Chapter 4: I Became the Last Place in the Academy

No one expects anything. It was a comfortable yet lonely story.

Neither the teachers nor my classmates think I'm capable of achieving anything.

As if I'm incompetent and harmless, giving them no reason to pay attention, they were busy forming their own groups and chattering away.

Watching them, I felt envious, but before I knew it, I had come to accept that I wasn't qualified to be a part of such a group.

They say people change according to their environment.

Maybe that's why, as I became more accustomed to this situation, I tightly embraced the bitter feeling of deepening loneliness.

I felt like I was holding a cactus in my heart because I was so lonely.

"...Ah."

I wondered if it would have been a little better if I had someone who would listen to me, even if I didn't have any Abilities.

It didn't take long to realize that was just a dream, and I quickly dismissed the thought.

Negative thoughts keep sprouting.

No matter what I do, I can't seem to find a clear answer to the question of how to avoid the end of this story, where everyone except the protagonist is annihilated.

It was a story that Kanna Aurora couldn't overcome alone.

I can't even overcome the atmosphere of the academy, so how, by what means, can I change the ending?

There are monsters, and there are aberrants.

I had a body that couldn't even fight them.

What should I do?

Crack.

I nervously bit my fingernails.

It's probably okay for now, but I need to change direction from somewhere to survive.

And the key was having the power to find that direction and change it.

Is there anyone I can borrow power from?

Will I have to do it alone in the end?

Just emitting a little electricity, zzzzt, won't be enough.

As I was frowning and pondering, I remembered what happened at school today.

Everyone didn't say anything special to me, but the glances they were sending my way.

I felt like I was going to have a panic attack.

No. No. The glances they're sending me will soon fade away anyway.

Everyone was just relieved to see me.

They're glad there's someone more pathetic than them.

After all, there's always someone at the bottom of the invisible pyramid, and that was just me.

I consoled myself with that thought.

*

The academy held frequent exams.

It was a school rule implemented with the intention of selecting those who steadily or diligently rise in this dangerous world full of monsters and aberrants.

In other words, they wouldn't tolerate last-minute cramming.

I, who was caught up in that, was diligently getting caught up in the exam questions.

I can honestly deal with subjects like Korean and math, but history is a different story.

I barely learned and memorized the medieval, modern, and contemporary history of Korea, but suddenly I'm told to memorize the medieval, modern, and contemporary history of this world, and I can't remember enough to write down most of it.

It was like, just as I can naturally answer "Yi Sun-sin" when asked who made the turtle ship, most of these history questions are common knowledge to them.

My score was drastically reduced here.

And the next one was a truly tearful exam time.

"The next exam subject is the Abilities test. You remember breaking the scarecrow in class before, right? Just do the same thing. Oh, different scores will be given here than what you did then, so you have to work harder here?"

The teacher told us as if it was important information and lined up the kids in order.

Fortunately, this time we weren't breaking them in the order we were lined up, so I was able to distance myself from the protagonist and heroines, but even if the gap between me and the comparison target narrowed, it didn't mean I could make a single scratch on the scarecrow.

If the scarecrow had consciousness, it might be happy that there was someone who wouldn't break it.

Bang! Keeing! Cracking. Quaddeuk.

Each person used their Abilities or the magic they could use to wound and break the scarecrow.

Zzzzt.

Everyone was so focused on the exam this time that there were no chattering kids.

So that sound, which was clearly heard in the silence, clearly told me that I had tried once and failed.

Like before, the teacher's cover, saying that I could do it when I was in the best condition, didn't work anymore.

I once again enjoyed the miserable feeling I had felt before and trudged back to my seat.

I didn't know I would have to feel this way again, and when I thought that this was a fairly regular class and exam, I felt terrified of the time ahead.

After all, I've never used Abilities or magic in my original world, so shouldn't I be somewhat satisfied that electricity comes out of my hands?

I try to comfort myself like that, but in the end, I come to realize that it's all just delusion and a stupid dream.

"The next exam is the martial arts test. As I told you before, we'll be alternating between offense and defense, and you'll get points for clean attacks and breakfalls for defense. If you do both well, you'll get points for both, right?"

The teacher said that and paired us up.

The last person was left alone and paired up with number 1 again, but the problem was me.

My partner was Selena Erter. The girl with sharp features and light green hair was glaring at me.

It seemed like she was trying to use me to get a high score here.

To be honest, I was a little scared.

Breakfall? It's easy to say, but there's no way it would work properly.

The first attack was given to Selena, and I paused for a moment and moved my feet hesitantly.

Since it's defense, I'll stretch out my arm with the feeling of touching the opponent's shoulder first.

Then the basic thing was for the attack to grab it and throw the person away.

I reached out my hand towards Selena's left shoulder.

Then her right hand quickly snatched me, and at the same time, her body quickly turned half a circle.

The face I had been looking at until just now had gone to the other side, and before I knew it, my eyes were capturing the back of her head.

I have to react—

My vision spun around, and then my back fell to the floor with a thud.

Breakfall my ass, I couldn't even react properly and had to feel a pain that felt like my back was going to break.

"Ah, ouch..."

I squeezed my eyes shut. I felt like tears were welling up.

As I rolled on the floor with my stiff body, holding my back, Selena carefully helped me up.

"......"

There was no apology.

After all, it's an exam. Her eyes seemed to be engraved with the will not to show any mercy.

"Ugh..."

Groaning in pain, I roughly straightened the gym clothes I was wearing and got up.

I straightened my disheveled hair once and took a deep breath.

"Now switch offense and defense."

The kids who heard what the teacher said changed their posture and returned to the facing position they were in earlier.

I also stared at Selena in front of me in the same way.

If the score was reduced, there should be a place to make up for it, right?

Thinking that, I gritted my teeth and desperately grabbed her arm.

And when I turned my body, whether it was because I was too eager or because my posture was wrong, her body slipped out to the side even though I was supposed to throw Selena over.

Huh.

I was speechless when I saw Selena, who had taken a breakfall in a cool pose and got up slightly.

Because it made a different sound than when I was slammed on the floor earlier.

"......"

I couldn't say anything and looked at the teacher with trembling eyes.

A brief eye contact. The teacher just avoided my gaze and scribbled something.

The moment I faced it, I sensed it.

I couldn't even do a proper throw.

Is it because I don't have enough strength? Is my posture weird? Or was I just too eager?

In the meantime, Selena, who took a breakfall even though she was missed, must have received a high score.

Unlike me.

I was hoping that if I avoided last place, the gazes around me would change a little, so I worked hard, but it felt like I was being coldly struck down as if the other kids weren't working hard just because I was working hard.

I felt empty. Since it's a frequent exam, I wanted to show my best effort, but it was the moment I realized once again that it was still a distant story for me.

Yun Hamin and Orca were so good at throwing people over and minimizing the impact by twisting their bodies while being thrown over that it was almost beautiful, but I was terrible at Abilities and magic, and even clumsy, so I felt like the comparison was getting extremely worse.

I even thought that it would have been better if I was in a different class.

But then I wouldn't have been able to make friends, so I came to the conclusion that it would be difficult.

The ethics test, which was like a liberal arts course, was quick, but what was given to me, who had messed up the other tests, was a ruined average score.

Unlike my determination to correct my own perception, the attitude of those around me did not change because I did not have the power to achieve it. It couldn't change.

The exam is over and lunch time is just around the corner.

While everyone was looking at their report cards and comparing them on the spot, laughing and chatting, I sighed as I looked at the report card that made 1 with fractions.

If I had tried a little harder, wouldn't I have been able to reduce 1 from here?

Thinking that, I raised my head slightly.

It seemed that the kid who got first place in another class was interested in Yun Hamin, so she came to talk to him.

As I watched them leave to eat, I felt alone again.

I was a little sad that I had become friends but still couldn't even ask them to eat together.

But when I looked down at the crumpled report card, I tilted my head, wondering if I was even qualified to do so.

In the original work, Yun Hamin, Orca, and Kanna never became friends, so isn't it best to just live like this?

I comforted myself like that and bought bread again today.

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