Academy’s Second Seat Novel

By 윤매미

★★★★★ ☆☆☆☆☆ 4.4

Chapter of 20

The game was supposed to be a fantasy. A power trip. A hero’s journey. For *him*, it’s a gilded cage. One moment, he’s a regular player, the next, he’s trapped inside the very game he once abandoned, inhabiting the body of its most infuriating villain: the Academy’s Second Seat. He’s Prince Arion, the arrogant, perpetually second-best rival to the prophesied hero. His role is clear: push the true protagonist forward, always fall short, and ultimately, be defeated. But Arion possesses a terrifying secret: his body’s magic is potent, yet his knowledge of this world, its spells, its politics, is non-existent. He’s a pretender in a noble’s skin, expected to maintain an air of effortless superiority while scrambling to even understand basic theoretical magic. Every sneer, every dismissive glance, is a desperate performance to hide his utter incompetence. The stakes are higher than just academic rankings. Royal intrigue, complex family feuds, and the looming threat of world-ending calamity all swirl around him. The hero needs to shine, and Arion is the designated shadow. He must be just good enough to challenge, but never good enough to win. He must navigate the treacherous waters of the student council, deflect the affections of beautiful princesses and brilliant scholars, and somehow, keep up the facade of an entitled, effortlessly talented rival. But what happens when the line between acting and truly achieving blurs? What if his desperate efforts to avoid first place accidentally make him too powerful? His mission is to lose, but his instincts scream for survival. Can he maintain his carefully constructed image as the villainous second, or will his hidden struggle to master magic and understand this new reality accidentally shatter the game’s carefully constructed plot, forcing him into a destiny far more dangerous than he ever imagined? The academy halls are alive with whispers, rivalries, and magic, and Arion is about to discover that being second best might just be the most perilous position of all. Dive into the Academy’s treacherous halls and uncover the secret life of its most notorious student.