I Neglected the Heroines' Growth
I Neglected the Heroines' Growth
There are two ways to solve a problem.
"One is the righteous path."
A fair and square process, tackling the issue step by step.
"The other is the dark path."
Whatever works — so long as it gets resolved.
In martial arts novels, the unorthodox sects tend to favor the latter.
And Ian found himself seriously considering whether to walk that dark path instead of the righteous one.
"Couldn't I just... physically confirm whether the heroines are virgins or not?"
The hint the Developer had given him. After all the digging he'd done...
[ The culprit was not a virgin. ]
That.
Pursuing that angle honestly seemed like the easier option.
Thinking about it, the process itself would be simple enough, right?
Secure access to them somehow, get them undressed, spread their legs...
"Get a grip, Kim Ian."
Ian slapped his own cheek.
He deserved it.
These were the heroines.
Which meant they had serious backing.
Rina had her reputation, Sharon had her family and skill, Aria had the Order, and Emilia had the trading company.
And he was stuck in the body of the already unpopular Pongpongi.
One wrong move and it's straight to the clink.
He's so desperate not to be killed by a heroine that he tries to check whether she's a virgin — and ends up in prison?
There's nothing stupider than committing a crime to prove your innocence.
"As expected, the righteous path is the way to go. Carefully gathering evidence on the culprit is the right call."
Ian nodded to himself.
And until he had concrete proof, it was wise to steer clear of the heroines.
Each and every heroine was stronger than Pongpongi.
That's exactly why they were chosen as the main heroines of Fanta X Aca — they were the core combat power.
So dealing with them was simple.
Ian drew a large circle on a piece of paper.
Inside it, he wrote a single word: Motive.
Pongpongi's crime.
The reason one of the heroines decided to kill Pongpongi was obvious.
[ Burden ]
Excessive attention.
Showering heroines he wasn't even close to with overwhelming interest and spamming confessions at them.
Therefore, now that he was miraculously still alive:
"Never. No matter what. I will not give the heroines any attention."
Ian made that vow.
Well. Honestly speaking, Pongpongi's attention had been helpful to the heroines.
It did seem like they'd harbored some genuine gratitude.
Why?
Because he had eerily filled in the gaps of their deficiencies.
That's why, even in the actual game, a character's growth rate varied wildly depending on whether you used Pongpongi or not.
But that service was over now.
"My life is on the line, so I have to be certain."
Whether Rina was struggling because she had no supplies or food.
Whether Sharon was frustrated because she couldn't grow any further.
Whether Aria was despairing after failing the Saintess candidate selection.
Whether Emilia needed him for an unavoidable matter.
No matter how desperately the heroines came begging, he would ignore them completely.
If he wanted to live a little longer, that is.
And so, his first rule of conduct was set.
"You are no longer heroines."
At least, not to Ian himself.
◆
Ignore the heroines.
Ian repeated his new code of conduct to himself several times as he stepped out of the dormitory.
His destination was a wide, empty lot near the dorms.
Why suddenly go outside, of all things?
"To be honest, this is the more important part."
The innate 'strength' of his physical body.
Ian's rumors and reputation were already rocketing toward rock bottom.
That meant he couldn't easily rely on anyone.
In the end, he was in a situation where he had to protect himself.
He needed to become strong.
Sharon Pierce.
The top-performing heroine of Fanta X Aca, with her endlessly cool blue hair.
At the very least, he had to become as strong as her, the most powerful of the heroines.
'I don't know who the culprit is, so I'll assume the worst.'
That's why he'd come outside.
To begin his training immediately.
"Pongpongi is a dirt mage, after all."
A dirt mage.
To be precise, an earth-attribute mage.
In 'Fanta X Aca,' which boasts a wide variety of elements, earth was a fairly rare one.
More accurately, it was an attribute that had been abandoned by the players. It was difficult to master, and the location of the 'Authority Blessing'—the most crucial performance-boosting element in the game—had never been revealed.
'There was a rumor that the element's raw performance was top-tier, matching its difficulty.'
But as it turned out, this Pongpongi guy possessed a remarkably excellent talent for the earth attribute.
"The problem is, that talent manifested in a somewhat bizarre direction."
The magic he'd learned was this.
[Extraction], to draw out specific metals and the like from the surrounding environment.
[Transformation], to use mana to maintain extracted elements in a specific shape.
And [Restoration], to return arbitrarily extracted or transformed elements back to their place.
Recalling the magic inscribed on his body, Ian couldn't help but ask himself:
"Is this bastard some kind of heavy machinery?"
How was every single spell he knew optimized for grunt work?... No, wait.
Don't tell me.
Did he learn these to do odd jobs for Emilia's trading company?
Ian recalled the entries about Emilia in Pongpongi's 'Romance Journal.'
'...He did.'
The image from Pongpongi's notes surfaced — him extracting rare materials from a mountain of dirt.
Wow.
What an incredible guy, seriously.
Anyway.
"The important thing is how to use this."
How could he weaponize these construction-equipment-like abilities to become stronger?
He paced the empty lot for a moment.
A good idea came to him.
One way or another, Ian was a veteran among veterans of Fanta X Aca.
Whatever the case,
first came [Extraction].
◆
Several hours later.
Drenched in sweat, Ian was staring at his own arm with deep emotion.
"It actually worked."
His arm gleamed with a lustrous silver sheen, like armor refined by a master craftsman.
He'd used [Extraction] to pull 'iron' from the surrounding earth.
Then used [Transformation] to wrap it around his arm and fist, reinforcing the joints.
"This talent's got my heart swelling with pride."
An achievement accomplished solely through the magic Pongpongi's body remembered.
Ian swung his partially mechanized arm at a log on the ground.
- KWA-BOOM!
With a brutal noise, the wood splintered in half.
"Khhh."
This is what a dirt mage (physical) is all about.
Pongpongi's talent.
He felt confident he could properly make it bloom.
◆
Evening had fallen, darkness creeping in before he knew it.
Back in his dorm, Ian collapsed onto the bed.
The moment he'd possessed this body, he'd felt like neither his mind nor body was holding up.
"Hoo."
Still, he'd properly laid the groundwork for surviving at the academy.
He'd be able to adapt without panicking when he went to the academy tomorrow.
"It's already this late."
Checking the clock, a sudden curiosity struck Ian.
[ Growth Blessing Ritual ]
A ritual that uses one's own mana to aid another's growth.
According to the journal, Pongpongi performed this ritual every night around this time.
'That must have been the experience buff the heroines got in the game.'
He'd been curious about that.
How exactly was this ritual conducted?
"The book is... here."
Rummaging through the room, Ian found the book Pongpongi always read before performing the ritual.
"...Basics of Black Magic?"
Was there something like this in the game?
With a question in mind, Ian turned the page.
The preface continued.
[ All things come from the earth, and to the earth they return. ]
[ The earth embraces and nurtures that which comes from it, and so this benevolent, mother-like magic is called 'Earth Magic'. ]
[ And when it reclaims those whose time has come, returning them to their original nutrients within the dark depths, it is called 'Black Magic'. ]
[ The attribute of earth covered in this textbook is the latter. ]
"...This is."
Ian's instincts flared.
This was no ordinary book.
This was the kind of preface only written in [Secret Tomes], the highest-tier books among the many types of book items in 'Fanta X Aca.'
He'd never even heard of a book related to Black Magic while playing Fanta X Aca.
"Where did he get something like this?"
A man who was more of an onion the more you peeled back the layers.
That was Pongpongi.
For now, let's check how the Growth Blessing works.
As he flipped through the pages, a particularly well-worn page caught his eye.
[ Sharing ]
[ Although the dark arts are predicated on draining the target's nutrients, the essence of earth lies in giving. Thus, a brief description of a method for sharing one's own mana, magic power, or life force is provided. ]
The moment he opened that page.
A strange sensation rippled through his body.
"...?"
Is this the flow of mana?
It was a different sensation from when he'd used magic in the empty lot. Ian closed his eyes and concentrated.
An energy originating from near his heart and flowing through every part of his body was steadily leaking outward.
There were four streams of mana leaving his body.
That meant the 'Growth Blessing Ritual' had already begun. Had there been a trigger condition related to the time or the book?
"I need to stop it... Calm down, first."
The thought that he mustn't give the heroines any more growth buffs surged forward, but he hurriedly composed himself.
Frantically trying to stop it and reversing his mana circuits seemed like the worse loss.
Getting his mana siphoned by the heroines for one more day wasn't going to kill him.
"Hoo."
He steadied his breathing and opened his eyes.
He checked the part of the book describing the procedure.
Finding the relevant entry, he read the following phrase.
[ * Never forcibly interrupt the transmission. It may cause fatal damage to the circuits. To halt the transmission, perform the un-linking via the method described below.]
"That was a close call."
Fortunately, the specific method for un-linking was written there.
Ian calmly closed his eyes.
And focused on sensing the flow of mana.
Sight, hearing, smell. It wasn't detected by any of the five senses, yet he could clearly feel the existing strands of mana.
Clusters of mana extending from his dantian, stretched so far their ends were unknowable.
'It's vivid.'
Pongpongi's talent was certainly not ordinary.
As he focused on each cluster, he soon felt their nature.
The direction the mana was heading toward each heroine.
He severed them according to the book's instructions.
"Hurk!"
A sensation like mana rushing backward for an instant.
But the discomfort didn't last long.
Sure enough, following the manual was the answer.
Ian let out a light sigh.
Just as he turned his gaze back to the book—
"Ah. What the hell."
He realized he'd missed a part.
[ * Even when transmission is halted, anonymity must be maintained. If it is not an anonymity spell, there is a possibility that experts nearing 5-Star level may detect the caster's information. ]
Seriously...
They should've written this kind of thing a bit earlier.
"Well..."
Does it matter?
None of them would have reached the 5-Star level yet, anyway.
Soon, a sense of relief washed over him.
The connection to the heroines was severed.
No more mana trickling away, no more heartache from being a sucker.
"I'm looking forward to the academy tomorrow."
The corner of Ian's lips lifted faintly.
◆
Sharon Pierce, the heroine Ian was most wary of in terms of skill.
She was meditating with her eyes closed in her neatly arranged dormitory.
A gentle mountain breeze blowing beyond the moon softly ruffled her blue hair.
It should have been ticklish, but Sharon didn't so much as twitch, maintaining her upright seated posture without breaking.
Meditation.
Always at this hour, her mind would clear and realizations would come.
Sharon knew better than anyone that this was a precious time, a tremendous aid to her growth.
Whenever she entrusted her body to the warm, unknown energy that enveloped her at this time, epiphanies would suddenly wash over her.
"...?"
Sharon's pale pink lips twitched momentarily.
It was because she'd sensed something from the energy that should have been colorless and odorless.
A faint presence.
"... I've felt this somewhere before."
Sharon murmured.