An Angel Lives in the Academy
Chapter 157: The Angel Who Crossdresses (7)

Flash—

In the dawn, before the sun even rises. Green eyes pierce through the darkness.

“Ughhhh…”

Leffrey stretches out his hands while making a small groan.

‘I only slept for five hours. I should change clothes and go back to sleep…’

He hurriedly took off his pajamas. His white skin shimmered under the faint moonlight. Quickly, he put on a white blouse, worried that someone might see him.

‘Good, top’s done.’

Now comes the real challenge. The bottom.

Leffrey glanced at the sleeping Lucera. It was hard to see her clearly in the darkness, but judging by the steady movement of her silhouette, she must be sound asleep.

Perhaps shadows fell well in that spot.

If you want to be able to sleep soundly, it’s best to have your bed somewhere that isn’t exposed to light.

Lucera, Lucera.

A girl with not even a hint of dark karma, pure and untainted. Who would have thought that he would hear those crazy words from such a child.

‘Falling to hell if you lose your purity…’

What an incredibly conservative belief.

Even for a missionary school like St. Lucia Academy, run by the Church.

‘But seriously, d-do I really have to wear this kind of underwear?’

There was no choice.

St. Lucia Academy, as a conservative religious academy, had a strict dress code and standardized not just uniforms but even underwear. To avoid problems when doing the laundry later, Leffrey also had to wear this kind of underwear.

This kind of women's underwear, at that.

‘I’m not a pervert…!’

The pitiful plea of Leffrey, the Pervert Angel.

Of course, no one was listening.

Anyway, Leffrey changed underwear while squirming under the blanket. Now it was time for the skirt.

It was a traditional Church-style skirt, and just like the skirts of old, it had to be tied to be worn.

Leffrey tightly ties the knots on both sides of the skirt that reaches up to his waist.

‘Did I get the front and back right?’

After finishing getting dressed, just as he was about to go back to sleep, Leffrey couldn't help but have that thought.

He changed in the dark, so did he get the skirt's front and back correct?

‘The front of the skirt has a small emblem of the Church. I have to wear it with that emblem in the front…’

However, he couldn’t check in the dark. To check, he would have to get up and go to the window where the moonlight shone.

‘If Miss Lucera wakes up and notices that the front and back are wrong, it’ll be a disaster. I have to check now.’

Let's think about it.

Chirp- chirp- Lucera and Leffrey waking up to the sounds of birds singing. And then Lucera points out that he has his skirt on backwards.

If she points it out, then he'll have to change.

And to change, he would have to take off his bottom.

Then…

‘Gulp.’

Yes, that would be a disaster. He might accidentally reveal things that shouldn't be seen to an innocent girl.

Rustle—Gently pushing the blanket away, Leffrey carefully stood up so as not to wake Lucera.

Tiptoe, tiptoe—Using his superhuman Agility, Leffrey arrived at the moonlit window without making a single creak.

And when he checked his skirt…

‘As expected, I put it on backwards!’

If he hadn't checked, it would have been a disaster.

Leffrey quickly began to change his skirt.

Quickly untying the knots under the moonlight, he hurriedly pulled down the skirt and…

“…Miss Laffrey?”

…was getting caught by his roommate in that position.

“Lu-Lucera?”

A life-or-death crisis. It was no different from encountering one of the Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings.

‘No, it’s actually even more dangerous than that since I’ll definitely be socially assassinated…!’

But there's still hope.

For now, Leffrey’s back was facing Lucera, and…

…You can’t be discovered if they can’t see your front.

“What are you doing?”

“Ah.”

Leffrey’s little brain began to work overtime.

He organized his thoughts, desperately trying to find the perfect excuse.

‘I was changing because I didn’t want to be discovered as a boy.’ That was the truth, so obviously rejected. ‘I have a habit of sleeping in my uniform.’ Does that even make sense? Rejected. ‘The moonlight was so beautiful that I just…’ What am I, Fergus? Rejected.

(TL Note: Is this a Fate reference? Man… I never read fate…)

“Miss Laffrey?”

What kind of excuse should he use?

What excuse could help overcome this crisis?

Feeling his hands growing damp with sweat,

Leffrey casually finished putting on the skirt.

“…That’s why.”

“Pardon?”

“The uniform is so pretty, I couldn’t wait until tomorrow morning, so I tried it on now.”

And this was the answer Leffrey came up with.

To exploit Lucera’s academy pride.

“The St. Lucia Academy uniform is so much prettier than ours. It kept popping into my head when I tried to sleep, so I just wanted to try it on.”

“Ah, so that's what it was.”

The girl's excited voice.

The way she beamed with a silly smile was a bit scary.

‘The incredibly beautiful St. Lucia Academy uniform that will shock the entire world! Central Academy, are you watching? This is why St. Lucia Academy is so respected!’

He could almost hear the *bbee-syung, bba-syung* sound effects playing in the background.

(TL Note: Basically in Korea there’s a meme called ‘Idiot TV’ or ‘병맛TV’ that satirizes mass-produced slop videos on YouTube, the videos were most often than not are like yellow journalism. Most of the YouTube channel in Korea that made these slop had names like …TV or …YouTube at the end of their name.)

“Our uniform is quite pretty. I didn’t know that even someone from the Central Academy would recognize that.”

“How could anyone not recognize it when it’s so beautiful.”

“Many just think it's neat and proper, so I thought you wouldn't know.”

And so began Lucera's praise of the uniform.

‘Somehow, I think I managed to get away with it.’

Watching the sun rising in the distance, Leffrey could only keep nodding to Lucera's words while hiding his dark circles.

* * *

“Heeeng…”

A girl was sitting on the grass eating her lunch. The girl looked a little tired.

However, the fact that she was tired couldn't overshadow how truly beautiful she was.

Golden hair that fell to her shoulders.

The color was warm rather than flashy.

Her emerald green eyes radiated even more vitality than the surrounding grass, and her white skin that sparkled in the sunlight was flawless.

Glances, glances—

Even in this school of only girls, this girl's beauty drew attention from those around her.

Even though she was simply wearing the uniform without any adornments.

“It’s only the second day.”

The girl, or rather the boy named Leffrey, muttered while eating a triangle kimbap. And then a girl sat down next to the boy.

“Leffrey, Leffrey!”

“Whaaaat…?”

“I did some initial investigation using my familiars.”

The girl was Soya, an always confident black mage who never hid her identity, even in a Church-run academy where black magic was despised.

“Familiars? Ah, right.”

Investigation with familiars.

It was one of the Volunteer Club’s strategies to find the Fallen Hero.

“What? You forgot? It's much more efficient than those other girls’ primitive methods!”

“Primitive? Soya, be careful of your words!”

“Hmph.”

However, Leffrey couldn't scold Soya any further.

If this girl had come this far so confidently, it meant she must have found a clue, right?

He couldn't help but have such expectations.

“Anyway Soya, did you find anything?”

“No.”

But expectations exist to be betrayed.

“…You didn't find anything? Haah. Let's just eat.”

“It’s too early to be disappointed. The fact that I didn’t find anything is a clue in itself.”

Didn’t find anything, therefore it’s a clue?

What could that possibly mean?

“I told you, right? I’m going to use black magic to control rats and bugs, then spy on the rumors and gossip circulating among the students.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I succeeded. There were a lot of rumors and gossip, but none of them were related to the Fallen Hero. There wasn’t even anything dark or pessimistic.”

Soya continued speaking with a confident expression.

“Does that even make sense?”

“What doesn’t?”

“No! I mean, there’s so many girls our age here, how can there be nothing dark or pessimistic?!”

Does it not make sense?

Leffrey tilted his head.

“That doesn't make sense at all! There has to be some kind of darkness in any human society.”

“…Right.”

“Leffrey, there are no paradises in this world.”

Leffrey looked around. A grassy field with a gentle breeze blowing. The students of St. Lucia Academy happily chatting without a care in the world.

Truly a paradise-like scenery.

“A paradise, a place without darkness, cannot exist.”

But there are no paradises in this world.

“The Fallen Hero must be doing something.”

“Right. This abnormally peaceful academy environment must be the work of some hostile force. They’re probably doing this because they’ve noticed us.”

“Then why, why would they even create something like this?”

Soya, lost in thought, muttered “Black mage deep in thought…” as she furrowed her brows.

“Magically speaking…”

“Magically speaking?”

“It’s a preparatory stage. A preparatory stage to activate some kind of spell.”

Soya's explanation continued.

“If they wanted to buy time by escaping from us, then they would have created a doppelganger and left this academy. A doppelganger created with power granted by the Demon King would be hard for us to distinguish…”

“And even if we did, we would have wasted a lot of time.”

“Right. Then they could have immediately achieved their goal of awakening as a fallen hero. If they had done it that way, it would have been really dangerous.”

Soya sighed.

“If St. Lucia Academy had been normal, and we couldn’t find the Fallen Hero right away, I would have taken you and left immediately. Because the Fallen Hero would have already escaped.”

Soya continued.

“But they didn’t. The Fallen Hero remained in this academy and is now turning it into a false paradise.”

“So she’s definitely inside this academy.”

Soya proudly puffed up her small shoulders.

“How about that? My deduction skills?”

“As expected, the Black Mage is the best! Always new and exciting!”

“Hmmm. J-just a little more.”

Leffrey patted Soya's head while exclaiming.

“Our cutest Soya is the best in the world!”

“Ughhh, too much.”

Though she says that, the corners of her mouth are slightly turning up, showing she doesn't dislike it at all.

“But a false paradise. Why would they create something like this?”

“I told you. It's just a hypothesis, but it’s a preparatory stage for some kind of spell.”

“Then what kind of spell could it be?”

Leffrey asked while continuing to pat Soya.

The sight of Leffrey, who appeared to be a girl on the outside, patting the cute witch Soya was enough to warm anyone's heart.

“Logically speaking… a phenomenon like paradise cannot exist in the real world. Therefore, the world will try to correct that paradise by applying pressure.”

“Pressure?”

“Pressure, simply put, is the force that tries to bring this paradise down to the level of our world. It's a force that corrects errors.”

Our world, huh.

Does she mean that world on the verge of destruction, filled with injustice, corruption, madness, and darkness.

“It feels like they’re going to use that power to do something…”

Although Leffrey was the Stupid Angel, he immediately realized that this ‘pressure’ thing was dangerous.

‘That pressure probably refers to a tremendous amount of dark karma.’

Just what does the fallen hero plan to do with that immense dark karma?

“…I guess I have no choice but to use this method.”

Leffrey took out two decks of cards from his chest.

One was a deck of playing cards.

And the other was a deck of tarot cards.

Both were genuine angel-approved products he had swiped from Iriel’s castle.

“…It's a good thing I’m crossdressing.”

It was time for him to become Leffrey, the Card Angel.