Chapter 1
Even if someone possessed the body of an extra in a book, how many readers would actually enjoy it by memorizing every single detail from the novel?
If I were to sum up my life here in one word, it would be just “a total loser.”
“Hey, commoner. How dare you look directly at a noble’s face?”
“What is this ignorant country bumpkin doing at the academy, pretending to learn anything?”
“Get out of my sight.”
If I ever bumped into the nobles, I’d find myself trampled underfoot by their servants.
To avoid disfavouring their masters, they would beat me so hard I thought I’d die from the pain.
With no background or talent, I somehow managed to enter the academy by leveraging my memories from my previous life, but that’s as far as it went.
Right now, I regret coming here. It might’ve been better to learn farming thoroughly, develop modern fertilizers, and become a merchant.
‘Ugh, this academy cost my parents so much; I can’t just drop out halfway.’
What’s worse, as someone who had originally been a reader, I could recognize the main cast.
Watching the protagonist from afar occasionally just gave me a harsh dose of reality.
Seeing him constantly get involved in accidents with beauties and complain that it disrupted his training infuriated me even more in real life.
Meanwhile, I couldn’t even properly attend classes without tiptoeing around.
I feel sorry for my parents, but if our family had at least been a barony, I could’ve called myself a noble…
No, even being a village head would’ve been better, as it still allowed me to attend this academy I’d long dreamed of.
Lost in these petty and ungrateful thoughts, I trudged down the hallway.
I decided to head to the library to study something, research chemical fertilizers, and think of other products that might sell.
That was my only escape route.
As I repeated my goal to myself while walking, I heard a strange sound.
“Sob… hic…”
In the sparsely traveled hallway leading to the library, there was the sound of crying.
Not wanting to get involved, I carefully observed, but it was her—the Heroine.
Elenien Gronif.
She had been admitted due to her talent for spirit magic.
However, as a half-elf, she was bullied—a deliberate plan of a noble boy who targeted her for her looks.
The bullying escalated with demands for her to apologize and lick his shoe to make it stop, which enraged the protagonist and led to a duel challenge right on the spot.
After that, Elenien stayed close to the protagonist, feeling safe in his presence, and often followed him around.
Since she was an airheaded character who played with spirits on her own, the protagonist didn’t particularly mind her.
Though she was crying now, the protagonist—her classmate—would solve it, so I didn’t need to care.
Yet I couldn’t help but care.
Not out of a desire to help, but out of sheer annoyance.
For some reason, I felt unfairly irritated.
Despite having everything, why was she pretending to be in the same loser category as me?
“Why, why are you crying like that?”
“Sob… hic… Waaaah!”
When I approached to ask, she started crying even harder, and one of her fire spirits shot a spark at me.
“Ouch!”
Even if that noble boy tried to bully her, it wasn’t like anyone could truly threaten her with those spirits protecting her.
It was only because Elenien was so meek that they managed to torment her. If she’d gotten angry even once, they wouldn’t have dared.
Anyway, it seemed she was still being bullied.
I decided to talk to the crying Elenien.
“Miss Elenien, as a fellow academy student, I’ve seen some things. Why do you just let them treat you like that?”
“Sob, hic… You don’t know anything, so don’t speak carelessly. Why is everyone bullying me… sniff. Are you also saying this because I’m a half-elf…? Oh, no, I know, I know you were trying to console me. But still, talking to a dirty half-breed like me won’t do you any good either.”
“Ugh, so what if you’re a half-elf? I’m just a commoner who gets beaten up all day at this academy.”
Suddenly, my head went blank.
Once I started venting my frustrations, Elenien simply stared up at me with a blank expression, her wide eyes focused solely on me.
***
“Just watching all of this makes me angry. Did you think I was trying to comfort you?”
“If I cry like you, people don’t try to comfort me—they bully me even more. I’d probably get expelled for it! Damn, just thinking about it pisses me off.”
“Having half the blood of a noble elven race should be a blessing, not something to be called a half-breed over. Let’s be real, Miss Elenien. You’re being bullied just because you’re pretty. That’s it. Because you’re pretty. Who cares if you’re a half-elf? Honestly, I’m jealous of you.”
“Someone like you, so noble and perfect, probably has people lining up to help you even if you just stand still. Don’t believe me? Just wait and see. The moment that noble brat tries to cross the line with you, someone will step in to help.”
“Even the professors wouldn’t want a talented student like you to leave the academy over bullying, so they’d step in to help if you just asked. And if the pure-blooded elves ever stop looking at you as a half-elf and recognize your worth, they’ll stop rejecting you and start pitying you. But look at me—I don’t have a single person to help me.”
***
After pouring out what was essentially a one-sided rant, Elenien’s sobbing stopped.
She blinked her big, round eyes and stared at me blankly.
I sighed deeply and finally said what I had really wanted to say.
“Stop acting like we’re in the same boat. It’s annoying.”
“Yes… I see…”
Now that I’d dealt with the obstacle that was Elenien, I passed through the hallway unbothered and entered the library.
Feeling oddly refreshed, I focused on studying properly for the first time in a while.
If things continued like this, I’d be able to perform all kinds of experiments through magic and even create chemical fertilizers.
Still, if only I had remembered exactly how chemical fertilizers were made in my past life, I wouldn’t have to struggle so much now.
Then again, just because a modern person is thrown into a fantasy world doesn’t mean they can suddenly start inventing and developing everything.
Even if I succeeded in creating chemical fertilizers, there would still be a mountain of work waiting for me afterward…
“I just hope no one bullies me tomorrow… sigh.”
Even though I acted as if I was someone important to Elenien, I realized my own situation was even more miserable, and the darkness before my eyes deepened.
The only solution was to study, study, and study.
That’s what I firmly believed.
But a few days later, I found myself being mocked by a noble who had snatched my notebook.
“Pl-please give it back! Please, it’s important!”
“I need to see what a lowly commoner dared to write in his notebook. What is this weird formula? Were you researching some kind of sinister necromancy to curse us?”
“This guy’s dangerous! We should burn this thing immediately.”
“Please! Please, no!”
Just as a flame appeared at the fingertips of the noble boy, ready to set my notebook ablaze,
a stream of water surged out of nowhere, extinguishing the fire and saving my notebook.
“St-stop! Bullying a fellow academy student is forbidden here, regardless of their background!”
A girl recited something she must’ve learned from somewhere as she stood in front of me.
Soon after, a significant number of spirits began circling around the nobles.
“What, what’s this? Spirits?”
“How can one person have so many—ahh! It’s hot! Shoo, shoo! Get away! Oh, uh, I just remembered something urgent I need to do!”
Frightened by the spirits, the nobles gradually backed away, threw my notebook, and fled.
The girl caught it, spun around once, and swept her silvery hair behind her ear as she handed it to me.
“Here, here you go. It’s yours, right, Serupe?”
She checked my nametag again as she said my name.
Her face was beautiful beyond what a human could possess, but her expression looked blank and naive.
For some reason, that silly face seemed so reliable.
“Elenien…”
Seeing her as if she were a saviour, I gazed up at her in reverence. She blushed, swaying her body left and right.
Her pointed ears twitched, making her look unbelievably endearing.
“Th-thank you. Elenien, you truly saved my life. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”
“H-huh? No, I just, um… you said such important things to me before. B-but Serupe, you said you had no one to help you, right?”
“Uh, yes, that’s true. I’m always alone here at the academy.”
“I… I want to be someone who can help you, too.”
Her shy and bashful confession made my heart race for a moment.
No way—surely that’s not what she meant.
It must’ve been that my words last time had somehow inspired her.
But all I did was state the facts as they were.
Anyway, not long after that, there was an incident where the noble boy bullied Elenien again, and the protagonist saved her.
So, at this timing, she must’ve felt comforted and grateful to me instead.
But wouldn’t it make more sense for her to thank the protagonist instead of me?
Regardless… whew, what a relief.
Thanks to her, I was saved.
If I had lost that notebook, I would’ve had to start over, painstakingly reviewing books and reorganizing everything I’d spent days preparing.
Just when I was at the point of finally being able to attempt creating chemical fertilizers, losing it would’ve been devastating.
Once again, I expressed my gratitude to Elenien.
“Thank you so much, Elenien. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”
Shaking her head, she spoke bashfully.
“Be… be my friend.”
“Sorry, what?”
“Please… be my friend.”
If I heard correctly, the heroine herself was asking me to be her friend.
Trying not to show how overjoyed I was, I nodded.
“Of course, that’s no trouble at all.”
“Yay…”
From then on, Elenien started following me around, no matter what I was doing.
It was a bit annoying, but every time the nobles tried to bother me, she helped. I didn’t know about the protagonist, but I was grateful.
Still, wasn’t Elenien supposed to have a setting where she couldn’t use spirit magic on humans?
Eh, who cares.
Just being able to safely attend the academy was already a blessing.
Though sometimes she disrupted my studies, which was a problem…
And occasionally, she’d sulk for strange reasons, and comforting her was exhausting…
Plus, my wallet kept emptying from buying her snacks at the cafeteria…
I think I’m starting to understand how the protagonist feels.
But if I think of it as a bodyguard fee, it’s a bargain.
Just as I was adjusting to the nuisance that was Elenien’s “bullying,”
thinking no one else would bother me anymore,
“The notebook… sell it to me.”
“Serupe, you’re so diligent every single day. It’s admirable.”
“That’s not how you do it.”
“Where’s Karon? Why am I the only one here? Ugh, who knows? That fool’s probably swinging a sword somewhere.”
“You are…”
“I’m sulking now.”
“Even without studying divine law, you strive to live by the teachings of the gods and help others.”
“Become my servant.”
“I will follow you.”
The heroines, the heroines kept clinging to me.
I’m… not the protagonist, though?
—
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