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The Underground Market Attack was all set to go smoothly.

Depending on where you focus, evaluations might differ, but I thought this was going pretty well.

Info was accumulating steadily, and Blanca casually dropped some outrageous intel without batting an eye, so I wasn’t worried about that at all.

Whether it was knowledge from a possession or something she got from elsewhere—I decided not to ask.

She didn’t seem like the type to share, and I could kind of guess where she was pulling some of it from.

The info Blanca brought in was stuff that only active heroes or those deeply involved in that world would have access to.

It was probably intel she snagged from Justitia. Or maybe straight from her ‘higher-ups.’

I still didn’t know the exact relationship between her and Justitia.

There was a good chance they were all intertwined under the Liberator’s banner, but she could also be a discarded experiment subject that a hero took pity on.

Or perhaps Justitia struck a deal with Heros Company to rescue Blanca, grooming her as some kind of intel agent.

The truth wouldn’t be known until she brought it up or it became clear, but one thing was for sure: something was definitely going on between her and Justitia.

“No, no, Lapiz. The function’s model is wrong. It’s fine until the end, but then it goes wonky. You skipped a line or two in your calculations again, didn’t you?”

“Wha…?! Was I wrong?! Wait, hold on… um… where was I…?”

“You always do this. You make your calculations and then mess up one or two things. Hey, why are you staring at me like that? You thinking about something else?”

Feeling a bit embarrassed, I told Blanca I wasn’t, but she shot me a dubious glance, insisting she’d check how far I’d gotten on the problem I just posed.

“Well, obviously… you didn’t solve a single part of it!”

I desperately tried to hide it, only to get caught, and ended up getting a whack on the head from her slime-formed mallet.

It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel great either—more like getting hit with a half-deflated dodgeball.

“It’s not a hard problem, so why get lost in your thoughts… We promised to study until the preparation for the attack was over.”

“Well… that’s true, but it just popped into my head!”

“Sure, it can pop up, but you shouldn’t let it show!”

“Blanca, you seem to be especially harsh on Minho. Are you still mad or something?”

Seolhwa looked at Blanca targeting me specifically and seemed to wonder if she hadn’t cooled down yet. But Blanca immediately shook her head at Yeonhwa.

“Nah. I’m not angry… not completely anyway, but that doesn’t change this! You said you’d focus when it was time, but here you are daydreaming.”

Seolhwa agreed, thinking that made sense, and then immediately switched gears to blame me.

I was a bit taken aback by Seolhwa’s response, but one thing I could certainly confirm was that Blanca seemed to be especially strict on me.

So, what was the deal? Back in the day, she’d just let things slide or ignore it outright, but now, she was insisting on nitpicking at everything.

It didn’t annoy me, nor was it a good thing, but I couldn’t figure out why, as she had no reason to act like that.

Just a guess, but maybe it was because we both knew each other’s identities, and she stopped pretending to be someone else or something like that.

In other words, she acted like a ‘real friend.’

If we were just loosely close, she might’ve said I’d succeed next time, but now it felt like she was laughing at me, saying, “Seriously, do you think you can do it with that skill?”

She specifically told me not to expect special treatment, but can people keep every single word they say without a hitch?

It felt like she had become a bit more relaxed and casual or maybe her true nature was showing a bit more.

Is this a good change…? I wasn’t so sure about that.

Just as I stopped fiddling with my pencil, Blanca immediately conjured up her usual mallet from her tail and smacked my head.

“Hey, wait a minute! I said I’m doing it, okay?!”

“Don’t make me wait! Do you think I’m just going to keep looking out for you alone? You’ve got to pay attention to the others too!”

“…You really did clear everything up, right?”

Seeing us bickering, Yeonhwa looked really worried and double-checked if we actually sorted out our feelings.

“Yeah, we totally cleared it up, seriously.”

“So you don’t have to worry.”

“If you say so… um…”

It seemed like this was a bit hard for Yeonhwa to comprehend. Given her personality, it wasn’t odd.

Although she was a character that didn’t exist in the original story, in less than a year, I’d figured out what kind of person she was.

Warm like the sun, showering light on those around her. A person with not a trace of darkness in her heart. It made sense that understanding Blanca’s behavior wasn’t easy for her.

After all, Blanca was definitely not a good person.

I could say that with certainty. She might lean towards being ‘good,’ but calling her a ‘good person’ was a stretch.

She seemed to know that as well. In front of others, she held back… or at least that’s how it seemed, but what I saw through the status window wasn’t the nature of an average good person.

Best not to point that out. It was likely a sore spot for her, and pulling at it didn’t seem like a bright idea.

“Why are your standards for me so harsh?!”

“It’s because a guy who usually had his head on straight suddenly started failing!”

“Um… I’m all for studying hard, but could you keep it down a little…?”

It wasn’t until the librarian showed up that she finally stopped chewing on my head.

– – – –

“Still, thanks to Blanca, I think my test scores will improve by at least 20 points!”

Once our study time wrapped up, Yeonhwa said I helped her out and she felt she’d do well on the test.

“Oh, it’s not that big of a deal. Even if it improves, maybe by 10 points at most, and generally speaking, it should average around 5. You all aren’t that hopeless, right? I mean, most of you aren’t. No offense meant, Lapiz.”

“Uh… yeah…”

She quickly added she wasn’t out to hurt Lapiz since her social studies grades… well, let’s just say they fell short of expectations.

Strangely, it seemed like she found memorizing social studies really tough.

After getting a rough idea from a question I’d thrown out there, she had gotten almost all of them wrong, leaving me plenty to ponder over.

Memorization has no answer except tedious repetition.

Even if a clever method to memorize existed, the crux remained repetition.

Hmm… I just hoped Lapiz would put in the effort.

“Alright, since study time is over, let’s finally talk about the plan.”

Minho said this as he pulled out what looked like a blueprint from his bag.

“You didn’t… get the schematic of the Underground Market, did you?”

I was about to be shocked, but Minho quickly dismissed it, claiming it was just a sketch based on a rough appearance.

Ah, is that what it was? Disappointment lingered briefly, but when I saw the state of the sketch, it was worse than I imagined.

“What is this, a kid’s drawing of a building?”

“Hey, that was my best effort! You think drawing while running is easy?”

“Just stop and draw, you dummy.”

Clearly left speechless by that, Minho just said it was still somewhat recognizable.

“Anyway… based on the information from Blanca, I sketched out a weird building I stumbled upon while patrolling. My skills are lacking so it might be hard to recognize…”

Minho pointed to the awkward shape, claiming it was the entrance and continued explaining the plan.

“Here, here, and here. This is where the entrances are. And though it’s not clearly visible, there was security inside. The back is blocked by a fence, and I suspect there’s definitely more there.”

“So… what’s your opinion?”

Seolhwa seemed impatient with Minho dragging out the explanation, urging him to come to a conclusion.

“If we go in through the back door, it’ll take all our might, and breaking in somewhere else wouldn’t be much better. So… my idea is to disguise ourselves as customers and get in.”

Ah, so that’s the plan.

Just when I thought maybe something different was coming up, nope.

“Infiltration? In the Underground Market? I don’t think that’s a great idea…”

Ageha responded with a perfectly reasonable reaction, flipping it to call it a crazy idea.

“That’s exactly why we should try it. Who would even imagine we’d pull off something like that?”

“But that sounds way too dangerous…”

“It may sound dangerous, and it is. They’ve probably already got a list of customers in hand, so unfamiliar faces would raise suspicion, plus how would we disguise ourselves?”

Pointing out the obvious, Minho then revealed his so-called plan.

But it was flimsy. After having gone through the real underground market a few times, it felt laughable.

“You’re really gonna get away with that? Seriously, what would you do without me?”

At least, even if it was a disaster, it was fortunate I could help refine the plan.

 

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