Drk—
Ten minutes before the first class, at a time when most students would already have arrived, I entered the classroom.
"…What?"
Leo, who was sitting in the classroom, looked at my face and asked as if he couldn't believe it.
Then, as if he belatedly realized that he had decided not to acknowledge me, he turned his head away and started cursing at me with his expression instead.
I ignored the face asking what on earth had happened and looked in the other direction.
I made eye contact with those students from yesterday.
Letting out a scoff, I jerked my chin toward them.
"I left you there, but you figured it out yourselves and came anyway."
"...."
"Hey."
The students stubbornly stared straight ahead, but only after I walked over and lightly tapped one guy on the shoulder did they shudder and look my way.
"Do I have to make you come myself?"
"A, ah, no… why would I…."
The eyes of the guy looking at me trembled like he'd gone insane.
He definitely remembered calling me out and harassing me, but there was no way he remembered being beaten this visibly.
Something had clearly happened, yet all that remained in his mind was a vague, formless fear.
Smiling, I grabbed his shoulder.
"Bring your bag and come over here."
"Huh?"
"Sit next to me. All four of you."
With a face frozen stiff, the guy slowly stood up from his seat.
Then, with an expression saying he didn't understand why he had to listen to me, he asked,
"Why next to you…."
I went back to my seat and silently thumped the desk.
They exchanged glances and, with confused faces, sat down beside me.
I asked lightly,
"What's this class?"
"…Introductory biology… probably."
"Yeah, nice. Open your notebooks."
The guys only glanced at each other with bewildered faces before pulling out their notebooks. Just then, the professor opened the door and walked in.
"Good morning, everyone."
While the professor flipped through the attendance sheet, I spoke to the students sitting next to me.
"What are your ranks?"
"36th…. The ones next to me are probably in the 40s… why?"
At that, I let out a hollow laugh.
"40th out of 50? I can't even expect you to grasp the main points."
"B, but you too… weren't you like… 48th?"
That was true of Luka. He'd even been absent on exam day. He'd held the very last place the whole time, only barely escaping dead last on the final exam.
I didn't bother answering and pointed at the notebook.
"From now on, write down every single word the professor says without missing a single syllable. Don't try to find the main points for no reason. Record everything from start to finish."
"What?"
"Write it. Everything."
Everything? The student frowned, looking troubled.
"B, but why do we have to listen to you in the first place…."
"Don't like it?"
When I stared straight at him with a smile, he averted his eyes and dragged out his words.
"No, it's just that writing everything is a bit…."
"If you don't like it, then don't. It's your freedom. Studying isn't something you do because someone tells you to."
Don't do it? Just like that?
Is it really okay not to? Confusion once again spread across the student's face.
At that moment, the professor, who had been scanning the students, noticed my face and tilted his head.
"Student Lukas, what happened to your face?"
"Ah, I was up at dawn…."
I stood up and opened my mouth.
Bang—
The sound of the desk slamming echoed through the quiet classroom.
The student sitting next to me grabbed my hand tightly, his face drained of color. In a small, urgent voice, he whispered,
"I-I-I'll do it…! I will! Everything!"
"…Hmm."
"At dawn?"
The professor asked again, alternating his gaze between me and the student next to me.
From far away, Leo let out a deep sigh. He looked like he had finally realized what had happened.
The eyes of all the other students filling the classroom were the same.
Looking down at the guy clutching my hand, I curled my lips upward.
"…It's nothing. I just had a bit of a disagreement with some friends."
"If it's a case of violence, we'll have to convene a disciplinary committee."
"No. It's not that serious. It was resolved amicably."
The professor seemed to think for a moment, as if he didn't want to make a big deal out of something related to me, then nodded.
"Hm… if you need help, tell the professors anytime. Even later is fine."
"Yes, I will. Thank you."
Smiling, I sat back down.
Then I took out a thin book with a cover from my bag. It was a book I'd borrowed from the library to study Holy Power special magic.
I opened the book, slipped it under the textbook, and gestured to the students sitting next to me.
"What are you doing? Why aren't you writing?"
"...."
The students stared blankly down at my book, then hurriedly moved their hands when the professor began speaking.
***
"Alright then, see you next week. Make sure to review."
The professor gathered his materials and left the classroom.
The guys next to me jumped up from their seats, gasping for air.
"Huff… it's, it's over."
"Lukas! We wrote everything!"
Their tearful cries reached my ears.
At that, I took my eyes off the book and quickly scanned the notebooks.
Of course, there were blank spots, but since several people had been taking notes, they were filling in those gaps for each other.
I handed the notebooks back to the students.
"Good job."
"…You're not taking them?"
"Seriously… some people really think studying is only for the first class. What, does school end after just first period?"
At those words, the students' faces darkened. Smiling, I patted their shoulders lightly.
"Hang in there until six."
Like that, when the regular class hours ended, I collected all the notebooks. The students, with faces like they were dying, massaged their arms and handed them over.
"Look at how your handwriting's falling apart. Can't you do it properly?"
One of the students who'd been listening to my scolding hesitated, then opened his mouth.
"…But, um, about reporting this…."
"I won't."
When I shook my head, light returned to the students' faces. Watching them quietly, I continued,
"As long as you keep doing things like this. As far as I know, violence incidents can be reported anytime up until graduation. Right?"
"Huh? Ah, no… then…."
I smiled as I looked at the students who couldn't continue speaking.
I'd already gone to the hospital and even gotten a medical opinion.
Unlike before, I slowly read through the notebooks, nodding.
Sitting still and listening again to high school classes I already knew was an incredibly difficult thing.
Having to sit through a full hour for something that could be finished in thirty minutes if I just had the lecture notes.
Even so, since the curriculum wasn't exactly the same as reality, I couldn't ignore the classes entirely, so I'd been a bit conflicted, but….
'This is nice.'
I closed the notebook filled line after line with lecture content and grinned.
"Then, I'll borrow these."
***
Not long after Lukas left his seat, one student let out a sigh and rubbed his face with both hands.
"That punk, that bastard…."
"What kind of punk steals no—notebooks…."
"Either way, it's extortion! Aren't notebooks my property?!"
When the student burst out angrily, another student shook his head.
"Calm down. He clearly said he was borrowing them. Let's see if he gives them back."
"If he doesn't return them, we report him immediately."
"He'll return them. If he wants us to keep taking notes tomorrow, he has to."
"...."
Everyone fell silent.
It was a remark that made their vision go dark.
***
After stopping by my room and stacking the borrowed notebooks on my desk, I moved to the training ground.
"What the hell happened yesterday, anyway?"
When I lifted my head, I met the eyes of Leo, who was perched on a chair in the training ground.
Yeah, I knew he'd ask. It'd be stranger if he didn't.
After a brief moment of consideration, I answered shortly.
"I got hit a bit."
Of course, that wasn't really what he was asking—he meant how the incident unfolded, but….
There were plenty of things I didn't need to mention, like how they brought up Leo or how I made them eat dirt.
Better not to leave room for a slip of the tongue—better to explain nothing at all.
'If I say something unnecessary, I won't even make it halfway.'
Especially the part about making them eat dirt.
I closed my mouth, recalling Leo's upright conduct.
Leo looked at me again with a baffled expression, then shook his head.
"Fine, whatever…. That's not what's important. You got checked out, right?"
"I did. It's just bruises."
"That's a relief."
Leo nodded, then casually threw out a completely random question.
"So, did you win?"
"What?"
I let out a hollow laugh at the mismatched question.
Even in the novel, I remembered scenes where Leo stopped the protagonist from getting into fights, but I didn't recall him ever asking about who won or lost.
'He's already assuming I used magic.'
He wasn't the type to talk about winning or losing a fight unless magic was involved. I answered lightly.
"Why would they listen to someone they beat?"
At that answer, Leo burst out laughing.
"Ah, that clears things up. Yeah, figures. Who taught them anyway? There's no way you'd lose to guys like that."
"It's funny that you just assume I used magic."
"They're not the type to respect boundaries. If you want to get out of that situation, magic's the only option."
I nodded.
Trying to force someone to eat a living animal was already crossing the line by far. If I hadn't used magic, I might really have ended up putting it in my mouth.
"How are people reacting?"
"They think you got beaten one-sidedly. And they're guessing those guys accidentally hit your face and gave you leverage."
A perfectly reasonable reaction.
It wasn't easy to believe that someone who couldn't even use magic had beaten several mages.
In other words, word about my magic hadn't spread.
I only gained Holy Power as a reward, and I'd self-studied mind-control magic using Holy Power….
'For something self-taught, the effect is pretty solid.'
Special magic using Holy Power was worth investing in continuously.
Of course, after focusing on something more fundamental first.
Right now, I needed to raise my health score faster.
If something interfered with Holy Power usage, mental strength was no exception.
It was the fourth week of September now, and once next week passed, it'd be October. Nearly a month since the new semester started.
So… it was about time to speed up improving the Status window.
After three hours of training passed, Leo tucked his wand into his waistband and checked the time.
"It's ten. Let's head back."
I wiped off my sweat and nodded.
Unlike me, Leo showed no signs of fatigue, smiling as he spoke.
"We pushed the intensity a bit more today, too. Good work."
"Yeah. You too."
This was exactly why I needed to raise my health stat quickly. Even trying to improve myself, stamina became a bottleneck.
'Let's see how much it increases in one day.'
I called up the Status window.
Lukas René Askanian
Title: ???'s hunter
Health: -3.3 (+0.1) [-0.3]
Mental strength: -7.6 (+0.1)
Magical power: ?
Skill: +1.065 (+0.05) [+4.065]
Impression: -10
Luck: -6.385 (+0.1)
Trait: Dawn777, Holy Power
0.1 per day—1 point in ten days.
For reference, last week it had been 1 point per week.
The larger the value became, the smaller the increase was getting.
Still, at this rate, I could escape the negatives in about two months, so it wasn't a problem yet.
The problem was after that.
My gaze shifted to the skill category.
The only positive stat, skill, was increasing by a smaller margin than the others every time. It seemed that once it crossed into positive territory, the speed would slow to an incomparable degree.
'As time goes on, only things that take longer remain, so it's best to get through the negative zone as fast as possible.'
Time was limited, and there was a lot to do.
Should I cut down on sleep?
While I was packing my bag, lost in thought, Leo let out an exclamation and called me.
"Ah, Lukas."
"What."
"The medicinal ingredients you mentioned arrived. Today's the fourth day, like you said."
Leo lifted a box he'd tucked under his bag.
Hmm, if I had to make that too during exam period, I really would have to cut back on sleep.
As I was thinking that, a familiar notification sound rang out.
Ding—!
〈 Chapter 3. Constant drops pierce stone (1) 〉
Suggestion 2: Achieve 'health' score 0 (0/1) (167 hours 59 minutes 58 seconds)
* Route 1 — 〈 Chapter 3 special reward 〉
* Route 2 — 〈 Chapter 4. One swallow does not make a summer 〉
"...."
"Lukas?"
When it took ten days just to raise 1 point… they wanted me to raise 3.3 points in a week.
Yeah, it was about time suggestions like this started appearing.
With a title like that, I'd wondered why things had been so quiet.
I snorted as I looked at the unrealistic time limit.