Cleanup – 1

Wilhelm immediately took a leave of absence. I saw in him the back of my university classmate who went on a hiatus after causing trouble at a drinking party. Had he hurled profanities at seniors while completely drunk? I didn’t feel particularly sorry or sympathetic for him. Who else could he blame when it was his own fault?

Moreover, Wilhelm seemed unable to come to his senses until the end, showing no reflection or shame for what he had done. He seemed to be taking a leave of absence simply out of frustration at having Seol-ah taken away by me. His gaze toward us remained unpleasant until the end.

The entire Academy buzzed over his sudden declaration of leave, but only three people—myself, Hestia, and Seol-ah—knew the exact reason. We decided to keep our mouths tightly shut. Getting involved in such a major scandal isn’t a good choice. There’s no need to stir up trouble for someone we won’t be seeing for a while due to his leave of absence.

Of course, applying for a leave doesn’t mean the application is processed right away. This Academy is too massive to operate its system with an immediate “You’re on leave!” upon application. However, Wilhelm, having firmly made up his mind, didn’t care about such minor processes. He immediately cleared out all his belongings from the dormitory and simply stopped coming to the Academy. He’s probably back at the Imperial Palace, grinding his teeth by now. After all, he’s going to be on leave anyway.

While I was roughly resolving the situation inside, Hestia, who had been nervously pacing outside, smiled brightly seeing me come out without any injuries. However, she couldn’t hide her bewilderment upon seeing Seol-ah, who appeared next with swollen eyes from crying, and Wilhelm, whose face was swollen from taking a few hits from me.

After I roughly explained the situation, Hestia’s face became tinged with contempt. She seemed to think that even uttering Wilhelm’s name was filthy, as she began referring to him as “that criminal” afterward. Is he Voldemort or something?

“Lady Adamas, today was truly a big ordeal. I’ll help you, so please make yourself comfortable.”

Hestia declared that she would take care of Seol-ah, apparently very concerned about the victim. Because of this, I had no time to talk separately with Seol-ah.

In the end, I had a very brief conversation with Seol-ah while avoiding Hestia’s eyes. As a result, I decided to meet her right away today. Originally, I wanted to have more time to organize my thoughts, but there were quite a few things that needed to be discussed immediately. So we agreed to meet at the usual place at the usual time. 8 o’clock, behind the auditorium.

“You’re late again?”

“It’s 10 minutes before 8. I always wonder, how early do you come to wait?”

Today too, Seol-ah was already waiting for me. Though I consistently arrive 10 minutes before the appointed time, every time I see her, she’s already there first, looking bored, either digging the ground with her foot or fiddling with her nails. She seems to arrive much earlier than me, who comes out 10 minutes early.

“30 minutes?”

“Then let’s just set our meeting time at 7:30.”

“Then I’d probably come out at 7 and wait.”

“What’s with that?”

“It means I want to see you that much sooner.”

I pretended not to hear her sudden jab.

“We have quite a lot to talk about today, don’t we?”

First, why she avoided me, what her original plan was, what to do now that Wilhelm had taken a leave, and her feelings toward me also needed to be sorted out.

“Yes, I have a lot to say.”

“First and foremost, why did you avoid me?”

I was most curious about this. Why did she suddenly avoid me?

“Did it bother you that much when I avoided you?”

“Don’t try to gloss over it with jokes.”

“Busted?”

Seol-ah laughed dopily at my interrogation.

“Actually, after fighting with you last time, I changed my plan a bit. I was thinking of accelerating the original story development.”

“Why?”

She seemed a bit embarrassed to say, twisting her body.

“Do I have to say it?”

Is that even a question now? I just stared at her without saying anything.

“Well, you said you liked your fiancée more. So I thought that by quickly advancing the story to see the ending, either I’d be sent back home or your heart would change.”

She barely opened her mouth, unable to withstand my gaze. I was dumbfounded by her answer. I’m not sure how many intermediary steps are missing. The gap between her thorough, sinister side and her foolish, silly side is too large.

“Hah… I have mountains of points I want to address. First of all, didn’t I already tell you last time? Is there any basis for your hypothesis that seeing the ending will send you back home?”

“…No.”

Her voice became smaller.

“And why did you think my heart would change if I saw the ending?”

She began to stammer out her thoughts.

“Haven’t you felt something transcendental? What should I call it? God? World? Anyway, haven’t you felt something guiding our actions?”

At her words, I first recalled my heart pounding uncontrollably whenever I see Seol-ah’s face. But I couldn’t tell her that. Instead, I recalled other examples.

“There have been instances where swordsmanship or dances I’ve never learned flow naturally as if they’re ingrained in my body, or my speech getting naturally corrected.”

I recalled the tongue correction that doesn’t activate much these days.

“Yes! Things like that. It’s the same for me. When dealing with that crazy Wilhelm or you, my tongue moves on its own. No matter how much I lie, it never feels awkward. Do you know what these phenomena have in common?”

“What is it?”

“The fact that they guide us toward the original story. I was only able to plan complex schemes and naturally deceive people when I was advancing the original story. When I tried to plan for something unrelated to the original, I couldn’t perform like Lily.”

Seol-ah’s words were more plausible than expected. Above all, it was optimal for explaining her state, where the gap between her sloppy times and sinister times is enormous.

“Then your getting kidnapped by Wilhelm this time was a plan conceived by Seol-ah, not Lily?”

“Yes. That’s why it completely failed.”

“How can you laugh now?! What would you have done if I hadn’t found you?”

She smiled broadly, seemingly unable to come to her senses. I was incredulous. Does this woman even understand what she almost went through?

“But you found me in the end.”

She answered as if it was nothing. I was at a loss for words.

“To be honest, I was really worried about what would happen if you didn’t even think about looking for me. After our strange argument and parting, plus my continuous ignoring of you. But in the end, you found me, and I’m standing here perfectly fine. Isn’t that enough?”

“What do you mean ‘enough’?”

“Anyway! My original plan was to completely cut off interest in you to give Wilhelm confidence. In the original story, the kidnapping happens after Wilhelm confesses to me. So the more confident Wilhelm is about my heart, the faster he would confess, right? And the faster the kidnapping, the faster the story would progress, right?”

Seol-ah cut off my complaints and recited her original plan.

“And then?”

“In the original story, as the story progresses, Mikhail naturally falls deeply for Lily. So I thought that as we progress the original story here, you, Bada, might fall for me too.”

“Is that it?”

“That’s it.”

“That’s it?”

I was astounded by her plan, which was more shoddy and flimsy than expected. There’s not a single certain element in her plan. It’s a strategy using her body as bait for what is plausible but ultimately just her hypothesis. And even using herself as bait failed, putting her in danger.

A memory of Hestia and me pondering what on earth she might be thinking flashed through my mind. It was all meaningless action.

Having read my expression, she began to make excuses.

“I told you. This wasn’t a plan devised by Lily, but by me. As I said earlier, most of the smart and thorough aspects you saw in me were Lily’s facets. Human Han Seol-ah is an ordinary person who has only ever pulled small pranks like hidden camera pranks on friends.”

“Then to me, that…”

“Rejection.”

I was trying to choose my words as carefully as possible, not wanting to directly mention the fact in front of someone who had been rejected. Yet she rendered my consideration meaningless by immediately providing the word.

“Yes. And you implemented a dangerous operation using yourself as bait for an uncertain return and my change of heart, and you did this without any hint to me or Hestia?”

“I’m sorry.”

She apologized immediately. After hearing it laid out like this, it seems she thought it was a bit too much even in her own opinion. I decided to stop being angry with her about this issue. I’m not her guardian, and it’s odd for me to say anything more here. But I should at least get a promise to prevent recurrence.

“Alright. Hah… really. Don’t do this again next time. I really thought my heart was going to drop.”

“Okay, okay.”

The conversation momentarily lulled. During that pause, I asked something I had been curious about after hearing her words earlier.

“Then were all the appearances you showed me up until now Lily?”

“Well, isn’t it a bit funny to separate them so distinctly? You’ve experienced it too, right?”

Thinking about it, that’s true. When I dance with Hestia or swing a sword, I’m definitely closer to the otherworldly Mikhail than the Earthling Kang Bada. But I can’t completely separate the two.

“Well, I was influenced by Lily. As I said earlier, I was a completely ordinary person on Earth, so I wouldn’t have been able to flirt so much with a man I barely knew.”

So she was aware that she was flirting.

“Then what about now?”

“Now?”

“You know, when you tried to make your lips collide with mine earlier.”

I tried to purify my expression as much as possible, feeling somehow guilty about using the word “kiss” regarding another woman while I have Hestia.

“You mean when I tried to kiss you?”

“What kiss? I just meant when you tried to make our lips collide.”

I had deliberately avoided the word “kiss.” Whether she knew my feelings or not, she used the very direct expression “kiss.”

“What, should I have stuck out my tongue too?”

“Oh, come on. I told you I have a fiancée. That’s sexual harassment.”

“You’re so picky. Are you really a man?”

“That’s a gender-discriminatory remark.”

It feels like the gender roles are reversed.

“Anyway, Lily had no influence on that kiss. It was completely my will.”

Seol-ah stated proudly without a hint of hesitation.

“Earlier you said you couldn’t flirt with a man you’ve barely met.”

“But it’s different when there’s only one man around, and that man even rescued me from danger. Every woman dreams of a prince on a white horse who will save her. And since being captured by Wilhelm, nothing I did seemed to work like Lily anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“I told you earlier, right? Originally, Wilhelm kidnaps me after a confession. So I planned to ask for your help once I received the confession. But he just kidnapped me before even confessing. Do you know why that bastard did that?”

“Why did he?”

“He noticed I was lying by looking at my eyes. He said the way I looked at you and him was too different. So he decided to kidnap me right away, hoping to do something when you and I were distant.”

Wow, the original protagonist is still a protagonist. How did he notice such a thing just by looking at her eyes?

“After being caught lying to Wilhelm about my appearances, I couldn’t act like Lily no matter what I did. Maybe it’s because the original story was broken at the point of discovery?”

“So from now on, you’ll be 100% pure Han Seol-ah, not Lily?”

“Probably? But who knows, Lily might emerge in original story segments involving you.”

“I’d rather not. I prefer the slightly sloppy but ordinary Seol-ah over the smart and sinister Lily.”

Her occasionally snake-like appearances, like when she first clung to me asking to eat together, are 100 times worse than her current somewhat foolish but ordinary appearance.

“Thank you.”

She suddenly expressed gratitude to me.

“What are you suddenly thankful for?”

“Just. For saying Han Seol-ah is better than Lily. And I realized I hadn’t thanked you for helping me.”

I was about to respond but decided to deflect the credit to Hestia.

“Thank Hestia, not me. It was Hestia who found the building where you were imprisoned. Without Hestia, I wouldn’t have found you either.”

“I can thank both you and her. Oh, by the way, how did you find me?”

Seol-ah’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.

“After confirming your absence, I immediately made a plan with Hestia. I would follow Wilhelm, and Hestia would check buildings that had recently changed ownership.”

“Looks like the Wilhelm surveillance failed.”

“It’s not that it failed, but he didn’t come straight here.”

“What do you mean?”

I didn’t want to describe Wilhelm’s obscene behavior with my own mouth. It’s unfair to my tongue.

“Didn’t you hear from Wilhelm? That practice…”

“Ah.”

Seol-ah let out a single exclamation, as if recalling something she had forgotten.

“Yes. He went to that kind of place instead of here. How was I supposed to know when he’d come out? So I just joined up with Hestia. After that, we searched a few buildings Hestia had identified, and then happened to see that bastard’s back and followed him.”

Hestia’s contribution was significant in our timely rescue of her. It’s amazing how she managed to investigate so perfectly in such a short time. According to her, she used some skills she had learned from her family.

“More importantly, does Wilhelm do that in the original story too?”

I was genuinely curious. His thought process was in a category beyond what my brain could comprehend. A heroine from a novel I was reading practicing with other men under the pretext of wanting to satisfy the protagonist? The thought alone is horrifying. The comment section would burn, and the author might be physically hung.

“There are descriptions of him practicing with other women, but there’s no mention of him going to such establishments.”

“Wow. So he practiced with other women in the original story too.”

I looked at Seol-ah with an expression that said, “You read that kind of thing?” She, too, feeling my gaze, hurriedly began to make excuses.

“No, well, you know. Women, unlike men, generally like experienced men who can lead and… I don’t mean me! It’s just that other readers like that…”

“Ah, yes.”

How could a man with no experience and no ability to lead live without feeling miserable?

“Really! I dislike such philandering men!”

Seol-ah shouted, seemingly flustered by my attitude.

“You dislike philanderers?”

I found a jarring word in her statement.

“Yes!”

“Huh.”

I let out a very deep sigh.

“Why would someone who dislikes philanderers act like that?”

What? Dislikes philanderers? Does she really have no conscience?