Finally Meeting the Main Heroine
The three of us were dealing with a problem child.
Finally, I've met you, main heroine...!
Peony was the main heroine of I Became the Savior of the Academy. She had been my favorite character in both my previous life and this one. The protagonist standing beside me had gone rigid, his face flushed bright red. What a rookie. No matter how stunning an elf's beauty might be, acting like a middle-schooler who had just discovered the opposite sex was unacceptable.
But why was it so hot today? My ears felt like they were burning. All the while, the elf's sorrowful wails continued to echo from the academy's main gate.
"Huuuuhhhng! If I go back to the World Tree like this, I'll die of embarrassment! Please! Save this elf!"
She was an elf—one of those long-eared, mostly vegetarian beings straight out of fantasy stories. Naturally, she hadn't been born in Korea; she was a visitor from beyond the Gate. Beyond the overwhelming ninety percent chance of hostile Gates, and excluding those neutral ones that barely deserved the name, she hailed from one of the world's few friendly Gates. It sounded like she had come from some distant land, but the Gate connected to the World Tree was in Chuncheon, so it wasn't actually that far.
"Mr. Security guards! Isn't this elf discrimination? Please open the door!"
The people around us clearly didn't want to get dragged into any trouble and were only watching from the sidelines. The guards didn't seem inclined to intervene unless she actually tried to climb the wall. Only then did the protagonist—who had finally snapped out of his daze but still wore a crimson face—turn to me.
"Why is Peony late? In the game you played, was she originally late like this?"
"No. Peony doesn't do things like being late."
Now that I thought about it, why was she late? With her diligent personality, she shouldn't have been tardy at all.
"Haneul, stay here. I'll go first—"
"Hello there, elf sis. Is something wrong?"
"Hey!"
The sniffling elf looked our way and muttered, "Who... are you?"
"Ah! My name is Haneul. Lee Haneul."
"And I'm Kim Si-woo. What's your name?"
The protagonist naturally inserted himself into the conversation.
"Hic... Peony."
"Nice to meet you, Peony sis. You look like you have some kind of grievance, so I'll listen. What happened?"
"Well... I left the World Tree really early, but I saw an old man struggling to push a cart, so I helped him out."
"Oh my, that's wonderful!"
As expected of the official heroine. She really did have a beautiful heart.
"After helping him, I tried to head to the academy, but then I heard this huge bang. Cars had crashed into each other, right? So I hurried over and healed the people inside."
"If you hadn't been there, it could have turned into a real disaster."
After that came the story of chasing down a wallet thief, finding the parents of a lost child, and dealing with people who approached her saying, "Do you know the Way?" It was as if every incident had come looking for her on its own. Probably the result of the world diverging from the original story. She could have ignored them all and headed straight to the academy, but our heroine wasn't that kind of person. Even when the game led her down dark, depressing routes, she never lost her goodness. Of course, that didn't make being unintentionally late any less unfair.
The elf girl was still recounting her journey to the academy. She had grown so absorbed that she was gesturing wildly with both hands and feet, completely forgetting we were even there.
"Hey, Haneul. What happens if you're late?"
"It's just penalty points, right? The guard must have contacted them by now, so an administrative staff member should be on their way. They'll assign the points, grant entry, and it'll be over quickly, won't it?"
"Yeah. In principle, it's just penalty points. Though the exact treatment is at the discretion of the head of academic affairs—which happens to be me."
At the voice cutting in from behind us, I turned to see a man approaching with over a dozen people in tow.
"Hey, Naksung. I wondered why you called me out here, and it's just to make me do weird stuff."
"No, please call me by my actual name here!"
How embarrassing—using a codename like that in front of everyone. What a rotten adult. I could feel blood rushing to my face.
"Right, then. Student Lee Haneul. It's been a while. Have you been well?"
The middle-aged man who greeted me had a slightly hunched back. At his sudden appearance, the protagonist beside me whispered,
"Do you know him?"
"You could say he's someone I collaborated with before."
"Collaborated, huh. Surveillance duty seems more accurate."
"So, did you come to open the main gate? Then please open it quickly."
"No. I came to see you, student Lee Haneul. Handling the administrative matters is just a bonus."
I figured as much. He wouldn't personally show up for something as trivial as penalty points. I'd never liked this sly old man, even back then.
"So, it seems you're quite close with this elf student. If we process this officially, I'm afraid we'll have to assign penalty points?"
At the mention of penalty points, the elf—who had finally grasped the situation—burst into louder sobs.
"However, if you cooperate with an inspection of that bag you're carrying, I might be able to overlook it."
This artifact thief! He hadn't changed one bit.
"But there's nothing much in the bag!"
"Hehe. By your standards they might be toys, student Haneul, but many of them are quite valuable at the academy. So, what will you do?"
"Ugh... I guess there's no choice. Peony sis, I'm doing this for you!"
"Huhet? Really? Thank you!"
The elf who had been bawling her eyes out moments ago instantly brightened, her face clear and sunny. The moment I handed over the bag, the head of academic affairs began examining each item one by one, slapping seizure stickers onto nearly everything. The professors waiting behind him swooped in like hyenas, snatching up anything that fell into their respective fields.
"Search complete! If you have any objections regarding the seized items, please contact the academy's academic affairs office—"
"You know I'm not going to do that!"
The head of academic affairs let out a hearty laugh, returned the bag, and ordered the guards to open the gate. Inside the now alarmingly light bag, only stationery and a lunchbox remained. At least he still had enough conscience not to steal someone's meal. Though he had taken the tumbler...
The instant the gate opened, the elf shot forward like a bullet, scooped me up mid-air, and hugged me tight.
"Huuuhhhng... I'm sorry... It was my fault you got shaken down... Your bag's completely empty now."
Squeeze! When she lifted me in a powerful embrace, the elf's signature floral scent and soft body triggered a kind of mental suffocation. If I had to describe the feeling, it was like a warm spring. Or maybe summer.
"Hehe... It's okay, ahaha... They weren't anything that special anyway!"
They really hadn't been. Besides, after I'd given those recruiters an excuse earlier, it was only a matter of time before the head of academic affairs showed up and emptied the bag anyway.
"That's enough! Peony, if you keep hugging her like that here, you might actually get penalty points!"
Eek! Peony flinched violently and dropped me in an instant.
"No! Those rules only apply between boys and girls! You can hug me more, Peony sis!"
Peony's expression melted again as she pulled me back into her arms.
"No, we're right in front of the gate—we're blocking traffic!"
The elf girl quickly backpedaled away.
"Then we'll just move out of the way!"
Once we'd shifted to the side of the gate, the elf girl stroked my hair.
...Our bickering gradually escalated until we were practically shouting at each other.
"Ha! Who in the world lives strictly by the rules? Sometimes you have to break them a little!"
"It's important to follow the rules that matter!"
The elf girl, sensing the hostile atmosphere, broke into a cold sweat and kept glancing nervously between us.
"Students! What are you doing here? The entrance ceremony is about to begin!"
At the loud voice, the guard who had finally noticed us gave us a warning. Only then did we check the time. Three minutes remained until the entrance ceremony.
After listening to Peony's epic tale of lateness, having her bag looted, and then getting into an argument, we had completely lost track of time.
"Si-woo! Peony sis! Grab my hands, quickly!"
"Huh? Didn't you already let us hold them a lot just now?"
"Even if we run, it'll be cutting it really close. Why?"
Despite their questions, both of them took my hands.
"Hold on tight! We're taking off!"
With those words, three people and one robot vacuum cleaner shot upward with accelerating force.
"Whoa! You should have said that sooner!"
"What the—it's really high!"
Now about a hundred meters above the ground, teleportation would have been faster and more efficient, but using it on others was tricky. That left only one option.
"Accelerating now!"
Whoosh!
A bizarre scene unfolded over the academy skies: a girl riding a robot vacuum cleaner with two people dangling from her, streaking across the heavens.
"Uwaaaah! Don't let go! Whatever you do, don't let go!"
"Wow! This is so fast!"
The protagonist, who had been full of complaints at first, and Peony, who had shown great interest, both fell silent as the speed increased and the air resistance hit them like a wall. Even though I had used telekinesis to shape the pages of a spiral notebook into a cone and placed it in front to break the airflow somewhat, the force was still overwhelming. Still, the stronger the resistance, the faster we arrived. We covered five kilometers in less than a minute.
We used the remaining two minutes to fix our hair and clothes, which had been left in complete disarray after punching through that wall of air.