How to get on the protagonist’s flower path

Bang! Bang!

The sound of extravagant fanfare echoed, and the sounds of fireworks could be heard.

A massive crowd was seen entering the academy, pouring in.

Among those people, there were likely quite a few scouts from famous guilds.

While there weren’t many scouting first-years, the probability was high that they sent scouts to check out which talents might stand out.

And today…

“Hmm! Of course, we’ll win, right? After all, we’re disciples of Yggdrasil!”

Yggdrasil stood proudly in front of us, putting pressure on us.

“Isn’t being overconfident a bad thing?”

The conman muttered under his breath, and Yggdrasil promptly slapped his mouth shut.

“Being overconfident and making objective judgments are two different things!”

“……”

Well, anyway, we had to participate in the preliminary rounds with Yggdrasil’s expectations on our shoulders.

Is it really okay to have a Yggdrasil dictatorship like this?

The preliminary rounds were chaotic, to say the least.

Teams were grouped into blocks like A Block, B Block, and so on.

In each block, all teams would fight simultaneously for a set period, and only the surviving teams would advance to the finals.

The setup felt like a strong desire to finish the preliminaries quickly. The important thing was the finals, after all.

Although spectators could enter for the preliminaries, usually no one came to watch, especially for first-year preliminaries that weren’t expected to be exciting. So, typically, only acquaintances were seated in the spectator stands.

People would start to gather in earnest for the finals, where they could see the rookies.

If one wasn’t used to crowds, it could have a negative impact.

In my case, my family from the orphanage was all set to come and watch the preliminaries, so I had to work hard. I couldn’t hang my head if I didn’t do well. I still wanted to be a cool older sister.

Since there were many participants and we were assigned to the back block, we were waiting leisurely.

As the wait grew long and tedious, Choi Sujeong jokingly suggested,

“Let’s have a bet to see who can go buy drinks~.”

“Sounds good.”

Just as we were getting bored, we started playing rock-paper-scissors without a care for who would go first.

Sujeong, Lee Hana, and I ended up losing. Ugh.

I walked off with Sujeong and Hana to find a vending machine.

“What should we do?”

“What should we do?”

I almost thought I was hearing things when a long-forgotten voice suddenly interrupted my thoughts.

“You’ve caught the eye of the one who returned as an irregular.”

***

“You’ve caught the eye of the one who returned as an irregular!”

The two voices echoed simultaneously, not missing a beat.

The tone and style of speaking… could it be…

At that moment, a sharp gust of wind from Sujeong cut through the air toward the source of the sound.

“Well, well.”

“Well, well?”

The two chorused.

“Long time no see, pet cat.”

“Long time no see, pet cat!”

Gemini.

I hadn’t expected to run into them here.

They are characters from the story and were the ones I used in my dealings with the ‘Black Balance’.

And… they were Sujeong’s enemies.

Sujeong glared at the two as if looking at a sworn enemy, growling.

“I’m no longer your toy. What brings you here?”

How could they appear at such a time? It felt malicious. They probably did it on purpose, those annoying twins.

“Is that so?”

“Indeed.”

“I stabbed a friend and gained my freedom.”

“I stabbed a friend and gained my freedom!”

The irritating twins, Gemini, laughed mockingly at Sujeong.

Hana grabbed Sujeong’s hand, who couldn’t say a word as she bit her lip.

“…Hana.”

“Sujeong, I’m alive here.”

Hana gently patted Sujeong while glaring at Gemini.

“Is it fun to dig into someone else’s wounds?”

“Well…”

“Well.”

“More importantly…”

“More importantly!”

I was horrified by the sudden attention of the Gemini twins directed at me. What weird words were they going to say next?

But contrary to my thoughts, they muttered something incomprehensible.

“Is it okay? The one who returned is aiming for you.”

“It’ll be fine. Because…”

“Because the player and the hero are by your side.”

***

“The player and the hero are by your side!”

“What are you talking about?”

I could guess who they meant by “player.” It was probably that conman. I had a rough idea about who they meant by “hero,” too.

But who on earth is this ‘one who returned’?

I frowned and asked, but Gemini merely laughed.

“No more.”

“No! Then…”

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye!”

And just like that, they quietly vanished like dust scattered in the wind.

Those twins really have a terrible personality.

Gemini had shown up occasionally since my deal with the Black Balance. They never did anything but toss out strange remarks before disappearing.

Now, after a long absence, they show up to scratch at my senior’s wounds and throw weird words at me on purpose.

I glanced at my seniors.

“Those bastards…!”

“Calm down.”

Sujeong hit the wall in frustration. Hana silently held Sujeong’s hand.

Finally, Hana’s eyes turned to me.

“Nahyun, do you know Gemini?”

“Yeah. They sometimes show up and say strange things before disappearing.”

Sujeong approached me with quick strides, gripping my shoulder painfully. Her expression was more distorted than I had ever seen.

“…Senior?”

“Listen carefully. If Gemini asks for a deal, never agree. No, just don’t get involved with them at all.”

“Y-Yes, yes…!”

Only after hearing my response did she relax slightly.

“Senior, that hurts.”

“…I’m sorry.”

A heavy silence enveloped us.

The kids in the waiting room watched us, sensing the mood.

Sorry about that.

Let’s just forget it for now. We need to focus on the preliminaries.

As Sujeong’s agitation began to subside, we heard the call for our block. We calmly got our gear ready and entered.

There was no worry. After all, we had trained hard under Yggdrasil.

The sounds of the crowd beyond the stadium passage were calling to us.

Inside the stadium, various teams were staring at each other with palpable tension. Some teams we had fought before, while others were unfamiliar.

***

“Ha, Nayuhan! I’ll pay you back for the humiliation last time!”

It seemed the hulking guy I had faced during the aptitude test was also participating.

The conman smirked upon seeing him and silently raised a finger.

The hulking guy began to get riled up.

It looked like the conman had recovered quite a bit since then. Thank goodness.

“Stay alert! It’s about to start!”

Shin Baran shouted, nocking an arrow to his bow. The conman shrugged and grabbed the flag with both hands again.

Everyone held their breath, and so did we.

At the front, Dumdum took a stance with swords in both hands.

Beside him, Nayuri silently ignited flames in her fists.

I sensed Hana gathering a cool magical energy from the side.

As soon as the start buzzer rang, a fierce storm of magic engulfed us.

“Nyahahah!”

Arrows and all sorts of magic attacks shot towards us, but they bounced harmlessly off the wind barrier that Sujeong created.

“They’re definitely trying to take us out first.”

The conman muttered lowly.

“Strategically, that’s the right call.”

Nayuri said as she ignited flames in her fists with a nonchalant demeanor.

Just as she said, other teams seemed to agree that taking us down first was their best chance for victory, opting not to attack each other.

But that didn’t seem like much… considering they couldn’t even breach our shield?

Kabang! Clang! Clang!

For a long while, a rain of arrows poured toward our barrier, but none of the attacks got through.

“I’ll help you~.”

“Thank you.”

Simultaneously, arrows from Shin Baran flew out toward each team.

“Ugh!”

“What’s the status of the barrier?”

“It’s suffered some damage!”

Shin Baran’s arrows, shot lightly as a deterrent, had inflicted wounds on the opponents’ barriers.

While some teams hesitated, focusing on recovering their defenses,

Others began to attack more aggressively.

“I’m coming!”

One team rushed toward us, launching a full-scale attack.

Seeing that, the conman grinned widely as he issued the attack order.

“Switch to attack mode! Formation A! Sujeong, take care of defense, and the front line will launch a full attack! The rest will maintain their positions and attack!”

“Okay!”

“Don’t forget to communicate!”