This Is What an Academy Is (19)

My eyebrow twitched at the system messages that popped up like a belated confirmation kill. In the end, nothing changed the fact that Kallion had gobbled up the hidden reward.

"...You, uh, okay?"

"Grrung!!"

The little troublemaker bounced around in pure delight at my question, and whatever scrap of anger I'd been nursing vanished completely. Right. Kallion was a baby. And babies were at their best when they ate well and grew well.

Who knew? After eating a hatchling's eggshell, maybe Kallion would evolve from a young dragon into a full dragon. The system itself had hammered the point home that Kallion's potential had increased, so that clearly meant more evolutionary options had opened up.

It was a reward I never would have known about if Hong Su-ah hadn't told me, so I decided to treat it as something I'd simply never found. No—if anything, this was an even better outcome. I'd gotten a title out of it, after all.

I considered sticking around to grind Kallion's level a bit more, but the whole thing had left me deflated, so I decided to just leave. There was nothing else to do here anyway. I'd invest the ability points I'd gained from leveling up instead.

Skill and Intelligence were already overflowing, but I'd just acquired a whole pile of weapon- and body-related skills. Strength would rise on its own without me spending points.

So I dumped all three points into Luck, the one stat I had limited ways of raising right now. That brought my Luck to 20.

While I was at it, I swapped my title from The One Who Burns to Master of Transformation.

The One Who Burns had its charms, but Master of Transformation's effect suited me better right now. For ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠someone who could swap weapons with mana at no risk, the "increased attack power on weapon switch" buff meant that if I used it deliberately, every attack I landed would effectively hit 40% harder on a permanent basis.

I only had four weapon-type skills so far, so it was just 40%—but once that number grew, in theory a single strike could deal more damage than two. As long as I still had to move around and fight personally, choosing the latter wasn't optional. It was mandatory.

My confirmed status window looked like this:

Normally I'd have been proud of how far I'd come in just three days. But after running into monsters like Reus and Kang So-seon back-to-back, I couldn't quite convince myself I was doing well.

I'd been planning to turn the eggshell into some kind of elixir once I got it. Then that little bastard Kallion had swallowed the whole thing in one go.

Part of me wanted to scrape every scale off his hide, regenerate them with mana, and force him to spit out what he'd eaten—but since it was going to contribute to our overall combat strength, I let it slide.

Next up were Hive and Growl.

They'd only gained one level each, so I put Hive's point into Intelligence and Growl's into Strength. Hive's Intelligence hit 15; Growl's Strength hit 28.

"Hmm..."

There was no denying it—after evolving, both of them leveled more slowly. Sure, Kang So-seon and I had done most of the heavy lifting this time, but even accounting for that, we'd cleared a solid number of monsters and still only gotten this much.

If the experience mechanics were clearer, I could pick a more efficient method. As it was, everything felt completely at the system's whim. There were papers on the subject, but they were all abstract hypotheses.

Something about fighting stronger opponents yielding more experience than simple repetition? Looking at the system window that had appeared after my fight with Reus, it wasn't a theory I could completely dismiss.

With nothing left to do and figuring everyone else had already left, I claimed the clear reward.

"Claim reward."

The moment the words left my mouth, four iron ingots roughly the size of large sneakers materialized in my hands.

I gathered them up and stuffed them into a pouch I'd roughly shaped out of shadow. The form was crude, but I'd packed it with enough mana that the weight of the ingots wouldn't tear it open.

Once I lowered the magic robe I was wearing, nothing would show from the outside. Unless I said something myself, no one would even know I'd been in a dungeon.

A blinding flash forced my eyes shut. When I opened them again, I was outside the dungeon. There were still a few people around, but with classes over it was only a handful.

The lunch bell had already rung, so the ones remaining looked like they were finishing up their share of the loot and deciding whether to head to the cafeteria.

"Guess she left."

Kang So-seon, whom I'd half-worried might be waiting, was nowhere in sight. I hadn't shown it, but after that farewell, running into her again right away would have been pretty awkward. Of course, even if she'd been there I would have ignored her and gone about my business.

Time to eat.

The second I turned my device back on—I'd shut it off before entering the dungeon—it started ringing. The caller was Ban Taewung. A quick check showed he'd sent more than a few texts and calls. I answered with a look of pure disgust.

"What."

"Oh, you picked up. Hey! Where the hell are you?!"

"Heading to the cafeteria for lunch."

"You carefree bastard! Wait there, I'm coming too!"

Click.

The little shit said his piece and hung up. And who was calling who carefree?

I walked over to the cafeteria. People were lined up, flashing their devices and receiving food. Middle school had been cafeteria-style serving, but with so many international students here they seemed to use a meal-ticket exchange system.

I opened my device, scanned the QR code at the entrance, and the academy app launched automatically, taking me to the meal-ticket purchase page.

The food options were absurdly varied—Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Western, fast food, all the usual stuff from my past life, plus a handful of fantasy-looking monstrosities that looked like they belonged in a different genre entirely.

The sheer variety rivaled a high-end department store food court. The prices were even more insane. Some dishes started at five thousand won; others topped a million.

The gap was so ridiculous it was almost funny.

What really got me was the "Popular" sticker slapped on the million-won dishes. Someone was dropping a hundred on school lunch. Even the two-hundred-thousand-won options were mostly custom orders.

Curious what could possibly cost a hundred, I read the names. Things like "Mana-Rich Feast Praised by an Archmage" and "Perfect Health Meal Recommended by a Sword Master" lined the list.

And these were the popular menu items...?

After a long moment of deliberation, I just ordered a regular bulgogi set meal. 6,700 won—ordinary, but a thoughtfully balanced plate covering the four major nutrients.

Honestly, I had enough money that spending a hundred or two every day wouldn't dent me. But wasting cash on something like this still felt wasteful. Better to save it for elixirs or gear.

Once I finished purchasing, a waiting ticket and estimated cook time appeared. Felt exactly like using a delivery app.

Fifteen minutes. Long enough to feel like a wait, short enough that I needed something to do. I claimed an empty window seat nearby. Looking closer, I could even check the origin of the ingredients and the cooking method.

The academy app was unnecessarily high-quality. Pretty much anything you could do on campus was in there. Furniture additions? Housekeeping services? They even had that. At this rate, delivery should be possible too, right?

I checked on a whim. It was real. Under the cafeteria section sat a separate tab labeled "Academy Delivery." Probably a joint service run with the cafeteria itself.

Well, of course. You couldn't have national pride without delivery.

Having free time for the first time in a while left me feeling oddly idle. I browsed webtoon platforms on my device, but nothing looked interesting. Same with novels.

They'd probably be fun if I actually read them, but nothing held a candle to my current situation. Which made sense—my current situation was a novel or a game. I still had zero idea what the original work even was.

Names like Ban Taewung, settings like the Church of the Radiant Sun—none of it was common, yet nothing rang a bell. Was this really a world I didn't know? Turning it over again only made my head hurt; no solid memories surfaced.

I tried to clear my mind by staring out the window against the background noise of a busy cafeteria—only to spot the protagonist spotting me from afar and sprinting over in a panic. Trailing slowly behind him with resigned sighs were Heroines 1, 2, and 3.

In order: blonde, silver, black. The moment my eyes met the blonde's, her blue eyes narrowed into sharp slits and she glared daggers.

"Ugh."

If you're coming, come alone. Why are you dragging the whole parade with you?

"Hey! Jang Sinwoo! What the hell is with you?!"

"That's my line..."

"Never mind beating Reus—why did you forfeit right after?!"

He made a spectacular entrance, sucking up every scrap of aggro in the cafeteria, then latched onto my shoulder and started shaking me like I wasn't allowed to dodge the question. Hey. Let go. I said let go, you bastard.

I smacked his arm away, rubbed my spinning head, and thought. What excuse should I use? If I said I'd skipped class to hit a dungeon, he'd decide it sounded fun and demand to tag along. After a moment I remembered meeting Hong Su-ah in the infirmary.

"...Mana exhaustion from the fight."

Mana exhaustion. The price of pushing your mana to the absolute limit—mental burnout so complete it left you in a kind of blanked-out state.

Your body went limp against your will, and for a while it couldn't produce or accept mana at all. You just had to wait for the overheated mana circuits to recover on their own.

I'd experienced it once while researching the EM series. No joke—the world went white and every thought vanished. The only thing that remained crystal-clear was pure, concentrated misery, enough to make you half-want to die.

That was why the unwritten rule in the Awakened industry was: never mess with someone in mana exhaustion.

It was already a high-stress job. Poke the wrong person at the wrong time and their fuse would blow—then you'd get the occasional maniac who turned their own body into a bomb and went out in a suicide attack.

"Ahh, well, if the opponent was Reus..."

Even Ban Taewung knew that much. He nodded in understanding. Perfect. Smoothly handled. Having an opponent that far outside the norm actually worked in my favor.

Yeah—Reus Vagna was someone I never could have beaten if he hadn't done something stupid. Beating a guy like that and then walking away? Of course rumors would spread.

So that was why people had been sneaking glances at me this whole time while pretending not to.

A little digging would show I'd walked out of the arena on my own two feet just fine. But this guy was the type who was dumb in smart ways—he accepted weird explanations in the weirdest places.

If Heroines 1, 2, and 3 had heard that excuse, they'd have tilted their heads at how full of holes it was. Not that it mattered. They were just now stepping into the cafeteria. Right then my device pinged that the food was ready, so I stood up.

"My food's out."

"Ah, then I'll grab a table further in! It's too cramped here."

I know. I picked this spot figuring I'd either eat alone after kicking you out, or at worst just the two of us. Who expected the whole parade to follow?

I collected my tray and tried to head in the exact opposite direction of where the protagonist had indicated—only for a group of people in black suits to appear out of nowhere and personally escort me. Unless someone knew my personality extremely well, almost no one would have predicted this.

Damn chaebol second-gen. Don't use bodyguards for crap like this. When we arrived, the protagonist's party was already waiting, having spread out a glittering five-tier lunch box that made my humble set meal look pathetic.

I frowned at the blonde. She glared right back, refusing to yield an inch.

"Tsk."

"Hmph!"

We both looked away at the same time. The protagonist watched with a smug little smile and a hearty laugh. Heroine 2 was already blind to everything but the lunch box. Only Heroine 3 sat blinking, completely lost.

So the only remaining conscience at this table was one person. I silently mourned that fact.

After our little staring contest, I sat in the empty seat beside the protagonist and set down my tray. Seizing the opening, the classic Yamato Nadeshiko beauty sitting across from us opened her mouth.

"Um, Taewung... who is this?"

"Ah! Eri, you haven't met him yet. This is my childhood friend Jang Sinwoo. We've been together since we were kids—my one and only best friend. Sinwoo, this is Onohara Erika. Remember how I told you I went with Sia to that New Year's party her group got invited to before the academy? That's where we met."

I knew. The New Year's party hosted by the Onohara Group. One of those needlessly lavish bashes the seven conglomerates that particular monster of a woman hadn't crushed took turns throwing every year on special occasions.

You got caught in a terrorist attack there. More precisely, you got swept up in a planned attack meant to diminish the standing of the Onohara Group and the others.

The group behind it was called Sombrio Sol, right? Literally "Black Sun." Some joint organization of Russian and Spanish mafia, or so I'd heard. I didn't know the details of how the attack went down or what happened to them afterward.

That woman had just come skipping over, saying she'd seen something interesting, and given me a rough summary. That was it.

I hadn't cared enough to remember more than the name. The moment they caught her interest, their fate was basically sealed anyway.

Once Ban Taewung finished the introduction, Heroine 3 bowed first in greeting.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Onohara Erika, enrolled in second-year Class S."

"Nice to meet you. First-year Class S, Jang Sinwoo."

I didn't bother with any "please look after me" nonsense. The moment she got tangled up in the protagonist's harem, she became someone who'd only bring me trouble.

But the second I gave my name, her shoulders jerked as if she'd been startled, and she started staring hard at my face.

"Ah, come to think of it, today..."

Cold sweat slid down my back.

Ah, shit. The moment she said she was a second-year I'd had a tiny suspicion, but was she there too? From the vibe she didn't seem to have seen it herself... but even if she hadn't been present, she might have heard about it from someone else.

Some arrogant first-year showed up during practicals today. Talked to the teacher, then went into the dungeon with the vice president. Special treatment? Wait—is that the guy from the rumors? Mutter mutter, and so on.

A rumor without legs can travel a thousand miles. Gossip chained itself together; even if she hadn't been there, word about me could easily have reached her. A dozen ugly possibilities flashed through my mind in an instant.

I'd only lied because it was annoying. And now I was getting caught like this? Absolutely not. No way.

"Sunbae-nim."

"Yes?"

I calmly cut her off.

She looked puzzled at the sudden address, but still ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠listened carefully for what came next. I was genuinely relieved she was the considerate type.

"Since you're a second-year, calling you sunbae-nim feels more appropriate."

"Ah, aah... the form of address. You're right. I've been speaking casually with Taewung and the others for so long I didn't even think of it."

At that, Taewung and Heroines 1 and 2 all nodded in agreement.

"Switching to formal speech now would be a little... weird, right?"

"Yeah. We're this close—suddenly going formal would just create distance."

"Bullying, not good!"

"Still, hmm... sunbae-nim, huh! It's a little novel."

They each offered their opinions and the conversation started flowing. These people had "social butterfly" as their base setting, so ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠once you tossed them a topic they immediately rolled into the next one.

"Erika-sunbae-nim! No wait—if we're going Japanese style, Onohara-sunbae-nim? Which is better?"

"Ugh...! Okay, that is a little, juuust a little novel."

Ban Taewung beamed and delivered the line like he was performing. Heroine 3—Onohara Erika—flushed faintly and covered her rising smile with one hand.

Nice one, protagonist. This is exactly when that silver tongue of yours shines!

Heroine 1 still seemed a bit suspicious of how abruptly I'd cut the previous topic, but luckily her gaze got stolen by the pink atmosphere the other two were generating as they got reeled into the new subject.

Phew. That was a close one. I hadn't even started eating and my stomach already felt heavy. Still, skipping a meal wasn't an option.

I ignored the people happily bickering among themselves and started eating. That was when a white head of hair suddenly thrust itself into my field of view.

"That. What is it?"

Heroine 2.

If number 3 was roughly in the strike zone, this girl was a complete out. Her build was pure loli, the kind people usually meant when they used the word.

Change her clothes and send her into an elementary or middle school as a new student or transfer student and no one would bat an eye.

It was hard to believe she was the same age as my current self with that body and face.

"Bulgogi set meal."

"Tasty?"

"It's fine."

I'd known her for quite a while too.

Middle school second year, I think. Heroine 1 had dragged the protagonist off to a private beach her family managed, hoping to get some attention. The guy had been too embarrassed to go alone, so he'd dragged me along as well. I was in the middle of teaching him at the time, so I went.

Making him study was just a bonus. Mostly I'd wanted to get away from stalled research and clear my head.

We met this girl there. More precisely, the protagonist fished her out of the ocean where she'd been drifting. The moment I saw her I knew. Ah. We're fucked.

Snow-white hair and transparent eyes. She looked like a snowflake crystal that would melt if you so much as touched her. These days she spoke her mind and her emotions were richer even if they didn't show much on her face—but back then she'd been a hollow doll, pure and simple.

What should have been a fun vacation spot turned into a war zone overnight. She'd been a test subject who'd secretly escaped from some research facility where they'd been running human experiments.

Who could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠have guessed that going to clear my head would dump me into something even more of a headache?

The name of the project was the Artificial Archmage Cultivation Plan, I think?

They'd rounded up large numbers of infants and toddlers, locked them in a confined space, and run endless experiments and education—trying to artificially create archmage material even without innate talent. A thoroughly inhumane project.

She was its only success. The only reason she'd been able to escape that isolated lab was the archmage talent she'd awakened after the fact.

Of course, the higher-ups and hardliners who'd greenlit snatching perfectly healthy kids because it "looked fun" all got thoroughly purged, and that woman absorbed only the useful remnants.

When I properly started Project Exile, a fair number of the researchers who helped me had been connected to that plan. Made them convenient to work with.

The girl who'd never even been given a proper name beyond the number 14 felt anger for the first time when she saw the protagonist get hurt protecting her from the lab's pursuers.

She unleashed her newly bloomed archmage power, saved him from the crisis, then gave herself the name Linus Liequia and told him.

Apparently it meant "14th Winter" in ancient runic. Then she immediately said it was hard to say and asked to be called "Riri" for short. I heard that from her own mouth.

And what was I doing the whole time?

While the protagonist and Heroine 1 ignored the guards and charged off to rescue the kidnapped girl, I quietly stayed behind and let the security detail keep me safe.

Still, doing nothing felt wrong, so I took firm control of the command chain, contacted the Ministry of Defense to lock down the area and prevent secondary damage, and even briefed them thoroughly so the lab underlings who tried to flee once they saw the tide turning were all rounded up. No loose ends.

In a chaotic fight, friendly fire and bad intel are the most dangerous things.

In that sense, I did everything I could. It was lucky the beach was private property belonging to Heroine 1's group. If things had gone even slightly wrong, she could have been arrested as a criminal just for using mana recklessly.

Even after all this time, her growth had stopped right there. More accurately, every nutrient her body needed for physical growth was being converted into mana instead.

According to her, it was the price of twisting fate to forcibly approach the truth of an archmage.

To make up for that fuel efficiency, she ate more than most competitive eaters at every meal and always had a high-calorie candy in her mouth. Naturally her appetite had grown enormous, so she sometimes showed excessive interest in food like this. The look on her face right now wasn't "I wonder how it tastes" so much as "I want that bulgogi right now."

"Gimme some."

"Eat your own."

"Looks tasty."

"Then buy some."

This was someone who made more money than me selling magic tools. What was she even saying? Despite the warning, she stretched out her chopsticks, stole a piece of bulgogi, and munched it down with a blank face that somehow managed to look smug—like "See?"

The sight overlapped weirdly with Kallion from earlier, and something bubbled up inside me. I might have let it slide for Ban Taewung. Not for her.

As punishment I flicked her forehead with a solid knuckle.

No mana. Even if I put mana into it, the moment it carried hostile intent it would vanish before it ever touched her. Her body was built that way—understanding or not.

Better to just pack every bit of my Strength 14 into the hit.

Thwack!

"Peep?!"

Riri let out a bizarre little bird-like squeak, clutched her forehead with a blank face, and made what might generously be called a pout. In reality her brows just furrowed a fraction. Unless you had exceptional observation skills or had known her a long time, the difference was almost impossible to spot.

"Violence, opposed."

"Shut up and eat."

"Uuu, Taewung... help."

She toddled over to Ban Taewung's side like a little kid, and he of course welcomed her with open arms. Watching their spectacular double act, Heroine 1's eyes narrowed again.

Riri's position was closer to little sister than anything else. Her personality was pure airhead, but when it came to something she truly wanted she could be viciously clever about using every scrap of her intelligence.

What you're thinking right now is correct. She understood perfectly well that her appearance let her get close to Ban Taewung easily, and she was using it.

Heroine 1 was jealous of how effortlessly Riri pulled off the kind of skinship she herself couldn't manage, and that was why she was acting up.

"How undignified, doing that in a cafeteria. Riri."

"She's right. Riri was in the wrong. You should have traded side dishes instead of stealing."

"Equivalent exchange... the price of failure is harsh..."

No, forget equivalent exchange—just eat your own food. Why are you eyeing someone else's? Even Heroine 1 is making the same awkward face that says this isn't it.

Then she suddenly realized I was the one who'd created the opening and shot me a sharp, piercing glare. Yikes, scary. But you do realize you're taking it out on an innocent bystander, right?

I thoroughly ignored the look and kept eating.

"Ufufu..."

Onohara Erika, who had been watching the not-quite-joking chaos, suddenly let out a warm little laugh.

"Eri?"

"Ah, I'm sorry. I wasn't laughing at you. It's just... seeing all of you getting along so happily made me think how close you must be."

She swallowed the rest—"It feels like a warm family; I'm really envious"—and looked at Ban Taewung and the rest of us with a faintly wistful expression. Ban Taewung's face turned serious. Heroine 1 answered with a bored look.

"Why are you talking like you're just a bystander? You're here with us too, Erika."

"Lucia's right. Erika's already our friend."

"Don't mind. Eri."

"Everyone..."

Whether she was actually moved or not, Onohara Erika's eyes grew moist and she smiled softly. Ban Taewung and the others all broke into equally warm smiles.

I, of course, was stuck in the corner wearing an expression of pure secondhand embarrassment.

What the hell. Why did the mood suddenly turn like this? They're spouting this cringey dialogue completely sober? Is there alcohol in that five-tier lunch box? Sniff sniff. All I smelled was delicious food.

Wow. So they're saying this embarrassing stuff stone-cold sober? That's actually impressive.

Maybe you have to be able to say things like that without a shred of shame to become a protagonist. I never wanted to.

Desperate to escape this space as soon as possible, I forced the rest of my food down.

The bulgogi, which should have been properly salty, somehow tasted sweet. If I kept eating I was going to gag, so I washed it down with rice, but my mouth felt dry and it wouldn't go down easily.

Still, I somehow managed to finish everything.

...Fuck. I'm going to get indigestion from lunch.

I couldn't stand this lukewarm atmosphere any longer. If I stayed any more my hands and feet were going to curl up so hard they'd vanish into a spacetime storm.

How did past-life me even watch this kind of thing? Ah, right—even then I'd been thrashing around in bed the whole time. Honestly my past-life memories were already hazy. They were memories I wanted to forget quickly, and life here was dense enough to help with that.

Scrape.

I deliberately made noise as I pushed my chair back, stood up, and picked up my tray.

"I'm heading out first."

"Huh? Already?"

"What do you mean already? Lunch is almost over."

I jerked my chin toward the clock. Being in the corner we hadn't noticed, but the cafeteria was already quiet. Most of the remaining people were just enjoying dessert or chatting after the meal. We were the only ones still eating.

Confirming that, Ban Taewung yelped, "Ack, we're actually late!" and frantically started packing up the lunch box. The heroines scrambled to eat as well.

I watched them for a moment, then stood, gave a light nod to Onohara Erika—the only senior at the table—and left the cafeteria.

...Do they sell digestive medicine at the school store?

My body was seriously starting to demand antacids. I let out a deep sigh.