so mature, so why do you reject anything even slightly feminine? Aren’t you embarrassed in front of Yena?”
For the record, she’d prepared a mountain of gifts for me over the past while. Makeup, something resembling lipstick, countless cosmetics whose purpose I couldn’t begin to guess, and piles of clothes — all shoved right under my nose.
I hadn’t so much as touched the cosmetics, and when it came to clothes I’d stubbornly stuck to jeans and T-shirts only.
Because I was neither a girl nor a pervert.
Yena chimed in with a laugh.
“Unnie says she can’t even wear a skirt!”
“Shut it. Keep talking and I’m sleeping over somewhere else tonight.”
“Bleeeh — I’m telling! I’m telling!”
Ugh, so annoying. Today that cheekiness of hers was especially grating.
You people have no idea how I feel right now.
Stripped bare by force in front of a woman old enough to be my big sister. To them I probably just looked like a pretty little girl — but from the perspective of an adult man, it felt like posing as a nude model in front of a mother and daughter I’d only just met.
Like I’d been turned into a flasher against my will. The kind of flasher who tries to scare high school girls and ends up getting mocked instead.
I frantically grabbed Kang Jiye’s hands.
“I-I’ll do it myself! Please!”
But Kang Jiye didn’t even pretend to listen.
“I told you to hold still.”
“Auntie!”
“Hey, you couldn’t even put on underwear properly by yourself, and now you think you can manage this alone? At the very least you shouldn’t look like a mess when you get there. You said you didn’t want to stand out, right?”
“…”
“I honestly can’t believe it. How can someone with a face like yours hate dressing up? No — more than that, at your age, not even knowing how to put on a bra? Does that make any sense?”
I had no choice but to surrender myself to her hands. It was true that I hadn’t been able to put on women’s underwear. I’d even tried to go outside braless once and caused a complete uproar.
“Turn around.”
Her practiced hands began dressing me in the school uniform piece by piece.
I muttered under my breath.
“So what if I can’t put on clothes properly? It’s not like I’m going outside anyway.”
Kang Jiye shot me a look. She was the type who believed my personality had gone rotten precisely because I never left the house.
“I told you. You never received a proper education—”
But then she stopped short. A moment later she looked at me with a faintly worried expression.
“…I’ve been wondering for a while. Did something happen when you were little? Some kind of trauma that makes you not want to go outside?”
“Huh?”
“If you can’t talk about it, you don’t have to answer.”
So that was it — she found it strange how much I loved staying home, and had been looking for a reason.
Was it really that unusual, though? Unusual enough to go hunting for trauma?
I blinked and answered.
“I just like being indoors. When you go outside it’s cold for no reason, you get hungry, everything’s damp, and you have to talk to people. Isn’t that a hassle?”
“…”
“Besides, we live in a world where you can survive on delivery food alone. And for communication, there’s the internet. All things considered… khrk!”
The necktie cinched tight. Kang Jiye’s hands seemed to have put a little more force into them than a moment ago.
“Pecia.”
“Yesh.”
“If you don’t want to get bullied, at least say hello to the other girls and get along. At the Comprehensive Academy they split you into groups for cooperative training, too.”
My eyes flew wide open.
“Wh… what? Hold on. Cooperative training?”
“Yeah. Cooperative training.”
“Why?”
“…?”
It wasn’t that I hated exercise. I just preferred working out alone. Group physical activities with a bunch of other people were something I’d rather pass on.
Kang Jiye burst out laughing.
“What do you mean, ‘why’? Is there a school in this world that doesn’t have Great Magibeast Combat or survival training courses?”
“B-but this is a Comprehensive Academy. And I’m a powerless civilian.”
“You’re not a civilian.”
“I mean officially.”
Kang Jiye let out a sigh.
“Whether you’re a civilian or not, we’re living in the middle of a war. Gate ranks keep getting stronger by the day — you think an academy is going to look kindly on a student with zero cooperative ability?”
“…”
“Remember this. We have no idea how long the world will stay the way it is. And if the worst happens, every one of us has to become a combatant — a hunter.”
This time her tone was genuinely stern. Of course she’d feel that sense of urgency. She watched people die every single day.
Kang Jiye stretched both my cheeks out wide.
“So you take the training without a single complaint. This time I won’t help you.”
“…Nyeh.”
Only after she let go of my cheeks did she smile.
“Good. Pecia will do just fine. With the courage it took to save Yena from a ghoul, what couldn’t you handle?”
“That’s different. First of all, Yena is someone I know, and those people are complete strangers— nyeh.”
Kang Jiye stretched my cheeks again.
“Less talking back. When someone compliments you, just sit quietly and take it.”
“Whyy?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Did you just say ‘why’ again?”
“Yesh. I can’t help it.”
“You little… Want me to take a picture of you in that skirt and send it around everywhere? Want to feel the intense stares of every boy your age?”
“Nooo. I’m sorry.”
“Promise me. You’ll act like a normal girl, okay? If you really want to be strict, be strict with yourself. Stop picking apart every little thing. Got it?”
“Yes.”
Kang Jiye nodded.
“See how nice it is when you answer properly? Ah, so cute. The upperclassmen are going to adore you.”
Damn it. Those upperclassmen can choke on the leftover scraps I drop. Adore me? I crush any student who gets on my nerves, no exceptions.
When an adult teaches, the kids should learn with humility. What else are they going to do?
Grumbling to myself, I left the house.
Aegis Comprehensive Academy.
A place where students learned not only foundational subjects like language and math, but also comprehensive knowledge of abilities and Gates. Even ordinary people with no combat experience acquired basic mana and underwent combat training.
In other words, it was the equivalent of an elite school from a fantasy novel.
Anyone who managed to enroll could become an ability user. The word “Comprehensive” didn’t mean a mixed bag of leftovers — it simply meant there was a lot to learn.
So this is what it was like.
Pecia looked around with open curiosity. This was the first time she’d properly taken in the place. Back when she’d played through it, the academy had already been reduced to ruins.
“Wow — you’re pretty. What’s your name?”
“…?”
The moment she sat down in the preliminary assembly hall, the girl in the seat next to her struck up a conversation. A girl wearing a beret different from everyone else’s was looking at Pecia with eyes full of interest.
Pecia’s gaze went dead on the spot.
Please don’t talk to me.
She’d just wanted to get the preliminary assembly over with as fast as possible and go home. Someone starting a conversation was nothing more than an annoying side quest. Not that she could refuse to complete it, of course.
“Thanks for saying I’m pretty. I’m Pecia.”
“I see!”
“…”
“…”
The reply was polite. She didn’t freely broadcast her irritation just because she found it bothersome. But neither did she ever offer anything that might keep a conversation going — no “You’re pretty too,” no “What’s your name?”
That was simply how Pecia was.
The beret girl, growing a little awkward, forced herself to add something.
“I-I’m Elaine! Nice to meet you.”
Pecia showed her a manufactured smile.
“Nice to meet you too, Elaine.”
The beret girl’s mouth twitched slightly.
“Uh… yeah.”
A thought suddenly crossed the girl’s mind.
Is she… finding me annoying?
The halfhearted answers, the way she was handling this — no matter how you looked at it…
No way! That can’t be it!
She was, after all, a scion of a renowned elemental magic house. Talent, money, looks — she hated to say it herself, but she didn’t fall short of anyone in any category.
People should be desperate to network with her. There was no way someone would find her annoying.
And there’s no way she doesn’t know who I am!
Confidence surged back into a heart that had nearly been wounded.
“Let’s be good friends from now on, Pecia!”
“Achoo!”
“…”
But a sneeze at the most devastating possible timing. Elaine blinked several times. Anyone could tell it was a forced sneeze.
Crash—
The confidence that had been rising shattered into pieces.
So she really does find me annoying?
“Ah — the weather’s a bit chilly.”
What is that? That middle-aged-man way of talking! Stop with the awkward acting!
As a rule, girls grew close by squealing and making a fuss together. At least, that was how it had always worked in Elaine’s life.
But with the girl in front of her, that approach didn’t seem like it would work at all.
Unable to accept reality, Elaine tried one more time, digging in her heels.
“F-for the record, I’m the first-year student representative! Top of the class!”
“That’s really impressive.”
“Right?”
“Yeah.”
“…”
You’re so mean.
This much should have been enough to get a warmer response.
It was a wall she’d never encountered in her life. The girl had to understand her intentions, and yet she was this cold. Being snubbed by a doll-like girl like that hurt twice as much.
The first defeat of the “Pretty Girl Collector.”
Elaine spoke in a thoroughly deflated tone.
“I’m just going to the restroom for a—”
That was when it happened.
As Elaine stood up, she collided with someone.
Thud!
“Ow!”
“What the hell.”
Startled by the sudden curse, Elaine looked up. Her eyes went wide.
“Ah, Adriel…?”
Adriel Joel Kang.
A boy from the Joel family — one of the top hunter bloodlines — stood there.
Adriel clicked his tongue the moment he saw Elaine.
“It was you? Of course I’d run into something unlucky right from the start.”
“Unlucky? That’s a bit—”
“Shut up and move.”
“Ah!”
Adriel shoved Elaine aside and strode forward. Amid the murmurs that rose at the sudden appearance of the strongest student in the year, Elaine — plopped back into her seat by sheer force of circumstance — let out a sigh.
Haha… today’s really out to get me, isn’t it.
The fact that she’d been humiliated right in front of the person she wanted to befriend made it sting even more.
And what was even more despairing: that person’s gaze was currently fixed on Adriel.
Elaine’s mouth fell open.
Don’t tell me she likes that type?
“Interested? Isn’t he a little scary?”
Elaine gave a bitter smile, and Pecia just shrugged. Her expression was impossible to read.
But Adriel, walking ahead, must have overheard Elaine — because he suddenly turned around and came back.
“What did you say?”
Elaine’s face flashed with alarm as she apologized.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry, my ass. You saying that because you’re scared too? Guess you inherited your old man’s cowardice.”
“What?”
Who’s a coward?
That was a line she absolutely could not let slide. Their two families’ relationship hadn’t been great since the recent incident, but this crossed a line.
“You…!”
That was when it happened.
Pecia’s right arm rose smoothly into the air.
“…?”
As every gaze focused on the gesture that looked like a request for the floor, her mouth opened.
“You’re the one in the wrong. Adriel — no, Kang Jihun.”
“What?”
“If you both ran into each other without looking, both sides should apologize. Only Elaine apologizing is unbalanced. On top of that, you cursed first and shoved her. Why are you acting so entitled? That’s assault, you know?”
“…?”
“Ugh. That’s exactly why you eventually ran into someone who put you in your place and finally turned into a decent person. Stop making a scene and go sit down. Since you’re going to become nice eventually anyway, I’d appreciate it if you started early.”
Adriel blinked, then worked his mouth open and shut. He was so flabbergasted that no words would come out.
Confirming the murderous look in his eyes, Pecia wore a victorious smile.
“What? Speechless because my logic is airtight?”