“Nine, what’s wrong?”
“…”
“Nine, if you don’t eat it, I will.”
This punk?
Anyone who dares to covet my share deserves punishment.
I subtly swung my paw at the brown-furred head that was sneaking towards my daily ration.
“Ouch!”
“That’s what happens when you get greedy.”
How dare you eye my food.
Should I catch you and teach you a lesson?
Need some discipline?
“But Nine hasn’t even touched it yet…”
“Mind your own business, it’s my food.”
At my warning, the brown fur backed off, licking its lips.
Sigh, I’ll think about it after I eat.
As I devoured the neatly minced meat Orca brought me, I sank into a swamp of thoughts.
There’s no protagonist.
A short sentence, but more devastating than anything else.
To put it simply, it’s like a Chinese restaurant without jajangmyeon, or a chicken place without fried chicken.
Is this for real?
Well, realistically, it’s not strange for there to be no protagonist, but still, this isn’t right.
What kind of story is this world god trying to unfold?
The resurrection of the evil dragon will happen no matter which character does it, so that’s a given, and Act 1 is a common route, so it’ll definitely happen.
But if things go wrong, we might not even make it past Act 1.
You might think Act 1 is easy, right?
…But this game’s overall difficulty is pretty high.
The game design itself was more like, “If you feel like messing around, go ahead, but don’t forget the main quest!”
It was to the point where you’d doubt if the main story was even meant to be cleared.
Given that level of difficulty, if you let your guard down in Act 1, the academy could be destroyed.
[You were caught in a terrorist attack and left lying on the cold ground. Your body will become useful material, and your name will be quietly forgotten in the student records.]
Listening to that kind of nonsense.
So, I had to see for myself if Act 1 was progressing as it should.
Would Act 1 follow the original story?
How would the five golden children move within the waves of Act 1?
One thing’s for sure, depending on how those golden children react, my survival difficulty will skyrocket like the Zimbabwean dollar.
I’m screwed, really.
It’s a situation where you can’t help but curse.
But if you ask me if I can play the role of the protagonist, I can confidently shake my head.
No way.
I can’t.
I’m basically just an interactive cat in an open world, how can I be the protagonist?
I’d end up as a doormat for the villains before Act 1 even ends.
If I were at least human, I could monopolize the opportunities scattered throughout the world of Academy Chronicles to stand a chance.
But in this cat’s body, even if I got my paws on a legendary sword, I couldn’t use it.
Even if I found a great mage’s spellbook, I can’t cast magic.
Ugh.
And it’s not like I can evolve into a spirit beast either.
In the game, the lore about spirit beasts was just a few lines in the tooltips or text, and even in Act 1… sigh.
Act 1 is already a problem.
Originally, it was about uncovering the tail of a secret organization operating within the academy.
But who’s going to uncover it now?
Orca is just repeating every day, “How can I make friends… Making friends is so hard…”
Instead of unraveling world-shaking conspiracies, we’re on a grand journey to make friends.
Madison?
With that bulk, do you think he can infiltrate anything?
In the original, he didn’t solve things through infiltration but outright attacked.
With some cringy line like, “Those who walk the path of light never hide in the shadows!”
Alice… she’s optimized for infiltration, but that’s all she’s good at.
She’s not skilled at gathering information, and more importantly, I can’t imagine that timid girl handling unexpected situations well.
Irina… she might not be bad.
But the problem is, I’d have to reveal that I can talk and start things myself, or somehow guide her into the conspiracy to let her handle it.
Monster Park?
Dogs are out of the question.
In the first place, even when he was the protagonist, he didn’t solve things directly.
Is this world going to be okay?
I thought it would just roll along on its own, but with all the key players acting crazy, can we really get a happy ending?
Countless bad endings flood my mind.
A world destroyed by the evil dragon.
A continent plunged into endless war due to conspiracies.
Civilization crumbles, and bizarre lifeforms take the place of humanity lying defeated.
Protagonists are framed and forced to flee forever.
What started as a refreshing academy story ends in apocalypse.
If the protagonist had been decided, I could have just watched them and pushed some opportunities when things got dicey.
But as it stands, I have no choice but to come up with a plan.
So, I need to investigate the suspicious parts first.
“Hi—you’re a bit late today?”
…So.
Who the hell are you?
I looked up at the graduate student smiling and reaching out to me.
————
Purple bean sprout.
No, purple-haired graduate student.
Name: Kazein.
No known surname.
Worked under Professor Ryuen.
Has a half-elf junior.
Knows the location of the secret library.
Probably knows how to get in.
…Researching spirit beasts.
I listed out all the information I knew.
When investigating a specific target, it’s effective to lay out what you know and look for connections.
I don’t remember where I heard that, but it sounded about right.
Anyway, this is all the information I have on Kazein.
Thinking about it, she’s the student I’ve interacted with the longest here, but I actually know very little about her.
I didn’t pay much attention because she wasn’t a major character.
I neglected the business.
But now it’s time to find out.
Kazein, who didn’t appear in the original.
Her research on spirit beasts.
Perhaps Kazein has a connection to the villains of Act 1.
The enemies in the latter part of Act 1 were clearly labeled as failures.
So, I plan to dig deep into Kazein’s research.
It feels like something the protagonist should do, but what choice do I have?
Orca’s in no state to be useful right now.
And trying to use another protagonist comes with too much risk.
Among the remaining protagonists, Alice is the only one suitable for infiltration.
Her presence is so faint that she might not be found even if she just sits there, like in a game.
But the problem is, I don’t know if she’ll listen to me.
Let’s put that aside for now.
It’s better if only a few people know that I can talk.
If the villains find out, things will get complicated.
Worst case, I could end up as a carpet.
“Nine, where are you going?”
“Taking a walk.”
“I want to come too!”
“I have things to do, so just entertain the guests in the garden.”
…Hmm, saying it like this feels a bit weird.
But it’s fine, I’m a cat.
As I got up from the bench, I pushed away the brown fur sticking to me and looked ahead.
Kazein’s retreating figure, having given us food.
Today, I plan to follow that back.
It’s white, so it stands out, but I have no choice.
If I move like a cat, staying out of sight, it should be fine.
I started trailing Kazein, keeping a distance of about 10 meters.
I won’t get any closer.
Any closer and Kazein might notice me.
Being white already makes me stand out, so I need to be extra careful.
“Ah, senior! Hello!”
“Hi—how’s class?”
“It’s still a bit hard, but it’s fun!”
“That’s good.”
By the way, is that purple hair quite famous?
It’s been 15 minutes since I started following her.
She’s already warmly greeted six people, clearly a social butterfly.
Seems like a well-liked senior.
“Senior, today—”
“Sorry, I’m busy right now, so I don’t have time for chit-chat.”
“Ah, sorry, senior. I’ll go then.”
Kazein started walking again, and I followed.
Her steps led past the knight department and into the magic department.
Does she have business in the magic department?
As I thought that, the moment I stepped into the magic department, Kazein suddenly turned around.
“Hmm—was I imagining it? I felt like someone was following me…”
I hid as she tilted her head and looked around.
“Must have been my imagination.”
Luckily, she quickly let her guard down and entered the magic department.
Shall I continue?
I’ll keep going until I get the information.
I quietly stepped into the magic department.
“Hi?”
And then I got caught by Selene.