The following day, a cascade of events unfolded.
“Still, it’s lucky the bell sound stopped the horned demon.”
“...Huh?”
“...What?”
“There’s a horned demon?”
1. Everyone except Dante (Commander Kashan, Dean Shaman, the knights, Ran) had either forgotten about Eve or experienced some kind of memory distortion.
“This... was our first failed mission, wasn’t it...”
2. Commander Kashan, now bound and recovering in the ICU, woke up believing he had failed to assassinate Dante and been defeated by Shaman.
Truly impressive. Dante Hiakapo. A mere thirty-year-old warrior survived me...?
Youth is a weakness.
And he was the commander of the Royal Knight Order’s assassination-suppression unit.
Like a veteran boar hunter tasting his first failure at the hands of a piglet.
...But how did I go down? I’m sure I succeeded with the stigma gamble mid-fight...
Still, he’d survived under royal protection.
Hmm. Actually... this isn’t bad?
He was alive?
All his subordinates were alive?
No permanent injuries?
Sure, that royal and Cheongru would probably chew him out for incompetence, but honestly—who cares?
Shaman’s sudden appearance only proved their intel network had holes.
He could just parrot “I followed orders from above.” No one blames the weapon.
Stretching out on the hospital bed, Kashan placed both hands behind his head and even began to whistle.
Heh heh. I’m completely off the hook~♪
Then he jolted upright in horror.
Wait!!!
A massive shock hit him.
For a reason.
...Th-the National Treasure is gone!!!
His hands trembled.
Hiaka Kingdom National Treasure No.14, “God’s Toy□,” which should’ve been around his neck—was gone.
It had been lent to him by the royal family and was supposed to be returned in a few months.
He couldn’t breathe.
W-what... what do I do......??
A flash of memory—something breaking—crossed his mind.
Then he collapsed afterward.
Where that treasure went... he didn’t know.
Even broken shards of a National Treasure were extremely valuable. They could be used to craft extraordinary gear. And even those were missing.
At some point, Kashan had ended up kneeling on the hospital bed.
His breath caught. His hands trembled harder.
I’m fucked.
3. Where had the broken treasure gone?
If you came to assassinate me, shouldn’t you pay an assassination fee?
Dante Hiakapo was smiling...
4. Meanwhile, Shaman Kreutz was feeling deeply confused. He truly couldn’t believe that he’d fought Kashan to a draw. A sincere doubt took root.
This foreshadowed a brutal rematch between him and the Witch of the Graveyard—where only one would walk away alive...
“Dean, donuts!”
“Ohoho!”
...But seeing the donuts his assistant brought, he stopped caring.
“Hohoho! The proper way to eat a donut is to stack three and shove them in at once. Right, Bugi Bugi?!”
“Whoa! I’ll try too!”
The staffer in the dean’s office could only shake his head.
That young male assistant, Bugi Bugi, had been looking rather plump around the chin lately... but it must’ve just been the administrator’s imagination.
“Delicious!”
Little piggy Bugi Bugi...!
“Hohohoho!”
Assistant-turned-enlargement project...!!
5. In any case! Donuts were donuts—and the royal family had just drawn a blade against Hiaka Academy.
The next morning, a furious Shaman Kreutz really did storm the royal palace and flipped everything upside down.
Despite being looked at as “that traitorous lunatic at it again” by the royal elders...
Shaman successfully executed one elder who’d issued Dante’s assassination order and extorted a long-term sponsorship worth tens of millions.
“......”
Still, he wasn’t at ease.
That elder had been a puppet. A scapegoat. Shaman sensed it.
He’d have to speak with Dante Hiakapo further about all this later.
6. Elsewhere, an investigator sent directly by the king came to question Dante.
“I have a few questions.”
He asked whether Dante suspected anyone of ordering the assassination attempt.
Which elder. Which faction. ...Or perhaps “the princess,” maybe?
Dante knew instantly.
What he said now would deeply affect Rebecca’s future.
I thought it was her too.
But surprisingly, it wasn’t.
Cheongru and others seemed part of another faction within the royal family.
And while Dante would’ve loved to see Rebecca destroyed—
He couldn’t fabricate the truth.
Not because he liked her.
Because a massive potential threat is being hidden behind the mask of “Rebecca.”
“This incident has no connection to the princess.”
“......”
The investigator gave him a puzzled glance, then bowed and left.
7. And Rebecca...
Bathed in backlight, the princess knelt before the king in darkness.
Neither of them spoke. More precisely, the king remained silent, and so the princess had no right to speak either.
But the princess’s state was odd. Her normally neat and beautiful hair was greasy and matted. Blood speckled her face. Her regal clothes were torn in several places.
She had just killed Cheongru.
The old man who had been at her side for ten years.
Whom she thought of as a grandfather—someone she could cling to at any time.
She had killed him with her own hands.
And so she’d been dragged here by royal knights.
King Hiaka III finally opened his mouth.
“Did you order the assassination of Dante Hiakapo?”
His voice was solemn.
Eyes turned from royal guards and aides standing far away.
Everyone in the palace already knew Rebecca was faking her saintly image.
But this was the first time her villainy had been formally acknowledged.
Rebecca had to answer carefully. Her entire future hinged on this.
After a long, stunned silence—
“...Yes.”
The princess admitted it.
Her unfocused eyes stared into the ground.
“...I did it.”
The royal aides standing afar were boiling with quiet rage.
That worm was once again dragging the kingdom down.
How could she?
How could a human be so disgusting?
Not only had she killed the noble, respected knight who raised her—
She’d also ordered the death of Professor Dante Hiakapo, whom the entire royal family now treasured!
Disgusting. Truly.
That bitch should be executed on the spot.
A true cancer of the royal line.
Someone who deserved death.
Her already abysmal reputation had now hit rock bottom—and kept digging.
“......”
Yet the king simply crossed his legs, propped his chin on one hand, and looked down at his daughter. Several knights were close to exploding from the frustration.
The silence stretched on for minutes.
Until—finally—a retainer slipped in and whispered something to the king.
The king furrowed his brow and looked at the princess.
“Why did you lie?”
“......”
Rebecca slowly raised her head.
The words that followed caught her completely off guard.
“Professor Dante defended you fiercely. He insisted you couldn’t possibly have done it. Even presented evidence, apparently.”
Princess Rebecca stared at the king with vacant eyes.
Her unfocused gaze slowly narrowed.
Then—she muttered:
“...What...?”
***
“We’ve got news about Princess Rebecca.”
Ran scratched her head as she relayed what she’d just heard from Bugi Bugi.
“She dropped out.”
“...What?”
“Just like that. Princess Rebecca has officially withdrawn from the Academy. Now the Dormant Dragon Cadets are down to five. Two seats are vacant.”
Ah. Nice.
Like a rotting tooth finally pulled.
But still—why?
“What’s the reason?”
Ran’s answer was shocking.
“She’s been nominated as a Cardinal candidate for the Hiaka Virgin Church.”
Oh god.
I silently prayed for the souls of the clergy.
There would be blood in the holy halls.
9. And then, the rewards rolled in.
┃ Affinity increased: Rebecca [72] (▲52)
┃ Reward: 52 × Star Fragments
For some reason, even though Rebecca had left the Dormant Dragon Cadets, I got a reward in her name.
And the numbers were absurd.
52?
My affinity with her rose by 52 in one go?
What the hell. That’s scary.
What was our relationship again?
We hated each other, right?
But now, it had increased by 52...
Terrifying.
Still, she was gone from the Academy, off somewhere far away.
That was enough.
***
The next day, I headed out to meet the horned demon—no, Eve—in broad daylight.
“What are you going to do about Eve now?”
Ran asked.
By the way, she had completely forgotten everything. But once I explained what had happened again, she said “I see,” and immediately accepted it.
So... what kind of relationship would I form with that potential 3.0 monster going forward?
I had spent all night thinking about it.
“A Cardinal from the Virgin Church will visit tomorrow.”
“A Cardinal?”
“First, I plan to lift the ‘Curse of Forgetting.’”
You never know when a hotfix might hit.
“Also, I want to try socializing her.”
“Socializing.”
“She can’t live in a mountain cave forever. We should meet regularly, bring her closer to humanity.”
Potential 3.0—
That’s basically humanity’s final weapon.
If I could keep her close, I absolutely would.
But that won’t be enough.
I still didn’t fully understand Eve. I needed to learn more.
I’d discovered her surname was Lemontree, of the Baron Lemontree family. I planned to contact them.
“Socializing, huh. So that’s why you brought that?”
Ran nodded toward what I held in my hand.
“Exactly.”
For the first step in socialization—I’d brought a Communicator.
A device that allows 1:1 interaction.
She couldn’t hear, but spiritual waves should still get through.
“There’s only one left in Hiaka’s inventory.”
“Must be valuable.”
So today, I planned to use this to attempt basic communication.
“We’re here.”
When we reached the cave, Eve was there. When our eyes met, her face lit up and she waved both unbent arms in an awkward motion. I waved back.
Ran waved too.
Eve glanced at her, wary at first, but eventually waved back after recognizing her.
Where did she even learn to wave like that?
Anyway, Eve led us into the cave, brushed the dirt from the ground with ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) her hands, and gestured for us to sit.
It was time for the grand gift ceremony.
“Here. A gift. You wear it like this in your ear...”
But the moment Eve received the Communicator, she tilted her head—then started turning the rotating part over and over.
“Hey. What are you doing?”
“.......”
“Why are you spinning that? Why are you disassembling it?”
“......?”
She kept twisting it while tilting her head.
“Hey! That part isn’t supposed to—”
Snap!
And there it was—split into ‘Commu’ and ‘nicator’.
“......?”
Eve tilted her head again.
Unbelievable.
That thing was expensive.
“Shall I try fixing it?”
“You can?”
Ran, now wearing a ‘tool model’ on her head, whipped out a repair kit and got to work.
She fixed it quickly—but there was a problem.
Even after jamming it in Eve’s ear, the communication still didn’t function.
“Hmm... Her cognitive structure must be totally different.”
“Seems so.”
Was this the end of our first conversation attempt?
Then Ran made a suggestion.
“Would you like to learn sign language?”
“Sign language?”
“It’s a language that uses hand gestures. I studied hearing impairment last night and picked up sign language.”
In one night?
But it was Ran—so I wasn’t surprised.
She probably used some bizarre “support module.”
“Good idea.”
And so, with a ‘communication parrot’ perched on her head, Ran began exchanging basic sign language with Eve.
Eve’s reactions were interesting.
She recoiled when we used doomchit doomchit.
But when we did doochit, she leaned forward, curious.
“What did she say?”
“She resisted at first when I said we’d teach her gestures—but accepted when I said it would let her talk to you.”
And so, Ran taught me and Eve about twenty basic signs.
Gestures, paired with slight facial expressions, to convey meaning.
It was surprisingly fun and easy.
“And in sign language, there are also sign names. Want to create yours?”
I see.
A sign name is how you refer to someone using gestures. Instead of letters, it’s a mutually agreed-upon movement.
“What would Miss Eve like to call Professor Dante?”
“......?”
Eve tilted her head—then made a fist and pressed it to her cheek like a cat paw, twisting her wrist.
Really now.
She just catified me.
That gesture would now be my sign name.
“And what about Professor Dante?”
For some reason, I couldn’t get the image of an elephant out of my head—but it clashed with my dignity.
So I held up two fingers to my forehead.
Two horns.
That would now be Eve’s sign name.
We exchanged a few simple signs.
I said I was sorry for stabbing her.
Eve said it was okay.
⋮
That marked our first normal meeting in the cave.
Before we left, Eve signed something using what she’d learned that day:
She held up two index fingers to indicate “meet.”
Used her middle and thumb fingers to form a fox shape.
Pointed to the ground.
Then ran her hands gently down her chest.
Met. First time. Here. Happy...
She was saying it made her happy to meet here for the first time.
I responded with “me too.”
And promised I’d come again tomorrow.
Eve was delighted.