Chapter 83

“A–A relationship!? We’re dating!?”

In front of the love declaration from a nameless female student, Donovan von Delay’s gang and Iri Elisbell froze.

It took a moment to even understand what this girl was talking about.

“……”

“……”

“…Uh. R–Right.”

Maybe the shock was too great.

Donovan stepped back weakly, moving aside so Iri could pass.

His reaction startled Iri, making her shout.

“W–W–What are you saying?!”

“What’s wrong, honey?”

“‘Honey’? What the hell! I don’t even know your name! Who are you!?”

Thud!

The girl’s expression turned into that of a cat abandoned by its owner.

Seeing that look, I felt my heart soften… Like hell it did.

Getting randomly chosen as a “pet” just by passing by would only be a headache.

Regardless, Donovan’s group seemed quite shocked.

They muttered suspicious lines to each other like, “G–Girls with girls? Oh wow….” and “Even she’s dating such a pretty girl, so why am I still….” as they left, clearly having completely misunderstood.

In any case, I didn’t have many close acquaintances in the Academy—just enough to count on one hand—so I didn’t really care what other students said about me.

But this was different.

The weird rumor that Iri Elisbell liked women would definitely make its rounds and reach Aaron Stingray’s ears.

And if that happened, Aaron Stingray would surely get the wrong idea too…

Hmm? Would that even matter?

He was just my sponsor—would he even care about my dating life?

A corner of my brain, flushed with embarrassment, produced that bit of cool logic, but it quickly faded.

No, I hated it.

I didn’t want that man to misunderstand.

“Hey! Hey! It’s a misunderstanding!”

“Ah, don’t worry. Whoever likes who, gender doesn’t matter. I have a broad enough mind to understand that…”

“What the hell are you saying?!”

Yeah, you lunatic! If you’re so broad-minded, then why are you always itching to pick a fight with people from Fallen Sector?

“You said you had something to say! Hey!”

“Uh… Let’s postpone it.”

“Hey! Wait! Heeey!!”

Without even bothering to clear the misunderstanding, Donovan walked off with some strange show of “consideration.”

Instead of resolving things, it felt like the lesbian image had been carved in stone.

Gaaah!!

Anger finally exploded out of me, and I grabbed the girl by her collar.

I had been trying to behave myself lately, but the sudden storm had brought out my old habits.

“What the hell are you!? Why would you tell such a lie!?”

“I–I just wanted to help you…”

“That help wasn’t needed! You just made weird rumors spread! If this gets to our Chairman’s ears, what will he think of me…!”

“Sob…”

As I shouted fiercely, the nameless girl’s eyes suddenly welled with tears.

In the past—when I used to work between Fallen Sector and Sector E—I wouldn’t have cared.

I would’ve started with a punch to the face, asking what the hell she was whining about.

But since entering the Academy and spending time with Miyu, I had mellowed a lot.

No matter what, she had tried to help me.

Making a girl like that cry didn’t sit right with me.

“W–Why are you crying…”

Sigh.

The urge to hit her faded, and I quickly let go of her collar.

Turning my body slightly, I glanced at her from the side, scanning her from head to toe.

The most noticeable thing was her reddish-brown hair tied to one side.

Her brown skin looked healthy.

Her teary eyes had a slightly redder hue than her hair.

She was in the high 170 cm range, about half a head taller than me.

Like with Aaron Stingray, I had to look up slightly to meet her gaze.

Although we were in the same class and had seen each other almost every day for over a month, we had never teamed up or spoken before.

‘What was her name again… That…’

“My name’s Raina Alton.”

Right, that was it.

Now I remembered.

During basic physical training, she had collapsed before even finishing a few laps around the field.

Even though she should have been an Adaptee, her results barely surpassed that of a trained normal human, which had surprised me a little.

‘Not suited for a combatant.’

That had been my evaluation of Raina Alton.

I had even wondered how someone like her managed to pass the Academy’s entrance cut-off.

Of course, since I wasn’t interested, I had quickly erased that question from my mind.

Hmm.

Folding my arms, I looked up at Raina and asked,

“So what do you want?”

“Huh?”

“You came here because you had business with me, right? Just say it and be on your way.”

I had no intention of thanking her for “saving” me.

Dealing with Donovan von Delay and his lackeys was something I could’ve easily handled on my own, but thanks to Raina barging in, now there was a suspicious rumor ready to spread.

Honestly, it was just trouble.

Of course, my ‘gut’ told me Raina hadn’t approached me with bad intentions, but that was a separate issue.

“Hurry up and talk.”

“……”

When I pressed her, Raina hesitated, then pulled a sheet of paper from her pocket.

In this day and age, it was the rare sight of actual paper.

The moment I saw it, I knew.

These days, most work and communication happened through digital mail and messages, or on tablet PCs and electronic paper.

If someone went so far as to use something rare like real paper, it was either because they had a serious love for a classic style… or because they wanted to attach a special meaning.

Well, even without that—

One glance at the cute little red heart stuck on the outside of the stationery, and I couldn’t not know.

“…Please take it!”

“W–Wait! I can’t accept this!”

“T–Then give me your answer later!”

I turned pale, trying to refuse the letter, but Raina shoved it into my arms anyway and hurried off.

Left alone in the hallway, I slowly opened the envelope with a dazed expression.

And with each line I read, my face grew paler.

“Ughhh, this is real…!”

Wh–What do I even do with this?

For a moment, I forgot about the next class entirely, lost in confusion.

“Raina Alton, you say?”

“Yes. She said she gave that student a love letter. Since it was her first time being confessed to by someone of the same sex, she seemed flustered and came to consult me.”

“Hah…”

Raina Alton.

The name made me let out an involuntary, dry laugh.

“You know her?”

“Well. No, I don’t.”

Of course I did.

Raina Alton.

The embodiment of ‘falling in love at first sight.’

In the original work, she suddenly appeared like a comet, putting the heroines on edge and raising readers’ expectations.

But she wasn’t a heroine.

She was just an extra character inserted to stir up catfights between Iri, Miyu, and Ciel.

‘With the arrival of the powerful rival Raina, the girls who had only thought of the protagonist as a comrade or benefactor start to change their hearts.’

If I had to compare her to something…

She was like an invasive species that suddenly appeared and disrupted the ecosystem when our Shade Team heroines were peacefully getting along like princesses in a tiny fairy-tale village.

—Come on, he’s just a comrade!

—What’s that supposed to mean between friends?

Then the embodiment of love-at-first-sight, Raina Alton, showed up before the carefree heroines and boldly declared war.

—Is that so? Then it wouldn’t matter if I started dating Shade, right?

The heroines, completely inexperienced in romance, were thrown into chaos by Raina’s sudden initiating move.

While our heroines—practically national treasures—still hadn’t realized their own romantic feelings, Raina pressed forward at lightning speed.

You only realize what’s precious after you’ve lost it, they say.

Thanks to Raina’s arrival, the heroines began to recognize their feelings and each tried to appeal to the protagonist in their own way.

In other words, Raina was the one who lit the fuse on the “Heroine Power” arms race.

‘That episode was the turning point where the romantic comedy element suddenly shot up.’

And how did that episode end?

Somewhat absurdly—Raina ended up in danger, and Iri rescued her, leading to a completely unexpected result.

Raina became a follower trailing after Iri instead of Shade.

Calling her a “follower” was being generous—she was a Cra-psy-les.

A Crazy Psycho Lesbian.

‘After that, she was often depicted as a hungry beast chasing the fleeing Iri…’

So when I heard the name “Raina,” I was actually a little relieved.

At least the one who sent Iri a love letter wasn’t some shady guy from who-knows-where, but the same comic-relief character who had played that role in the original.

“What should we do?”

“…Just leave it.”

Of course, I didn’t know why she skipped over the “I like Shade” phase and went straight for Iri.

She hadn’t been that important in the original, so even I couldn’t fully grasp her psychology like a main character’s.

But if I had to guess—

It was probably because Iri right now was following Shade’s original route to some extent.

‘It was my decision to try raising Iri as the team’s leader.’

Since I stood in a completely different position, I couldn’t perfectly replace the protagonist’s absence, which was why I made that decision.

By having Iri fill the gap left by the protagonist, I calculated that we could get through the various incidents bound to hit the Academy more smoothly in the future.

Of course, Iri was still clumsy.

The first-arc episodes, which should’ve naturally taken about a year to unfold, had all wrapped up in just a few months—like beans roasted over a lightning fire.

Because of that, she hadn’t had enough time to grow, mentally or in ability.

‘Well, that’s something time will fix, so it doesn’t matter.’

Anyway.

The point was that Raina should have originally been drawn to the “protagonist,” but since Iri had taken over that role, the target naturally shifted.

‘Will this affect future events?’

I thought about it for a bit.

My answer was NO.

Unless Raina was a Transmigrator, she had been a limited-role extra even in the original, so there was no way she could suddenly have major influence now.

‘I already confirmed back at the start of the semester that Raina wasn’t a Transmigrator.’

After careful investigation since the term began, I was certain there were no more Transmigrators in this Academy.

So even if Raina started following Iri around earlier than in the original, nothing much would change.

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yeah. I don’t intend to strictly forbid dating between students.”

I had far more important things to deal with than some Cra-psy-les.

The Minjung Faction’s academy head issue and the Ashita-kyo problem still weren’t completely resolved.

“Iri came to you for advice, so give her an appropriate answer.”

“Understood.”

That was the end of handling that matter.

But I still didn’t know—

Just how crazy an extra-level Cra-psy-les, who wasn’t even a Transmigrator, could make the butterfly effect.

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