Chapter 10

During lunchtime, there are very few students who engage in activities unrelated to studying.

Thus, the woman who was alone in the Student Council President’s office, reviewing documents, was one of those rare students.

Some students sat on their chairs enjoying the cool breeze, chatting with friends, while others played soccer with friends on the playground.

There were those who relieved their fatigue from class by sleeping, and others who sought solace in snacks from the cafeteria.

Lunchtime—while most students enjoyed their fleeting youth in the school premises, the red-haired woman who was reviewing student records appeared distant from such students. In truth, until just a few days ago, she too was one of those youth-loving students.

She once enjoyed a simple happiness with her lover. But the reason she had to keep reviewing student records despite leaving her youth behind, was due to just one thing.

She had to search through these records to fulfill a promise she had made with someone in order to protect the person she loved.

In a regular school, even the student council president couldn’t access such personal information, but in this school filled with supernatural ability users from the area, the student council president held significant power, allowing her this privilege.

Skipping class or using lunchtime for this purpose was also part of that power.

If there were students who abused their supernatural abilities, it was the student council’s role to prevent or handle such situations.

Of course, the police had greater authority than the student council, but since recently born children held far more potent supernatural abilities than adults, this system was implemented.

It wasn’t that she had become president to exploit this system, but as using these powers didn’t greatly harm others, she eagerly wished to fulfill her promise and return to her lover as quickly as possible.

However, despite sacrificing class time and even lunch breaks, the further she searched without finding the person she’d agreed to find, the more she pressed her temples with her fingers, which throbbed painfully from the overuse of her abilities, and sighed.

Her supernatural ability wasn’t one that could create something from nothing. If the information scattered was incomplete, it could only reach 100% accuracy if she had enough relevant data.

In other words, with incorrect information, there was no way she could derive the correct answer.

[Erica 9%]

After agreeing to find a certain girl in exchange for saving Erica from her torment, no matter how many times she used her abilities, the only name that surfaced was that of the girl she still loved.

While there were other candidates besides Erica, their probabilities of matching the role description were less than 1%.

Her overuse of abilities left her with a dull ache, and as she was about to take a break and avoid using her powers temporarily, a boy casually entered after knocking.

“What’s up? Were you resting? I brought coffee, so why don’t we take it easy while you drink?”

Carrying two coffees instead of coming empty-handed, the boy casually approached the desk cluttered with student profiles and gently placed one coffee on it.

It was this boy who had made a promise with her to protect her beloved girl, yet it was also this boy who had forced her to temporarily part from her beloved through said promise.

“Judging by your expression, it seems you haven’t found any leads yet, huh?”

“Would you say the lack of sufficient information is to blame?”

As she frowned, she recalled the information provided by the boy.

A target hostile towards him, a girl who didn’t love men, and lastly, someone with an elusive but significant role.

Perhaps because there were very few people who dared to oppose the boy, her abilities repeatedly pointed to Erica as the only girl who opposed him.

Despite Erica being in an open relationship with her, where nothing was hidden, she had heard nothing about an “elusive role.” Moreover, since the boy had declared Erica wasn’t the girl, Erica could not possibly be the one in the role.

In her position—where she had to find the target he had described to fulfill the promise—the situation frustratingly dragged on without progress.

“If Erica keeps coming up and no other meaningful probabilities appear, unless you provide more distinctive information, it’s impossible to find the target using my abilities.”

No matter how many times she reviewed the information provided by the boy and the student records, the girl the boy was searching for refused to surface.

Every effort to break free of “the promise” led her back to the same troubling response: the person the boy was looking for might well be her own lover.

Having heard her complaint, the boy shrugged as he picked up a coffee, casually sat on the guest chair, and relaxed.

“Still, even I don’t know everything. In a world where supernatural abilities are common, the girl likely possesses powers on par with mine. She also faces problems she cannot solve alone, requiring help from others, and though she’s a student at this school, she doesn’t easily open her heart to others. These are the broad features she might exhibit. However, since these details might not all apply, applying them might result in a false conclusion. Therefore, I’ve only shared what I’m mostly sure about. That’s why I mentioned that beyond Erica, other girls might fit this role too. For now, just giving me a list of potential candidates would help.”

Listing those candidates wouldn’t free her from “the promise”; she had agreed to identify the main person in the role, not just candidates.

Yet the red-haired woman frowned slightly as the boy declared he’d personally pursue the investigation once she provided this list.

The boy, guessing her dissatisfaction even when he’d offered to verify the candidates himself, smiled and spoke.

“Is it because of the upcoming school trip? Don’t worry. We need to maintain our relationship as lovers to have these kinds of conversations, so our relationship won’t end during the trip. I don’t plan to interfere with your romance with her, either. As I care for my own lover, small rumors will be handled on my side as long as overt actions like public kissing between you are avoided. I won’t comment on intimate relationships inside a room when the connection is meaningless. We’re just bound by contract, after all.”

Perhaps due to his long explanation, the boy took a sip of the coffee he had bought. Unlike the cup he had intentionally sweetened for the president, his was sharp and bitter, jolting his senses.

“…No. I trust you on that point. What I’m worried about is Queen’s side, who derives pleasure from the pain of others. If I remain here, there’d be no one to stop her from tormenting Erica.”

The boy, who listened silently as he endured something deliberately painful to remind himself of his duty, spoke.

“You’re asking me to protect her? This morning, it seemed like several heroines were already prepared to protect her, so I thought my help wouldn’t be necessary. But since you’ve asked, as a party to the promise, I’ll keep it. Rest assured; incidents like the one this morning, where Queen harms Erica, won’t happen again.”

The existence referred to as “Queen” in a school of supernatural ability users. A bold claim to halt her bullying from this moment onward.

However, knowing full well what the boy had done during his first year, the woman set aside her worries for Erica upon hearing this.

If the boy who perceived this world as a game and had smoothly resolved many incidents during his first year hadn’t spoken, he wouldn’t go back on his word.

“Spending too much lunchtime at the café. I’d better go—”

As the boy gulped the coffee down and stretched, the woman watched his retreating back and found herself voicing a question she had hesitated to ask.

“Is Erica really not the true heroine?”

True heroine.

In manga and anime, the term refers to the girl the protagonist ends up with by the conclusion.

Though the boy was asking her to find his true heroine, due to her abilities confirming Erica as the most likely candidate, she couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

“If you’re worried because I might pursue her… Don’t be. I tried, but she’s definitely not the one.”

“What exactly did you try?”

The woman questioned the boy, who was about to leave the room, but he only waved his hand as he closed the door.

– I revealed a few secrets to her. A true heroine would react instinctively to such secrets.

Having left those words behind, the boy disappeared. Was revealing secrets the way to expose the true heroine role?

A boy with many secrets.

She didn’t care to learn more about his secrets anyway; she simply upheld the ‘promise’ they had vowed to keep.

‘There’s no need to tell him this, is there, given how certain he was?’

Silently, the woman suppressed the word she had noticed floating above her beloved’s head earlier that morning.

Awakening Rate 0.01%.

An ambiguous word that could be either a clue to the true heroine or completely unrelated.

Although she didn’t understand why this label suddenly appeared above Erica, since the boy was certain it wasn’t her, she had no duty to inform him.

Her loyalty was directed toward only one girl.

Ding… Dong… Dang… Dong.

The sound signaling the end of lunchtime rang out, and the woman restarted the methodical task of scanning papers once again.

In light of the scenario where Erica wasn’t the girl Kim Ha-neul was searching for, the woman wanted to confirm her suspicions were wrong against her abilities once more, hoping it would be the best ending for everyone.