Chapter 15
“What do you think of that guy?”
Helia turned her head at the voice behind her.
The owner of the voice was someone familiar.
“Oh, is that you, Dongjin?”
“Yeah. Long time no see.”
“Aha! It’s been a while. When you say ‘that guy’... do you mean Mr. Bin?”
“Yeah. Lately... he’s been getting on my nerves a little.”
“Because of Ms. Ena, right?”
Dongjin blinked at Helia’s words.
She was right. She was, but... she was being too direct.
She had just said it outright.
“.. You’re still as honest as ever.”
Whether Helia had heard him or not, she began explaining about Bin.
“Hmm... I hear he’s a very smart person! But I haven’t talked to him much, so I don’t know him well.”
“Oh, really? Hmm... Who should I go talk to?”
“You should probably talk to Ms. Mist... or Mr. Kanghan!”
Dongjin furrowed his brow at Helia’s words.
Both of them were extremely difficult people to deal with, weren’t they?
Mist was far too stiff.
Kanghan seemed easygoing, then suddenly went completely off the rails.
And...
They were both vastly stronger than him.
“.. The first- and second-ranked students know him?”
“Uh... I don’t think they knew him before. It seems like they became friends at the academy?”
Helia smiled faintly, as if she was enjoying herself.
She understood Dongjin’s confusion.
‘.. He doesn’t look strong at all. He sure is popular, though.’
The strangest part was...
Even she didn’t find him that unlikeable.
On top of that, he had won both Ena’s and Mist’s favor.
Wasn’t that strange?
Someone liked by both the Joker and Batman.
“Hmm... Got it. Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it~ You’ll help me with a favor next time too, right?”
“Of course. I’m not shameless, you know.”
Dongjin said that and left.
He was walking rather quickly.
‘.. He seems anxious.’
The fact that Dongjin liked Ena.
Everyone who needed to know already knew it.
That included Dongjin.
Even Ena herself.
‘.. It won’t work out anyway...’
Helia turned slightly and looked toward the dining hall where the students had gathered.
There...
Ena and Bin were eating lunch together.
‘They already look way too close.’
Ena glanced up while eating.
She saw Bin with a sullen expression.
“Pfft!”
Ena burst out laughing, unable to hold it in.
Bin looked at Ena as if he couldn’t believe it.
“You’re having a great time~”
“No, no~ It’s not like I’m having fun!”
Ena exhaled with a flushed face.
This wouldn’t do.
There were too many eyes watching them at the academy.
She couldn’t let people see her this careless.
But... what was she supposed to do when it was so funny?
She couldn’t hold it in when she saw that sulky expression.
“What. It’s my turn next, right?”
Bin looked at Ena with the corners of his mouth slightly raised.
Ena shrugged and nodded.
“Sure~ If you say so~”
Bin let out a hollow laugh.
‘Even if I’m letting her have her fun on purpose... it’s still getting on my nerves.’
He’d get her back for this fun little prank later...
“Hey, say ‘ah~.’”
At the moment Bin was lost in thought,
Ena held a spoon out to Bin’s mouth.
“Uh... huh? Mmph...?”
“That’ll do, right?”
Ena grinned and stood up from her seat.
Strangely...
She felt as though her heart had eased.
“... Dongjin should have seen that...”
Helia shook her head with a sigh.
If he had seen that, would he have been able to hold back his anger?
-----
“Ha... What am I supposed to do about the individual sparring match?”
The team sparring match posed no problems at all.
By now... we had a team composition that couldn’t fail even if we tried.
We had secured the three standard elements: tank, damage dealer, and support.
Of course, we didn’t have a healer.
But putting together a party with a healer at the academy was insanely difficult.
This was good enough.
But.
The individual sparring match was the problem.
“.. Getting eliminated in Round 1 would be ridiculous.”
That was the biggest problem.
Getting eliminated in the first round.
And as a result... ending up buried at the very bottom.
In fact, the odds were fairly high.
I’d freeloaded quite comfortably from the moment I entered the academy until now.
But I had no Ability.
And I wasn’t strong, either.
“Even the kids at the bottom ranks have at least one Ability, you know.”
Not everyone possessed powerful Abilities like [Compression], which Ena had, or [Mist], which Mist had.
But most Abilities drew out more power than their users’ skill levels would suggest.
I had no Ability at all.
And as someone with no strength... this was a brutal prospect.
“Phew... let’s just figure out how to get through Round 1.”
“Alchemy is next, right? I need to take that class soon.”
I couldn’t keep carrying around nothing but tennis balls forever.
For a while, I’d keep putting mana into the balls and carrying them around.
In fact, once I learned alchemy, I’d be able to use mana stones.
Well. It went without saying that the mana in a mana stone was far more useful than the mana I’d put inside a tennis ball, didn’t it?
And... in alchemy class, I’d learn the most important thing.
‘Magic scrolls, throwable talismans, magic cards. If I can make these, I’ll be able to breathe a little easier.’
The highest-level play available to someone with no Ability in this game.
The so-called... [Item Mage].
Of course, people tended to call them card mages or talisman mages...
But to me, they were simply mages who revived Ability-less characters with items.
The problem was...
I was that Ability-less character.
“If possible... I hope the professor is good at magic circles.”
Alchemy wasn’t actually a field small enough to be wrapped up in a single class.
“Professor Erina would be best... then Hellin... and Professor Muruk would be the worst...”
All three professors were capable.
There were no incompetent professors at the academy.
You had to be a monster to teach here.
But.
Regardless of ability, some professors were better at teaching than others.
‘Professor Erina is the best at teaching [Inscription] and various disposable magic circles.’
‘Professor Hellin... specializes in manufacturing consumables, but her first lecture is still [Inscription].’
‘But... Professor Muruk specializes in materials engineering, and doesn’t get to [Inscription] until after the fourth lecture.’
Professor Muruk placed great importance on materials engineering.
In some ways, he was a professor who went more deeply into the fundamentals than the other two.
But.
Studying the fundamentals didn’t help you right away.
“Materials engineering is... something only people with time to spare can study.”
What suited me, with neither an Ability nor any strength to rely on,
was practical knowledge.
“Phew... I guess I should head to the classroom.”
- Creak..!
I opened the classroom door, feeling nervous.
I was worried the professor might already be inside.
Fortunately, or unfortunately,
there was no professor inside the classroom.
Of course, a familiar face did greet me there.
“Oh, hello...?”
Helia.
When she saw me, she gave me an awkward little wave.
“Hello...”
I sat one seat away from her.
Hmm... Wasn’t this about the right distance for our relationship?
But the moment I sat down, Helia moved right next to me.
“.. You prepared something fun for this class too, like you did in magic class, right?”
Helia looked at me with sparkling eyes.
Huh?
Prepared something?
“.. I didn’t prepare anything like that...?”
I had come to alchemy class purely to study.
And... the class itself wasn’t a competition.
We wouldn’t compete until exam season later on.
The early alchemy classes had so much theory that there were no practical scores.
“Hmm...?”
Helia looked at me in disbelief.
“From what I’ve heard, you show off amazing things in every class...?”
I stared at Helia, dumbfounded.
I didn’t understand.
Just who had been spreading rumors like that?
“Well~ I guess we’ll see during class!”
Helia said that and turned to face the front.
However, less than ten seconds later, she looked at me again.
“Ah... by the way... You and Ena have been getting close lately, haven’t you?”
I nodded.
“That’s right.”
Well. It was true, after all.
We were somewhat close.
And there were actually parts of our personalities that matched fairly well.
“You should be careful, you know?”
“Oh. Are you talking about someone named Dongjin?”
“Oh my, you know? I guess you know more rumors than I thought?”
“Hmm... Someone warned me about him before.”
“Ah~ Was it Kanghan? Well! I can’t think of anyone besides Mr. Kanghan who would have warned you!”
I nodded.
But honestly, it was strange that people kept getting this misunderstanding.
“But I’m not interested in Ena romantically.”
Helia tilted her head.
She brought a hand to her lips.
And... stared intently into my eyes.
“Ena was feeding you rice herself...”
Oh dear.
When had she seen that?
“Ahaha... There was another reason for that.”
“Hmm... But Mr. Dongjin won’t care about something like that.”
“.. That’s true.”
Actually, I knew Dongjin to some extent.
Unlocking Ena’s route at Mel Academy had been incredibly difficult.
And that had mostly been because of Dongjin.
He was a truly strange character.
He never confessed to Ena directly.
But he liked her.
Yet he absolutely couldn’t stand someone else confessing to her.
Like... a security guard protecting a beautiful statue.
A character who did nothing but block people from approaching Ena.
‘He seems like he should be a minor character, yet he’s a strong character who ranks in the top ten.’
That was why Ena’s route had been insanely difficult.
With a top-ten character standing firmly in the academy from the moment of admission,
naturally, only truly hardcore players could pursue Ena.
But whatever...
It didn’t matter to me.
“But anyway... there’s no reason for me to worry about him, either.”
“.. Whoa...”
Helia drew out her words as if surprised.
She probably hadn’t expected that kind of response.
“You’re famous for being fairly strong... but I guess you aren’t very worried!”
Helia looked at me as if she found it amusing.
I... merely smiled a little.
Well, what was there to fear?
What I was afraid of was...
“Nice to meet you. I’m Professor Muruk, in charge of alchemy.”
This damn world.
It never once took a turn that helped me.
“Today’s class... will cover mana powder and catalysts.”
I immediately went into emergency mode.
‘.. Who’s the character who puts alchemy in their curriculum?’
- Mist isn’t here.
- Ena wouldn’t take something this boring.
- Helia... is right here.
There was no way Kanghan or Mizha would take a class like this.
Damn it.
‘Somehow... I need to run to someone who has learned [Inscription] and get them to teach me..!’
And... I’d have to persuade them, too.
‘.. There’s no one among the notable people I’ve gotten close to who can teach me?’
This was an emergency.
A genuine emergency.
I did have one method saved as a last resort.
But... I really didn’t want to do it.
[Library]
I could go there and learn it in advance.
But... skills learned in the library increased in proficiency insanely slowly.
That was apparently a penalty for not having an instructor.
‘Phew... in that case, I have no choice.’
‘I’ll have to clear the events that appear in the library... this time.’
I sighed as I looked at the blue mana powders laid out on the desk.
But beside me, someone was beaming brightly, seemingly oblivious to my distress.
“Hehe~ I’ve never seen the mana powder used for Inscription like this before~”
‘.. Used for Inscription? Does that mean she’s tried Inscription?’
The moment Helia finished speaking,
I quickly turned my head toward her.
She stared blankly at me.
“.. Did I say something wrong?”
Helia tilted her head,
but I shook mine.
“Do you remember... when you said you’d help me if I got stuck while learning magic from you?”
I bit my lip tightly as I looked at Helia.
“Uh... huh? I... I did say that, didn’t I?”
I knew that had just been something she’d said in passing.
But she had said it, hadn’t she?
I needed to be shameless now.
“Could you teach me [Inscription]?”
“..Eeh?”
Helia only blinked rapidly at me.
“Please!”
But Helia’s reaction was strange.
Helia looked at me as the corners of her eyes trembled.
“Th... this isn’t right..!!”
..?
What was she talking about?
What was that supposed to mean?