Chapter 4 - Signs of Catastrophic Failure

"What? Us?"

"Who else but you? At this early hour?"

The thug burst out laughing at Raphael's innocent question. No matter how elite a school is for training heroes, places where people live are all the same. It's inevitable that among thousands of students, a few thugs will slip in.

I'm absolutely not defending this because I wrote the novel. That's just how life is.

Their name tags are red. Unlike our black ones, it means they're second-year students.

I quietly went to them. Raphael followed, tilting her head in confusion.

"Oh? Looking closely, this one's really pretty!"

"What? We had a girl like this in our school?"

"I told you we should wait from the morning. Good thing we did, right?"

As they started talking among themselves, Raphael beside me raised her nose, saying something like, 'Oh my, such compliments.'

She has absolutely no sense of the situation, thinking this is something to be happy about.

"Ahem. Anyway, that's how it is. Little one, want to come play with us? It's the first day, so it's okay to skip class. I, your senior, guarantee it."

"Really? Is that so?"

Raphael looked at me. She must have thought she could avoid this troublesome school attendance. I didn't answer. I just stood still.

"I'll buy you something delicious~ We have lots of money."

"That's right! Just follow us!!"

"Ah... mortal realm food..."

She's even drooling. Is she possessed by a ghost who died of starvation? She looked at me again, but I'm a statue. You know, the Thinker?

"Yeah. I'll buy you lots of delicious things. Leave the trendy stuff to us. Just trust us! Escorting is a man's job."

"Delicious things?! Trendy stuff?!"

No, what's with this gentleman? He's exuding such gentleness that I'm doubting if he's really a thug.

This is that sweet—

"Your boyfriend can leave now."

"Oh, really?"

Grateful to the thug who cut off my line as if knowing it shouldn't continue, I bowed my head. It's fortunate because the reason I've been quiet until now was that I didn't want to fight.

I can't even beat Raphael alone. How could I beat three second-year Justitia students? At times like this, it's right to leave when you're allowed to.

My 25-year-old concentrated Korean instinct is telling me. Go.

The fact that they're acting like thugs waiting at the gate from this early hour means they're confident in their abilities.

Even if I came with a truck, I couldn't beat one of these thugs. No, even if I rammed a thug with a truck, I couldn't win.

Therefore, good luck Raphael! I need to go before I change my mind.

"Sunghoon-ssi? Where are you going? These people said they'd buy delicious things? Sunghoon-ssi? Hey?"

As I started to leave, Raphael, sensing something was wrong, tried to follow me like an abandoned dog— but she was caught.

"Where are you going? I said let's go eat with us."

"What? No, I—"

The thugs surround Raphael. She flounders and sends me a look asking for help. She reaches out her hand this way and shoots a pitiful gaze, but it can't be helped.

It's an irresistible force. That's how humans are in front of great nature. To me, thugs are like natural disasters.

Yeah. That's how it is.

Go with them and eat delicious food. Have fun. I don't know. Because I don't know anything about it. Have a good time!

"Hey? Hey? Stop right there!! Are you really just going to leave? Really? You trash—!!"

As Raphael's resistance grew stronger, I quickened my pace. Yes, I am trash. Please don't call me that.

She still hasn't realized that no matter how much she calls, I won't turn back.

Just as Raphael's voice (screams) became inaudible, I, who was running while looking back, bumped into something. No, I was bounced off. For a moment, a fragrant scent stung my nose.

Following the source of that scent, there was a black-haired woman. Black hair and black eyes, a hair and eye color combination rarely seen in this world.

It was someone I knew well. I couldn't help but recognize her, as she looked exactly as I had described. She was glaring at me. With her arms crossed.

"Trash. Scum of the earth."

"Excuse me?"

The answer to my bewildered question was one.

"Those are words describing you."

＊＊＊

As is often the case, there are heroines in the novel I wrote. Not just one. Too many to count on fingers. Among them, there are main heroines, and I included four of them.

I think four is the limit. Any more than that is messy, right? It can't be helped that there are many sub-heroines. The logic of them increasing as the chapters increase is the same as gaining weight as you get older. It's unavoidable.

What this means is that the woman in front of me is one of those heroines.

"Isn't that girl your companion?"

She pointed and said. Following her pure white hand, there was Raphael shouting something at me. It's a bit scary to see her glaring with her eyes wide open.

It's an extremely natural question. Something like, why aren't you helping if she's your companion?

"She's not."

But I answered immediately.

"What?"

A companion, you know. There needs to be an intention to accompany, right? I'm being forced to go around together, so she's not a companion.

Isn't that right?

"What? What? Oh, really?"

I nodded lightly and moved my feet towards the classroom.

"Oh, I'm, I'm sorry. I thought she was your companion— Huh? What's that?"

The black-haired woman tried to apologize but then startled, looked back and forth between me and Raphael, and then ran towards Raphael, probably feeling that was more urgent.

I confirmed that she ran off and let out a sigh of relief.

"I deflected that naturally."

Thank goodness.

Her name is Ishia. She's one of the main heroines of [The Ice Knight of the Academy], and a dark magic prodigy who will grow to become a great magician in the future.

She's ranked number one on the list of people I don't want to get involved with.

The reason? It's simple. I'm weak. Extremely so. I'm the weakest person, even acknowledged by Justitia.

For someone like me, Ishia's very existence is a death flag. Getting involved with her itself is death.

She's the next president of the [Magic Association] that exists in Korea. In other words, the daughter of the current president. Getting involved with her means I could get caught up in all the affairs surrounding the Magic Association.

In the Magic Association, where all sorts of schemes run rampant, there are many attempts to kidnap or assassinate the president's daughter.

If I, who can't even handle a student, get caught in the magical slaughter surrounding the Magic Association? I'd turn into a lump of meat in less than a second.

My goal is to steal Kim Taehyun's opportunities and twist events to hinder his growth. Not to destroy relationships.

Of course, I don't want to die either.

Please, don't mind me and just blush at Kim Taehyun.

While thinking such thoughts, I arrived in front of the classroom. The class I'll be attending from now on. As I slid open the door of the classroom with the sign 1-5 hanging on it, there was a classroom inside.

It's exactly the image of a typical classroom, unmistakably a classroom.

Despite the early hour, there were already a few people. Among them were quite a few who would become main characters in the work, but I just glanced at them to check their condition.

My class is the protagonist's class. As befitting the protagonist's class, many main characters were gathered. Even considering those who haven't arrived yet, there were many. Even Kim Taehyun had already arrived and taken a seat at the very back.

That guy, really, sitting quietly and setting the mood.

"I don't like it."

I frowned. It's my chronic condition of handsome-man-phobia. Even though I created him, I couldn't help it. I created a perfect human that couldn't possibly exist in reality, and looking at him makes me feel like my internal organs are twisting. Die, handsome man. Die, elite.

While praying such prayers, I sat down roughly in the middle, with the intention of 'Please let me just be in the middle.' I had confirmed the faces of the main characters and now that I was seated, there was nothing to do.

So I had no choice but to open the [Menu].

[Status] [Inventory] [Skills]

Among them, when I opened [Inventory], the interface appeared.

[God's Notebook] [Spoon X1]

I took out the God's Notebook. Without putting my hand in, I made it fall from mid-air as if by magic and caught it with my hand.

I hadn't been able to read the [Skills] part properly because I was fighting with Raphael yesterday.

He said he would give two gifts, and one seems to be [Inventory], so the other is likely to be in [Skills].

[The skills are exactly as Sunghoon-ssi set them. You can learn up to 3, and they're abilities that don't use magic power.]

That's how I had set it up. I had also decided that the ways to learn them were through birth, learning, and crisis.

[You can learn skills using skill points and expand them through mind maps. This is the second gift I gave you instead of magic power. I hope you work hard. I like Kim Taehyun, so I'd prefer if you didn't antagonize him too much.]

I'm antagonizing him because you like him. I almost crumpled the paper thinking of God's face, but stopped remembering the blonde I left behind earlier.

"Well."

I'll endure it since I now know how to use [Skills]. Cutting to the chase, I put the notebook in the [Inventory] and opened [Skills].

-----------------------

[Skills]

「Empty Slot」 「Empty Slot」 「Empty Slot」

[Skill Points 100000P]

[Skill List]

「Hyper Perception(A+)」(500000P)

「Ice System(S-)」(15000000P)

「Magic Detection(B)」(100000P)

…………

………………

「Heaven's Blessing(EX)」(500P)

"Huh?"

I was scrolling down, wondering why the prices were so high, when I doubted my eyes. A skill above S rank, the highest grade, costs only 500P. I rubbed my eyes once. I doubted if I had seen it wrong. When the initial points can only buy a B-rank skill, how can an EX be 500?

"If I don't buy this, I'm a black Malang Cow."

I immediately pressed 「Heaven's Blessing(EX)」.

[「Heaven's Blessing(EX)」: Receive heaven's blessing. A miracle favorable to you occurs in dramatic situations.]

[This skill has been discounted by Heaven (God). 500P]

[This skill has a usage limit. It disappears after 5 uses.]

[Do you want to purchase? (Balance after purchase 99500P)]

[YES/ NO]

There was no need to hesitate. I firmly pressed the YES button. At the same time, a new skill was registered in the skill window.

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[Skills]

「Heaven's Blessing(EX)」 「Empty Slot」 「Empty Slot」

[This skill cannot be expanded through mind map.]

-----------------------

"Huh."

After buying the skill, I felt very reassured. The God who looked like an enemy yesterday somehow seemed kind now. Is this that feeling?

Is this like seeing a thug put an umbrella over a cat on a rainy day? After only doing hateful things, doing one good thing makes my heart melt.

As I was grinning happily with a good mood,

BANG─!!

With a loud noise, the front door of the classroom opened. It's not class time yet, who— as if answering my thought, two women caught my eye.

Blonde and black hair. Cold sweat trickled down as I saw the blonde glaring at me as if she wanted to kill me and the black-haired one looking down at me like trash.

For some reason, it feels like I'm doomed.