Entering the Academy (3)
What was that?
I was left completely dumbfounded by the words Kim Gabyul had spoken before she left.
[Bwahahahahahahaha! Bwahahahahaha!]
"Stop laughing already. Have you no dignity as a Great Demon? What's so funny about this, really."
I rebuked him outright and told him to cut it out, but Marbas paid me no mind whatsoever.
If anything, he only laughed harder.
[Bwahahaha! A Great Demon is one who reigns supreme over all other demons, so one need not concern oneself with dignity and may laugh all the more! Bwahahaha!]
Marbas was spouting complete nonsense.
No—my pure, kind, radiant, holy smile that shone brighter than anyone else's was actually a smile that looked like it was dunking someone?
It was a little persuasive, I'll admit.
No. No, that is pure nonsense. Persuasiveness can go straight to the dogs.
I turned on my heel and headed for the nearest restroom.
Whoever was right, I could just check for myself, couldn't I?
I bolted straight into the bathroom, faced the mirror, and smiled.
How could this kind smile possibly look like it's dunking someone?
In the mirror stood a man wearing an extremely kind smile.
Anyone could see it was kind. Kind-looking…
Hmm…
Hmmmmm……
Hmmmmmmmm………
I decided not to judge.
How could any person be perfect?
Even people who seem perfect make mistakes in life, so whatever Kim Gabyul had said must have simply been a slip of the tongue.
In times like these, a man with a heart as vast as the ocean like mine ought to let it go with magnanimous generosity.
Besides, one shouldn't judge a person's face to begin with.
Ah— in this case, was it the expression?
Expression or face, both are part of a person's appearance. Judging someone by their looks is just wrong.
And I am such a good person.
In my entire life I have never killed a single person.
At least not in this world.
What? I already killed one during the break?
Come on, that wasn't me—that was the demon.
The demon had parasitically taken over that body and then self-immolated, hadn't it?
If that hadn't been the case, what reason would I have had to kill the man?
So I didn't kill him.
Even if I had been the one who killed him, the guy was a villain and nothing more than a host parasitized by a demon.
How could killing a demon's pawn possibly be a crime?
Therefore I am just and good.
[Why fret so much? Are you bothered by the words of that old hag's contractor? Everything she said was true, you know. Or was she someone you had your eye on? Aha—so the human you were interested in said such a thing, and now your heart aches and throbs as if a spike were being driven into it. She struck right at the core! Even so, to react this strongly… just how deeply were you admiring her? Seeing my contractor react like this is rather entertaining.]
"That's not it…"
Faced with Marbas's blatant needling, all I could manage was a denial.
How was I supposed to say that I had transmigrated from another world, that Kim Gabyul was my favorite character, and that her words really did bother me?
No one could say that.
Do you know the feeling of getting roasted by your favorite character?
On top of that, Kim Gabyul's personality was a problem.
The character Kim Gabyul does not lie easily.
She is the type who simply says exactly what she feels.
That doesn't mean her nature is evil.
She just doesn't read the room.
I'm the sinner for possessing a narrow-eyed character.
I set the worry aside and returned to my seat.
"Did you make it to the bathroom okay?"
Lee Jiwoo greeted me warmly.
Seong Hyeon barely paid me any attention, but
outward appearances and the truth are often different.
Lee Jiwoo is fundamentally kind even to strangers and people she isn't particularly close to.
Seong Hyeon is not especially kind to strangers or people he isn't close to.
But the reality is different.
I had read the original, so I knew that Seong Hyeon actually cares a great deal about others.
Acts indifferent but is warm inside, that bastard…
I smiled and sat down.
"The entrance ceremony hasn't started yet, right?"
"Yep! Oh, right—later, if our names get called, don't be too surprised, okay?"
Lee Jiwoo wore an expectant expression.
Anyone could tell she wanted me to ask why.
I had no particular reason not to play along, but
acting wasn't in my nature.
"Ah, so you're receiving some kind of award, I take it."
"What? How did you know?"
Lee Jiwoo's eyes went round.
"Haha, didn't I mention I was in Yongsan as well? The feats you two performed there are more than enough to earn an award."
"Wait, I've got a question."
At that moment Seong Hyeon fixed me with a sharp gaze and carefully cut into the conversation.
"You said you were there too. Why didn't you help us?"
Yeah, I figured he'd ask eventually.
"Did you know? The two of you had truly outstanding chemistry. If I had carelessly jumped in, I would only have gotten in the way. So I didn't interfere.
Instead I fretted over whether any civilians might get hurt and focused on protecting them. The two of you held out so long against that vicious-looking villain that my judgment proved correct."
I poured out the lines I had practiced in advance, and Seong Hyeon nodded with a dubious expression.
"…Fine, for now."
"Haha, you don't believe me?"
Then Lee Jiwoo's eyes sparkled as she asked me,
"Really? Hyun and I had that good of chemistry?"
"Yes, truly excellent. Which brings me to this— the two of you seem very close. Might I ask how long you've known each other?"
"Ah! Hyun and I are childhood friends. We've known each other since we were practically babies."
"Well, yeah."
And at that exact moment, the lights on the stage ahead came on.
"Oh dear, it seems the entrance ceremony is beginning."
Nothing particularly eventful happened during the entrance ceremony.
Good heavens—no attack during the entrance ceremony? Is that even possible?
A few days later they would dump the entire planned raid on us at once, so I wasn't exactly thrilled, but still.
Once the ceremony ended, we checked our assigned classes.
I was in Class 1; Seong Hyeon and Lee Jiwoo were in Class 4.
"Unfortunately we aren't in the same class."
"Yeah, too bad. You're the first friend I made at the academy!"
"Still, Warna Academy has plenty of events between classes, so it's fine. Or there are clubs too."
"Haha, you're right. Well then, I'll head to my own class."
I exchanged brief goodbyes with Seong Hyeon and Lee Jiwoo and set off toward the class I had been assigned.
"Class 1… ah, here it is."
[I sense Gabriel's presence.]
Marbas had been fretting nonstop that he could feel Gabriel's presence no matter where we went, as if he had PTSD from her.
Because I had gotten a little lost, quite some time passed before I finally reached Class 1.
What kind of academy is this huge, honestly.
No wonder the kinds of things that happened in the original novel keep happening.
As I drew near Class 1, the murmur of many people already gathered and chatting drifted out.
The outside of the classroom looked like any ordinary school classroom—front door, back door, and windows in between—
yet whether it was a feature of the academy building itself, the ceilings were far higher than a normal school and the corridors were extremely wide.
I quietly opened the back door and stepped inside.
The moment I entered, a mixture of various scents and air greeted me.
First I caught the smell of grass.
There was probably an alchemist in Class 1.
Next came the scent of ash left after a fire had burned,
so there's a fire mage as well.
And I could sense a faint trace of Holy Power, meaning someone contracted to an angel was present.
The interior of the classroom was easily three times larger than a normal school classroom.
I paused for a moment and looked around.
The first things that caught my eye were the people.
Hair of every color was the baseline, and some people's hair even moved of its own accord.
The floor was a deep gray, and when I stepped on it the texture was of some material I couldn't identify.
It felt solid, yet not like wood or concrete.
Probably some new material I'd never heard of.
Come to think of it, quite a few accidents happened in the classrooms in the original, yet descriptions of the building being damaged rarely appeared.
And on that floor I could see white lines drawn in a rectangle whose purpose I could roughly guess.
Probably for sparring.
The entire front wall of the classroom was a whiteboard,
and a very large TV sat prominently in the corner.
The desks were a little larger than the ones at the school I attended before transmigrating,
and rather than being paired, each desk stood alone with space between them.
After my gaze finished sweeping the entire classroom, the room had become rather quiet.
What? It was pretty noisy just a second ago, wasn't it?
It must simply have been an awkward timing where the audio dropped out.
That said, the number of gazes directed at me seemed to have increased a bit, but that was only natural since I had just walked in.
Anyway, I had arrived so late that few seats remained.
All the good spots had already been taken, leaving only awkwardly front-row seats.
Well, nothing I could do about it.
I sat down in any empty seat.
"You're in Class 1 too?"
The moment I sat, the white-haired girl in the seat in front of me whipped around.
The girl who turned to face me was Kim Gabyul.
"Ah, Miss Kim Gabyul is in Class 1 as well?"
"Yeah. Nice to meet you."
Kim Gabyul exchanged a brief greeting with me and turned back to the front.
Was Kim Gabyul originally in Class 1?
I pondered for a moment, then quickly realized the worry was pointless.
She had been in Class 1 in the original too, so of course she was in Class 1 now.