The next morning.
I woke up because I was hungry.
I scanned the room for something to eat, and sure enough, the cupboard was stocked with all sorts of fresh meats and vegetables preserved with magic.
"Whoa, this really is a prestigious academy. Look at these perks."
It must be because they were raising heroes here—the academy seemed to put a lot of care into the students' nutrition.
The cafeteria food was top-notch too.
No wonder it was the continent's number one academy.
Amazed by these details that never showed up in the game, I considered firing up a steak the way I'd seen on YouTube once.
[Warning! This is diligent behavior!]
'Ah.'
The system's stern message felt like it was scolding me: *A student daring to 'cook' their own breakfast...*
'Tch.'
Fair enough. Back in middle and high school, skipping breakfast was my daily routine. I'd rather squeeze in five more minutes of sleep.
No choice but to leave the tasty meat behind and grab a slice of bread slathered with some jam to eat on the go.
Sure, getting stronger through sloth sounded great, but having your actions forced like this came with its annoyances.
Anyway, I munched on the bread as I walked.
Wouldn't skipping class entirely or showing up late rack up even more sloth points? The thought crossed my mind, but I dismissed it quick.
It might be the best way to farm sloth points, sure.
But Stella Academy had this attendance score system in the lore.
Fall too low, and even a genius risks expulsion by the rules.
Get kicked out, and I couldn't intervene in the main story anymore. The world would just barrel toward its bad end.
So, I had to play it safe, minimize risks.
Still, showing up early would obviously trigger the system for being too diligent, so I planned to cut it razor-thin.
Timing it perfectly wasn't hard—I'd been a salaryman who never once showed up late, always clocking in right on time before possessing this body.
I calculated everything to the second and opened the classroom door.
Creak!
Ding-dong-ding─!
My timing was spot on.
The moment the start-of-class bell rang, I stepped inside, drawing eyes from all the students.
Yuria waved cheerfully at me from the back row with a bright smile, while Luna propped her chin on her hand, giving me a curious nod.
Kaiser looked fully healed already, his face back to normal, but he paled at the sight of me and averted his gaze.
And Artel.
She was staring at me with these intensely scary eyes.
...What?
Puzzled, I just took my seat quietly for now.
Right on cue, Professor Kate strode in sharp as a blade, called roll, and started morning homeroom.
I half-listened to her as I mulled over the day ahead.
Sleep through every class again today? Nah.
Today was finally the day for elective classes.
Academy classes fell into three categories: core subjects, electives, and special activities like practical spars.
Core subjects were snoozers like magic theory and imperial history—stuff the game mostly skipped.
At best, they bumped your intelligence stat a smidge.
Electives were different.
They were hands-on classes tailored to each department: magic circle practice, swordsmanship duels, monster taming, that sort of thing.
Core content in the game for grabbing all sorts of rewards.
No reason it'd be any different now that the game was real.
So, sleep through the boring core classes to farm sloth points, and pick only the rewarding electives to join.
My written grades would tank, obviously, but I could cover with practical exams and elective evals. Low expulsion risk.
'Perfect plan.'
I flashed a villainous grin.
"Homeroom's over."
Click-clack.
Professor Kate, impeccably dressed as always, vanished with the echo of her heels.
The chill, no-nonsense pro was back—yesterday's laid-back rooftop sis was gone.
"Jeron, Jeron."
"Yeah?"
Yuria called out to me then.
"Jeron, what elective are you taking today?"
"...Good question. What did I sign up for?"
Right— in real life, you just registered normally like any student.
In the game, you wandered around picking up quests from NPCs, so I'd forgotten.
"Ehh? You don't even know your own elective?"
"...Forgot."
"...F-Forgot...? I was so excited for spirit magic class I couldn't sleep last night...."
"Sorry."
No clue why, but her deflated look made me want to apologize.
"Sigh, typical Jeron. Did you check your bag at least? Maybe you stuck the schedule in there after getting the mail and forgot?"
"Maybe."
Rummaging through my bag, I found a sheet of paper tucked between the books. Course list and all.
"It's really there."
How does she find stuff even I don't know about? Mom-level skills.
No wonder players called her a mom-friend.
"Hehe, knew it."
"Yeah, thanks, Yuria."
"So, what'd you sign up for? Let's compare!"
"Hmm...."
Surprisingly, Jeron had signed up properly.
"Today's class is [Anti-Monster Magic]."
"Mine's [Basic Spirit Magic]. Guess we can't do afternoon together...."
I felt the same pang of regret.
"Yeah, it'd be nice to have a friend in class."
I nodded along casually, then glanced up.
Artel, who'd twisted around slightly from the front, met my eyes.
Whoosh!
She whipped her head away the second our gazes locked.
"...?"
What?
Things stayed weird after that. During breaks, lunch, all of it...
Felt like Artel kept watching me.
Last break before electives—I pretended to chat with Yuria and sneaked a side-eye. Yup, peeking glances.
...This is getting creepy.
What'd I even do?
And Artel, didn't you kinda acknowledge me yesterday?
Was this some rival-flame bullshit now that you respected me?
In the game, reactions were scripted clear as day. Reality? No clue what hers meant.
Break ended, time to head to electives.
"Jeron, I'm off!"
Yuria left, leaving me solo.
Famous or not, I was still a loner.
Sleeping in class every day, one-shotting Kaiser and trash-talking him—too weird for most students to approach.
Yuria's open-minded, Karen's friendly; they were the exceptions.
'Guess I'm flying solo today?'
Luckily, game knowledge told me where elective classes were held.
I started to stand—
Thud.
Someone planted a hand on my desk.
'Déjà vu?'
Yup, Artel.
Staring down at me with an even icier expression than yesterday.
'Whoa.'
Industry award for crazy.
...No, seriously, what was her deal all day?
What'd I do?
"Hey, Artel."
I kept cool and greeted her.
"Yeah, hey... Je... Jeron."
Shockingly, she greeted back.
Even used my name.
"What's up?"
"...Came to apologize. For ignoring you yesterday. Sorry."
An apology too?
Whoa, Artel's changed.
Up close, those scary eyes didn't seem so scary.
More like... filled with worry, maybe.
Her usual cold, haughty vibe just made them look intense.
Yesterday's brush-off bugging her?
"No worries. Happens. You said it out of concern anyway. Water under the bridge."
"Thanks... Hey, if you're taking Anti-Monster Magic too... wanna go together?"
"Honored if you'd join me, Artel."
"Got it.... But skip the 'honored' stuff. Embarrassing."
And so, we headed to class together.
Awkward silence hung until she spoke first.
"Um... how was my duel yesterday?"
She asked cautiously.
I answered honestly.
"It was great. That last move especially—cool as hell."
"...!"
"What? Something wrong?"
"No, just... curious what you thought."
She ducked her head a bit as she replied.
Silence again, then—
"Saw you with Karen Stark last night. You two close?"
Random question.
How'd she even spot that?
"Nah, first time meeting yesterday. Ran into her hunting four-leaf clovers."
"Four-leaf clovers...?"
"Yeah. Supposed to bring luck."
I shrugged.
Artel went quiet for a sec, then murmured softly.
"I see... That's a relief."
"Huh?"
"N-Nothing."
Her voice was too low to catch.
But after that, Artel seemed kinda upbeat.
"...?"
Hard to tell on her stoic face—just the tiniest uptick in her lip corner.
I'd seen her expressions plenty in the game, so I noticed.
'Hot and cold all day today.'
No idea why, though.
We walked the rest of the way in silence to the classroom.
Anti-Monster Magic.
As the name implied, a class for mages who fought monsters.
I was looking forward to it.
'If it goes like the original... today's gonna be fun, right?'
A surprise event that shocked newbies on their first playthrough of [Stella Academia].
It happened right in the first Anti-Monster Magic class.