The Main Episode Begins
Quite a few quest messages had appeared up until now.
But never anything this grand in scale.
'Must be because it's the final episode of Act 1.'
It was true—the scope was on an entirely different level compared to the episodes that had come before.
The two demons who had appeared this time.
In Jack's case, his personal combat ability wasn't all that impressive.
But his true power was none other than brainwashing.
When you considered how he could control the artificial monsters around him, it became incredibly troublesome.
'A perfect ability for terrorism.'
On top of that, he'd exploited Sherry's trauma and brainwashed her as well.
'And when you factor in that he even strengthened her ability...'
Just thinking about Sherry made me unconsciously furrow my brow.
It was then.
“P-Professor, are they going to be okay?”
Kanya, who had been beside me, asked in a trembling voice.
Well, given the demonic energy coming from the waiting room, it was only natural for her to be worried.
The aura she felt now was on a completely different dimension from anything she'd sensed before.
But.
“There's no need to worry. They're professors of the Academy for a reason.”
“R-Right, of course.”
No matter how strong King was as an executive of the Demon King's army, the people here were professors of Edin Academy.
They were monsters who had slaughtered demons on the front lines.
Therefore, the idea of King defeating all the professors was simply absurd.
'He'll probably just hold out at best.'
Anyway, for extras like us, there was nothing to do but wait for the protagonist to resolve the situation on his own.
“Let's stay quiet and wait until the professors take care of it.”
With those words, we simply waited for this incident to end as quickly as possible.
At the same time.
The professors were startled by the sudden appearance of King.
They had never imagined a demon would show up in the Academy's examination grounds of all places.
“Quite a few familiar faces here.”
King narrowed his eyes as he scanned the professors.
There was Dale, the squinty-eyed assassin known as the Grim Reaper among the demons.
Ilya, the master of archery.
Silva, called the human zombie.
Each one was a powerhouse who had made their mark on the front lines—so many that listing them all would take forever.
'This should be fun after so long.'
As King's body trembled with excitement—
-Whoosh!
Dale suddenly appeared behind him.
King dodged the attack by bending at the waist.
At the same time—
-Swish!
He spun around and attempted a counterattack.
But somehow, Dale had already reappeared in front of the other professors.
“A shame. To fail the first surprise attack like that.”
“Well, it wasn't bad. If it had been any other demon, that strike would've killed them.”
“Hmm. You're quite confident. No matter who you are, facing all of us at once should be impossible.”
“No need to worry. In any case, you're not my target.”
The moment the professors began to question those words—
-Kyaaaaah!
-Kieeeeeek!
The artificial monsters in the forest let out grotesque shrieks as they emitted demonic energy.
The professors were shocked by the unexpected development.
Dale looked at the artificial monsters rampaging through the forest and spoke.
“It seems you have other comrades.”
“Didn't I tell you? My target isn't you people.”
“Professor Ilya.”
Dale quickly called out to her.
The woman who had been aiming her bow at King answered.
“What is it?”
“I need you to immediately alert the students of the emergency and lead them to safety.”
Ilya's eyebrows twitched at those words.
She wanted to stay here more than anything.
But right now, she wasn't a soldier—she was a professor.
Therefore, the students' safety came first.
“Understood. I'll evacuate the students as quickly as possible and return.”
She nodded with a determined expression.
Just as she was about to leave the waiting room—
“I anticipated you would try to move like that.”
With those words, King snapped his fingers.
At the same time—
-Vwoooong!
A black curtain rose around the waiting room.
Ilya's face hardened the moment she saw it.
“Don't interfere!”
She gathered mana into her bow.
She created an arrow and fired it at the curtain, but—
“?!”
Contrary to her expectations, the curtain didn't even get a scratch. It remained perfectly intact.
The other professors also unleashed attacks to break the barrier.
But just as expected, not even a dent appeared on the curtain King had set up.
Dale, who had been watching the situation, narrowed his eyes even further.
'No matter who he is, it's impossible for him to withstand attacks from all these professors...'
As he pondered the question, King broke into a wide grin.
Then, in a voice filled with pure delight, he said,
“The curtain I installed is an item personally given to me by the Demon King. It's impossible for the likes of you to destroy it.”
Hearing that, Dale's doubts were instantly resolved.
Even if the Demon King was weaker than the legendary heroes of old, he was still powerful enough to rival them.
It was only natural that something belonging to such a being couldn't be broken by them.
“Now then, shall we play?”
With those final words, he released his demonic energy.
Looking at King before him, Dale thought to himself.
'It seems I'll have to hope the students handle the situation outside.'
Thinking of Baran, Dale released his mana at full power.
About twenty minutes had passed since the main episode began.
Thirty minutes was barely half a lecture period.
Yet even though only twenty minutes had gone by, the forest had fallen into complete chaos.
-Kieeeeeek!
“Get lost! Fuck!”
The artificial monsters in the forest were going berserk thanks to Jack.
The silver lining was that the artificial monsters weren't particularly strong.
So far, no students had died.
'Hoo. I should stop using it now.'
I briefly closed my eyes to check how the situation was unfolding using Mind's Eye.
I'd been worried about the butterfly effect, but fortunately that didn't seem to be the case.
If things continued like this, the incident would resolve itself.
“Is it really okay for us to just stay here like this?”
At that moment, Kanya asked in a gloomy voice, hugging her knees beside me.
It seemed she felt uncomfortable just sitting still while an incident was unfolding.
'Hmm. Just a moment.'
Come to think of it, as long as I didn't interfere with the original story, it should be fine.
The Sand Golem was already defeated.
All that remained were Jack and the mid-boss Sherry.
Once those two were dealt with, it would essentially be over.
'Luden's party should be able to handle it without any variables at this point.'
In other words, even if we went around killing the small fry, it shouldn't create any problems.
'If I play this right, it could be a huge jackpot.'
Killing artificial monsters didn't normally give experience points.
After all, they were beings created by humans using mana.
That's why the game didn't treat them as monsters.
'But now it's different.'
Thanks to Jack's brainwashing, demonic energy had entered their bodies.
Therefore, they could be considered no different from regular monsters.
In fact, since they were essentially Jack's subordinates, they might even give more experience.
'This is a total jackpot, isn't it?'
After organizing my thoughts, I turned my gaze toward her.
Kanya jumped in surprise and asked,
“W-Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Miss Kanya. Doesn't it feel wrong to just sit still?”
“Of course it does...”
“Then let's get moving as well.”
The moment I said that, Kanya sprang to her feet as if she'd been waiting for those exact words.
Seeing her react like that, it was clear she'd been itching to jump into action.
'She'll be enough as a vanguard.'
With that thought, our experience farming began.
About thirty more minutes passed after we started moving.
I'd expected to encounter countless monsters.
But contrary to expectations, we didn't find many at all.
“There are surprisingly few monsters.”
It wasn't just me—Kanya also looked puzzled.
-Disciple!
At that moment, Miroel flew toward us from afar.
I turned my head toward her.
Having just finished scouting the area, she answered my question.
-Just as I thought, the monsters are all gathered around the demon right now.
So that was it.
It seemed Jack had released the monsters around himself as a precaution.
That explained why there were so few in the forest.
'I couldn't tell even with Mind's Eye.'
Maybe it was because my level was still too low to fully utilize Mind's Eye.
With that in mind, I checked my status window.
Still, I'd gained three levels this time. I decided to think positively.
Hunting with Kanya meant I received less experience, but the fact that I'd leveled up purely through hunting was undeniable.
This was a pretty good result.
Of course, it was a bit concerning that more monsters had gathered around Jack than in the original story.
'But since artificial monsters are useless in front of Lillia anyway, it shouldn't matter.'
As I organized my thoughts and stayed on guard with Kanya—
-Kyaaaaah!
A scream that was all too familiar reached my ears.
We quickly ran toward the source of the scream.
And there—
'What? Why is she here?'
Risa, who should have been clearing the dungeon with Luden, was being attacked by an artificial monster—a Flower Plant.
Countless green vines had her completely bound.
It looked exactly like a scene from a tentacle hentai, which was incredibly embarrassing, but this was no time to think about that.
I had to save her immediately.
-Slice!
It seemed Kanya had the same idea—she sliced through the vines with her dagger in one swift motion.
I immediately fired an arrow straight into the center of the flower.
-Thud!
The creature pierced by the arrow collapsed on the spot.
No matter how much of a monster it had become, it was originally created for the students.
One strike was more than enough to take it down.
“Miss Risa, are you alright?”
“Y-Yes...!”
At my question, Risa nodded and quickly pulled down her skirt.
She must have realized her underwear had been visible because of the tentacles earlier.
'She knows I'm blind, so why is she getting so embarrassed?'
Anyway, now wasn't the time for such trivial thoughts.
I needed to ask what had happened right away.
After all, Risa—who should have been by the protagonist's side—was here instead.
Just as I was about to ask her what happened—
“I-It's terrible, Mr. Baran! Lady Sherry has gone berserk!”
Risa flailed her arms in a panic.
Judging by her expression, an unexpected variable had occurred.
