Knock, knock.
The sound of knocking rang through the room, which was so quiet it had become almost desolate.
As if reacting to it, the man seated in the chair flinched.
However, he showed no reaction beyond that. Before long, a voice came from outside in place of another knock.
Chairman, as you ordered, I have brought a report summarizing the progress of the ‘plans’ carried out thus far.
The voice sounded impassive at first, yet it carried an urgency it could not conceal.
As I listened to it, an answer nearly burst from my throat. I had to clamp a hand over my mouth.
Chairman, two days have already passed. Please open the door.... If we delay any longer, Chancellor Pionia’s office may learn of the report’s existence.
Perhaps the silence had made him even more anxious. The voice outside became so precarious that it seemed ready to break at any moment.
I ran a hand down my face, unable to believe it, and uttered the words I had repeated endlessly for two days.
“...I’m going crazy.”
This was not the world in which I had lived.
<I Became the Academy’s Final Boss>.
There had been a novel stuffed with a commonplace title and tired clichés: an ordinary academy student happened to gain power close to that of the final boss, then saved the world from the Demon King.
The reason the modifiers ‘commonplace’ and ‘tired’ clung to it was simple.
<I Became the Academy’s Final Boss>, or for short, had never gained much popularity.
Had it been popular, ‘innovative’ would have replaced ‘commonplace,’ while ‘new’ would have replaced ‘tired.’
In any case, after reached its conclusion without ever truly taking off, it was immediately switched to free serialization.
Maybe the author had given up after deciding it would not make money. Or perhaps they simply hoped that even one person would read their novel.... Well, it did not matter.
‘It’d be nice if it were at least readable.’
All I needed was something to kill time until other interesting novels were updated.
That was how I started reading , and I soon realized one thing.
‘...It’s boring.’
There was no need to search for the reason had failed. It was simply boring.
In the beginning, faced with its stale plot developments and mountain-high pile of settings, I even wondered whether reading it was a waste of time, free novel or not.
Still, rather than hitting the back button, I began reading the next chapter at a slightly faster pace.
‘I’ve got nothing else to do... It can’t be helped.’
There was still plenty of time left before the novels I had been reading lately were updated.
More importantly, I was not spending my own money.
So I kept reading , and even in that failed novel, I found parts that were entertaining in their own way.
This is how the world works.
If you have a complaint, go find His Majesty the Emperor. Go whine to him that the Chairman stole your subsidy.
Though I am not sure His Majesty, busy with state affairs, will even grant an audience to a commoner like you.
And I have neither stolen your subsidy nor deliberately bullied another student. It is all merely your delusion.
If the situation is truly that difficult... Ah, yes. Why not go and find the Demon King? Perhaps he will allocate a subsidy reserved for traitors to humanity.
The current chairman who owned most of the shares in Calyps Academy, the academy attended by Medio, the protagonist of .
This chairman, a villain who mocked the protagonist and was also known as the Marquess of Calyps, was what helped me keep reading .
He was fucking obnoxious. If I met him in real life, I would want to slap him three or four times. His actions were needlessly realistic, giving me the unpleasant feeling that I was the one actually suffering through them. He was the most unlikeable of all the unlikeable.
It would not have been an exaggeration to say that I read solely to see the chairman die.
That was why, when the chairman met his end at the blade of the protagonist, Medio, I let go of my attachment and stopped reading .
There had still been a long way to go before the ending, but I had not thought there was any reason to keep reading....
“...Why did I do that?”
I covered my face with both hands and muttered in a voice full of regret.
At this very moment, the most unlikeable villain in was me.
Chairman? Are you listening? If you are, I will come in.
Perhaps my muttering had leaked outside. The voice called to me urgently.
After all, a man who was supposedly the chairman had locked himself in his room for two days.
The owner of the voice, who had introduced himself as my secretary, was likely trying to solve the problem somehow.
Until now, I had not replied because I lacked the courage to face this world properly, because I could not accept that I had truly transmigrated into .... But it was time to accept it.
I squeezed my eyes shut and answered.
“...Come in.”
Click.
The door, which had remained tightly shut for two days, opened. A young man with an unremarkable face strode in.
The young man—the secretary—first checked my face, then approached with a deep, long sigh.
“Chairman, I am relieved to see that you are safe.”
Though he must have wondered why I had locked myself in for two days, the secretary neither questioned nor pressed me.
Instead, he merely gestured to the attendant who had followed him in and instructed them to set a plate before me.
That businesslike yet polite demeanor felt terribly unfamiliar to me. I gave a bitter smile and muttered.
“...I was hoping I wouldn’t be.”
The secretary’s appearance and the view of the chairman’s office were both exactly as I had imagined them while reading .
The hope I had held in one corner of my heart—that perhaps all of this was a dream—faded away.
Of course, I had confirmed through various methods over the past two days that this was not a dream. Still, I had clung to that futile hope.
‘...My thigh still hurts....’
I apologized to my thigh, which its pathetic owner had pinched mercilessly, and reached for the fork on the tray.
My mood was gloomy, but the premium steak that melted the instant it touched my tongue, along with the wine whose sweet fragrance tickled my nose, had enough flavor to drive that gloom away.
Just as I was almost done with my meal and feeling much better, the secretary suddenly reached toward the desk.
“......?”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The plates that had held the food vanished in an instant, replaced by a dark-colored file.
As I watched the plate holding the final piece of steak pass into the attendant’s hands, I could not help but frown.
Not because I had missed out on a piece of steak, but because the secretary had touched what was mine without permission.
Yet, failing to notice my furrowed brow, the secretary poured out his words as if he had been waiting for this moment alone.
“Chairman, this is the report summarizing the progress of the plans you ordered. Further measures have already been taken regarding several matters, and they require your approval. I apologize, but I would be grateful if you could review and authorize them immediately.”
The patient secretary who had waited two days for his master’s reply was long gone.
At the moment, the secretary seemed to be driven by the sole thought that he had to get approval for the report before him, which I did not even understand.
How urgent did it have to be for him to thrust a report before someone as important as the chairman and make his urgency known?
“Chairman, this is truly... truly urgent. A staff member from Chancellor Pionia’s office has already asked about the report several times. You must make a decision as quickly as possible, so that we can erase all traces of it, whether from the report or the magical tools.”
I gently pushed away the report that had been thrust close enough to touch my nose, then recalled who this ‘Chancellor Pionia’ the secretary kept crying out about was.
Pionia, who had appeared in the original story, was the head of the House of Count Ratio, which owned a portion of Calyps Academy’s shares....
‘...The chancellor who was preventing the academy’s decline in place of its incompetent chairman.’
Once I realized who Chancellor Pionia was, I became curious about the dark report before me.
What sort of contents did it hold for a secretary who had been as impassive as a plaster statue to become this desperate?
What sort of secret was hidden inside it that it could not be discovered by an upright person like Chancellor Pionia?
I concealed my overflowing curiosity and reached for the report with an air of reluctant acceptance.
“Hmm, all right. I only need to review this report?”
“That is correct. Most matters have already been organized, so all you need to do is read it and make a decision.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to rest a little before proceeding...?”
“Chairman.”
The secretary’s expression hardened at even that light joke.
Feeling awkward, I reached for the documents and began to read them slowly... but.
【Emma Novician / Second-Year, Knight Department】
Her final practical swordsmanship grade was changed from second place to a failing grade for using a magical tool without prior authorization.
She claimed that she had not used a magical tool, but her claim was not accepted.
Her standing among her peers has fallen.
- A scroll was issued to Professor Tuvan, who claimed that she had used a magical tool.
【Chris Baha / Third-Year, Magic Department】
He damaged two shared cauldrons and rendered fifteen bottles of lily-of-the-valley reagent and seven chunks of blue ironstone impossible to recover.
He claimed that he had merely followed what he learned in class, but his claim was not accepted.
He has been excluded from Alchemy Department lectures.
- A 10 kg gold bar was issued to Professor Neone of the Magic Department’s Alchemy Department.
【Caelis Secunde / First-Year, Magic Department】
Concerns were raised over his poor reputation before admission, and his planned full scholarship was canceled.
Petitions from him, his family, and his acquaintances were not accepted.
He has now declined enrollment.
- An admission voucher for the was issued to the administrative employee Salome.
【Silia Orez / Fourth-Year, Magic Department】
She was notified that funding for her graduation project had been cut due to the academy’s financial decline.
She requested that the board reconsider, but her request was not accepted.
It became certain that she would have to repeat the year....
Thump.
I shut the report with a face as pale as if I had read a forbidden magic tome.
This report, filled with the tragedies of students, was supposedly work for the chairman to approve.
If so, was the main purpose of the job to resolve those tragic circumstances?
‘That can’t be...!’
If the purpose had been to help the students, there would have been no reason for the reports below to mention ‘payment of remuneration.’
Only then did I clearly recall who Sita Calyps, the current chairman of the academy, was—the fact I had unconsciously been avoiding.
In the author’s words, he was a chairman steeped in inferiority who envied his students.
In the readers’ words, he was such a detestable figure that they would have slapped him hundreds of times if they met him in real life.
The character I had possessed was the worst villain, one who existed to cast students into hell.
Once I began agonizing over the report, the secretary quietly left the room.
I did not know whether he did not want to get caught up in the report’s affairs or simply did not want to watch his eccentric superior agonize.... Either way, I was grateful.
Afterward, I rolled across the floor at least twenty times.
“Why... why of all things....”
Lying on the floor, I cursed whoever had cast me into this world.
Then I recalled what I knew of Sita Calyps from and fell into despair.
“No, seriously, why....”
Sita Calyps, the academy chairman, was a villain so evil that it was difficult to sugarcoat him in any way.
Even the misdeeds I could immediately recall from the original story were already numerous.
Tampering with students’ grades, coercing professors into turning perfectly fine students into outcasts, refusing to provide funding and pocketing it himself.
He had even deliberately derailed graduation projects....
“...They’re all things I saw in the report.”
I rolled over once more and sighed.
Some of Sita Calyps’s misdeeds seemed trivial at first glance, but the fact that every one of his targets was a student with exceptional talent made them stand out.
Sita Calyps was inferior in every way except for his bloodline. Yet, paradoxically, his ability was recognizing the talents of others.
After becoming chairman, he used that ability to uncover nearly a few dozen talented people, then drove them into the ground before they could ever see the light.
Students who caught Sita Calyps’s eye fell into traps without realizing it, failing and becoming frustrated over even the smallest things.
Even a student who initially endured by saying, ‘These things happen,’ or, ‘I just had bad luck this time,’ would eventually break after suffering one small mistake after another, along with failures too much to bear.
Students who should have allowed their brilliant talents to bloom at the academy learned nothing but bitter frustration at the hands of the chairman, then ended up expelled.
“To become that sort of chairman... of all people.”
I lay spread-eagled on the floor, both arms stretched wide.
As I stared vacantly at the ceiling, decorated in a style far removed from the modern era, a question suddenly came to mind.
‘...How far has the original story progressed?’
At this very moment, how far had the original story progressed when I possessed this chairman?
I remembered the end that awaited the chairman I had possessed all too clearly, and my body shuddered.
At the same time, an unfamiliar hologram filled my vision.
[ Sita Calyps ]
[ Traits / Appraiser’s Eye, Possessor’s Composure, Curse of the Underachiever ]
Information about the chairman was displayed in a form much like a game status window.
The hologram showing Sita Calyps’s talents and traits was certainly interesting, but my gaze was drawn elsewhere.
My eyes were fixed on the very bottom of the status window, on the entry that was pointlessly sparkling as though begging me to look at it....
[ Special Note / He dies after his limbs are severed by the sword of Medio, a third-year student in the Knight Department. ]
...Ah, I’m doomed.