Chapter 40
Even after Seo Da-hee’s death, life at the Academy didn’t change much.
Officially, she had been transferred to another school under the orders of a powerful figure.
Some students gossiped, saying her transfer was too sudden and suspicious.
But that only lasted for a short while.
Before long, Seo Da-hee’s name completely disappeared from everyone’s memory.
Of course, not everyone managed to move on so easily.
Yoo Iseo hadn’t come to the student council room for over two weeks, and Park Siwoo had been acting like someone who’d lost his soul.
Morning classes had just ended.
Even though everyone else had gone to eat lunch, Park Siwoo sat blankly at his desk, lost in thought.
At that moment, a familiar voice came from beside me.
“Is he still like that?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Well, they were both in the student council. I guess the shock must’ve hit him harder.”
Helena, who said that, looked straight at me.
Her gaze lingered long enough for me to ask why she was staring.
“Are you okay? You were close with that Seo Da-hee too, weren’t you? Is he really the only one who’s upset about her leaving so suddenly?”
“……I’m fine.”
“Really?”
Helena tilted her head like a curious puppy and asked again.
“Why, are you worried about me or something?”
“Yes.”
Her unexpectedly honest reply left me speechless.
Sometimes, she would just throw those kinds of lines at me out of nowhere.
Normally, she would grumble and deny it right away.
“Did you eat something weird? Or are you sick?”
“That’s what you say to someone who’s being nice enough to worry about you?”
Helena’s voice rose sharply as she smacked my shoulder with a thud.
“Ah!”
“What’s that for? Don’t be such a baby!”
I dodged her next playful punch.
She probably didn’t mean to hit hard, but it actually hurt more than I expected.
She asked because she was worried, but I really was fine.
Seo Da-hee had been resurrected by my hand — and she was still sending me messages even now.
When I glanced at my phone, dozens of unread messages filled the notification bar.
After being discharged from the hospital, I’d bought a phone right away and gave it to her as a gift.
No one could know about her existence yet.
So I told her to stay in touch regularly, but I hadn’t expected her to message this often.
New messages were coming in by the second.
She must’ve been bored, stuck alone in the small one-room apartment I used to live in.
Just as I was about to reply, Helena’s voice interrupted me again.
“Who are you trying so hard to text back?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Not like I care anyway.”
Then why ask in the first place?
I quickly turned off my phone screen to hide the contents.
Helena eyed it for a moment but didn’t pry further.
Instead, she shifted her gaze back to Park Siwoo and jerked her chin toward him.
“So, what are you going to do about him?”
“Good question.”
Truthfully, I’d been worried about Park Siwoo too — though not because I thought he’d fall into depression.
I’d already seen this gloomy version of him dozens of times in-game.
In fact, he was currently in the middle of a favorable turning point — the prelude to his awakening.
That’s how it always was with protagonists.
They suffered trials and grew stronger through them.
Playable Characters had heavy protagonist buffs, meaning that after each major story event, their stats or skills would grow dramatically.
So if he managed to overcome this trial, he would achieve tremendous growth.
But if he failed?
That was also possible.
In the game, if you chose the wrong option, you could sometimes end up with an ending like that.
And if that happened here, the future waiting for us would be nothing but a bad ending.
The problem was that the trial meant to awaken him in this life had come a bit too soon.
Because of me, everything — all the events and hardships — was happening earlier than intended.
That was an issue.
Up until now, I had managed to handle most of the trials on my own without anyone’s help.
But the upcoming ones would be different.
The challenges ahead would require not just my strength, but also his and Helena’s assistance.
If he failed to grow now…
The current state he was in was terrible.
He couldn’t focus in class, and during practical training, his constant mistakes made the instructors scold him, asking what was wrong.
This world was no longer a game like before I possessed this body.
Playable Characters didn’t act according to my will, nor did they always make the optimal choices to reach the ending.
That was why I needed to prepare him properly.
I slowly walked toward Park Siwoo.
Helena suddenly grabbed my wrist.
“What are you planning to do?”
“You asked what I was going to do about him. I’m going to fix it.”
“……Somehow, I doubt it’s going to be a proper solution.”
I chuckled and brushed off her hand.
“Now that I think about it, just sitting around worrying won’t solve anything.”
Park Siwoo didn’t even notice me approaching. He had his face buried in his desk.
Judging by his uneven breathing, he wasn’t asleep.
I reached out and smacked his back.
Smack.
The sound rang sharply as my hand met his back.
“Gaaah! What the hell was that for?!”
He jerked up, glaring at me — a rare sight.
The guy who used to be like a gentle puppy was actually glaring at me now.
It was strange seeing that look on his face for the first time.
Not that it felt particularly good.
“Tonight at 10. Come to the fountain near the dorms.”
“What? What are you talking about all of a sudden….”
Without listening to the rest of his words, I walked straight out of the classroom.
Helena followed after me and asked,
“Calling someone out late at night like that—are you planning to knock some sense into him or something?”
“……”
I avoided Helena’s eyes at her question.
She glared at me with sharp, narrowed eyes.
Her pointed voice pierced my ears.
“Have you lost your mind? Duels between cadets are clearly forbidden…!”
“I know that much.”
The one meant to “beat up” Park Siwoo wasn’t me.
To be exact—it wasn’t Yoo Seongwoo.
The time when the sky was draped in the deep curtain of night.
Park Siwoo left the dormitory and headed toward the fountain nearby.
Just as Seongwoo had told him earlier that afternoon.
He already had an idea why Seongwoo had called him out.
It was because of the pathetic, miserable state he’d been in these past few days.
He hadn’t been able to focus in class, and during training, he’d only made mistake after mistake.
Even the instructors, who normally didn’t scold him, had warned him to get his head straight.
How pitiful must he have looked?
Seongwoo had witnessed Seo Da-hee’s death right before his eyes and even suffered a life-threatening injury.
And yet, he—who hadn’t even been part of that mission—had been wallowing in despair. It was no wonder Seongwoo found him pathetic.
But Siwoo couldn’t get rid of the thought that kept haunting him.
‘If only I hadn’t lost my nerve back then and accepted the mission…’
That thought clung to him like a curse, tormenting him endlessly.
Of course, he didn’t believe that his participation would have changed the outcome of the battle against the Demon.
Even so—
Even so, maybe he could have stalled for time against the Demon.
If he had just bought a little more time… maybe the reinforcements could’ve arrived sooner. Maybe Senior Da-hee could’ve survived.
At the very least, Seongwoo wouldn’t have suffered a fatal injury.
That endless chain of “what ifs” only added more weight to the guilt pressing down on his shoulders.
Unaware that it was a bottomless swamp, he only sank deeper into it.
Every time he remembered the image of the Student Council President screaming in front of his senior’s corpse, and Seongwoo—bleeding heavily, on the verge of death—staring blankly at that scene despite his mortal wounds…
He couldn’t bring himself to accept that this tragedy wasn’t partly his fault.
Could he truly say he bore no responsibility at all?
Lost in thought, he kept walking aimlessly until he reached the fountain Seongwoo had mentioned.
There, he saw a large statue above the fountain.
A magnificent figure holding a gleaming spear and sword—it looked quite heroic.
Although Seongwoo had said “near the dorm,” the fountain was actually quite far.
It took at least ten minutes on foot.
Perhaps because it was so late, there wasn’t a single sign of life near the fountain.
It seemed Seongwoo hadn’t arrived yet.
The cold night air pierced through his lungs.
Sitting on the edge of the fountain, Siwoo waited for Seongwoo to appear.
‘What’s taking him so long?’
He waited for a long time, but Seongwoo didn’t show up. Not even the sound of insects could be heard.
For a brief moment, he wondered if Seongwoo had called him out and forgotten.
But Seongwoo wasn’t the type to be that careless.
On the contrary, he was meticulous and thorough.
In short, not someone who’d ever forget a promise he made.
“Did something happen?”
As Siwoo debated whether he should head back to the dorm and check Seongwoo’s room, he took a step to leave.
He turned in the direction of the dorms—but before he could walk far, he was forced to stop.
Because right before him stood a barrier.
Upon realizing it, a chill ran down Siwoo’s spine.
‘There’s been a barrier this whole time, and I didn’t notice it?’
A barrier meant to completely isolate a space from the outside world.
And this one—its power was far above that of an ordinary barrier.
Siwoo’s mind spun rapidly.
Who could’ve done this?
Amid the gentle sound of flowing water from the fountain, another, discordant sound reached his ears.
Clang.
The moment he heard it, every hair on his body stood on end.
In an instant, the air was flooded with malevolent energy.
His instincts screamed at him.
If he turned around—he would die.
It felt as though a massive monster loomed above him, mouth wide open, drooling in anticipation.
Then, from behind him, came a cold voice.
“A rat has wandered in.”
Siwoo’s knees nearly buckled, but he forced strength back into them.
His mind went blank, white with panic.
Fighting through the terror, Siwoo turned his head.
Turning his back on a predator like that would be no different from shoving his neck into its jaws.
And what he saw—was a figure he had seen once before.
The same horror he’d encountered at the Academy now stood before him once again.
But this time, it wasn’t a training instructor testing the students.
The being before him was the real Devil Knight.
A jet-black suit of armor, dark as a demon itself.
A greatsword clutched in one hand.
‘That’s… a real Demon…’
In shock from seeing his first real Demon, Siwoo’s eyes caught sight of something else—
Someone dangling helplessly, held by the back of their neck in the Devil Knight’s other hand.
And then, Siwoo realized who it was.
“Seongwoo!”
A scream tore from his throat.
The friend who had called him here was now being held in that monster’s grasp.