I Can't Stand a Mom Joke
I wondered if I should apologize first. But I had no idea what this body had actually done…
While I was lost in thought, Serein turned her head, grabbed a skewer of meat, and walked away.
“Eating commoner food, are we? After looking down on commoners so much.”
She left those words behind.
Once Serein was gone, I clutched my head in despair.
…What the hell am I supposed to do? The moment I possessed this body, the favorability is already in the absolute gutter.
I hated the original owner of this body even more. What was wrong with being a commoner? In the end, everyone ate meat skewers the same way.
I accepted the skewer, my heart heavy with gloom, and trudged back to the dormitory.
…Serein’s favorability is at rock bottom. That means Hero probably hates me too. Since I’m supposed to flunk out, the other students will look down on me as well.
It was the worst possible start.
In that case…
Plan change. If I can’t become the protagonist’s friend, I’ll at least become his rival.
I decided to gather the hidden opportunities scattered throughout the academy, grow strong enough not to harm the protagonist, and position myself as his rival.
…Being a villain is… something I’m used to, after all.
I devoured the meat skewer and began thinking about anything that could help me.
…Going into the labyrinth beneath the academy right now would be suicide, and… Huh? Come to think of it, there’s something perfect for me.
Now that I thought about it, there was something inside the academy dormitory that suited me perfectly.
The game Bethesda Academy had hidden pieces scattered throughout. If everything was the same as the game, then in dormitory building A, room 666…
I left building B where I had woken up and headed toward building A, room 665.
There was no room 666 in any of the academy dormitories. Probably because 666 was considered the devil’s number.
In a world where demons actually exist…
Between rooms 665 and 667 was a long stretch of wall. It looked exactly as if one room had been sealed off.
I knocked on that wall six times.
Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.
Then I waited for a moment.
The door to room 665 opened. But no one came out.
If it’s room 665… what was it again…?
In the game, knocking on the wall six times would open either the door to 665 or 667. Of course, no one actually lived in either room. The wall between them was unusually long, which had felt strange to me even back then. That was how I had accidentally discovered this by knocking on the wall.
Depending on which door opened, the event and reward would be different.
I stepped into room 665.
. . .
What I saw inside was an ordinary dormitory room. It looked no different from the place where I had first woken up.
But it didn’t take long before a sticky darkness began to wrap around my body.
…My head was spinning. My vision gradually blurred, and a voice echoed inside my mind.
Kill.
Kill. Kill. Kill. Killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill.
A magic circle the color of blood began to carve itself into the floor around my feet. It glowed for a moment before slowly fading away.
As expected.
The darkness and dizziness that had enveloped my body vanished. Before I knew it, a necklace had appeared in my hand.
This event originally inflicted the mental debuff Fear on anyone who entered the room. In the game, any character who entered this room without a countermeasure against Fear would fall under the status ailment and, unless a holy-class character intervened properly, would go into a frenzy and attack other students indiscriminately. Afterward, they would be subdued and either killed or driven to suicide.
…The first time I discovered this, Hero died and I went straight to a bad ending.
It was a bitter memory. After watching Hero kill his childhood friend and classmate with his own hands, I had pressed restart with a miserable heart.
The necklace I received as a reward had the effect of one-time revival upon death, if I remembered correctly. Even if Hero was subdued and killed, he would revive once and slaughter the students anyway.
I put the necklace around my neck and tucked it under my clothes. The inverted cross shape was ugly, and I was sure it would only damage my reputation.
When I checked my wristwatch, it was almost eight in the evening.
I’m going to miss curfew…
I hurried back toward building A. Curfew was at nine.
. . .
I lay on the bed in my room and thought about what was coming.
This body’s growth rate is horrifically low. Even if I train, the efficiency is terrible. I don’t know the exact limit, though.
Since this character was originally designed to be used once and thrown away, I had never trained it persistently and didn’t know its limits. But it was obviously nothing special.
…Because according to the setting, he was a dullard.
Since the option of steady training was practically impossible, the only thing I could do was consume hidden opportunities…
Huh?
Among the potions in this game, there was one called the Transcendence Potion.
This potion drew out the consumer’s potential to its absolute limit. Once the duration ended, it literally “extinguished the flame of life.” To be precise, it inflicted fatal damage. Because the absolute amount of that damage was enormous, the potion was almost never worth using unless the character was intended as a suicide bomber.
Originally, by the time the recipe for this potion was first obtained, Logue had already been used as a meat shield and was dead, so I had never tried it.
…Besides, if the limit is low, taking it won’t have much effect anyway.
But I can ignore the damage with my skill Invincibility, and I also have the necklace… It might be worth trying.
I recalled a certain student from the alchemy department and began forming a plan.
. . .
Morning came.
…What is this, the military? A wake-up bugle in the dormitory?
Feeling like I was about to get PTSD, I got out of bed and prepared to head to the academy.
Students were already finished preparing in the dormitory hallway and heading toward the academy. By chance, our eyes met.
My heart hurts so much…
Avoiding eye contact was normal. Some frowned or muttered curses under their breath. It gave me a clear picture of Logue’s position within the academy.
With a heavy heart, I headed to class.
Am I in Class A or Class B…?
If I sat in the wrong classroom, the stares would be unbearable. From what I remembered, I was probably in Class B…
When I arrived at Class B, everyone except me was already seated. The empty seat must have been mine.
Sigh… Even coming to school is this hard.
The moment I sat down, I heard students whispering.
“…He got beaten up and still shows up to class like nothing happened.”
“Got beaten by a commoner he used to look down on, yet he’s acting all casual. His shamelessness is more impressive than his skills.”
…It seemed the beating from Hero had happened fairly recently.
In the game, the reason Logue got beaten by Hero was this:
Throughout the semester, Logue had been constantly hitting on Serein from Class A. Once he learned she was a commoner, he approached her while flaunting his own noble status. When Serein rejected him, he forcibly hugged her. Hero tried to stop him, only to be showered with indiscriminate verbal abuse for being a commoner. Unable to tolerate it, Hero challenged Logue to a duel. The result was exactly what the students were saying—he got beaten like a dog. Thoroughly.
Hero, whose hero qualities had already begun to manifest, was strong enough to easily handle mid-rank demons. There was no way a dullard among dullards like Logue could win.
What if I shout “Stop school violence!” Will the other students stop bullying me?
They wouldn’t stop. I’d be lucky if they didn’t curse me out loud. The academy’s rules strictly prohibited discrimination based on social status. And yet this guy had kept spewing words that provoked other commoners…
Come to think of it… doesn’t that mean Hero is currently at risk of expulsion?
Logue had excessively claimed that Hero had beaten him and demanded that both Hero and Serein be punished by the school. He had even spouted nonsense about Serein seducing him first. Upon hearing that, Hero had flown into a rage and beaten Logue again. Although Logue had provoked the violence, Hero’s excessive force meant the disciplinary committee was still deliberating.
…If he actually gets expelled…
If the disciplinary committee decided to expel Hero, it would truly be over. The problem was that among the professors on the committee, several disliked commoners, so expulsion was a real possibility.
In the game, it gets swept under the rug when it’s revealed that Logue tried to sexually harass Serein using the disciplinary threat as leverage…
The problem is, I don’t think I can pull that off.
…I would have to attend the disciplinary committee. The best course seemed to be attending and defending Hero. It might raise suspicion if I suddenly changed my behavior, but…
It could actually improve my image. Like I became a better person after getting beaten.
Just as I made up my mind, a group of students had been annoying me for a while. They were childishly throwing eraser shavings at my head and laughing with their friends, or openly badmouthing me loud enough for me to hear.
Just endure it… Endure…
I could endure it. They were just kids… If I thought about it, there was more than a ten-year age gap. If I saw it as cute students playing pranks, I could—
“Didn’t that bastard’s dad sexually harass his mom to make him?”
Kyahahaha.
“Hey, you. I challenge you to a duel.”
I regretted how the words had come out in Logue’s arrogant tone.