Medio, the protagonist of <I Became the Academy’s Final Boss>.
Originally, he had been so ordinary that the Chairman would not have given him a second glance. Then, by chance, he found a hidden fortuitous encounter within the academy and gained power surpassing even that of geniuses.
And he was the hero destined to one day save the world from the Demon King.
Medio’s talent, which had hovered below average, soared as though it had grown wings thanks to that fortuitous encounter....
“...And he became the Chairman’s top-priority target.”
Sigh....
I let out a sigh so deep it felt as though it might bore through the floor of the chairman’s office.
Whenever the once-ordinary Medio distinguished himself, the Chairman, who envied talented students, reacted with a rejection bordering on a fit. He employed every sort of trap and scheme to make Medio fail.
But Medio did not fail.
As though this world itself wanted him to win, Medio broke through every trap and scheme, ultimately bringing about the worst Chairman’s end.
I did not know how the Chairman in the original story had accepted that situation, but I knew this much.
The reason none of the Chairman’s traps, which had ruined countless students, worked on Medio was neither because the Chairman lacked luck nor because Medio was lucky.
It was because he was the protagonist. A protagonist had to win in any situation.
That was why Medio had not lost.
[ He dies after his limbs are severed by the sword of Medio, a third-year student in the Knight Department. ]
The status window still shone vividly.
After glaring gloomily at the status window foretelling my death, I turned my gaze to the calendar beyond it.
One day on the enormous calendar hanging on the wall was marked in deep red.
It was the day the 486th Freshman Welcoming Ceremony would be held, and the main story of <I Became the Academy’s Final Boss> would begin.
“Three months until Medio enrolls...?”
Medio had not enrolled in the academy yet.
That meant I could take Medio’s fortuitous encounter for myself....
“...But that part never appeared in the original story.”
I knew that the academy, now mine, held a fortuitous encounter that granted final boss-level power. Yet I had no way to claim it.
Lamenting the original story’s author for failing to reveal the most important detail, I closed my eyes.
Once my vision was cut off, my wavering heart slowly settled.
I drew upon the original story’s knowledge, buried in my memory, and muttered softly to myself.
“The Chairman wanted to kill Medio because he envied him. But that was not why Medio wanted to kill the Chairman.”
Medio did not take revenge on the Chairman who ‘tried to kill him.’
The Chairman Medio sought revenge upon was the one who ‘turned his older brother into a cripple.’
Medio had a close older brother who had enrolled in the academy two years before him.
Unfortunately, that brother possessed abilities far too exceptional for his background, and the Chairman had turned him into a cripple.
Even if I did not touch Medio, he would surely come for my life.
In the end, there was only one way for me to survive this situation.
[ ◆ Earn a student’s trust. (0/1) ]
[ Reward: Trait Shop Unlocked ]
This... quest, suddenly given to me by the status window that had remained silent all this time.
Unlocking the Trait Shop, the reward it offered, was the only thing I had any hope in.
Unlike the possessors in other novels, I did not know every last detail of the original story.
Nor did the body I possessed have any talent for magic or swordsmanship.
After confirming the reward, I looked down at the report on the desk and murmured.
“A student’s trust....”
The Chairman’s current reputation was undoubtedly the worst.
By the point the original story’s main plot began, the Chairman was already hated by every student.
To the students, he was an incompetent chairman who could not measure up to even a quarter of the former Chairman. To the faculty, he was a wastrel chairman who trusted only in his status as a high-ranking noble and threw the academy into disorder as he pleased.
To make matters worse, Calyps Academy had a chancellor named Pionia Ratio, who was around the same age as the Chairman yet demonstrated exceptional command and leadership.
“Thanks to that, the Chairman’s reputation was driven below the ground itself....”
Unable to bear the bleakness, I sighed.
Pionia was such an outstanding chancellor that I could understand why the secretary had been so desperate.
It was not merely Pionia’s command and leadership that were exceptional.
Just as the Chairman was the head of the House of the Marquess of Calyps, the Chancellor was the head of the House of Count Ratio. Pionia also possessed the second-largest share in the academy after the Chairman.
In other words, to outsiders, the Chairman and Chancellor possessed nearly equal standing in every regard, including their age.
That only made the contrast between the Chairman’s incompetence and the Chancellor’s capability all the sharper. And in such a situation, I had to earn the students’ trust.
It was a problem with no apparent solution. After agonizing over it for a long time, the answer I reached was avoidance.
“First, let’s avoid Pionia.”
At the very least, I had to avoid being compared to Pionia face-to-face.
Before the chancellor leading a prestigious academy, any achievement of mine would inevitably pale.
Of course, I knew that blindly avoiding Pionia would not give me an answer.
I turned my eyes toward the only weapon I possessed.
[ Sita Calyps ]
[ Traits / Appraiser’s Eye, Possessor’s Composure, Curse of the Underachiever ]
The trait section looked anything but short.
Aside from Appraiser’s Eye, which the original Chairman had used to ruin students, the Chairman possessed two more traits.
The one that especially stood out was the trait named Curse of the Underachiever, which looked suspiciously blatant.
[ Curse of the Underachiever ]
[ There are far too many bastards in this world who are better than me, so you all must become like me as well. ]
The effect written beneath that striking description was even more suspicious.
[ Only Grade 2 mana can be used. ]
If my memory was correct, the superhumans of this world were divided into ten grades, from Grade 1 to Grade 10.
‘Grade 1 was definitely the lowest grade, and titles began from Grade 4....’
The superhuman grades I recalled from the faint settings were as follows.
Grade 1 → Grade 2 → Grade 3 → Bronze → Silver → Gold → Platinum → Emerald → Diamond → Orichalcum
And Curse of the Underachiever was a curse that allowed its bearer to use only mana roughly at the level of Grade 2, a low grade among them.
It was a trait that let me instantly understand why the original story’s protagonist had been called an underachiever, compared endlessly to his talented father, and never personally stepped onto the front lines.
Ah, there was one more thing I could understand.
“Seriously... I’m completely doomed.”
The Chairman’s traits would be absolutely no help in keeping me alive.
Now, the only thing I could truly rely on was the quest reward: the Trait Shop Unlocked...!
After spending a long time with my head buried in the floor, cursing the world, I soon rose to my feet with fighting spirit burning inside me.
“Let’s get moving.”
There was an old saying: Know yourself and your enemy, and you will not be defeated in a hundred battles.
To succeed at the quest, I needed to inspect the academy with my own eyes.
My first objective was to understand the academy’s layout.
The original story had described it as ‘an academy with grounds so vast they rivaled the imperial capital, embracing every manner of natural landscape,’ but that did not make it easy to know which buildings stood where.
However, from the moment I stepped into a corridor not far from the chairman’s office, my plan went awry.
“Where did you say it was?”
“The open lot next to the Knight Department dormitory! We have to hurry! If we’re late, there won’t even be room to fly up and watch!”
The two students, who gave off an air of extreme urgency, began using magic right beside me.
“Damn it, are we already late?!”
“They should have announced an event like this beforehand...! I’m going ahead! !”
“That bastard’s going by himself?! ! Go after him!”
When I blinked against the fierce wind blowing through the crowded corridor, a hellhound appeared, scattering the smell of sulfur and wreathed in flames.
One student moved with steps as light as a feather, while the other mounted the hellhound that would run in his place. They were about to disappear down the corridor, but....
The Chairman’s delicately raised nose could not endure the thoroughly artificial wind or the sulfur stench that made his eyes naturally furrow.
“Cough... What kind of stench is this....”
Perhaps thanks to that, the two students turned their heads at my cough-filled grumbling.
What entered their view was the Chairman, his face viciously twisted as he glared at them with eyes full of irritation.
“C-Chairman?!”
“What the fuck... It really is him?!”
Cough.
I continued coughing as I glared at the two of them.
Using magic at an academy that trained superhumans was not something worthy of reprimand.
But where had they learned such manners as scattering the smell of sulfur through a corridor everyone used?
As an adult, I could not overlook this kind of behavior....
“W-We’re sorry, Chairman!”
“We’re truly sorry.... We absolutely did not mean to.”
“Th-That’s right! We heard that the Knight Department students were dueling over there, so we just....”
...A duel?
At the words of the two students, who bowed to a full ninety degrees as they apologized, the fury that had risen to the tip of my throat slowly began to subside.
In its place came an ominous certainty that something important was happening.
Rather than erupting in anger, I asked in a voice as cold as the north wind (a bitter northerly) over a snowfield.
“...Explain exactly what you mean.”
Emma Novician, a second-year student in the Knight Department.
In the final practical swordsmanship examination, she had been stripped of her brilliant second-place ranking and made a failing student on the grounds that she had used ‘a magical tool that had not received prior authorization.’
Emma had neither used nor even possessed a magical tool. She hurriedly asked the professor to reveal the truth, but all that came back was cold ridicule mixed with scorn.
Reveal the truth...? Ha. The Magic Department has already confirmed it. Traces of magic were detected on the wooden sword you used.
“That's impossible! The inspection must be wrong!”
That statement disregards the professors of the Enchantment Department. Be careful.
“But it’s truly unfair! My family does not... does not have the means to buy a magical tool!”
Even after revealing the desperate financial state of the House of Baron Novician as she explained herself, nothing improved.
Your house being desperately poor is not a matter for consideration. What matters is only that you used an unauthorized magical tool. There will be no correction to your grade, so return.
The professor’s declaration that correcting her grade was absolutely impossible.
At this rate, she could neither receive a scholarship nor remain at the academy.
The sudden disaster was despairing... but an even greater disaster remained.
Emma Novician, I challenge you to a duel.
Duel challenges from her classmates, aimed at the student who had disgraced the honor of the Knight Department’s second-years.
Refusing a duel with just cause would damage even her family’s reputation. Still, Emma did not wish to duel over a wrongdoing she had never committed, so she refused.
Then came Gess, her classmate and a member of the House of Baron Alep.
I swear upon Alep’s name, you would be better off accepting our duel.
“First, I’ve never used a magical tool. Second, duels at the academy violate the school regulations under any circumstances. And you still expect me to accept your gang’s challenge?”
Yes, if you wish to protect even your family’s insignificant fief. I mentioned that I disliked seeing a mere rural baronial house make a fuss, and Father readily agreed.
House Alep, a baronial house subordinate to the House of the Marquess of Calyps.
If the House of Baron Alep seriously made a move, there was no way the House of Baron Novician, which lived with a small village as its fief, could endure.
In the end, Emma’s rage at Gess’s threat, and at being framed even by her classmates, exploded. She accepted every duel challenge that came pouring in....
“You’re the shame of the Knight Department—”
—Gasp!
...Even now, after winning her fifth duel, she was still fighting.
Emma wiped away the sweat running down her forehead and looked at the opponent who had been struck in the solar plexus and collapsed. She felt utterly at a loss.
The open lot beside the Knight Department dormitory. To the students gathered here, what was taking place was not a duel, but an execution.
The execution of Emma Novician, who had thrown the honor of the Knight Department into the gutter.
Gess and his gang were applauded despite being defeated, while she was jeered despite being victorious. That proved it.
And the end of this execution had been decided: the criminal’s surrender or loss of consciousness.
“Emma Novician, your conduct is no different from betraying not only your classmates, but every senior knight who graduated before you.”
At last, Gess Alep appeared—the very man who had forced her into these duels and the executioner of this spectacle.
He wore a cloak emblazoned with his family’s crest and carried a massive greatsword set with large jewels. After rambling on with hollow words he did not mean, he shouted in a voice charged as though he were an actor in a play.
“Therefore, I, Gess Alep, challenge you to a duel in order to restore the honor of the Knight Department!”
The duel began anew.
“Die!”
As she raised her sword to stop the swinging greatsword, Emma truly wanted to ask.
Where was the honor in a duel that continued until someone fell?
Did people who shouted ‘Die!’ at their own classmates even possess honor to begin with?
But she could not voice those doubts.
If she said that now, every second-year in the Knight Department might truly try to kill her.
‘Don’t think about the end. For now, stop the sword in front of you.’
Emma shook off the distracting thoughts that weighed down her sword tip and raised her sword once more to block Gess’s incoming strike.
It was a great sword, but a sword not overlaid with mana could be blocked with strength and skill.
So Emma planned the counterattack she would make after stopping Gess’s strike, but—
“I’ll make sure you can never become a knight again!!”
CLANG—!
Her plan shattered to pieces with an explosive sound that rang in her ears.
Sparkling fragments of her broken sword scattered through the air, while Gess’s blade continued toward her without stopping.
‘Ah....’
With the greatsword dropping powerfully before her eyes as though it meant to sever her arm, Emma looked helplessly down at her own sword, now reduced to nothing but a hilt.
She thought that she was like a criminal—powerless after losing in only a few exchanges.
A criminal awaiting execution by guillotine beneath the bright sunlight.
The expectations she had held when enrolling at Calyps Academy, her convictions, even the passion that had boiled over within her.
At the moment everything she held was about to break beneath Gess’s blade,
“!”
A freezing wind, cold enough to freeze even a guillotine blade, supported her.
CRACK—CRACK—
Gess’s sword froze in an instant.
Emma sank to the ground and stared blankly at the sword that had stopped just before reaching her shoulder. Then, startled, she turned toward the direction from which the magic had come.
There stood the Chairman, his expression as cold as a wind made of frost.