"Huaaam…."
[Reader, are you sleepy?]
"Well, of course I am…."
Wouldn’t it be weird if I wasn’t?
I’d been standing guard in front of Yu Siwoo’s house all night, bored out of my mind.
Even if I was in a young body now, fatigue was still fatigue.
[…I’m a little disappointed. I thought something would happen since you’re the protagonist.]
"I told you, just because someone’s the protagonist doesn’t mean something’s always happening."
If incidents kept popping up all year round, there’d be nothing left of me.
Protagonists don’t always get dragged into trouble, you know.
Fortunately, the author seemed to accept that, as they didn’t seem too let down.
"Hwaaam…."
"Oh, good morning."
"?!"
Yu Siwoo stepped out the door, so I waited a moment before timing my greeting just right.
What’s with him, why’s he so surprised?
…Did he notice me? Nah, no way.
He’s probably just startled to run into a class beauty by chance.
"What a coincidence. Do you live around here?"
"Uh, y-yeah… that’s right."
"You look exhausted. You really shouldn’t be like that. You need to get plenty of sleep."
I gave him a bright smile.
Nice, that should’ve boosted my favorability.
By the way, why does Yu Siwoo have such dark circles under his eyes?
Didn’t he sleep? Why not?
[Reader! Reader! Go to school with Siwoo!]
The author started nagging me relentlessly.
Guess I don’t have a choice.
"Since we’re already here, how about we go to the Academy together?"
"T-together…?"
"Yeah, together."
Yu Siwoo nodded, and the author cheered.
Looks like they were happy to keep watching the protagonist of their own story.
Seems like they’ve completely forgotten they were mad at me earlier.
Or maybe they just don’t care anymore?
"Hehe, I’m looking forward to today at the Academy."
I should keep smiling.
They say you can’t spit in a smiling face—maybe it’ll soften my image a little.
Arte didn’t notice how stiff Yu Siwoo’s face was.
Exhaustion had narrowed her vision too much.
"Alright, all of you. You worked hard sitting at your desks yesterday. Don’t worry, we won’t be doing theory today."
"Ooooh…!"
The students perked up at Claire-sensei’s words.
Guess they really hate theory.
Well, I’m not exactly a fan of studying either.
Not much difference between us, huh?
"So, Author, what’s the plan for today?"
[Umm… We’ve picked weapons and done sparring, so today I was thinking we’d measure mana!]
"Mana measurement? Isn’t that something you usually do at the entrance ceremony…?"
Yeah, that’s right.
Normally, mana measurements and Trait confirmations were done right at the start, during orientation.
Placing his hand on the crystal orb, Uwoooooh! That guy has an enormous amount of mana! He’s a rising star!
Or something like that.
Uwooooh, an S-rank Trait! Amazing!
Same kind of thing.
Wait, the order’s all wrong to begin with.
Now that I think about it, we started sparring without even measuring our mana first.
[Uh, hehehe… Well! It was supposed to happen during the entrance ceremony, but the device broke when the beast attacked, and the replacement just arrived! That’s the setup!]
"Hmm…"
She’s stalling. I can tell she forgot again.
She was so focused on dropping beasts that she didn’t even think about using materials, and now she’s regretting it.
Well, it’s a plausible enough excuse. I’ll let it slide this time.
If I keep nitpicking at the author every little thing, she might throw a tantrum when it really matters.
Sometimes you’ve gotta cut her some slack.
"Today, we’ll be measuring your mana. It was originally planned for the entrance ceremony, but as you all know, there were… complications."
The students started murmuring.
Bets on who was stronger, nonsense like you’re no match for me—the usual idiotic chatter.
"After the mana measurements, club applications will also open, so keep that in mind."
…Clubs?
[Y-You know, clubs! Like the ones where you find rare opportunities that no one else can! A place where you can legally leave the Academy!]
"Ah, that."
She’s talking about the kind of clubs the Returning Ice Ring protagonists are always hunting for.
Sometimes even kids who get pulled into games end up there.
A place where you can bring back elixirs from outside the Academy.
After reciting the day’s schedule, Teacher Claire disappeared into the staff room, and a short break was given.
Seizing the moment, I slipped away from the students’ eyes to have a word with the author.
There was something important I needed to discuss.
It’d be hard to focus with all the students making noise.
…Hmm, this spot should work.
I settled in a secluded corner at the back of the school where people rarely passed by.
"It’ll be hard to find fun outside the Academy, Author-nim."
[Hmm, that’s true. They say Academy novels get boring the second the story leaves the Academy…]
Yeah. It’s the curse of Academy-based stories.
The moment you step outside, the fun just vanishes.
Well, except for brief excursions.
Of course, there are exceptions, but…
I’ve seen plenty of novels where readers drop off the second the story leaves the Academy in the mid-to-late chapters.
Of course, eventually, the story has to leave the Academy. You can’t keep everything confined to it until the end.
But we’re still in the very early stages. It’s way too soon to be looking outside already.
So the author’s already running out of material and searching for new ideas, huh?
If this keeps up, she might quit writing altogether. So I tossed her a decent idea to work with.
"Searching for treasures within the Academy. Doesn’t that sound fun, Author-nim?"
[The Academy’s treasures…?]
"Ufufu… A secret room hidden by the Academy’s founder. And inside it, a special artifact… Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?"
This might be good.
For something I came up with in such a short time, it’s a decent plot.
Even if he leaves the Academy later, right now it’s still the very beginning.
While he’s at the Academy, developing the story this way should work fine.
"A dangerous artifact hidden by the founder is on the verge of being smuggled out of the Academy by someone, and the students have to stop it… This framework should be good enough, right?"
[Ooooh…! That sounds amazing! This could be a long-running plot! As expected of Reader-nim! You’re a genius!]
"Eh, you don’t have to flatter me like that."
Still, the praise made me smile despite myself.
It seemed the time I spent reading web novels hadn’t been wasted.
Right, Academy stories needed events to happen inside the Academy.
Once the framework was set, the rest of the plot would naturally fall into place.
First, I needed to solidify the foundation.
[And once he goes out into the world, there could be some faction after an artifact powerful enough to turn the world upside down…! Oh, I love it! We’ve got our villainous faction!]
"An artifact that could flip the world on its head. Sounds fun. Hehe…"
[Hmm, what should the artifact’s ability be?]
"No need to rush. We can take our time—very slowly—to figure that out."
[Okay! Ah, I’m so excited. How should we develop it to make it interesting?]
"I’m looking forward to it too. Seeing how Yu Siwoo will act from here on out…"
As I laughed and chatted with Author-nim, a sudden thought struck me: wasn’t this kind of thing a cliché?
Should I try it? I kind of wanted to.
Alright, let’s do it.
[…? Reader-nim? What are you doing?]
"Just a moment."
I stopped Author-nim with a quiet voice.
Even though they expressed confusion, the fact that they followed my lead made me a little grateful.
"Come out now."
I tried out the line I’d prepared.
Hmm, yeah. A scene like this needed a line like that. It sounded cool.
I pulled out the dagger I’d hidden in my clothes, aimed at the target tree… and took aim.
"If you won’t come out… I’ll make you."
Then I threw it.
The dagger left my grip and embedded itself in the trunk of a tree.
A tree that was nowhere near where I’d been looking.
[Reader-nim, that was a pretty spectacular miss…]
"…"
No, it’s just…
It could miss a little, right…?
There was no way someone who’d never even properly held a kitchen knife could throw a dagger accurately.
[Wow, you were looking over there, but it went *there*—isn’t that kind of a talent in its own way?]
"Huh, hahaha… You’re noisy. I guess it was just my imagination after all."
[So you like scenes like this, huh… Well, I’ll remember that. Maybe one day a scene you like will appear in the novel!]
His face burned.
Damn it, I shouldn’t have done that.
No, but I couldn’t help myself.
If someone’s hiding in a shady spot with a dagger,
and on top of that, they’re having a conversation with someone,
isn’t that the classic trope of someone eavesdropping on an important discussion?
I just wanted to try it once.
"Let’s go back quickly. Class is about to start."
[The reader’s taste is infiltration or spy scenarios. Noted…]
Shut up!
Guys can like that kind of thing too!
…Ah, right, I forgot to take the dagger.
Doesn’t matter. It’s just standard-issue gear anyway.
I’ll ask for another one later.
"Hi, hii. Hah. Hieek…"
Long after Arte had left the area,
from behind the tree where the dagger was embedded, a blonde girl with her bangs neatly braided crawled out.
Yep, it was Amelia.
"Hah, hah… My heart… hurts. I thought I was gonna die."
She hadn’t been able to breathe properly for fear her breathing would be heard, so now she gasped for air, trying to steady her breathing.
Her legs, numb from the excessive tension, didn’t seem like they’d move for a while.
Amelia let out a sigh.
"I just wanted to check who that student was… but how did this happen…?"
Right.
That insolent kid who’d thrown away the sparring match had gone into a secluded area,
so, just a little, just a tiny bit,
she’d followed out of curiosity.
"A secret room? An artifact that could overturn the world…?"
She’d never heard of such things.
The Academy’s founder had hidden an artifact like that?
She didn’t want to believe it.
She wanted to dismiss it as the delusions of a middle schooler with chuunibyou, but the dagger she’d seen through her trembling vision—
the dagger that had come flying straight at her despite being aimed elsewhere—
seemed to confirm that the story she’d overheard was true.
"Yu Siwoo… that was his name, right?"
He’d definitely said it before leaving, hadn’t he?
That he was looking forward to seeing how Yu Siwoo would act.
Was his interest in Yu Siwoo because he’d resolved the Beast incident?
Or was Yu Siwoo also some kind of collaborator with Arte Isis, meaning he knew those two?
She needed to meet Yu Siwoo.
"Ugh, ugh… I need to use the bathroom…! Legs, please, just move…!"
But first, she had to get to the bathroom.