Male Lead, Don’t Push, Pull!

They stared, puzzled, and then immediately started chattering amongst themselves.

They were discussing the identity of the mysterious person in front of them, currently dressed as a ghost.

“Don’t do it,” I interjected. “Do you think that because I’m usually kind and nice to everyone, that my morals have gone out the window and now I’m supposed to treat you like a fellow senior or something. After you disrespect us, no less?”

The students who had been talking amongst themselves paused.

Their gazes turned to me in shock.

And then I announced, “I want you all to come down now.”

“What…?!”

“You’re assembling today. I’m canceling your courage training. What are you doing here with a bunch of students that you don’t even recognize? Tonight, you’re going to run around the training ground until you break a leg….”

“Oh, no! We’re sorry!”

“We weren’t looking down on the freshman in any way! You misunderstand!”

The stunned students shouted.

This is a courage trial that comes once a year. There were a lot of seniors who were looking forward to picking on the new students just as much as they themselves were picked on as freshmen.

Yet the drill was being canceled because of some screw-up?

‘That’s how the seniors will remember that day.’

Under the white ghost cloth, I raised the corner of my mouth and chuckled.

But my voice sounded like that of an extremely annoyed upperclassman as I growled, “Misunderstanding? Are you saying that I have been wrong?”

“Oh, no, no, no! Absolutely not!”

“And you. Who told you to stand there like that? Can’t you stand properly?”

“Yes, senior!”

The two students crossed their arms over their bodies and stood up straight.

Though it was summer, it wasn’t even hot yet, and they were still sweating profusely.

By now, their minds were probably racing about who was standing before them.

But I shouldn’t give them too much time to think about it.

“You guys.”

“Yes!”

“Is this the area you guys are in charge of?”

“Yes! It is!”

“Yeah? But from now on, we’re going to be here, so you guys go somewhere else.”

“Understood!”

I nodded in satisfaction.

“Oh, and one more thing.”

“Yes! Do tell us!”

“Where is Franz Dyer now?”

“Senior F-Franz?”

“I think he said he was going further up, near the top, where you can see the red tree over there,” one of them chattered.

I turned my head towards where he was pointing.

Sure enough, there was a particularly reddish spot near the top of the mountain.

There he is.

I must go now.

“You guys can go now.”

Finished, I waved my hand to dismiss them. But they didn’t move, just stood there.

“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you leaving?”

“I… but senior.”

“What?”

“That… I’m not really doubting you, but no matter how much I think about it, I don’t think any of the seniors were this short….”

“Actually, your voice is a bit….”

Was he already suspicious of me?

I crossed my arms, giving off a chilly vibe.

“It’s a ghost outfit with an added disguise option, I paid a fortune for it in the capital just for today, and now you’re suddenly trying to put me in a bad mood?”

“I-I’m sorry!”

“We’ll go, senior!”

The two people who tried to drag their feet as they left lost their wits. Looking at their hastily running backs, I finally burst out laughing.

“Puh-ha-ha. Oh, that’s so funny.”

I hadn’t realized they could be so easily fooled. The whole disguise option thing was a lie.

I was going to do my best impression of a lost freshman if I was found out, but that wasn’t necessary.

Plus, I know where Franz is right now.

It was a big win.

Once they were gone, Daniel slipped out of his ghost suit. His dumbfounded expression was one of half-wonder.

I grinned at him.

“Look at that. I told you it would be okay.”

“Vivian is amazing….”

“Hmm, so now that we’ve taken care of the distraction, I’ll tell you my plan. First, I’m going to have Franz expelled from the Academy.”

How dare he bully Kyle? A bad boy deserves a kick in the bum.

I pulled the round object out of my bag. To my surprise, Daniel recognized what it was.

“It’s a video sphere.”

“Yeah, that’s right. I’m going to use it to film some incriminating evidence to kick Franz out.”

There was no way the bastard was going to miss an opportunity like today.

He’s going to do something out of line to get his way, and someone is going to get hurt in the process.

And I was going to film his misbehavior and show it to everyone in the academy.

Of course, there was also the possibility that he would defend himself by saying that courage training was a tradition at the Academy and that he was just a little overexcited and overreacting.

And that’s when I would spread the second piece of evidence.

The medical certificates and recorded testimonies of the victims from last year and the year before.

Those are the facts that will follow.

But I thought I needed something visual to build up the momentum. There is nothing more stimulating than to see evidence with your own eyes.

The fact that the swordsmanship department was holding the event in a large public space on campus instead of in the rehearsal hall made it more accessible than usual. If word got out about his dishonorable expulsion from the Arene Academy, Franz would never be able to show his face in aristocratic society again.

“Well, then, let’s go up there.”

“Yeah.”

My heart pounded, eager to give him the ending he deserved.

*** 

Vivian’s prediction that Franz would get into trouble was largely correct.

The only thing she hadn’t anticipated was that he was even more irredeemable than she thought.

As they climbed the mountain, Franz threw a bunch of round marbles.

As they hit the ground, they shattered, a puff of smoke emanated from them, and soon a greenish liquid began to ooze out.

The ooze coalesced into a slime.

Slime.

The slime disappeared through the bushes.

“I think it’s real slime; I feel it every time I see it,” the student muttered.

What Franz had scattered wasn’t actually a real monster, just an illusion that materialized and moved for a period of time.

They also had no offensive capabilities, so they were mainly used for the education of the lower grades.

Of course, the freshmen would see them for the first time.

“How many will succeed this year?”

“I don’t know. Oh, I think that one will make it. I mean, probably Ygritte, at least.”

“Yeah, Kyle will most likely make it all the way to the top.”

Franz frowned. It bothered him that such a positive assessment of Kyle was being circulated.

Ironically, the more he bullied Kyle, the better people thought of him.

‘He’s persistent and hardworking, he’s going to be great.’

‘Wow, he’s going to be the youngest Sword Master ever.’

It was half compliment, half sarcasm, but the bottom line was that they saw Kyle as a promising talent.

Of course, this was never Franz’s intention.

He wanted Kyle to be isolated.

‘The well-bred prince.’

It was a statement that would never have come easily to him, had Franz known what Kyle’s upbringing was like, but he didn’t know, and he didn’t care.

‘If you want to learn to use a sword, you can do it at the palace. What’s the point of coming all the way to the academy?’

Kyle already had the basics down. He must have learned at the palace.

It was not only that he had learnt imperial swordsmanship that others could not easily come across, but he was even good at it.

For Franz, whose grades were always in the middle to lower grades, this made him feel inferior. He felt unnecessarily grumpy and wanted to bully Kyle.

This, coupled with the fact that Kyle didn’t seem to have much support despite being a prince, led Franz to make the wrong choice.

‘I’ll get you out of here on your own two feet.’

Franz slipped his hand into his pocket. In his hand he found two beads, one larger than the other.

Unlike the illusions he’d scattered on the way up, these were actually summoning beads used to train knights.

He had secretly stolen them from the storage room the other day, hoping to use them someday.

‘Let’s see what you can do.’

Franz’s face broke into a savage grin.

***

Kyle climbed the mountain in complete silence.

It was darker than he’d expected, and he couldn’t see a thing.

It was a new experience for Kyle, who was still a prince, even if he was ignored by the imperial family.

But instead of fear, he felt a pleasant nervousness.

It was fun to speculate on what those who had gone before him might have been screaming about, and to imagine how he might react.

Kyle walked briskly, the other two following close behind.

“Ky-Kyle, let’s do this together.”

“Yikes, it’s a ghost!”

“It’s not a ghost,” Kyle said, brushing aside the white cloth hanging from the tree.

The two of them flinched at the crude installation, which was probably set up by the upperclassmen.

However, today’s training didn’t seem too difficult if it was only about overcoming the fear coming from the darkness.

Until the trio reached the top of the mountain.

“Kyle, look over there!”