It's Called an Academy
"...There's no way a world like that could exist."
Lucia's first response to my question was flat denial.
The words had shot out of her with such reflexive certainty that it was almost automatic. To call her on it, I conjured a conductor's baton from shadow and slammed it down on the desk.
Thwack!!
"Eek...!"
Unlike the wary stare she'd been giving me a second earlier, the sudden noise made her jump. She fixed me with a glare full of open hostility. I met it without flinching.
"You really that sure?"
"A world that moves for the sake of one single person couldn't possibly function normally!!"
The words she forced out were, in essence, the truth of this world itself. In that short span she had already reached its core. I nodded, affirming it.
"Yeah. A world like that couldn't be normal."
"...Are you messing with me right now?"
The spirit that had briefly wilted in her flared back to life.
Good. If she was going to be my partner in this, she couldn't keep watching my face for cues. What I wanted was an equal. She'd already resolved to leap off the chessboard; she needed the guts to match it.
"Actually, I want to ask you. You've been watching that abnormal world from closer than anyone. From where you stood, what did that guy's surroundings look like?"
"...What?"
She still wore a look of incomprehension. Or maybe she understood and simply refused to accept it.
"Don't play dumb. You've felt it too, haven't you? Making the impossible possible, always overcoming crisis and turning the tables. Cliché as hell, but don't you think it's a pretty well-written scenario?"
So this was the feeling. The mastermind who knew every secret of the world, showing off and dumping information on the protagonists.
"Ban Taewung. That bastard is loved by this world—more precisely, by the Will of the Stars."
"Th-that..."
Lucia reeled as if she'd just heard something she was never meant to know, then her expression shifted into pure bewilderment.
Yeah, it sounded shocking, but the scale had ballooned so fast she couldn't get a grip on it. I'd been there myself. With the patience of a teacher tutoring a failing student, I began to explain.
"Lately, big and small incidents have been nonstop around Ban Taewung, right?"
"...That's true. So I just assumed it was all you. The theft back in elementary school, the bullying in middle school... every single time you arranged things so Taewung would get blamed as the culprit."
Correct. The real perpetrators had been separate, of course, but I was the one who had cleverly steered events so the finger pointed at him.
Even if Ban Taewung stumbled, I had been right there to haul him back up, giving him the absolute trust that let him charge forward without looking back. And in the end, the tasks and hints that let him break through the crisis and reach the true culprit—those had been mine as well.
The fact that the whole setup had been ridiculously easy was a secret only I knew.
Good triumphing over evil was a cliché older than dirt. There was no way the will of the world would pass up such a delicious event. Without me even realizing it, the world's power had been at work.
Looking back, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say my every move had been steered from that point on. Just thinking about it pissed me off all over again.
"I'll admit it—for a while, yeah, those were my setups. But think of them as a kind of vaccine."
"...A va-vaccine? That kind of thing... the things that made Taewung suffer so much... you're calling them a vaccine?!"
She clenched her fists and exploded with rage. In answer to that emotion, the star-shaped pattern in her eyes flickered madly, like a spark catching and beginning to dance. It was almost beautiful.
"You're always like this. Do you enjoy controlling people from the shadows? Is it fun, toying with their emotions however you please?!"
They sparkled so brightly I almost wanted to dump dirt on them and snuff them out. I shoved the thought aside and answered her curtly.
"Cut the crap. Everything I did was just advance prep so that bastard wouldn't break when dirtier things came along. There's not a single scrap of enjoyment in the 'meaningless acts' you're talking about."
"You...!!"
Bang!!
She shot to her feet, seized me by the collar, and slammed me back into the sofa. She looked like a beast that had lost all patience—but the pressure rolling off her was no beast's. It belonged to someone who stood above.
Her job was Lord of Queens.
An extremely arrogant title meaning queen among queens. But that arrogance was backed by real power.
Trace the classification and her job fell under the position-type line like Princess Knight. Lord of Queens sat at the very peak of that line.
In other words, she possessed a knight's physical stats plus a queen's authority. And as a chaebol heiress whose title was no empty shell, she would have received the finest care and professional training. Compared to Reus Vagna she was at least his equal—if not stronger.
No—given her place as a heroine, she was probably stronger.
Reus Vagna, no matter how generously you ranked him, was only a supporting character. Even if she lagged behind him now, the gap would only widen with time.
If she got serious, she could turn someone like me into pureed meat in the blink of an eye. Even if I poured everything into an arm-wrestling match, she could snap my arm with a single finger.
Right now, if she felt like it, she could stop grabbing my collar and just seize my neck and break it. With her family's power she could erase my corpse from this room without anyone ever knowing.
But she didn't.
She was raging and condemning me, yet a capable woman like her had already finished the calculation in some corner of her mind. And she had reached the answer—ugly as it was, something she didn't even want to think: that I was right.
And she was despising and denying the self that had arrived at the same conclusion as me. By railing at the original owner of that thought—me. In short, she was throwing a tantrum. I'm different from you. That kind of meaningless tantrum.
I met her gaze coldly and opened my mouth.
"From now on, Ban Taewung's surroundings are going to seethe with malice. Whether he likes it or not, the world will heap crisis, hardship, and adversity on him to forge him into a hero—into the protagonist. You can call it inevitable."
Being the world's favorite wasn't all good. Only those who had tasted pain truly understood how sweet and intoxicating happiness could be. That was why the world, wishing its "protagonist" the greatest happiness, first bestowed the worst suffering.
"What are you going to think when you see those things? If misfortune falls on the people around you? Are you going to curse the world? Or hate Ban Taewung, the root cause of it all?"
With nothing more than the will to give the protagonist trials, the world painted everything in misfortune.
It drove a once-brilliant former king mad. It cruelly killed the family of a doctor who had devoted himself more than anyone to saving lives, with some unknown disease.
All so the hardship would be worthy of the protagonist. That was how the world moved.
"Why... for what...?"
"Because that's the fate Ban Taewung has carried since the moment he was born."
Yes—fate. Layered upon itself until it became inevitability, then destiny.
The destiny of one who would become the "protagonist." Having become the eye of the storm, he was forced into endless trials whether he wanted them or not. There was a reason that woman had called Ban Taewung the "Stars' Plaything."
What else would you call a game board that ignored the player's will and moved solely to suit the stars' tastes, if not a game?
"And you are one of the beings meant to keep that Ban Taewung from falling."
"...What?"
For an instant she went blank and trembled. I seized the opening, shifted my stance, and spoke with force.
"An organization meticulous enough to plan the kidnapping of the Valentia family's daughter—would they really fail to notice a single kid who just 'happened' to be passing by? And why choose to kidnap that child instead of killing him on the spot? How did two mere children break through security and danger that even rigorously trained professionals called airtight?"
"St-stop..."
"Why? Have you never once doubted it?"
The strength in Lucia's grip on my collar gradually loosened. Her face twisted as if someone had taken a knife to her chest and carved it open.
"Then... I..."
From her perspective, a memory that was both her trauma and something precious beyond measure was being defiled. Of course it was—the very foundation of every emotion she felt was being twisted out of shape.
The pain of being told that your own heart was entirely false and manufactured was too real to dismiss as a joke. In the end tears began to fall one after another, and she collapsed against me as if all strength had left her body.
For some reason the image of that other woman from before flickered through my mind. I shoved the limp Lucia off to the side of the sofa and roughly slapped her cheek.
Smack.
"Ah...?"
There was no mana behind it, so the sound was dry and thin, yet it was more than enough to fill the room.
The shock of being hit by such a pathetic attack seemed to snap her out of it; the tears vanished and she stared at me while cradling her cheek.
I offered no ordinary comfort. This was something she had to overcome herself for it to mean anything. I wasn't about to do something cheap like half-assed sympathy that would only shake her heart further.
If there was one thing that woman and I agreed on, it was that we both hated NTR.
And leaving that aside entirely—there was no way I would steal the (true) wife of a guy I acknowledged as a friend, especially when she wasn't even my type.
"Is that thing on your shoulders just decoration? Stop blubbering and use your head. Doubt the facts you've been given, then think them through again."
So I would scold her.
Honestly, even saying this kind of thing made my skin crawl and my guts twist, but right now she needed teaching at her level. I had to give her the firewood that would make her half-burned will blaze again—the words most effective for her in this moment.
"Was loving Ban Taewung only that much to you? Are you going to write it off as some emotion planted by some random bastard who might be a god or whatever, and just give up the second things get hard?"
"...Ugh, don't... talk like you know!"
My words brought her back; she growled low, as if chewing and spitting them out.
Then she squeezed her eyes shut and desperately tried to steady her ragged breathing. She straightened her bent back with pride, drew a deep breath, and consciously exhaled in measured portions.
Watching from the side it looked like a slightly odd breathing method, but actually doing it forced you to focus on regular exhalation, which made it extremely effective for clearing stray thoughts and regaining a scattered mind.
"Your words made it crystal clear. I love Taewung! No matter what hardships or adversities come, even if this feeling was manufactured from the start—it doesn't matter. Living with him all this time, I just ended up liking Ban Taewung himself! And you dare call that fake?! There's no lie in this emotion! This is the one thing I will never yield to anyone. Never, ever!!"
Clasping both hands before her chest as she spoke, she was filled with resolve. If no shadow of conflict remained, that would be a lie—but this was enough.
At the very least she would no longer doubt her own feelings.
If she walked out in that state and a rumor started that I had tried to drive a wedge between the protagonist and the heroine... not only would the people around us look at me funny, even that kind-hearted protagonist would start eyeing me with suspicion. Then it would truly be over.
I could handle anyone else, but making an enemy of Ban Taewung would be a massive headache.
In that sense she was fine now. She had conviction in her own emotions, and from a slightly different angle she had taken a solid step forward as a human being.
The problem was that pouring out such a heartfelt confession to me instead of the actual person was completely pointless.
For the sake of our cliché-stuffed Heroine Number One—who was a tsundere yet overflowing with unnecessary consideration, and who somehow always turned into a complete airhead at the critical moment—I had prepared something of my own.
The heavy talk was more or less finished; time to use this for a change of mood.
Whatever happened afterward, she had already stepped onto this side, and what she could do was already decided. Adding one or two more weaknesses along the way wouldn't matter much.
I pulled out the device I'd hidden behind me and, as if showing off, pressed play.
Beep.
"I love Taewung!"
There, clear as day, was Lucia Valentia—tear-streaked, face a complete mess of red, wearing the most earnest expression imaginable as she shouted those words. Expensive gear really did its job; the shot was excellent.
When the model was this unfairly beautiful, even something like this came out looking pretty. Couldn't be helped.
Beep.
I hit play again and paused the video, then rewound and replayed the cleanly saved footage several times.
At some point the girl in front of me had turned to stone, frozen solid. Wow! Did modern devices come with a petrification spell that worked on the target? Truly mysterious magic.
"...What is that?"
Apparently it wasn't a very good spell; she quickly broke free of the petrification, trembling from head to toe as she spoke. The resolute expression that had been crystal-clear moments ago was now pitch-black and dead. Seeing it, I let the corner of my mouth curl into a smirk.
"What else? A love confession."
"You little sh—!"
Lucia suddenly lunged, but unfortunately the only stat I was lacking in was raw strength; my technique stats were pretty solid. Dodging things I could see was one of my specialties. The collar grab earlier? I could have avoided that too—I just let it land.
I stood and held the device high. Lucia's face went scarlet as she panted and stretched desperately, hopping on the spot to snatch it.
Her figure was nice, but she was a little under 170 cm. Compared to me that was more than a 10 cm difference—high enough that her outstretched hands could never reach.
The attacks she threw at my body in between I either casually dodged or blocked with shadow. Realizing further effort was pointless, she trembled violently and opened her mouth.
"Delete it right now!"
"I'll delete it depending on how you behave from now on."
"I said delete it, you bas—taaaard...!"
Watching her throw a tantrum she never normally would, I returned a thin smile.
Yeah, I probably did have a bit of an S streak. Seeing the usually haughty girl act like a little kid made me want to torment her even more; it felt strangely refreshing.
Ah, or maybe it was just all the resentment that had piled up toward her. Either way, thanks to this I now had someone dedicated to Ban Taewung. I was busy growing myself; covering for him on top of that was way past the line.
"Nothing much changes from what you've been doing. Stay by Ban Taewung's side and help him."
"I was going to do that even if you didn't tell me!!"
Yeah—if the guy you liked was in danger and you didn't move, what kind of heroine would that make you?
But knowing he was the protagonist versus not knowing completely changed how you handled things. She wouldn't panic as badly at sudden disasters, and more importantly, her stepping forward to stay vigilant would create a certain kind of narrative plausibility.
What kind? The kind that would serve as foreshadowing for the protagonist realizing he himself was receiving the stars' favoritism.
There was no way Ban Taewung, beloved by the world, would fail to notice that his heroine was troubled.
Unlike me—whose friend position could vanish at any moment without it being strange—she had no real risk of dying. Sure, a near-death crisis might happen for the sake of the protagonist's awakening, but in the end she wouldn't die. That would go against the happy ending Ban Taewung wanted.
If he tried to dig into his heroine's strangeness, the world would have no choice but to help him.
And along the way he would naturally come to understand: that strange things kept happening with him at the center.
That was both a MacGuffin and a critical bug obtained by turning her into a "player." If a piece on the game board started wandering off the rails onto a side path, what developer would just sit and watch?
As expected, God is neither omniscient nor omnipotent.
If that so-called god really were all-knowing and all-powerful, there was no way it would just ignore us openly plotting to smash the game board it had made. From now on that bastard wasn't even a god. With pure contempt and loathing, I would call it the "self-proclaimed god."
If it had a problem, it could come out and throw hands. I had plenty to say myself.
"For now, take care of yourself. That rumor was spread by the mastermind bastard too—trying to pin every crime, real or fabricated, on me. I got hit with it myself."
"...I still can't quite believe any of this."
"If the materials aren't convincing enough, go cross-check them yourself. And if you find that mastermind son of a bitch, contact me first. I'm going to wreck him before anyone else."
Believe it or not, the choice was hers. I simply hammered home the information I'd gathered so far, the corresponding response manuals, and the danger of the mastermind threatening the academy. I said it twice because it was important.
"Ah, and train Ban Taewung properly according to this. If you're going to hold him, hold him tight. He's your future husband, so you can handle it, right?"
"Hu-husband...?! Aughhh..."
Judging by the reaction, she would manage just fine. It was pretty funny how she still couldn't express a single bit of affection to his face.
On top of that I handed her a file distilled to the pure essence of how Ban Taewung should grow from now on for maximum efficiency, plus data on dungeons perfect for testing it.
While I was at it I also passed along a manual on useful factors for protecting someone against multiple opponents—preparation for the things that woman had told me about.
That idiot would almost certainly start by checking whether anyone was hurt or had failed to evacuate. That meant he would inevitably end up fighting while protecting someone against many. This was advance prep for him.
I named the file You Can Do It Too: Raising Ban Taewung. I'd lazily grabbed the name of a training simulator that floated into my head, but it looked intuitive enough that I was satisfied.
"Uh... um, huh?"
She looked back and forth between me and the materials with a dubious expression, then began sending me suspicious glances. Ah, that look was familiar. It was exactly the face that woman made when she treated me like I was gay.
Had there ever been a moment I hoped my instincts were wrong more than this? I strained with all my might to un-furrow the brow that kept creasing against my will.
"Hey, I'm only asking this just in case, so don't get the wrong idea, but... are you maybe a gu—"
But my efforts went cleanly down the drain.
The instant I heard those words, strength flooded into both hands and uncontrollable rage surged up. She had crossed the line. Before she could finish the nonsense I pulled out a shadow and sealed the mouth spewing it.
"Mmph?!"
"Shut it. I like women. Say that kind of crap one more time and I'll dump this on the academy board and force you into a public confession."
"Mm, mmph? Mmmph...!"
She nodded furiously, face pale, yet still couldn't erase the suspicion from her eyes. I ground my teeth. Why was every last one of them so desperate to turn people gay?
A guy could look after the protagonist a little for the sake of his own retirement, couldn't he? Damn it, I couldn't even beat the crap out of him for real.
"Ugh..."
I needed to get the hell out of this cursed place as soon as possible.
...No, wait.
Hold on—why couldn't I hit her? She wasn't overwhelmingly strong like that other woman. On the contrary, Lucia currently had a weakness I held. That meant I held the overwhelming upper hand.
I was a firm supporter of gender equality, so whether the other party was a woman or a man, if they talked shit to me I was ready to dish out violence equally to anyone.
Still wearing an expression that said she had no idea what she'd done wrong, and still watching for a chance to snatch the device, the cheeky protagonist-obsessed girl got a full-powered knuckle sandwich to the head packed with mana.
Thud!
An enormous sound rang out—hard to believe it had come from hitting a human head. Shock seemed to race through her entire body; she began to tremble violently.
"Guh...!?"
A delayed groan escaped her as she crumpled. Leaving the idiot who was too busy clutching her head and collapsing from the pain to even scream, I fled outside. Ah, thinking about it, she couldn't scream because I'd sealed her mouth.
"JAAAAAANG SIIIIINWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
A belated roar of my name and a burst of mana exploded behind me, but I ignored them. I knew nothing. Absolutely nothing.
With this I'd also dumped the Ban Taewung shift, so I could focus on training with peace of mind. Whether this choice would turn into poison later or something else, I had no idea. Worrying about something already half out of my hands was just a waste of time.
Having swept all the complicated stuff aside, I recalled that nothing beat goblins for early training and set my steps toward the place where E-Rank dungeons were stationed.
Skill Sadism has leveled up.
Technique Stat +1
So read the room, System. Popping up like that right now just makes it look like I've turned into a genuine pervert who enjoys tormenting people.