Why Did I Have to Enroll

Chapter 105:

That evening, after distributing two talismans each to the new club members whose numbers had suddenly grown nearly fivefold and declaring the meeting adjourned,

Ban Yu-won was kidnapped by Mira before the Rebellion members could stop her.

To be precise, it was under the pretext of treating him to a meal as thanks for readily accepting the student council's request.

She even took him straight to Ronica, leaving the others, who weren't allowed to go to Ronica without Ban Yu-won, with no choice but to wait for his return while twiddling their thumbs.

"Luciel's going to get upset again."

"Luciel, that pink one... what's your relationship? She seems... to have particularly strong feelings for you."

As Ban Yu-won clinked his glass with the wine glass Mira offered, he shrugged his shoulders.

"Similar to yours."

"No wonder, this didn't seem like the work of someone who's only done one or two fraudulent contracts."

"Wasn't I the victim in Luciel's case? No, come to think of it, I feel like I was deceived by you too."

"Hey, are you leaving me out of the conversation?"

Come to think of it, Graham was here too.

While Mira pretended not to know him and turned her head away, Ban Yu-won smirked and clinked glasses with him as well.

Finally, Mira got annoyed.

"He should know when to excuse himself, really, such an obtuse man."

"Even though I made the restaurant reservation."

"Thank you, senior. As expected of student council members, you know many good places."

Although they first learned about it from Ketra, that cafe in the alley with its nice atmosphere and delicious drinks was a place frequently visited by student council members.

The place where they were seated now was also what you'd call a "hidden gem," offering delicious food and drinks at reasonable prices.

"The student council has a directory of good restaurants passed down through generations."

"That's really appealing."

"Join the student council. As planning director."

"Sounds like I'd be hanging around the PR director a lot."

"That's right."

Mira giggled and nodded.

Graham, sitting opposite Mira, shook his head, seemingly unable to get used to her expressions.

"They say women change when they're in love, but I never expected such a dramatic change."

"Love? Nothing so childish. That's only 10 percent."

Should Ban Yu-won be surprised that there was even 10 percent?

No, it was truly a novel development.

After all, they had made quite shocking impressions on each other that day.

It wasn't strange at all that this dark and heavy emotion Mira felt toward him contained about 10 percent love.

"Hmm? What about the other 90 percent?"

"That's our secret."

"A secret, huh."

To Graham, who knew nothing about Ban Yu-won and Mira's private circumstances or contract, her words must have sounded like some kind of joke.

Mira, her face slightly flushed perhaps from the alcohol, didn't bother to correct his misunderstanding and responded playfully while reaching under the table to hold Ban Yu-won's hand.

Of course, Graham, being a fully-fledged warrior, couldn't have missed such a movement, and though he momentarily showed an expression of disbelief, he soon shrugged and took a drink.

"So it's something more than that, is it. Well, congratulations. I... had thought you might have feelings for the vice president, but you look so natural with Ban Yu-won now that it's embarrassing to think I once thought you two would make a good match."

There was one thing Ban Yu-won still couldn't understand.

It was how Mira, who until recently had such deep love-hate feelings for Ketra that she would curse him, had now completely shed her emotions for him to the point where she didn't show any reaction when others mentioned him.

Could this be an after-effect of the curse backfire?

It was impossible to know for sure, but he thought that Mira's seemingly obsessive behavior toward Ban Yu-won might be influenced by this emotional void left by Ketra.

Of course, this wasn't something he could say to Mira herself.

"Graham, you... might lack tact, but you say some pretty decent things. Have a drink."

"I'm honored beyond words."

While Ban Yu-won was lost in these complex thoughts, Mira poured wine into Graham's glass.

Graham merely wet his lips with the drink before setting it down and

"It's a good thing to have someone who always cheers for you and supports you. Watching you two makes me miss my wife."

dropped this bombshell.

"Wife?!"

Ban Yu-won shouted in shock.

But Graham's attitude remained perfectly calm.

"I don't think it's that surprising that I have a wife. We're adults, and we have the freedom to marry."

"Oh, then where is your wife now..."

"She's in my hometown. She's pregnant."

"Uh... uh... uh..."

Ban Yu-won staggered, unable to process this series of shocking revelations.

Mira burst out laughing at his reaction and patted his shoulder.

"Ouch, that hurts. But who would have thought you were married..."

"There are quite a few others besides me."

"Holy..."

"Yes, when Union Academy students return home for their first-year summer vacation, they typically become the dimension's most eligible marriage candidates."

"I was engaged before I even enrolled," he added as he explained.

"From the moment you enroll in the Academy, it's basically proof that you're one of the dimension's finest talents. Usually, after summer break, more than 30% of students return as married men and women. I've even seen cases where someone came back with three spouses."

"Oh shit..."

At that point, Mira squeezed Ban Yu-won's hand tightly.

"Don't even dream about it."

"You keep making demands of me that weren't in the contract, Mira."

"Calm down, Mira. He'll be part of the remaining 70%."

"Speaking of which, you mentioned 30%. I can guess, but what about the 70%?"

"Those are the ones who find their spouses at the Academy."

"Of course..."

Since Union Academy was a place that gathered the dimension's finest talents, it was only natural that people would find their spouses here.

However, until now, Ban Yu-won had thought of Union Academy as something like a regular university, so when Graham mentioned finding spouses at the Academy, he felt like his whole world was crumbling.

Mira smirked at his reaction.

"Didn't you notice? Among that group of rookies earlier, one second-year and one fourth-year were seriously eyeing you."

"I don't want to believe it, but... me?"

"Yeah. ...Pink and I kept them in check though. How about that, aren't you grateful?"

"Thanks..."

Ban Yu-won's face turned pale.

He had no idea such things were happening.

His life was already set with having to embrace Luciel, and if on top of Mira, other people might try to attach themselves to him, he'd rather jump alone into the Exodus battleship.

"Actually."

That's when Graham dropped an unexpected comment.

"The vice president... Senior Ketra asked me for a favor."

"Hm?"

"She found it strange that you suddenly had a lover when she thought of you as a younger sibling. She asked me to observe the two of you discreetly and let her know if anything seemed off."

Ban Yu-won found himself nodding – it made sense.

After all, it wasn't just that Mira had clung to Ban Yu-won because she liked him; she'd even declared to Ketra that she was cutting ties.

But Mira snorted when she heard this.

"What does she take Yu-won for?"

"Well, senior cared about you that much. Of course, after watching you two, I can tell it's not the kind of relationship senior needs to worry about. Rather..."

"Rather?"

"Ban Yu-won, if Mira has some kind of leverage over you, you can tell me."

"Pfft—"

The only reason Ban Yu-won didn't make an unseemly display was because Mira threw bread at Graham first.

Thankfully, she still had some reason left.

If it had been a glass or soup, it would have been a disaster.

The sensible Graham skillfully caught the forcefully thrown bread before it could hit anything and cause trouble, biting into it.

"Delicious bread."

"...You know, I've always been annoyed by that aspect of 'Senior' Ketra. That's why I decided to cut ties now that I have a man. Get it, Graham?"

"I can see that you care a great deal about Ban Yu-won."

Graham calmly finished the bread and cleansed his palate with wine.

"Let's end this conversation here. I'd like to hear about what happened today. I need to write a report as secretary."

"You call yourself secretary, but the official title is Administrative Bureau Chief."

Those two titles gave quite different impressions.

But he liked how the student council, like any university student council, had unnecessarily fancy titles.

"How were they? Do you think the sub-channel will go well?"

"We've already set it up. We uploaded videos too... Oh."

Ban Yu-won took out his mirror to check UniTube and smiled with satisfaction.

While they said it would be influenced by the main channel's size, he had wondered how quickly a sub-channel starting from zero could gather attention, but it had already reached 500,000 subscribers.

Well, since the main channel had already surpassed 200 million and was heading toward 300 million, it wasn't strange to reach 500,000 if even a small percentage showed interest.

"The video responses are good too."

"What's the content?"

"Um... mainly fifteen seniors taking turns getting beaten by me."

Of course, it wasn't just sparring videos.

The first video introduced why they created the sub-channel and what kind of people would be active there and how.

Given the high interest in Academy students growing and achieving in the Tower, they thought the theme of developing previously stagnant students would definitely appeal to UniTube users, and that proved to be right.

Moreover, with Ayre, who occasionally appeared on the main channel, becoming a regular guest on the sub-channel, plus the addition of high-level mages Misty and Rushe who were also visually stunning, they'd created a setup that didn't lose to the main channel in terms of aesthetics!

"It seems like rather blatant pandering... Isn't the theme of student growth what's important?"

"Senior, men like pretty women and women like handsome men. If the thumbnail is pretty and good-looking, people will click. That's just how it is."

Anyway, the sub-channel was off to a good start, and from tomorrow, the Academy's attitude toward special admission students would have to change.

Of course, for a while, the voices mocking them would be louder.

Things like "Are you sucking up to juniors now that you're a senior?" and "How pathetic to see these bugs struggling," and so on.

But when their growth truly accelerates to a visible degree... they won't be able to laugh anymore.

That's when Ban Yu-won would start getting his money's worth.

"By the way, today's video MVP was third-year senior Woo Hyeol-rin. He was the only one who beat me. I think he'll probably be the most popular on the sub-channel for a while."

"That guy's always been famous."

Graham nodded at Mira's words.

"The seniors seriously considered recruiting him for the student council. It's not easy to achieve this much as a special admission student. Especially his combat results are outstanding."

"And probably..."

Mira, narrowing her eyes and hesitating slightly, caught Ban Yu-won's gaze and spoke honestly.

"He has a contract with the same constellation as me."

"Ah, the Curse."

"Yeah."

Mira nodded lightly.

Graham tilted his head, not understanding why Mira was associated with the curse, but Mira continued without minding him.

"You know how people who contract with this constellation are generally unpleasant. You're already involved with me, so be careful not to get too involved with this guy too."

"You're really going all out, not being afraid of the constellation, woman."

"Because you'll protect me."

Speaking so naturally, as water flows from high to low, while firmly holding Ban Yu-won's hand, Mira's behavior left Ban Yu-won speechless.

As a bonus, Graham was also at a loss for words.

"...Are you telling me to disappear quickly?"

"That's right."

At Mira's unhesitating declaration, Graham let out a grand sigh and emptied his glass.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd at least let me finish my meal. In exchange, I'll tell you about a bar with good atmosphere."

"Hmm, okay. I'll let you."

Ban Yu-won looked at Mira and shrugged helplessly while thinking about Graham, who was secretly giving him a thumbs up.

That someday he wanted to become a cool married man like that too.