Chapter 49
“It’s been a while, Leader?”
At her words, memories buried deep within the inherited consciousness began to flow in—ones I hadn’t even known existed.
Countless children trapped in the loneliness of an orphanage, and training that bordered on torture.
There wasn’t a single child who didn’t cry every day there.
By the time they had shed so many tears that none were left to fall, blood began to flow from their eyes instead.
They had gathered orphans to create strong Demons—subjecting them to murderous training and human experimentation. And the children who survived came together and became a family.
And at the center of that family stood ‘me.’
I gathered the children, trained them to survive, tended to their wounds, and comforted them.
At that time, they were brothers, teachers, rivals—and above all, family to one another.
With a smile so twisted it looked like she might cry, she asked me,
“Do you remember now?”
“……”
I unconsciously nodded to her question.
I couldn’t tell whether the one nodding was me—or the ‘him’ within the memories.
Perhaps I did it because I was conscious of the gazes around us.
The Student Council room, which had been lively with chatter moments ago, had fallen completely silent.
The weight of countless eyes pricked at my skin.
The first to break that silence was Berid.
“Forgive me for interrupting your touching reunion, but... do you two know each other?”
His eyes glimmered coldly.
Noticing his gaze, Joo Sarang replied curtly,
“It’s not something the Vice President needs to concern himself with.”
The difference in her tone compared to how she’d spoken to me earlier was so stark that I almost thought she had become a different person.
At her cold response, Berid’s eyebrow twitched.
He looked irritated.
Then his gaze shifted to me.
A look demanding explanation.
“We’re from the same orphanage. We got separated when she was moved to another one when we were seven. I didn’t expect to see her again like this.”
“The same orphanage, huh... I’ve heard of such coincidences happening. A strange twist of fate indeed.”
He nodded as if he understood, yet at the same time, a telepathic message reached me.
[Let’s have a word after work is done.]
A ‘word,’ huh? More like a pointless interrogation.
After that, we returned to work, dividing tasks according to each department.
With more executives added to the Student Council, the pace of progress quickened.
Things that would have taken three people an entire day were handled in a matter of moments.
And it wasn’t wrong to say they were all highly capable—there wasn’t a single flaw to point out in their work.
‘So Berid really did gather only the best of the best.’
Documents that once seemed endless were cleared within hours, and discussions about the Academy’s future development followed.
Of course, on the surface they sounded promising—but in truth, every single one of them had the potential to create cracks within the Academy’s foundation.
Once the work was done and everyone else had left, three people remained in the Student Council room.
Me, Joo Sarang, and Berid.
A suffocating silence filled the air.
Berid looked at Joo Sarang, irritation clearly written on his face.
He was the first to speak.
“I don’t recall asking you to stay. Why are you still here?”
“I’m not waiting for you—I’m waiting for Seongwoo. So don’t mind me. You’re being unpleasant.”
“You really…”
Berid scowled, visibly displeased, and his tone turned threatening.
“No matter how favored you may be by your superior, here, I am still your superior officer. How far do you think I’ll tolerate your insubordination?”
A heavy wave of magical power spread through the Student Council room.
The suffocating pressure made Joo Sarang gasp, her breath becoming ragged in discomfort.
But her eyes did not falter.
A red gleam began to flicker within her pupils.
“Those eyes… how insolent. It seems you’re in need of discipline.”
At his words, a massive magic circle began to form beneath our feet.
I could tell what kind it was.
A barrier spell.
He was seriously intending to fight here.
Was he insane—to start something like this in the middle of the Academy?
I couldn’t understand why he hated Joo Sarang this much.
Feeling that she was in danger, I drew my sword from the darkness and thrust it into the ground.
A white light burst forth, constructing a virtual space that trapped everyone in a white void.
Yes.
The sword I used was the Barrier Sword I had taken from the Guardian.
Berid’s gaze turned sharply toward me.
“What is this unpleasant space…?”
“That’s enough. I don’t know why you’re so worked up, but this is going too far.”
“No matter who you are, you should at least know the hierarchy among Demons. This isn’t something that can just be overlooked. It’s not an issue you should be interfering with.”
Berid’s face contorted into something resembling a wrathful god as he shouted at me.
The magic infused with his emotions spread outward like rippling waves.
He was agitated.
Come to think of it, he had always been this way.
He liked to act gentlemanly, pretend to be polite, hiding behind layers of masks—but the moment his authority or rights were challenged, he would throw those masks aside and become violent.
He had shown a similar side when I first tried to join the Student Council.
Of course, he seemed even more agitated now than he was then.
To him, I was a troublesome opponent.
But Joo Sarang—she was someone clearly beneath him in status.
Perhaps that was why his anger was so quick to flare.
Was it about time I intervened?
While our ranks were roughly equal, when it came purely to power, Berid had the upper hand.
He knew this as well, which was why—even while pretending to be respectful—there was always that faint trace of condescension in his attitude.
But that was only when it came to raw strength.
I knew everything about him—his attack patterns, his strategies, his weaknesses—while he knew nothing about me.
So it seemed fitting to show him that I wasn’t someone he could so easily look down on.
I drew upon my energy and invoked the Power of the Demon.
As if pleased to be called upon after so long, the abundant demonic energy wrapped around my body, filling me with a sense of omnipotence.
Black magic enveloped me, forming into a dark suit of armor.
It was the first time since the Guardian incident that I had used the Demon’s Power, and this time, controlling it was far easier—its output and efficiency had both greatly increased.
Good. With this much, it looks like I can fight properly.
I manifested the newly acquired power—Levatein—and aimed it toward him.
The jet-black blade began to glow red, soon turning crimson.
The heat alone was enough to make the air waver as the blade growled ferociously.
It was a new power, formed by intertwining two abilities.
And as two powers had merged, the strength contained within was nothing ordinary.
Noticing the energy imbued in my sword, Berid’s gaze locked onto Levatein.
“That sword…?”
“If you keep treating me like this, I won’t hold back either.”
At that, the magic surrounding his body dispersed.
The attention that had been fixed on Joo Sarang now turned toward me.
“…So you had a trump card hidden away. As expected.”
“At the very least, I’ll make sure to sever one of your limbs.”
After taking a slow, deep breath, Berid lowered his head slightly.
“First of all, my apologies. It seems I acted rudely in the heat of the moment. I ask for your understanding.”
He apologized calmly, as if the outburst just moments ago had been a lie.
It seemed that brief release of my power had been warning enough.
This should keep him in check for a while.
Though knowing how cautious he was, he’d likely come up with a more intricate plan next time…
Even if he did, it would still fall within my expectations.
For now, freedom in the present mattered more than any future threat.
Besides, the show of power just now would serve as a kind of insurance.
Even if things went wrong later, he wouldn’t be able to pin the blame on me so easily.
If I were to bluntly say, “You’ve got a problem with me? Then let’s settle it here,” what could he do about it?
By keeping some distance between us, I could sever any future ties to whatever schemes he might be planning.
Thus, as the situation calmed, we were finally able to converse on equal footing.
After the clash of wills between Berid and Seongwoo ended, Joo Sarang, having been told to leave, exited the Student Council room.
She recalled the moment Seongwoo had stepped in to protect her.
It was a face she hadn’t seen in so long.
Once, he had been family, a brother, someone she could rely on more than anyone—
Her Leader.
The one she had thought she would never see again was now standing before her.
And he had fought for her.
Just that alone made her chest swell with emotion.
She had thought she had lost everything.
Her family, her friends, her comrades—all gone.
But there was still something she hadn’t lost.
Joo Sarang remembered the first day she met him.
The day she entered the Nest after losing her parents.
On her first day there, they had locked all the children in one room—and released a Monster inside.
It was only a Goblin, an F-rank Monster at best.
But to a five-year-old girl, it was an impossible foe.
Weapons littered the ground.
But no five-year-old could think of picking one up and fighting a Monster.
Instead, it was the Goblin wielding a weapon, threatening the children.
Joo Sarang remembered that moment vividly.
When the Goblin, holding a long, sharp dagger, drooling filth, and smiling wickedly, crept toward her—
A boy had driven that same dagger through the Goblin’s skull, saving her.
Amidst the chaos of blood and despair, the boy had handed her the dagger and said,
‘If you don’t want to die, grab that sword and fight!’
That one line had made her stronger than anyone else.
It was because of him that she had survived to this day.
There were so many things she wanted to say, so many things she wanted to hear.
She wanted to ask why he had left without a word, what he had been doing all this time.
And she wanted to tell him what had happened since he disappeared.
During the hellish training in Pandemonium, the comrades she had once thought of as family—those who had kept her sane—none of them had survived except her.
Some couldn’t endure the brutal training and perished.
Some offered their souls to Demons and went completely mad.
And a few—she had killed with her own hands.
Even in that cruel environment, the children had treated one another as family, relying on each other to survive.
But the moment she plunged her blade into their hearts, her mind had shattered.
And now, she had reunited with the family she thought she’d lost.
‘This time… I won’t let go.’
Her twisted obsession turned toward Seongwoo.
He might have left her for a time—
But he had come back.
And this time, she had no intention of ever letting him go again.