My Taboo Academy

With the dummy measurement finished, it was finally lunchtime.

The spicy stir-fried pork at the student cafeteria was excellent.

Today I also bought Elle seafood pasta to repay the money I borrowed yesterday.

Nine coins spent. Remaining balance: 45 coins.

"You really didn’t have to."

"I’m just returning the favor."

"Favor...? The chest one?"

"If letting me touch her chest counted as a favor, then yes, it was a very generous one."

"..."

"If you’re going to get that shy, don’t bring it up."

"I’m embarrassed..."

"I meant the favor of covering for me when I was about to get expelled."

The fact that I could still walk around the academy freely was entirely thanks to Elle.

From her point of view, I was probably the kind of person who would have disappeared if she had just left me alone.

"Why did you decide to defend me back then?"

"..."

"You don’t have to answer if it’s difficult."

A single meal wasn’t nearly enough to repay her. I planned to do a lot more.

I felt like I should stay by Elle’s side for a while.

Still, I wasn’t sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that I, the protagonist of an erotic game has gotten attached to the girl known for her "depraved and perverted body.

I kept worrying that Lustbound was just waiting to throw another random erotic event at us.

"Can I sit here?"

At that moment Aria quietly took the seat next to me.

"Aren’t those your friends over there?"

She looked at me, a little puzzled.

"I decided to eat with Elle today."

"Then why are you sitting next to me?"

"..."

I could feel the silent question, "Are you really just going to let this slide?"

"Should I move?"

"Please sit, Your Highness. Allow me to offer a tribute to calm your anger."

I pushed some of my spicy pork toward her.

"Hmmm. I have tofu. Want some?"

Time to exchange side dishes, as promised.

"I don’t mind."

"I can’t handle spicy food."

"Then Elle can give you dumplings. Just no shrimp, okay?"

"Sure. I like dumplings."

We started tasting each other’s food.

Honestly the tofu wasn’t bad either.

"Have you two prepared for the next class?"

"What’s the next class?"

"You really know how to live life at a leisurely pace, Ren."

"Was that a D-class comment?"

I opened the Academy app and checked. The afternoon session was dungeon exploration.

"Are we going outside or something?"

"Outside? What do you mean?"

Aria explained in detail, remembering that I was the student who had barely attended classes. Surprisingly, the academy had a system that generated dozens of dungeon entrances. Was I the only one who didn’t know this?

"Isn’t that dangerous? What’s the point of having dungeons inside the academy?"

"So students can grow safely. There’s nothing more dangerous than diving into the real world with no preparation."

"It’s a controlled environment?"

"Exactly. Compared to the dungeons that appear in remote areas, the ones that form inside the academy have far fewer anomalies. It’s one of the main characteristics of the terrain."

’Fewer anomalies.’

In other words, the chance of something truly dangerous happening was relatively low.

"Is it different in other countries?"

"Very. Transcendent beasts roam freely, and travel bans get updated every month."

"So competent hunters are needed everywhere."

A hunter’s status clearly carried a lot of weight.

That also meant the rewards could be substantial.

’Everything is starting to make sense.’

The protagonist of Lustbound grows by collecting Fleshlights.

The reason for that strange ability must be to turn a complete D-class failure into a proper hunter.

The ultimate goal of the game was still to build a harem, of course.

There had to be plenty of heroines in the hunter industry.

Aria, as a professional hunter, was clearly one of them.

This felt like one of the standard routes.

’This has to be the right path.’

My friend,the guy whose computer got me into this world was useful in moments like this.

After more than two hundred hours of playtime, Lustbound was clearly more than just an erotic game. It was a full simulation that included character growth.

In that case, the honest "Hunter Route" suited me best. I had already given up on the idea of a stable, normal job. High risk, high return. Becoming a wealthy hunter was the goal. As long as I could avoid routes like "Villain" or "The Worst Fleshlight Man," everything would be fine.

"Anything else you want to know?"

Despite everything, Aria had a caring personality. She helped me without showing any irritation. The slightly proud look on her face was actually kind of cute.

"Does fewer anomalies mean dungeons here are easy?"

"Basically yes. That’s why there are so many prestigious academies in our country. The environment is full of relatively weak dungeons. In places like USA you start at A-rank minimum, so raising newcomers is extremely hard."

It made sense. A level-1 slime should appear in front of a brand-new adventurer. If you threw level-80 dragons at them from the start, they would just die.

"By the way, have you been locked up somewhere this whole time? You’re asking things you could easily learn from the news."

"I was watching anime at home."

I answered casually. The moment I mentioned anime, Aria lost interest in questioning me further.

"What anime?"

Elle suddenly joined in. I hadn’t expected an academy girl to be interested in animation.

"Yeah, what anime? What anime?"

She looked like she would be genuinely disappointed if I admitted I had never watched any anime from this world.

What should I say?

"It’s full of beautiful girls, so Elle probably wouldn’t know it."

I tried steering toward a genre most girls usually avoided.

"Is it a Casual Otherworldly Romance?"

I had completely underestimated Elle’s dedication.

She instantly named a popular beautiful-girl anime.

"K-pop lives?"

"I like the title, at least."

"It’s insanely popular. Number one on Anifae every year! If you haven’t watched it, you absolutely have to!"

As expected, pure love was still the mainstream taste in this world.

I had been worried that everyone secretly enjoyed hypnosis and tentacle content just because Lustbound sat at the top of the adult game charts.

It was strangely comforting to realize that pure love was still a shared value.

"You haven’t seen it? Then want to watch it together at my house? I have the collector’s edition from episode 1 all the way to 152. We can binge the whole thing!"

"No, not that many episodes at once."

Elle had never spoken with such a bright, lively voice before!

"Then just a sample. Episode 1... no, ’that scene’ starts in episode 4. At least up to episode 4. Episode 4 is the best because Director Sakamoto handled both the art and the direction."

The heroine is so cute my heart is in danger.

As Elle passionately talked about the series, I could only stare in mild awe. Aria, unable to join the conversation, quietly focused on her tofu while glancing between the two of us.

’So this is the kind of thing she’s into...’

It suddenly made sense. With her figure and the way her bangs partially hid her face, I had wondered why the game painted her as a nerdy heroine. Now there was a clear reason.

As a fellow serious otaku, I understood the disappointment of having a shared-interest invitation rejected.

"Alright. Let’s watch it together."

"Really? Really? When? What time? How many minutes? I already know the ending, but I’ll pretend I don’t!"

"This weekend?"

"Yes! This weekend!"

Just like that, I agreed to an anime-watching session with my female classmate. Since the genre was pure love, there was no reason to refuse.

After saying yes, I couldn’t help wondering if this counted as a strategy option. A wry smile tugged at my lips.

"Hehe."

If that was the case, marriage already seemed to be on the table. I was genuinely a little worried. She looked like the type who could easily get pulled into something bad by the wrong guy. I would have to keep an eye on her.

Of course, that didn’t mean I planned to use every opportunity to touch her chest. As long as we stayed normal friends, there was no reason for that.

Our first meeting had been messy, but if I stayed careful, we could keep a good relationship without triggering more random erotic events.

In the afternoon, Class 2-F returned to the indoor training ground. Students collected their gear from the lockers. Elle carried a thick, dark-brown staff that looked like a wall, while Aria carefully equipped a custom belt over her school uniform and gloves to protect her hands.

It was a clear improvement from her rushed preparation during the last expedition.

Still, in my eyes, heading into a dungeon while wearing a school uniform that left the thighs completely bare looked both dangerous and tough.

The important part was that both of them were far better prepared than I was.

I was the only one standing there in nothing but a hoodie.

"What’s this, Ren? Don’t you have any gear?"

Aria looked genuinely surprised.

"..."

There was a men’s magazine in my locker, Would that help in a dungeon?

I felt like a pitiful student who couldn’t afford proper equipment because of family circumstances.

That miserable aura must have triggered Aria’s class-representative instincts.

"There’s still time. Follow me!"

She grabbed my hand and pulled me along without waiting for an answer.

"Uh...Elle, I’ll be back in a bit."

We left the training ground and turned a corner in the hallway. A female student who looked like she hadn’t slept in days was guarding a door.

"Aria? What’s going on?"

"Can I take a look at the gears?"

"Ren Asahi? He’s only Rank D. Isn’t it a bit early?"

"He doesn’t even have basic equipment. Look at him."

I felt a little embarrassed.

The girl looked me up and down, then sighed.

"He probably won’t know how to use any of it... but fine. Let him try."

"Yes!"

When the door opened, I froze.

An armory?

Weapons and armor were displayed by category in neat rows.

Students who looked like they belonged to an artisan group were inspecting weapons, checking inventory, and doing various maintenance tasks.

"This is Academy Building B’s workshop. It has the widest selection of available weapons."

"I can buy weapons here?"

"Yeah. How about something like this?"

Aria immediately picked up a sword.

Honestly, I had zero confidence I could use a sword as well as she did.

More importantly,

’It doesn’t match Soul Excretion.’

From the little experience I had, Soul Excretion worked best with weapons that delivered impact.

Sharp weapons didn’t suit it as well.

I could trigger the effect through simple contact, but it felt most satisfying when paired with a solid shock to the enemy’s body.

That was why I had put so much effort into punching the training dummy earlier.

In real combat it would be much harder.

"Take a look around."

Then a different weapon caught my eye.

The modern answer to almost every problem: a gun.

In my mind I was already the John Wick of this world, an action-movie professional.

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