Chapter 48
The door opened, and several people entered the Student Council Room.
Ha Yoon, who had risen from his seat, greeted them.
“Welcome, this is the Student Council Room.”
There were a total of nine people who entered the Student Council.
Individuals with various distinct features gave us a slight nod.
I had grown tired of seeing those faces in the game.
All of them were Ha Yoon’s chosen aides—his elite Demons.
“With these individuals taking the lead, the Student Council will be reorganized.”
“Reorganized, you say?”
“The Student Council will be divided into five departments: Finance, Planning, Student Affairs, Public Relations, and Audit.”
“Then which department are we supposed to join?”
“The two of you may choose one among the five departments and join it.”
“Ah.”
“For reference, these nine have already been assigned to each department, and their heads have already been decided.”
I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh at his words.
I’d never cared much for the Student Council’s events or duties, but from the way he spoke, it was clear he had no intention of granting us any authority whatsoever.
No, think about it—how could newcomers who hadn’t even been properly briefed push out the existing members and take over as department heads?
Even if we were first-years, this appointment was utterly absurd.
Park Siwoo also seemed to sense something off, his expression stiffening ever so slightly.
To be honest, if someone still didn’t get it after hearing all that, they’d have to be a complete fool.
“Does the President know about this change?”
“The President is unaware. She hasn’t taken my calls since the funeral.”
Yoo Iseo had shown her face briefly during the Guardian incident and then locked herself away again.
Unless it involved the Devil Knight, nothing seemed capable of drawing her interest.
If that were the case, I should’ve asked her yesterday when she planned to return to the Student Council.
I regretted letting her go without saying anything—though the mood back then hadn’t exactly made that kind of question possible.
In the game, Yoo Iseo’s return was completely random.
Sometimes she’d come back after a week or two, but other times she’d vanish for months—only to reappear suddenly, corrupted.
“To help you make a more informed choice, I’ll explain the roles and responsibilities of each department.”
Ha Yoon began outlining the structure.
According to him, the Finance Department managed funds, the Planning Department oversaw school events, the Student Affairs Department handled troublemakers, the Public Relations Department managed collaborations with external guilds, and the Audit Department was responsible for auditing all the others.
In other words, the Finance Department would embezzle funds, the Planning Department would ruin school events and destroy the Academy’s reputation, they’d use the Student Affairs Department to aid Demons, and the Public Relations Department would siphon secrets from outside guilds.
They really didn’t slack off when it came to doing bad things.
As I listened to the explanation, Park Siwoo glanced at me.
His look seemed to ask what I was going to do. I merely shrugged.
There was no point in worrying about departments when the Student Council was determined to exclude us.
Park Siwoo probably wanted to join the kind of department that had once been dedicated to hunting and purging Demons, but everyone here—aside from him—was a member of Pandemonium.
Forget purging; it would be a miracle if they didn’t stab us in the back.
On the contrary, Berid would use the department to frame innocent people as Demons and slowly eliminate the Academy’s key figures one by one.
Until the Academy was completely under his control.
Of course, I had no intention of letting that happen.
I planned to dismantle their schemes piece by piece.
Not alone, of course—some others would have to do their share.
After all, this was a burden meant for Park Siwoo and the other main characters to carry in the first place.
It was about time they all faced the grim reality ahead of them.
Seeing Park Siwoo hesitate, Ha Yoon asked,
“If the decision is difficult, perhaps it’s best to let the department heads choose. Would you like to leave it to their judgment?”
Park Siwoo nodded.
Berid smiled slyly and addressed the new members.
“Then, could the department heads step forward for a moment?”
At that, five of the standing figures stepped forward.
I studied them carefully.
They weren’t quite on Berid’s level, but at least comparable to Kedelak, the Demon who had helped kill Seo Da-hee.
Individually, they couldn’t match me, but if they attacked together, things could get dangerous.
No… perhaps not anymore.
Now that I could combine Authorities, the outcome might be different.
Still, they were undeniably troublesome.
In the game, I had to defeat them one by one before facing Berid, and if not for the valuable drops they gave, I would’ve quit the game long ago out of sheer frustration.
Hopefully, they’d drop some useful items this time too.
I was more than ready to make good use of them.
“Do any of the department heads have someone they’d like to recruit between the two of them? Let’s start with Cadet Park Siwoo.”
Immediately, two of the five raised their hands.
One was a cadet with square glasses who looked like a model student, and the other was a girl with hair that reached down to her waist.
“The Student Affairs Department and the Planning Department, is it? Cadet Siwoo, which would you prefer?”
After a brief moment of thought, Park Siwoo spoke.
“I’ll join the Student Affairs Department.”
“Student Affairs, huh? That suits our diligent junior Siwoo quite well.”
Then Ha Yoon turned his gaze toward me.
He smiled faintly.
“Cadet Yoo Seongwoo, is there a particular department you’d like to join? Or shall we proceed as we did with Cadet Park Siwoo?”
In truth, the department choice didn’t matter much.
Even though I had a cooperative relationship with Ha Yoon because of the Seo Da-hee incident, all Student Council matters still fell under his control.
I’d be lucky not to be constantly watched.
And I had no intention of interfering in his affairs either.
That would only make it easier for me to destroy their plans from the outside.
I already knew the kinds of rifts the Student Council would soon bring upon the Academy.
In fact, I’d thwarted all of them countless times before.
So my choice was already made.
“I’ll join the Audit Department.”
The Audit Department.
As its name suggested, it was a department that investigated corruption within the Student Council and other Academy organizations, supposedly maintaining internal order.
The main reason I chose it was because, unlike the others, this department operated independently.
In an already Demon-corrupted Student Council, what use was oversight or auditing?
That made it the most suitable choice for my future plans.
Ha Yoon nodded as if he understood.
“That suits our brave junior, Yoo Seongwoo. Then, since the department assignments are done, let’s have a short introduction by each department before starting work. There’s still much to handle.”
Berid likely understood the message behind my choice that I had no intention of interfering in their domain, and they’d better not interfere in mine either.
So that’s why he ended the meeting with such a satisfied look.
As soon as his words ended, the students split into their respective departments and began sharing work details.
Park Siwoo was also having a brief conversation with the members of his department.
I glanced at the one who was supposedly the head of the Audit Department.
A deeply pulled-down hoodie and a short skirt.
Underneath the hood peeked strands of yellow-blonde hair.
Her thick makeup and the piercings all over her face gave her an unsettling aura despite her good looks.
It was like seeing that one scary kid every class used to have in school.
Crack.
She bit down on the candy in her mouth with a sharp sound.
Hmm, should I even bother talking to her?
She looked tougher than expected, making it hard to approach her.
It felt like if I said the wrong thing, she’d grab me by the collar.
Personally, people like her scared me more than Demons or Monsters with hideous faces.
They triggered my old high school PTSD—even before I got possessed.
As I idly watched the others chat, an awkward silence fell over us.
Then, the girl pulled the candy stick from her mouth and poked my side with it.
“Hey.”
“……”
“Hey.”
Her saliva-covered stick was smearing my uniform.
Damn it, why was she even talking to me when I could’ve just ignored her?
Swallowing the curse rising in my throat, I turned toward her.
“Been a while, huh?”
“……?”
Her sudden familiarity made me tilt my head.
Since when were we on friendly terms?
Of course, I did know these Demons.
I’d fought them countless times in the game.
The head of the Student Affairs Department—Park Siwoo’s department—was the one who spread drugs among the students.
The head of the Public Relations Department lured students by pretending to connect them with guilds, only to have them kidnapped.
They were all quintessential Demons—monsters with no connection to my life.
And as for the head of the Audit Department—
the girl standing in front of me—she was a bit different.
In the game, she had grown sick of living as a Demon and eventually took her own life.
But now she was acting as if she knew me?
As I silently stared at her, she frowned and asked,
“Don’t tell me you don’t remember? Well, it has been ten years…”
As soon as she said that, her hand shot out toward me like lightning.
Her sudden move startled me, but my reaction wasn’t slow.
I immediately stepped back and grabbed her wrist.
“Heh, as sharp as ever, I see.”
With that, her hand twisted, breaking my grip and snaking up like a serpent.
In one motion, she grabbed my necktie and yanked me down so our eyes met.
Her face was now so close that our noses almost touched.
Then, her face inched even closer.
What the hell—?
Was she really about to steal my first kiss like this?
My first kiss was supposed to happen under a beautiful sunset, in a moment of romance.
But thankfully—or unfortunately—there was no kiss.
Thud.
Instead, her forehead bumped against mine.
“Still don’t remember me, even up close?”
I looked carefully at her face.
Brightly dyed yellow hair and dark black eyes.
A beautiful face, but with fierce eyes and thick makeup.
Piercings dotted her lips, eyes, ears—just about everywhere.
No, I still didn’t recognize her by looks alone.
So I tried recalling what I knew about her.
In Become a Hero, she was a powerful Demon who appeared just before meeting Berid.
However, she was also a unique character—one who could be skipped, or more precisely, self-destructed if a special condition was met.
She’d been kidnapped by Pandemonium as a child, forced into becoming a Demon, and eventually ended her own life out of disgust for that existence…
A flash of realization struck my mind.
Kidnapped as a child, subjected to brutal training, and turned into an elite Demon?
Damn it, why was I only remembering this now?
Wasn’t that a familiar story?
There were many like me—children kidnapped by Pandemonium and raised as living weapons.
They ran orphanages under government protection, raising assassins in the shadows.
I had been one of them too.
Before my magical power awakened and it was revealed that I was the vessel of the Lord of the Archdemons, I had been raised as a killing machine—my emotions erased, my will brainwashed, and my loyalty forced toward Pandemonium.
And back then, there were others who trained alongside me.
As I recalled those inherited memories, one girl’s image surfaced in my mind.
A small, frail girl with a body thinner than the others.
Among the many kidnapped children, she had been the weakest by far.
Yet, in her eyes burned a fierce determination to survive at all costs.
And before long, the girl once dismissed as worthless by the Demons tore apart her predators and clawed her way to the top.
She wasn’t someone the player of the game needed to remember—
but someone I, Yoo Seongwoo of this world, had to.
The name hovering in my mind finally escaped my lips.
“Joo Sarang?”
The expression that had been so stiff until now melted into warmth.
“It’s been a while, Leader.”