What a surprise...

*Bing!*

'Oh, what a surprise. Who could ever have guessed that a mission would show up... Wait...'

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[Act 1, chapter 2: The duty of a student!]

New mission:

- Save Lya from the 2nd year!

Reward:

- Unlock a part of Alex Winter's backstory!

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Needless to say, I wasn't surprised at all when I heard the weird sound appear in my head. What did surprise me, however, was the fact that there was no penalty connected to it. Which made me feel quite awkward as I had prepared myself to intervene, now just standing awkwardly on the side.

As I was luckily standing a fair distance away from the group of second-years and Lya, they hadn't noticed me yet, but it was awkward nonetheless. The worst part was that I was pretty sure that I didn't have much time to think about the reward anyway, since I could now see that the older student wasn't too happy with what she said.

"A tantrum?! I'll show you a tantrum!"

His fist slowly started shining with a bright blue, proving that he was accumulating mana into it.

Fast than I had ever done before, I connected my mind to one of the rocks in my bag, launching it up in the air. At the same time, I covered my face with the hoodie that I had used as training wear and started running forward while making sure that I knew the location of my rock.

Lya quickly covered her face with her hands as the bully raised his fist.

'Drop.'

*Bam!*

"Gah?!"

The rock had landed right on his head, and although it was not enough to knock him out, it was more than enough to put him in a confused daze, while his friends also started to look up to find out who the perpetrator was.

Taking advantage of this opening, I managed to sprint to Lya's side, grabbing hold of her hand as I spoke curtly.

"Run."

"Huh...?"

Without much choice, as she was also pretty confused by whatever was happening, I pulled her hand, making her finally understand what I was doing. Our destination? One of the many parks around the campus where I hoped we could hide within the thicket of trees.

"Hey! Stop!"

Even when the group of morons realized what was going on, we had already made it far enough that I doubted they would be able to catch up. And as we entered the park which very much resembled a small-scale forest, they were no longer within our sights.

Which made sense, as they probably didn't want to escalate the situation even further after acting like idiots right outside of the three main buildings. Even if it seemed like the academy was pretty loosely monitoring their students, I still had a feeling that using one's abilities out in the open like that wouldn't be looked at fondly.

"Huff...huff..."

Leaning against one of the many trees, I couldn't help but think that I had done something stupid. Even as the mission panel disappeared, it was hard to feel happy about it.

Don't get me wrong, I was happy that I had been able to help out my classmate, who was now looking at me with an unreadable expression, but I wasn't happy about risking my peaceful school life. Even if that classmate happened to be a very beautiful woman.

Unlike me, Lya was wearing her white school uniform today as well, which did a bad job hiding her womanly curves, and her long, black hair was still as straight and shining as always. Even among the generally good-looking students who attended the academy, she was still a step above them.

If I had made a tier list, which would be a very weird and creepy thing to do, I would have put her in the S-tier, together with both Eva and Samantha.

"Who... are you?"

'Oh, right. I am still hiding my face.'

It did sadden me a bit that she couldn't recognize me just because I had a hood over my face, but it did make sense when taking into account that we had never actually talked to each other. So, taking advantage of this situation, I decided to make a good first impression.

Revealing my face, I made sure to keep a polite smile plastered on it, showing off the skills that multiple years of being a publisher had given me.

"It's me, Alex."

"Alex? Why did you... I'm sorry, but I'm not looking for a partner right now."

'Why are you suddenly bowing down?!'

"No, I didn't..."

"Also, even if I did, I don't think it's appropriate for me to get along with a commoner. But thank you for helping me out."

"No, that's not..!"

"I'll see you in class, Alex."

Turning around, Lya appeared to have made the decision to make a swift escape after turning, what she believed to be, my romantic advances down.

"Stop! Just listen to me!"

Her black hair swayed in the wind as she brought her eyes back to me, showing a slight hint of hesitation. Or maybe even a tiny bit of fear. What was weirder than that was the fact that her eyes suddenly started glowing in all the colors of the rainbow.

"... listen to my call, spirit of bravery, and come to my aid in my time of need."

Her hair began to float into the air in response to her collecting mana inside of her body. Though I wasn't exactly sure what she was doing, I had a very good feeling that it wasn't good news for me.

"Lya, wait! Please just listen to me!"

"Come forth, Akira!"

Above her head, some sort of swirling tempest of energy appeared, and from it a very otherworldly creature emerged, jumping out in between me and my classmate.

With wispy light-blue fur, it was an almost see-through spirit wolf who had come to his master's rescue. I had to admit that it was an extremely cool creature, but the fact that it was now baring its sharp fangs at me while staring at me made me hesitant to feel excited.

The fact that it was also double the size of what I knew normal wolves to be didn't help either.

"Grrr!"

'Why didn't she bring him out when that other student pestered her? Oh! It's because we are all alone in... Wait... Fuck! No wonder she felt scared!'

Everything finally made a lot of sense now, as I realized that I had pulled her to a park where we were all alone, and no one could see what we were doing. Even if I had saved her, she was probably extremely scared of what I might do to her with no eyes watching.

Despite me now living in a world where power reigned supreme, and there wasn't necessarily a disparity between the power of women and men, it was still natural that a young girl would be scared to be alone with a stranger which she knew absolutely nothing about.

Therefore, as she raised her arm, making herself ready to command her familiar, I made a decision on how to solve this.

"Akira, please show this... what are you doing?"

Just like Ghandi had done, the best way to dissolve a heated situation was to display an act of complete non-hostility. Which was why I chose to sit down, leaning my body against the tree behind me.

"I know you don't believe me, but I didn't save you for some stupid reason like confessing to you or anything. So, just go."

"... alright."

Just like I expected, it wasn't as if she would suddenly come around and actually talk to me, but I was at least thankful to see the spirit wolf dissolving into nothing as she left me alone in the park.

'Shit... that's scary...'

It wasn't until now that I realized just how crazy this world was, and how even a single moment like this could very well have led to a very sudden ending to my story. I didn't doubt for a second that the wolf spirit that she summoned could have very easily deprived me of my life if something went amiss.

That didn't mean that I believed that Lya was necessarily trying to kill me, but accidents could happen, especially when dealing with a huge, animal with very sharp-looking fangs.

"But, she was kind of strange, wasn't she?"

I could sort of understand that she didn't want to accidentally get in trouble by summoning her familiar out in the open courtyard, but from the hard façade she was putting up, I was surprised that she didn't act more proactively.

Ultimately, I could only think that she was probably too scared to do anything, or that it was something along the lines of the pride of a noble which made her unable to do anything.

'Come to think of it, didn't I complete the mission? Shouldn't I be...'

*Bing!*

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Part of Alex Winter's backstory has been unlocked!

Due to the unlocking of Alex Winter's backstory, the guidebook has been delivered to your registered living quarters. Please check the guidebook for more information!

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