Chapter 31
Chapter 31
“Everyone’s here.”
When Elysia took her seat last, all the students of Class 1-A were finally present, and a man in a light suit entered the classroom.
Messy, unkempt hair and clothes that hadn’t been properly straightened.
Crooked glasses and a face that looked like everything in the world was a hassle.
“…It’s exactly like the description.”
Just like the other characters I’d encountered so far, but this was the first time I’d felt someone looked this identical to their original depiction.
“Stop chatting and focus. First, nice to meet you. My name is Delke. I’ll be your homeroom teacher for this year. Please don’t cause any incidents. That’s all.”
It was a plain introduction that revealed his personality without reservation.
“…….”
A few seconds of silence followed.
The students looked at him as if that was really the end of it, and Delke stood there blankly for a moment before yawning and speaking.
“You all look dissatisfied, so should we do self-introductions or something? Let’s go in attendance order. Let’s see, Elysia.”
At the teacher’s call, Elysia obediently stood up from her seat.
Then, maintaining a calm demeanor despite the gazes pouring onto her, she continued speaking.
“My name is Elysia. My specialty is swordsmanship, and my hobby is reading. I look forward to working with you for the year.”
It was just as plain an introduction, but its neatness was on a completely different level from someone else’s.
The students looked at her with expectant eyes, but Elysia cleanly ignored them and sat back down.
After that, ordinary introductions continued.
Among the characters hidden here and there were some who seemed far from ordinary, but since it was still the early part of the story, they appeared to be playing the role of normal students.
On the surface, there was nothing particularly strange, and watching from the back gave me a nostalgic feeling, as if I had truly returned to school.
“Next, Alice.”
“…….”
“Alice? Not here? Don’t tell me someone didn’t show up on the very first day?”
When she didn’t stand up despite the teacher calling her, I jabbed Alice in the side with my elbow.
She jolted in surprise, sprang to her feet, and at the same time took a sword-drawing stance as if she were about to unsheathe a blade, sweeping her surroundings with sharp eyes.
“…….”
If this had been outside, it would’ve been a reaction worthy of applause, but the TPO was terrible.
The teacher and the students alike just stared at her with expressions that said, what is she doing? Realizing the situation a moment later, Alice slackened her posture with a dazed look.
“Wipe your drool first.”
I hadn’t expected such a violent reaction, so I was pretty flustered myself.
Wanting to help even a little, I whispered quietly from behind, and she hurriedly wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth and spoke with a bright red face.
“M-My name is Alice. Pleased to meet you.”
Then she sat down with such momentum that it looked like she might bore through the desk and sink into the ground, lowering her body as much as possible.
“That scared me.”
“She’s cute, just like she appears.”
“Should I try talking to her later?”
At the murmurs coming from all around, Alice’s body only shrank further, like a deflated balloon.
Seeing that, I let out an involuntary chuckle.
If she hadn’t come to this world, she would probably have been attending classes at a similar-looking high school.
Having to go to school even after entering a novel was truly ironic.
“Ostia.”
And finally, it was my turn.
As I slowly stood up from my seat, the gazes of those paying attention under the title of top entrant felt like they were piercing my entire body.
“I’m Ostia. My specialty is swordsmanship, and my hobby is…….”
As I stood and spoke, gazes filled with differing emotions stabbed into me.
They were etching every single word I said into their ears.
Seeing the students waiting for what would come next, a smile naturally spread across my face.
“My hobby is recruiting talent. If you possess outstanding skill and talent but have nowhere to put them to use, come to me. That’s all.”
I spoke with an air of complete arrogance, looking down as if from above.
Just like with Alice, a bit of murmuring arose, but the atmosphere was clearly different this time.
Even so, I could feel it clearly.
The gazes of the supporting characters who had been hiding among the students, pretending to be ordinary people, were beginning to focus on me.
They were people who had gathered here, each holding their own circumstances in their hearts.
Some sought life, some sought wealth, and some, just as I had said, sought a place to display their abilities.
If some half-baked guy had spouted words like that, he would’ve been instantly reserved for the loner seat, but the title of top entrant proved useful in this regard.
If I exuded an air of being someone special, they’d bite the bait and come to me on their own.
After that, the self-introductions ended without incident.
Delke, apparently not having thought about what to do next, scratched his head once and opened his mouth.
“Normally, since it’s the first day, I’d like to end it here, but the dean told me to run some kind of exchange event with the students or whatever.”
He looked around at the students with a face that clearly said he had no idea what to do.
At first, the protagonist had thought, what kind of person is this, upon seeing Delke.
He looked unmotivated, and his appearance was kind of dopey.
Honestly, just looking at him now, I could sympathize completely.
“Should we have a lesson or something?”
“…….”
No one answered that.
Regardless of time or place, holding classes on the first day of enrollment violated international regulations, so every student was radiating disapproval.
Fortunately, our homeroom teacher didn’t seem to have that much stubbornness in his personality, and he quickly changed his tune.
“Then, let’s at least check your abilities briefly.”
In the end, what took place was a student-versus-student sparring match, true to classic clichés.
We each took off our uniforms in the prepared lockers and changed into combat attire.
The name sounded grand, but it was just activewear that was easy to move in.
When we headed to the training ground where we were supposed to gather, not only our class but other students were there as well.
Judging by their markings, they weren’t freshmen but seemed to be upperclassmen, and they were already sparring intensely from the very first day of the term.
“Ho.”
From the side, it looked like training that closely resembled real combat, so it naturally drew attention.
“All right, then we’ll pair up one by one and spar. As the name suggests, it’s just a light spar, so don’t get so absorbed that you injure your opponent. It’s enough just to get a feel for each other’s abilities.”
The students quickly seemed to grow close, pairing up and facing one another.
My partner was, of course, Alice, but her face was still full of sleepiness.
“Should we just half-ass it?”
“No, I can’t stay sleepy forever. If I at least move my body, the drowsiness should go away.”
Yawning, she gripped the wooden sword in her hand.
Since it was a spar, we wouldn’t use mana and would decide things purely through physical ability.
As we faced each other with swords raised, the sharp fighting spirit began to frost over Alice’s face, which until just moments ago had been dull and unfocused.
As expected of a high-class assassin.
“Um.”
Just as the spar was about to begin, a familiar female voice spoke to me from the side.
I lowered my sword and turned my head, and Elysia was standing there, having already come close.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but would you spar with me as well?”
“Hm?”
It was something I hadn’t expected at all.
I had been deliberately taking my time, planning to slowly advance my relationship with her, so suddenly?
“Hey.”
While I was racking my brain over how to respond, an irritated voice burst out.
Turning my gaze, I saw Alice frowning deeply, glaring at Elysia with an openly displeased look.
“Interrupting in the middle of a spar isn’t polite.”
“That’s why I said I was sorry.”
She responded calmly to Alice’s curt remark.
However, judging by how her tone had dropped a notch, she was clearly not in a good mood.
“Is saying sorry all it takes?”
“Then shall I kneel, perhaps?”
“That sounds good. I’ll forgive you then.”
A completely contextless argument broke out.
Verbally, it was Alice’s overwhelming victory.
Well, a high school girl who had lived in 21st-century Korea wasn’t about to lose in a war of words.
“…How rude, you are.”
At the end, Elysia’s eyes turned cold, emitting a chilling glare.
‘This is.’
Watching the two face off, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
The flow of the situation was unnatural.
Alice’s sharp reaction, and Elysia’s attitude as well—she would normally have ignored this cleanly and moved on.
[Absolute plausibility is taking effect.]
[First episode. Academy first day turns into pandemonium! has occurred.]
“……?!”
I was startled enough to instinctively take a step back.
As I blinked and stared into empty space, a sudden sentence floated up in the status window that had been quiet except when reporting my growth over the past month.
“…What the.”
Absolute plausibility.
First episode.
They were unfamiliar, yet strangely familiar terms.
Only then did I vaguely understand the situation.
There had been a similar scene in the opening of the academy arc.
The protagonist had entered the academy through a recommendation granted as a hero’s privilege.
Unaware of those circumstances, Elysia had mistaken him for someone who had cheated his way in through underhanded means, disliked his incompetent appearance, picked fights with him over every little thing, and eventually it had escalated all the way to a spar.
The details were different, but overall, the situation was similar.
A confrontation between the protagonist and the heroine.
Except now, both were women, which made it ironic.
‘And “pandemonium,” really. What a naming sense.’
It was a title that made me sigh as an editor.
“Looks like you’re ready to throw a punch now. Want to go at it?”
“If you’re confident, then go ahead.”
“Enough already…….”
Just as I was about to step in and stop them because the argument had gotten too heated, some massive repelling force shoved my body away.
It even blocked my mouth mid-sentence, to the point where my breath caught for an instant.
“……?!”
[Absolute plausibility is taking effect.]
The same status message as before appeared in front of my eyes once more.
Rubbing my throat in confusion, the obstruction finally vanished and I could breathe again.
‘So in other words, it won’t tolerate interfering with the progression of the story.’
That left a slightly bad taste in my mouth.
If this situation were part of a currently serialized novel, the comment section would be filled with people complaining about how frustrating it was, and the drop-off rate would spike hard.
‘In that case, I’ll have to revise the plan a bit.’
I’d need to carefully examine and investigate just how far the influence of this so-called absolute plausibility extended.
Only then could I lay out concrete plans for the opportunities and rewards I’d obtain going forward.
“Ostia, referee for us.”
“You’ll judge fairly, right?”
Before I knew it, their spar had become a fait accompli.
Even the students who had been lightly crossing swords nearby stepped back, focusing their attention on the two of them.
“Don’t go so far that you get hurt. If it looks dangerous, I’ll step in.”
It was said to both of them, but it was also meant for just one.
At my words, Alice winked one eye and once again raised her wooden sword.
Elysia might be a sword genius, but she couldn’t defeat Alice, who had received the protagonist buff.
Just looking at their visible stats, there was a gap of several levels.
I didn’t know what Alice was thinking, but I trusted that she’d hold back appropriately.
“Hey, what’s going on here.”
The person who approached while spouting a line straight out of some comic book protagonist was Delke, who until now had been standing against one wall of the training ground, staring blankly up at the sky.
Only after the spar began did he seem to sense something amiss, shuffling over, and I pointed with my chin at the two who were already locked in a fierce clash.
“They picked a fight.”