I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 25: Academic Warning (2)

There’s a saying.

A cornered mouse will bite a cat.

It’s an old proverb that means that people in desperate situations will bite the bullet.

It’s an old saying that means if you’re going to fail no matter what, you might as well not give up hope in the last moment and face whatever comes your way.

It’s a good saying, however, when it’s applied to the real world, it usually doesn’t end well.

In a way, it makes sense.

If you’re in a crisis because you didn’t make a good decision when you were sober, you’re not going to suddenly turn on your brain when you’re in a crisis.

For the same reason, I don’t particularly like the story of the “desperate ground” strategy, where you set up camp with your back to the water.

Without preparing in advance, you only act like you’re trying when you’re in a crisis.

I don’t think I can do that, so the one-shot mentality of gambling and leaving it all to chance and luck just doesn’t work for me.

But on the other hand, if you can corner your opponent in this way, there’s nothing more effective.

In politics and debate, it’s all about information.

It’s one thing to acquire a lot of knowledge and information on your own and overwhelm your opponent with it.

It’s another to create a sense of crisis in your opponent, forcing them to focus on the information at hand, narrowing their horizons so they can’t see or hear other ideas.

In that sense, the academic warning issued to Ms. Sierra is the cornerstone of a full-blown cornering of her.

Because if the warnings pile up and she doesn’t resolve them in time, Miss Sierra will be kicked out of the Academy and revert to being a country bumpkin.

And that’s the last thing she wants.

For Miss Sierra, being kicked out of the academy means that she will never be able to participate in the storyline of the game called Academy Light Romance again.

She might be tempted to simply walk out of the Academy and lead a normal life, but based on what I’ve seen of Sierra, I don’t think she’d make that decision.

Her best bet would be to work hard and buy herself some time to make up for the academic warning, but as someone who’s been closely following her academic progress, I don’t see that happening.

So the next best thing is to do whatever it takes before she’s kicked out of the Academy.

There are less than two months left in the semester.

The window of time in which she could try something was slowly closing.

* * *

The day after the academic warning letter was mailed to her dorm, Sierra stormed into the department office.

“An academic warning is ridiculous!”

She showed up with the warning letter scrawled in red ink, and began to rant to the office staff about her injustice.

Of course, she had sown the seeds that led to this point, but at least Sierra was in denial that she had an academic warning in her future.

“I mean, what the hell did I do to deserve an academic warning, I’m the main character…oh, no, I’m the character who can’t get an academic warning anyway!”

Sure enough, she was right: there is no system of academic warnings in Academy Light Romance.

The reason was obvious. Sierra, the protagonist of the original game, was basically a conscientious class participant with excellent grades.

Unaware that she was already on a different path from the original game’s protagonist, she repeatedly vented her feelings to the poor scapegoat female employee.

“There must have been some kind of computer error. Why on earth would I have gotten a bachelor warning….?”

“Ms. Sierra, do you happen to know what your grades were last semester?”

“What?”

Sierra replied confidently, with an attitude of expectation, as if she was surprised that an employee would ask her about her grades from last semester.

“I don’t know because I don’t care?”

For the past two years, she had been so focused on performing events with her targets that she hadn’t paid any attention to the other things she considered unnecessary, like taking assessments or learning magic.

In her first semester, she still managed to play the conscientious student and get the grades she deserved, even if they were a little short.

In subsequent semesters, she lost interest in the study of magic and actively defied the very purpose of the Academy.

Days went by where she blew off written exams by filling in the same answer for everything and made all sorts of excuses to avoid taking the practical exams.

“You got an F on both the written and the practical, and the practical is marked as a fail.”

“So?”

“Your first semester sophomore year grades are both F’s, and you didn’t take the practical either.”

“So what?”

“Well, your highest written and practical grade in two years is a C+…. And you didn’t take another practical exam this midterm, did you?”

“It doesn’t matter, it’s not like my test grades affect the plot.”

“…….”

Seeing no point in continuing to argue with her, the employee replied in an extremely cold and businesslike manner to the non-communicative Sierra.

“Ms. Sierra. I don’t know what you think the Academy is, but it’s not a place where you can do as you please.”

“What?”

“The Academy is a facility for the teaching and nurturing of magic to all of its students, Miss Sierra, and I can no longer tolerate and accept the fact that you are denying the very ideals upon which the Academy was founded.

Even though the Academy encourages the role of small societies and socializing, as long as you are a student here, you cannot forget its primary purpose.”

“…….”

“We have already given Miss Sierra many concessions time and time again.

Since you’re a commoner, you’re not used to magic, and we’ve given you almost two years to adjust to it, yet you haven’t grown at all.

While another student of ours, who has access to the same rare magic, is improving every day, Miss Sierra has shown no effort, will, or potential for improvement.

Do you realize that Miss Sierra’s tuition is being paid for entirely by scholarships right now, and you’ve already spent two years of our national budget on nothing, so why would we want to continue with you when she hasn’t shown us anything?”

“…Still, there’s nothing like this in the game….”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re trying to say, but I’ll tell you one thing: if you don’t show meaningful improvement this semester, we’ll have no choice but to expel Miss Sierra from the Academy.”

Sierra’s eyes widened with panic at this extreme measure.

If Sierra were to be expelled from the Academy, it would be impossible for her to ever meet Alex or any of the other characters from the original game.

The Academy’s outwardly untouchable status had allowed her to make connections with other high-ranking nobles.

The last thing she needed was to be expelled from the Academy and even Sierra, with her hardened mind, could see that.

“I can’t be expelled!”

“Then you’ll just have to do better on the final assessment, which is already past due, considering your overall score.”

“Well, then you should have told me beforehand, so I could have prepared for the midterm assessment!”

“I’m sure I’ve already told you that we’ve given Miss Sierra numerous opportunities.”

“If I knew I could still be expelled, I would have studied harder and….”

“We can’t take care of every single student’s situation. When you grow and step out into the world, at least take some responsibility for the mistakes you make.”

“…….”

“I don’t think there’s much more I can say, except that if I were you, I’d go back and start preparing for the final assessment.”

Even Sierra realized that further appeals were pointless, and she moved with thoughtful steps out of the office.

Opening the grimoire and flipping through the first few pages made her head hurt like it was going to crack, and even if she started studying now, it would be impossible for her to make it through her third year.

It was a meaningless assumption, even more so going into the practical assessment, where she had barely made any progress since entering.

In the end, she came to the conclusion that there was only one way to resolve this situation once and for all.

There seemed to be no other way out.

“I’ve been trying to be cautious and take it slow for a while now, but I’m really running out of time….”

Little did she realize that she would be accelerating her own destruction.