Chapter 70
Since it was the weekend, the Student Council room was empty.
Sitting alone in the president’s chair, Yoo Iseo tapped her fingers against the desk.
The rhythmic tap, tap, tap echoed softly through the quiet room.
It was one of her habits—something she did whenever something was troubling her.
As she snapped her fingers, a faint blue light flickered to life, and a hologram appeared before her.
Displayed on it were countless documents related to Seo Da-hee’s death.
The more she investigated, the more inconsistencies she found.
And the conclusion she finally reached—
There was a traitor within the Student Council.
Not among the newly appointed executives, but one of the original members.
Before the expansion, the Student Council had operated as a small, elite unit.
Which meant that since each member carried immense responsibility, anyone could be the culprit.
Once suspicion began, there was something questionable about everyone.
Ha Yoon, who had provided false information about the Demon.
Yoo Seongwoo, who had somehow survived after facing two Demons at once.
Park Siwoo, who had been completely useless during the Demon subjugation.
The fact that she couldn’t trust a single one of them tormented Yoo Iseo.
Rubbing her dry eyes from lack of sleep, she let out a deep sigh.
To expose the traitor, she had deliberately made a show of calling for the purging of Demons, spreading her declaration far and wide before taking action.
If the leader of Pandemonium truly existed, they wouldn’t stay quiet after such provocation.
That was why Yoo Iseo planned to test them—
—to expose the one who dared to abandon humanity and side with the Demons.
Her gaze shifted toward a yellow file folder beside her.
The first test subject—
—the one she most suspected of being the traitor—
was Yoo Seongwoo.
On my way back from completing a weapon request, I saw someone standing in front of my dorm room.
“President…?”
At the sound of my voice, Yoo Iseo turned her head.
“What are you doing in front of my door?”
“You’re here. I’ve been waiting. Can we talk inside?”
She came here… like this?
I knew she’d been on edge since returning to the Academy, but dropping by my place unannounced at this hour?
That wasn’t like her at all.
Don’t tell me—
I suddenly remembered the Academy’s recently increased Suspicion Level.
Did she come to test me?
Otherwise, I couldn’t understand why she would come as dusk was setting.
And if she really came here to test me, then this probably wasn’t something directed only at me.
No doubt she was suspicious of all of us—Park Siwoo, Ha Yoon, and me alike.
So let’s just call this what it is—a test.
Yoo Iseo was here to confirm whether I was a Demon or not.
Which meant I needed to give her the right answer.
I opened the door and gestured her in.
“It’s a bit messy, but please, come in.”
“It’s cleaner than I expected.”
After scanning the room once, she took a seat in the chair by my desk.
“So, what brings you here at such a late hour?”
“Sorry for the late visit. I just wanted to talk for a bit.”
With that, she handed me a stack of documents.
It was heavier than I’d thought—clearly filled with a lot of material.
I opened it and examined the contents closely.
“This is…”
Inside were detailed profiles of students—their names, identities, traits, personalities, even their likes, dislikes, and movements over the past few months.
“Do you know what this is?”
Of course I did.
As soon as she had returned to the Student Council, Yoo Iseo had declared she would root out every Demon hiding within the Academy.
She had ordered the Student Council executives to compile a list of all individuals suspected of being Demons.
In other words—
“This is the final list of those suspected of being Demons.”
“That’s right. There are quite a few, aren’t there?”
“Sure are.”
As I replied, I skimmed through the names.
Some were familiar faces, others were completely new.
But all the names shared one thing in common.
This list was a minefield.
Most of those listed weren’t just innocent—they were key figures who would play major roles once the story progressed.
Of course, not all of them were innocent.
There were indeed a few real Demons mixed in.
But most were minor ones—small fry.
Berid’s subordinates had deliberately mixed genuine Demons with innocent people to mask their assassination targets among the major figures.
The data showed how they had twisted incidents committed by other Demons, framing the innocent as perpetrators.
I only knew the truth because of my experience from the game.
Anyone else would look at this list and believe that those poor souls were either Demons or traitors in league with them.
If Yoo Iseo decided to purge the innocent ones on this list, it would lead to serious consequences later on.
Still, there was one good thing about it.
This list was connected to the quests involving Berid’s assassination targets.
Since I already knew all those events inside out, I was beginning to see the outline of Berid’s plan.
But seriously… did these guys even have a conscience?
The number of real Demons and innocent people was practically the same.
My hand stopped as I flipped another page.
Wait, this one’s here too?
Park Min-seo.
His name was also written among the Demon suspects.
It had taken me a while to realize he was a Demon myself—so how had they found out?
Don’t tell me… they don’t actually know Park Min-seo is a Demon?
That could be the case.
His awakening had happened through a method completely unrelated to Pandemonium, after all.
My thoughts were interrupted as Yoo Iseo’s voice broke the silence.
“The reason I came so late is to ask for Cadet Seongwoo’s help. I mentioned that I’d be intensifying the Demon purge, right?”
“You did.”
“Tonight, I plan to investigate one of the individuals on this list. If I confirm they’re a Demon, I’ll eliminate them on the spot. And I’d like Cadet Seongwoo to support me in that operation.”
She pointed to the documents as she spoke.
“Since the investigations and evidence are all in place, most of them are either Demons or collaborators of Pandemonium. Go ahead and choose one.”
I felt something off in her words.
I’d expected this to be a test, sure—but she was letting me choose?
I had thought she’d select a target herself, then slaughter the Demon before my eyes to see how I reacted.
Maybe she’d even attack me suddenly to test my reflexes or morality.
But if she was handing me the choice, then this test of hers must have been of a different kind.
That sense of unease I’d felt earlier while going through the list came back to me.
No matter how much they had filtered the names—
—there were too many innocent people on it.
Berid wasn’t foolish enough to leave behind any trail that would invite suspicion.
Moreover, the evidence against some of these “suspects” was either flawed or poorly supported.
At first, I’d thought Berid’s subordinates were just careless with their work—but what if that wasn’t the case?
Just as Berid might be using this list to corner Yoo Iseo…
Yoo Iseo herself might be using the same list to root out a traitor.
In other words—
—it wasn’t only Berid and his lackeys who had tampered with this list.
Spreading the documents across the desk, I asked,
“So, you’re saying I should pick one of them?”
“Yes. The person you choose will be investigated tonight. And if they turn out to be a Demon, I’ll eliminate them.”
“But… something about this list feels off.”
At my words, Yoo Iseo’s eyes glimmered sharply.
“What do you mean?”
“There are a few names here that don’t quite make sense.”
“Go on.”
With her permission, I selected a few entries from the list.
All of them were innocent individuals whose data seemed manipulated—either by Yoo Iseo herself or Berid’s people.
“Here, for example—it says the reason this student is suspected of being a Demon is because of an incident that occurred outside the Academy during a period when the student was absent. But according to attendance logs, the student simply didn’t come to school; there’s no record of them leaving campus. That’s just speculation, isn’t it?”
“This student did visit the city where the Demon incident occurred about a week earlier. The suspicion was based on that, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it’s the same city, but if you look at the receipts from that visit, the student was over an hour’s drive away from where the Demon appeared. Considering the distance and timing, it doesn’t add up.”
Yoo Iseo nodded, seemingly convinced.
“Hmm. You’re right, Cadet Seongwoo. There are indeed a number of ambiguous cases like this.”
A probing response.
I furrowed my brow and flipped through the documents, pretending to be annoyed.
“These were compiled by the new Student Council executives, right? I heard the Vice President personally selected them, so I trusted their work. But to see so many errors…”
“Hm.”
Watching her expression, I pressed firmly,
“Personally, I don’t think this is something we can just overlook, President. You know how crucial it is to identify the real Demons during a purge.”
“All right. I’ll make sure they’re warned.”
With that, Yoo Iseo averted her gaze slightly.
Most of the false data I had pointed out were likely the ones she herself had fabricated.
As she continued flipping through the pages, her hand stopped.
“Cadet Seongwoo, I can understand most of what you’ve said—but what about these?”
She handed the documents back to me.
Right, I expected she’d question that.
The students she was pointing at were the ones Berid had planted as traps.
Berid’s “mines” were so subtle and elaborate that anyone unaware of his schemes would never notice.
Yoo Iseo’s eyes turned cold.
They gleamed with the sharp, predatory focus of a hunter spotting her prey’s weakness.
“These students don’t seem to have weak or faulty evidence. On the contrary, their cases look too clear-cut.”
To her, it might have seemed as though I were using flimsy excuses to protect the Demons.
But I had played the game countless times—I had evidence she couldn’t possibly know.
“You’re right, President. If we only go by what’s written here, that’s exactly what it looks like.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look here. In this case, there was a dungeon disappearance incident. Only one cadet survived, while even the active heroes all perished. Naturally, suspicion fell on that survivor.”
“That one’s solid evidence. It’s hard to believe they were merely hiding—the cadet’s clothes were stained with the victims’ blood.”
“I focused on one detail—the cadet’s clothing had no battle damage whatsoever.”
“Battle damage?”
Yoo Iseo’s eyes narrowed.
“If there was that much blood, they must have been moving fast or taking hits. But their uniform was oddly clean—too clean, especially considering it was a dungeon. The fact that the evidence was so neatly preserved is what’s strange.”
“…Almost as if it was fabricated.”
“Yes.”
I continued to point out several other examples, using every bit of knowledge I had to defend the innocents.
It seemed Berid had added these names to remove anyone who could hinder his plans—but that was his mistake.
After all, I had spent half a year running the game hundreds, even thousands of times. I knew every detail of their data by heart.
“The earlier ones had minor inconsistencies or lack of evidence. But these five cases—these reek of deliberate malice, like someone’s intentionally framing the innocent.”
At my words, Yoo Iseo’s eyes trembled slightly.
She must have been conflicted inside.
I decided not to push her further and stayed silent.
After a moment of deep thought, Yoo Iseo finally spoke.