ISTV 72

Leon didn’t seem particularly affected by my sharp words.

Instead, he smiled leisurely and asked back.

“Why?”

“Don’t you feel all those piercing gazes? Or are you just pretending not to notice?”

“……”

“Or is it that you’re deliberately trying to make things difficult for me?”

“Have I ever once made things difficult for you?”

“From the interview until now. Constantly.”

Just mind your own business and focus on the heroine already! I’ll just stay one step away and enjoy being a fan!

I stepped down from the podium.

Honestly, I was a bit scared, but I thought I had done well.

This was the straightforward way to deal with Leon.

Meanwhile, the students were already forming their own groups.

So <That Girl, That Guy> has really begun.

Then Hamun came up to me.

“Seira. You look amazing.”

“…Hamun?”

I had no idea why Hamun was acting like this.

As a student of the Quayback family, which represented the Eastern Continent, he should have been rallying the vassal families and other Easterners, joining forces with them and hyping them up.

So why was he coming over to me?!

The evaluation has already started from this point, you know!

The prologue was already going off-script, and my head was spinning.

“Hamun. Don’t you have your own responsibilities to take care of?”

“Ah! Of course, I do.”

Then go and form your early alliance already!

But instead, he suddenly leaned closer and lowered his voice.

“To protect Seira from those filthy bastards…”

“…What did you say?”

“Ah, no, nothing.”

“……”

I doubted my own ears.

Did the righteous Hamun just swear? Again?

Anyway, he was burning with passion.

Though I had no clue what that passion was supposed to be.

The prologue is already changing way too much.

The main characters were behaving way too differently from what I knew.

At least Jerimiel is normal, thank goodness.

Jerimiel had already gathered the students around him and was at the center of his group.

Well, he is the son of the Lord of Viqung. No wonder there’s already a crowd around him.

“Wow, as expected of the Lord of Viqung’s son.”

“They say there are so many mysterious arts in Viqung, right?”

“I even heard there’s a technique that lets you change your gender?”

“I’m thinking of applying for the miscellaneous class. With Jerimiel there, it’ll definitely be different.”

Compared to Dvernonn and Quayback, Viqung was a bit more familiar to people.

There were far fewer dark rumors about them as well.

In <That Girl, That Guy>, Jerimiel was always the first to form a group and establish relationships with other students.

He did this to compete more efficiently against Leon and Hamun.

He already knew.

That eventually, it would all turn into a rivalry—Leon leading the Academic Class, Hamun leading the Swordsmanship Class, and himself competing against them.

Seira, the daughter of Dvernonn, wasn’t someone he really needed to keep in check.

…At least, that was how <That Girl, That Guy> was set up.

Leon, you idiot.

Jerimiel could already tell that Seira wasn’t pleased with Leon’s behavior.

Do you think charging in so recklessly will actually win Seira’s heart?

His body was here, but all of his attention was on Seira.

Seira has her own rules.

Seira clearly had things she wanted.

She even demanded something from Hamun.

“Hamun has his work. I have mine. When each of us performs our roles properly in our respective places, that’s when Seira shows favor.”

So Jerimiel actively moved.

He gathered students, introduced himself, and built connections.

He believed that in the end, this would be what drew Seira’s attention more than anything else.

On the surface, his actions looked the same as in <That Girl, That Guy>, but his motivation had completely changed.

Seira couldn’t have realized that much, though.

Soon, teaching assistants appeared.

Beastfolk of the herbivore variety—soft, fluffy white fur, long ears pointing high into the sky.

And red eyes.

The rabbit beastfolk teaching assistants stepped forward.

Since they were rabbits, their size was about the same as a child in human terms.

“Kyaaah!”

“They’re so cute!”

The assistants wore red hats.

They seemed used to the freshmen’s reactions and didn’t look particularly impressed.

Like grad students back on Earth, they looked utterly exhausted.

“Follow me in this line.”

“This group, with me.”

“This way, follow me. If you get separated from the line, you’ll end up lost, so pay attention.”

The assistants sighed.

Even if they explained everything clearly, there would still be kids who got lost, and of course, they’d have to run around, searching and cleaning up the mess afterward.

The professors were the ones who set up the labyrinth wards, but somehow it was always the assistants stuck with the cleanup work.

Their sighs were heavy with despair.

I followed one of the rabbit assistants into the dorm building.

Because twice the normal number of students had been admitted, the rooms were all doubles.

A bunk bed, two desks, two small wardrobes. Simple setup.

A bunk bed, huh. It felt strangely nostalgic.

It reminded me of the early development days of <That Girl, That Guy>, when I’d fall asleep in the break room on a spread-out floor mat after pulling all-nighters.

I barely slept at all back then. But now, thinking back, it was almost a fond memory.

This is pretty decent, really. There’s even a private bathroom.

But the girl next to me looked like she was about to cry.

She had been assigned as my roommate.

“H-how are we supposed to live in this prison-like place?”

Her expression was one of total despair.

My roommate’s name was Dorfina.

She was the first victim of Seira’s descent into villainy.

The original Seira thought Dorfina was completely pathetic.

But since I had no intention of making enemies, I offered her some warm comfort instead.

“It’s fine. This is actually pretty decent.”

I gently patted Dorfina’s shoulder and helped her up.

After staring blankly for a long moment, Dorfina asked me:

“My Lady, doesn’t this bother you at all?”

“What do you mean?”

“This prison-like environment.”

Compared to the old break room where bugs crawled out from everywhere, this was luxury.

And having a bathroom just for two meant this was one of the best rooms a first-year could get.

That’s all thanks to the achievements I’ve been stacking up.

Somarphy Academy was notoriously unfriendly to its students.

Especially during the first year, which was designed to strip away any “softness of society.”

The original Seira was assigned to a four-person room, no beds, no private bathroom.

And it faced north, so barely any sunlight got in.

In contrast, this was a two-person room with plenty of sunlight and even a window for good ventilation.

It was practically a royal room.

They must have assigned it based on the combined achievements of both roommates.

I had ended up with a far better room than the Seira of <That Girl, That Guy> ever got.

All my hard work hadn’t been in vain.

“Um… do you know how to unpack luggage?”

“……”

Dorfina confessed that she didn’t even know how to dress or undress herself, let alone organize her things.

Her maids had always done everything for her.

“You just fold your clothes like this and put them here in the cabinet.”

Dorfina’s eyes sparkled.

Like she was looking at some kind of rare creature.

“My Lady, how can you be so good at something like this?”

“Just talk casually.”

“But you’re Lady Seira of Dvernonn. I should speak respectfully…”

“This is Somarphy.”

At that, Dorfina nodded.

“You’re really calm, Lady Seira. Very mature. No… you are mature.”

“Let’s get along well, Dorfina.”

Her eyes widened in surprise.

“Y-you knew my name? I mean… you knew my name?”

For Dorfina, Seira was a cursed connection.

As Seira gradually evolved into a villainess, Dorfina became one of her frequent targets.

In <That Girl, That Guy>, there was a decisive incident that made Seira despise Dorfina.

“You lied to me. You filthy wretch.”

“M-my Lady, I…”

“Shut that mouth.”

“I-I’m sorry. I never meant to deceive you.”

In the end, Seira slapped Dorfina across the face.

Because Dorfina was actually a man.

When Seira accidentally discovered this, she was overwhelmed with shame.

After all, she had unknowingly shared a room with a man.

And of course, rumors twisted this later into: “Seira cohabited with a man before marriage, living a scandalously promiscuous life,” which came back to haunt her.

Either way, Dorfina ended up enduring a terribly harsh school life at Somarphy.

Not only me, but others bullied and ostracized her too.

She had entered the academy under the “compassionate admissions” category as a fallen noble.

Her timid, fearful personality combined with her ruined background created a disaster of a situation.

She could have just acted naturally…

But all her actions felt fake.

Not even being able to unpack her own luggage—how absurd was that?

She was pretending to be a noble lady of a prestigious house, trying to hide that she was from a fallen family.

But she was so over the top that it looked unnatural.

A fake always gets exposed eventually.

Still, I understood her.

When you’re too desperate to do well, you’re bound to make mistakes.

By this world’s standards, she was technically an adult, but from my perspective, at sixteen, she was still just a child.

I should treat her kindly.

In the future, by sheer chance, Dorfina would awaken divine power and be hailed as a great saint.

A minor side character rising to become a major supporting role.

After years of suffering under Seira’s bullying, Dorfina would stand on the side of the male and female leads, helping them bring down the mid-boss villainess Seira.

Ah… but isn’t that way too much, Dorfina?!