The Academy's Doomed Side Character

Life had been suspiciously peaceful for a while after the last incident.

So peaceful, in fact, that I actually let myself believe things were normal. I let my guard down. Started going with the flow.

And then reality slapped me awake.

Hard.

> [9 hours until the Special Quest begins.]

[This quest is mandatory.]

[Failure will result in consequences.]

That was the first thing I saw blinking in front of my eyes when I woke up this morning. No good morning, no sunshine, no gentle system chime.

Just pure, unfiltered dread.

I sat up so fast I nearly fell out of bed.

"F—Fuck?!" I shouted, heart racing.

And that’s when I remembered—unfortunately—that I wasn’t alone.

"...What happened? Why are you cursing?" came Leona’s voice, calm and sharp like a blade.

Right. Leona was still in the room.

Sitting cross-legged in the corner chair, already dressed, and sipping tea like it was a perfectly normal morning. Because of course she was.

I laughed awkwardly, trying to play it off.

"Haha... nothing. Just, uh... bad dream. Real bad."

She raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying it, but didn’t press. She never did. That was the terrifying part about Leona—she didn’t ask questions unless she already knew the answer.

The system notification still hovered in the corner of my vision, flashing like a ticking bomb.

> [8:58:42 until the Special Quest begins.]

I looked away from it like that would make it disappear.

Spoiler: It didn’t.

Leona took another sip, her gaze flicking toward me over the rim of her cup.

"You were twitching in your sleep."

"I twitch a lot," I said automatically. "I’m an expressive dreamer."

She nodded once, not commenting further. A small silence settled in the room, filled only by the faint ticking of the wall clock and the soft hum of the dorm’s mana core.

I glanced at the clock. 7:02 AM. Too early for chaos. Too late to pretend this wasn’t happening.

Leona stood, stretching lightly.

"I’m heading out," she said, adjusting her collar in the mirror. "You remember, right? Today’s your commendation ceremony."

Right.

The commendation ceremony.

The one I’d been doing everything in my power to avoid.

And now, to make matters worse, I had a Special Quest starting on the exact same day. What were the odds? (Actually, don’t answer that. With my luck, it was probably inevitable.)

The timing alone made my stomach twist. If the award wasn’t bad enough, this quest—mysterious and sudden—was definitely going to make my life harder.

> [A Special Quest refers to a new event not present in the original story, The World’s Greatest Hero.]

...Great. The system even felt the need to explain it to me, as if sensing my growing dread.

> [’The Creator’ has decided to give you a tip about this Special Quest, since it deviates from the original storyline.]

> [The Special Quest is connected to ’Kai Foster’ and ’Ethan’.]

Oh.

Well, there went any hope of this being a fun, lighthearted side event.

If it had just mentioned Kai Foster, I could’ve chalked it up to something ceremonial—maybe he was being given a position, or pulling strings behind the scenes. But the moment Ethan’s name appeared, all the warning bells in my head started ringing like a fire drill during a mana explosion.

That lunatic wasn’t the type to cameo unless something was about to burn down—literally.

I sat down on the edge of my bed, staring at the floating notifications with a sigh.

So, Ethan had escaped transport.

Everyone had heard the rumor. Some dismissed it. I didn’t.

And if Kai Foster had agreed to work with him...

Well. That meant someone had definitely broken him out.

Yeah. It all made sense now.

It had been less than a month since the Academy defeated them—since we defeated them. And here they were again, already back in the picture, planning something.

And I just happened to be in the middle of it.

Again.

I dragged my hands down my face.

"Why can’t I ever just be a background character...?" I muttered.

The commendation ceremony was in a few hours.

I still didn’t have a plan.

Should I go? Should I fake a stomach ache? Should I pretend I fell down a well?

> [8:52:42 until Special Quest begins.]

The countdown kept ticking, mocking me.

My phone buzzed.

It was a message from academy administration.

> ["Cadet Rin Evans. Report to the central auditorium in full uniform. The chairman herself will attend."]

Oh.

Wonderful.

Why didn’t I think of this before?

I grabbed my phone, swiping past the usual contacts—Eli, Noah, "Do Not Answer (Debt Collector?)"—until I found the one that mattered most right now:

[Beautiful High Elf]

Yes, that was the chairman’s contact name.

Yes, I named it that.

Don’t judge me.

Without hesitating, I tapped the call button. The line rang once... twice...

And then her voice came through—clear, elegant, and somehow already irritated.

[Cadet Rin Evans? What is it?]

"Chairman," I said, leaning against the dorm window like some noir detective about to drop a bombshell. "It’s nothing urgent, but I happen to have some... useful information. Something that might just help restore Velcrest Academy’s slightly tarnished reputation. Interested?"

There was a pause.

[What...?]

I smiled.

That’s right. Let’s not wait for the villains to strike first.

If Kai Foster and Ethan were planning something, then why not turn the tables?

Why not hit them before they hit us?

Why not use the one thing they didn’t know I had?

A secret weapon.

Me.

Well, more like... me, with foreknowledge and a serious survival instinct.

And possibly a death wish.

But mostly survival instinct.

[...Explain,] the chairman said, voice clipped and expectant. Not angry. Not surprised. Just the kind of tone that said, "You have five seconds to prove this isn’t a waste of my time."

Which was fair. I had, after all, called the most powerful woman in the Academy out of nowhere, dropped a vague claim about the Academy’s "tarnished reputation," and expected her to bite.

Time to deliver.

I turned away from the window and lowered my voice. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

"There’s a high chance that two very dangerous individuals—Kai Foster and Ethan—are planning something today. Together."

Silence.

Total silence.

Not even static.