The First Day at the Academy
Crash!! It felt like I'd tumbled four or five full rolls down the stairs on my first day at the academy.
“Gahhh….”
The price for rolling down an entire flight without any tumbling technique—agony exploded through every inch of my body.
As I groaned in pain, the person who'd dragged me underground approached and spoke.
“You don't have to worry. Those things don't come here.”
“W-who are you! Stay back!”
“Please calm down. I'm not one of those monsters. I'm just a normal person.”
“You think I'll buy that!?”
“It's true. If I were really with those monsters, why would I bother bringing you here, teacher? I could've just finished you off up there in a flash.”
“....”
Fair enough. Her logic finally got me to settle down, and I looked at her properly.
She was a female student in the academy uniform, with long black hair cascading down to her waist.
Her striking appearance definitely jogged a memory somewhere.
Soon enough, I recalled where I'd seen her before.
“You're—no, you're Elaine Astraea from class 1-A, aren't you? Ahem. Sorry about that. Must've banged my head tumbling down the stairs; things got a bit jumbled.”
She was the very student I'd met on the 'real' first day—the one trying to climb the wall. I hadn't seen her since and had completely forgotten, but who would've thought we'd reunite like this.
“You did roll down the stairs, teacher, but you didn't hit your head....”
“Anyway. Where is this place, Elaine?”
At her observation, I deftly changed the subject and scanned our surroundings.
The terrain looked nothing like the academy I'd just been in—like some alien cave.
Had I been teleported somewhere all of a sudden?
“This is under the academy.”
“Ah, got it.... Wait, what? The academy has an underground? As far as I know, the 1st Main Building doesn't have anything like that.”
If it did, I would've bolted underground the moment those grotesque humans surrounded me.
An underground cave in the academy? No, more than that—how had I never noticed a massive cavern like this? I'd poked around this building plenty over the past few days.
Elaine responded to my question as if she were just as clueless about the details.
“That's what I thought too. But what can we do? It's real, and here we are, down in it.”
“...Fair point. This academy's full of things that make no sense anyway.”
I was too exhausted to even be shocked anymore.
Fine. So there's an underground cave. Big deal.
Compared to grotesque humans sneaking around school undetected or the day looping endlessly, a hidden underground space felt downright realistic.
“For now, the underground isn't a big deal, so let's shelve it. What I really want to ask is about you, Elaine. This whole mess... do you know anything?”
“Me? If I did, I wouldn't be holed up in this dreary cave. If anything, I want to ask you, teacher. How did you snap out of it?”
“Hard to explain how. A few days ago, I started feeling off—wrongness building up until suddenly, I was clear-headed. Coming to, I remembered the past few days.”
“A sense of wrongness, huh... So that's a thing too.”
“Meaning you were different?”
“Yes. Just my guess, but my Gift kept me safe.”
“Gift?”
“Yes. Mine is 'Strong Mental Power'. Normally, it's just enough to pull an all-nighter studying when I'm sleepy. Never dreamed it'd keep me sane through this. No wrongness for me, no memories of the looped days either.”
“So you were clear-headed from the start.”
“Probably. Not entirely sure.”
After that, Elaine and I swapped what we knew—which mostly meant me listening, since I'd only just woken up today and had zilch to contribute.
A few key facts emerged by the end.
First: the time loop specifics. Days reset precisely at midnight back to morning—about thirty minutes before first period, morning roll call. Effective loop: roughly fifteen and a half hours, shorter than a full day. Right around when I'm doing self-intros.
No matter how far you flee, it snaps back to academy roll call.
Nothing new there. If outrunning weirdness like this worked, that would be the shocker.
Second: the grotesque humans. They playact as normal folks until they think they've been busted. (Debatable if it's convincing acting, but even I didn't clock their blatant weirdness until sane—so normals stay oblivious.)
Flip side: once exposed, they go ruthless, eliminating witnesses like they did with me—zero regard for bystanders.
Next—and biggest relief for me—they reset like everyone else. Forget the prior day, back to faking normalcy.
Perfect for plotting tomorrow's escape.
Last: their numbers grow with each loop. No exact count possible, but way fewer at the start.
“I see.... Even the staff room teachers....”
“They weren't originally?”
“No. In my memory, it was just students.”
“More than that—if they're increasing, does it mean grotesque humans aren't separate creatures but normals mutated somehow? Or each loop, normals vanish, replaced by them?”
“...No idea.”
Elaine's face fell glum at my speculation.
She'd clocked the loop before me and acted all composed, so I'd momentarily forgotten: she's just a first-year.
Either way, as a teacher here, no real educator duty compelled me—but planting a solid image with students could be a huge asset for advancing the main story later.
I comforted her, stoking some hope.
“Don't worry too much. Everything has a cause, and causes have solutions. We'll crack it for sure. We've got time to burn, right? Flip side: with infinite loops, we can't quit even if we wanted.”
“...Even in this, Teacher Allen holds onto hope. As expected of someone great.”
“Nah, not really.”
Truly not. I knew this world was from a fictional work.
Hadn't pinned the exact title yet, but the intense dejavu hitting me with the Everlight Academy invite screamed it was one from my past life's reads.
And in academy tales, solutions exist for every crisis.
Stories gotta progress, after all.
Less logic, more narrative necessity—but she seemed genuinely eased by my steady demeanor.
“...Thank you. My anxiety's faded thanks to you.”
“Good. Composure's key for tackling anything. Can't head up today, so wanna chill here till midnight?”
“Hehe. Yeah. Guess we have no choice.”
She smiled faintly and settled softly beside me.
Until the chase, everything felt alien and chaotic—but just one ally in this madness brought such relief.
Truth be told, though I'd played the comforter earlier, her presence might've steadied me more.
And so, we hunkered in the cave corner, killing time with idle chit-chat.
Wish I'd hit the canteen for snacks before the pursuit.
At least hunger resets with the day—small mercies.
But good vibes aside, hours of talk wore thin on topics. As we ran dry, I made a proposal.
“Before proper scouting tomorrow, how about we check out this cave first?”
“This cave?”
“Yeah. Time loops and monsters make it a lame secret by comparison, but worth a peek? Call it a warm-up.”
“Sure. Truth is, I was too scared to explore solo—never strayed far from the stairs.”
With that, Elaine and I set off exploring, light of heart.
The cave glowed just enough for visibility—special ore, maybe?—no obstacles, so we swiftly reached the end.
And there, at the dead end—
“...Ah.”
“Teacher Allen?”
“Ahh....”
I—
“Aaahhhh....”
“Teacher Allen!?”
—finally remembered this world's title.
“Waaaaaah!!!!”
The Abandoned Countess Lady of the Academy.
A romance-fantasy academy web novel, popular with female readers for its brisk pacing, elegant prose, and keen emotional beats.
But its real infamy? The ludicrous late-game drift twist.
That single swerve rocketed it to cross-gender legendary status across communities in a heartbeat.
Enough to hook even me, a non-romance-fantasy fan, out of sheer curiosity.
The dead-end wall loomed with a colossal stone door—dozens of meters tall, at least.
Its vast surface crawled with bizarre, ominous runes and ornaments, all meant to seal whatever lurked behind.
Yet the seal was futile in the end.
As laughable as an ant barricading an elephant.
Because this world was fated to end in ruin—the outer god entombed beneath the academy breaking free.