Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 17

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Let me see… this aura… it hasn’t been long at all!”
The deduction had been elegant, but the illustrious daughter of House of Letem found herself unable to free her hand from the ice pillar, her face contorting in dismay. A moment ago she’d been mad, now she was foolish. The Academy Headmaster genuinely wanted to weep.
“That student who just left! What’s their name!”
“Student privacy information at the Academy is protected by confidentiality protocols.”
“Then just admit me quickly!”
“The entrance examination has procedures.”
Now that I thought about it, House of Letem had sent donations just as generously as House of Neftis. I’d assumed it was merely a courtesy, but there was a reason—their daughter was an idiot.
The Academy Headmaster suddenly craved alcohol. He left the remaining matters to the Examiner and retreated to his office, where he burned the letters from Neftis and Letem while opening a bottle of strong whiskey.

◇ ◆ ◇

“Hic.”
Ugh, after gorging myself for the first time in ages, the hiccups won’t stop.
Before even being assigned a room in the Dormitory, I’d stopped by the Cafeteria and stuffed myself with food. I needed to eat heavily and train heavily. Muscle and fat meant increased destructive power. To survive until graduation at this brutal Academy, my current abilities were woefully inadequate.
Given how much chaos erupted at the Academy, how else would Reina Letem—who’d entered with merely a Rare skill—have graduated with an Ultra Rare skill like Blazing Magic?
It was all because of the main couple: the Third Princess and her devoted companion. Whatever accidents they’d caused, the Dragon King himself had descended upon the Academy by the end. Reina, who’d nearly died then, had awakened her skill when cornered. I genuinely thought she was dead at that moment.
I showed my temporary student ID to the Dormitory Manager, received my room assignment and key. For the next four years, this would be my comfortable sanctuary. Mages were universally antisocial lunatics and violent thugs, so they were completely separated from other departments, with one room per person. Of course, I possessed excellent character and superior social skills, but having personal space was unconditionally welcome.
Delighted, I inserted my key into the lock and turned it. The door clicked shut.
“….”
What? Was it originally open? Ah, since today was my first move-in day, maybe they leave them all unlocked?
I turned the key again and opened the door. As I stepped inside, the space proved far larger than expected.
“Heyyyy—.”
And there was Reina Letem, oddly grinning and winking.
This Reina Letem with that smarmy expression, making that crude sound, was not my Reina Letem. I pretended not to see her and left to check the room number. 203. This was indeed my room.
“This is my room.”
“No, it’s my room too, friend.”
This was not Reina Letem. It was a lunatic wearing Reina Letem’s skin. I immediately kicked the door open and called for the Dormitory Manager.
“Dormitory Manager! The rooms are doubled up! How are you managing assignments like this!”
“Wait! Calm down! Calm down, friend! Let’s talk this through slowly.”
Shut your mouth, fake Reina. I don’t know anyone like you. My Reina was the type best described as a quietly burning flame—taciturn, cool in action. Yet the passion and drive she harbored within were immense; even facing the Dragon King in a dying state, she never yielded.
She’d declared that death was preferable to defeat, and with mutual destruction as her resolve, she’d burned her life force unleashing magic until the Blazing Magic skill manifested.
Even if the author wrote poorly, no reader’s heart wouldn’t race at a confrontation against a formidable enemy.
Therefore, that was not Reina Letem.
“Please, just listen to me once! Just once! I’m telling you, you’ll be interested!”
“Spit it out.”
“Look, I’m sorry for prying into your personal information, but I’m a flame mage and you’re a frost mage, right?”
“My skills differ somewhat, but I do use ice magic.”
“Think about it carefully. Ice and flames—what comes to mind?”
“…Poor compatibility?”
“Exactly! Poor compatibility! Sworn enemies! In industry terminology, we call it a ‘forbidden pairing,’ you know?”
What industry was she talking about? House of Letem?
“I think you and I could become a great forbidden pairing!”
“…If you’re looking for a fight, I’ll oblige.”
As I gripped my harpoon and prepared to cast a skill, Reina Letem shook her head frantically and grabbed my hand.
“No! That’s not what I mean! It’s an act, understand? An act! If we bicker with each other like that, apparently some people really enjoy it?”
“Who?”
“Obviously the other students!”
“What good does their approval do us?”
“Ugh, you’re impossible to talk to! But I really like this character dynamic! If our timing works out, I think we’ll do really well together.”
What was she saying? She really did seem insane. I tried to leave the room to find the Dormitory Manager, but this mad woman had such incredible strength that she yanked me back onto the bed.
I…have a superhuman skill. So why is she stronger than me?
“Listen carefully, friend. We bicker, we threaten each other’s lives, but then in a critical moment, if we say something like ‘the only person I can trust with my back is you,’ everyone will absolutely lose it.”
“What good is that?”
“It makes me happy!”
“….”
“So here’s the setup. We’re both mages, right? But by some twist of fate, we ended up as roommates, and there are no spare rooms to switch to.”
“There are eleven new students in the Department of Magic. Spare dormitory rooms exist.”
“Don’t worry about that—my mother made a donation and had them all closed off.”
“….”
This woman wasn’t just insane. She was absolutely deranged.
“I need my own room. I’ll eliminate you and monopolize this space.”
“Yes! That’s it, friend! Finally you’re getting it!”
I wanted to die. It felt like talking to a wall. I repositioned my harpoon and cast my skill. Ice spears materialized in clusters, hurtling toward Reina Letem, but the red-haired woman, far taller than me, dodged with remarkable agility and cast her own skill.
“Skill. Flame!”
A fireball hurtled straight at me. Her skill level matched mine—when I deployed ice projectiles, the magic clashed in a burst of steam and canceled out.
“Hahaha! Perfect! Absolutely perfect! This is exactly it!”
All I wanted was to kill her. That singular thought consumed me. I wanted to eliminate her and get my real Reina Letem back. She must have locked away the true version somewhere, hidden from my sight.
Crash!
I drove my harpoon down where Reina Letem had been standing, but she evaded nimbly and swung her weapon at me. For a brief moment, I saw an afterimage where she’d been. It was definitely a skill.
“Gate Open!”
I understood the situation. If this was how it would be, I’d freeze the entire room. I flooded the floor with seawater, freezing it solid, then planted ice spears at various angles to reflect her image from multiple directions. The position reflected in the ice differed from what my eyes saw.
I threw my spear using only the reflections as my guide. My prediction was accurate, but my distance calculation was off.
“Tch!”
“A mirage, then.”
I knew Reina Letem had been undefeated in one-on-one combat during her Academy days, but I hadn’t known she possessed this skill. So this optical illusion was how she’d evaded every attack.
“You have good eyes. I like you even more now.”
Enough of this nonsense. I reversed my grip on the harpoon that had grazed her and thrust it directly at her chest. Reina Letem caught the shaft with her bare hand, and when I tried to pull my weapon back, it wouldn’t budge.
I should have brought a longer weapon if I’d known this would happen. Building up my weight and expanding the variety of weapons I could use—there were many mountains ahead to climb.
“What on earth is going on here!”
I’d called for him earlier, but he hadn’t come. Now the Dormitory Manager finally arrived. And remarkably, Reina Letem’s attitude shifted entirely.
“Stay out of this! We’re deciding who gets this room!”
It was a side of Reina Letem I recognized, though only faintly. If the Reina Letem of the novel had been a hot, quiet flame, the current one was a roaring, passionate inferno.
Suddenly, the Dragon King came to mind. Strangely enough, that bastard popped into my thoughts. Surely not. It couldn’t be. Why were all the humans in this neighborhood like this?
“Why are you so committed to establishing a character like that!”
“Because it’s cool that way!”
It wasn’t cool at all. If anything, it was the kind of thing you’d regret in ten years, thrashing under your blankets. I prepared to cast magic, ready to take a strike-out if necessary. But the Dormitory Manager’s quiet words made me stop the incantation.
“Reina Letem, Evan Laef. Each of you receives one demerit point.”
“….”
“…Demerit point?”
“Yes. Once you accumulate five, you’ll need to vacate the Dormitory. Usually, students like that end up homeless until graduation.”
The Dormitory Manager kindly explained that behind the Back Mountain of the Magic Department Dormitory, there was a shantytown packed with mages living rough.
I hated homelessness. My back ached. Even after sleeping, I never felt rested. Back in Korea, there was that useful material called styrofoam, but there wouldn’t be any here.
“Reconsider. I’ll live with that bastard. We were just being cute and playful.”
“Y-yes! We’ll clean everything up!”
“That’s not necessary. The Magic Department has specialized staff for cleaning. Once they finish, I’ll call the students. The Dormitory also has a shop system, so please check the bulletin board.”
The Dormitory Manager, speaking as if he’d seen this countless times before, directed us to the lounge to wait, warned us not to fight inside the Dormitory again, and left.
“Damn it, it’s your fault.”
I swung at her with a backhanded strike, but Reina Letem dodged smoothly and flicked me away with her foot.
“Friend, you’re the one who broke all the furniture.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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