"...This must be the right choice, right?"
"I think so."
I agreed with Amelia’s words.
I hadn’t heard what the Author had to say, but... well.
It was obvious the Author would agree anyway.
Right now, we had two options in front of us.
Either earn points by defeating Villains, or earn points by contributing to society.
...Though, to be honest, the idea of “contributing to society” just felt like unpaid labor.
But considering the Author’s personality and the unique nature of this novel’s world...
No matter how I thought about it, the choice the Author would want was already decided.
Villain extermination was just more exciting, wasn’t it?
Since the Author had to constantly show the readers something, they’d obviously prefer events to happen.
[Defeat Villains! Defeat Villains! Helping citizens is for cowards...!]
See? Just as I expected.
Well, I didn’t have any complaints.
According to Hayul, the protagonist was definitely growing stronger.
So much so that even she was impressed.
She said his growth rate was worthy of a true protagonist.
...But it’s still not enough. No, even if it is enough, he should grow even more.
You never know when a dangerous situation might arise.
Even if I keep hovering around him, I’m still just a person.
I might carelessly overlook a threat, or an enemy might appear that I can’t handle alone.
Unless the Author goes completely insane, that probably won’t happen—but the Author isn’t omnipotent either. I knew that better than anyone.
If the Author messed up a setting and ended up creating an enemy that neither the protagonist, the heroines, nor I could handle, we’d be in big trouble.
Then it would all be over. The only person would die.
That was the one thing I couldn’t allow.
Even if I considered the worst-case scenario I could imagine, there was always the possibility of something even worse happening.
While I still had control over him, I had to make Yu Siwoo as strong as possible. By any means necessary.
That was why I was in favor... but what did they think?
"Fine. Villain extermination gives more points anyway."
"I don’t mind either."
Fortunately, no one seemed opposed.
So I was about to relax and keep an eye on Yu Siwoo and the heroines as they grew stronger...
...when a problem arose.
A completely unexpected one.
"The maximum number of participants is two."
"Huh? But it’s Villain extermination—!"
Before I knew it, a disgruntled voice slipped out.
Two people? There were four of us right now.
Sure, we could split into pairs, but why bother? If all four of us went together, there wouldn’t be any issues.
Did we really need to do this?
"The instruction was to operate in pairs and treat it as field training. That’s how it’s done in real combat."
"...Ah."
Now that I thought about it, there was a setting like that.
What was it again? Maybe during the final exam before winter break?
It was a setting the Author had added.
Something about Heroes typically operating in pairs...
...An old setting I’d casually thrown out had come back to bite me.
[Ehehe...]
"Haa... Fine. Understood."
"...What do you want to do? If you don’t want to drop out, you could go the other way. They said there’s no limit on participants there."
"No, let’s just go with this. We’ll split into pairs."
There was no other choice.
The Author had already established the setting, and changing it now would probably be a burden on them.
As proof, the Author was currently groaning in silence without saying a word.
No matter how I looked at it, changing things now would be difficult.
Then I’ll just go with this.
"Ah, then I’ll go with Dorothy."
"That sounds great. As long as you protect me, I’ll be fine!"
"Don’t worry. You know how fast I am, right?"
"That’s reassuring!"
"Huh?"
What the…?
Dorothy and Amelia had suddenly started talking between themselves, as if they’d planned it in advance.
…What is this? What’s going on?
"We’ll go ahead then!"
"Let’s go, Dorothy! If we just stand here, those evil villains will keep tormenting the citizens!"
"That would be terrible! We need to hurry!"
"…They’re gone."
In the blink of an eye, the two of them finished their registration and left.
Yu Siwoo watched them go and laughed in disbelief.
"Arte Isis, Yu Siwoo. Your pairing has been confirmed. If you’d like to give up and choose again, you’re free to do so. Just come to the faculty office if you want to re-select."
"Ah, yes. Thank you."
It wasn’t until after registration, as I walked away with Yu Siwoo, that I realized it.
I’d been completely oblivious.
"I guess the two of them have gotten pretty close."
"Gotten close?"
"Yes. When two girls are together, they tend to get along quickly."
Right. I’d forgotten one important fact.
Now that I thought about it, they were both girls.
I didn’t know exactly how girls bonded, but somehow, they’d become close in an instant.
Still, it was a little disappointing. Since they were heroines, they should get closer to the protagonist too, right?
…Well, they’ll probably warm up to him soon. There’s plenty of time.
I never noticed Yu Siwoo’s gaze, which seemed to be saying, *Aren’t you a girl too?*
[…Those two, they’re the heroines, right?]
"Yeah, they are."
[But why don’t they seem interested in the protagonist?]
"I didn’t see any need to interfere, so I didn’t pay much attention. That’s just how it turned out."
The pure girl said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"At first, I really did plan to use them as heroines…"
The girl recalled. Her precious reader.
Everything she had shown them so far. And all the events that had unfolded.
As the memories surfaced, the girl smiled brightly.
It was an innocent, carefree smile.
"I thought about adding some events since there weren’t enough, but it didn’t seem necessary!"
[…Ah, you mean *that* reader?]
"Yeah! They’re not a reader yet, but the protagonist seems a little interested in them."
[Hmm…]
The girl watched the reader as they spoke with the protagonist.
At first, she had focused on observing the protagonist, and every event had revolved around them.
The reader was just a convenient term to use. Nothing more, nothing less.
But before she knew it, the girl had become more interested in the reader than the protagonist.
The others were still watching the protagonist because they were interested in them, but…
I think the reader is more fun.
[By the way, why doesn’t your ability work on that guy?]
"Huh? My ability?"
[Yeah! Your ability! You said it doesn’t work on him, right?! Do you have any idea how shocked we were?!]
[You didn’t just say that as a joke, did you?]
"Hey, what do you take me for?"
[Because you pulled that stunt once before. I told you I’d be really mad if you did it again.]
The booming voice made the ever-optimistic girl answer with a sheepish laugh.
"I don’t know, it really doesn’t work."
[…Seriously?]
"Yeah. It surprised me too."
I was so shocked I nearly passed out.
The other guys who heard the story were the same.
No, how could a mere human be immune to my ability? That didn’t make any sense.
[Didn’t you say it worked at first?]
"Yeah. There were a few similar worlds, but I liked that one. I put in some effort to set him as the protagonist."
I picked a guy with a decent face and tweaked him a bit to fit the world.
His ability was intuition. And to make him protagonist-worthy, I gave him the setting of having incredible talent.
"Intuition as an ability, isn’t that pretty cool? You can’t see it, but it’s super strong, right?"
[Weren’t we talking about something else just now?]
"…Tch. No, it’s nothing. Just… that’s how it was. After that, my ability stopped working on him."
Right now, in that world, my ability only fails on two people.
Reader-nim and the protagonist.
It works on every other human, though.
"Reader-nim at least gets half-affected."
[That’s the side effect of you dragging that human here, isn’t it?]
"No, well… it’s not like I could help it. It’s fun this way, isn’t it?"
[…]
The others couldn’t argue.
They were enjoying the chaos that happened when an otherworldly soul brought in from the outside entered a new world.
At first, they’d grumbled about why go through all that trouble, but now they just kept their mouths shut.
"Fine, Reader-nim knows I exist, so that’s why. But the protagonist…"
Why didn’t my ability work on him? That was the real mystery.
It hadn’t failed from the start, either.
It had been fine when I set it up. Then, when I tried to tweak him again after a long time, it just… didn’t work. I was so flustered I instinctively lied to Reader-nim and said it was nothing.
It wasn’t like he’d scold me for it, but I’d done it reflexively.
"Unless someone’s aware of my existence, there’s no way my ability wouldn’t work on them."
[You set Yu Siwoo’s ability as intuition, right? Could he have sensed you with that?]
"No, no way. Absolutely not."
Intuition might let humans sense things they normally couldn’t, but…
Even that had its limits.
"He couldn’t even notice Reader-nim watching him. How would he notice me?"
[…Hmm, true?]
Yu Siwoo’s ability was intuition.
That was something they all knew well.
"You guys said intuition was too boring, so I added another setting, but then someone said it was dangerous and tried to remove it… and it wouldn’t come out."
[…]
"I’m doing whatever I want now."
[Yeah, yeah… I’ve got nothing to say.]
They’d complained that intuition was too plain, so I’d tossed in a fragment of a higher-tier ability as a temporary setting.
I hadn’t even decided what the ability was, and since it wouldn’t matter unless his power grew significantly, I’d just thrown it in carelessly.
For some reason, though, it made my ability stop working on Yu Siwoo—and now I couldn’t remove it.
It was cool, so that was fine, but this was actually lucky for me.
Those bastards who were always bossing me around had messed up!
[…So what? Is he some kind of mutant?]
"I don’t know."
In the end, we all turned to Reader-nim with no answers.
He was smiling at the protagonist, his eyes crinkling.
"…Heh, he’s pretty."
[Crazy bitch…]
"What? He *is* pretty!"