[Achievement Shop]
You can use achievement points to purchase perks.
Achievement points are earned by clearing death-flag events.
[Currently Available Points: 24]
One for calming down and sending back the fiancée who had shown up with a sword on the first day of possession.
Another for winning the battle against Twin Flames Kenneth right after that.
On the second day, surviving three assassination attempts on the way to work, plus clearing several minor death flags—that was how I’d accumulated 24 points.
The Achievement Shop offered five types of perks.
「Enhancement」, 「Blooming」, 「Exchange」, 「Prophecy」, 「Save」.
「Enhancement」 allowed you to raise the rank of a stat or talent.
But the higher the stat you wanted to raise, the more points it consumed.
For example, raising an E-rank stat to D-rank cost 5 points, while raising an A-rank stat to S-rank would cost 3,125 points.
「Blooming」 allowed you to acquire a talent or trait you didn’t already possess, and 「Exchange」 let you purchase items with achievement points.
All three could be situationally useful.
But the last two perks were far more outrageous.
[Prophecy]
-(Single-use) Shows you the closest death you are about to face. The price increases each time you use it.
[Save]
-(Single-use) Rewinds time to the save point upon death.
Future foresight and regression.
These were basically extra lives.
I really wanted them.
But…
[Prophecy] – Price: 100 points
[Save] – Price: 500 points
Completely out of reach.
With only 24 points available, all I could do was 「Enhancement」.
[Winter Winslet]
Strength: D
Health: E
Dexterity: A
Wit: B
Intelligence: A
At best, I could only raise the lowest stat, 「Health」, from E to D.
Still, better than nothing.
So I invested the achievement points into the Health stat.
[Winter Winslet]
Strength: D
Health: D
Dexterity: A
Wit: B
Intelligence: A
If I couldn’t change Winter Winslet’s personality, I could at least raise the Health stat to offset the penalties.
That was the core of my plan.
[Notification]
[Willpower has been restored.]
Whether it was because I’d boosted Health or not, my headache disappeared quickly, and I resumed my walk toward the grand auditorium to attend the freshman entrance ceremony.
The ceremony had already begun by the time I arrived, but no one would dare scold me for being late.
After all, I was Winter Winslet.
“This way, Professor.”
At the front of the auditorium, a staff member from the Planning Department hurried to greet me.
I was politely guided into the waiting room.
The man asked,
“Have you memorized the speech, Professor?”
Speech?
What speech?
“This is the first I’ve heard of it.”
“Excuse me? Professor, you’re supposed to give the welcoming address at the entrance ceremony. The script was sent to your mailbox a week ago…”
Ah.
Mailbox.
Now I remembered.
Among the pile of documents that included a priest’s explosive scroll, there had been something with a similar title.
“I burned it.”
“…Excuse me?”
“By mistake.”
“Ah… y-yes. You… burned it by mistake.”
The man’s face paled instantly, but he couldn’t scold Winter Winslet.
I asked,
“Is there an alternative?”
“Please wait a moment. We’ll… prepare a prompter.”
At his order, someone began hastily scribbling the speech in large letters on a sketchbook.
When I stood at the podium, they would flip through the pages to tell me what to say.
The moment the prompter was ready, I stepped onto the stage.
The auditorium was fan-shaped, the audience looking up at the stage.
The seating capacity was twelve hundred, and about ninety percent of the seats were filled.
Chatter, chatter.
The students, bored from the delay, were noisily talking among themselves.
But the moment I stepped up to the podium, a silence fell over the hall as if someone had cast a spell.
The chatter vanished, replaced by curious stares.
Winter Winslet.
This man radiated a magnetic presence.
Just standing still drew people’s eyes like iron to a magnet.
“Ladies and gentlemen.”
The Amplification Orb carried Winter Winslet’s low, powerful voice smoothly across the hall, and now there wasn’t a single person who wasn’t looking at me.
I glanced at the prompter.
The first part was the introduction.
“I am Winter Winslet. Not that any of you don’t know me already—I teach magic here.”
The staff flipped to the next page.
The hastily made script was simple and short.
Good. That suited me. Less chance of me reading something wrong.
The next line…
<To all the proud new students of the Royal Academy.>
“This year, another flock of clueless chicks has gathered.”
<Welcome to the Academy.>
“Talentless trash need not apply for my lectures. I’m a busy man.”
…?
Something felt off.
I checked the prompter again.
But no, I had read it correctly.
My damn mouth just said something else entirely.
“That’s all.”
I finished the short speech and looked around the hall.
But I couldn’t see the students’ reactions.
Because my vision was filled with endlessly refreshing notification windows.
[Notification]
[A Death Flag has been activated for this individual.]
[A Death Flag has been activated for this individual.]
[A Death Flag has been activated for this individual.]
…
…
Winter Winslet.
What a goddamn lunatic.
***
“Excuse me, student. Would you like to reconsider?”
“Reconsider what?”
“This course registration. I think it might be better for first-years to take something else…”
“But we can choose two elective courses freely, can’t we?”
“Well, yes, but…”
“This is the most famous professor in the Academy! I really want to take his class. There wasn’t any rule saying first-years couldn’t, either.”
“That’s only because that professor never submitted a proper syllabus.”
“Syllabus?”
Gloria, an administrative staff member at the Magic University, had lost count of how many times she’d repeated the same explanation today.
“Professor Winslet is… shall we say… very free-spirited with his course structure. That’s why there’s no official syllabus.”
“Oh…”
“So please think it over again. Do you really want to take a class when you don’t even know what you’ll be learning?”
The freshman nodded without a moment’s hesitation.
“Yes! It sounds fun!”
“Oh dear…”
Gloria rubbed her temples, exasperated, and the freshman asked curiously,
“Why? A free and flexible class structure sounds great!”
“That’s… not what that means…”
Not that Gloria didn’t understand why freshmen swooned over that blond professor.
At their age, Winter Winslet’s looks and charisma must have seemed incredible.
And his infamous reputation only added to his charm.
Honestly, whether you were young or old, it was easy to be drawn in by him.
And that was why there had been so many victims.
Deceived, used, discarded.
Only those who had suffered directly—or watched from the sidelines—knew how dangerous he really was beneath the surface.
Adults who understood that should be protecting these young sprouts from Winter Winslet…
“Anyway, I’ve already decided!”
The freshman’s eyes sparkled with excitement for their new school life, and no amount of Gloria’s heartfelt advice could dampen that enthusiasm.
Reluctantly, Gloria approved the request.
As she added yet another course registration form to the towering pile of papers, she sighed deeply.
Another freshman about to fall into Winter Winslet’s clutches… What’s going to happen to this Academy…
***
Right after the entrance speech, the number of updated death flags had already hit triple digits.
Meaning that many people had been furious at that ridiculous speech.
But the chain reaction that followed was unexpected.
The freshmen who had initially shown hostility soon became intensely curious about me.
The proof was in the mountain of course registration forms piling up in front of me.
Thud.
The heavy sound of a box being set down.
The person who delivered it to my office was Professor Corrigan, the same one whose budget request I had approved at a previous faculty meeting.
“I’ll leave this here, Professor Winslet.”
“How many more are left?”
“This is the last box. I also wanted to speak with you, which is why I brought it myself.”
“Something to say to me?”
I looked at her without much thought, and she flinched like a startled rabbit before answering,
“N-nothing serious! I just wanted to thank you. Thanks to the budget you approved, our department’s situation has improved so much! We replaced old teaching materials, and students whose graduation projects were indefinitely postponed can finally resume their work…”
If graduation projects were postponed, things must’ve been a real mess.
“Anyway, thank you so much.”
“It was nothing to me.”
“Haha, still, thank you.”
She bowed politely, her attitude a mix of genuine gratitude, some flattery, and a bit of caution.
A natural reaction.
No one at the Academy believed Winter Winslet had truly changed yet.
Time would have to prove that.
Corrigan glanced at the box of course applications and let out an admiring sigh.
“You’re incredibly popular, as expected of Professor Winslet.”
“Too many students is a problem.”
I had plenty to do at the Academy.
I needed to recover the item I lost in the deal with Sakis Rubas and gather reliable allies.
While I had to teach due to my contract with the Academy, I didn’t want to waste too much time on it.
So having too many students wasn’t ideal…
I asked Corrigan,
“What’s the usual procedure in this situation?”
“Huh? What situation?”
“When too many students register for a class.”
“Um… I’ve never had that problem since Transformation Magic is a less popular subject, but…”
Glancing at me nervously, she continued,
“N-normally, if the number exceeds the limit, you just cut them off. Since you didn’t submit a syllabus, the administration accepted all applications, but… you have complete discretion over your class structure, don’t you?”
“That’s true.”
“Then you can just accept as many students as you want at first, then adjust the numbers during the course. In your case, Professor Winslet, no one would question it—you’ve done similar things before.”
Adjusting the numbers basically meant kicking students out at will.
And the administration would handle the mess in their academic records.
“Useful suggestion. Tha…”
I stopped myself mid-sentence.
[Warning]
[Willpower and Health have temporarily decreased.]
[Activated Trait: «Innate Pride»]
[Innate Pride]
: A person born with innate pride has no concept of two words in their vocabulary: “sorry” and “thank you.”
Expressing gratitude or apology temporarily decreases Willpower and Health. Additional penalties occur for the latter.
As expected of Winter Winslet.
One of the most infamous scumbags in Judgment of Candela.
“Don’t waste my time with trivial gratitude. If you’re done, leave.”
“Ah, y-yes! I’ll be going, then.”
After Corrigan bowed and left, I reached for the box of forms.
On top was a list of all the students who had registered for my class.
The administrative staff must’ve gotten cramps in their hands writing out such a long list.
Recalling Corrigan’s advice, I scanned the names from top to bottom—
And my gaze stopped halfway.
There was an unexpected name.
“Shannon… Quinlivan.”
I didn’t think I’d see that name here.