This was the very reason I had deliberately attached the “true teacher” persona to ‘Chris.’

If I simply pushed forward as a garbage, trash-tier incompetent professor, I wouldn’t be able to score any points with the Protagonist. I needed to at least pretend to offer advice to avoid a hostile situation.

Then, even if it came out that I couldn’t use magic, wouldn’t the Protagonist at least put in a word of defense for me…?

‘Besides, as a Transmigrator, it’s only natural to want to look good in the Protagonist’s eyes. I was rather fond of this character, after all.’

I glanced at the Protagonist’s vacant face and opened my mouth.

“Teach magic half-heartedly, and people die. In that sense, Bedallua Academy is a ‘murderer training ground.'”

“……!”

No matter how extraordinary these main characters may be, they were still kids at this point. They couldn’t help but tense up at the words of ‘Chris,’ who had been through hell and back.

I had deliberately chosen harsher words to make it seem that way… but I wondered if I’d crossed a line.

“Hand a blade to brats who can’t even handle their own mana, and it’s not suicide—it’s massacre.”

I tried to infuse my words with a slightly more hollow quality than the perfunctory sentences I’d been spouting earlier.

Fortunately, even Twin-braid with her rather boisterous personality and the Model Student had fallen silent, focusing on my words. Though the one staring at me most intensely was the Protagonist.

That’s a lot of pressure, man.

“Accidents? Mistakes? This isn’t some playing house you can dress up with words like those.”

I slapped the book in my hand down onto the lectern and stared at them.

The Healer averted her gaze slightly.

Good grief, she had trauma too, didn’t she. Damn novel. It had ruined every single one of these kids’ pasts.

The Protagonist was biting his lower lip hard, so I figured I should wrap it up here.

Alright, final line!

“Are you…… prepared?”

“…….”

The resolve to wield immense power. The resolve to bear responsibility for someone’s life. The resolve to endure the weight of death……

I left room for each of them to interpret it as they saw fit.

Then, as if to say ‘As if you could,’ I let out a scoff and marched out of the classroom.

Having pulled it all off perfectly, I quickly hurried out of the building with brisk steps.

* * *

“……Phew, I think that just shaved about ten years off my lifespan!”

Only after fleeing to the back of the sparsely populated faculty dormitory could I finally let out a deep sigh.

Wow…… this really drained my energy, no joke.

It was on a completely different level from roleplaying a character roleplay in a game. Above all, my life was actually on the line now.

‘They say once roleplaying passes a certain point, it becomes indistinguishable from reality. I need to adapt quickly.’

I clicked my tongue, then pulled out the quest reward ‘Monkey KeyRing’ that had somehow ended up in my pocket.

I understood the map, but I’d been wondering what this thing was.

“Gasp, how cute.”

It was cute, quite literally. The ‘Monkey KeyRing’ was a small keychain featuring a monkey character with round eyes and an adorable mouth.

It looked like something they’d sell at a character shop. Honestly, it was right up my alley. But it was the exact opposite of ‘Chris’s’ taste.

Openly attaching it somewhere would be difficult. It was far too cute, completely at odds with the character roleplay.

Aiming for a twist like ‘Chris, who seems like she’d only appreciate stuffed monkey paws, is actually a cute doll maniac?!’ would be……

‘Too much.’

And it would be a bit hard for me to endure, too.

‘By the way, doesn’t this have any other function?’

I fiddled with the Monkey KeyRing, turning it this way and that.

No matter how much a cute object fulfilled its purpose through cuteness alone, this was a quest reward. If the System had any conscience, it would at least give some kind of buff……

[Would you like to equip the item ‘Monkey KeyRing’?]

[Yes/No]

[※Once equipped, an item cannot be unequipped for at least 5 minutes. Please equip with caution.]

The system window popped up before my eyes with perfect timing.

So I had to equip it to find out what effect it had.

What a bunch of thugs. If this were an actual game, it would’ve flopped ages ago.

‘Though the fact that you die if you fail a quest already confirms it’s a trash game…….’

Anyway, let’s equip it quickly. I didn’t know when the next quest would pop up, so I needed to check its performance before then.

[You have equipped the item ‘Monkey KeyRing’!

Agility increases by one rank for the duration of equipping.

F / Friend of the Snail -> E / Big Brother of the Snail]

Insane. Agility up one rank? That was a cheat item!

I clenched my fist without realizing it. Even though the incongruous Monkey KeyRing dangled from my waist, I could just cover it with my clothes.

That much inconvenience was worth tolerating for an item like this. Agility directly translated to evasion, and since I could neither attack nor defend, dodging was the most rational option available to me.

Just as I was feeling grateful for the System’s generosity—

[However, for the duration of equipping, ‘kki’ is appended to the end of every sentence.

ex) The System is truly merciful, kki!]

The System displayed the rest of the window as if mocking me.

Wait, what the hell was this crazy bastard saying……

Kki? Kki-kki? Was I actually a monkey? No, more importantly, did ‘Chris’ seem like the type to go around saying ‘kki-kki’?!

I was standing there, mouth agape in disbelief, when—

Tap.

“P-Professor Chris? Why are you here…….”

“……!”

Uh…… I’m screwed.

‘I should be the one saying that. Why are you here?! There was clearly no one around just a moment ago. Where did you pop out from?!’

And the thing she just dropped from her hand—that was what I thought it was, right? Of all times, to be hit with this restriction when I couldn’t just stay silent.

Character roleplay collapse in T-minus one minute.

* * *

I’m screwed.

Of all people to be caught by, it had to be her.

Angelina felt cold sweat trickling down her cheek.

‘Damn it.’

I should have just pretended not to notice.

Under normal circumstances, Angelina would have calmly cast a concealment spell and slipped away.

But why? The moment she met those piercing eyes, she was so startled that her mouth opened of its own accord.

……She must have burned too much herbal tobacco, clouding her judgment. It was absolutely not because she was overwhelmed by Chris’s charisma.

‘A run-of-the-mill excuse won’t work on someone like her. Probably not even the name of Duke Serif’s house…….’

Angelina knew people like Chris well.

The type who trusted only in their own power and acted however they pleased. People who had no roleplay of considering others—no, people who had never even needed to.

Arrogant geniuses.

They had only faced each other for a few minutes, but Angelina had already formed her opinion of Chris as a person. Those eyes that looked at others as if in contempt were all too familiar.

Waiting for the rebuke that would spill from the other woman’s lips, Angelina gulped.

“…….”

“…….”

But only a heavy silence flowed for dozens of seconds.

‘What?’

Angelina sensed something was off.

Chris wasn’t searching through Angelina’s pockets, nor was she blocking her from fleeing. Either would have been trivial for Chris with a simple spell.

She was merely furrowing her brow, her gaze fixed solely on Angelina’s faintly trembling hand.

It was bewildering. She was unused to this kind of wordless pressure, which only made her feel more anxious.

“……You saw it, didn’t you? Me, smoking herbal tobacco.”

In the end, Angelina was the first to break the silence.

Chris shifted her gaze toward Angelina’s lowered head.

Feeling her jaw tighten, Angelina continued.

“I won’t deny it. I know it’s something I shouldn’t have done. I’m sorry. I’ll accept whatever punishment comes.”

What she had started to manage extreme stress and pain had somehow become her sole comfort.

Of course, if you counted, this was only the third time, but saying that now wouldn’t change anything.

‘Maybe it’s a blessing that I was caught by this woman. She’d never go easy on me.’

With the ducal family’s reputation, she might avoid expulsion. But there was no doubt that the name ‘Angelina Serif’ would be tarnished.

This was one of the things Angelina feared most. Or perhaps, in some corner of her mind, it was what she wished for most.

‘It would be so much easier if I were denounced as unfit for the succession and could give up everything.’

Amid these contradictory emotions, when Chris’s mouth finally opened, Angelina squeezed her eyes shut.

But what she actually heard was—

“Pathetic brat.”

It was, in truth, a quiet compassion.

That wasn’t to say it lacked contempt. But beneath it, Angelina could detect the faint trace of another emotion.

‘She’s sad? ……Why?’

Chris. A woman who seemed like she would have dried up all her tears long ago was sad. She pitied Angelina without knowing the first thing about her.

The reason…… escaped her.

“……!”

At that moment, tap, the tip of Chris’s index finger touched Angelina’s forehead as she stood there in a daze.

A gesture that somehow seemed familiar—one used to scold a child.