I Became the Terminally Ill Character in My Friend’s Academy Novel – Chapter 16

—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
—————————————————————–

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

It went without saying, but the academy was a gathering of prospective superhumans and a place of learning for still-immature heroes.

However, even if they were superhumans, kids were still kids, and there were always hot-blooded ones even among prospective heroes.

Moreover, since most of them gathered here out of admiration for heroes, there weren’t any real delinquents among the first-years yet.

What kind of bullying could they even do?

That’s right. It wasn’t much different from ordinary people.

Throwing eraser bits or crumpled paper balls during lectures.

Making snide remarks while someone was working out.

Or at best, laughing at someone from afar.

It was somewhat annoying, but not to the point where I would contemplate immediate slaughter.

I couldn’t do it anyway.

Anyway, it was only right for me, as someone with a slightly higher mental age, to endure and move on.

It wasn’t real bullying, and thanks to Lilac and Kang Ha-ni, everyone except the self-proclaimed followers of Cheon Yoo-hak remained neutral about the rumors, so life wasn’t particularly difficult.

Smack!

That’s right.

I had forgotten for a moment.

Kids at this age were the type to get cocky when someone yielded to them.

Thanks to being hit in the back of the head while enjoying my lunch, the last of my patience finally snapped.

“Hey, sorry, I thought you were my friend! Just kidding, you’re not mad, are you?”

“Hey…!”

“What are you guys doing!”

Lilac and Kang Ha-ni stepped up before I did, but those guys just kept repeating that they thought I was their friend like parrots.

“Seriously, why are you so angry? He’s not even saying anything. We just thought he was our friend~! Or do you want to be friends with us from today on?”

“We can even buy you some food with the allowance we leech off this guy.”

“Right, how much ‘friend tax’ did you guys collect from him?”

Lilac’s eyes flashed with annoyance.

He was kind, but when the other party was clearly in the wrong, like now, he often stepped up precisely because of that.

As long as he didn’t kill anyone, it was non-violence.

Also, Kang Ha-ni was one thing, but even our pink chihuahua seemed annoyed, probably thinking that her Lilac was being insulted. But I wasn’t going to let these guys have this one.

Resorting to violence just because you were angry wasn’t the right thing to do.

At least not until you were hit first!

“Yeah, mistakes happen.”

“See, even he’s saying it. Our little loser’s got sensitive ears…”

“Lilac, you shouldn’t get so angry at someone who’s blind and can’t see. They’re less fortunate.”

“…What?”

“And you too. Don’t glare at a beggar who’s asking for money to buy food because he can’t afford a meal ticket. You’ll scare him so much he won’t be able to beg for food next time.”

Perhaps because I usually answered briefly and concisely, Lilac, the pink chihuahua, and even the cross-dressing girl who was getting angry for me, were all speechless.

Hmm, they might dislike me for being talkative, but these bastards crossed the line by bothering me while I was eating.

You guys.

I had been in more online arguments while reading web novels than you guys had been alive.

I wouldn’t resort to personal attacks considering they were still minors, but they should be prepared to have their mental states thoroughly shaken.

Finally realizing they were being insulted, they approached me with angry expressions.

“See, Lilac? They’re blushing because you called them out. Now, let’s apologize to our less fortunate friends!”

“Huh? Me? Are they mad at me?”

You naive bastard, how could that be?

“Hey, you asshole. What makes you so cocky? We were just playing with you, you loser.”

What made me cocky?

My faith in Lilac, who would never stand by and watch me get beaten up.

“Aha, so that was ‘playing’ at your level. It was so childish I thought you were going to quit the academy and pursue your dreams in entertainment. By the way, your jokes are so lame that they won’t work in public, so just graduate from the academy quietly.”

“You fucking bastard…!”

Haha, these frustrating bastards, why were they so pissed when they were the ones who started it?

“Oh my, starting the fight! Blushing first! Cursing first! You guys are so talented!”

Originally, I would have added, “Your parents must be so proud that their precious sons are leading the way in all this, you idiots,” but I’ll let it go for now since they were minors.

However, our quick-witted blind and poor friends seemed to have read between the lines and raised their fists.

Oh, my! How skillful.

I scoffed, and the blind one tried to swing his fist first.

Unable to use magic enhancement, his posture was full of openings.

If I used Enhancement, I could probably land a punch on his chin.

Just as I thought that, someone stepped forward.

“Looking at trash like you guys ruin my appetite.”

It was Cheon Yoo-hak, who had been sitting nearby.

“Oh, Yoo-hak, it’s not like that.”

“Yoo-hak?”

“Huh?”

“Are you my friend? I don’t remember having an acquaintance like you, let alone a friend.”

“What are you talking about? We’re in the same class…”

“You seem to be hard of hearing. Do I have to remember the name of every person in my class?”

Oh, our blind friend’s face turned bright red.

Idiot. Cheon Yoo-hak hated delinquents~. Didn’t his self-proclaimed follower know that?

“What are you doing?”

“Huh?”

“I already said you guys ruin my appetite by being here, so get lost.”

Whoa.

Damn it, I almost forgot because I had only seen his kind side lately. This was the real Cheon Yoo-hak.

A man who didn’t leave when his appetite was ruined, but eliminated the cause instead.

Cheon Yoo-hak, the one and only!

In the original story, Lilac always intervened whenever he acted like this, causing an uproar among readers. But this time, perhaps because the opponent was a clear villain, Lilac was smiling happily.

“As expected, he’s a good guy at heart, even if he’s a bit rough around the edges, right?”

“…No?”

“He’s doing this to help you.”

Was that so? It was possible to interpret it that way, but wasn’t that too optimistic? He just really hates delinquents.

In the end, the two idiots left the cafeteria without even eating, their faces all red.

Why bother picking a fight if you couldn’t even get your money’s worth?

It wasn’t me who defeated them, but as long as the result was good, it was fine.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

The first class after lunch was Basic Magic Control.

Our cute prospective traitor, whom I was meeting for the second time, was excitedly explaining things.

“I said we call it ‘magic’ collectively, but the way you use it and increase its total amount differs slightly depending on your innate talent, right~?”

She wrote, “You can do it! You, too, can sense magic!” on the board and then looked at us.

“But there’s a way to organize all of this. Basic Magic Studies is all about organizing what kind of talent works with magic and how they work~”

I was personally interested in whether I, a transmigrator, could handle this unknown power called magic. As if she had read my mind, she glanced at me.

“Then, our honor students, Kang So-hyun and Lilac, please come forward!”

Or not? Honestly, I felt like I was being singled out.

“Haha, can our two Magic Studies honor students already use magic?”

“I can use it a little.”

“I can’t.”

“Oh? That’s unexpected. I thought you’d answer the other way around. But Lilac took down a terrorist, right?”

She paused, thought for a moment, and then asked Lilac,

“Lilac, what image do you visualize when you use magic?”

“I imagine it spreading throughout my body from my heart.”

“Hmm, the heart. That’s common. Some people argue that creating a circuit along the blood vessels is an old-fashioned method, but there’s a reason why such a long-standing method has persisted until today! Lilac, you’re using a very orthodox and safe method, so be proud.”

After praising Lilac, she turned her head and looked at me.

“Now, what about you, Kang So-hyun?”

“Huh? I told you I can’t use magic.”

“I know. But your instinctive image is also important. Try closing your eyes and visualizing it. You seem like the type to enjoy that kind of thing, Kang So-hyun. Like saying, ‘Kekeke, the source of my power is…’ and then playing all by yourself.”

“Can I sue you for defamation?”

“Haha, don’t underestimate an active hero. I’m confident I can get away with stating facts!”

Damn it. What “stating facts”?

I hadn’t done that since middle school!

“I’ll help you, so try closing your eyes first.”

It was suspicious, but I closed my eyes reluctantly.

“Visualize it. The thing at your very core. Imagine the being that will lend you power.”

Hmm, so I just had to visualize a similar feeling to when I used my talent?

When I closed my eyes, what came to mind was a red lake, no, a sea.

It was too clear to be blood, but too red and deep to be just water.

As I scooped up a handful of water from it, the red substance, resembling blood, began to circulate within my body.

“Stop.”

I opened my eyes at the sharp voice and saw her looking at me with a serious expression, having gotten rid of her playful demeanor.

A strange energy was swirling around my hand.

It seemed magic, like talent, resided within this body.

It was this easy…?

Yes. Kang So-hyun, despite his crippling penalty, was still a genius with an A-rank talent, just like the protagonists.

“Sigh, Kang So-hyun, you’re the complete opposite of Lilac. You’re handling magic in a very dangerous way. You succeeded on your first try, so you’re a genius, but it would be best if you didn’t use magic for now.”

“What?”

“What did you visualize?”

“I imagined scooping it up from a huge red sea.”

“Yes, that’s very dangerous. If I hadn’t stopped you, you would have kept converting your innate Qi into magic.”

…What?

I even got a Trait because my talent was draining me dry, so what was she talking about?

Thanks to Resurrection, I had more innate Qi, but I wasn’t at the level where I could casually use it while depleting it.

And for heroes, enhancing their physical abilities with magic was a common thing.

“Well, you don’t have to use magic in a natural way, so don’t worry. I’ll have to make a special exception for you.”

She chuckled as if she had discovered something amusing, but I wasn’t amused at all.

Laughing when someone was about to die, it was the kind of lack of empathy you’d expect from someone who might betray the academy and become a villain.

You were a bad person. You were mocking my misfortune and making fun of me.

But our little professor just floated up using magic and patted my head.

“Don’t worry. I, unfortunately, have a similar constitution to yours. So trust me when I say you can fix it with effort. I’ll definitely help you.”

I retract what I said.

Damn it, yes.

Although she betrayed the academy in the original story, she wasn’t entirely evil.

That was why Lilac hesitated to kill her until the very end.

“Wow, I might just get a teaching assistant out of this.”

“No, thank you.”

No, she was still a terrifying psychopath.

Trying to send someone to graduate school, it was an idea so inhumane it was hard to believe.

“Anyway, everyone, by chance, we’ve seen the two extremes of orthodox and unorthodox magic control from these two students, so let’s give them a round of applause~”

Ah, right, we were in the middle of class.

I was a little embarrassed that the others saw the little professor patting my head.

These bastards.

Judging by the fact that only Lilac had a worried expression while many others were glaring at me fiercely, there seemed to be a lot of lolicons in this class.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Everything in the world had a cause-and-effect relationship.

For example, if there was a fight in the cafeteria, you might have to endure the retaliation of the one who couldn’t accept the result.

Lilac had another class, and Kang Ha-ni’s class wasn’t over yet, so I thought I’d wait for them a bit, but this crazy blind idiot came to bother me again.

“You, you bastard. Because of you, Yoo-hak… What are you going to do about this, you son of a bitch?”

But what was I supposed to do?

“Hey, let’s get something straight. Did I snitch on you to Cheon Yoo-hak? Did I put on a show for him on purpose? You guys were the ones making a fuss and attracting his attention, so why are you picking a fight with me? Cheon Yoo-hak hates delinquents~.”

“Bullshit! How am I a delinquent?! You could have just laughed it off as a joke!”

Was he crazy?

Hitting someone in the back of the head while they were eating in the cafeteria was his idea of a joke? What?

“What? Were you actually mentally challenged, and not just blind?”

“What the fuck makes you so cocky? Ga-eul told everyone that you’re just a loser. Don’t act tough when Lilac and Yoo-hak aren’t here, you bastard.”

Ah, by the way, “Ga-eul” was the real name of the girl I called “butt.”

“You go and tell Yoo-hak that it was a joke, that we’re close.”

“…What if I don’t want to?”

“Then I’ll make you.”

He cracked his knuckles, warming up.

This bastard was hopeless. A student resorting to threats and violence.

I had to teach him the beauty of conversation.

“I’m not even that close to him, you idiot. He’s mad because you’re a delinquent, not because we’re friends.”

“Just do something about it, dammit!”

Oh, this was bad.

Conversation was something you had with people, not beast-like creatures resembling wild boars.

No, wait, why was this damn guy so obsessed with Cheon Yoo-hak when he was a guy?

Suddenly, annoyed by his noisy ranting, I turned my head and saw the pink chihuahua looking at us from afar.

She didn’t seem to be watching us intentionally, but she seemed to have just noticed us in passing. After about three seconds of what seemed like a very long deliberation, she started walking away.

Yes, you wouldn’t help anyone who wasn’t related to Lilac.

I steeled myself and turned around.

“What are you doing?”

And I ran.

“Huh?”

“Why would I fight you, idiot!”

Yes.

A gentleman didn’t court danger.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

T/N – Ahahaha! It isn’t running away; it’s called strategic retreat! Also, how much did the author hate the MC in his original world? To design a character based on the MC to use his lifespan not just for his talent, but also for his magic…

If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.