Winning Strategy (2)
Stroke. Stroke. Whether it was fortunate or not, the dense protagonist didn’t notice the voyeur at all and kept stroking my head. Stroke. Stroke.
It wasn’t entirely fair to blame him. Even though it was careless, the voyeur was so skilled at concealment that even I had a hard time noticing. On top of that, it seemed Mr. Timid had worked hard to improve his ability utilization; the golem wasn’t using a camera but had turned the camera into a golem to film instead.
“That’s enough now…”
“Ah…! Sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
If he was going to touch me so openly, there was no need to even hand over the camera, was there? Standing at the main gate while he stroked my head for so long drew whispers from the passersby. Even though I roughly knew what they were saying, I could endure it because they would be useful to me.
Sigh… It was hot. Summer must be coming.
Simply waiting by the school gate wouldn’t do since class would begin soon, so I started walking. To set the mood, I deliberately got down from the robot vacuum and walked beside him. The protagonist’s unnecessarily long legs forced me to move my own at a frantic pitter-patter just to keep up.
My physical abilities were excellent, so it wasn’t difficult, but the sight was utterly ridiculous. No matter how fake this relationship was, wasn’t it common sense to show at least this much consideration?
“Um… Si-woo sunbae, do you lack any sense of consideration?”
“Huh? Ah, sorry.”
Only after I spoke up did the dense protagonist notice and slow his steps. Only then did our paces finally match.
Before seizing control of public opinion, shouldn’t turning the protagonist into a proper man be the first priority? The image I wanted wasn’t just any pillar husband—it was a pillar husband who played both sides.
“By the way, what sudden whim made you want to walk?”
“Who knows? I just felt like walking.”
The protagonist’s expression shifted several times, as if he had questions and kept starting to speak only to stop. Since he showed no reaction even while I walked quietly beside him, I subtly moved ahead and shifted to his right side.
“Sigh, you’re supposed to figure these things out yourself.”
“What? Why did you move to the right?”
“Hint. The road is currently on the left.”
“Hmm… That’s too difficult. No phone-a-friend lifeline?”
“Hint two. If a car came rushing from the road, what would happen?”
“Haneul junior would block it with your ability, right?”
“…Sigh. That’s not wrong. But what if I fail to stop the accident and you get hit by the car?”
“I would suffer serious injuries from the debris while you remain perfectly fine, right?”
That was also correct. Correct enough to warrant a bat. The only frustration was that image management kept me from pulling one out. Cracks began forming in the smiling poker face I had fixed in place.
“…You’re actually saying all that while knowing the full answer, aren’t you?”
“Still, having Haneul junior on my left feels more reassuring.”
“Do I really look that ignorant…?”
“No. I heard somewhere that you entrust your left side to your comrades-in-arms.”
“Urk…!”
“I thought that if it’s Haneul junior, I could entrust my left side with complete peace of mind.”
“Urrk…!”
The protagonist’s underhanded sneak attack. The faint, pure smile on his face as he said such things was genuinely innocent. The scathing words I had prepared were sucked away by the unexpected counter and exploded inside my head. Contrasting with me, who was scheming in the shadows, the protagonist’s endlessly clear face made it impossible to keep looking at him. I lowered my head and walked beside him in silence.
When the two of us entered the classroom together, a familiar mana trace followed close behind. It seemed Peony had learned from her last failure; she was taking photos from more ordinary positions, making it difficult to pinpoint her location from the shots alone. Still, once we entered the classroom she must have found it too difficult to continue, because the pursuit stopped.
Inside, Peony was sprawled across her desk, fast asleep. Yet she seemed to recognize us from our footsteps alone—her ears twitched upright before she bolted up to greet us.
“Kim Si-woo! Haneul! Over here!”
“Peony unnie! You saved seats for us. Hehe.”
As expected, Peony didn’t seem to think much of it. Even though we had entered the classroom together with the protagonist, she paid it no mind. I quickly claimed the only empty seat beside Peony in the front row, leaving the protagonist no choice but to sit next to me.
Matching the protagonist’s packed schedule for this hour meant the bell rang the moment we sat down.
Was today’s subject Ability Archery? Right on cue, the classroom door burst open energetically and the professor entered.
The professor who walked in was nearly the same height as me. But the striking feature wasn’t the height or the brilliant golden hair—it was the pointed ears. The professor was a female elf.
With her small stature and chest that was… even smaller than mine, I had assumed she was male until I checked the faculty profile on the homepage. The fact that she wore a full suit with matching trousers made me wonder if it was deliberate.
“Right! We’ve had enough of those tedious theory lessons, so today is practical training! Everyone, proceed to the practice range!”
“Professor, today we were supposed to cover countermeasures against monsters by body type—”
“Nonsense! No matter how much theory you cram into your head, if you can’t actually shoot a bow, it’s all pointless!”
The fact that an elf existed outside the World Tree naturally meant this elf was an eccentric as well. The student who had asked the question fell silent, already regretting their course selection.
When we reached the practice range, the other students each held their own bows. Since the protagonist and I had only enrolled to farm points for Peony, we had no bows of our own and received the academy-issued training versions.
“All right! Shoot down the targets that will rise from now on! Note that your score will count toward your grade!”
“Professor! What is this—”
“Ready… Go! The test lasts ten minutes! Scores are measured automatically, so shoot to your heart’s content!”
The students were horrified, but they had no time to protest. Targets rose across the wide range. When Peony fired first and hit, the others hurriedly drew their bowstrings, terrified of falling behind in points.
Peony ignored us completely, focusing solely on the targets and firing wildly.
“Ooh! Student, you shoot remarkably well even for an elf! But aren’t you using your ability? Is it a body-related power?”
The short elf had brought out a long deck chair—the kind you’d see at a beach or pool—sat down, and watched the students.
“Using my ability wouldn’t be any fun!”
“I understand as a fellow elf, but you must use your ability to draw out maximum efficiency! This class is called Ability Archery, after all!”
“Understood!”
The moment those words left her mouth, explosions began erupting across the range. The grades of countless students were suddenly in mortal peril. Arrows fired by the others shattered along with their targets, blown apart by the aftershock of Peony’s ability before they could even reach the mark.
“That’s cheating!”
“Damn this ability-omnipotent world…!”
“Huuuugh… If it was going to be like this I should have taken normal archery instead…”
“I curse you… Dragon Head Group…!”
Of course, I was the exception to that crisis.
I simply held the bow loosely while levitating a single arrow with telekinesis and striking the targets. Whoosh!Thud!
Since every target that rose was immediately knocked down, there was no need to nock another arrow. It was a technique I had seen many times before, but the real improvement was that I no longer needed to whistle. It was questionable whether it could truly be called archery, yet the elf professor watched with admiration and moved on.
In contrast, the protagonist was struggling badly.
The whole reason we had enrolled in the same class was to score points for Peony, so he possessed zero knowledge of archery.
Swish! The arrow that left the string barely cleared the range before embedding in the dirt.
Swish! This time he must have infused it with his ability, because it rocketed skyward and vanished beyond the clouds.
Since my score was climbing even without me doing anything, it should be fine to help him now.
When I saw the protagonist staring forlornly at the clouds, I teleported the lost arrow back into my hand and passed it to him.
“Sigh… What are you doing? No matter how much it’s your first time, what if the flying arrow causes an accident?”
“Ugh. But this bow is too weak! That’s why I used my ability and…”
Several supply bows already split in half lay at the protagonist’s feet. He was on the verge of a C grade and now faced a fine for property damage on top of it.
“You there—the student who broke the bows! If you fail to score twenty points, you’ll be fined for every one you destroyed! And the student beside him—if you assist by using your ability on the arrow, it will count toward that student’s score!”
The professor had apparently noticed and delivered the threat right on cue.
“…. Just help me this once. A fine is really not good…”
“I could lend you the money for the fine, you know?”
“Don’t do that, Haneul… Please help me? No—Teacher Haneul?”
“Ahem. There’s no helping it. Let’s solve the bow issue first.”
Good grief… When would this hopeless protagonist finally stop needing my help? Well, there was a certain enjoyment in giving aid like this, so even if that day remained far off, it didn’t matter.
The solution was simple: I poured telekinesis into the bow.
“But do you really have to stand there?”
“Of course. Reading the flow of mana and reflecting it onto the bow instantly is incredibly difficult.”
While infusing the bow with telekinesis, I positioned myself in the spot that let me best feel the protagonist’s physical changes. In other words, inside his embrace.
It couldn’t be helped. Adjusting only an object’s rigidity to create proper elasticity was an extremely delicate task.
I closed my eyes and placed my hand on the protagonist’s chest, feeling the warm heat… no, the flow of mana.
“All right. Now step into it, pull with everything you have, and release!”
“Fifteen seconds left!”
“Hurry!”
At the same time, I loaded a ballista bolt I had taken from my bag.
“Let’s wipe the whole range at once…!”
“Yeah, this should work!”
“Ten seconds!”
The protagonist gathered every ounce of strength in his body and drew the bow. Peony must have noticed as well; she withdrew the arrow she had been aiming at our range.
I made minute adjustments to the bow in accordance with his force control, steadily accumulating power.
BANG!
Without any precise aiming, the arrow flew by pure instinct and slammed into the impact zone like a cannon, sweeping everything away in shock and shrapnel.
When the dust finally settled, countless targets lay toppled across the field.
“Time!”
A buzzer sounded simultaneously, announcing the end of the test.
We did it…!
The moment the test ended, the elf professor headed straight toward us. Only then did the two of us realize how we must look to everyone else and hurriedly separated our bodies.
My face burned, so I fanned myself with my hand. The protagonist looked awkward too; he scratched the back of his head and pretended to look elsewhere.
“Si-woo student, was it? That was quite the ambition. People often think archery demands agility above all. But its true root is power.”
“With such overwhelming strength you struck multiple targets at once, so it was flawless both as archery and as ability utilization. Except for the public display of affection, of course.”
“…Thank you.”
“However, the number of targets you felled with that single shot was nineteen. Submit your fine to the academic affairs office.”
“Ah.”
It was only a partial success, but that wasn’t so bad in its own way, was it? Hehehe… I wonder what I should make him do using the debt as an excuse.