Is He Actually Crazy?
With a loud bang, Jeong Hayeon slammed the door shut as she stormed into the room.
Her cheeks were burning bright red as she kept her head down.
“Whoa. You scared me. What’s wrong, Hayeon?”
Kim Minseo jumped in surprise.
“Huh…? Oh. Sorry. I guess the door made a really loud noise.”
Jeong Hayeon dove straight onto the bed and buried her face in the blankets. Both of her cheeks were flushed crimson.
He chased after that demonic human just to give me that ring?
That dangerous-looking demonic human?
He really had said those words. That he wouldn’t wear a counterfeit ring. But that had only been to shut down any confession before it could happen.
Yet Nam Doyun had taken her words seriously and brought back the real thing. And he’d gone after that terrifying demonic human to get it.
…For me?
If she could, she wanted to forget the conversation she’d just overheard.
But no matter what she did, that conversation kept replaying inside Jeong Hayeon’s head.
Why?
She ran through countless theories in her mind. Was he trying to sell the ring to her? It was true that she desperately needed an artifact with mana recovery. After she poured out her power, she always fell into exhaustion. Mana recovery was absolutely essential for her.
“Yeah. He’s probably just trying to sell it to me at a high price, right?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
Kim Minseo tilted her head in confusion.
“Ah… it’s nothing.”
Jeong Hayeon forced a bright smile.
Right. It couldn’t be a confession. There was no way he was trying to confess to her. No, it had better not be.
The smile slowly faded from Jeong Hayeon’s face.
But… what if it wasn’t?
She let out a deep sigh. That conversation kept replaying in her head over and over.
“Alright, everyone. Good work today.”
The homeroom teacher gathered the students in the living room and spoke.
“There was an unfortunate incident today, but thankfully no one was seriously injured.”
“....”
“Let’s see… it’s nine o’clock now, so everyone should head back to your rooms and get some rest.”
“Yeees—”
I checked the time on my phone. It was currently 9 PM. The real incident would happen at 1 AM, when all the students were asleep. I had to stop it no matter what.
I went into my room and rummaged through the bag in the corner. It was packed full of alarm clocks.
“Oh? What’s that?”
Radeon, who was next to me, looked into my bag with curious eyes when he saw the alarm clocks.
“Monsters are going to invade this place at 1 AM.”
“For real?”
Radeon seemed to take my words as a joke. Which made sense. Who would believe something like that?
“Yeah. So I’m going to set the alarms before 1 AM to wake everyone up. That way we can prepare.”
“Oh, I see.”
“I’m about to go hide these all over the lodge. Want to help?”
“...You’re actually going to do it?”
Radeon looked shocked.
“Yeah. If I don’t, everyone’s going to die.”
“.....”
Radeon stared at me for a long time, trying to figure out if I was joking or being serious.
“You’re really serious.”
“I am.”
“Well… then I’ll help too.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t know how you know monsters are going to invade, but if they really do, we can overcome the crisis, right? And if they don’t, we can just laugh it off as a prank.”
“...”
“Come on. Let’s go hide these alarm clocks all over the lodge.”
Radeon and I hid the alarm clocks in every corner of the building.
[PM 11:00]
It was now 11 PM. The lights in the lodge had all been turned off.
Radeon kept tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
“Can’t sleep?” I asked.
“Yeah. After what you said, I can’t relax. There really might be monsters coming.”
“They’re definitely coming.”
“You sound awfully sure about that.”
“Of course. They’re going to show up without fail. Oh, and one more thing.”
“What?”
“Even if I start doing weird stuff, just know it’s the right thing to do and don’t interfere.”
“....What exactly are you planning to do that you’d say something like that?”
“You’ll see.”
I went outside and placed the weapons the students had used in the dungeon earlier in front of their doors. Soon, every student’s doorway was piled high with gear.
I sat down in the exact center of the living room and waited quietly.
A little later, loud alarm sounds began to ring out.
Beep-beep-beep— Beep-beep-beep—
The alarms echoed throughout the entire lodge.
“Ugh, what the hell?”
“Why are all these alarms going off?”
“Who forgot to turn their alarm off?”
One by one, the kids started opening their doors and coming out.
“What kind of crazy person leaves their alarm on like this?”
“Who even set these?”
I glanced at my watch. The current time was 12:59:50. Ten seconds left.
The monsters’ invasion was about to begin.
Crash!
A window shattered. All the students’ eyes instantly snapped toward the sound.
There, Dire Wolves were pouring inside.
“Everyone, grab your weapons!” Radeon shouted.
“Weapons? Where are our weapons? We left them all at the storage after the dungeon.”
“They’re right there on the floor.”
“Huh? They really are. Why are they here?”
The students quickly picked up their weapons and got into fighting stances.
Grrrrr—
A pack of Dire Wolves charged toward the students. At a glance, there looked to be around thirty of them.
Whoosh—
The mage-class students calmly launched fireballs, blasting the wolves apart. The tanks raised solid barriers in front of them, blocking the wolves’ advance. Their claws couldn’t pierce the tanks’ shields at all.
Whoosh—
Each fireball struck the wolves directly, burning them alive. The number of wolves began to dwindle.
As expected of Elphon Academy students—they were handling it remarkably well.
But the real threat hadn’t even arrived yet.
Step.
A chilling sound came from outside.
Even though it wasn’t visible yet, I could feel it. An overwhelming killing intent that made your body tremble.
Step.
Soon the monster revealed itself to the students.
It was a Death Knight.
“....”
Every student’s face stiffened with visible tension the moment they saw it.
Its razor-sharp blade. Its skull-like face. The eerie aura radiating from its entire body sent shivers down everyone’s spine.
Fwoosh—
The mage students hurled fireballs at the Death Knight.
Clang—
But the fireballs vanished the instant they touched its armor. There was no damage at all.
The Death Knight simply stared at the students with its cold, ghostly eyes.
Unlike with the Dire Wolves earlier, the students were now clearly terrified. They seemed to instinctively understand—this was an opponent they couldn’t possibly defeat right now.
And that judgment was completely correct. Even if everyone here combined their strength, they still wouldn’t be able to beat a single Death Knight. They would all have their necks sliced clean through by its blade.
But there was still a way.
“For now, Radeon, I need you to hold it off as much as you can.”
“Uh… yeah. I’ll try.”
I asked Radeon for help.
“And Jeong Hayeon, you help too.”
“Got it.”
With those two working together, they should be able to buy some time.
Boom— Boom—
The sounds of the Death Knight clashing with the two of them rang out.
But even they wouldn’t last more than a minute. I had to finish this before then.
I looked at the lodge owner who was cowering in the corner.
“Hey, Ace.”
I turned to Ace who was sitting beside me.
“Yeah?”
“Lend me that sword for a second.”
“Huh…? Why do you suddenly want a sword?”
I took the sword I borrowed from him and started walking toward the lodge owner.
In an instant, every student’s eyes locked onto me.
“Hey, are you crazy? What are you going to do with that sword?”
“Someone stop him, quick!”
I spoke up.
“Haven’t any of you noticed something strange?”
“Strange?”
“The lodge owner has been completely silent and hiding in the corner ever since the monsters broke in. He doesn’t even look surprised.”
“Maybe he’s just so shocked he fainted.”
“Look closely. Have you ever seen someone who fainted with their eyes wide open like that?”
“.....”
“More importantly, think about it. Monsters suddenly attacked our lodge. Isn’t it weird that none of the teachers are rushing over? Their building is right next door.”
“....That’s true.”
“Right now, we’re trapped inside a sealing formation. It’s only affecting this lodge. The teachers’ area next door wasn’t touched.”
“.....”
“And the monsters coming out of that sealing formation are attacking us. So who do you think activated it?”
“How would we know that?”
“It’s the lodge owner right here.”
“But there’s no proof he did it.”
“Everyone gathered here right now is from Class 1-A. There’s only one outsider.”
I looked at the lodge owner.
“Yeah. It’s him.”
“....”
I stood in front of him with the sword raised.
“Hey, you lunatic. No matter what, you can’t just stab a person. We still don’t have solid proof. He could be hiding somewhere else in the lodge.”
I lightly ignored him and raised the sword. Just as I was about to stab—
“Hey, you crazy bastard, I said stop!”
One student moved as if he was about to rush me.
But at that moment—
“...Let’s trust him for now.”
Cha Jiyun stepped forward and blocked the student.
She then spoke to the students who were still watching with clear distrust.
“...If he turns out to be wrong, I will take full responsibility. So please, just trust him this once.”
I nodded at Cha Jiyun. She nodded back at me.
Stab—
I drove the sword into the lodge owner.
Instead of blood, his body instantly began to oxidize and disappear. It was clear proof that he was a demonic human.
At the same time, the Death Knight that had been fighting vanished without a trace.
“...He really was the one who activated it?”
All the students stared in utter shock.