If the Abyss Gazes Back at Me (1)
“No, I’m sorry!”
“Stop right there!”
I desperately searched for any place I could escape to, but before I knew it, I had run into a dead end. The reason was simple: I wasn’t all that familiar with the layout of this school. I had only experienced it through a game. Knowing the map didn’t mean I could actually navigate a fully realized three-dimensional world.
“Haaah, haaah—haaaah— Seriously, Yohan, what have you been eating? Rabbits? How are you so fast?!”
“You’re the one who’s been living off rabbits!”
“Eeeek, how did you know?!”
Ah. That’s right. This girl was incredibly embarrassed about being from the countryside. I knew every single detail about her, but she had no idea.
‘Get a grip, Yohan.’
I scolded myself. If I kept acting like this, I might accidentally raise suspicion and get dragged into unnecessary trouble. And if that happened, I would end up constantly entangled with Eclipse, eventually becoming a permanent member of her world-saving party.
As I had said before, I had zero intention of letting that happen.
“…Anyway! Is it so wrong to just talk?! Why are you running away?!”
“Because you’re going to hit me…”
“Do you think I’m you?!”
However, the reason Eclipse had come looking for me seemed different from what I had assumed.
“Then why did you chase after me?”
“Th-that, that, that’s because…”
Eclipse stared at my face for a moment, then dropped her head like a scolded puppy and answered timidly.
“…I haven’t seen you since then. I wanted to say thank you.”
“I can’t hear you. Speak louder.”
“Thank you for helping me get into the academy!!”
Thank you?
“All I remember is treating you pretty harshly.”
“I’m glad you know that. Of course, at the time I was a little—no, very angry! No matter how much it was a practice sword, who in the world beats up a girl that hard? You’re awful.”
She had every right to be angry. That was the whole point.
I gave her an honest apology.
“I’m sorry.”
But Eclipse shook her head rapidly.
“…But! But! That’s all in the past now. Looking back, if it weren’t for you, Yohan, I wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
As if that wasn’t what she really wanted to talk about.
“So first of all… thank you.”
She had every reason to hold a grudge, yet she had gone out of her way just to tell me that. This kid really was second to none when it came to being kind-hearted. I already knew she was incredibly good-natured, but I never expected her to go this far.
Then Eclipse asked me,
“U-um, do you have time right now? Could you talk with me a little more?”
“Well… I don’t have much, but I can spare a few minutes.”
She was fidgeting as if she had something else to say.
“That’s a relief. You see… after that day, I thought about it for a long time. But no matter how much I thought, I couldn’t find an answer, and it made my chest feel so tight.”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“To put it simply! To me! You are a walking question mark, Yohan!!!”
“Huh…?”
She even raised her voice as if she had mustered up tremendous courage.
“We clearly only met for the first time at the entrance exam! And yet you said you would cure my ‘chronic illness’…”
“Uh, um. I guess I did say that?”
“It was as if you had known me before! B-but I’m not some amazing knight like you, I’m just a country— I mean! Someone from the remote borderlands, so of course I wouldn’t know you.”
“Ah, about that…”
At that moment, my personal abyss sensor slowly began to raise its head. Back then, I had been so focused on systematically crushing Loban that I had spoken without any filter. And now her unnecessarily good memory was making her question me about it.
‘Ah, I’m actually a person living my second life in this world. I played through this world once before, so I already knew what problems and fate you were facing.’
There was no way I could explain it like that. My brain began spinning at 500 rpm, desperately searching for any excuse that could get me out of this situation.
But what came out of her mouth was completely unexpected.
“…So, I’m asking just in case. Yohan, do you happen to know about the Aligner?”
The Aligner? That was a term from the game.
‘Right. It referred to the three mentors the protagonist would meet during her journey.’
Eclipse would meet those three people and undergo three separate power-ups before defeating the Demon King. Why did she know about this? It was simple. Although she had learned a sword technique passed down only through oral tradition without even knowing she was the descendant of the first Hero, there was another prophecy that had been handed down alongside it.
When the time comes, the one who masters this sword art shall meet three great beings called the Aligners.
And when that time arrives, only then shall this sword art finally see the light.
The excerpt came from my memory—a pretentious phrase that appeared on the game’s loading screen. Eclipse didn’t know that “seeing the light” meant she would gain the power to kill the Demon King, but she never took this prophecy lightly.
So in the current situation, she must have interpreted the prophecy to mean that if she met those three, she could further strengthen her sword technique. She probably believed it was the way to become the great “knight” she wanted to be.
I remembered all three names clearly. I could tell her if she asked. But why was she suddenly asking me if I knew about them?
‘Ah, no way.’
Was this girl mistaking me for one of those beings?
Absolutely not. But a flash of inspiration struck me. If I played this right, I might be able to get out of this situation after all.
“It’s not me.”
So I deliberately answered with a meaningful tone.
“Ah, ah, y-you don’t know! O-of course you wouldn’t! Ahaha…”
When I answered like that, Eclipse shriveled up again like an otaku whose favorite hobby had just been rejected.
…Then, as if something suddenly occurred to her, she said,
“W-wait. You said it’s not you? Then… does that mean you do know something…?”
“No, no. I misspoke. I don’t even know what that is.”
“U-uwahhh…”
Even though I tried to deny it, I couldn’t take back what I had already said. I could practically hear the gears turning in her head from here. It was settled. If I kept this up, Eclipse would conclude that I was one of the Aligners. She would even rationalize that the reason I suddenly helped her back then was because of that.
‘Looks like I’m lying again…’
But if I just avoided her from now on, wouldn’t that solve everything? I had a lot of things I needed to do. Now that it had come to this, it would be best to avoid crossing paths with Eclipse as much as possible and let her walk the path of the hero alone.
To do that, the first priority was to memorize the school’s layout so I could bolt like lightning whenever she came after me.
“…Then, Yohan. Yohan. This is a slightly different topic, but do you remember the bet we made last time?”
“Huh?! I don’t remember anything like that?”
“What do you mean you don’t remember?! You said if I managed to land even one hit on you, you’d let me hit you once!”
“Huh?! Still don’t remember?”
“Argh, you said you wouldn’t hit me! B-but just doing nothing would hurt my pride, so I have something I want to ask of you too!”
It was then that I heard Lady Karalin’s voice from far away.
“Yohaaan— Are you over there? I heard you were being chased by someone and ran this way. Don’t you remember that the next class overlaps—?”
“Instead! Yohan, if you have time someday, could we spar again and—”
The two voices overlapped.
“It’s the lady! I’m coming right now!”
But once I heard the lady’s voice, I could barely make out what Eclipse was saying. As everyone knew, anything related to the lady was the most important thing to me. I had already told her I didn’t have much time. She would probably understand if I left now.
Leaving behind the cotton-candy-haired girl who looked like an elf and had been tormenting me this entire time, I spun around and sprinted toward the lady.
“Ah… he left…”
Eclipse fidgeted with her fingers.
“Hngh, I finally worked up the courage to speak first…! But as expected, that person is…”
She had already gone too far for me to hear her voice properly.
“Yohan, Yohan, Yohan Kim—!”
Vancight was enjoying his pleasures in the private lounge prepared especially for him. Or rather, in his “pleasure room.”
He was submerged in a bathtub filled to the brim with wine, being attended to by a dozen naked women. It was the height of decadent luxury—a beautiful leisure that only the noble could enjoy as the noble.
The sight was completely different from the class president he had shown at the entrance ceremony, but this was the real Vancight.
Today, Vancight was drowning himself in alcohol while shouting the name of the human who had amused him the most recently.
“Karalin, seeing that barbarian’s mentality torn to shreds was the funniest thing ever. Just what kind of being is that guy, that he could bring that woman back to her senses in a single moment?”
Vancight asked the butler standing guard at the entrance like an iron wall. Or rather, the existence that was far too hideous to be called a mere butler.
“Did the trumpeter I planted at the entrance ceremony fail to function properly?”
The butler’s face was wrapped in bandages as if he had suffered severe burns, and grotesque crow-like wings sprouted from his back. He flapped those wings and answered.
“No, Your Imperial Highness. The slander against her was carried out exactly as you instructed.”
“Then it didn’t go the way I wanted.”
“…I have no excuse, Your Highness.”
Without pressing the butler any further, Vancight pulled the two beautiful women who had been washing his body into his arms.
“Kyaaah, Your Imperial Highness…♥”
The women let out delighted cries, thinking they were finally about to receive the emperor’s grace, but—
“I’m sick of you. I think I’ll just kill you both now.”
“E-eek?”
At the crown prince’s casual remark, their expressions twisted with despair and shock.
“Y-Your Imperial Highness? You’re joking, right? This is a prank, isn’t it…?”
“Why would I be joking? Things didn’t go my way. The mere fact that such a thing exists is unpleasant. How should I put it… it makes me doubt my own abilities…”
“………!!!”
At those cold words, the members of the harem instinctively realized their deaths were near. Their spines went cold and their vision darkened.
But Vancight paid no attention to their terrified moans. He spoke as if they were already no longer among the living.
“So if I kill you two, I should be able to tell whether I’m still in top form or not.”
“Your Imperial Highness, we were wrong! We’ll serve you more faithfully! We’ll do anything! Please, just don’t kill us!”
“No, no. It’s fine if you die. After all, you’re just pitiful orphans no one would care about even if you disappeared, right? You’ve actually been lucky until now. You knew what you were getting into when you entered my harem…”
With a loud bang, the door opened and two armored knights entered, grabbing the women by their hair and dragging them out.
“No. Why are you dragging them out? Just cut them down here.”
“Please spare us, please spare us, Your Imperial Highness! I beg you like this!”
Schunk—
They had been about to leave, but at the order to kill them right there, they drew their blades and severed the women’s necks.
“K-kyaaaaaaaah!!”
The remaining maids who had been attending him watched the scene, their bodies frozen in terror, unable even to scream.
The two women’s struggles didn’t last long. Soon, what lay beside the bathtub were two blood-soaked corpses and the two heads that had once been attached to them.
Yet the crown prince, as if nothing had happened, smiled brightly at the remaining women.
“Sorry. Were you scared?”
“Ah… ugh…?!”
“We’ll stop here for today. I won’t kill the rest of you. No, actually, the one who serves me the best today will receive a great reward, so cheer up, alright?”
“O-ohoho… What are you saying? We have been waiting for your command at any time, Your Imperial Highness.”
The man who had just slaughtered their colleague like livestock without lifting a single finger spoke as casually as ever. If they resisted even slightly, they too would end up rolling on the floor like those corpses.
They could not defy him. Therefore, the remaining women could only answer with affirmation. If this man wanted them to answer that way, then that was what they must do.
“Yes, that’s how it should be…”
“Kuhahaha— You have no choice but to act that way, you pig-like bitches.”
Because this man was an existence capable of toying with everything on this earth.
The sight of Vancight sipping wine from the bathtub with corpses as his backdrop was that of a beast in human form.
And that beast spoke.
“I want to sell Karalin to the Demon King, brainwash her, break her… and watch Yohan’s head collapse. I want to see that sullen face twist in despair.”
Vancight swirled his wine glass as he continued.
“But that guy Yohan doesn’t seem like he’ll just take it lying down. It feels like he’ll interfere with any attempt to approach Karalin.”
At those words, the bandaged man who had been silently watching finally spoke.
“In that case, it would be better to eliminate Yohan.”
“I agree, I agree, I agree… After all, if Yohan dies, as a bonus I’ll get to watch Karalin writhe and die in agony.”
Vancight gave a sinister smile.
“Butler, let’s do one more job together.”
“What would you like me to do?”
“What else? We’re going to kill Yohan, just like you said.”
“I will begin preparations immediately.”
“…There was someone who got badly beaten by him recently, wasn’t there? Use him like a dog. Throw him a few scraps and he’ll be easy to tame.”
Evil was approaching.
“Thinking that I didn’t expect this would be a complete miscalculation.”
Yohan merely sneered.