Became a Villain Heroine in a Harem Story

The most important event after entering the academy is, of course, the test.

For some reason, this damn academy, unlike other universities and general schools, always conducts tests immediately for new students.

In a way, it could be seen as an entrance exam without dropouts.

It’s one of the processes to classify students’ abilities in more detail and assign suitable classes.

For example, an ability might be listed as [Restoration] on paper, but depending on how the ability is applied, it could potentially become a terrifying ability that turns enemies into a ‘fetal’ state.

Since abilities given to humans somehow don’t deviate much from the framework of creative works made by human imagination, if there’s an element to be concerned about, it would be ‘abstraction’.

‘More than that… there are too many uncertain elements.’

: What is it?

‘The academy guest lecturer event in the second year… Jay… even the protagonist’s behavior pattern deviating from the official story.’

: Try to rely less on external knowledge.

‘I’m tired.’

I wake up at a reasonable time, put a cigarette in my mouth again, and light it.

Judging from the quiet corridor, I either woke up early or very late. One of the two.

I looked at the clock beside the bed.

It was still dawn, before sunrise.

I opened the window and filled my lungs with clean air. But before I could even finish exhaling, I started coughing again with a sense of discomfort.

There was too much dust lately. Is a woman’s body more sensitive in the respiratory tract than a man’s?

…In truth, even if I deflect like this and pretend not to know, I do know the cause.

Because I’m not that stupid.

There are things in the world that you want to quit but can’t, and for some people it’s women, for others it’s alcohol, and for me it’s cigarettes.

A grayish, translucent worm crawls through the clear air.

The sin I committed at dawn scatters and disappears.

At the very least, I opened the window to smoke out of a final conscience, so I hope other students don’t smell it and report me.

‘…Would I die if I fell?’

: Well. Since you have regeneration, you wouldn’t die.

Abilities are similar to parasites.

When they judge that the host is in danger of dying, they pop out even when I don’t want them to and forcibly extend my lifeline.

Thanks to that, there are no scars left, so there are some advantages.

Even without regeneration, I probably wouldn’t die from this height. It’s only about 3 floors. I might just roll down after getting caught in the trees of the dormitory garden that the principal raises as a hobby.

Imagining myself in a mess of soil and leaves made me feel a bit amused.

If I still had a man’s body, I might have found such a scene attractive.

When men approach me, I feel disgusted, and when women approach me, I only feel emptiness. Having a woman’s body with a man’s mind is like a damn curse.

After killing time like that for a while, the cigarette burned out completely.

I take out another cigarette from my pocket, put it in my mouth, and light it again.

It was a process so skilled it would look mechanical.

: [Proficiency] wasn’t given to be used in such places.

‘What can I do about it?’

I spent time idly, having trivial daily conversations with the status window.

The speed at which cigarettes burned was faster than the speed at which time burned. Smoke filled my hazy mind. It felt really good to wander in the fog.

Carefully deciding where to place the next step in a place where you can’t see ahead.

With a slightly floating feeling.

It’s about time to go out. I burned everything I had until the small ashtray by the window was filled with cigarette butts.

♦♦♦

It’s just the second day of starting to adapt to the structure of this bizarre academy, which looks like a mix of university, school, and military training facility.

Unlike the game where I could move to different areas with just a click of a button, I now need to familiarize myself with the terrain using my own two legs, which is quite annoying.

I opened the academy app and turned on the map. The path to the written exam venue was still far.

Since it needed to manage, educate many students, and simultaneously provide space to use abilities, the vast academy grounds were larger than two typical university campuses combined.

If I had known this, I should have gone out at dawn and headed to the exam venue early.

“…Ah.”

“…”

I encountered that guy again.

It’s not unexpected. I knew that the shadow ability, which can generally do anything, and the self-sacrifice ability, which can also generally do anything, would be classified in the same place.

To begin with, the heroine that could be met most quickly was me, ‘Bia,’ excluding that pink-haired prostitute who was the childhood friend.

The story I had forgotten was gradually coming back to me.

I wanted to forget it again.

The fact that this world has predetermined futures and branches. I wanted to forget everything, even the possibility that all of this might be nothing more than a bunch of numbers.

Because the feeling that my misfortune might be consumed as someone else’s laughter was really fucking awful.

An awkward atmosphere lingered for a long time.

I stared at Ryu Seong with a face like I’d eaten shit, and he averted his eyes first.

Since our first meeting took place in such a way, it probably didn’t leave a good impression. Good. Let’s continue like this, pretending not to know each other.

“Did you get back safely yesterday?”

“…What?”

“No matter how I think about it, those looked like cut wounds.”

He had good intuition.

No, maybe not that much.

To begin with, falling down stairs doesn’t cause thin cut wounds on the skin. Except in cases where someone carved up a cutter knife and sprinkled it on the stairs.

Even with a brief look, he could easily notice that there was a contradiction in my words.

Then how should I make an excuse?

Maybe the standard “It’s none of your business” would be good. I might become a bit rude, but when was I not?

How far can a person full of goodwill act for others? I didn’t know that well.

That’s why Ryu Seong was dangerous.

If he happens to report to the academy teachers that I seem to be doing precarious self-harm and came in covered in wounds in the early morning yesterday—

‘Okay. Should I kill him?’

: You can’t. He’s an opponent you can’t kill right now.

‘Why?’

: You haven’t forgotten what his ability is, have you?

‘…I know. I know.’

: Yes. For that reason, he is an opponent you cannot defeat with your current self. Therefore, in this situation…

: Wouldn’t it be better to become friends?

I froze in place.

Because what the status window just said sounded very strange.

Until recently, it was saying it wanted me to thoroughly perform the role of a villain, but suddenly it was telling me to become friends with the enemy.

Is the fortunate thing that it’s not telling me to sleep with him? If it had told me to sleep with him, I would have had the confidence to commit suicide by cutting my wrists with a knife right now.

‘That’s nonsense.’

: No, what I mean…

‘Fuck.’

: It’s not something to be so alarmed about!

‘Go to hell. You fucking bitch.’

: Please listen to me!

‘…Recite.’

: So, you know, there’s the villain who betrays in the middle of the story. It’s a cliché. That’s what I was talking about.

Alright. I understand.

Right now, I can’t think of any options other than tearing you apart and killing you, or tearing up the suit the mister gave me, tying it into a rope, and hanging myself with it.

I didn’t want to do such a thing, and I didn’t want to pretend to be friendly and have a conversation with him either.

Is there even a need for that in the first place? Even though that guy looks like a pushover on the outside, he was a person with clear boundaries.

If he judges someone to be a villain beyond redemption, he instantly changes his mind, strengthens his resolve, and sincerely kills the opponent.

He was a character designed to be superhuman.

He could be called a living incarnation packed full of good will.

He weighs each weight with a just and fair character, like a scale.

The moment the weight tilts to one side, goodwill disappears and only hostility remains, directed toward the enemy.

: That guy doesn’t die in the story.

‘…So?’

: What will happen will happen, and what won’t happen won’t happen. In a story that’s determined from beginning to end, that guy is immortal. As if he’s the protagonist of this play.

‘I know.’

: But there’s one thing that isn’t determined.

‘What is it?’

: The ending. The ending is unknown, unpredictable by me, the prophet, or anyone else.

: Your job is to stab them in the back in the final scene and head to the basement of the academy.

…It wasn’t a plan I particularly liked.

If there was one thing I liked, it was that I would be the one stabbing them in the back in the final scene.

To be honest, I still think the status window is talking like this to hide something from me.

In other words, it’s deliberately beating around the bush, making it hard to understand.

The one thing I want to know is.

‘Can you promise to give me the ability to resurrect my family and that person when it’s all over?’

: Yes. Of course.

I slowly walked toward him.

The awkward atmosphere became even more awkward, and the air froze solid.

But I never stopped walking.

Speak to him nonchalantly.

“I’m sorry. For before.”

“…?”

“Let’s be friends.”

I extended my hand to him.

It was a handshake request.