Male Lead, Don’t Push, Pull!

Wooden sword in hand, Kyle stood alone in the smoking rubble atop the mountain.

“Hahh, heuk.”

Kyle’s body heaved as he breathed heavily. All around him, the bodies of the slimes lay dead.

“Kyle, are you okay?!” I cried out, sobbing.

“Vivi…? What are you doing here.”

Kyle looked up at me in confusion.

At the same time, Kyle’s gaze fell on Franz next to me. He was breathing hard, his face contorted.

“Franz Dyer, did you really bring Vivi here?”

“How dare you talk to a senior student like that…!”

“I was the one who was supposed to be bullied by you!”

Kyle was obviously furious because he thought Franz was bullying me too!

He thought he’d deliberately brought me to this mountain where even monsters come out of the ground to target me.

One of the upperclassmen shouted at Kyle.

“Kyle, that’s not true! We don’t even know how they got up the mountain!”

“So, which one of you seniors planned this, and was this part of the original courage training?”

“That’s….”

The upperclassman didn’t answer, just glared at Franz.

Franz was the only one in possession of the orb that created the illusion of a monster.

Besides, it hadn’t been in their plans for an actual monster to jump out.

Noticing their bewildered stares, Kyle’s face showed a frightening expression that was not appropriate for his age.

“So, you’re responsible for this, too, Franz.”

“Who do you think you’re talking to…! Shouldn’t you call me ‘senior’?!!”

“I only did all your ridiculous demands because you were still a student of the Sword by a few years more than I was.”

Kyle strode forward, moving toward Franz. Each step was heavy and furious.

“I thought there might be something to be learned from a piece of trash…. But it’s not enough that you unleashed a monster, how dare you endanger Vivi?”

“What– trash?! Did you just call me trash?” Franz’s face flushed at the naked accusation. “Kyle Ygritte, how dare you act like that towards a senior and still think you can stay in the Swordsmanship Department?!”

“Shouldn’t you be worrying about yourself for releasing a monster and endangering the freshmen?”

“Ha! I unleashed that monster? Hey, did you see it, or are you saying that without proof?” Franz huffed before he shouted at the other two beside him. “Did you guys see me unleash that monster?”

“No, we didn’t. You couldn’t have done that.”

“I didn’t see it either.”

They both shook their heads, saying they hadn’t seen it at the same time.

No matter who did it, whether it was intentional or accidental, the summoning of an actual monster to the freshmen’s first courage training session was a big deal that could have landed them in front of the disciplinary committee.

As the two guys who didn’t want to get caught up in the incident slipped away, Franz spoke up.

“The two people who were with me say it wasn’t me. How dare you accuse a senior, a senior in a prestigious department, when you have no proof,” he growled fiercely. “You will no longer be allowed to study swordsmanship at the Swordsmanship Department. It’s not enough that you dared to frame an innocent senior, you’ll also be punished for disobeying the teachings….”

“I have proof.”

I interrupted, not wanting him to turn around. I pulled out the video orb I’d been recording with the whole time.

I activated the orb and his actions, recorded so far, unfolded against the night sky.

It perfectly captured the way he deliberately sent his companions off first and then snuck around to drop the beads.

Franz’s face hardened into a grim line. I declared boldly to him.

“I’m going to submit this video to my professors, and they’ll be able to tell if you’re lying or not.”

“You…. Give me that right now!”

“Vivi, it’s dangerous!”

Franz suddenly lunged at me, his hands reaching for my hair, but Daniel, who had sprung out of nowhere, blocked his path.

Franz’s wildly swinging hand grazed Daniel’s cheek.

“Ouch.”

“Daniel!”

A nail scraped across Daniel’s cheek. Kyle, who came running in a flash, hid my body behind his.

Franz kept his eyes on me, but Daniel grabbed him around the waist and wouldn’t let go.

Finally, an angry Franz pounded Daniel’s back.

“Ugh!” Daniel groaned.

“Are you crazy, Franz? You shouldn’t be hitting a student right now! And another freshman at that!”

“Hey, give me that video sphere, you insignificant thing, how dare you taunt me!”

It was a chaotic scene, with Franz’s classmate stopping him and Franz shouting.

The captured Franz, his face red with anger, shouted, “Get off me!”

“Vivi, it’s dangerous, stay put!”

“But Kyle, Daniel…!”

Daniel was still being held by Franz.

That timid Daniel had stepped up to protect me.

I couldn’t get out of the way because what Franz wanted was my video recording.

As I stumbled to my feet, I heard the sound of something breaking.

For a moment, everyone stopped moving.

It was a grey orb that fell to the floor and shattered.

It rolled off into the distance, and a thick, greenish mist began to flow from the cracked orb. Franz’s complexion paled.

Could this be the slime orb he’d lost?

It didn’t take him long to realize it wasn’t.

Krrrggggh. Krrgh. 

Three monsters leapt out of the orb.

“I-it’s an orc! We all need to dodge!” The upperclassman shouted at the top of his lungs.

Slimes were low-level demons. Orcs, however, were a step above them, belonging to the intermediate level.

And there were no swordsmen here who had the skills to deal with orcs.

“Aaaah!”

“Run!”

The two upperclassmen stopped trying to stop Franz and fled in a panic. Franz, too, pushed past Daniel and ran away, his face a reflection of terror.

Oh my god. What should we do?

Think of something, Viviane Rosiere!

Despite the urgency in my heart, my mind was white as a sheet.

In the original, orcs didn’t appear until much later, after Kyle had gone to war against the monsters occupying the northern part of the empire.

As the hero, Kyle slays dozens of orcs in a single blow.

But unlike now, when he was just beginning to learn the sword professionally, Kyle was already a Sword Master!

“Argh!”

I heard a scream in the distance that I didn’t know who it belonged to.

The sound brought me to my senses, and I shook my head vigorously. There was no time for this.

“Daniel!”

I scrambled over to him.

Up close, he was covered in bruises. Franz had beaten him up.

I bit my lower lip and continued, “Come on, let’s escape. Put your arm around my shoulder.”

I clutched his arm and pulled away.

Daniel’s body was heavier than I’d expected, but this wasn’t the time to be weak. I couldn’t leave him behind, not after he’d been so brave to protect me from Franz.

“Vi, Vivi. Look, there’s Kyle……!”

Daniel called out in a shrill voice.

I turned my head to follow Daniel’s gaze and saw a huge green mass of muscle approaching directly behind Kyle. The other two had scattered and were nowhere to be seen.

“Kyle, look behind you!”

Kyle turned quickly at my shout. He instantly dropped to his knees and ducked. A huge club whizzed past his head.

Kyle rolled to the ground and ducked behind a large boulder.

“Krrgh…” The orc huffed, looking around for the missing Kyle.

But the orc didn’t have much patience. It was on to its next prey, and Daniel and I happened to be the ones caught in its gaze.

“Krreggh!”

The orc began to charge at us with terrifying momentum.

I froze in my tracks as a wave of fear washed over me. I knew I had to run, but my legs refused to listen. Seeing me frozen in place like a statue, Kyle screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Vivi! No!”

Kyle ran after the orc as it raced toward me. The monster was positioned directly in front of me.

The moment the giant club was aimed at my quivering body–

Puck-!

Kyle’s wooden sword struck the orc squarely in the head and it stopped moving.

I held my breath and stared at the orc.

The orc’s voracious eyes darted around, and soon its head tilted backwards as its eyes rolled back in its head.

Thump-!

A tremendous vibration rang out. The mountain birds that were resting for the night took flight. The fallen orc was motionless.

My heart was pounding like I had been running at full speed.

What the hell just happened?

Did Kyle take it down? That orc?

Kyle dropped the wooden sword that had broken in half and ran to me quickly.

“Vivi, are you okay?!”

“Yeah, Kyle too….”

But my next words were cut off by Kyle’s tight embrace.