The Heroine Stands Before Me
"Status Window!"
Status Window updating…… This may take a considerable amount of time.
"……Haa."
Staring at the same unchanging message, I let out a small sigh. If I'd never had a Status Window to begin with, maybe I could have lived with it — but after growing so used to one in the previous run, its absence was a genuine, grinding inconvenience.
Still, I couldn't force the impossible. I exhaled quietly and calmly sorted through my plans in my head.
I'd already established contact with Aspilia and Selena, the two leads of this game. Selena wasn't exactly a "main heroine," but she was important enough. My plan to enter Class A had fallen through, but it was still a solid start.
……Next semester. I go for Class A.
With my current specs, aiming for Class A wasn't impossible. So when the classes reshuffled next semester, I'd climb into A — and even if I only started getting close to the leads then, it wouldn't be too late. At the very least, I wouldn't repeat the disaster of the last run, where I never managed to get involved with Class A's heroines at all.
I just have to do my part.
Whether a shut-in hardcore gamer like me, who'd spent his life walled up in a room playing games, could actually pull it off was another question — but if I wanted to clear this game, I had no choice.
"……So I guess I have to handle this semester's events alone."
Once classes started, Aspilia would clearly get busy. The Academy's schedule was brutal beyond imagination. If I grew closer to her than I was now, I might be able to ask for her help — but whether that was even possible remained unknown. Building a plan around uncertain assets was worse than simply assuming I'd solve everything myself. That, at least, put my mind at ease.
The one bright spot was that thanks to Inheritance, my specs seemed to have climbed higher than I'd ever imagined.
……It almost feels like my overall stats went up.
That was absurd. Inheritance had been clearly labeled as carrying over only one stat. Unless something had been updated while I was possessed into this world, that simply couldn't be the case. Of course, with no Status Window visible, I couldn't draw any firm conclusions. Some other factor might have been involved.
Either way, if things went well, I could even hope to clear the first-semester events without resorting to the Curse of Equivalent Exchange.
To do that, though—
……I'm going to have to take this.
I looked at the elixir I'd obtained from my meeting with Selena and let out a breath. Considering the Lavender Merchant Guild's finances and the circumstances that had driven her to give it to me, using it now was the right call. It wouldn't show much effect in the late game; its true power would only shine if taken in the early-to-mid stages. Affecting my late-game stats would require at least a top-tier elixir — and with the Lavender Merchant Guild's current state, that was impossible.
On top of that……
If I trust this gut feeling that my stats aren't early-game stats anymore……
Grow any further, and I wouldn't be able to squeeze the maximum effect out of the elixir. That made now the best possible timing.
Alright.
I'd take it. Academy classes started in two days, but I should be able to fully absorb it by then.
……Probably?
As long as this wasn't an upper-grade elixir, absorption would be fine.
……It's always when I think that that it turns out to be upper-grade. It won't be, right?
Logically speaking, even if the Lavender Merchant Guild could afford it, Selena wasn't soft enough to gift something of that value to an investor she'd just met — and one making his first investment at that. With that thought, I popped the elixir into my mouth.
Ugh. If only the damn Status Window weren't broken.
Cursing the innocent Status Window, I felt the elixir's mana melt and spread through my mouth — then scowled as a message window rose before my eyes.
You have consumed an Upper-Grade Elixir.
Time remaining until full absorption:72:00
"My life is fucking cursed."
Was this a cliché?
It was fine. Looking at it positively, this was hardly bad news. After all, an upper-grade elixir was something you simply couldn't obtain in the early game, no matter what you tried.
A Red Giant Spider's mana stone? Even with a pile of them, there was no way to buy an upper-grade elixir. If early-game dungeon boss stones could purchase one of those, rerolling would be the optimal strategy.
……Well, if I'd known I could get one from Selena, I would have rerolled the same way.
But I'd only learned that after being possessed into this world, so rerolls were out. All I could do was focus on the situation in front of me.
Either way, this was a massive gain. Calmly sensing the elixir's mana seeping little by little through my body, I drew a long breath.
That said—
Selena's hopeless too.
What was she thinking, taking losses like that in a world this cutthroat? Where had the cold, calculating Witch of Coin I knew gone — and who was this smiling girl left in her place, happy even while bleeding money?
Of course, I'd benefited from it, but she clearly needed some serious re-education. First Aspilia, now Selena. Maybe I'd buttoned the first button wrong from the start, because every one of them had their guard set absurdly low. Or maybe Selena was still soft simply because she hadn't gone through that incident yet.
Either way, once we got a little closer, I was going to educate her properly.
Knock, knock.
I'd been busy planning Selena's re-education when a knock at the door wiped my thoughts clean. I stood.
"Who is it?"
"I've come at the summons of Chief Professor Elcia. Are you Cadet Allen?"
"Yes…… that's me?"
Elcia?
Elcia was Class A's homeroom professor and the Chief Professor of the Sword Department. She was also one of the game's leading characters among the faculty. Truthfully, one of the reasons I'd wanted Class A had been to build connections with the heroines — but receiving her instruction had been another.
Why all of a sudden?
Class assignments normally weren't delivered to students individually. A notice board would be posted somewhere at the Academy. On top of that, in the early game, the faculty — Elcia included — never contacted students directly like this.
I brushed the questions aside and started for the door, only to freeze at the next words.
"Chief Professor Elcia has requested a meeting with Cadet Allen."
"……What?"
What now. The story seemed to be tangling itself into knots, and I screamed inwardly. Sure, a butterfly's tiny wingbeat could summon a typhoon on the other side of the world — but I couldn't even tell where this one had started.
I answered the person at the door in a dazed voice, and he continued with calm patience, as if he understood exactly how I felt.
"She asked that you please come."
That Elcia — asking a mere cadet for a favor? And not even a Class A cadet, but a nobody who hadn't made the cut?
Just tell me the sun will rise in the west tomorrow.
……In the end, I didn't refuse Elcia's request. Getting involved with her was still to my advantage. The bigger problem was something else.
The story's a complete mess.
As a regressor and a transmigrator, one of the things you had to watch most carefully was the original plot going off the rails. Not that I'd ever held back from using my transmigrator advantages — but in the previous run, I could say with confidence that I hadn't twisted the original story completely out of shape. This run was supposed to be the same.
True, I'd moved first at the entrance ceremony event, but that was a playable-character event to begin with, so it was fair game. No one had even seen me do it, and moving early hadn't actually helped me resolve the event in any meaningful way.
So where had it gone wrong? Getting the sword? Contacting Selena first? Neither should have derailed the main story in any major way. The dungeon with the Red Giant Spider was just a side route players cleared in spare time between early events for equipment — it barely touched the main plot. Selena was the same. The game forced a choice between an event and her, but her connection never affected the early main story. Sure, mid-to-late game she'd become a rock-solid ally and spare no support — but that only made the player's run easier, and it was a common path even in the original game.
Then—
So where the hell did the butterfly start flapping its wings?
The butterfly effect meant some present I'd changed had warped the future.
But I haven't changed anything.
After dozens of runs, my head held a vast store of information — information about the future. And not once had things ever flowed like this from the early game. At this point, I seriously had to consider whether someone other than me had regressed. That shouldn't be possible, of course. Turning back time. Making someone aware of it. I had no real knowledge of the mechanics, but I already knew one thing for certain: it wasn't easy.
……Anyway.
"This is it. You may go in alone."
"……Thank you."
The man who'd guided me nodded and turned away. He looked like one of Chief Professor Elcia's teaching assistants, and his composed expression suggested he ranked fairly high among them.
I pulled my gaze from the departing assistant and looked at the wooden door before me, carefully exhaling. It was an ordinary wooden door, yet somehow it felt like the gates of hell.
For now, let's just deal with the problem right in front of me.
Things weren't flowing badly for me yet, so I was riding the current — but if anything went even slightly wrong…… I'd have to identify the cause first, and then consider starting over.
Knock, knock.
I wiped the useless thoughts from my mind and knocked. After the knock, a brief silence settled.
"Come in."
A familiar voice rang out from within.