After leaving Miralda's office with a heavy heart and a scattered mind,
Loren gathered her focus and ordered the combat sprites to return to her.
But the results were disappointing: none of the sprites had been able to find the protagonist. He had vanished as if the earth had swallowed him whole.
Yet amid all this failure, there was one glimmer of hope: the seats in the main auditorium—where the protagonist and the other heroines were supposed to sit—had been completely dismantled. Anyone who tried to sit on them—whether the protagonist or any of the girls—would come crashing down in a humiliating and unexpected spectacle.
Loren hadn't prevented the encounter…
But she had at least made sure it couldn't happen with dignity.
"At least he'll change his seat..."
Loren thought to herself as she sent the sprites to scout all possible locations.
The heroines were bound to approach the protagonist—but not this quickly.
Even in a harem setup, where was the logic in all the girls coming at once from the very beginning?
"It doesn't make sense."
Perhaps this new protagonist—as Loren suspected—was intentionally trying to get closer to the heroines.
Or perhaps...
"He's simply walking a path that wasn't originally written."
This was a harem world, after all.
Whether he liked it or not, the heroines would eventually gather around him—
Such was the plot's predetermined course.
Protagonists always meet at specific points in the story...
But if events strayed too far from the script, the world itself might try to force the heroines into the protagonist's path—
All to avoid disrupting the destined encounters.
Eventually, the world would correct itself.
But the real question was:
"How did the harem rate increase?"
There was a clear divide—one anyone could see.
When Loren glanced out the window and observed the students below,
It was obvious to anyone: every male and female student stood about a meter apart.
And upon closer look, she noticed other differences:
In the quality of their uniforms,
In their tired versus bright expressions,
You didn't need theories or studies to see it—
The hierarchy was real.
This social distance meant that even the protagonist—despite his role in the story—would need time to build relationships with the heroines.
"That's what should've been logical..."
Loren opened her phone and checked the time:
[9:55 AM]
After Lauren closed the phone, she looked at her right hand, which held a stacked and piled-up notebook.
"The damned lecture notebook."
She recalled her memory before leaving Miralda's office...
Miralda had taken out the notebook and told her to go to the men's dormitory, where before the entrance was Professor Chloe Lorosa's office.
"The Alchemy teacher for the protagonist."
She told her to deliver it as quickly as possible... and head to the seats to attend the headmistress's speech this year.
...
Shortly before she arrived, the combat spirit sprites returned and reported that they hadn't found the protagonist, but they had found the group of heroines still gathered in the girls' meeting spot.
Everyone was supposed to go to their rooms now to organize everything, then gather for the headmistress's speech.
Because of the events she had been through, Lauren couldn't even go to her own room to organize it.
Honestly, her things were so numerous that she felt too lethargic to organize them.
She now caught sight of the men's dormitory complex...
"This looks old."
Although it didn't look bad, the complexes, even for the wealthy students, still seemed irregularly maintained.
Even though she had seen worse in her previous life, she didn't remember describing anything like this.
Lauren reached the office door and knocked.
After hearing the sound of the door opening...
"Hello, is anyone here?"
Suddenly... an intensely concentrated herbal scent spread through the air, while there were many lab tools, furnaces, and magical talismans.
"It seems like toxic gas!"
Lauren held her nose and began looking around the office, which seemed to have been mistakenly converted into a lab.
But after searching, she found the desk and the plaque with the school's name, but she didn't find her.
After checking the time again:
[10:4 AM]
"I shouldn't be later than this..."
She placed the lecture notebook on the desk and headed out.
"Wait here."
Lauren felt a cold, harsh atmosphere creeping slowly and dullly over her mind, while her breath was cut off and her body froze in place like a statue.
"So you're a student..."
"Why did you enter here?"
Lauren's words stammered, and she found it difficult to speak while unable to look behind her to see the teacher.
"The lecture notebook... Miralda..."
"Oh right, it seems I forgot that."
The pressure on her body eased, and she was able to catch her breath and finally looked...
Waves of soft green hair with the herbal scent and amazing crimson eyes.
"Thank you, girl... for this. What's your name?"
"Eleanor... Eleanor Matheoth."
She looked at Lauren's face for a moment...
"You're General Lily Matheoth's daughter... You really look alike."
"Yes... that's me."
After a few courtesies here and there, Lauren left, exhausted from this woman.
"This pressure is really deadly..."
The harem rate could increase at any time...
Not knowing its location, and also the heroines being in the girls' dormitory, drove her crazy...
What should she really do now?
Even the sprites couldn't find him...
"The campus is disgustingly vast!"
And that's what she truly felt.
In those moments, you can't help but wish...
Even though your wish won't come true in reality...
At least you can blame your failure on the failure of your wish...
And tell yourself you should wish for something better next time.
Like a beggar hoping to inherit the wealth of a rich family in a galaxy millions of light-years away from Earth...
Loren wished she could spin the wheel of fortune and escape this crisis. But in the end, she lost hope.
The sprites had searched the entire male student dormitory and still found nothing. Only a few minutes remained until the gathering.
[1 message received]
Loren read the message on the lock screen:
[We wish the new student good luck in reaching the main hall in five minutes.]
"Well, let's hope it doesn't increase any further."
There was no other solution...
She could only hope that the dismantled seats would succeed in her plan.
There were so many seats, and disabling some of them would cause embarrassment, but it wouldn't lead to an investigation.
Just as her finger hovered over the power button...
She heard a notification with the same tone ring nearby.
Curious, she glanced toward the sound...
And found jet-black hair darker than a night without dawn,
Crimson eyes like a blood-moon eclipse,
And pale, deathly skin.
His eyes were focused on his phone before he turned it off and noticed her gaze for a moment.
"Whaaaaaaaaaaat?!" Loren's mind screamed.
The protagonist glanced at her briefly... He was passing close by, mere millimeters separating them.
He was walking in the opposite direction of the male dormitory.
For a few short moments, their eyes met—before he quickly looked away,
Suddenly quickened his pace, and hurried off in the opposite direction as if fleeing a distant ghost.
"How? When?"
Without her realizing, three beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, and her jaw tightened slightly.
A few moments later...
A slightly tall, masculine figure with handsome features stopped in front of a reflective surface and looked at his own face.
Sweat covered his face like ants,
His expression tense and agitated.
"It's her... It's really her... She looked at me!"
"Wooooow!"
"Yes!"
He threw excited, random punches into the air, filled with exhilaration.
Milosh looked at his reflection again—it was only a matter of time.
"Just wait... You'll be mine alone... Eleanor-san."
A foolish, almost crazed smile spread across his lips.