The Academy’s Time Limit in a Novel Written by a Friend

49 – Episode 49. (2)

It dawned on the day I decided to commit my first murder.

I was surprised that I didn’t feel anything at all, whether it was because my practice had not seen the light of day or it was just because I didn’t feel it.

“…What are you doing?”

“Huh?”

On the way to school, Hani suddenly asked me that.

“No? Why? What do you think is going on?”

I’m not lying. On the contrary, I felt more relaxed and calm than usual.

“No, that’s not it. Strangely, should I just say that it seems different from usual? Anyway, you look a little nervous?”

“Um, I’m not sure?”

“…Really? I’m glad you’re not worried about anything. If I have a concern, should I tell it without hiding it?”

Before I could answer anything, Lilac and Lee Yu-na greeted me.

“Sohhyun! It’s Hanhee!”

“Hello.”

But those two also approached me and tilted their heads curiously.

“Sohyeon, what’s wrong?”

“So are you? What’s the matter? What do I look weird about?”

Could it be that it’s just my misunderstanding that I’m calm, and it’s all revealed in my expression…? Then you can’t…?

“No, rather than being weird, should I say that I’m a bit on edge?”

“Usually he looks like a wary cat, but now he looks like a cat whose tail has been stepped on.”

Lee Yu-na heard an analogy that I did not understand.

“Oh, that’s right. It feels just like that.”

What is that feeling…?

“Anyway, if anything happens, call me right away. Really, I’m going to put off everything and run away. Isn’t that Yuna?”

“…Well, if you have time.”

Oh, to the point of hearing things like that from Lee Yu-na, it must have been that I was possessed and took good care of myself.

As I opened the classroom door and entered, my buttocks, which were sitting on my desk as usual, greeted me with a clamor.

“Chinttaya~ Are you here? Uh…?”

But she soon looked down at me as I sat down with a concerned expression on her face.

“Chinta, did you cry…?”

“…No?”

“Isn’t it? I don’t think it’s luck, but something seems a little out of the ordinary? Um, haven’t you had breakfast?”

“Isn’t it…? Anyway, nothing special, everyone is in a frenzy today.”

“Yeah…? I’m glad if nothing happened, but if anything happens, let me know. Because I can give you the price of tteokbokki. You are our friend.”

She got off the desk with a happy smile.

“Then Chintta! Let me know if something goes wrong~”

At the same time as Kim Ga-eul left, Chun Yu-hak, who was sitting nearby, approached me.

Chun Yu-hak, who had the most serious-looking face among the people he met today, was not as confident as usual, but hesitating, carefully choosing what to say to me.

“Is it really true that nothing happened?”

“Is my expression such a problem that even you worry about it…? So, is it really a big deal?”

Chuckled and jokingly replied, but Chun Yu-hak’s expression did not brighten.

“…No, there is no problem with the expression. Just your mood. It was like that day… No, you messed around, you’d be fine. Still, if you think I’ll be of any help, let me know. Be sure not to run.”

“Is it okay? Next time you go hunting, if you have any good information, please share it.”

“Of course not.”

Only then, Cheon Yu-hak returned to his seat with the same attitude as usual.

*

“What? Where is Kang So-hyun sick?”

“Yes?”

While taking her magic class, the academy’s mascot, Professor Park Ah-ram, shouted as usual, ‘Then, shall So-Hyun Kang answer!?’

“No, it doesn’t hurt?”

“Really? I usually do that, but today the atmosphere is sharper, so I stabbed it once.”

“Then can I not answer?”

“That’s a separate issue with classes! Now, answer this question, Kang So-hyun…!”

“Three times.”

“It’s very easy to shoot subjective questions. I’ll see you today though. From now on, I know how to take the teaching assistant course without any fuss.”

Oh, but you don’t say you hit the F.

As soon as the class was over, a cute little witch threw candy at me.

“You dropped it.”

So when I returned her candy, she grinned incredulously.

“I gave it to you. Knowing everything and being sly. I don’t know what’s going on, but she’ll feel more comfortable just confiding in someone. Cadets are still young, so you should learn how to lean on others, right?”

“Seeing how strangely everyone cares about me today, let’s see if I don’t like my expression.”

“No, it’s not about facial expressions. Just something It’s because the usual Kang So-hyun isn’t like that.”

“The usual me?”

“Yes, um. Actually, I don’t have a long personal relationship with the cadet, so I’m not good at explaining it, but anyways, is there such a thing?”

She took out another piece of her candy and asked.

“Well, if it was a really big concern, you would have told someone else, not me! But I’m an adult, so it’s okay if you tell me. He is the assistant of the future!”

“Who is the assistant?”

“You. I’m joking, so don’t be afraid to come. I’ll give you candy and tea.”

She said and left her classroom.

*

“Um, good. Cadet Kang So-hyun. Seeing that my posture is getting better, I must have gained a lot of stamina.”

The last lecture of the day was Professor Cathy’s lecture.

Today, as expected, I seemed to be in good shape.

Because my body was weaker than usual, I hit it with kicks or fists, and it was inserted exactly where I wanted it.

“Sohhyun-ah.”

“…Yes?”

It wasn’t often that she talked to me in her academy.

At the very least, it must be said that there was no sudden drop in class.

Of course, since there was a distance, the other cadets wouldn’t be able to hear it, though.

“Remember that you promised to tell me if anything happened?”

Yes.

I made that promise with her in the past.

Although she knew it was a promise she could not keep, the fact of breaking her promise did not come very pleasantly.

“If the promise you made with me is a burden to you, it’s okay to back off the promise.”

“…Yes?”

“I made that promise because I wanted to help you, not because I wanted to make you anxious and uncomfortable.”

“What is that…”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I know it’s something I can’t tell you. Boys sometimes make that face.”

“…What kind of expression am I doing right now?”

She stroked my hair at an angle invisible to others.

“An overbearing expression.”

“No, what am I doing?”

“And the look of someone deciding something secretly. Kids with faces like that didn’t listen to me no matter what I persuaded them.”

I have nothing to say.

“I won’t be disappointed. But let’s repeat one promise with me.”

“…Again?”

“Yeah, you have to come back unscathed.”

“Ah, you know what I can do. You went too far.”

I will try not to get hurt.

“Sohhyun-ah. Injury doesn’t necessarily mean that the body is hurt. Do you know?”

“…Yes.”

“Yes, I can’t stay like this for too long, so shall we continue first? It’s important to get used to your body when your posture improves.”

As she said that, she corrected my posture little by little.

“I’ll support you no matter what. Do your best.”

My heart ached for nothing at the sight of him saving even the words that he would help me.

*

Since all classes were over and I was going to stay at the academy alone in a daze, I had strange thoughts.

“Seriously, how do you know this so well, when everyone is usually so insensitive and acting like a hunk?”

Is it because they are characters in a novel?

Or is it just a really messed up poker face. I was quite confident.

As I recalled the images of them dying in the original work, my fuzzy feelings cooled down in an instant.

I didn’t want to see them die.

It’s already starting to get dark around.

The time when the moon begins to shine transparently in the sky where the sun is still up.

It’s a bit poetic, but I liked this time of day when the sun and moon coexist for just a moment.

A story with only the bright side is not interesting, but a story with only the dark side is even less interesting.

The balance has to be right. Balance. Is not it?

How long did you wait?

As the sun almost disappeared from the sky and the light of the moon began to grow stronger, the guest I had been waiting for finally appeared.

“Oh, sorry. Am I late?”

“No, senior, I unilaterally called, but thank you for coming.”

“hahahaha, you wrote the letter well enough to come out? If possible, I wanted it to be called by a pretty female junior, but it’s a pity.”

“Ah, I understand that feeling. When I receive the letter, it seems like the girl will confess, and it can.”

“Yes, but in the contents of the letter, in fact, I gave up that expectation. ‘I know your secret. If you don’t come alone to the academy competition hall by 7:00 after school, I’ll expose everything.’ Rani. Don’t you think it would be a confession?”

“Well, it’s not a confession, but isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be plausible to say that it’s a confession of an obsessive yandere character?”

“That is another novel interpretation. So? What. Why did a cute junior call me?”

“Oh, no big deal.”

Yeah, no big deal.

I told Hani, but it’s just trash cleaning.

It’s just that if you want to clean it up now, no one but me can clean it up, and if you leave it for a while, it’s just a large piece of garbage that rots around.

“Just a little. I’m trying to get rid of the big trash that I don’t like.”

“…What? What are you talking about? Have you ever been bullied? Yes, if that’s the case, you’ve come to the right place. I’m a member of the student council, so I won’t harm you as much as possible…”

“Oh, you have nothing to answer. I don’t know if the senior is sincere. I’m sorry to seniors who don’t know anything.”

She held the woman’s clothing she was holding in the form of a knife as her reverse hand and wrapped her entire body in reinforcement.

“Please die for now.”

“…What, what!?”

He hurriedly tried to pull out his sergeant, the bow, but he didn’t even think of giving him time to draw the bow string since he had dug into his body after he had been strengthened.

I aimed at the neck with a knife, but because he abandoned his bow at the moment and chose to evade, it only brushed past his shoulder, but did not cause much damage.

“What are you doing…! Who gave you the order! I don’t know what the misunderstanding is, but I don’t remember holding a grudge against anyone!”

“Yes, you would. Student Council Vice President Seo In-young. There is nothing wrong with you, senior.”

“Then why…!”

“It’s just a matter of being born.”

“…This is…!”

Excited, he lunged at me.

I was just taken aback, but if you don’t pay attention, you’ll think you can beat me at close range.

He was in his third year and I was a freshman, so he wasn’t completely wrong.

If I don’t have a spare time.

He thinks my weapon is a knife and measures the distance.

That moment of misjudgment was his failure.

I started to close the distance in one breath, but I had already swung a slash.

The moment he comes into range, narrowing the distance as if he doesn’t understand.

“Longer. Yeoui 如意…!”

The knife was transformed into a long sword.

“…What…!?”

A sudden, unpleasant sensation passed through my fingertips.

The sensation of a sword cutting through human flesh and muscle did not feel very pleasant.

“Uh…Billion…!?”

He looked quite unfair after being attacked unexpectedly.

He doesn’t seem to understand why this happened to him in the first place.

Well, it made sense.

Actually, he is innocent of any crime against a person named Seo In-young.

No, they aren’t even human in the first place.

“Even when I saw it in real writing, I thought my hobby was a dirty relic. It’s worse when you see it with your own eyes.”

Wow, that’s it! Academy is safe! I wish I could do it, but of course the world isn’t so easy.

“…What is it?”

A light shone on Seo In-yeong’s body as she collapsed while bleeding, and all of her wounds were healed.

And he was examining his condition with a completely different look than before.

Now the real enemy has appeared.

“There is still time to plan? Why already? No, did you get hurt? A false personality?”

The first artifact he has.

The puppeteer’s tea party.

It is an artifact that intentionally creates another personality inside oneself, and since the personality created with the artifact cannot recognize that fact, it is not caught in artifacts that detect even a lot of lies.

In a sense, it is the best relic for infiltration, as its original personality will never be revealed unless the conditions set in advance are met or a crisis of death does not come.

It is also the biggest reason why he did not get caught by the chairman even though he proudly entered the academy every four years disguised as a different student.

And the second relic, the Double Coin of Fortune, recovered the wound that almost killed him in an instant.

It has a cooldown of one week, but it is an amazing artifact that fully heals fatal wounds only once.

He looked at his torn clothes and asked me.

“Are you like that?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“…Looks like a cadet?”

“That’s right too.”

“It is said that saying that it is not Lilac or Cheonyuhak is trash. What do you know? Or did I just do it because I didn’t like my fake personality?”

“No way, who are you? What is the purpose what were you going to do next? I did it because I knew everything.”

“Your mouth is light? Didn’t you learn that if you’re honest like that, you’ll die quickly?”

“Will you save me if I lie?”

“There’s no way.”

“Isn’t it? Then what are you going to do by lying?”

He looked down on me and relaxed.

“Okay, any last words?”

“Wow, that line is so fucking old-fashioned. But you know what?”

“…What do you mean?”

“It is you who have to say the last thing you want to say, not me.”

She held the woman’s sword back in her hand and provoked him.

“You die here today. You bastard bastard.”