Became a Traitor in an Academy

Thick smoke conceals many things. Eyes, mouth, expressions, face. Everything that could reveal my emotions to others. Everything that could reveal others’ emotions to me.

All I could hear were voices.

“Blanca… why… why…?”

The voice of one who trusts me.

“Why is it, why did you…”

The voice of one who envies me.

“What… is all this… what is it…? Why now…”

The voice of one I admire.

“Answer me…! Why did you do it!!”

The voice of one I hate.

“Blan…ca…? This isn’t right…? There must be… some reason…?”

The voice of one who wants to resent me, but cannot.

That’s why I thought it was truly fortunate.

“…Playing friends was fun.”

Trouble from Day One

There was a web novel called “Hero of the Corporate City.”

It had a lot going on, but all you need to know is that it was successful enough to get a game adaptation with a major developer.

I probably owned about 0.001% of the game’s success, given how big of a fan I was.

But the game was the problem.

If you ask what was wrong with the game, I could criticize it all day just based on the story alone.

Well, come to think of it, there’s nothing else worth criticizing.

Since I don’t want to ruin my mood on a day like today, let me summarize briefly: the problem was the original protagonist who treated the web novel’s protagonist like a villain.

Someone who was born with everything, yet was foolish and had never seen society’s darkness, treating even gray areas as evil.

Even more unpleasant to see than the annoying young master character from the original work, this thing pushed out the original protagonist and took the main character position.

So I wrote a 57-character review on the store.

Well, it was more like insults and sarcasm than a review.

But if they write a story like that, they’re asking to be cursed at. So I obliged.

However, the story writer must have been quite petty, because they couldn’t even take that and made me possess a character who was less than an extra, used like a disposable test subject.

But I’ve never regretted it.

Even if I had known I would possess one of the many dying test subjects in a secret laboratory on the outskirts, I would have done it.

Though I might have hesitated a bit if I had known my gender would change too.

I stood in front of the mirror adjusting my uniform. It felt awkward being alone in my monthly-rented room, but I needed to get used to it.

And today, that awkwardness didn’t really matter anyway.

Because today was the academy’s entrance ceremony.

I had been prepared since the moment I proposed infiltrating the academy to the boss, but now that I was actually wearing it, I felt a bit excited.

At the same time, it was quite bitter.

Wearing what the heroines wore made me really contemplate my situation again.

I would have preferred to wear the male uniform. Somehow it ended up like this though.

There’s no need for gloomy thoughts on a good day like this. Think positively. At least I can go to the academy.

Yes. That’s enough.

“Why won’t this… button up…!”

However, problems started even before getting to the academy. I couldn’t button up my coat.

The boss said they ordered the most generous size, but I couldn’t understand what kind of body this was.

Did I grow during this time? It somehow buttoned up just a month ago.

Only after wearing it myself could I understand the heroine’s complaints about tight clothes.

So this is how it feels. But even she could button up her coat.

This was more like just having the coat draped over me. I might get marked as wearing my uniform improperly from day one.

Even though the school had a liberal atmosphere, that didn’t mean it was lax.

With the disciplinary committee around, I might get demerits from day one for my uniform looking like this.

After struggling and trying to button it up alone, I gave up in resignation.

Ah, surely they won’t say anything about unbuttoned coat buttons? It’s not like I’m being deliberately improper, it’s due to physical conditions.

I stood in front of the mirror one last time to check if anything else was wrong.

Nothing except the coat and dark circles. Since both were unavoidable, I stopped thinking about it.

Right now I needed to get to the meeting place.

Looking at the clock, it wasn’t even 6:30 yet, quite early. Still, it could be cutting it close. Heros City was bustling with humans.

That meant there were many humans thinking they could sit comfortably if they left early in the morning.

I grabbed my bag and ran to the monorail platform.

As expected, people were already gathering here and there. If it was this crowded now, at 7 o’clock…

It would have been horrible. My body already takes up a lot of space, so I’m reluctant to get on when there are many people.

Fortunately, the monorail that arrived wasn’t too crowded.

There were even some scattered empty seats, so I was barely able to sit down. What a relief.

‘Heros City, the capital of the world. What moves Heros City is you, our proud citizens. Today too, your noble…’

While letting the morning work motivation announcement flow past my ears, I looked down at the view outside the elevated monorail.

It was exactly like those futuristic city scenes that TV used to make such a fuss about when I was young, so there was definitely something exciting about it.

Or maybe it just looked particularly beautiful because it was academy entrance ceremony day.

“…Tch.”

Of course, just because people live in such a city doesn’t mean they’ve evolved into Humans 2.0.

I clicked my tongue obviously showing displeasure while glaring at a man who kept glancing at my body.

The man awkwardly turned his gaze to the window.

And following him, several other people also awkwardly avoided looking.

…Doesn’t seem like they were staring because of the academy uniform.

Why does everything I eat only go to my chest or hips? I didn’t want a body like this.

Of course, even without this kind of body, wearing the academy uniform would attract quite a bit of attention.

Because wearing the academy uniform meant you were an ability user.

While ability users were quite common, strong ability users were rare. Therefore, wearing the academy uniform was no different from proof of power.

People usually wouldn’t even make eye contact. Yet, they notice the body before that to this extent.

Cursing the story writer who made me possess such a body, I inwardly ground my teeth while vowing to definitely ruin their story.

After getting off at the station after the academy station, I slipped into the back alleys avoiding the CCTVs on the street. It was 7 o’clock.

This was more relaxed than I thought. I can leave a bit later next time.

With that comfortable thought, I headed to the meeting place while moving through the back alleys.

Although it was so complicated that it would be hard to find without GPS, using a phone was impossible as it could be traced. But there was no worry.

I just had to follow the stench and noise that didn’t belong here.

Among the Ein race, the beast-people’s senses were unmatched, so I could arrive at the meeting place by tracking the traces while perking up my ears and smelling.

“Oh, everyone’s here.”

I thought one or two might run away, but I was surprised to see everyone really came.

I was wondering how to handle it, but fortunately that saved me some trouble.

The wide empty lot was filled with shabby but fierce-looking thugs.

One high school girl and several thugs. Anyone looking would think the high school girl should be scared, but the reality was the opposite.

The thugs were trembling at the sight of me.

“You’re the one who called us…!”

“About that. I didn’t know villain rabble like you would have such solidarity. Who knew that whole big brother little brother thing was real.”

They were guys I had completely crushed recently and brought under me.

Just some pathetic villains that even heroes thought would be a waste of time to catch.

One might wonder what use such guys could be, but everything has its use.

“Shut up! Our bond isn’t something you can talk about so lightly!!!”

Ah, yes. If you say so.

I don’t understand what use close bonds are when you have no strength, but since that seemed to be their pride, I didn’t trample on it.

Because I’m not that bad of a person.

Instead, I silently put on gloves and took out six syringes from my bag.

“Take them. They’ll let even useless powerless dregs like you fight against ability users for a while.”

“Really, did such things exist…? You weren’t just messing with us when you said they existed? Then, are you seriously going to make us attack an academy student?!”

It’s a bit crude compared to the real thing, but it was the strongest thing I’ve synthesized while researching. Also the most toxic.

“Of course. Did you think I’d make you attack an academy student bare-handed? Obviously I’d prepare this much. Don’t worry. If you do as I say, there won’t be any problems.”

“…Well, hope we never see you again. Don’t know why you’re wearing academy clothes, but that’s none of our business, right?”

“Right. It’s none of your business. We’re not that close anyway, are we? Still, good luck. If you succeed today, you’ll get enough money to live however you want.”

Of course, that’s if you succeed. I added one last comment while leisurely leaving the place.

When I checked the time, it was about time for those guys to pass through the street, so I jumped between walls to get to a building rooftop.

Then I moved to a spot near the street they would pass through by jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

Without even having to strain my senses to search, I could see a red ponytail and white wavy hair walking side by side heading toward the academy not far away.

The original protagonist Seo Jin-hyeon and his heroine Lee Yeon-hwa.

I had seen Jin-hyeon a few times from afar when planning to kill him before, but this was my first time seeing Yeon-hwa.

She really had a lively, flame-like impression. Red hair, red eyes. Movements and bearing fitting for her age.

Her personality was bright too, so I couldn’t understand why such a girl would fall for a guy like him. Well, actually I could understand.

The story writer must have known there would be real war if they paired the original heroine with Jin-hyeon since people would cry NTR. It must have been an unavoidable compromise.

Eavesdropping on Yeon-hwa excitedly talking by herself, I couldn’t help but think this was indeed a boring beginning.

So, I decided to make it a bit more interesting.

I waited until they passed through the alley.

And, right now.

“…Danger!”

The villains, now even larger than when I saw them earlier, attacked them from the alley.