I Became an Extra Without Growth in the Academy

Reina’s direct slave… I mean, her assistant becoming just that didn’t really change much.

Even though she didn’t think it was fair to have a freshman prepare lectures, she usually told me to live like a normal student.

In the end, I just ended up attending the same lectures as the other students, only being called upon for support when needed.

But can I really get paid all this money for just that?

When I suddenly asked this question, she calmly replied:

“I don’t know why you think it’s just that. I believe I’ve paid a fair price.”

What in the world is she planning to make me do? I suddenly felt a little scared.

But now that my wallet is nice and fat, I decided to just roll with it.

Well, I’m with Professor Reina of the Trier family, what could possibly go wrong?

Whatever happens, I’ll think about it then.

Later that day, without any major incidents, all of our lectures finished.

I packed my things for Lilith’s training, and Seria and Lilith followed me out of the classroom.

“…Wait, Seria. Why are you following me?”

Oh right, I forgot to mention that Seria was tagging along.

Seria was the first to respond to Lilith’s question.

“I decided to help out Lilith from today on.”

“Why do you… Rudion. What’s going on? Why is she suddenly getting involved?”

It wasn’t anything I needed to hide, so I explained the whole situation, and suddenly, Lilith got really close to Seria.

Then they started whispering.

“Seria.”

“Yes?”

“You’re just trying to be with her, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not.”

“No? It’s so obvious! Oh dear, you’re just dying to show your feelings!”

“W-wait! You’re too loud! Could you… keep it down a bit…?”

I’m not sure what they were saying, but at least they looked like they were getting along, unlike the cold atmosphere yesterday.

I was relieved to feel like I was gaining another friend besides myself.

After a quick warm-up at the training ground, we started training, and for just one day later, Lilith had significantly improved her movements.

It was like she finally grasped the basic concepts of fighting.

She reminded me of a newbie in a fighting game who was just smashing buttons before returning to actually understanding frame rates and ranges.

She still looked a bit stiff, but thanks to her natural athleticism, she was able to put up a pretty convincing fight.

She managed to improve on her own with hardly any guidance? Man, I might be able to drop my ‘quick training’ memes sooner than I thought.

Thinking this, I passed the baton to Seria…

“Wait a second. If you use your mana like that, it’ll delay the casting time. Try it this way.”

“Like this?”

“No, wrong! Look, Lilith is doing it like this, right? Then just before it manifests, there’s a brief moment where she fails. Can you feel it?”

“I don’t feel anything…”

She was way more serious than I expected.

Lilith was sweating bullets, struggling hard in a way that was a whole different level than when she fought me.

“Just because it’s Holy Power, doesn’t mean you can lie. I just analyzed it, and the mana structure is the same. Stop making excuses and just follow my instructions.”

…Did I bring Seria on board the right way? I mean, I guess I did, but now I feel a bit bad.

Sorry, Lilith. I didn’t know Seria would turn out to be such a hardass.

“…How long do we have to keep this up?”

Seeing Lilith, who was originally so enthusiastic, say something like that makes me think Seria might have the traits of a training villain.

But it’s not like I can tell her to give up, so I have to let this slide.

“I guess I’ll just have to draw my sword faster. Give it your all.”

“…Save me.”

No, you’ll be able to do it soon! You’re making amazing progress!

That’s what I thought, but I didn’t say it out loud. This hardship might just be another motivation for her.

Get strong, Lilith. Get strong enough to finish this training!

“Oh, wait, Lilith. Can you show me that spell you did earlier one more time?”

“…Wasn’t that already done?”

“If we’re doing it tomorrow, it’s better to get it done now, right? Hurry up and use it.”

“Seriously, just give me a break…”

“Yes, I will, so hurry up and use it.”

“No, that’s not what I meant by… ugh, fine, I’ll do it.”

Up until now, it’s been ‘You can do it, Lilith!’

Seria’s intense enthusiasm for teaching was stronger than expected, making Lilith’s training finish only when dinner time was nearly upon us.

“Looks like we ran quite late. I’ll have to do my campus volunteer work after dinner.”

“You took way too long torturing Lilith, didn’t you?”

“I wasn’t torturing her; I was teaching her.”

I can’t believe Seria can say such things with a zombie-like Lilith right next to me.

She’s absurdly shameless. It looks like Lilith will have more struggles ahead.

But this will definitely be helpful… so, all in all, it’s a good thing.

Anyway, I headed towards the Haksaeng Siktang for dinner. The ceiling was still exposed, and the inside looked pretty dark since none of the students had light-element magic.

Taking notice of this, Lilith reflexively cast a light spell, brightening the area.

It was commendable that she used magic for others, but…

“Lilith, didn’t I tell you not to use light magic like that earlier?”

It seems that was all Seria noticed.

With another round of coaching, Lilith’s training officially wrapped up for the day.

…Did I just see tears forming in the corners of Lilith’s eyes while she was eating? That must be just my imagination, right?

After finishing our meal, as soon as we exited the Haksaeng Siktang, Lilith fled the scene, leaving only Seria and me.

Now we had to help with campus volunteering… but the sun was already setting, and honestly, I thought it was a bit ridiculous to suddenly do volunteer work now.

“It’s okay. You’re here with me, Rudion, right?”

But Seria was all smiles, saying that like it was the greatest thing ever.

What does it matter that I’m here? It’s not like she’s afraid of ghosts or anything, so why would she care how dark it is?

Is she just going to be bored if she goes alone?

I don’t know, but it’d be better to finish up quickly before it gets darker.

“So, what do we need to do for campus volunteering?”

“There’s nothing specifically assigned. Each day, we just handle the tasks assigned by Professor Reina.”

“What are we supposed to do today?”

“We need to clean the faculty grounds.”

But the facilities have probably already been cleaned by the academy’s janitors.

What a lazy volunteering task they threw at us.

Since it’s faculty grounds, there probably won’t be any students around to see what we do. They just want us to show up and pretend to work.

When we actually arrived and looked around, the faculty grounds were immaculately clean. Seriously, there wasn’t even any trash on the ground to pick up.

“It’s like we just came out here to hang out.”

“I’m glad we don’t have to do anything. Let’s just stroll around and head back.”

“Sounds good. Oh, wait, Rudion. About yesterday in the dorm…”

Eventually, we decided to count this as our campus volunteering and just started walking around while listening to Seria chatter away.

With professors living in personal homes instead of dorms, it felt like we were strolling through a residential neighborhood.

“This happened every day, you know? But when others complained, it didn’t really change anything, so I just froze that person’s window so they couldn’t open it.”

But as I listened, she sounded more like a villain than I expected.

No, wait, she’s responding to a villain, so she’s more like a dark hero?

Others only think about it, but she actually goes through with the actions. It’s true, people with no scruples are different.

As we chatted, the sky gradually darkened, and lighting devices started turning on one by one to illuminate the surroundings.

“Shall we head back now?”

“Shall we? Thanks for helping out today, Rudion.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

You actually struggled more helping Lilith train. She’s the one who suffered more from that.

“Just having you along is enough to be grateful.”

But Seria genuinely seemed thankful.

Well, if she says so, then I won’t argue. There’s no need to insist on how I didn’t do anything.

“It looks just like yesterday’s scene again. I hope for your help again tomorrow, Rudion.”

“Sure. Take care getting back.”

We parted ways at the same spot as yesterday with Seria.

‘Today was quite a peaceful day.’

I thought as I returned to my dorm room, only to be greeted by a collapsed wall.

Right, the wall was destroyed in the morning… scratch that peaceful thought.

Feeling suddenly exhausted, I sighed and looked past the wall, meeting the gaze of Frank, who was busy organizing his belongings.

“Did you arrive, Rudion? I’m in the middle of sorting things to move to my lab right now.”

I’m really not that curious about your private life.

Can’t we fix the gaping hole in the wall first?

///

After that, truly peaceful days followed.

Every day, I attended lectures, helped with Lilith’s training, and followed Seria during her campus volunteer activities.

I had a few brief conversations with other characters from the upper class now and then, but we didn’t get close. They seemed to see me as a bit of a burden.

Well, I’m Reina’s direct assistant now. Even if we’re attending the same lectures, I must seem a bit intimidating to normal students.

But I didn’t really try to reach out. After all, time is plenty, and many more events are bound to occur soon.

Also… the dorm wall remains a gaping hole with no repairs.

Ever since Frank moved his stuff, he hasn’t returned to the dorm, so it feels like I’m just using a spacious room on my own.

When I asked him once in the student cafeteria, he told me he had no plan to come back, so I should just treat it like my own room.

But living alone in a bigger space only means there’s more to clean. So I didn’t really use it much.

So the weekend passed by, and the new week began.

Finally, the day the ceiling repairs in the student cafeteria were completed also marked the end of Seria’s campus volunteering.

At the same time, the student council’s break ended… and that’s when everything started to go wrong.

[Alkiné: If you see this message, please come to the student council immediately. A new rift has appeared.]

It was expected for a rift to emerge at this time of year when it shouldn’t have been active until the end of the first semester. It’s not too strange, given that many things have been different from the original story.

From the moment the difficulty level changed, it was within reason for more dangers to pop up.

“Grain. Do you know why that’s happening?”

“…President, I think we might be in trouble.”

“What?”

Crack, crack, crack…

“That rift is about to burst!”

But I never anticipated it would get to that state so quickly.

Why is it acting like that?

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