Ch.88. This Guy Is Totally a Bad Person

Entering the academy is extremely difficult without attending an academy.

It’s not impossible, but unless you’re willing to go through a considerable ordeal, it’s much safer and more efficient to just attend an academy.

That’s why in this world, the difference between receiving academy education or not was much greater than one might think.

The gap was especially severe in the early stages of growth—think of it as first-year top students getting utterly destroyed by second-year bottom students.

And Grain, who was standing in front of me now… though she specialized in exploration as repeatedly mentioned, she still possessed enough combat ability to maintain a position among the top ranks of the current second-year students.

My stats, which could only dominate in the early first year, were meaningless figures compared to hers.

But was winning important right now?

No. Here, I just needed to show that I wasn’t someone to be dismissed. That my skills weren’t to be ignored.

I’m not sure how I’ll handle all this karma I’m accumulating, but I can worry about that later.

“You have time for daydreaming?”

Grain suddenly lunged at me, reaching out to grab my clothes.

At the same time, I realized she had grown more than in the original work I knew.

As an exploration specialist, her main weapon was a bow, and the stats needed for archery weren’t dexterity but strength and mana.

Strength to pull back a tougher, more durable bowstring.

Mana to add magical effects to ordinary arrows for greater firepower.

In the end, archers in this world were just slightly stronger extensions of mages… Unless they were unusual beings like elves who carried bows directly to the front lines, it was natural for dexterity stats to be relatively lower.

That should have been true for Grain as well, but…

‘She’s incredibly fast?’

For some reason, her speed was beyond imagination.

I couldn’t visually confirm her stats, but they were certainly higher than mine.

‘What the hell, that’s my highest stat.’

For someone who doesn’t even specialize in dexterity to be at this level at the beginning of her second year?

No matter how fast her growth might be, isn’t this too much?

The theory that this world was set to an unreleased difficulty level became more plausible, and my worries grew accordingly.

That aside, this wasn’t a desperate situation where I needed to be crushed, so I should focus on the present.

I dodge backward, avoiding her outstretched hand.

She immediately follows and tries to grab me again, but this time I rush forward and use evasion to avoid her.

My body passed right through Grain.

“Huh?”

The evasion that allows me to pass through a person’s body—something I first experienced in my battle with Lilith.

Everyone except Celia and Alkine, who had watched my examination process, began to doubt their eyes.

But there was no time to dwell on questions during combat, so Grain immediately turned around and attempted another attack.

Unlike before when she tried to grab me to do something, she was now attempting direct strikes, seemingly sensing something unusual.

Whatever she tried, it was all meaningless. I evaded everything with my evasion skill.

Once. Twice… Ten times.

After evading all ten attacks, Grain’s offensive finally stopped.

Is it over? I glanced at Grain and saw her expression filled with confusion—my evasion technique was clearly incomprehensible to her.

If even she couldn’t figure it out, then this must truly be something beyond normal traits.

So the only trait I have is “No Growth”? That’s ridiculous. How is that even a trait?

At that moment, Grain noticed my momentary lapse in concentration and lunged at me again.

Oh, this motion can be parried.

Hand-to-hand techniques can be parried with bare hands. Unlike shield parrying that deflects attacks, it’s closer to a technique where you grab and throw—but it was possible.

Almost instinctively, I caught her incoming fist and spun around once, using centrifugal force to throw her.

It worked perfectly with the system’s correction, offering no resistance.

Whoosh!

It’s a very strange sensation—not feeling any of the impact or weight that should have come to me, just the result of grabbing and throwing.

Grain, caught by my parry, flew through the air and crashed to the ground.

Um… did I throw her too hard? From what I just saw, she landed face-first.

Well, someone of Student Council officer caliber wouldn’t get hurt from something like this, so there’s probably no need to worry.

This should be enough to silence any objections about me joining the Student Council, right?

Joining the Student Council would be beneficial, so it would be good to get in now even if my secrets were discovered later and I got kicked out.

…But why isn’t Grain getting up? She’s still lying there. The parry shouldn’t have done much damage.

“Um… Senior Grain? Are you okay?”

Only when I cautiously asked did she finally move.

She didn’t fully stand up, just sat up from lying on the ground.

That’s when I realized something was wrong with the situation.

Grain has a small build, and I, being quite large, had thrown her… This makes me look like a complete jerk.

“Um… Senior, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go this far.”

I apologized first, but Grain remained silent.

Even when I tried to help her up, she refused, saying she was fine.

In the silence-filled space, Alkine stepped forward to resolve the situation.

“Ludion. Celia. I’m sorry to say this after calling you here, but… could you leave now?”

It was a dismissal. Well, it wasn’t really a dismissal since we’d seen everything and it was about time to send us back anyway.

“After tomorrow’s entrance ceremony ends, I’ll meet with you personally.”

Another meeting with the president was scheduled, but anyway, everything seemed to be over for now, so it was time to go.

Celia and I briefly greeted everyone before leaving.

The eventful day was finally over.

‘When I get back, I need to properly investigate everything.’

With the possession coinciding with the entrance exam, I’d been too busy just keeping up.

I was lucky to learn various things during the exam process, but I didn’t think that was all there was to know.

Now it was time to find out more.

///

‘The president has an excellent eye for potential, so she must have seen something in this arrogant kid.’

That’s what Grain thought at first.

No matter how much the president personally recruited him, he was still a newcomer who hadn’t received academy education yet.

At best, his skills would be on par with Celia, or slightly better.

Acting rashly based on that judgment was her biggest mistake.

‘…Huh?’

Before she knew it, she was lying face-down on the ground, looking up at the arrogant junior.

What she had just experienced was something completely beyond comprehension. She tried to analyze it using her trait despite the side effects, but strangely, she couldn’t discern anything.

Yet the person involved acted as if it was nothing special. As if it were natural.

Only then did Grain realize that Ludion wasn’t recruited for his potential.

‘I can’t even object anymore.’

Having directly experienced the shock the president mentioned, she had no grounds to refuse his entry into the Student Council.

It’s fine. Her resistance was just a tantrum anyway.

Even if Ludion had lost to her and failed to prove his abilities, she wouldn’t have truly opposed his joining the Student Council.

The president knew this, which is why she created this situation.

But regardless of her thoughts, with results like this, it was just embarrassing.

This arrogant junior… she couldn’t even call him arrogant anymore. After losing so miserably, calling him arrogant would be like spitting in her own face.

It was her fault for completely underestimating and dismissing the junior’s abilities.

She only felt sorry for the two people who had followed her wishes. Glancing back, they too seemed shocked, having not expected her to lose.

“This is impossible!”

“President. Please call them back. If we let them leave like this, they’ll think we’re pushovers.”

They must be in shock if they’re not thinking straight. They saw everything with their own eyes, yet they’re saying this. Are they even considering a solution? Probably not.

They’re saying this for her sake, so she couldn’t really blame them, but still…

Anyway, she couldn’t imagine a different outcome even if they stepped up.

Knowing this, she rose from her seat and stopped them.

“Cain, Golid. That’s enough, let it go.”

“But…”

“You both saw it, didn’t you? That’s beyond any concept of ‘freshman’ or whatever we know. It’s completely outside our understanding.”

That’s why even her trait didn’t overload.

It wasn’t something that could be analyzed in the first place.

“We’ll head back first, President. Please forget the opinions we expressed.”

“Alright, I understand. Go ahead.”

They left the place as if fleeing.

Grain led Cain and Golid into a quiet café.

“Will you be okay? With an ability like that, won’t it strain you too?”

“Not really. That thing, it doesn’t even register with my trait. I tried using my ability once during the match, thinking I’d take medicine later today… but nothing was detected.”

“…Is that possible?”

“That’s why I said it’s beyond our understanding. It’s already something that transcends common sense. Trying to understand it will only give you a headache.”

Ironically, that’s why my head doesn’t hurt. Haha.

The emotions contained in that dry laugh were so varied that Cain and Golid couldn’t say anything.

“Why are you looking at me like that? I’m really fine. From the start, things like that make it meaningless to consider whether someone is a freshman or not.”

“Grain.”

“Cain. Let it go. I’m going to get angry.”

“Get angry if you want. But before that, be honest.”

Hearing his words, she reflected on her emotions.

She felt angry, and bitter.

Besides that, many small emotions passed through, to the point of confusion.

But among them, the strongest emotion was…

“I’m so fucking embarrassed. Damn it.”

It was shame. Even when Ludion asked if she was okay, she ignored him because of that feeling.

Why didn’t the president stop me when I volunteered, if she knew everything?

No… the president did try to stop me. I was the one who insisted…

“How will Celia look at me now… I really wanted to make a good impression on my junior…”

“Sigh… I guess that’s more important to you than your pride.”

At Grain’s words, as if he had expected this, Cain placed something like a note in her hand.

“What’s this?”

“That kid came to me and gave it before leaving.”

The junior did? I thought he left right away, but he took the time to write a note and hand it over.

Maybe as a junior, he had his own thoughts about the situation.

What could he possibly want to say that made him write a note?

Curious, she opened the note… and found something completely different from what she had expected.

‘A second-year academy student got completely owned by a freshman, didn’t she?’

This… this…

“What a crazy bastard! How can someone be like this?!”

The title “junior kid” that had just settled in her mind was immediately downgraded back to “arrogant junior.”

Covering shame with anger. The junior used his head well.

In Cain and Golid’s minds, their impression of Ludion subtly improved. Even though he had written it just to tease her without much thought… meaning is in the eye of the beholder.