It's Class, Though

"Haa..."

I was shaking. Absurdly so. Just past this door sat the students who would be taking this lecture with me for an entire semester — and among them, the life I had pictured more times than I could count. The social butterfly at the heart of a harem. The one who monopolized every heroine's attention.

"Hang out with me today."

"Eat with me today."

"Academy's over — let's stop by here. And over there."

Happy days, lived not as the academy's most popular guy, but as its most popular girl. This moment was supposed to be that very first meeting.

What do I even say to greet them?

It would be my first time meeting the students. Would I be able to get close to them at all? I didn't know how to start a conversation, and if someone spoke to me first, what was I supposed to answer if I wanted to become friends easily?

A violent tremble ran through me. My head washed over with the same tension as a class presentation. Walk in like this, and I was finished.

M-maybe I should duck into the bathroom first.

I shook my head.

Nn — no! I already told myself that if I run away again, nothing gets done!

I have to push through somehow. That's the only way!

I drew a long breath. Right. Let's go.

The door rattled open, and a modest lecture hall met my eyes. Unfamiliar students occupied the chairs — some chattering among themselves, others sitting alone over a book.

Th-this is terrifying.

These were the people I would be facing for a whole semester. Fear of strangers I had never met, and the pressure that failing to befriend them would leave me an outcast for all that time — both feelings crushed down on me at once.

Maybe I should just sit down first.

I couldn't scrape together the nerve for an easy hello on a first meeting. Right. Watch the students for a bit. Then I might spot an opening to get closer, or some social butterfly might even come talk to me. I had sworn I wouldn't run, but I had no desire to stick my foot in my mouth and get branded a weirdo. Call it strategy.

I stole a glance.

Looking closer, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a lively girl was moving from seat to seat, pulling students into conversation. Red hair gathered into a single braid, and a face that looked kind, somehow. Wherever she passed, the walls between people came down. She was the very picture of a social butterfly.

I was jealous. If only I had a way with words like that. She looked kind, too — the sort of person who couldn't help being popular. Thanks to her, even the students giving off the same loner aura as me were folding into the group. Put one student like that in every class, and the whole class would end up friends.

Maybe this will go easier than I thought?

She'd come to me soon, wouldn't she? She didn't seem like someone who could leave a person sitting alone. Then I might get pulled into that circle and find a chance to grow close to this one and that one. What luck.

Ah. She's coming.

Slowly, she started in my direction. Eek — I still haven't thought of a single thing to say. This is bad. My heart hammered. Even so, she kept drawing nearer.

C-calm down! I just have to be careful not to leave a bad impression. That's all.

I hauled every muscle in my face upward and built the brightest smile I could manage. Good. Ready. Even if the words come out strange, they'll feel all the goodwill packed into this face.

Please come over, Miss Popular! Please let me into the group, too!

At last she reached the spot right in front of me.

And passed on by.

"...?"

Without a single word.

"..."

My face locked in place, still smiling. For a while my stunned mind simply couldn't understand what had happened.

Ha... haha. What was that? Some popular-kid prank? She saw me so obviously waiting for her to come over and got a little mischievous. This one's more of a rascal than I thought.

Come on, look back. Say something like "surprised you, didn't I?" Drag it out too long and it actually hurts, you know.

As if to betray that hope, she chose an empty chair and sat.

"..."

Huh...

My vision's gone blurry. Why is this happening all of a sudden?

"Hoo... this way, then."

I had played long enough to know where nearly every place was. Whole days had gone by with me sunk in nothing but this game, and the place I was heading now was no exception.

"Status."

A chime rang.

At this level, it should be just barely possible. If it's me, I can do it.

My hand trembled, all on its own. Watching it, my chest grew heavy.

How did it come to this?

A bitter feeling washed over me, and the days behind rose up in my mind.

The moment I first opened my eyes, I had known at once. This was the world of the game I had played so obsessively — Legend of Fantasy Academy. At first I had simply been thrilled. Something I had only ever imagined had actually happened.

But before I ever reached the academy, after that first battle, the feeling changed completely. The monster's vicious attacks. The sensation of being cut by sharp claws, something I had never felt in my life. The wound itself hadn't been so large, but the instant the pain hit, I understood. This was a real world. And death was no story from some far-off country, either.

The bad news did not end there.

Just yesterday — the route I mainly ran, the one where you help the elderly couple who lost their way. A route you could only encounter by skipping the stat measurement, and a good one for securing funds early on.

Coins clinked.

Ten gold...

A considerable reward for helping someone find their way, and yet my heart was anything but settled. Those ten gold told me which difficulty I had been dropped into.

I had landed on Expert. A difficulty no one had ever cleared.

I was a respectable high-ranker myself, one of the very few who had cleared Hard. But neither I, nor anyone else, had cleared Expert yet. And so what I felt now was fear. Let a single thing go wrong, and the current of the story would kill me where I stood.

What I was about to attempt could not fail, either. It was the opening of the route to recruit one powerful heroine.

My footsteps carried me on.

As expected. She's here.

One of the training rooms set within the academy. Inside, a girl with wavy blue hair was driving herself through her training, a greatsword larger than her own body gripped in her hands. She was tall to begin with — nearly five foot ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nine — and the sight of her swinging that enormous blade was nothing short of overwhelming. Even so, the training dummy, unmarked by so much as a scratch from her attacks, looked strangely out of place.

That was the objective. One mistake, and there would be no taking it back.

I swallowed, forced my tension-locked body to move, and stepped up to her.

"Nice form."

"...? Who are you."

"Just a student who came to train. Got interested watching, though. Mind if I take a swing?"

"...Do as you like."

She steadied her sweat-soaked body and stepped aside from the dummy, as if to say I was welcome to try.

Smooth, up to here.

I had succeeded in taking the opening, just as planned. From here on, it was a real contest of control.

"Hup—"

I drew the one-handed sword at my waist and set my stance. What I activated was the skill Hard Attack.

Charge too long, and mana exhaustion would leave me spent. Charge too little, and the blow wouldn't matter. The heart of it was cutting the charge off at just the right point.

A creeping sensation. The skill engraved in my trait devoured mana and raised a blue haze, and with it my attack stat climbed for a time. I had used the technique hundreds of times over; I measured the timing exactly.

Around now... have I reached about a C-?

Not yet. A little more. I waited, deep in my chest, for the moment I could be sure of.

C...

C+...

The instant I judged that my attack stat had reached B- —

Now!

The blade flashed. The one-handed sword shot forward along a line so clean there was nothing to fault, and slammed into the training dummy with a tremendous crash. A single mark appeared on the dummy that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had been pristine. Where the sword had struck, a deep gouge opened along the path of the blow.

Hoo...

I had done everything I could. All that remained was to leave the rest to fate.

I clenched my eyes shut, forced the tension down, and waited for her reaction.

"You."

"!!"

"What is your name?"

"Kain. That's what they call me."

"Kain... You mean the student who had the gall to skip yesterday's stat measurement?"

"What, that rumor's already going around? I'd rather not get famous this early."

"You say that so lightly... Be that as it may, unlike that conduct of yours, it seems you do have skill."

"That so? I'll take the compliment."

"...A fellow I cannot bring myself to like. In any case, I am Bella Atriss."

"Yeah. Good to meet you, Bella."

"Be quiet. I have no desire to grow familiar with the likes of you, slacking about as you do."

"Wait, what? Then why'd you introduce yourself?"

"I merely acknowledged your skill. Nothing more. Surpassing those stronger than myself is the reason I entered this academy."

"So you're saying you'll think of me as a rival, or something like that?"

"You may take it that way. One day I will surpass you and correct that slacking conduct. Prepare yourself."

"Sure, do whatever you want. I've got to get going — see you, Bella."

"You bastard..."

With that, I stepped out of the training room.

"Phew..."

I wiped the sweat from my tension-soaked hands and let out a breath of relief. How had I even pulled it off?

"Haa... I'm exhausted."

I didn't even want to imagine what would have happened if I had flubbed a single line in the middle of it. My head had been locked rigid with nerves, and pretending to be perfectly at ease on top of that was more than any person ought to have to manage.

"Seriously. This is no way to live."

Still, with this I had secured the route to bring her in as a heroine companion. She wouldn't become an ally right away, but in the later story her destructive power would play a major role.

Is that everything on today's schedule?

I had done all I could do today. For the time that remained, I would turn over the routes still ahead and work out the best choices. Truly, there was not a moment to let my guard down.

I hadn't been hurt. Not yet.

Right. She definitely hadn't been trying to ignore me. After all, the moment Miss Popular sat down, the teacher had walked in. She had probably realized the lecture was about to start and gone back to her seat. Of course. That had given me a real ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠scare.

Otherwise there was no reason for her to ignore me, was there? The timing had just been too perfectly awful.

Hahaha.

Anyway, once the lecture began, the material turned out to be quite interesting.

Trait Theory. A definition of what a trait was, together with how to recognize one and put it to use. Helping students understand all of that was the aim of the class, and what the teacher laid out was as entertaining as hearing someone unpack the setting of a novel.

A trait, they said, was the shape of the soul — the same as the nature of a being. You could call it your own peculiar individuality, and also a reflection on what kind of person you were. When that nature reacted with mana and brought forth a special ability, that was a trait.

Every human possessed one, but for most people it amounted to very little. Among them, those whose individuality reached Rare grade or higher were selected through Special Trait Admission, and they were the ones said to possess a "trait" in the narrow sense.

Go further, and the more you acted in ways that suited that individuality, the more you could strengthen the trait. Understand your own nature more deeply, train it, hone it sharper still, and you could even evolve it.

My heart pounded. What is this? This is way too exciting.

Understanding an individuality that belonged only to me, and strengthening an ability. Where else could you find something this fun? A power that existed nowhere else in the world — and the one that suited me best of all. Thinking it had actually been given to me, I couldn't contain the excitement.

Honestly, anyone's heart would race at a story like that, right? People don't love all that "the something-or-other that suits you" talk for no reason. And this was a special ability, of all things. It had really been given to me.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

What ability do I have? What sort of thing would suit me? And if I strengthen it, what kind of power comes out then?

I was soaking happily in one fantasy after another when it occurred to me.

Come to think of it, there was an enhancement not long ago, wasn't there?

An enhancement that had definitely taken place the first time I killed someone.

Hmm...

Something to do with combat? It's not, like, Slaughterer, is it? That would be insanely cool.

"Ehehe..."

I let myself drift back into the pleasant daydream, and before long the bell rang to end the lecture.

"That will be all for today's class. I'll see you next time, everyone."

Ah, class is over.

Right — because of the lecture, I had never gotten to talk to Miss Popular. Now I should be able to. Was she finally going to speak to me, too?

A chair scraped.

She rose from her seat and started walking my way.

I knew it! She was bothered that we didn't get to talk earlier! She's coming over to speak to me even now, isn't she? How can a person be this kind!

Once more I hauled every muscle in my face into a brilliant smile, and waited only for her to arrive.

A soft step.

"...?"

Where is she going?

"Hey, everyone — after the lecture today, want to go see the lake? I heard it's seriously pretty!"

"Oh, I heard about that too. Should we meet up this evening?"

"That sounds fun! I'll definitely come!"

...Huh?

Just like that, she made plans to meet every student in the lecture hall that evening, and left to attend her next class.

Everyone except me.

From somewhere, only the sound of falling droplets echoed through the lecture hall.