The Shift in Everyone’s Demeanor
Today, the atmosphere around me felt distinctly strange.
“Orknodi, you poor thing! Here, take this whole-wheat bread I was saving for when I ran out of points and had to starve—eat it!!”
“Are you insane? Why are you showing kindness to a corpse hauler?! You might end up buried in a cemetery!”
Random students would walk up out of nowhere to hand me food, only for others to rush in and physically drag them back. Bemused, I caught Mob as he was passing down the corridor and asked him about it.
“Mob. Why is everyone calling me a corpse hauler?”
Mob spat out a geyser of the water he’d been drinking, coughing violently. “Who… cough, who’s saying that?”
“Just people walking past.”
“I’ll look into it after class.”
“You don’t really have to go that far.”
“No. It’s bothering me.”
Since he insisted on doing it himself, I let him be. But when he returned that evening, his face was so gaunt he looked as if he hadn’t eaten a single bite all day.
“Orknodi. There are some really weird rumors spreading about you. Don’t get the wrong idea—this isn’t what I think, I’m just telling you what I heard.”
“Okay!”
“People think… your Dark Attribute Affinity is so high because you’ve seen and handled a massive number of corpses. Rumors that you’re a member of an assassin clan are gaining traction too.”
“Aha.”
So that was why! No wonder everyone was acting so bizarrely.
I nodded, feeling like the puzzle had finally been solved, but Mob looked as though nothing had been settled at all. He watched my face nervously, his expression dead serious.
“So… is it true?”
“Is what true?”
“The rumors that your Dark Attribute Affinity went up because you hauled corpses and worked as an assassin.”
Well, about that.
If this were purely a game, I could dismiss it as total nonsense on the spot. But since this was reality now, it was a bit muddy. As a player, the deaths I experienced and the murders I committed while ‘playing’ weren’t just one or two instances—in extreme runs, I had even triggered full-blown ‘world extinction’ endings. If all of that was factored into ‘my’ affinity calculation, maxing out Dark Attribute Affinity would be child’s play.
Then again, was there really no chance it was calculated from ‘Orknodi’s’ own background? What kind of character had Orknodi originally been, anyway? I honestly knew next to nothing about this character’s backstory for this run. Ever since the Random Papa event, I hadn’t obtained a shred of information regarding my character’s past.
“Hmm… I’m not really sure!”
“Why are you saying you don’t know?! It’s about you! Can’t you just clearly tell me no?”
“Because it’s confusing!”
“What is?”
“Whether it’s because of the ones I killed before, or what I saw this time.”
Mob stared with wide, horrified eyes, looking as if he had just accidentally peeked into a dark underbelly of the world he was never meant to witness. He frantically glanced around the corridor. Thankfully, no one was passing by or eavesdropping on our conversation.
“Orknodi. Don’t you ever say things like that anywhere else.”
“Why?”
“Just don’t do it if I tell you not to!”
“Hmm… no thanks!”
“You’re going to put yourself in danger!”
“Me?”
“The other kids are terrified of you! If they hear stuff like that, they’ll be way more scared than they already are. What if… what if they tell their parents and demand the academy expel you?!”
What a massive worrywart. This academy was the kind of institution that wouldn’t budge even if the king of an entire nation petitioned to have a student expelled. In fact, Third Imperial Princess Yayoi had snuck into the academy completely on her own with zero backing, leaving a body double outside; later on, when she got caught and received a summons from the Emperor, she simply ignored it and stayed put while the Emperor resorted to shady tricks to drag her back. Participating in that event yielded some pretty sweet rewards, so maybe I should build up some favorability with her beforehand?
“Orknodi! It’s your own life, take it a little more seriously!”
“Hmm… unless Papa calls for me, there’s no way I’ll ever get expelled!”
“Papa…? Orknodi’s father?”
“Yup!”
“By Papa, you mean your actual father, right? Not the person who gave you assassination training?”
“Uh-huh!”
Well, the only person who sent letters in the Random Papa event was a dad! So of course he was my father.
“Haa… I don’t even know what’s what anymore. Just be careful, alright? Don’t get hurt when everyone starts treating you completely differently.”
“Mob, you really are a good boy, aren’t you?”
“Wh-what are you talking about?! Repaying kindness, looking after kids, and being gentle to girls are just common decency!”
“Simp?”
“S-sim… what?”
“Nothing!”
He wasn’t even particularly handsome, yet his mindset was so utterly simp-coded that it made me worry for his future. He really ought to be worrying about himself instead of me.
Mob kept eyeing me suspiciously, but when Zhuang and Titocoga—who shared our next lecture—began walking over, he blurted out one last reminder not to forget his advice and scrambled away.
“Who’s that?”
“Could he be Orknodi’s boyfriend~?”
“Just a nice boy!”
Titocoga giggled as she watched Mob sprint down the hall, only to trip over his own feet and faceplant onto the floor with a loud splat.
“He’s kind of cute!”
“Want me to set you two up?”
“What?! No way! Forget it!”
Yeah, who cared how everyone else reacted? As long as the people close to me stayed the same, that was all that mattered!
Orknodi’s expressions, actions, and demeanor were entirely unchanged from usual. After carefully observing her every move, Zhuang arrived at a conclusion.
“Sheesh. I worried for nothing.”
It was only natural for an assassin whose identity had been exposed to become an object of fear, disgust, and contempt. Orknodi was already the center of far too much gossip. Zhuang had anticipated that a day like this would come and believed the weight of those hostile gazes would be unbearable for a young child. Yet, unexpectedly, Orknodi’s behavior remained exactly the same.
There was only a single difference. Whenever she encountered students in the hallways who glared at her in fear or cursed her under their breath, she would offer an awkward, sheepish smile and take a detour or turn her head away to avoid them.
“Don’t you feel a little bad for Orknodi?”
“Not really. An assassin has to endure all of that.”
“Is that how it works…? I don’t really get it.”
“That’s because you aren’t an assassin, Titocoga.”
Despite not being an assassin herself, Titocoga had somehow managed to befriend two of them. A thought suddenly occurred to Zhuang.
“Aren’t you scared, Titocoga?”
“Of what?”
“Of us.”
“Of Orknodi and you?”
Titocoga blinked. After a brief moment of thought, the emotion that surfaced in her eyes was neither terror nor revulsion, but complete trust.
“Not at all!”
“Really?”
“Compared to those disloyal cowards in our Connoisseurship class, you and Orknodi are much cooler friends.”
“You’re a peculiar one, Titocoga.”
“Hmph. You’re a kid too, Zhuang! You’re literally the third-shortest student in the entire academy!”
To think a crybaby who screamed bloody murder and fainted at the mere sight of undead had the sheer nerve to trust and befriend assassins. She truly was an extraordinary child.
“Titocoga. Don’t you ever change.”
“Out of nowhere? Did something happen?”
“Not really.”
If something had happened, it had happened long ago and ended back then. Becoming friends with someone who didn’t know you were an assassin, only for them to turn into a total stranger the moment they learned your true identity—it was an all-too-common tale for their kind. A fate that neither her master, nor herself, nor whatever disciple she might take one day could ever escape. Having received assassin training, Orknodi wouldn’t be able to avoid that destiny either.
You’re lucky, Orknodi.
Lucky that she wouldn’t have to suffer the same wounds Zhuang had endured when she was Orknodi’s age. Or perhaps… this was even more tragic. If they were destined to betray each other in the end, becoming strangers earlier on would cause far less heartbreak.
“Titocoga.”
“Yeah?”
“If you betray us, I’ll kill you.”
“What did I even do?!”
“I’ll kill you anyway.”
“Hmph! If you betray me, Zhuang, I’ll kill you too!”
Please, just remain a good friend to Orknodi.
Zhuang prayed for it from the bottom of her heart. Because killing someone who had once been a friend was an act no one should ever have to commit.
I had learned this magic with high hopes of driving off mosquitoes, but unfortunately, it hadn’t been much help at all. Dark magic was far too dangerous to cast carelessly before building up proper proficiency. Even for a player, dark magic carried unpredictable side effects with every use, requiring exceptional caution, so heading out into the mosquito-infested wilderness was genuinely terrifying.
“Professor Sadako. Couldn’t you cast that pest-repelling magic circle for us on our way back too?”
“Are you interested in black magic…?”
“Nope.”
“What about commanding the undead…?”
“Not particularly.”
“Then find your own way back…”
Professor Sadako heartlessly sent her students packing.
“So get this! Titocoga saw a swarm of mosquitoes heading straight for the light stand, so she started frantically mashing the buttons to change the colors, but that only made even more mosquitoes swarm in!”
“Waah.”
After navigating a series of twists and turns to get back to my dorm room, I recounted the day’s events, but the Baby Mandragora’s reaction was thoroughly lukewarm.
“If you keep acting like that, I’m going to bully you, you know.”
“Waah.”
As if telling me to go ahead and try, the mandrake lifted a fibrous root, scooped up a single droplet of water, and slapped it right at me.
“Ngh…! You’re really asking for it now!”
Amplification
Casting Amplification directly on the mandrake concentrate felt like a bad idea, so I poured plain water into a drinking cup and applied the spell to that instead. In an instant, the water inside turned pitch-black and began to hiss and bubble violently. Terror seized the Baby Mandragora; it plastered itself against the glass wall of its bottle, shivering uncontrollably.
“Hiccup.”
Good grief, what was I doing picking on a plant that couldn’t even talk?
“Sorry. Did I scare you?”
A sudden wave of post-action regret washed over me, prompting me to dump the boiling black water into the sink and apologize. After gently soothing the frightened Baby Mandragora to sleep, I collapsed onto the bed.
Have I been building up stress without realizing it?
When I clashed with Isabelle’s Essonia Adventurer Party during the entrance exam; when I butted heads with the Western Noble Coalition while relations were still neutral; when the second-year seniors from the Red Teeth Mushroom Illegal Growers Association picked a fight with us… this was fundamentally different from all those times.
Shunning students with high Dark Attribute Affinity out of fear that they might be dangerous was an unspoken social convention in this world. In their eyes, those who discriminated against and suspected me were doing nothing wrong. In plain terms, once you were branded a prospective mass murderer, crying about unfairness achieved absolutely nothing. You were forced to feel like a criminal through no fault of your own.
That was the inherent curse borne by anyone possessing high Dark Attribute Affinity. Back when it was merely a game character facing prejudice, I had brushed it off as just another game mechanic. But experiencing it directly made my chest ache. Naturally, it didn’t feel great at all.
“Want to talk to me about it?”
The Answering Door seized the opportunity to speak up. Creepy little pest. I glared at the wall, rolled over to face the other way, and pulled the blanket completely over my head.