Evil Avalon - Volume 1 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Handsome Protagonist

Class was dismissed once all the homeroom announcements and explanations had finished. Lessons would begin on Monday of the following week.

Some students gathered groups to discuss forming a party, eager to hop straight into the dungeon. Everyone here was a Newbie with no experience, so their plan of action was simple: swarm around any monster they might find and have everyone pummel it to death. They had the right idea. The monsters in the early levels were weak, so an entire group using brute force would get the job done without wasting time coming up with a balanced party of fighters, support roles, and healers.

As for me, I stayed out of it. All I had to offer was my bizarre Glutton skill and massive body. I couldn’t imagine them welcoming me with open arms if I asked to join.

I might as well do some solo expeditions for the time being, I thought. Although trimming some of this weight first would make that easier.

Suddenly, my train of thought was disrupted when a muscular guy with a crew cut entered the classroom along with some other students who appeared to be his cronies.

“Listen up, you class E flunkers!” shouted one of the cronies—who I thought of as Crony A.

As this was the first day of school, there hadn’t been time to flunk any exams or classes. But that subtlety didn’t bother Crony A, a slim boy who wore his uniform scruffily.

“This here is Isamu Kariya,” he continued, pointing to the muscular guy standing at the teacher’s lectern with his arms crossed and eyes closed, filling the room with his presence despite not uttering a word. “He runs the show in Class D. He wants to know who here’s got what it takes to work for our crew. So, you’re gonna show us your stats and skills.”

I could recall the same situation occurring in the game. In that scenario, the bullies had set their sights on one of the girls, the protagonist had stepped in to protect her, and that had initiated a duel that would take place a month later.

“Get a move on!” Crony B barked. He was a little overweight and had long hair that looked disastrous. “Kariya doesn’t like to be kept waitin’.” He then pointed to a nearby schoolboy. “You first. Show us your status.”

The boy didn’t seem pleased receiving orders from these condescending bullies who’d shown up out of nowhere. “You march in here and expect us to show you?” he complained. “Why should we?”

At that moment, the look in Crony B’s eyes changed, and it seemed as though the air in the room suddenly grew thicker, making it difficult to breathe.

“Careful. We ain’t askin’. We’re tellin’, got it?”

I realized he must’ve been projecting his aura, proof that he was stronger and at a higher level than us. It was as intimidating as if a ferocious beast were facing off against me.

Adventurers’ levels would increase after they had accumulated enough experience points by defeating monsters in the dungeon. This would also enhance physical characteristics like health and stamina, enabling adventurers to perform feats of superhuman strength. However, this physical enhancement would only take effect in areas rich with mana particles flowing from the dungeon. The dungeon, and places within about a hundred fifty meters of a dungeon entrance, were magic fields.

Looking at it the other way, adventurers outside of magic fields wouldn’t experience any boost to their stats. Adventurers’ High had been built on top of a dungeon entrance, and this classroom was within a magic field. This meant that the physical enhancements that came from leveling up would be in full effect.

Crony B was projecting his aura in that strengthened state as a show of force. The poor boy he’d picked on was cowering before them.

“H-H-Here it is...” he stammered.

“We wouldn’t have had to frighten you if you’d just done what we said. So you’re a level 1 Newbie, eh? Sounds about right for Class E.”

Classes A to D were for students from the middle school branch. Most people were prevented from entering the dungeon until they’d turned fifteen, but these students had a three-year head start and leveled up in that time. The strength difference between them and the students in Class E, who’d never leveled up, was immense. It would be over instantly if we tried to fight them since they could knock us out with a single punch.

“Your turn, fatty! Make it quick!” The chubby, long-haired Crony B jabbed his thumb at me as though the “fatty” remark hadn’t made it obvious who he was addressing.

People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, I thought but showed him my stats anyway, as I wasn’t looking to start an argument.

“Yeesh, these stats are awful, and that skill looks useless. What a scrub!”

There we go, it’s now public knowledge how weak I am, I thought. But whatever! I’ll be invincible once I level up! And no, I’m not taking this personally!

Oblivious to my internal retorts, Crony B picked out a girl with soft, fluffy pink hair and said, “You’re up next.”

That’s her, I thought. She was the one that they’d targeted in the game.

The girl was Sakurako Sanjou, one of DEC’s heroines, who players could choose to play as if they wanted a female protagonist. People had called her Pinky. She had large, friendly, attractive eyes that drooped at the corners, and a pair of huge breasts. Her mild-mannered nature made men want to swoop in and keep her safe.

As the female protagonist, the devs had written plenty of storylines where she played with the hearts of countless men. Getting on her bad side spelled big trouble, so it would be best for me to stay out of her way.

“You’re gorgeous, ain’t you?” Crony B said. “Your stats say...” he started as he peered at her terminal’s display, “Level 1. Okay, we don’t usually do this for level 1s, but we’ll make an exception and let you into our party.”

“Huh? I, err, umm...” she sputtered nervously.

Crony A was leering at her face. Then Crony C walked up, wearing a lecherous smirk, and he was about to grab her by the shoulder when a voice rang out.

“You’re making her uncomfortable.” The voice belonged to a male student with a face so handsome that it stood out in the crowd. He had blocked Crony C’s hand before it could reach Sakurako. He had blazing, bright red hair and eyes the color of gold. The smile he was showing them was charming, but even so, the cronies flinched as if a mysterious force had struck them.

“Wha... Who are you supposed to be?!”

“My name’s Akagi. I’m only level 1 now, but one day I’ll be the strongest adventurer in the academy.”

The cronies burst into thunderous laughter at his declaration.

Akagi didn’t appear rattled or angered by their reaction, his smile never faltering, which spoke volumes for his self-confidence. He must’ve had nerves of steel.

He was Yuuma Akagi, DEC’s protagonist. His stats were exceptionally high, even at the level one starting point, and he could obtain the powerful Hero job during his character quest. Thanks to his gorgeous face, players could pursue over ten heroines simultaneously. He was an overpowered character in every sense of the word.

When I played the game with him as the main character, I became enamored by his ambition, stoic personality, and relaxed demeanor. Now that I was Piggy, I couldn’t see him as anything but a repugnant playboy. The possibility that I might get expelled from school because of him certainly didn’t help.

At this point, Kariya finally opened his eyes and glared at Akagi. Here was some Class E loser mouthing off about becoming the strongest adventurer, and he clearly didn’t appreciate that.

“You’ve got a big mouth for someone who doesn’t know the first thing about what it means to be an adventurer,” he growled, the bulging vein on his forehead a testament to his rage.

“W-Wait, Kariya!” yelped one of the cronies, frantically trying to calm Kariya. “He’s just a Class E scrub, so he doesn’t know any better!”

Kariya was a good deal tougher than most students, even those in Class D.

“Tell you what,” said Kariya in a flat tone. “You and me are gonna find out whether you have what it takes to be the strongest, one-on-one. Let’s see...” He looked at Akagi’s terminal display as he made his threat, apparently checking his schedule. “This time next month should work.”

Kariya’s levelheaded response drew relieved sighs from his cronies, who’d probably been expecting their boss to lose his temper and start throwing punches.

Everything’s playing out like it did in the game so far, I thought.

The event happening here with Kariya had been a side plot in the game rather than part of the main story, and fulfilling it had been optional. Accepting Kariya’s challenge would prompt a duel a month later in the school’s arena. Victory would increase the player’s affection scores with all of Class E’s heroines and lead to an encounter with the boss of Class B, the puppet master who pulled Kariya’s strings. Refusing the challenge would cause the player to fail the event and result in a slight drop in the heroines’ affection scores, as would accepting the challenge but losing the duel.

All this made accepting the challenge seem like the obvious choice if not for one big problem: defeating Kariya was next to impossible without an expert player’s thorough knowledge of the game’s mechanics. In short, this was an event reserved for a second playthrough. To defeat him, the player needed to gather the right gear, level up efficiently, and perfect a fighting style to combat Kariya’s weapon specialties and skills as well as enable attacks and counters on his weak points, all in under a month. Even then, it would be close...

While running through the strategy for beating him in my head, I thought, Oh, hang on. I’m Piggy, not the game’s main character.

It would be a lie to say that I wasn’t interested in Akagi’s choice, but his decision wouldn’t affect me. The only thing on the line was the fate of Akagi’s harem-in-the-making. These romantic mishaps deserved no more room in my thoughts than the timing of my next meal or the size of Pinky’s boobs. I could sit back, relax, maybe scratch my nose a little, and watch the argument with Kariya play out.

The two people that actually had to take this seriously, Akagi and Kariya, continued to face off against each other.

“This school is teeming with monsters,” said Kariya. “I’m a small fry in comparison. If you can’t beat me, you never stood a chance to be the strongest. Am I wrong?”

After a brief pause, Akagi stood up straight, looked Kariya directly in the eyes, and answered, “You’re not wrong. I accept your challenge.”

Kariya’s cronies ridiculed Akagi’s declaration while a rush of startled whispers came from our classmates. The students of Class E expected Akagi would turn the challenge down rather than take on the experienced Kariya with a mere month of hard work.

“We’ll hold the duel in the arena with safety rules. You’ll survive...but you might not leave with as many arms as when you arrived.”

“Fine.”

Akagi, proving that he deserved to be the main character, faced Kariya’s aura with no change in his demeanor.

I, on the other hand, was absolutely petrified. My heart was beating a thousand times a minute, and I might’ve wet myself a little. That guy’s terrifying.

“Watch out, kid. We know who you are and how to find you,” warned one of Kariya’s cronies as the gang left the classroom.

Akagi gave a reassuring wink to Pinky, who was trembling with anxiety.

With the class free to express their worry, they hurried toward Akagi to encourage him and wish him luck in the duel. In no time, he’d become the class’s central figure, its moodmaker—a stunning feat of charisma. He’d turned the tense mood in the room on its head with his supreme self-confidence while finding the time to tend to the needs and wants of the opposite sex. This made him the polar opposite of the petty scoundrel that was Piggy.

Pursuing Kariya’s storyline would bring more trouble than merit, though. In my opinion, declaring yourself to be the strongest wasn’t something you could do. You had to earn it by gaining the recognition of your peers, making it appear that Akagi was letting Kariya goad him into a risky situation. Although that difference in perspective could very well be what set main characters apart from minor ones.

At that point, I decided to call it a day and head home. I had plenty to do and much to think about. So I packed up my belongings and walked toward the door when—

“Wait a minute,” an annoyed girl called from behind me.

When I turned around, I found Piggy’s childhood friend, Kaoru Hayase, standing with her arms crossed. Her features were enough to draw the eyes of the students around her without doing anything in particular. She’d tied her light blue hair into a high-side ponytail, which made her look more noble.

I couldn’t get into the right mental state to talk with such a bombshell. Being here made me realize how much prettier she was in real life compared to the game’s graphics, so I fought the urge to run away.

“About today,” she said. “What are you going to do?”

I wasn’t sure what she meant. Perhaps we’d made plans? Her relationship with Piggy in the game seemed entirely one-sided. Since they’d grown up together, there might have been more interactions behind the scenes besides Piggy’s desperate clinging.

“Don’t you have anything to say?” she asked, drumming her index finger against her upper arm. It was safe to say that she was pissed about something.

But I had no means to guess what that “something” was. I’d been transported here and turned into Piggy mere moments after turning my game on, so the only information I had was from playing DEC. Assuming someone else’s life at the drop of a hat was a difficulty mode far more challenging than I’d bargained for.

Whining about the unfairness of it all wouldn’t solve the problem. The best course of action was coming up with a random excuse and getting the hell out of there. I needed time to gather more information.

“Sorry,” I said. “I just remembered that I’ve got somewhere to be today.”

“Oh,” she said with disinterest. “Fine then.” With that, she turned away and walked to the crowd surrounding Akagi.

That was apparently the end of the encounter, so I left, glad to have survived.

What’s this restless feeling I’m experiencing? I wondered. Am I feeling Piggy’s emotions?

Perhaps some lingering part of Piggy was worried about the handsome main character snatching up his childhood friend. Granted, Kaoru was hot and would have men lining up for her, so the concern made sense.

If the game was anything to go by, trying too doggedly to get involved with her would ruin my reputation and culminate in my expulsion. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to remain enrolled at this school, but I needed to keep these emotions under control before they blew up in my face.

***

Kaoru Hayase

“You’re spacing out, Hayase,” called out a girl, a new classmate of mine. “What’s up?”

Her words snapped me out of it with a startle, and I smiled for her.

Not good, I thought. It’s not like me to let my mind wander.

I hurriedly exchanged a few more words with the girl, then gathered my belongings like everyone else, ready to leave for home. When I raised my head, I caught another glimpse of the overweight boy, and a sigh escaped my lips.

This was supposed to be my chance to get away from him.

I felt relieved because the opening ceremony had gone well and sullen because of Souta Narumi. My childhood friend and begrudged fiancé had passed Adventurers’ High’s entrance exam, albeit with the lowest score, and I couldn’t help but feel upset he was here.

I’d applied to Adventurers’ High out of an infatuation with adventurers because I wanted to be like them. However, my second—or maybe third—most important reason for joining was to distance myself from Souta.

When we were children, he wasn’t so bad. His personality was flawed even then, but he’d been much more thoughtful, and the smiles he shared with me had been so sweet. He had been dependable; whenever boys picked on me, he’d jump in and defend me.

Around the time we’d entered middle school, that changed as his eyes lingered on my body, particularly around my chest. For the last two years, he’d talked about me to other people as if I belonged to him, and at times he’d humiliated me with sexual harassment. I’d spent my middle school days feeling so withdrawn.

I’d pleaded with him to treat me properly, but far from listening, his fixation with me had gone from bad to worse. Taking the exam for Adventurers’ High had been my chance to get away from him... But he had passed as well, and now we were classmates.

A few days earlier, Souta’s parents had asked me to use my good sword fighting skills to teach their son the craft. I wished I could’ve declined, but I couldn’t. The two of them had always been there when I needed them ever since I was a child.

I had dragged my feet to a training session with him, but it had been a complete waste of time. He’d been too fat to get the movements right and too impatient to put in the effort. Instructing him on technique wouldn’t have done much good at that point.

Thus, I’d attempted to improve his eating habits by crafting a balanced diet low in sugar and fat, but that also failed. He’d snuck out to munch on mountains of snacks, and when I’d invited him out for an early morning jog, he’d mistaken it for a date. He’d thrown a tantrum after I ran off without him because he had absolutely no desire to run.

We were supposed to be practicing swinging swords today, but, as ever, he showed no enthusiasm.

I’d done all I could over these last two weeks, but there was nothing to show for it. The only reason I’d tried was because his parents had asked me. It wasn’t out of any sense of love for him; that was long gone.

And I was sure that I’d gone far enough now. Souta would never fend for himself if I were always there to bail him out. I needed to focus on getting myself in top form to keep up with Adventurers’ High’s heavy workload. That was why I had to solve my greatest problem as soon as possible.

His persistence in following me all the way here definitely surprised me, but there was no way I could marry him as he was. I did feel a pang of guilt about how Souta’s parents would take this, but at the same time, I had my priorities. I was a teenage girl, and I wanted the freedom to find the perfect guy and fall in love.

I could look past Souta’s appearance. He’d looked better as a child, so there was hope for improvement. What I couldn’t tolerate was his personality, which was spineless, lazy, and devoid of ambition.

So I had to nullify our engagement by any means necessary, but I couldn’t do that without first getting my hands on our nuptial grimoire. Souta might seem dumb, but he could play smart when necessary. I’d searched for the grimoire on my visits to the Narumi house over the last few years and found no hints of where he’d hidden it.

As long as the grimoire was in his possession, I lacked the power to resist him. Unless I could come up with something, my time at high school would be a repeat of middle school, with Souta forever by my side. Some day soon, he might intensify his usual behavior and order me to do something obscene and ravage my body. The thought alone filled me with fear and anger.

Why couldn’t Souta be... I began to think, then I caught sight of the class’s new celebrity. It was the boy that had chased off those punks from Class D earlier. More like him. Brave and strong-willed.

The boy’s name was Akagi or something like that. The supreme confidence he displayed and everything he did seemed noble. His ambition to grow stronger comforted my worn and weary heart. Everything about him made it obvious how different he was from Souta, and the contrast brought a deep sigh to my lips.