Chapter 10
After finishing the orientation, I headed straight to the infirmary.
The instructor had hit me so hard that my side ached with every step I took.
When I entered the infirmary, I saw several cadets lying around.
They probably overexerted themselves during the test, just like I did.
Among them, I spotted a familiar face—Helena, sitting on a bed with a disheveled look, lost in thought.
What’s she doing here?
Helena hadn’t really moved much during the battle, so she shouldn’t have been injured.
It wasn’t something worth paying attention to, so I simply walked past her and approached the nurse.
The nurse frowned when she saw me and sighed deeply.
Her expression and gaze radiated annoyance and weariness.
With a bored expression, she motioned with her chin, and I sat down on the chair for an examination.
“Sigh… So, what’s hurting?”
She came closer to examine my condition, her expression still uninterested.
As she leaned in, my face instinctively twisted.
‘Cigarette smell.’
A stale, ingrained stench of smoke stung my nose, the kind that couldn’t be washed away.
She noticed my unpleasant expression and smirked.
“What, does it smell?”
“Yes.”
“Damn, you’re straightforward.”
She gave my shoulder a light tap, amused by my blunt response.
“I got into a fight with the instructor during orientation. My chest hurts every time I breathe.”
“Every time you breathe, huh?”
She went silent for a moment, as if pondering something, and then suddenly reached out toward me.
Her hand landed squarely on my chest.
“Oh my, you’ve got a nice body. I haven’t seen a cadet this well-trained before.”
Her hand began to sweep over my upper body, as if probing for injuries but with movements that felt oddly suggestive.
It was… a little uncomfortable.
After examining me carefully, the nurse’s expression grew serious.
“Hey, take your shirt off.”
“Pardon?”
Was it that bad?
I slowly took off my top.
Normally, you’d expect an X-ray or some kind of scan, but not here.
In this world, magical healing was far more effective than any scientific treatment.
As soon as I took off my shirt, her eyebrows twitched slightly.
Of course they did.
My body was covered in scars far too many, and far too deep, for a normal student to have.
These were the results of the abuse and desperate struggles the body’s original owner had endured before I possessed it.
She gently traced her fingers over one of the scars and smiled faintly.
“Damn, you really are built well.”
“You’re not going to ask about the scars?”
“What’s there to ask? I can already guess the story. Besides… I kind of like scars.”
After saying that, she got up and started pulling the curtains around us.
Was she doing that so the other cadets wouldn’t see my scars?
Surprisingly considerate.
The nurse placed her hand over my chest and began to channel mana into me.
The mana seeped through my body, flowing deep into every corner.
After a while, she removed her hand and stared at me in confusion.
“Why… are you fine?”
“Excuse me?”
“Several of your ribs are cracked, and one’s completely shattered. Doesn’t it hurt?”
Of course it hurt.
Every breath felt like needles stabbing into my lungs.
But it wasn’t enough to kill me.
Pain like this was bearable—I could move, breathe, and endure.
I’d lived a life steeped in pain, and even the inherited memories of this body regarded this level of injury as almost trivial.
Perhaps it was thanks to that special stat Resistance.
“It hurts, but I can endure it.”
“Are you sure you’re a freshman? Any normal kid would’ve come in on a stretcher.”
“Maybe I’m just used to pain?”
She gave me a mocking little laugh.
“Hah, used to pain at your age? As if—”
She stopped mid-sentence.
Her gaze was fixed on the scars covering my upper body.
After a brief silence, she changed the topic.
“So, who did this to you?”
“Instructor Kang Jae-seok.”
At the mention of Kang Jae-seok’s name, her expression hardened.
She sighed, muttered a curse under her breath, and glared at me.
“That bastard Kang Jae-seok… doesn’t know the meaning of moderation. Even if you’re a freshman, this is too much…”
And from there, she launched into a full-blown rant about him.
How he pushed students so hard that the infirmary was always full.
How he was so stubborn that no one could reason with him.
It seemed she’d been holding all that in for a while now that she had an audience, it all came pouring out.
Still, it was surprising.
Talking about an instructor like this, so casually, to a student?
That wasn’t something you saw every day.
In the game’s settings, even other instructors treated Kang Jae-seok with extreme caution.
He was the kind of man everyone approached carefully.
Yet here she was, gossiping about him like it was nothing.
She wasn’t just strange—she was gutsy.
I’d never seen this side of her in the game. Maybe this was something I could only witness because I had possessed this body.
The nurse placed her hand over my injured side again and began to chant something under her breath.
A warm light enveloped her hand—but the pain in my ribs intensified sharply.
It felt like shards of glass were swirling inside my body.
When I flinched from the sudden pain, she grabbed my shoulder and warned me.
“You’re tough, I’ll give you that. But move wrong and you’ll end up crippled, got it?”
It was hard to believe such a rough person worked as a nurse, but I gritted my teeth and endured the pain silently.
After a while, the light from her hand faded. She lifted her palm from my side and smacked me lightly on the back.
“Treatment’s done. Rest on a bed until the pain eases up.”
I obediently followed her instructions and headed for an empty bed.
When I drew the curtain open, I saw Helena lying properly on the bed next to mine.
Why was she in the infirmary in the first place?
As I sat down on the edge of the bed, the nurse looked at me and smiled.
“I’ll leave the curtain open. Don’t try anything shady.”
What was she even saying to minors?
I ignored the nurse’s words and lay down on the bed.
The pain was still there, but breathing felt much easier.
As I closed my eyes, I heard Helena’s voice.
“How did you get those scars?”
“Weren’t you asleep?”
“……”
Was she watching while I was getting examined?
Well, with eyes that could even see through illusion magic, a shabby curtain like that probably wasn’t much of a barrier.
I hadn’t planned on hiding it, but she caught me anyway.
“Was it because of demons?”
“You know quite a bit.”
At my faster-than-expected answer, she seemed taken aback and closed her mouth.
An awkward silence hung between us for a while.
Just when I was about to fall asleep, Helena’s voice came again.
“Weren’t you scared when the instructor appeared as a demon?”
At her words, I slowly opened my eyes and looked at her.
“You got those scars from demons, didn’t you? And you weren’t afraid?”
There was a subtle tremor in Helena’s eyes as she spoke.
Was it because of her demon phobia?
I thought about how to answer and then spoke.
“Not really.”
“……Liar.”
Helena frowned as if she couldn’t believe what I said.
“I’m serious. I’m not afraid of demons. If I were, I wouldn’t have even thought of fighting an instructor disguised as one.”
“Then how did you overcome it?”
I slowly sat up from the bed, and Helena’s gaze followed me.
“That’s something you’ll have to find out on your own.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t know anything that could help her.
But for her current self, that information would be more dangerous than helpful—it could even cost her life.
“W-wait! Where are you going?”
“Where else? Back to the dorms. See you tomorrow.”
Helena reached out to stop me, but I didn’t bother looking back.
I left the infirmary and headed straight to the dormitory.
---
Left alone in the infirmary, Helena blankly stared at the spot where he had disappeared.
‘An incredible person.’
At first, she had thought of him as a selfish, self-centered person.
After all, his fight with the instructor had been so fierce and reckless that it seemed like he didn’t care about anyone else.
But she had been wrong.
He was far greater than someone like her, who had done nothing.
Because of her uncontrollable eyes, she had accidentally seen his body—
A body covered with countless scars that would never fade.
Those weren’t simple scars left by monsters.
They were scars made by someone with malice, carved to torment and humiliate.
Seeing that, Helena could imagine what kind of past he had.
Stories about demons kidnapping humans and committing unspeakable atrocities were common.
After glimpsing his tragic past, the way she saw him that day changed.
‘He’s someone far greater than a coward like me who trembles in fear of the past…’
He burned brightly, using the pain and trauma of his past as fuel.
Relentless, like a tank that wouldn’t stop until it destroyed its enemies.
Without realizing it, Helena began to admire him.
He was everything she wasn’t the opposite of her, who had frozen and done nothing in front of an approaching demon.
For a brief moment, Helena’s eyes reflected the horrifying image of that demon advancing toward her.
Because she could see through all illusions, the afterimage remained all the more vivid.
Just recalling that moment made her heart freeze.
Her mind had gone blank, unable to think—she had simply waited for death like a resigned animal.
If the demon that approached her hadn’t been the instructor in disguise, she would have died.
That was why she had to overcome this cursed demon phobia as soon as possible.
At that moment, Helena thought—
If he had a past similar to hers, yet managed to overcome his fear, then maybe he knew how she could conquer hers too.
---
My ear itched.
Was someone talking about me?
I scratched the ticklish ear and walked back to the dorm.
Out of habit, I opened my laptop.
The screen lit up with a blue glow.
【Achievement Unlocked! Blessings upon your journey that begins at the starting point.】
【For more convenient control, nearby devices will now be linked.】
At the same time, my phone in my pocket began to emit a faint blue light.
When I checked it, a window identical to the laptop’s interface appeared.
But the notifications didn’t stop there—they kept coming one after another.
【Sealed functions are now unlocked.】
【Erosion Rate and Suspicion System have been unlocked.】
【Erosion Rate: 0%】
【Suspicion】
【Academy: 10/100】
【Instructor Kang Jae-seok is suspicious of your past.】
【Pandemonium: 0/100】
【Pandemonium considers you a useful hunting dog.】
Seeing that, I couldn’t help but grin.
“This… no, this is really useful.”
I didn’t know what the Erosion Rate meant yet, but the Suspicion System was something I desperately needed.
I was destined to walk a tightrope between Pandemonium and the Academy.
If I could monitor both sides’ suspicion levels like this, my chances of survival would increase dramatically.
So, Pandemonium thought of me as a useful hunting dog, huh.
I looked forward to the day that hunting dog would sink its teeth into its master’s throat.