Konata Doesn't Want To Be The Female Lead

"Phew, these dire days are finally coming to an end..."

Taking off the red ribbon tied in her hair while facing the mirror, Konata let out a long sigh.

"That... Konata-chan, are you really sure you won't reconsider? I can give you a huge raise!"

The door to the room creaked open as a certain unscrupulous manager peeked inside, still stubbornly trying to persuade Konata.

"..."

After three seconds of silence, Konata immediately grabbed the comb from the table and hurled it toward the door-bullseye.

A moment later, the now-bandaged manager sat obediently in front of her.

"My wages!?"

Slamming the table fiercely, Konata glared at him with a villainous expression.

"Here."

Pushing a thick envelope toward her, the manager-who had just suffered for barging into the women's changing room-rolled his eyes before suddenly asking:

"Konata, you're living alone without income right now, right? Are you really sure you won't reconsider?"

"Are you trying to make me your sugar baby?"

Tucking away the envelope, Konata eyed him with deep suspicion.

"Cough! Cough!!"

Caught off guard by her blunt accusation, the manager nearly choked to death.

"I meant popularity! Popularity!! If you leave, my shop's foot traffic will drop-that's a huge loss for me!! Also, I'm not interested in underdeveloped kids!!!"

After a brief silence, Konata raised her hand, blue-white electricity crackling at her fingertips.

"I'll give you one chance to rephrase that.

"I'm sorry, I was wrong!"

Seeing the sparks dancing on the girl's fingers, the shameless manager instantly surrendered.

"If you want popularity, figure it out yourself. A maid café is all about selling character tropes-you need to understand the psychology of those otaku. Stock up on tsundere maids, little-sister types, kuuderes-I guarantee your business will boom."

Given that the manager had doubled her wages, Konata offered this heartfelt advice.

"Besides, my savings are pretty much enough now, and my mission is almost complete. Why should I keep suffering here every day? Being a maid was never my goal..."

Smirking, Konata grabbed her belongings and stood up, radiating confidence.

"My true ambition lies among the stars!!!"

"..."

Today was undoubtedly a joyous occasion for her.

After three grueling months working at the maid café, liberation had finally arrived. Frankly, if not for Shana's unlock mission, she would've quit ages ago.

After enduring this long farming phase, she had finally graduated from the wretched middle school. Tomorrow marked the entrance exam for U.A. High-a school where Quirks could be freely used. No matter how you looked at it, that had to be more exciting than middle school, where she'd already mastered all the material. Sitting through classes like a regular student had been pure torture -those last few weeks, she'd basically slept through every lecture...

"Hmm, by my calculations, Izuku Midoriya should have already inherited One For All's power by now, right? After all, the entrance exam is tomorrow, and All Might's power should easily put him at the top among the freshmen."

Lying on her bed while playing with her phone, Konata pondered these thoughts.

"But I'm still curious-if the female lead hasn't appeared yet after all this time, she must show up during the entrance exam. Maybe during the practical test, she'll be in danger, and the male lead will swoop in with his overwhelming strength for a cool rescue, making her fall for him at first sight. That seems like Izuku Midoriya's style. If I want to prevent that... maybe I should save her first?"

At this thought, Konata's eyes lit up.

"That's right! I can rescue the female lead first! That way, Izuku Midoriya won't have a reason to save her... Perfect plan!!"

Having successfully solved this dilemma, Konata was in high spirits. After sending Tsuyu Asui a message to meet up tomorrow for the U.A. entrance exam, she went to bed early. Though she didn't think the exam would pose any problems, it was better to conserve her energy. Come to think of it, this was the first time she'd ever gone to bed so early-she should be able to wake up on time tomorrow... right?

And then she overslept.

By the time she arrived at the venue, panting and out of breath, the teacher with the golden spiky hair on stage had just finished his speech.

"Finally, I leave you with our school's motto-Go beyond! PLUS ULTRA!!!"

Konata immediately felt like her entire world had collapsed.

"Combat training? Got it."

After listening to Tsuyu Asui quickly explain the rules, Konata nodded solemnly.

"Konata, you should really take this seriously. If you'd been any later, you might've been disqualified. Wasn't it you who reminded me yesterday not to be late?"

Tsuyu Asui was utterly exasperated by Konata's near-tardiness. She had even left early to avoid making the other wait, only to end up waiting for her for ages...

"Sorry, sorry! I don't know what happened. I went to bed early last night and woke up early today. I just wanted to snooze for five more minutes, but ended up sleeping for three whole hours."

Konata clasped her hands together apologetically, her tone full of bewilderment as she insisted,

"I swear, someone must've stolen my time for this to happen!!"

"...Which training site are you assigned to?"

After a brief silence, Tsuyu wisely changed the subject. Knowing Konata, arguing was pointless-she always had a mountain of twisted logic to counter anything. From the moment Tsuyu had met her, no one had ever won a debate against her.

"Training Site B."

Konata waved her exam ticket.

"You're at Site A, right? Seems U.A. arranged it this way to prevent cheating, I guess? Though with these combat rules, cheating would be..."

"Latecomer, if you don't hurry to your exam site, you really will be disqualified."

Just as Konata and Tsuyu were talking, a stern voice interrupted from beside them.

"Tardiness is already a sign of disrespect toward the school, and chatting right before the exam begins is irresponsible behavior. I find it deeply regrettable."

"Uh..."

Cut off mid-sentence, Konata turned her head to see a bespectacled examinee with a rigidly serious expression looking down at her.

Oh wow, tall and mighty, huh? Still have to look down at me, don't you?

After mentally scoffing, Konata plastered on a fake smile and replied,

"Dear classmate, I feel even more regret for you. Wearing such heavy glasses at such a young age-clearly the consequence of poor eye care habits. Instead of lecturing others, maybe you should reflect on yourself first."

"I-"

"Look, the exam's about to start, and here you are wasting time arguing over trivialities. You're not just wasting your own time, but three people's time. One minute wasted per person adds up to three minutes total. On a smaller scale-"

"Kero? Konata, didn't you say time can't be double-counted within the same temporal dimension?"

Before Konata could finish, Tsuyu tapped her chin and interjected with a question.

"...So whose side are you on, exactly?"

Rolling her eyes, Konata was about to say something when an extremely loud noise-almost deafening-reached the three of them.

"Hey, you three over there! Stop bonding and get moving! The exam's about to start, and if you don't get to your assigned testing grounds, you'll be disqualified!"

"Big voice, big deal..."

Glancing at the golden-haired, broom-headed teacher who had just shouted at them from the stage earlier, Konata muttered under her breath. She wasn't sure if that was his Quirk or not, but her ears were ringing from the volume...

After waving goodbye to Tsuyu Asui, Konata hurried toward her designated testing area. As for that overly serious guy, she decided to ignore him completely-though, to her surprise, he seemed to be heading to the same testing ground. Before she could take more than a few steps, he caught up to her.

"My deepest apologies! My name is Tenya Iida! Pleased to meet you!!"

"...Why are you apologizing to me?"

Her lips twitched as Konata gave him a weird look, then pointed ahead.

"Look for yourself-the gates are open, and everyone's rushing in. If all the enemies get taken out before we even get there... Huh?

Deku?!"