[YEP, I’M really inside a fantasy novel.]

Zirkus knew that a fantasy novel wouldn’t be a fantasy novel without a dragon.

He was just surprised that Klaus Irvin, Enzo Fenton’s alleged victim, turned out to be the hero’s dragon friend. In The Legendary Fisher, the characters would just refer to Rivo Creswell’s friend as the dead dragon as if it was forbidden to mention Klaus Irvin’s name.

[Now I know why the dragons didn’t help the human race during the apocalypse.]

But he could still change that.

[I think during this time, the fact that Klaus Irvin is a dragon is still a secret.]

Hence, Zirkus flashed his business smile at Klaus Irvin. “Are you headed to the dining hall? Do you want to eat together? My treat.”

“Thank you for the offer, but I don’t want to get an upset stomach,” Klaus Irvin said, waving him goodbye. “Let’s not meet each other again, Huxford. I get sick when I look at ugly faces.”

As expected of a dragon, Klaus Irvin was so full of himself.

Zirkus smiled anyway. “Understandable, have a good day.”

[I’ll make you owe your life to me soon, you giant lizard.]

Park Suho, Zirkus’ previous self, wouldn’t have lasted as a stalker– er, reporter if he was the type to easily give up on following his target.

He was about to follow the dragon when, suddenly, he came face-to-face with the heroine.

“You’re here, Huxford,” Nixie Winslet said. “Enzo is looking for you all day, and he looks pretty intense. What did you do this time?”

Zirkus shook his head and let out a long sigh. “I’m innocent.”

***

<“I THOUGHT you weren’t going to use the shell-changing capsules? This is already your second time using it, Shittyhead. Do you enjoy getting attention for your face in a positive way?”>

Zirkus just ignored Blob, as usual.

It wasn’t like he could pick a fight with the rude System while he was walking on the school premise AND people were looking at him.

In a positive way, at that.

Both boys and girls seemed to be enamored with his fake face.

“Do we have a schoolmate who’s as handsome as him?”

“His face is on the same level as the Heavenly Trio…”

“Is he really from our academy?”

“Don’t you know how strict our academy is? He can’t have access to the school facilities if he doesn’t have a legit school ID. And it’s not something that you can fake with magic.”

Zirkus could only agree with the last student who spoke.

But there was a loophole in the school security that he was currently exploiting.

[It’s true that you need a school ID to access the facilities like the dining hall and the training hall. Unfortunately, the scanners can only verify if the school IDs are legit or not. They can’t register the name of the students who are using those facilities.]

In short, Zirkus wasn’t leaving traces as he was roaming in the school as ‘Blob.’

[Both the school and the students are weak when it comes to tracing magic, though. If there’s a strong mage here, then my shell-changing capsules should have been discovered already.]

Was it because the Holy Sword Academy was more focused on swordsmanship and creating Aura instead of Mana?

Yeah, there was a significant difference between the two.

[Aura can only be produced by people who dedicate themselves to their weapons like the swordsmen. Mana, on the other hand, is wielded by people who have an affinity for magic.]

In The Legendary Fisher, people who have Mana have more advantages than people with Aura. Although Swordmasters had a higher chance of surviving a fight against Sea Monsters because they could use Aura, ordinary swordsmen had little to no possibility of winning since ordinary swordsmen couldn’t wield Aura.

Having said that, it was still better to become a Mana-user than a swordsman since Sea Monsters were creatures weak to Mana. That was why many graduates of the Holy Sword Academy died when the apocalypse happened…

Huh?

Zirkus stopped walking when he realized something.

[What am I doing in this academy when only Swordmasters with Aura could fight and maybe win against Sea Monsters? If I want to survive just in case I failed and the Cataclysm still descended into this world, then I should have a Plan B.]

It wasn’t like Zirkus didn’t trust himself.

But one should always be prepared for the worst-case scenario, right?

“Blob!”

Zirkus flinched when someone suddenly wrapped their arm around his shoulders. When he turned to look at who it was, he was slightly surprised. “Senior.”

It was Rivo Creswell.

Zirkus was actually on his way to the office of The Inkman– the academy’s Journalism Club– when the hero “caught” him.

“Where have you been these past few days?” Rivo Creswell asked, grinning at him. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“I actually have a weak body, Senior,” Zirkus lied “fluently.” He even had the audacity to look and sound weak while talking. “I’m often excused from my classes. But I came out as soon as I felt better.”

Rivo Creswell obviously believed him right away because he looked at him with pity in his eyes, then he gently dragged him in a different direction. “If you have just gotten better, then you shouldn’t be walking around yet.”

“Uhm, Senior, where are we going?”

The hero grinned at him. “I’m going to bring you to my secret hide-out that not even Enzo and Nixie know.”

He acted flustered, of course. “Senior, is it really okay for me to be there then?”

“Of course,” Rivo Creswell said cheerfully. “I need to thank you for saving us, anyway. If it wasn’t for the information you shared with me, then Enzo and I wouldn’t have caught the men who sneaked Sea Monsters into our academy.”

“Huh?” Zirkus asked. This time, he was genuinely surprised and confused. “Senior Enzo?”

***

[IT’S LIKE I’m in a snacks bar.]

Zirkus was in a small room in an abandoned building in the West Wing of the Holy Sword Academy.

To be precise, he was sitting on a chair similar to a bean bag while his lap was full of snacks and drinks that Rivo Creswell shoved into his arms earlier. It seemed like the hero really believed that he was a Freshman student.

[So naïve. No wonder Enzo Fenton deceived him easily in the original novel.]

“I have to apologize to you, Blob,” Rivo Creswell said, as if he was embarrassed. The hero was sitting in a similar bean bag chair right across from him. He only took one piece of bread out of all the snacks that he shared with Zirkus. “After we talked last time, I actually bumped into Enzo. He’s my best friend, so I know he’s trustworthy. Hence, I told him about the tip that you gave me. Then I asked for his help to catch the culprits.”

Much to his shock, the hero bowed his head to him.

“Senior, please don’t apologize. It’s really alright. Both you and Senior Enzo ended up saving us, anyway.”

Rivo Creswell raised his head and smiled at him. “Thank you for your understanding, Blob.”

“It’s nothing, Senior,” Zirkus said, smiling “warmly.” “But may I know how you and Senior Enzo caught the culprits?”