End of the Day (3)
The moment I flung myself onto the bed, the thought hit me unbidden: from the very first day, everything had been exhausting.
The final boss's daughter transferring in out of nowhere was one thing. Being assigned the seat right next to mine was another. Getting caught by her while hunting for the fruit of the World Tree. And then being cornered by her in that alleyway.
Looking back, I wasn't even sure it had counted as pressure. For someone supposedly pressuring me, she hadn't exactly grabbed me by the collar and shaken me, nor had she demanded anything.
I'd been on the receiving end of real pressure a few times before, which made this all the stranger. The aura she radiated and the look on her face had been thick with that characteristic intimidation, yet when you looked past it, she wasn't actually asking for a thing.
Maybe I'd simply felt that way because the atmosphere at the time had crushed me. She was On Byeolbi's daughter, after all, and something like genuine pressure had been palpable.
The more I thought about it, the less I could decide whether she was friendly or hostile.
Was "character" even the right word? Calling someone who hadn't existed at all in the original novel a "character" felt wrong.
Whatever I called her, she was clearly a risk factor. Trying to clear her would be like going all-in at poker just because you'd drawn three of a kind.
The evidence was thin, and failure meant everything was over. A full house might have been worth the gamble, but her attitude was still far too mercurial to make any call.
Which was why I needed to be even more careful when it came to anything involving Hoyeon.
Her mere existence could twist the narrative—and because of her, it had already twisted a little.
Ideally I'd stick right by her side, isolate her from the plot, and plant a good impression of this continent in her mind. But that was pure fantasy.
To reach a happy ending, Hoyeon couldn't be allowed to ruin the events with the heroines.
Stephania, the mastermind of Part 1, could be handled with nothing more than Gloria and Camilla's help. On Byeolbi was a problem on an entirely different level.
A thought flitted through my mind. It was stupid, but it was still worth examining once.
What if I simply never created any heroines at all? What if I never raised a single flag? Would that still count as "clearing every heroine"?
The author had always loved wordplay. There was a chance… no. That was ridiculous.
Not even worth thinking about again.
I'd rather just clear Hoyeon herself.
At least the academy would spit me out around the end of second year, so I wouldn't have to look after her for the full four years. Small mercies, I supposed.
I racked my exhausted mind for a solution regarding her, but nothing useful surfaced. The fact that weird ideas were popping up told me I was genuinely tired.
There was the demonic energy business, too. It felt important, but I had far too little information.
I could try the library or ask Georg, but in the end it would be better to just ask Hoyeon directly. From the way she'd spoken about it, she didn't seem intent on hiding anything.
My thoughts simply wouldn't connect smoothly, as if a fog had settled over my mind.
…It's the first day. This much is enough for now.
Originally I'd planned to lie down for about ten minutes, then wander the academy collecting things and building little connections with the heroines. Right now I was far too tired.
I'd meant to rest a little, then buy candy for Exipri or go grab a scroll that functioned like a status window—but at the moment I just wanted to close my eyes.
It would be better to sneak into the facilities and swipe things while there was still no night watch. They were unclaimed items anyway, and I wanted them early so I could know my objective level.
The pointless thought that if the novel was going to include a status-window item they should have simply given it to the protagonist from the start, I shoved aside.
Just reviewing the knowledge I'd learned today and engraving Georg's teachings into my body had been hard enough. On top of that I'd faced the final boss's daughter multiple times. I had no energy left.
As a reward to myself, a little sleep should be fine, right?
The bed, which had been pleasantly cool, had just been warmed nicely by my body heat. If I didn't force myself to stay awake, I'd be out in no time.
It had been pretty noisy outside, but the moment I entered the room it had gone ghostly quiet—must be the academy's facilities at work.
The door had magical measures like the lockers so only the room's owner could open it. There was no noise, and it even had a bathroom. It probably surpassed a mediocre hotel. No TV or phone, but I'd be too busy to use them anyway; as long as the room was comfortable, that was enough.
Yeah. Just a little sleep.
I knew I should get up and do things right away, but I couldn't hold on any longer. I knew it was a promise I wouldn't keep, but I had to say it.
"Then… just thirty minutes."
Knock, knock, knock.
…
I tried knocking on the door, but he must have fallen into a truly deep sleep—there was no sign of him waking. With only about twenty minutes left until dinner, I considered yelling, but that would be a nuisance.
The soundproofing in this dormitory seemed pretty terrible. You could hear everything outside even from inside the room.
He'd made some effort, so it was a little quieter than being outside, but people only look at results.
…I couldn't just barge in. If we were friends I would have gone in without hesitation, but we weren't quite there yet, so I hesitated.
Were we even friends? It didn't feel like an equal relationship. I racked my brain, but no conclusion I liked came out.
I'd have needed other friends to know. He was the only one I could call a friend.
Not completely none, but the others were people I'd met online, so…
Meanwhile time kept flowing diligently. If I just left, this guy would bother me; if I tried to take him, he wouldn't get up.
…I woke him, and he just won't get up, so it's not my fault, right?
I was about to head lightly to the cafeteria, but after a few steps my feet grew heavy. He'd helped me, after all.
Ah, screw it. If he doesn't wake up, I'll grab him by the scruff and drag him.
I grabbed the doorknob of room 445 and turned it—the door opened right up. I was briefly dumbfounded that he'd gone to sleep without locking it, then the interior of the room came into view at a glance.
A landscape furnished with only the truly necessary furniture. I'd expected a popular guy like him to have decorated the room with some care, but it was surprising.
Saying he hadn't unpacked his luggage didn't work either—there wasn't even anything that could be called luggage in the room.
In the middle of that bleak scene was Dogeon.
Sleeping in the blankets with the world's happiest expression. For a moment he looked so happy I wondered if I should wake him, but I steeled myself and spoke to him.
"Dinner is soon. Get up."
"…Five more minutes…"
"If you keep sleeping like that I'll leave you behind. Are you fine with that?"
"…Just five minutes…"
The way he clung to "five minutes" in a way that made me soft-hearted showed this wasn't his first time oversleeping. But if I waited five minutes each time there'd be no end, so I took a hard line.
Poke.
I tickled the bridge of his nose with my tail. I didn't yank the blanket off savagely. I knew how unpleasant that was, and there was a chance he was in his underwear.
Or maybe nothing at all. At least my friend back then had slept that way.
In the past I'd thought some people just slept like that, but after spending nineteen years in this world, it didn't take long to realize that guy had simply been a total weirdo.
"…Ugh, eh… Achoo!"
The guy who got up with a noisy sneeze was thankfully not like my best friend. He seemed to have just collapsed onto the bed without even taking off his clothes.
Still not grasping the situation, he kept shaking his head back and forth, unable to collect himself—I even wondered if I should have just left him to sleep deeply even if it meant him going hungry.
No. He's Korean. He needs something in his stomach to sleep well. He'll definitely be grateful.
"How did you— no, Your Highness the Princess, how did you get in here…?"
"I just said, didn't I? Dinner is soon."
He'd clearly said "you" to me just now, but he'd just woken up, so I'd let it slide. I had no intention of teasing someone who was that exhausted.
"No, that's not it… I'm sure I locked the door, so how…?"
He locked the door? It opened smoothly for me.
"You locked it? What are you talking about? You must be confused because you're tired."
He seemed to be muttering that he was sure he'd locked it, but I had no leisure to wait around. Outside, I could hear sounds like the kids starting to move.
"Have you woken up properly? Then let's go."
"…Go where?"
"Where else? The cafeteria, of course. Lead the way."
"But the cafeteria shouldn't even be open yet…?"
"You're denser than you look. If we're late we won't be able to choose at our leisure."
If we were late, the other kids would grab everything and we'd be left with the leftovers. I wanted to pick leisurely through things and find what suited my taste.
I wondered if there would be food with that strong a scent, but there were many kinds, so there should be at least one. Surely there wasn't none?
"Ah, I see…"
"Do you want to wash up?"
"…No, I'm fine. Shall we go?"
When we stepped out of the room, I could see students clustered together in the distance, heading down the stairs.
And far away, I could also see Anastasiya looking at me.