A Pleasant Lunch Break (4)
It took a little while, but I managed to reach the rest area where the World Tree stood.
It was strange that something supposedly received as proof of friendship with the elves had been left to languish in the most out-of-the-way corner of the academy — though for me, that was a stroke of luck.
What if some boy climbed the World Tree, picked a fruit, and it turned out a commoner had done it? Even Exipri would start avoiding me after that. It would be the end of me. Something that might have been brushed off as a mere incident if a crown prince had done it would get a commoner buried alive.
With lunch period nearly over, the rest area was completely empty — or maybe it was simply because the place was so secluded.
There were elves among the academy's students, so I had only come to check how many people might be around today. Instead, I walked away with an unexpected windfall.
Even if someone had been here, I could have simply put it off. I didn't strictly need to pick the fruit right this moment. But there was a certain peace of mind that came with having it in hand, so I decided to act at once.
"Strength."
A strange sensation of mana circulating through my body flooded me with power. Call it a perk of being a transmigrator — I could use simple magic.
Even as a perk, it was limited to basic physical reinforcement or shooting fire from my hands. Still, that was an advantage compared to the nobles who burned through fortunes just to learn those same simple spells.
Of course, a commoner still had to die if those same nobles took a dislike to him. That was exactly why I was rushing around building connections with the heroines.
Without those connections, I wouldn't just fail to twist the ending — I wouldn't even be able to keep myself alive. I still didn't know how much talent this body held, but no matter how strong it was, I couldn't imagine defeating the final boss who could overturn heaven and earth with a wave of her hand.
The true power behind the Baek Empire — and most likely Baek Hoyeon's mother. Not a woman.
A being.
On Byeolbi.
That was something no human could ever defeat. It was precisely because she had so consistently overwhelmed the original protagonist — blessed by the gods, aided by countless other heroines, and heaped with every stroke of fortune — that the original story had ended in a bad ending.
She barely had any weaknesses at all, so the protagonist of that time could never have won alone. He only discovered her weak point at the very end, and by then it no longer mattered. There had been no way to exploit it.
Thinking about the original novel as I climbed, I found myself near the top before I knew it. Now I had to find the fruit — and even young as it was, the World Tree lived up to its name in sheer size.
The fruit had been described as roughly the size of a clenched fist. Huge compared to ordinary fruit, maybe, but vanishingly small across this vast expanse of branches.
I already felt daunted by how long it might take, but having come this far, I had no choice but to search.
After leaping from branch to branch and nearly falling maybe dozens of times, pure luck finally led me to it.
Size aside, it looked almost exactly like a golf ball. The only differences were that it was green and had something like a stem attached.
I had no idea how it was supposed to be used, but of one thing I was certain: this would be the first step toward twisting the ending.
In a post-completion Q&A, the author had revealed that for the protagonist to defeat On Byeolbi, he literally had to conquer every single heroine.
Not only the original cast, but even heroines like Camilla who had been so unpopular they were naturally forgotten, and the ones who inevitably left or betrayed him — every last one of them had to be won over, heart and all. An utterly absurd condition.
The author never clarified whether clearing them all would grant the power to face her or open up some other method, but since it was an officially confirmed fact, something would work out somehow.
Just as I was about to climb down in high spirits, I spotted someone heading toward the rest area. She was approaching with a rather light, cheerful step, so I debated whether to climb down or simply wait up here until she left — and in the end decided to suppress my presence and wait it out.
I didn't think I could climb down as quickly as I had gone up with the fruit in hand. Especially not without being spotted by whoever was coming from that far away.
As I watched to see who it was, my mouth fell open of its own accord.
White hair mixed with black streaks that evoked tiger stripes — it could only be Baek Hoyeon. And yet something was different.
First, I couldn't sense that murderous — or venomous — aura she had given off when she faced Anastasiya. Her expression was far more relaxed and natural, and more than anything else, she was smiling.
It was only the corners of her mouth lifting, but that alone made me wonder if this was truly the same girl who had radiated an "I'll kill you if you speak to me" energy.
I hadn't really noticed when she was scowling, but she was beautiful. Purely in terms of looks, she might even rank above Anastasiya or the heroines who appeared later.
But that hardly mattered. I still didn't know everything about her, yet I already knew she held no goodwill toward this academy.
That first greeting of hers, and the fact that she was the culprit who had destroyed the event with Anastasiya — what had once been a dangerous irregular who might still be worth conquering had now become someone I should avoid if possible, and exclude if I could.
Whatever had put her in such a good mood, she glanced around before sitting on a bench, pulled something from the paper bag in her hand, and started chewing at once. Her tail swayed gently and her ears twitched — she seemed to be in excellent spirits.
Looking more closely, I saw it was a cream bun. Watching a princess of all people eat a cream bun stirred feelings I couldn't quite put into words.
Seeing her eat with such a blissfully happy expression made me realize I hadn't eaten a single thing since morning.
It was annoying that my stomach only started whining after watching someone else eat, but there was no way she could hear it from this distance.
No matter how keen a beastkin's senses were, I couldn't imagine her detecting a rumble from roughly the height of a six-story apartment building. Not until she gestured at me.
Had she actually heard it?
Before I could even process my shock, she gestured at me again. The motion clearly meant "come down," so I had no choice but to climb down the tree.
My efforts to hide the fruit from her on the way down paid off — she never asked what I was holding.
What happened next, however, was far more absurd.
She took a cream bun from the bag and held it out toward me without a word. The way she offered it was clearly an invitation to take it, yet she had absolutely no reason to give me bread. That only made it more baffling.
She had been ready to kill Anastasiya, a central noble — so why was she acting like this toward a commoner like me?
Before I could finish the thought, she lightly tossed the cream bun my way, and I hurriedly caught it with one hand. For a split second I almost thrust out the hand holding the fruit as well, and my heart nearly stopped.
"Thy stomach's rumbling could be heard even down here. Eat. I have no such poor taste as to dine before a starving man."
So she could make an expression this soft and benevolent when dealing with others.
It wasn't a reason I could easily accept, but I had no grounds to refuse the bread she was offering, so I took it for now.
"...Ah. Yes. Thank you."
After hearing my thanks, she stared at me for a long moment, then abruptly asked my name.
"Come to think of it, I have never heard thy name. Wilt thou not tell me it in exchange for the bread?"
My name. I had enrolled at the academy under my original name for the time being, but I wasn't sure whether I should give it to her.
I had a strong premonition that the moment she heard "Han Dogeon," she would ask if I was from the Eastern Continent. But looking at the curious expression tinged with genuine enjoyment on her face, I thought it might be all right.
If it came to it, I could just invent a cover story.
"...My name is Han Dogeon."
"Han Dogeon, is it. Art thou perchance from the Eastern Continent?"
Exactly the reaction I had expected, which brought a small flicker of satisfaction — though I also wondered whether my hastily improvised story would hold up. Still, I had already given her my name, so it was worth trying.
"No. I am not from the Eastern Continent myself. But both of my parents were."
If his parents were from the Eastern Continent, there was nothing strange about their child having an Eastern-style name. Hoyeon still seemed to have more questions, though — the moment her lips parted slightly, the bell rang to announce that lunch period was nearly over.
"Is it already time? Thou mayest go. Ah, and be sure to eat the bread."
There was a faintly regretful look about Hoyeon as she said that and left. Watching her say the sort of thing one usually said to a departing person, only to leave first herself, I couldn't decide whether it was cute or simply amusing.
I watched her receding figure as I tore open the bread's wrapping and took a large bite.
It wouldn't do much for a starving stomach, but it was better than nothing. I swallowed another big mouthful and decided to head somewhere other than the gymnasium. My first reason was to hide the fruit; my second was to help a certain heroine who would be late for physical education.
Thinking that the cream bun had been remarkably comforting in flavor, I hurried on — still working to twist the ending.