The easiest way to infiltrate a place was to pretend to belong there by fitting in.

  But Vic wasn’t here to infiltrate a school or to fit in it.

  She entered through the main door, and got immediately stopped a few feet from the entrance by a somewhat familiar face.

  There was an adult there staring at her. He’d gone from a smiling, peaceful composure made out of comfortable habit, watching students enter one by one, waiving a hand sometimes, to slowly losing the smile, slowly, slowly, until it was all reduced to only a look of vague horror with wide open eyes. He didn’t seem to be noticing the flow of late students anymore.

  There was her, and there was the adult.

  Oh! Right! Principal Lunbumster, wasn’t it? He’d been a judge; a recruiter in disguise for the cult.

  She stopped one metre away from him. She smiled evilly like a lazy cat.

  “Hello”, she said. “Nice, beautiful morning, isn’t it?”

  “Victorya”, he said strangely. He gave a sidelook to two other adults on the side of the doorway, and made a hand motion that she didn’t understand. Were they guards? Teachers? Hm. They backed off anyway.

  “Bumpster man”, she said, smiling. “Tis been a while, hasn’t it? Last time I saw you, I hadn’t been paid by your boss.”

  She tapped her backpack, tinkling noisily with its flow of coins.

  “I had heard of your predicament”, he shortly said. He seemed to straighten up to take more space at the extremely large entrance door. It didn’t matter how much space he took. He’d never take enough place to block her path.

  “Or so you have”, she said with another smile.

  “What are you doing here?” the principal asked. He wasn’t nervous, no, no… it was different. He had no clue what was going on.

  She did have the mask Alberon had asked her to wear. Although it wasn’t on her face, but on her left shoulder. She’d tied it up with some extra twine to make it look like an obnoxiously big and cumbersome shoulder pad. It would resemble the one who’d given it to her.

  She tilted her head fully to one side. She wanted to be the best possible representation of mild amusement.

  “You did tell me I was welcome here, didn’t you?” she asked. She watched her nails. Hm. Clean enough, by her standards. Heheh. “You were so insisting too, like the high priest…”

  “Emperor Alberon…” he cautiously said, so incredibly careful with his words. He was so careful he didn’t finish his sentence.

  “Ah yes”, Vic said, she then stepped closer, looking up, and spoke hushedly. “He sent me. I’m here as an undercover inspector. No one knows about me. That’s to be expected.”

  “He what”, he asked. He was taken aback, stark clear eyes staring down at her like she’d said a terrible thing against the sake of his entire curriculum.

  “Yeah, he told me to come here specifically”, she said. “You do have a problem, there, don’t you?”

  “A problem”, the principal asked. He seemed less taken aback.

  Yeah, that was vague enough. Everyone had problems. Saying someone had a problem was like telling a human being or an elf that they had a mouth and eyes and a nose. And perhaps even a body, too.

  Heheh. Anyway, she hadn’t let the npc give her a quest. She’d given herself the quest.

  She was so smart.

  “Yeah yeah, I’m here to fix stuff. Don’t worry about it, principal. That’s what I do. I’m the handiest highschooler around. I’ll hand you back your school all fixed and shiny. As the god emperor commands. Whatever.”

  Yeah. She sure wasn’t going to break anything while here. Hmph hmph! She had no reason to.

  The principal swallowed.

  “Isn’t it… a bit early, after having recovered so soon?” he said. “Should I… Should I contact someone within the order to at least accompany you?” He stopped, and it looked like his mouth was a bit dry. “In case you… falter, of course… Victorya.”

  “NO neeeeeed!” Vic said, gesticulating a bit. She began flexing her hands, making sparks of magic blow around them. “I’m fiiiine! Fixed and shiny! I got rid of the puppet god for y’all! No, don’t look at me that way. Wait. He didn’t spread the word? Holy shit. That bastard. Of course he wouldn’t. Ugh, I’m gonna have to have words with Alberon of all people.”

  Principal Bump stared at her for a bit too long of a time.

  “You’re… going to have words… with… Emperor Alberon”, he repeated slowly.

  “Yeah, he still sucks ass”, she said. “He really needs a reminder. It’s for the best.”

  The Principal stared at her.

  “What is your relation to his Holiness?” he said quietly, eyes cast down to her.

  Vic smiled.

  “He owes me”, she said. It wasn’t even a lie. She’d made him save so much money in collateral damages with the puppet god. “That’s all you need to know.”

  “If you say so”, the principal said. Wow damn, he had half a brain. He hadn’t immediately trusted her. Holy shit.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  She stepped back several times in a comical way.

  “Oh no! No, no, I can’t believe you don’t trust me…” she said. She hid her face away between fingers and stared at the principal through the gaps she made from time to time in between her fingers.

  Students still passed by them, some staring, some rushing faster. Vic only noticed then that there was a noise cancelling spell working around her and the principal. Wow, he’d been a sneaky caster. When had he done that?

  Why hadn’t he taken part of the fight that Alberon and his religious goons had brought to her? That would have been super useful to her opponents.

  Wait… had he actually fully taken part of it and been sneaky enough that she’d never noticed him?

  She squinted.

  She suddenly really needed to know.

  He was still staring at her.

  “It was you”, she said accusingly.

  The principal startled.

  “Excuse me?” he asked. He sounded genuinely confused.

  “You did the thing during the fight where I was facing the cult here”, she said.

  “The thing.” he said dryly. “Whatever do you mean, youth?”

  Vic squeezed tightly her fist and suddenly batted her hand as though to express what she was referring to.

  “The thing! During the fight! You were in it. I recognize it now”, she said.

  Holy shit. She really hoped she was right about this hunch or this would be incredibly awkward.

  “What have you… recognized?” he asked.

  “You were stealthy. Damn, nearly can’t believe it”, she said. “It really was you.”

  He smiled tightly.

  “Do you mind explaining what phenomenon specifically you are speaking of?

  “No. Can’t do. I’m here to learn at school how to do that. I’m no good at explaining myself. I can’t help it, but ah, I could learn”, Victorya said.

  “I thought you were here as an inspector, Victorya”, he said. He was squinting.

  “I am here officially as a disagreeable no good student that’s here to learn something but won’t try hard enough. That’s the big lie”, she said uncaringly. “A most likely, excellent cover story.”

  He stared.

  Hopefully he wouldn’t call the magical cops on her. Oh woe, what would she do if that ever happened?

  “Emperor Alberon has told me you were likely to relapse”, the principal said. “That you needed to recover first and foremost to rebuild the fortress of your mind.”

  Victorya snorted.

  “Emperor Alberon is full of himself and oversteps. Such is the nature of gods. Probably. I haven’t asked them all personally”, she said.

  After a little moment, he spoke.

  “Are you certain this is wise?” he said. He did sound benevolent enough. But like all people within a cult, they were all full of deceit. A good mentor-like figure at school with no ulterior motives? A well-meaning professor in an academic field? In her own dark fantasy isekai story? That was as unlikely as her getting her own happy ending.

  “Wise? Pff”, Vic chortled. “No.”

  She stepped up. She now knew he’d let her pass. In her own imagination, she’d already pictured a successful charisma check. The dices had landed.

  “Necessary?” she said, passing at his side, “Definitely.”

  ___

  Arms behind her back, squeezed between her bag and old cloak, she walked through the hallway, the latter’s frayed ends fluttering a bit with each of her footsteps.

  She saw some students frowning at her, but looking away. It was very likely that no one recognized her because no snotty highschoolers would have met her in the middle of battle. It was technically good to know that this city only sent adults to the meatgrinder. Once more, Alberon’s stuff ended up being just slightly above average, just like he was. Mid. Very mid. That guy was painfully mid.

  On a similar train of thought, Vic wasn’t wearing a uniform like all those students. Theirs looked weirdly medieval, huh. Fancy robes.

  “Ew, how did that sweaty beggar get in”, she heard someone whisper a bit too loud from a group of girls she passed by. “Did that girl get picked straight up from her dump by one of those scholarships?” Vic didn’t acknowledge it but cringed internally. Holy shit. Bad vibes. Bad vibes all around. It was like she was right back at school.

  The judgemental tone had hopped from one dimension to the other. Truly universal.

  She suppressed a shiver.

  She’d rather die than look at that group. Nope. No eye contact. If she didn’t look, they’d leave her alone. There would be no blood to be smelt on her. Those sharks would leave her alone, no matter what.

  Vic accelerated her walking pace.

  Why had she come here in the first place? This was a bad idea all around.

  “They’d really do anything for talent, huh. It’s really time they stopped pushing that”, the same voice as before said with a ‘tsk’. “No offence against you, Thalis, you do have class in your own undesirable way, and it still shines despite your fl- uh, Thalis?”

  Vic blinked and slowed down for barely a second. Where had she heard that name before?

  “Thaliiiis?” the mean girl’s voice repeated. “Skies to eaaaarth, Thalis, I’m speaking to you… What are you even-”

  “Cassandra”, Vic heard. It was said very quietly, as though she were panicking but badly managing to hide it. Vic stopped. She knew that voice. She did not move. She did not turn her head towards the group.

  “What, princess, why are you brooding all of a sudden? Why so formal?” the girl answered.

  Vic started slowly turning her head towards the group. She was doing it so slowly that she was barely moving a few degrees per second.

  “That’s- that’s-”, that Thalis said. “That’s her”.

  Vic turned her head fully towards the group in one abrupt movement. If she were a door, she’d have creaked.

  Vic now had a Stepford smile plastered on her face, teeth bared in a demented grin.

  What the fuck. How was she supposed to run from this interaction now? No, no, calm down Vic. She’d known that Thalis. That second place star student knew what her real power level was. Over- Over 9000! This was- fine. This was incredibly fine. She wouldn’t get bullied no matter what. It was mathematically impossible.

  “That’s who? Come on, Thalis, stop playing around. Your enigmatic soulful stares aren’t doing much for me”, the teen who’d spoken to the failed star student said with a disinterested terrifying tone. Said star student abruptly tugged on her friend’s sleeve.

  There was no need for T-posing, she’d already asserted her dominance by nearly blowing up the god’s town in an incredible display of fireworks. The second place scorer would relay that information, and she’d be fine. Right? Right… Right?!

  Vic kept smiling tightly with all her teeth. She felt how stiff her muscles were turning. She was perfectly still. Like a perfect corpse.

  “Cass, everyone, let’s just leave”, that Thalis said. The girl was staring at Vic with an incredible intensity. There was terror, hidden somewhere. She probably was about to run off to the principal or something.

  Wait… would it be better if Thalis didn’t tell anyone a thing? That way she could fly under the radar… But no, wait, that would mean that there would be people that would still think that they could try bullying poor little her to assert their social status or something…

  Cassandra gave her a stereotypical haughty elf look while the rest of the little group, made of only good looking, elegant students, shrugged. There was an uneasiness there, but they simply didn’t seem to understand what Thalis was refusing to tell them.

  It was probably hard, considering that she was trying to tell them that they were being stared at by a “murderous demi-god” that she’d previously been thoroughly humiliated by during the last spell contest she’d participated in. Admitting weakness was a terrible trial, she knew that.

  And it was probably even harder, because she was also trying to communicate all that without making said “murderous demi-god” snap, because said “murderous demi-god” was staring at them from a few metres away with a murderous smile that invited bullshit its way to chomp down on it with a vengeance.

  Sadly, Thalis didn’t say anything more and suddenly stepped away without giving a glance back. The group seemed startled, one of them even giving a look at Vic, like he was trying to understand why Vic was making his popular friend have such a strong reaction.

  Vic hadn’t stopped smiling like an insane Cheshire cat.

  “What a freak” Cassandra said in an amused tone.

  Vic flinched.

  Cassandra smirked.

  “See you lateeeer, freak”, Cassandra said, playfully pulling her tongue out. “I bet I’m going to see you a lot from now on. Can’t wait to see you agaaaain!”

  And Cassandra turned around.

  Some members of the group chuckled in good humour.

  They walked away, chatting light-heartedly, going deeper into a corridor like they knew where they were going.

  Vic realised she had no choice. It was nearly tragic.

  She needed to assert her dominance like a brave alpha wolf.

  It was… It was tragic. The choice, that choice had been robbed from her. She was now just a slave to what was supposed to happen. Call it Fate or “roleplaying too hard”. There was something within Victorya that she couldn’t allow to break.

  She had no choice but to follow behind the group. To remind them of their mortality.

  She started striding whimsically behind the group, not having once let go of her Stepford smile.

  It only took them seconds to realise that they were being followed.