Something's Gone Wrong (1)
The alarm on my phone rang at seven in the morning.
I had arrived at the lab earlier than usual to work on some documents. I silenced the alarm and opened the drawer of my desk.
Inside were several pill bottles and packets of medication organized by date.
“Cough…!”
It was the medicine for the lung disease that had been tormenting me without mercy.
After taking the pills, I grabbed my coat and left the lab.
Today was the freshman entrance ceremony.
All the professors were required to stand at the main gate to welcome the new students.
I closed the lab door behind me and paused for a moment, staring at the nameplate affixed to it.
Professor Kyo Suhyeon, Basic Defense. (Jinju Kyo Clan)
The three silver letters of my name still felt strangely foreign.
That was because, until quite recently, I had been a person with absolutely no connection to academies or subjects like Basic Defense.
I had been hit with what people commonly call “possession.”
In other words, this is how it all began.
The newly launched web novel platform Marvelpia, commonly shortened to Mafia.
The whole mess started when I left a comment on a completed novel there.
It was the kind of story people called a “failed novel”—over a hundred chapters long yet barely reaching fifty thousand views.
The main plot followed events at an academy that trained heroes to fight villains.
It tried to follow trends but felt clumsy and half-baked.
Even the final chapter had single-digit views and only one comment: “Thanks for finishing it.”
That comment had been mine.
When I opened my eyes again, I was inside the novel’s world.
At least I was lucky enough not to possess some miserable supporting character destined to be killed by the heroine. Instead, I had taken over the body of an academy professor.
The man I possessed, Kyo Suhyeon, was the heroine’s advisor in the original story.
A quiet-natured professor who taught Basic Defense.
Basic Defense encompassed methods of protecting oneself from a villain’s varied attacks—strengthening the body to increase resistance to physical strikes, or learning to resist mental attacks.
The professor I had become was once a hero, but because his abilities leaned heavily toward defense, he never received much spotlight.
His role had mainly been supporting other heroes rather than shining on his own.
The first thing I did after possessing this body was look for the original heroine, but surprisingly, she hadn’t even enrolled at the academy yet.
Even stranger, the mysterious lung disease I was suffering from had never existed in the original story.
There were no status windows. No quests.
I had no idea what was going on.
“Good morning, Professor Kyo.”
As I walked down the corridor, someone called out from behind me.
I turned to see Professor Jin Se-yeong, the specialist in Flight and Guidance, hurrying toward me with quick steps.
She had short hair and a cute, puppy-like face.
Today she wore a proper suit instead of her usual baggy training clothes or flight suit.
As a result, her distinctive curves stood out even more prominently.
The buttons on her blouse looked ready to burst with the slightest deep breath, and the firm muscles of her thighs were visible beneath her black stockings.
She had the kind of naturally gifted frame that seemed born for flight.
“Professor Jin. Good morning.”
“How are you feeling today?”
“I’m fine. I mixed my morning medicine with milk, and it actually gave me quite a boost.”
It was a lame joke, but Professor Jin Se-yeong burst into bright laughter and patted my shoulder.
“Then you must always be full of energy?”
She winked at me with a playful smile.
I understood the hidden meaning behind her words perfectly.
However, I didn’t feel flustered by Professor Jin’s bold remark.
My Mental Barrier had firmly rejected any such reaction.
“I wish that were the case, but as you can see, it’s not exactly working out that way. Cough!”
“Come by my lab sometime. I’ve stocked several kinds of tea that are good for coughs. I’ll brew some for you personally.”
“Understood. Thank you for always looking out for me.”
When I smiled, Professor Jin’s expression turned slightly worried.
“Professor Kyo… Why don’t you speak with the department head and stay inside? The outside air is quite cold. Won’t your cough get worse?”
“It’s all right. It’s not just me. The entire faculty is going out.”
“Hehe, as expected, you really are such a proper gentleman, Professor Kyo.”
She had been smiling brightly when she suddenly clapped her hands as if remembering something.
“Oh, that’s right. I heard the daughter of the Hero Association’s Advisory Chairman is enrolling today. I think her name was Yoo Hee-won…”
“Is that so.”
This year’s entrance ceremony would see the original heroine enroll.
The person I wanted to meet first by going all the way to the main gate.
So that student named Yoo Hee-won must be her.
“But Professor Kyo, are you really okay? The rest of us can handle it. Maybe you should stay back and rest for a bit.”
“It’s fine. This is about greeting the students we’ll be teaching.”
In truth, I didn’t feel even the slightest bit of that sentiment.
I simply wanted to meet the heroine as quickly as possible.
The heroine who had been my student in the original story.
Meeting her might trigger some new change.
Something like receiving a quest—the kind of common cliché one might expect.
“Ah… I see… Professor Kyo…”
Of course, Professor Jin, unaware of any of that, clasped her hands together in a prayer-like gesture, eyes sparkling with emotion.
“Don’t worry, Professor Kyo! I’ll make sure to keep you warm so you don’t shiver in the cold!”
“Haha, thank you.”
I gently pushed away Professor Jin, who seemed ready to embrace me, and walked toward the main gate.
It was time to meet the original heroine.
Once I met her, surely something would change—whether a quest, an awakening, anything.
Anything at all.
I was prepared to do whatever it took.
And then, several hours later.
I experienced something so absurd I couldn’t even find the words to describe it.
In other words…
That strange and coincidental encounter was probably the beginning of everything.
* * * * *
It really was cold. A bitterly freezing morning that still felt more like the tail end of winter than early spring.
I stood at the main gate, shivering, as the new students began pouring in.
Some were excited about a new beginning, others tense, some completely blank-faced. A few were even crying because they had to leave their parents and start dormitory life.
The freshmen wore all kinds of expressions, each according to their own circumstances and emotions, as they passed through the gate.
This was Graford, considered the very best among hero-training academies.
Out of all these students, only a handful would successfully graduate, become heroes, and then rise to become “senior” heroes.
To them, this academy wasn’t a place to spend their days laughing and chatting like a normal school. It was a battlefield of fierce competition and rigorous tests where they had to prove themselves.
Even for adults it would be daunting—how frightening and nerve-wracking must it be for these still-young-looking children?
We stood at the gate, waving and making eye contact as we welcomed them.
Most of the freshmen who passed in front of me—especially the female students—kept stealing glances in my direction.
Some even stopped, stared openly, then whispered and giggled among themselves.
The new students wouldn’t know who I was or what subject I taught, so it must be my face again.
The thing that had taken me the longest to adapt to after possession was my appearance.
Because of my sickly body, my face was pale and shadowed, yet that very pallor harmonized with my delicate features to create a decadent kind of beauty.
I didn’t particularly enjoy drawing this much attention.
“Professor Jin. Would you mind switching places with me?”
I turned to ask her so I could retreat to the edge, but Professor Jin was staring straight at me with wide eyes.
“Professor Jin.”
“Y-yes… Ah, yes?! What did you say?”
“Never mind. It’s nothing.”
I turned my gaze back to the freshmen.
I waved half-heartedly while scanning their faces one by one.
The original heroine. Let’s see…
She was described as a stunning blonde beauty, so she should stand out immediately.
At that moment, someone suddenly stumbled out of the crowd passing in front of me.
They were about to fall toward me, so I instinctively caught them with both arms, but they were heavier than expected and I staggered.
“Ah, I’m sorry… I’m so sorry… People kept pushing…”
It was a plain-looking girl with jet-black hair and glasses.
She wore a drab hoodie and black pants—everything about her was black.
She seemed just as startled by the sudden situation. She quickly pulled away from my arms as if fleeing and kept apologizing.
“I’m sorry… I’m really sorry…”
“It’s all right.”
The girl, speaking in a tiny, shrinking voice and bowing her head repeatedly, disappeared back into the crowd.
She seemed far too passive to survive in a place like this.
Professor Jin grabbed my arm in surprise.
“Professor, are you okay? You were staggering.”
“I’m fine.”
Just then, a commotion rose from the other side.
When I looked over, the freshmen were parting to either side, making a path.
Men in black suits were roughly pushing the students aside.
Behind them, several reporters from a broadcasting station were following.
And at the center of the reporters’ attention was an impossibly beautiful blonde girl.
I knew without needing to check.
It was the original heroine.
Yoo Hee-won, who had nearly reached the main gate, turned around and spoke.
“You can go back now, Dad. I’ll go in by myself.”
The man standing behind her answered in a deep, resonant voice.
“I have a meeting scheduled with the dean. Let’s go in together.”
“All right, then.”
With an arrogant expression, Yoo Hee-won walked forward with sharp clicks of her heels along the path the students had cleared.
Complex gazes filled with envy and jealousy followed her back.
“That’s her. She really was born to stand out. And that man must be her father, the Advisory Chairman of the Management Bureau.”
Professor Jin turned to me.
“What do you think, Professor Kyo?”
“What do I think? About what?”
“About taking her as your student. I’m sure plenty of professors want to be her advisor. I heard she already possesses top-tier skills thanks to her natural talent and early education. Plus, her father was once one of the most prominent heroes and is now a major figure in the Management Bureau. Just being her dedicated advisor would be an incredible career boost. It might be a bit exhausting, though.”
“Well… A student like that probably wouldn’t accept just any professor as her advisor.”
“That’s true… After all, Professor Kyo, you’ve never taken a single student before.”
Is that why?
I had assumed it was because of my convalescence, but apparently that was the reason.
In any case, what happened before doesn’t matter much.
Because this year, I will become that girl’s advisor.
“There’s that as well.”
I gave an appropriate response to Professor Jin’s words while never taking my eyes off Yoo Hee-won.
Now then, dear novice author.
What kind of quest are you going to give me?
Do I have to help her wipe out all the villains? Or perhaps overcome a desperate crisis together?
As Yoo Hee-won drew closer to where we stood, I even felt a slight tension.
My Mental Barrier was supposed to be unshakable, yet I instinctively sensed that this moment could decide the fate of the possessed individual.
However, contrary to my expectations, even as Yoo Hee-won stepped past the main gate and turned in our direction, no quest window appeared.
What is this?
While my mind raced to make sense of the situation, Yoo Hee-won walked straight toward me with sharp, confident steps.
She stopped right in front of me, looked up with a self-assured smile, and spoke.
“Are you Professor Kyo Suhyeon?”
