“…This is the best choice, right?”

“I think so.”

I expressed my agreement with Amelia’s words.

Well, it’s what the Author wanted.

It was obvious she would agree.

Right now, we have two choices before us.

Earn points by defeating villains, or earn points by contributing to society.

…I say contributing to society, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was just unpaid slave labor.

Anyways, considering the Author’s personality and the uniqueness of the world in the novel…

No matter how I thought about it, what she wanted to choose was already set in stone.

Anyone could see that defeating villains was more exciting, right?

Since she constantly has to show the readers something, she would prefer incidents to occur.

[Defeating villains! Defeating villains! Helping citizens is for cowards!]

See? I knew it would be like this.

Well, I had no complaints either.

According to what I heard from Ha-Yul, the Protagonist was definitely growing.

To the extent that even he was amazed.

He said his growth rate was so high that he could understand why I called him the Protagonist.

…But it’s not enough. No, even if it’s sufficient, he should grow more.

Since we don’t know when he might face a dangerous situation.

Even if I keep hovering around him, I’m only human too.

I might inadvertently overlook a threat, or an enemy I can’t handle alone might appear.

I don’t think that would happen unless the Author goes crazy, but she isn’t omnipotent either. I knew that better than anyone.

If she makes one mistake in the settings and an enemy appears that the Protagonist, heroine, and even I can’t handle, it would be a huge problem.

If that happens, it’s over. The only person will die.

I couldn’t just stand by and watch that happen.

Even if I keep the worst-case scenario in mind, a situation worse than that might occur at any time.

While I could still control him, I had to make Siwoo grow as much as possible by any means necessary.

That’s why I was in favor, but… I wonder what they think.

“Alright. The villain subjugation gives more points.”

“I don’t mind either.”

Fortunately, there wasn’t an atmosphere of opposition.

So, I was going to watch Siwoo and the heroines’ growth while hovering around him with peace of mind.

…But a problem arose.

A problem I never anticipated.

“The maximum number of people is two.”

“What? B-But it’s villain subjugation…!”

A voice tinged with dissatisfaction leaked out without me realizing it.

Two people? There are four of us right now.

Of course, we can split into two groups of two, but if we go as a group of four from the start, there’s no problem, right?

Why do we have to do this?

“I was told it’s to have you act in pairs and gain field experience. Since that’s how you operate in real situations.”

“…Ah.”

Come to think of it, there was a setting like that.

It was a one the Author added.

Heroes basically act in pairs or something like that.

…A setting casually thrown in before is holding us back now.

[Ehehe…]

“Sigh… I understand.”

“…What should we do? If you don’t want to split up, we can choose the other option. I heard there’s no limit on the number of people there.”

“No, let’s go like this. Let’s split into two groups.”

There was no other way.

The Author had already set things up, and it would be burdensome for her to change them now.

The proof was that she couldn’t say anything and was just silent.

No matter how you looked at it, it would be too much to change.

Then we go as is.

“Ah, then I’ll go with Dorothy.”

“Sounds good. You just need to protect me, and it’ll be fine!”

“Don’t worry. You know how fast I am, right?”

“You’re so reliable!”

“Huh?”

What’s going on?

As if they had planned it, Dorothy and Amelia suddenly started having a conversation with each other.

…Seriously, what? What’s happening?

“We’ll go on ahead!”

“Let’s go, Dorothy! If we just stand around, bad villains will be harassing citizens!”

“That’s a big problem! We need to hurry!”

“… They’re gone.”

The two who had separated from us instantly finished registering and left.

Seeing that, Siwoo laughed as if it was absurd.

“Arte Iris, Yu Siwoo. Confirmed as a pair. If you want to give up and re-select, you’re free to do so. If you want to re-select, please come to the faculty office.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

I realized it only after the registration was finished, and I left with Siwoo.

I was being ignorant.

“It seems like those two have gotten really close.”

“Gotten close?”

“Yes. It looks like the two girls have somehow bonded.”

Right, I must have forgotten an important fact.

Come to think of it, they’re both girls, aren’t they?

I don’t know how girls become friends, but they must have hit it off quickly through some method.

Still, it’s a bit disappointing. Since they’re heroines, they should get closer to the Protagonist.

…Well, they’ll get close soon. There’s plenty of time.

Until the end, I failed to notice Siwoo’s gaze, which seemed to say, “Aren’t you a girl too?”

***

(…Those two, you said they were heroines?)

“That’s right.”

(But why do they seem to have little interest in the Protagonist?)

“I didn’t really pay attention since it didn’t seem necessary for me to intervene, and this is what happened.”

The pure girl said. As if it were only natural.

“At first, I tried to use them as heroines, but…”

She recalled.

Her precious Reader.

The appearance she had shown so far. And the events that occurred.

Recalling the memories, the girl smiled brightly.

It was an innocent smile.

“I thought about adding some since there was a lack of events, but it didn’t seem necessary after all!”

(…Ah, you mean that Reader of yours?)

“Yep! She’s not my Reader yet, but the Protagonist seems a bit drawn to her.”

(Hmm…)

The girl watched the Reader conversing with the Protagonist.

At first, she had mainly observed the Protagonist, and events always revolved around him.

The Reader was just a convenient pawn. Nothing more, nothing less.

But before she knew it, the girl found herself becoming more interested in the Reader than the Protagonist.

The others were still observing the Protagonist since they were interested in him, but…

‘Reader is so much more interesting.’

(By the way, why doesn’t your ability work on that guy?)

“Huh? Ability?”

(Yes! Your ability! You said it doesn’t work, right?! Do you know how surprised we were?!)

(You weren’t joking about that, were you?)

“Hey, what do you take me for?”

(You did it once before, so I’m just saying. I said I’d get really mad if you did it again.)

At the resounding voice, the girl smiling optimistically replied sheepishly.

“I don’t know, really.”

[…Seriously?]

“Yeah. I was so surprised.”

Surprised enough to nearly faint.

The others who heard that story felt the same way.

‘I mean, a mere human who my ability doesn’t work on? That’s absurd.’

[You said it worked at first, right?]

“Yeah. There were quite a few similar worlds, but I liked that world. I put in some effort to set him as the Protagonist.”

‘I picked a guy with a handsome face and tweaked him a bit to fit the worldview.’

His ability was intuition. She also gave him the setting of having tremendous talent that befits a protagonist.

“Don’t you think the ability of intuition is kind of cool? It’s not visible, but it’s incredibly strong!”

(That’s not what we were talking about, right?)

“…Tch. No, well. It’s nothing much. It just happened. After that, my ability stopped working on him.”

Right now, there are only two people in that world who her ability doesn’t work on.

The Reader and the Protagonist.

My ability works on all the other humans.

“At least it half works on the Reader.”

(That’s a side effect of you transmigrating that human, right?)

“No, well. That’s… It can’t be helped. That’s what makes it interesting. Right?”

(…)

The others couldn’t refute it.

Because they also found it interesting when an otherworldly soul brought from outside entered another world.

Even the ones who initially said there was no need to go through such trouble quietly sealed their lips now.

“I can understand the Reader since she’s aware of my existence.”

‘But why doesn’t my ability work on the Protagonist?’

It’s not like it didn’t work from the beginning.

It was fine when she set him up.

She tried to tweak him for the first time in a while, but what used to work well suddenly didn’t, and she was so flustered.

Without thinking, she made an excuse to the readers, saying it was nothing.

Those guys wouldn’t scold her for something like that, but she reflexively did it.

“There’s no way my ability wouldn’t work unless he knows my existence.”

(You set Yu Siwoo’s ability as intuition, right? Could he have noticed you with it?)

“No, no. Absolutely not.”

Intuition. It’s an ability to sense things humans can’t perceive, but…

Even that has its limits.

“He couldn’t even notice the Reader watching him, so how could he notice me?”

(…Hmm, is that so?)

Yu Siwoo’s ability was intuition.

They knew that better than anyone.

“You guys said intuition was too boring, so I added an extra setting, but someone said it was dangerous, so I tried to remove it, but it won’t go away.”

(…)
“I’ll do as I please now.”

(Yeah, yeah… I have nothing to say.)

Since intuition was boring, she briefly added a setting that it was a fragment of a superior ability.

She couldn’t even decide what ability it was. Since the ability wouldn’t grow much anyway, it was a setting she could modify, so she just threw it in there.

‘I don’t know why, but my ability stopped working on Yu Siwoo, so I can’t remove it now.’

It was cool, but she kept getting berated for it.

‘Because those guys who always told me what to do made a mistake!’

(…Then what? Is he really some kind of mutant?)

“I don’t know either.”

In the end, they gazed at the Reader without gaining anything.

She was conversing with the Protagonist and smiling with her eyes.

“…Hehe, she’s pretty.”

(Crazy bitch…)

“What, why! She is pretty!”

Author’s Notes

There are a lot of typos these days…

I’m always looking up to the readers who point things out…

I am grateful and embarrassed…!

And the long-awaited 1M has been achieved! I’m so happy for the love from my readers!

I’ve been thinking for a while about how I should repay this…

Wouldn’t it be nice to have one more Arte illustration?

So, I decided to apply for another cover today.