Alice
"A monster just walked in."
Lee Suyeon, homeroom teacher of Class 1-5, muttered it with a hollow look on her face.
She had never been able to understand what possessed the board of directors to authorize the Swordsman class for a single solitary student. But after seeing that, it finally made sense.
Overwhelming mana control. Innate combat sense. This was not a level she could comprehend or even begin to process. He was simply off the charts.
"Haa..."
This was a good thing. Obviously. For this academy, for this hopeless world — that kid's talent was a blessing incarnate. Which was exactly why she despised the feeling bubbling up from the pit of her chest.
Inferiority.
She had just witnessed a wall she could never climb, and the inferiority was eating at her.
"Damn it. What the hell is this pathetic display..."
She reached back, picked up the faculty notebook behind her, and drew three fat stars next to the name Jeong Jojun.
"I used to be a hunter people actually paid attention to. Time's a real bitch."
Lee Suyeon chewed on the pen clenched between her teeth as she watched Jeong Jojun stroll out of the sparring hall. That brilliantly shining talent. That purely smiling student's face. She found herself grinning before she even realized it.
"Fuck. What the hell is wrong with me."
That's right. Her position now was homeroom teacher. Guiding that little brat down the right path — that was her job.
"This is gonna get busy."
A new supernova had arrived. That kid's presence alone was going to throw this entire academy into chaos.
"Damn it. Can't I just have one smoke on a day like this?"
Lee Suyeon chewed on the innocent Monami pen between her teeth and lamented.
"How about it, Angel? Think you can register this?"
"Kyaaah~! Of course I can! Data this good is the best! The absolute best! That's our Player for you!"
A chime rang out. The status window bloomed into view, and the skill he'd just acquired filled his vision.
Drawing Sword - Flame Flower
A flower of flame bloomed by one who has reached the pinnacle of the drawing-sword arts.
Mana Cost: 10
The mana cost was on the heavy side, but for a skill this satisfying, he could live with it.
The classmates watching him come down from the sparring platform were drowned in silence. Not a sound leaked out, but he could feel the torrent of emotion crashing toward him from all those staring eyes. Familiar feelings. He'd had his fill of them back in his previous life, so they didn't faze him anymore.
But one gaze was different.
Buried in the crowd, a girl with bright red twin-tails. Their eyes met — those round crimson irises locking onto his.
And the emotion in them was—
Ah.
He couldn't help smiling.
"Alice~!!!!"
Every feeling surging through his body exploded at once, and he charged straight at her.
"Eeek! What's wrong with you?!"
He ignored the way she shoved at his chest with both palms — carefully, so it wouldn't hurt — and pulled her into a tight hug. She was so small she slipped right into his arms. A sweet scent rushed up into his nose.
"Hey... hey!"
Alice's face had gone as red as her hair. She was impossibly adorable. This wasn't the Alice from some mere game — this Alice, made real, was far more captivating than anything he'd ever imagined.
Which was why the words tumbled out of him before he could stop them.
"I love you, Alice. Let's fu—"
A tremendous impact slammed into his face.
"You! One more word and you're dead!"
Alice thrashed in his arms, glaring up at him.
"Yes, ma'am."
Judging by that hit, she might actually kill him. He shut his mouth immediately.
"Augh, seriously~!"
She pounded on his chest and shoved him away. Cruel. How could she not recognize his love?
"Jeong Jojun."
A husky voice rolled across the hall. He turned, and there was his homeroom teacher, chewing on her Monami pen as she walked toward him.
"Catch."
Something came flying at him. He caught it. A jet-black armband.
"Oh!"
"You took first in the ranking match, so from now on you're this class's number one — the class president. And you."
She turned to Alice beside him, rummaged through her pocket, and tossed a white armband.
"You're vice president."
"Me?"
Alice stared at the teacher, completely bewildered.
"T-Teacher?!"
Violet, who still hadn't recovered from the shock and was lying face-down on the sparring floor, bolted upright.
"A-Am I not the vice president?"
"Nah. You're our class secretary."
"I beat her, though?"
She jabbed a finger at Alice, looking utterly incredulous.
"Yeah. But the class president likes this one, so she's vice president."
"What kind of—?!"
"As class president, I enthusiastically second that motion."
Obviously. He'd just become the father of the class, so the mother of the class had to be Alice. It was only natural.
"Perfect timing. All of you, listen up."
The teacher swept her gaze across the class, demanding their attention.
"The class president who took first in our ranking match is this class's representative from now on. If there's any idiot in here who doesn't understand how important that is at this academy, raise your hand."
As if anyone wouldn't know. The class president became the class representative — and at this academy, that title came with a considerable amount of authority.
"So be good to this kid from now on. Be grateful you've got a monster like this as your representative."
She said it while still chewing on that pen. All right. After a buildup like that, it was time for the class president to step up.
He slid the black armband onto his arm.
"Everyone, I'm Jeong Jojun, and I'll be serving as this class's president from now on."
Be grateful, Class 1-5. The best bus driver in the business just took the wheel. As long as you don't smash a window and jump out, it's a smooth ride from here.
"All right, everybody, applause!"
Clap... clap... clap...
Scattered, skeptical applause trickled through the room. He didn't care.
"And a round of applause for our vice president!"
Clap... clap... clap...
"And some applause for our humble secretary lying face-down over there!"
Silence.
He was starting to feel a little bad, so he clapped extra loud himself.
"Stop making fun of me!"
The extra encouragement seemed to give Violet the strength to leap to her feet. See? His presidential qualities were already shining through.
Good. The first scenario was a perfect clear. In Hell difficulty — a notch above even Hard mode — holding the position of class president wasn't a choice. It was a necessity, if he was going to protect this world and his heroines. To save this world, and to maintain a stable sex life with said heroines.
"All right. Let's do this."
He muttered it to himself and steeled his resolve all over again. This first scenario was nothing. The real fight started with the second one — the Otherworld.
The first great wall, the one that made countless newbies rage-quit. In the game, that entire disaster had been summed up in a single line: a great many people died. That sentence could not be allowed to come true in this reality. He had to stop it. He, the Player, had to stop it no matter what.
A fairly noisy day at the academy finally ended, and he was on his way home.
"...What are you staring at?"
God. This wasn't just any walk home. This was a walk home with Alice. Ah... this had never even been implemented in the original game! He was moved beyond words! He was the first!
"You're making that weird face again."
Alice sighed, already somewhat used to it, and let him be.
"I'm just too happy."
The sun was sinking, bleeding a deep orange across the sky. The sweet, cool night breeze of early spring filled his lungs as he walked beside her, and a dopey smile kept leaking onto his face.
"What's actually gotten into you? Ever since this morning you've been going on about liking me, and then se... se..."
Her face went scarlet. She couldn't even finish the word. His heart felt like it was going to burst.
"...Anyway, why the sudden change?"
In the game's story, he and Alice were childhood friends. He had no memories from before entering the game, but he figured they'd been close — just with that careful distance that always sat between a boy and a girl. Which was exactly why she was this embarrassed.
"It's not sudden. I've always liked you."
"...Really?"
Alice lifted her head and looked at him. Those slightly upturned eyes trembled, just a little, and it was so cute he couldn't help smiling.
"I've liked you since the first time I saw you, all the way until now. Today I just... felt like I had to say it."
Alice dunked her bright-red face toward the ground and started walking. He really never knew how the world worked. Who would've thought that blurting out "I love you, let's have sex" and "love-sex" first thing in the morning would actually help him get closer to her?
It was a method that never would have worked on anyone who wasn't Alice — the childhood-friend heroine who'd been secretly in love with the protagonist all along. Precisely because it was Alice, it was devastatingly effective. A perfectly straight line. The ultimate strategy for capturing a girl who hid her true feelings behind all that bristling and pushing away... and he'd been running it since the moment he first saw her.
He might actually be a dating genius.
Before he knew it, they'd arrived at the apartment building they both lived in. He and Alice were next-door neighbors, incidentally. Whoever made this game definitely knew what they were doing. Once things progressed far enough, she might even say something like "come have some ramen." Heh heh heh.
They rode the elevator together, Alice's head still bowed, and walked to their respective front doors.
"See you tomorrow, Alice."
He said goodbye and was about to open his door when—
"...Come have..."
Hm?
Something slipped from Alice's downturned mouth. He lifted his head and looked at her. She seemed to come to some enormous decision, then raised her face and said it.
"Come have some ramen."
Oh, holy shit. Dear God, is this real? Is this true? Hallelujah!
He nodded without a word — a man's affirmation — and Alice opened her front door, gesturing for him to come in. And so he stepped into that forbidden territory.
A one-room apartment, just the right size for living alone. The moment he walked in, a sweet strawberry scent welcomed him, and then... and then...?
Was he losing his mind?
He doubted his own eyes. What the hell was that?
Click. The front door locked behind him.
"Jojun."
There was something faintly chilling in Alice's voice.
"Y-Yeah?"
Her face was faintly flushed, as if she were embarrassed.
"Even like this... do you still think I'm adorable?"
"O-Of course! Obviously!"
Of course he did. Well — he did, he really did, but...
The scenery of Alice's room. Starting from the ceiling, every wall on three sides was plastered with photographs of him.
Had Alice always been like this? He genuinely hadn't known. He'd never seen anything about this on the wiki or YouTube. Not once.
"Jojun."
"Y-Yeah?"
"You're really fine, even after seeing all that?"
"Of course! I mean, Alice, whatever it is, you're you. You're adorable Alice, exactly as you are!"
That seemed to be the finishing blow. Alice smiled faintly, then locked the safety latch above the front door as well. She approached him carefully, buried her head against his chest, and murmured, soft and low.
"...Let's do it."
"H-Huh?"
"Let's have sex."
Oh, holy shit.
What was happening right now? The first erotic scene with Alice was supposed to be a blowjob, not sex. They were going straight for it? Just like that?
His whole body started trembling. Another part of him started trembling right along with it.
Alice stayed nestled in his arms, gazing quietly up at him.
He couldn't hold back.
He pulled her close and toppled with her onto the bed.