How to Survive as an Extra

Chapter 31

As soon as the deliberation ended, I hurriedly left the meeting room before Lee Eunho and Do Minyeong could approach me.

The reason was to chase after Yun Jeongseop, who had left the meeting room before me.

“……Has he already left the building?”

He looked like he walked so slowly.

Of course, I knew where he was headed.

To the Vice Principal’s office in the main building.

To report the results of this deliberation.

I started running not in the direction of the main building, but into the nearby forest.

Since it was physically impossible to catch up to him, I had to use a side path.

Yun Jeongseop’s position was that of an instructor bound by formalities and procedures.

Therefore, he would use the sidewalk paved with blocks.

Since he was already known as Park Cheolyeong’s right-hand man, there was no way he would arouse suspicion by moving secretively.

“Got him……”

A little later, I found Yun Jeongseop on the path passing the Hall of Truth, the tower of magic.

I came out of the forest and stopped in front of Yun Jeongseop as if landing.

“Whew, Instructor, where are you…….”

“…….”

“Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“Are you a villain?”

“No, I’m out of breath, so I can’t speak long…….”

My chest heaved greatly.

Pathetic stamina.

“A cadet from your Investigation Division was an innocent victim, so I thought you would at least offer some comfort or encouragement.”

“You chased me for such a trivial reason? Besides, I don’t think you’re the type to expect something like that.”

He was telling me to stop wasting time and get to the point.

“You’re right. Actually, I was expecting help rather than encouragement.”

“Help…? Would help have really meant anything to you.”

“Well, if you want to be technical, yes, but I was just asking if it wasn’t necessary for me to participate in the deliberation in the first place.”

“……?”

For a moment, Yun Jeongseop’s eyes narrowed.

It seemed that my reasoning, which I had pondered for days, had reached the right conclusion.

No matter how this deliberation went, no matter what conclusion the student council came to…….

“Because there was no way I would be expelled. Isn’t that right?”

“……!”

Even if I were to be disciplined, I would not have been expelled.

This was the conclusion I had reached.

The conclusion to a question that began with the ’sense of incongruity’ I felt when I confronted Park Cheolyeong about the incident at the main building a few days ago.

In other words, Vice Principal Park Cheolyeong intended to make me indebted to him through this incident.

To overturn the current relationship that was tied through the Mystery Club.

He probably predicted that I would try to graduate from Hero Prep at all costs because of the social care beneficiary program, but he was dead wrong.

I was not as desperate for my studies as some people.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“If that’s what you truly mean, I’m a little disappointed. To think you’d take the risk of kicking me, who knows your circumstances, out of Hero Prep.”

“Is that a threat now? You’ll have to bear the fact that you’re also a possessor of a Demonic Eye alone…….”

“It is a threat.”

Yun Jeongseop remained motionless, without any reaction.

He just stared at me intently, in a slightly calmer posture.

I consciously looked around and said.

“The Demonic Eye will be revealed when the time comes. My position is different from information that should not be revealed. ……Of course, I’ll be bothered a bit.”

“……Fine, there was an opinion to consider the results of the deliberation a little. But I don’t understand the intention of saying this after safely finishing the deliberation.”

“The intention is simple. I just want to deliver a message.”

“A message?”

“Yes, you’re going to the main building now, aren’t you? To the Vice Principal’s office. To be faithful to my role as a ‘messenger’.”

“…….”

Yun Jeongseop, Vice Principal Park Cheolyeong’s messenger.

The message I wanted to convey to him was a warning not to touch me.

But there was another reason I had stopped Yun Jeongseop.

It was to put a crack in his relationship with Park Cheolyeong.

Of course, since this world was slightly twisted from the original, I could not predict Yun Jeongseop’s thoughts and actions 100%.

However, the tendencies, goals, and standards of value judgment of the characters I set did not change easily.

As long as Yun Jeongseop was moving to release his curse, it meant I was a very attractive figure to him.

“Is it just me, or is it burdensome to face the Vice Principal? So please, deliver the message for me. Tell him he must have a lot of busy work, so he shouldn’t meddle in the affairs of a mere cadet. He’s the one who fanned the flames of this incident, isn’t he? ……To open a deliberation with only inconsistent testimony and suspend me first off…….”

Above all, to reveal Yun Jeongseop’s ‘true form,’ he had to be freed from Park Cheolyeong’s influence.

This was also a role that the main character, Lee Eunho, should have played, but that was no longer important.

From now on, the title of ‘main character’ in this world…….

“You will deliver my opinion, won’t you? After all, Instructor, you are…….”

“…….”

“Vice Principal Park Cheolyeong’s faithful tool.”

Would become a role of no value.

***

The student council’s deliberation passed the approval of the supervising instructors and came into effect by Vice Principal Park Cheolyeong.

As a result, Kim Muung, Choi Jaejin, and the cadets who had collectively assaulted Choi Jaejin were banned from ever setting foot in the 4th Scholastic District.

The suspension given to me was canceled, and I was able to resume my studies from the next week, but 50 points were deducted for making a false statement in the deliberation.

It was a huge point deduction.

However, for a number that had gone through Yu Hyeonjeong and Park Cheolyeong’s approval, it was a relatively low score.

My disappointment over the point deduction was brief, as I received a commendation from the Bureau of Superpowers for my contribution to the incident at the exhibition hall.

Along with Lee Eunho and Cha Yeri.

Naturally, it was added to my points.

This was the same narrative as in the original work.

“Although it was delayed by a few days because of my suspension.”

After attending lectures again, there were a few noticeable changes.

As if Choi Jaejin had been the suppressor, the social care beneficiary cadets started talking to me, and Kim Muung’s group, having lost their focus, quietly concentrated on their studies under Gwon Chihun’s influence.

Gwon Chihun gave a brief apology, saying ‘sorry,’ as if to apologize for the previous misunderstanding, and after that, he did not pick any unnecessary fights.

Do Minyeong, who was not the type to hold a grudge like Cha Yeri, quickly improved our relationship, but an indescribable distance was created.

Was it because she was conscious of me hanging out with the social care beneficiary group? The frequency of her sitting next to me also decreased noticeably.

Still, it was a relief that she got along with the magic instructor Kim Seulhee from time to time.

“It’s also a relief that she can get along with Lee Eunho in the student council.”

Anyway, after that ill-natured storm passed, on a Friday noon when I was lazing around in the peaceful atmosphere.

─Kim Myeongo, the master of Royal Hunters, has been detained by Dispel. Kim Myeongo, at the trial presided over by the Bureau of Superpowers last Wednesday…….

I was just watching TV and scratching my arm.

-Investigation Division Do Minyeong: I have something to say.

I suddenly received a message from Do Minyeong.

***

The next day, Saturday.

I left Hero Prep with Do Minyeong.

The place we headed to was Seoul’s District 2, where the power of the Seoul Special Self-Governing City of Superpowers was concentrated.

The reason I came here with her out of the blue was that a group assignment had been given in the criminal psychology lecture I had missed due to my temporary suspension.

What was surprising here was that I, Do Minyeong, and Gwon Chihun were in the same group.

“Of all the damn luck, I got stuck with this bastard.”

Gwon Chihun had been complaining nonstop since we left the school.

However, he was not expressing it to Do Minyeong, but was pouring it all out on me.

“Stop whining. I wasn’t even there when the groups were formed.”

No matter how much of a deep-rooted evil his family was at Dispel, he could not even speak properly to the direct descendant of the Sword Saint, who had dozens of paparazzi following her the moment she left the school.

A typical case of being strong against the weak and weak against the strong.

“Ji Seokhyeon is right. Since it’s come to this, I’d like you to focus more on the assignment.”

“……Ah, well, I’m not saying I won’t do the assignment.”

Lately, Do Minyeong’s academic enthusiasm was high.

This was because my name was omitted from the month-end evaluation, and Do Minyeong’s name was engraved as number one in the Investigation Division’s weekly rankings.

Since I was steadily receiving points through the Mystery Club, it was expected that I would be number one again next week, but for now, I intended to go along with the excitement she was feeling.

After all, having a motivated friend in a group assignment meant you could, so to speak, ride the bus.

“Is this it?”

“Yeah, I’ve already contacted them, so we can just go in.”

We arrived in front of Dispel’s 3rd Branch in Seoul’s District 2.

Yes, the place where I had eaten sundae soup with rice.

The assignment was to investigate an important event in the history of superpowers, analyze its contents, and give a briefing from the perspective of an investigator at the time.

Some cadets would have to go through a lot of trouble by running around themselves, but… our group had Gwon Chihun.

In fact, the chief of Dispel’s 3rd Branch was his uncle.

As we followed Gwon Chihun, who was leading the way, into the branch building, a few officers brightened up upon seeing him.

“Oh! Young Master!”

“You’ve become so dignified after entering Hero Prep!”

Is he a homegrown talent?

In this atmosphere, I watched a man who was the only one with a grim expression.

“Young Master, my foot, don’t praise that delinquent.”

The chief of the 3rd Branch and Gwon Chihun’s uncle, Gwon Seongjun.

He was a man in his early 40s.

When I had been indebted to him, only the officers were there, so I had not met him, but I felt an aura similar to the one I had received from the former investigator, Yun Jeongseop.

The atmosphere of a violent crimes detective in charge of heinous criminals who always appeared in the mass media.

While the attention was focused on Gwon Chihun, I discreetly moved towards the reception desk.

That was because the people inside the building had started to recognize Do Minyeong’s presence.

“Wow! Her genes really are different, you know?”

“No, of course they’re different! She’s of the Sword Saint’s bloodline! How many times do I have to say it?”

“Heh, the Young Master has skills too. To be already connected with the direct descendant.”

“It’s an honor! One of my goals at Dispel was to be the direct descendant’s bodyguard!”

Outside the building, paparazzi.

Inside, fanatical public servants who called themselves fans.

It was a complete madhouse.

“Oh? It’s that friend from back then.”

In the midst of it all, an officer who had been off to the side of the barrage of attention acknowledged me.

A familiar face.

The man who had handled my civil complaint.

And the officer who had ordered me sundae soup with rice.

As I bowed my head in greeting, he clapped his hands as if he had just remembered something.

“Ah! Your ID! Perfect timing. I found your ID last week. Just as you said, the kids around here had gotten their hands on it.”

“……Yes?”

The excuse I had made up was actually true?

The officer rummaged through a drawer and then handed me a card-type ID and a document envelope.

“I thought it was strange, strange that day, and sure enough, there was a problem with the system.”

“Yes? What do you mean by that…….”

“I’m talking about the student identity check. There were so many blank spaces that I requested an update from the Bureau of Superpowers, and sure enough, there were things that had been omitted.”

……What?

My identity, which should have had nothing, was simply omitted?

I was flustered.

Was I not just an extra who was covered up and rewritten…….

I quickly read through the documents I had been handed.

Just as he said, the blank spaces from last time were filled in as if they had never been empty.

Which district on the outskirts of Seoul I had lived in, which educational institutions I had gone through before entering Hero Prep, and even a record of a single misdemeanor for having touched the belongings of a noblewoman in Seoul’s District 5.

“……I really did beg in the alleys.”

At that moment, a system message that was hard to just pass by caught my eye.

[The narrative of the sub-character, ‘Ji Seokhyeon,’ has been added.]

The narrative of the character called ‘me’…….

A possibility that I had brushed off, just in case, began to come to mind belatedly.

This world was, after all, a novel being rewritten by ‘someone’.

The meaning of an extra’s role changing to a sub-character in it…….

Although I was a terrible writer, I had felt the incongruity of this message from the beginning.

That was because when a being who acts incongruously and uses unconvincing abilities appears in a novel, readers tend to say this.

A collapse of plausibility.

“…….”

In this case, the character called ‘me’.

When I was an extra, it was not a problem because I existed outside the narrative, but now that I was treated as a sub-character, my position was different.

Therefore, the devoted reader had no choice but to insert a narrative to explain me.

Like now.

The reason for notifying me of such an important fact only now was obvious.

He must have wanted to play with my dramatic emotions.

If so, he had succeeded sufficiently.

I could not even hear the madhouse of this branch in my ears right now.

I paid attention to the system message that followed.

The setting text for ‘Ji Seokhyeon’ appeared kindly, as if to make me aware of my role.

Classification: Character

Introduction: A cadet in the 1st year of the Investigation Division at the Hero Preparatory School, who has a secret about his origin and past…….

The setting content was long.

So long that I had to scroll down with my finger.

To put it as it was recorded, the character Ji Seokhyeon was…….

“What the hell is this now.”

He was the last survivor of a noble family that was exterminated for having contact with a Demonic Being.