Chapter 1: A Person Who Is Not Needed

It’s a pretty common story.

Why, there’s that.

A story about a reader who was enjoying reading a fantasy novel being possessed by the novel they were enjoying.

It’s a story that’s now so cliché that people even say it’s not fun.

I just happened to be chosen for that unlucky story.

Because I was unlucky, because I had no luck.

As always. When was I ever lucky?

I just accepted it as it was.

Life is about things that we can’t understand.

After that… it was similar to other possessed novel protagonists.

At first, I denied reality, but when I confirmed that the possessed body was a woman, I fainted.

Then came resignation.

Oh, I was really possessed. I have to live in this body until I die.

There’s no way out of this place.

After experiencing resignation, everyone begins to face reality.

To figure out who the owner of the body I was possessed by is, and what role I’m playing in the story.

To decide whether I can live well in this body.

Human survival instincts lead us to figure out a way to survive.

However, what comes afterward is, of course, not joy but despair.

I am not the protagonist of a novel who has come to happiness by repenting or regressing from an unfortunate past.

The name of the character I have been possessed by is ‘Lee Seo-yeon’.

This girl, who has a Korean name despite not being set in Korea, is none other than the protagonist’s childhood friend.

A childhood friend who always loses in the heroine competition.

A childhood friend who grew up in the same orphanage as the protagonist and entered the same academy.

It is truly a friendship that cannot be anything but tear-jerking.

No, from Lee Seo-yeon’s perspective, it is not friendship but affection.

Well, anyway.

This beautiful girl named ‘Lee Seo-yeon’ entered the academy despite not having the talent to enter the academy.

The reason, of course, is to follow the protagonist ‘Kim Soo-ho’.

Just like being possessed in a novel, this is also a fairly common cliché.

A boy and a girl who have grown up together since childhood enter the same academy and continue their ‘friendship’ until death.

That cliché.

If you felt something strange, it’s normal.

It’s not ‘affection’ but ‘friendship’.

Lee Seo-yeon liked Kim Soo-ho since she was young, but her feelings were never reciprocated.

Because Kim Soo-ho didn’t look at Lee Seo-yeon with ‘affection’.

Because Lee Seo-yeon died a year after entering the academy.

The reason for her death was a chronic illness.

‘Magic maladaptation’, which had been holding Lee Seo-yeon back since birth, killed her.

According to the novel’s setting, magic maladaptation is not a scary illness.

The world in this novel is such a beautiful world that you can live well without using magic.

That’s why there is no cure or treatment for magic maladaptation.

If you don’t force yourself to use magic, you can live like a normal person without suffering.

There’s no need to research a disease that isn’t scary.

Even if you research and develop a cure, no one will die.

The doctors here need to make money to enjoy life.

However, Lee Seo-yeon couldn’t do that, and accepted the death that came to her.

As if this was her role, humbly.

It seems that Lee Seo-yeon was more concerned about being by Kim Soo-ho’s side than her own life.

Even though her health deteriorated to the point where she was vomiting blood, she continued to force herself to use her magic powers and try to stay by Kim Soo-ho’s side.

Is there anything more foolish than this?

What’s more important than your own life?

What’s so important about being by your childhood friend’s side?

Because of you, I ended up with a limited lifespan.

······I don’t think it’s bad.

It’s just that I had no choice at all.

I didn’t like the fact that Lee Seo-yeon valued her childhood friend more than herself.

And at this point, I could have asked this question.

The children who had been listening to my story like this raised their hands.

‘Where was the main character and what was he doing until his childhood friend Lee Seo-yeon died?’

Then I would have answered like this.

‘Wow! That’s a really good question!’

‘There’s… no prize. Just go back. You weren’t expecting a prize, were you?’

As is the case with most novels set in an academy, our protagonist Kim Soo-ho had an extremely busy academy life.

Studying, experiencing various incidents that arise because of his name as the protagonist, and seducing women.

Of course, I knew from reading the novel that Kim Soo-ho wasn’t seducing women because he wanted to.

What can I do?

The tag ‘harem’ always gives off an irresistible charm to the protagonist.

I’m not sure if I can use the word ‘the same woman’.

But from the perspective of the same woman, Kim Soo-ho was a person who had more than enough charm.

I can understand why Lee Seo-yeon in the original work was obsessed to some extent.

It’s just that the protagonist didn’t take that obsession very well.

Our protagonist, who had not paid much attention to his childhood friend because he was already busy with his daily life, started to resent Lee Seo-yeon when she started to become obsessed.

How would things have gone if that had happened?

The girls who fell for Kim Soo-ho would be excited to get rid of their huge rival, their ‘childhood friend’, and would harass Lee Seo-yeon.

In a novel like this, it’s natural that the heroines’ power is not ordinary, so Lee Seo-yeon naturally becomes an outcast.

How sad. She’s not in good health, and she’s even being bullied by her class.

Of course, our protagonist doesn’t know this.

There’s no way she’d let Kim Soo-ho know that the fox-like heroines did such a thing, and this girl is so timid.

The fact that her childhood friend, whom she’s been with since childhood, is being bullied.

The fact that her childhood friend, whom she’s been with since childhood, likes her.

The fact that her childhood friend, whom she’s been with since childhood, will die soon.

The foolish protagonist doesn’t know this.

It’s such a sad story.

Dying without receiving any attention from the man she’s liked her whole life.

The trap is that it’s my story now.

Well, it’ll work out somehow.

There’s no useless person in the world.

I guess I can be useful somewhere.

Maybe.

***

Creak—

The doorknob that no hand or foot had ever touched turns on its own, and soon a pure white light fills the dark room.

Ah, it’s dazzling.

No matter how many times I see this light, I never get used to it.

“Lee Seo-yeon! You haven’t woken up yet! How many times has this instructor told you that you need to get into the habit of waking up early to be healthy!”

And then I heard the voice of the headmaster, who had become as familiar as the mirror in my room.

I don’t know why I like it so much when a gentleman who didn’t even serve in the military because of his lack of magical power acts like a soldier.

At first, I really hated being woken up by force.

Now that I think about it, maybe he did it more because he was worried about me looking sickly.

It’s true that I’m actually sickly.

“······Teacher, you didn’t serve in the military, right?”

“I always say this, but that’s not the important thing right now······. Seo-yeon, did you dye your hair?”

I answered lightly as usual, but what I got in return wasn’t my usual strong voice, but a question asking if I dyed my hair.

Oh, right. My hair is gray now.

I completely forgot because I was fooled by the peaceful atmosphere.

What should I do?

“······Yes. Because you look pretty.”

“Um… When I saw you, I thought your old black hair was prettier… If you think it’s pretty, then it is.”

“Thank you, teacher.”

Fortunately, he didn’t seem particularly suspicious.

If he had suddenly asked me why I dyed my hair, it would have been hard to answer.

The headmaster, who was always overflowing with passion and unlikable, was thankful today.

“By the way, dyeing your hair?”

“Huh?”

“Usually, in a normal academy, you’re not allowed to dye your hair or wear casual clothes.”

The headmaster, who unexpectedly came up with a sharp deduction.

What kind of day is today?

The hair I’ve been waiting and waiting for has finally turned gray.

Seeing the headmaster, whose usual charm was being stupid, use his brain.

If it were me, I would have just ignored whatever the headmaster was saying next to me.

But today was a good day that I’d been waiting and waiting for.

So I decided to respond with special generosity.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“······Really?”

“Yes, our academy is called the best academy for nothing.”

“That’s true.”

Although, that answer couldn’t have been true.

It was a blatant lie.

This damn academy was much stricter than the other academies.

Rather, if I caught someone breaking the rules, I would have caught them.

There was absolutely no way I wouldn’t have caught them.

But, well. It doesn’t really matter.

What would change if I told a few more lies now?

It won’t be long anyway.

The day I see the face of the friendly principal.

The day I face the pure white light that doesn’t suit me in the pitch-black darkness.

······It might be a little sad that I won’t be able to see that stupid face anymore.