"M-Mir...?"
A person presumed to be a Weaverfolk, carrying something made of spheres, called out tearfully to someone.
But I didn’t care at all. I had something far more important to focus on.
"...He’s alive."
He was bleeding, but he was definitely alive.
To get him to the hospital as quickly and safely as possible, I used every last thread I had left to wrap around Yu Siwoo and hold him close.
"M-Mir...! Mir!"
I decided to leave the Academy, roughly covering my body with a hoodie.
There was no time to feel embarrassed. This was an emergency.
Staying here any longer wouldn’t help Yu Siwoo at all.
There were more than a few injured. It was obvious they wouldn’t even get proper first aid, let alone treatment.
We need to get to a hospital.
[W-Wait, Author-nim?! Aren’t you going to finish that?!]
"There’s no time for that."
[Huh?! B-But...!]
I ignored the Author’s words without hesitation.
I didn’t have any usable threads left anyway, and there were far more important things to do than deal with that.
A doll like that could just be erased later if it caused problems.
But Yu Siwoo was different.
He was someone I had to protect no matter what.
"He’s the protagonist. If something happens to him, it’s a disaster."
[W-Well, that’s true...?]
"Right. This is all for everyone’s safety. It’s unavoidable. You said you can’t change the settings, didn’t you? What if the protagonist dies here?"
The Author didn’t seem to want to stop serializing yet.
So, I’d have to say something that would make them panic.
"You wouldn’t... want to post a notice saying, ‘I’m the author...’ and announce the end of serialization, would you?"
[...Fine.]
After forcing the Author to reluctantly agree, I slipped away.
Of course, they had no choice but to agree. They’d said with their own mouth that the protagonist couldn’t be modified.
That meant they couldn’t just retcon Yu Siwoo to be unharmed. Right now, he was genuinely injured. Badly, at that.
What if he ended up with lasting damage?
That couldn’t happen.
The students fighting the villains, the teachers rushing to the Academy’s main building.
The vanished corpse of the Weaverfolk leader and the canine beastkin beside it.
None of it mattered.
Only the one wrapped tightly in my threads, asleep inside.
The world’s protagonist. The one and only human. Only Yu Siwoo was on my mind.
I didn’t give a damn about the rest.
Yu Siwoo suddenly frowned.
A bright light pierced his closed eyelids, painfully vivid.
"Ugh..."
He tried to roll over, ignoring the sensation stabbing at his eyes, but sleep wouldn’t come. So, Yu Siwoo decided to get up.
His head was foggy, but he couldn’t keep his eyes shut any longer.
Swallowing his sudden irritation, he opened his eyes—then jumped in shock.
"...Are you awake?"
"Hiiik?!"
There was Arte, her red eyes wide open—unlike her usual half-lidded gaze—as she stared at me.
"Eek?!"
"Ow... Ah, it hurts..."
Startled, I sat up too quickly and collided with Arte.
Both of us rubbed our foreheads, now red from the unexpected impact.
"It’s a relief you’re okay. I thought you might be dead."
"What the—..."
"I heard your muscles were damaged, and your brain was almost ruined too. When you didn’t wake up for days, I really thought you were dead."
"What?!"
Yu Siwoo frantically scanned the room.
A white room, an IV drip inserted. The faint, familiar scent of medical disinfectant—definitely a hospital.
Realizing he was in a hospital, Yu Siwoo finally began to regain his senses.
"A-Academy! What happened to the Academy...!"
"It’s already over."
"...Over?"
"Yes, completely. The Weaver Menace has been annihilated. Ta-da."
Arte delivered the news in a lighthearted tone, like a child reciting lines from a play, but the content was anything but light.
The annihilation of the Weaver Menace.
Meaning everything was resolved while I was asleep.
"It was all over the news. People were furious—what was the Academy even doing? Useless Association bastards, they said."
"T-The victims?! Wait, are Amelia and Dorothy okay?!"
"...The first thing you ask about when you wake up is other people? Don’t worry, everyone’s fine."
"They’re really okay...?"
Arte smiled and pointed to the table.
On it was a calendar.
She casually flipped through it before dropping a bombshell.
"Everything was settled while you were asleep for nearly a week."
"A week?!"
"Yes. A week. The final count was zero deaths, about ten severe injuries, and mostly minor ones."
She added that most of the seriously injured were teachers, and that without them, the damage would’ve been far worse.
"One executive missing, three dead. Most of the villains were captured. That’s it. The end."
"...I see."
Not a single student died in that chaos.
I’d been a little resentful when I was holding out in the main building, wondering why the teachers hadn’t come.
Turns out there was a reason.
"But, Arte."
"Yes?"
"Could you, uh... step back a little?"
"...Why?"
Huh?
This wasn’t the reaction I’d expected at all.
I’d assumed she’d go, “Ah, sorry,” and naturally take a step back. But this? Unthinkable.
W-What’s going on?
Something felt off. She was acting like her usual self... but not quite.
"I-I mean..."
How do I put this.
You’re too close, and you smell amazing, so could you please back up?
No way. I could never say that.
If the first words out of my mouth after waking up were something like that, I’d be labeled a pervert with no defense.
After all that suffering, I wasn’t about to end up as a sex-crime villain.
Just as I was agonizing over what to do, an unexpected savior arrived.
"You’re up?"
"Oh. Hi."
"Amelia...!"
"...What’s with that reaction? Gross."
A perfectly timed interruption.
Amelia’s entrance naturally drew Arte’s attention away, and I was able to subtly put some distance between us.
Perfect, Amelia. Thanks.
"Are your legs okay?"
"Hm? ...Oh, yeah. They said I can start walking soon."
Amelia grinned and lifted her crutch.
And only then did I notice—she was badly injured.
One of her legs was wrapped thickly in bandages. It was obvious she was one of the severely injured, even without her saying it.
"Are you hurt?"
"...Yeah, well. She was fast. Took a low kick to the leg, and it twisted."
"What?!"
"Don’t worry. They said there won’t be any aftereffects."
She shook her thickly bandaged leg as if to prove it was fine, then smiled brightly.
"Dad even got revenge for me!"
"...Dad? That Hero..."
"Yeah. I almost died, but luckily, Dad showed up. Before I could even react—*snap*."
She said it jokingly, but the content was anything but light.
She almost died, yet she’s brushing it off like this.
Amelia really is strong.
She doesn’t usually show it, but the rare glimpses of her resilience always left an impression.
"...Ah, Arte. Sorry, but could I talk to Yu Siwoo alone for a bit?"
"Why ask me...?"
"No, it’s just... I want to have a heart-to-heart with a friend."
Glance, glance.
I could feel Amelia sneaking looks at Arte.
...What’s this? Why is she checking her reaction?
Amelia had placed unusual emphasis on the word *friend* when asking Arte.
"Fine. Should I come back in about an hour?"
"Thanks. That’s plenty of time."
"It’s nothing."
After Arte left the room with Amelia seeing her off, and once Amelia was sure she was gone—
She let out a huge sigh.
"Y-You, you—! Yu Siwoo! What the hell did you do?!"
"What? What did I do?"
"What did you do to Arte?!"
"I was just sleeping! What could I have done?!"
I thought Amelia was scolding me.
But it wasn’t that.
Not scolding—she was *excited*.
No, not just a feeling. She *was* excited.
...A wave of unease washed over me.
I couldn’t recall a single time when Amelia had reacted like this and it turned out to be something good.
"Y-You bastard...! Nice work! I don’t know what you did, but you *really* did good!"
"What?!"
"Arte’s acting like *that*—didn’t you do something? She’s practically on your side now!"
"What are you even—"
"Seducing a girl in the middle of a fight? Didn’t peg you for that kind of guy. Color me impressed."
And my fears were confirmed.
More nonsense.
"What nonsense? I didn’t do anything!"
"No way. You just didn’t notice, but she was *doting* on you."
"What does that—"
"She was watching over you for *over three hours every day* before leaving! What did you do? Spill it!"
...What?
Over three hours? Every day?
"Th-That’s—"
"What the hell did you do to her? Tell me too. I need to know for the next plan."
She was watching me for *three hours a day*?
...Seriously?
Suddenly, I remembered Arte’s ominously glowing eyes the moment I opened mine.
And her face, so close that when I sat up, I nearly headbutted her.
"N-No way... Was that earlier—"
Had she been watching me the whole time?
Why? What changed?
I hadn’t done *anything*!
I thought I’d gotten used to Arte’s stalking, that I didn’t find her scary anymore.
But this inexplicable behavior sent a chill down my spine.