EX rank supporting role’s replay in a prestigious school

Ever since she was a child, Dokgo Miro had one dream.

Whenever the young Dokgo Miro was asked about her future aspirations, she always answered without hesitation.

To be an idol.

Listening to songs, doing music, and performing on stage all looked great in the eyes of Dokgo Miro.

She had always been a good dancer since she was young, and although she was lacking in terms of singing skills, her voice wasn’t bad.

Seeing the talent in Dokgo Miro, her parents decided to support their daughter’s dream.

— You seem tired, Miro. Will you be okay?

— I heard that middle school students these days can become trainees already!

— Miro studied languages and cultures from all over the world since she was in kindergarten. She can communicate with anyone around the world without an interpreter… Wouldn’t that make it easier for her to become a trainee?

The precocious Dokgo Miro was preparing to reach for her dreams since kindergarten.

Dokgo Miro took steady steps toward her dream, but there were a lot of concerns for her as well.

When she entered middle school, Dokgo Miro posted a profile video to a famous entertainment agency and soon received a lot of positive responses.

However, no agency accepted Dokgo Miro as a trainee.

— I didn’t know that you possess energy wave.

— Players are a bit… Please contact me if your ability disappears.

— If you have had such powerful abilities since childhood, it’s very likely you’d still have them once you turn seventeen.

— Why would you waste your precious abilities?

They all thought that players should get a job related to their abilities.

After the Dark Ages, such unwritten rules existed openly in society.

Players who have weak abilities that aren’t enough to fight enemies stand little chance of getting non-player-related jobs.

The stronger the player, the harder it was for them to reach their personal dreams.

Of course, there were exceptions such as the Korean painting master Hong Kyungbok, and the blue violinist Kwon Jein.

Still, their worldwide recognition as artists was because they possessed great and rare talents and because their energy wave and abilities were directly used by their artistic talents.

Another reason was that they were born into a family of famous artists.

For Dokgo Miro who was born into an ordinary family yet possesses incredibly strong abilities, it’s impossible to follow in the two’s footsteps.

— Miro’s abilities and energy wave aren’t very common! But what about idols? Many of those kids look as cute and can dance and sing well like Miro.

— How many audition programs do you think Korea has in just one year? And how many people who don’t go through those audition programs debut? There are already so many singers and idols in Korea.

— Doesn’t Miro’s parents need to lead her well? Every year, there’s an article that comes out that says the number of professional players is insufficient.

— If a professional player comes from our school, wouldn’t it be good for everyone?

In the end, starting with Dokgo Miro’s elementary homeroom teacher, more and more people urged her to give up her dreams.

Because Dokgo Miro’s parents respected her dreams until the end, the homeroom teacher used her power.

To incite her classmates.

In time, not one of her classmates didn’t know that Dokgo Miro had player abilities, and Dokgo Miro was naturally isolated from everyone else.

When Dokgo Miro sang alone or danced in one corner of the playground, the other kids would either tell on her to the teacher or throw pieces of tissues at her.

After some time, the kids forgot their purpose of making Dokgo Miro give up on her dream of being an idol, and they ended up just bullying her.

By the end of the school year, every kid in her class didn’t want to be paired up with her.

Still, Dokgo Miro wasn’t shaken at all despite all the harassment she suffered thanks to the homeroom teacher.

— The Poisonous Bitch.

Even when the homeroom teacher said such words to Dokgo Miro, she just smiles.

Because her dreams weren’t in the hands of her teachers or classmates, but on top of that far-away stage.

When the new school year began, Dokgo Miro ended up in the same class with a child who was discriminated against for a different reason.

That child’s name was Hani.

* * *

Under the bright sunlight, the pink hair woven in two tones was shining in a mysterious color.

Dokgo Miro’s hair color was eye-catching, but so was her appearance and aura as an aspiring idol.

People often double-take when they pass by her.

‘She’s just wearing a Muji shirt and shorts, but she looks like a celebrity.’

Dokgo Miro, who looked up at the clock tower with the Eungwang High school ticket, seemed to be waiting for someone.

‘Should I go talk to her?’

However, before I could approach and talk to her, Dokgo Miro started running somewhere with a bright smile.

Even without using a skill, she ran at an incredible speed.

Following her gaze, I saw Hani and Gong Cheonghwon who were talking as they walked.

“Cheonghwon oppa! Hani! I missed you guys!”

Gong Cheonghwon looked a little shocked but still kept up his kind face.

On the other hand, Hani seemed to openly show her dislike.

Hani lagged behind them, and soon the three people disappeared from view.

I could go after them inside Eungwang High, but I had other plans for the afternoon.

‘Well, I’ll just check what happened to them once I’m done with my schedule.’

* * *

In the freshman’s room in the newspaper department’s office.

Before the end of the vacation, we decided to meet to look at the materials that we have and the draft articles accumulated so far.

As expected, Moon Saeron brought up Dokgo Miro.

“The one in the teaser video of Playlist is a kid from our school! I see she’s inside the campus today!”

The news-source Moon Saeron seems to already know that Dokgo Miro is in school today.

I expected Moon Saeron to have this kind of reaction once the pink-haired girl enters school.

“It seemed like she was going to have lunch with Prof. Cheonghwon and Hani. Does it look like she’s acquainted with the two? What do you think, Suspicious Vice President? Do you know anything?”

“She’s in my class.”

“Oho! Her name?”

Looks like Moon Saeron hasn’t found Dokgo Miro’s name or her detailed profile.

It’s understandable since the girl didn’t attend school.

Moon Saeron asked me and Jiho some questions and looked very satisfied after.

“She went to the same middle school as Hani? I guess it’s the elementary school in Gwangil that was featured in a big article.”

“What was the article about?”

“The teachers and the students were making a mess there. It’s also the first elementary school built by Eungwang District’s Workman, the Unrivaled Gukeon.”

The Unrivaled Gukeon was my playable character Sung Gukeon, who was now a lawmaker.

What does Sung Gukeon have to do with Hani’s elementary school?

“It was shortly after the Unrivaled Gukeon was elected and began his term.”

“Oh, that? I heard of that huge article when we were in 6th grade.”

“Our school was in a mess because of that too.”

The other freshmen added to the conversation.

It must’ve really been a big incident if the kids who were in 6th grade of elementary school back then still remember it.

“…”

Meanwhile, Hwang Jiho’s expression looked quite unpleasant as he listened.

Knowing that he conducted a deep investigation on Hani, I bet he already knew what happened.

‘It must’ve been difficult for an orphaned child from a nursery school, who has strong abilities despite her impaired hearing, to safely attend any elementary school.’

It’s rare for such students to spend their elementary school years without being bullied or discriminated against.

There may be some extremely lucky ones who were part of the exception, but I don’t think the kids that Hani interacted with in elementary school were considerate of her.

That’s expected of kids who are just starting to develop their social skills.

“But isn’t it a happy ending? They tried to frame a student, but in the end, they were terminated from their positions.”

They tried to frame a student?

I’m not quite sure of the details, but it’s obvious that it wasn’t a good thing.

“That’s just a temporary solution. The ones who were terminated from their positions would still be able to return any time.”

“You mean once the issue dies down, they’d be relocated to a job elsewhere?”

“They’ll still be well off. In time, that incident would just be another story they share during drinks.”

“Oh, I think I know what you mean. I almost screwed up because I tried to ruin my stupid and boring student life, but I’m over that phase now.”

“I bet they sleep soundly at night without even thinking about it.”

The kids in the newspaper department seemed to be well aware of what happened in that big incident.

The atmosphere got quite down, and Hwang JIho burst it with his loud mouth.

“Don’t worry. Those people won’t be able to live and eat well. They won’t be able to sleep with their feet stretched out either.”

Looks like Hwang Jiho already did something about those people.

‘I’m sure Hani’s related to the incident one way or another, so it’s entirely possible.’

There’s a possibility that those involved in the incident literally won’t be able to eat well because Hwang Jiho destroyed their teeth or their stomachs.

It’s also possible that they literally won’t be able to sleep with their feet stretched out because Hwang Jiho cut them off.

The kids had no idea what Hwang Jiho was saying, but they still didn’t like it because it came from the infamous crazy head.

They just said “I hope so,” and moved on.

After that, freshmen talked about the articles that we wrote during the first semester.

The most frequent subject of the articles was the trip with the Year Two Class Zero seniors.

Those caught up in all kinds of incidents posted photos and videos and held discussions on the extent of the articles that they’d write about it.

“I’m interested in this mysterious ‘thief’! We should put this ‘Phantom Thief’ on our newspaper’s front page!”

I felt a chill go down my spine as Moon Saeron said the word “thief.”

In the photo was my playable character wearing a flashy chaquetilla and fighting off someone with exaggerated gestures.

While my hands were curling from embarrassment, Moon Saeron continued talking.

“And do you know what this thief did? I looked up the items that were being sold at the secret auction.”

Moon Saeron floated a hologram that showed a press release by the British government and some famous museums.

In each photo, there was a word marked in red, all of which were English words referring to artworks.

“All of the artworks were returned to their rightful owners, or those without one were donated either to the government or museums. This course of action is somewhat… Isn’t there a similar thing that happened to Korea early this year? And the name was ‘thief’ too. Why don’t we write an article comparing the two?”

It’s rare for me to badly want to cover the mouth of a playable character of mine.

My hands seemed to be sweating.

In the end, that word came up.

“The Red Wall Thief!”

* * *

Heaton Park in Manchester, also known as the Second City of the United Kingdom.

Seodol, who was walking leisurely around Heaton Hall, stopped for a while to listen to his subordinates’ reports.

Seodol’s smile didn’t disappear as he listened to the reports.

The Rat Clan subordinate was anxious to see that smile.

“The Oath of the Three Knights was created for that reason. How interesting.”

“The official website of the Oath of the Three knights says that the purpose of their establishment is to eliminate enemies scattered around Europe.”

“Then they should stay in Europe. Why were they going nuts on me in China?”

Isn’t it that Seodol was the one wreaking havoc on the Oath of the Three Knights?

Seodol went to China to have fun, but he was caught up in an incident and attacked someone who appeared to be a member of the Oath of the Three Knights.

Seodol seemed to be deep in thought.

“That ‘oath’ was to kill ‘it’ wasn’t it? …What should I do? I kind of want to help them.”