Surviving as the Second Main Lead: Second Lead's POV

There was one tradition of Esper’s academy that no one was allowed to skip - the newcomer's entrance ceremony.

It was the time when the next shining cast of representatives was shown off for the first time. And as tradition, the top 3 would be singled out. Everyone was excited about such an occasion.

Currently, the trio that stood on the center stage had gained the honor of being the top 3 this year. But everyone was busy looking at Howard Spencer, the first person to ever top the entrance exam with a perfect score.

He was the biggest piece of news this year and everyone was looking forward to getting to know him.

Howard, who watched everyone look at him with expecting eyes could not help but sigh. He could feel everyone’s greed when they looked at him.

‘I guess I should have toned down my power. I feel like a zoo animal out for observation.’

Howard looked toward his right side where two more people were standing. They were well-known by Howard but he did not know to approach them.

Jack had given him a run down on his classmates and their potential. He also had been *instructed* to bring any useful person to his side and these two landed right on top of his list.

“Howard Spencer, come up here and address your new schoolmates.”

Howard sighed and prepared to go up the podium. Jack had prepared him a well-written speech which Howard had learned by heart. He could even recite it in his sleep. He was not interested in any of this crap.

The only reason Howard had chosen to come here was that this was the best place to strengthen oneself. That, and someone from here had saved Howard long ago. It kind of felt like a homage if he studied here.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Howard spotted a familiar shade of black and blue and his heart stopped beating for a second.

‘Howard, snap out of it. Now you have even started hallucinating? It’s been 11 years since I was saved. The student who saved me would have long graduated by now.’

Howard shook his head to clear his head. He only needed to focus on his mission and how to achieve it. Anything else did not matter to him.

………………………..

Horas watched the entrance ceremony from his hidden corner. It was a much-awaited scene by him since it was the first chapter he had ever written in his life.

But writing something and experiencing something were vastly different experiences. What he had thought of as interesting turned out to be rather boring in real life.

‘Why did I make Howard’s speech so long? I cannot believe I ever thought this was interesting in the first place.’

Horas almost let out a yawn as he listened to Howard’s speech. That speech coupled with the lack of sleep Horas had the night before made him rather sleepy.

But the day had just started and Horas had tons of work to get done.

It’s about time the ceremony came to an end. And soon these people would be sent back to their rooms to unpack.

Horas would be asked to run security checks as assistant staff and to help other people out with preparations. It was a never-ending operation.

‘But before that, I should make sure no rats run rampant today, I am pretty sure I wrote about the protagonist meeting a villain today.’

Horas left his post as soon as Howard’s speech was over. Now that the ‘filler’ event was over, it was time for Horas to begin his hunt.

He had sent his familiar out in the morning to track down the rats. And he had finally gotten a response from it. Mark had outdone himself when with this familiar.

Horas walked into the empty hallway of the Esper’s academy. The silence had to be expected since everyone else was in the opening ceremony right now.

Darkness parted for Horas as he opened the door to the botanical garden that the Esper’s academy kept.

Horas felt a metallic and cold touch as soon as he stepped into the botanical garden. A small metallic cat rubbed against his legs affectionately and Horas bent down to scratch its metallic head.

“You did a good job, Tora. You managed to track the rat till here.”

Tora leaned further into Horas’s hands with an affectionate headbutt. Horas had gained her as a gift from the headmaster for his thirteenth birthday. According to Principle Marbel, Toras was a reward from an S-class dungeon.

And as expected from such a high-class reward, Tora knew a lot of useful skills.

“Now then, since you worked hard to trap this rat, shall we go out and exterminate it now? I do want to go back to my normal petrol route.”

Horas stood back up and prepared himself. He could feel the foreign presence in this botanical garden and Horas was sure it was a villain.

As the original story went, Howard Spencer was supposed to meet a plant villain today which would cause a small fight to break out and hand Howard his first win in the story.

But as a result of this fight, the technical wing would suffer a huge amount of data loss. And that pushed Horas to take action.

He could afford to let a villain run rampant but he was not willing to lose his hard-recorded data. It was where he drew the line.

“Still not coming out? Well, I guess you can always speak even with your body full of bullet holes.”

In a swift action, Horas took out his gun and shot in a random direction. The bullet penetrated a thick vein and nothing happened for a second.

And then a drop of blood fell down and then another.

“So, are you willing to come out now? I don’t mind having to shoot you the whole day if I have to.”

Horas taunted the villain and they finally showed himself. Veins condensed into a single body that looked vaguely humanoid. But it soon settled into the form of an adult female and the female clutched her bleeding side.

The villainess took a step back as she tried to push her bleeding to stop. But Horas had used a special bullet she and Mark had made. The bleeding would stop once the villainess was too weak to stand.

It would not endanger her life but it would make her unable to fight back.

“C-Curses. Why is the reaper here? I was told that you would be busy today.”

The villainess cursed Horas as she tried to look for ways to escape. It was an isolated area so she knew if she was able to get away now, she would not be caught.

But alas, Horas was not going to give her this chance to run away. He blocked her from one side and Tora covered her exit on the other side.

“Well, I can let you go but only after you hand over the stolen data. We won’t want a data breach, right? Now hand it over to me.”

Horas extended his hand, asking for the small chip this villainess was likely carrying on her person. But the villainess stiffened and looked back.

She decided she would take her chances with Tora rather than Horas and his guns.

Horas shot the villainess but she managed to untangle herself and run away. She was about to run past Tora when she felt something heavy stop her in her tracks. A heavy paw landed on her back and sharp teeth neared her neck.

*Grrrr*

The small cat, Tora, had turned into a huge beast. It had happened in a flash and left the villainess stunned.

“Good girl, Tora. Now, keep holding that villain down so that I can search her body.”

Horas’s hands had to wander some *questionable* places and he tried not to show anything on his face. (Horas was a man, alright? And he was also not an innocent one so give him a break)

By the end of this search, Horas managed to retrieve the small disk from the plant villainess and he instantly placed it into his inventory. He had managed to accomplish his mission here.

“Tora, take her to the retainers and throw her into jail. Do make sure that you are *gentle* with her.”

Tora growled and picked up the villainess by the back of her dress. She clamped down hard on the cloth in her mouth every time the villainess tried to pull away.

Horas waited for a few minutes before leaving the Botanical garden. His work here had been done but he still had petrol to run.

Once that was done, Horas needed to catch up on his sleep, correct the coding he had been doing, and then wake up early for tomorrow.

Naturally, nothing managed to go according to Horas’s wishes since he ran into the last person he wanted to - the protagonist and his childhood friend.

‘For god’s sake. Why is it, Howard and Emma? Don’t they know that this is a restricted area? No wonder Howard ran into the villainess in the original story.’

“Ugh, we did not mean to be here. We just got a little lost and ended up being here.”

//////

I'll update every other day.