In school-life stories, the rooftop is practically a plaza for encounters. The same holds true even when it is locked with a padlock. They say lunchtime is when the probability of meeting a heroine is highest, but there is still a chance of meeting one during breaks or even in the middle of class.
Because the rooftop was the first place he needed to linger if he wanted to find the person he was looking for, the boy had obtained a key by doing a favor for a teacher and was about to head up there during this break as well. But when he heard the girls’ conversation, he stopped for a moment and eavesdropped on the situation.
A conversation between the girl most loved by the main heroine of this world, and the girl who, for a short while in their first year, had tormented the boy.
He wondered if she could possibly be hiring that girl to torment someone else, but perhaps she had only been searching because she was curious about the person who had bullied her. Their conversation continued, somewhat rough but smooth enough.
The Queen of the School.
This did not refer to the student council president, the student officially in the highest position within the school. Nor did it refer to Yu Inna, who got along with the most people. It did not refer to the idol who did not attend the school but was the most famous person in it, either.
Until the second semester of their first year, there had been a girl who wielded a terrifying degree of influence over the school—Kang Yuri. People had called her the Queen of the School with fear and a certain respect, but in truth, that had not lasted long. The student council president, Yu Inna, and countless other students had joined forces to bring her down.
The boy, who had been one of those who subjugated the Queen of the School, climbed to a spot where he could see them, just in case Kang Yuri had forgotten the warning he had given her before. He watched while using [Assimilation] and [Stealth], abilities that were part of his power.
In a world where possessing even a single psychic ability was considered remarkable, there was no way anyone could detect a power that combined two psychic abilities that should not exist in the present world. Assimilated with the world, the boy listened to the conversation taking place between them.
“So what are you planning to do now? Are you going to hit me just because I bullied you a little? If you do, this time I’ll be the one to go first and cry, Officer~, she hit me~. You think I’m easy just because my ability came undone for that one instant back then?”
‘I was lying about having called the police back then... Was it too effective?’
A possessor of an ability related to lies resolved problems through lies. It was practically the standard strategy in every game.
There was a high chance it would not work on the Queen, who had grown more powerful since then, but the boy now possessed other abilities as well, so there was no need to use the old method anymore.
Though to the former Queen, the lie that the police were coming must have been shocking, because even now, several months later, she still seemed bound by those words.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s enough that I found out who the Queen is. There was something I was planning to do once I found her, but...”
I don’t feel like it. As if she were looking at a system window floating in the air, the girl stared into empty space, then passed by the Queen and disappeared.
Indifference, without even a trace of revenge or anger toward someone who had tried to torment her physically.
When dealing with certain people, acting that way might be the correct choice—however,
[Queen’s Capture Keyword: The more indifferent you are to the bullying, the more obsessed the other party will become. Get bullied! And ignore it! As the bullying worsens, the other party will think only of you and become obsessed.]
[Love and obsession are not so different. Her obsession will ultimately be no different from love. Because she must be the only one to torment you, she will protect you from others; and because everything you react to must be directed toward you, she will sometimes treat you kindly as well.]
The former Queen’s expression, after being ignored, was far from normal.
Because on her face, there was no longer any sign that she had the leeway to care about the “promise” that had restrained her from ever appearing as a villain again.
[The other party already has an object of obsession.]
[There is currently only one fixed method for the current object of obsession to release the Queen’s obsession. If that object attempts an S-battle with the Queen, the obsession will be released regardless of victory or defeat.]
[The object of obsession is currently Erika.]
There was even a message saying she had become the target of bullying.
“Stop right there. If you don’t, I’ll make you regret it.”
A voice filled wholly with boiling heat. Even without any ability in it, it held the power to stop a person in their tracks, but Erika merely turned her head slightly.
“I have no reason to listen to someone who bullies me. I don’t know what I did wrong to you, but whatever it is, let’s end it here. If you want to do more, then do more. I’m not interested anymore.”
As the girl turned forward again and descended the stairs, the former Queen no longer seemed inclined to end things with words alone.
At the sight of her approaching as if to push her down the stairs, the boy revealed himself and blocked her path.
“Stop here, Kang Yuri. You promised me you wouldn’t bully her.”
“Hah. You were eavesdropping again?”
Leaving her alone any longer was absolutely dangerous. Even though the boy blocked her path, the Queen’s gaze was fixed on the girl disappearing beyond the wall.
[The other party is no longer a heroine. No capture route can exist.]
A woman who had been a heroine, but was no longer one.
Now, the woman who existed only as a villain was aiming for the target of the “promise.” If he wanted to borrow the main heroine’s power to find the person he was looking for, he had no choice but to stop her here.
Golden light settled in the boy’s hand. It was a power he had never shown when they subjugated the Queen. But perhaps she recognized how powerful it was without even being struck by it, because a look of tension appeared on the Queen’s face.
“You know what? The moment that girl found out I was the Queen, she didn’t even look at me like I was human. She treated me like some inanimate object that happened to talk with its eyes. Just because I lost to you people doesn’t mean I have to put up with being treated like this, right?”
“...She’s not the kind of girl to do that. Didn’t you see it wrong?”
Trying to commit violence over nothing more than a gaze was wrong. But knowing very well that Erika was not the kind of girl who would look at someone that way, the boy could only be flustered.
He had only gone a few days without seeing her. So what was this about treating someone like an inanimate object? Kang Yuri did have a good eye for people, but because she possessed the ability of lies, it could not help but sound like a lie.
Except that the situation was absolutely not one in which she would tell a lie.
Because the angle made it difficult to see Erika’s eyes, the boy was about to sink even deeper into thought when a strand of voice reached his ears.
‘I’ll kill you.’
The girl who had screamed those words upon seeing him behind the student council president, who had calmly said she was now dating another man. At the same time, the memory of blood spraying from the wrist of a girl protected by some kind of inviolability. And even the memory of taking three days of rest after that.
Could that experience back then have changed even her nature? The boy smiled bitterly, then was momentarily startled by the supernatural power flowing around the Queen.
“I don’t care about any promise anymore. If you’re going to stop me, stop me. If you’re going to break me, break me. That girl said I could bully her as much as I wanted, and now I’ve suddenly become curious too. How much do I have to bully her before I fill those eyes of hers completely? How much do I have to torment her before she cries and begs me not to? I’m curious how amazing she thinks she is, looking at me with eyes like that.”
Even after hearing the woman’s words, the golden halo lingering around the boy’s hand did not extend forward. The woman’s supernatural ability was lies.
A psychic ability in the realm of reality manipulation, making anything she thought was false into falsehood.
He had been able to win because she could not exercise that psychic ability before the master of wisdom, but honestly speaking, if the woman focused on fleeing instead of fighting the boy, there was no way he could catch her. In a world where murder through psychic powers was taboo, he could not kill her either.
“This time, I’m not going to bully her just to see your reactions. I’m doing it because I’m genuinely curious, so this time, I won’t move while considering each and every one of your reactions.”
With words that were nearly a monologue, the woman’s body grew faint. A broad application that allowed her to move elsewhere by thinking that the self standing here now was “fake.”
The obvious result that, compared to a year ago, it was not only he and the heroines who had grown, but the villains as well.
The enemy he had needed others’ help to face in their first year had grown stronger and vanished, saying she would target someone other than him. In the place where she disappeared, only gray powder remained.
[The Queen of the School has reentered the main scenario. She is evil. An evil whose possibility of becoming your heroine has been completely eliminated. The ember of evil that was once defeated and smothered is gradually growing as it begins to obsess over someone. Defeat her before she gains greater influence and becomes Queen once again. That is your path to victory.]
With the window blocking his sight, the boy was about to return to class, but at the bottom of the stairs stood the white-haired girl he had thought had gone ahead, frowning.
Had she heard everything? If so, this would be quick. The Queen’s declaration, laced with obsession. If he wanted to trample it down before it grew so large that it could no longer be undone later, he had to resolve the element the Queen was obsessed with.
The problem was that the Queen had already fixed the method by which her obsession would be released. And that method ran counter to the wish of the main heroine, who wanted to reconnect with Erika someday, even if only later.
“I’ll handle the matter with the Queen, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
In the end, without offering any advice, the boy had no choice but to make a declaration, empty of confidence, that he would resolve it himself.
Even if he did resolve it, he could never have confidence in fighting a woman who might turn everything into a lie at any moment.
And as for giving advice, it would be an extremely intense matter; he could not, in good conscience, tell a girl who already had a woman she loved to have sexual relations with that woman.
“She said there were two... Did that include this guy?”
However, what came out of the girl’s mouth was truly out of nowhere. Though she spoke as if muttering to herself, the boy’s senses were exceedingly sharp, so her voice reached his ears in full.
Someone had noticed his stealth? Hearing that there were two, and that this guy was included, he had no choice but to suspect the existence of someone who had been watching this.
The boy withdrew the halo of light in his hand and hurriedly called up abilities related to “sight” and “hearing,” but perhaps they had already evacuated, because he could not detect the presence of anyone watching this place.
“I have something to tell you, Kim Haneul. Give me a moment.”
Along with the girl’s voice asking for a conversation,
Ding—dong—dang—dong.
The bell rang, signaling the end of break.
“Even though the bell rang?”
“I meant later...”
At the boy’s voice, smiling as he spoke so she would not feel embarrassed, the girl quietly flushed to the tips of her ears.