It's Spring
It was spring. As always, the start of the Academy year began with choosing a dormitory. Since I'd just been promoted to Bronze Rank, I had to leave the old Iron Rank dorm behind.
[What a shame. I was starting to get attached to the place.]
'The wallpaper still has puke stains from when the heroines threw up all over it last time, you know?'
[......Let's get out of here quickly.]
For some people it might've been a reward, but for me it was absolutely not. I moved the furniture around to hide the scene of the crime as best I could, then grabbed my luggage and left the dorm.
When picking a new dorm, I'd been secretly worried I might have to compete with someone, but nothing like that happened at all. Apparently a ton of vacancies had opened up for some unknown reason, so there were actually more dorms available than students.
And the reason for most of those vacancies? Elves, of course.
'The snowball really rolled that far?'
[It's a good thing. Choose whatever your heart desires.]
With that, I leisurely picked out a dorm and moved into the new one. The furnishings were the same as before, but being a Bronze Rank dorm, there were a few differences.
[There's one more room.]
'And there's a personal PC too.'
The old Iron Rank dorms had been studio apartments, but Bronze Rank ones were two-room units. Plus, unlike before, there was a personal computer sitting on the desk.
The moment I saw it, one thought immediately came to mind.
'Elden Ring Elden Ring Elden Ring Elden Ring Elden Ring.'
[......So the dead bastard was here after all.]
It was a god-tier game. But contrary to my hopes, the personal PC couldn't handle it. It wasn't optimized in the first place, and the specs weren't great either, so the result was pretty much inevitable.
'Elden Ring is...... service terminated.'
[Eh? Really?]
'It's always been a piece of shit game. Anyway, it's a piece of shit.'
[You're just doing mental gymnastics like the fox who couldn't reach the grapes.]
I recovered my humanity from my dead-eyed state and left the dorm again.
Unlike first year, starting from second year we had to choose a department. There were three options: Combat, Support, and Command. Classes were still divided by rank, but the actual lessons varied depending on which department you picked.
So right now, we were all gathered in the auditorium to choose our departments.
"Hye-ji, where are you gonna go?"
"As a supporter, obviously I'm going into the Support department."
"Lady Hye-ji... Support department?"
"......I started as a supporter, okay?"
Hye-ji turned her gaze away, looking embarrassed. Then Elsia clung to me and asked,
"Husband! What do you think about me going into the Command department!"
"......So Mutaguchi Renya was here after all."
"Wouldn't the Support department suit Lady Elsia better?"
"I just want to follow my husband! Always!"
And so we each decided on our departments. Hye-ji went with Support, while the rest of us chose Combat. But then one professor called Hye-ji over and started talking to her separately. From the way his voice gradually got louder, it didn't seem like a pleasant conversation.
A few minutes later, Hye-ji came back to us looking completely deflated.
"Hye-ji, what happened?"
"I got rejected from the Support department."
According to Hye-ji, the Support department was supposed to assist the Combat department, not wipe out enemies, so they'd rejected her.
"If I kill all the enemies, that's supporting! You frustrating bastards!"
[......Is that a normal reaction?]
'For a Karazim-style supporter, it actually makes sense.'
Hye-ji was still fuming, stomping her feet in frustration. To comfort her after she'd been rejected as a supporter, we all offered a few words.
"You should've held back on the damage a bit."
"Lady Hye-ji is certainly too powerful."
"Your damage is way too high for a supporter!"
Hye-ji seemed moved by our comfort and reacted passionately.
"You damn dealers can't even put out proper damage, so what the hell do you want from me, you fucking idiots!"
"""Ah."""
Suddenly stabbed by our guilty consciences, we could only let out short sighs. There was no more conversation after that.
And so the main dealer (supporter) plus three spoon-feeders were quietly assigned to the Combat department.
I had somewhere to call, so I asked the group for a moment and stepped away. One of the behind-the-scenes operations for destroying the Academy: saving the research students. And euthanizing the professors. It was time to put a period on that.
Regardless of second year, the biggest event was none other than the previously mentioned Kim Shinwoo Law. It was truly revolutionary. No, even calling it revolutionary wasn't enough. At the point where it had pulled the research students' lives completely out of rock bottom and back onto a normal track, such a simple word couldn't possibly describe it.
On the day the Kim Shinwoo Law was officially enacted, two kinds of crying echoed throughout the Academy.
One was the roar of research students finally liberated, sobbing with joy. The other was the wail of professors lamenting in agony at having to write actual employment contracts.
The research students' cries were a kind of victory march—tearful yet excited. On the other hand, the professors' wails were a requiem packed with every grudge in the world.
The two sounds merged into one performance, creating a concerto across the Academy.
After choosing our departments and leaving the auditorium, I was on the phone with someone. It was none other than the representative of the research students.
"Are you doing well?"
"I sincerely congratulate you on becoming human."
"Of course."
I sent the representative a carefully selected sample employment contract. Because of the file size, it took quite a while to transfer, but I waited patiently until everything had been sent.
The moment the contracts finished transferring, the representative expressed intense gratitude.
"And just in case, please back up your data regularly."
Saving isn't optional—it's mandatory. The magical spell Ctrl + S that saves lives can be spammed as much as you want without any problems.
[Merging all the layers before saving isn't a curse?]
'Ah, fuck. That one's dangerous, yeah.'
It depends on the situation, but generally that's true. Especially with the research students' data—we absolutely have to protect it. That way, even if the Academy gets smashed to pieces, they'll still have a way to survive.
"Please help me when I request assistance later."
I closed my eyes for a moment and thought about the date. I didn't know the exact day, but I knew the timing perfectly.
"Second semester of this year. We'll desperately need the research students' help."
"Thank you. I'll contact you again later."
'General Secretary, huh...... It's probably still too early to use that title.'
[Then what are you going to call yourself?]
That was already decided, obviously. And it just so happened to match the current season perfectly.
I spoke to the research student representative again.
"I told you to call me General Secretary, but that's actually a story for the slightly more distant future."
"No. We don't need such grandiose words."
I smiled slightly and said,
"I am your spring."
With that, our call ended. But from that last reaction, it seemed like the meaning had been fully conveyed.
To commemorate this day, the research students went so far as to write petitions in blood and created a holiday within the Academy. The official name of the holiday was 'Research Students' Day,' but among the research students themselves, it was called by different names.
The Day of the Kim Shinwoo Law. Liberation Day. And Spring Day.
It was a historic day.
I, too, wanted to live up to their expectations, so I asked my group for understanding and devoted all my time that day to the research students. Specifically, reviewing their employment contracts.
Had research students ever written an employment contract before? Maybe slave contracts, but they'd never even seen a real one, let alone smelled the paper. Turning them into people wasn't the end of it. The bare minimum duty was to help them become self-sufficient.
That's why I was sitting there with my eyes wide open in front of the employment contracts. I read through hundreds of them, pointed out issues, and kept making revisions. My head was pounding, my hands were shaking, and by the end I even got a nosebleed.
[Are those professor bastards even human? How many trap cards did they put in?]
'Damn, even an Eldritch deck would have fewer than this.'
But my efforts clearly had an effect. Even the doctoral research students who'd held a bit of resentment toward me started showing favorable looks. It seemed they hadn't realized just how badly they'd been exploited either.
Rather, realizing they weren't all that different from each other actually deepened the bond between the doctoral and master's students. As a result, the only research students who still viewed me as an enemy were the tiny handful whose professor positions had already been confirmed.
That day, a short article appeared in the school newspaper. The content was extremely concise, yet it captured everything perfectly.
It was summer. No—it was spring.