Episode 5. Lucy

“Ugh, I’m so tired…!”

A girl who wasn’t even 160cm tall, someone who could easily be mistaken for a middle schooler, was heading back after finishing her training.

However, the Victoria Academy uniform she wore and her overwhelming chest argued against her being a middle schooler. It was as if all her growth hormones had gone straight to her chest, resulting in breasts that didn’t match her small frame.

She, Lucy, who had just finished her mana training in a private room, was just as much of a die-hard as Lee Hoyeon, who had rushed to the training room the moment the entrance ceremony ended.

As she walked down the corridor of private rooms, a siren suddenly blared, accompanied by a chiiiik- sound of escaping air.

“Huh? What is it, an accident? Huh?”

One of the private room doors in the corridor Lucy was passing through began to open upwards.

Fortunately, she had diligently read the training center’s guide booklet handed out at the entrance, which nobody ever reads, so she could immediately understand the situation.

‘Mana exhaustion during training!’

If mana exhaustion occurs in a private room, it can be life-threatening if not treated quickly.

That’s why the training system detects it immediately, dispatches rescue personnel right away, and sounds the siren so that anyone nearby can provide first aid if necessary.

“Excuse me, are you okay?”

Smoke obscured the view, making it impossible to distinguish who it was, only a human shape.

Lucy waved her hands, clearing away the smoke, and approached the collapsed person.

“Wait, isn’t this the guy who was sleeping during the entrance ceremony?”

It was the guy who suddenly slumped over and fell asleep next to me during the entrance ceremony, startling me when I woke him up.

‘I thought so back then too, but seeing him now, he really is handsome.’

Startled by the collapsed man’s handsome face for a moment, Lucy quickly approached him.

“Heyyy, wake up! Snap out of it!”

Even after tapping his cheeks, the man didn’t come to, so Lucy thought she needed to perform some kind of first aid.

However, Lucy had only diligently read the guide booklet and hadn’t read the first aid guide next to it.

The only first aid she knew was CPR, which she learned in middle school.

‘Doing something is better than doing nothing, right?’

In reality, CPR is a very dangerous procedure if performed on someone who isn’t having cardiac arrest, but Lucy didn’t know that.

As she clasped her hands for chest compressions, her arms pressed against his chest in a rather suggestive position.

But she was completely serious, performing CPR with all her might.

“One, two, three, four, five, six….”

“Ugh… Uh…”

“Oh? Are you coming around?”

Seeing the man react, Lucy gained confidence that she was doing it right and assumed the chest compression position again.

Just then, the man’s hand suddenly moved upwards.

“Huh?”

Caught completely off guard, Lucy couldn’t react immediately even as she saw the hand groping her chest.

Jumul jumul jumul

“Kkii… Kkiyaaaahk!”

*

What the…?

I was gathering mana normally, but suddenly my vision spun.

When I came to my senses, two watermelons were swaying right before my eyes.

Still groggy from just regaining consciousness, I unconsciously grabbed those watermelons and tried to push myself up.

Were watermelons always this soft? No… what is this?

It’s soft, like a woman’s breasts…

“Kkii…. Kkiyaaaahk!!”

A piercing scream drilled into my ears.

Only then did I fully regain consciousness.

Raising my gaze from the soft ‘watermelons,’ I saw a child in uniform trembling as she stared at me.

★ Heroine Status Window

[Lucy]

• [ Affection: 8 ]

• [ Lust: 5 ]

• [ Appetite: 50 ]

• [ Fatigue: 60 ]

Wait a minute, why is Lucy here?

She’s a mixed-race girl with European blood, the older sister of the twin heroines.

She makes friends easily from a young age, getting close to people quickly, and she gets along easily with the protagonist too, but paradoxically, her personality makes it difficult to develop relationships beyond friendship.

Through the protagonist’s devoted efforts, she’s supposed to gradually overcome that and open her heart to him… but I’ve already messed up right from our first meeting.

“Uh… um, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking straight…”

“Y-You! You bad… !”

Lucy’s face, flushed beyond a blush into a fiery red, began conjuring arrows of fire above her hand.

“Wait, wait, it was a real mistake. Just calm down a little!”

“Perverts should die! You criminal!”

I might actually die if I take that hit. I need to move my mana to block it right now, but my mana won’t move.

“It’s Room 402! The emergency alert went off in Room 402!”

“It’s right up ahead! Huh? Student! What do you think you’re doing using magic here!”

Thank goodness, the rescue team showed up just in time. It seems the system inside the training center detected my critical condition when I collapsed and sent them.

“Help me! Help me! Over here!”

“Let go! Let go of me!”

Fortunately, Lucy, who was about to shoot fire arrows at me, was subdued by the rescue team grabbing her arms.

The rescue team held her arms to subdue her, but because she was short, she was practically lifted into the air.

As she struggled to get free, her bouncing chest in mid-air was all that caught the eye.

In the game too, Lucy becomes unreasonable when she loses it. It’s more effective to let her cool down and apologize later.

Luckily, Lucy seems distracted by the rescue personnel subduing her and has forgotten about me for the moment, so I need to escape quickly while I have the chance.

“What is wrong with this student? There’s an emergency patient here! Huh? Where did she go?”

“She ran off that corner alone a moment ago?”

“Hey, you idiot! How could you just let her go?”

“But she looked perfectly fine…”

“Let me goooo!”

“Argh. This is driving me crazy.”

The Victoria Academy emergency rescue personnel began contemplating whether they should just quit their jobs.

*

“Mana exhaustion?”

It seems what I experienced was mana exhaustion. It’s apparently a condition that occurs when you try to operate mana excessively in a state where there’s almost no mana left inside your body.

This doesn’t happen in the game, what an unfriendly world! Seriously.

I guess it’s understandable since I squeezed out all my mana trying to go all out. Plus, my condition wasn’t perfect either. Now that I’ve realized my mana capacity, I won’t make this mistake again.

‘Why did I have to make my first mistake in front of Lucy of all people? Argh.’

I got too excited this time, enjoying using magic. My first mistake, which should never happen again, was unfortunately in front of a heroine.

For now, I need more training. The immediate problem is my mana pool is too small.

‘And Lucy is also a problem…’

Lucy is one of the heroines in ‘S*x-A’. Moreover, she’s in the same Class A, so I’ll run into her starting tomorrow’s first class. I’m worried sick after causing such an incident.

I need to do something about it, but honestly, there’s nothing I can do right now.

I guess the highest probability is that she’ll claim she forgot about me because she was fighting the rescue team.

Sigh, I don’t know. I guess I just have to rely on the protagonist’s buff.

*

Tuesday morning, the first day of school.

Victoria Academy is incredibly vast. There are separate buildings for each grade level, and all the facilities like mana classrooms, sparring grounds, and the cafeteria are dazzlingly splendid, making it a treat just to look around.

As I slowly walked, trying to memorize the academy paths, I arrived in front of the first-year building.

[Class A]

It definitely sounds more impressive than just ‘Class A’.

“Hoo…”

Doki doki-

Why is my heart pounding like this? It’s the same flutter I felt as a kid when I moved up a grade and none of my close friends were in the same class. I also felt anxious, wondering if I could adapt well here.

After taking a deep breath, I confidently opened the door and entered.

It felt more like a lecture hall than a classroom.

The clean white interior featured long desks, like those in university, arranged in tiered seating.

At the front of the hall were a podium and a hologram projector.

The sound of me opening the door drew the attention of the students in the hall for a moment.

Normally, attention focuses for a second and then returns to normal, but their gazes wouldn’t leave me.

“Hey, what the…? Wait, wow, who is that?”

“Who is it? He’s handsome.”

“I think I saw him on TV yesterday.”

I couldn’t just stand there, so I casually looked around and chose a window seat at the end of the middle row.

Sitting in the back row felt too much like a delinquent, and the front row attracted unnecessary attention from professors, so the middle was perfect.

Looking at the desks, I saw each one was equipped with a hologram projector, presumably to display materials right before our eyes when needed during class.

After settling in, I looked around.

In the very back row, Lucy and Lumi were sitting together, chattering away.

They are identical twins, so much so that even their parents, unless they had observed Lumi and Lucy closely for a very long time, would have trouble telling them apart upon close inspection.

Fortunately, their hairstyles, clothing styles, and ways of speaking helped distinguish them.

Lucy had dyed her hair blue and always wore a cardigan to hide her figure as much as possible. She has many friends and is usually surrounded by them unless she’s with Lumi.

Lumi, true to her trademark, wore her hair tied with a pure red ribbon, stuck to the academy uniform, and spoke in a gentle, soft tone.

★ Heroine Status Window

[Lucy]

• [ Affection: 1 ]

• [ Lust: 5 ]

• [ Appetite: 40 ]

• [ Fatigue: 20 ]

★ Heroine Status Window

[Lumi]

• [ Affection: 15 ]

• [ Lust: 30 ]

• [ Appetite: 40 ]

• [ Fatigue: 30 ]

Lucy’s affection had dropped to 1. That’s lower than a pebble on the street, and even lower than when I checked yesterday.

Lumi’s affection is normal, so it seems Lucy hasn’t talked about me.

As I was looking at Lucy and Lumi’s status windows, Lucy, who had been chatting happily with Lumi, caught my eye.

The moment our eyes met, the smile vanished from Lucy’s face.

Lumi, sitting next to her, looked bewildered, not understanding why Lucy suddenly changed.

She looked cute, and I wanted to keep watching, but I quickly averted my gaze.

Alice, the top scorer in written exams, and Nam Daeun, the top scorer in practical skills, are also in Class A, but they weren’t visible yet, perhaps not having arrived.

“…”

“Why are you acting like that all of a sudden, Lucy? It’s scary…”

I could feel Lucy’s glare from the back row, her chest resting on the desk as she glared at me.

Deureureuk-

Fortunately, the instructor soon entered through the door, scattering the attention focused on me.

A man with slicked-back black hair, wearing a black suit, walked briskly to the front of the podium.

“I am Kim Jin-hyuk, the homeroom teacher for Class A. Nice to meet you.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he scanned the classroom with his eyes and frowned slightly, as if displeased.

“There seem to be many students excited on the very first day. You should all act with more pride and dignity as cadets of Victoria Academy.”

He tapped the screen behind the podium with his baton, and information about the orientation appeared.

“Check the academy rules and schedule personally on the website…”

After a roughly boring period, the words ‘Group Assignments’ appeared on the screen.

“The foundation of a Hunter is cooperation. Whether it’s dungeon exploration, defeating villains, or emergency dispatch, cooperation with other Hunters is paramount in any situation.”

That’s true. There’s no need to fight alone like a lone wolf.

“Therefore, many classes at Victoria Academy are conducted as group projects.”

Tak tak. The list of group assignments appeared on the screen.

This is a combination automatically classified by Victoria Academy’s internal system based on entrance exam scores.

“The members assigned now will apply to all other subjects as well. Changing group members is fundamentally impossible and reclassification is only possible based on next semester’s grades. I hope there are no children whining about not liking someone or refusing to participate.”

The classroom buzzed with noise. Some students were unhappy with their group members, while others, luckily paired with close friends, were hugging each other excitedly.

My group members are… Oh?

[Group 7. Nam Daeun. Lumi. Lee Byung-hoon. Lee Hoyeon]

Nam Daeun and Lumi. Two heroines in the same group.