Chapter 128
Chapter 128
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 127
Chapter Title: A Slightly Unique Relationship
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"That's the story up to now."
The voice of Aria beyond the door spoke flatly. Only dry emotion seeped through it—otherwise, it would have been impossible to voice such content.
In contrast.
I was stunned, having heard nothing more shocking since entering this game.
My mind refused to think straight. A single sentence bound me, preventing any coherent thought.
'It was me.'
I was the one who had broken her like this.
The obsession toward me and the bizarrely twisted desire for recognition—it was all my creation.
And intentionally so.
To make Aria listen to me more.
I had deliberately made her obsess over me excessively and coaxed her into depending on me.
'I get it.'
Now, having learned necromancy, I could act like this from her first year.
But in the first playthrough, Kim Shin-woo had waged a two-year battle against Deus's original soul.
It had blown away the entire early game, and since it was the first playthrough, he knew a proper ending was impossible.
So, the Kim Shin-woo of the first playthrough chose to treat Aria like a game character, steering toward what he thought was the best ending.
In a game where a second playthrough was mandatory, he must have shed even more of his humanity to chase a happy ending in the first.
"Ha."
A rough, hot breath escaped. I never imagined feeling this way.
Thud.
I slammed my forehead against the door in self-reproach, clenching my fists tight.
The force made my body tremble uncontrollably.
Now I understood.
All the mysteries were solved.
And also.
I realized that I could follow in his footsteps.
"Haa."
Another sigh escaped.
Otherwise, the stuffiness and heaviness in my chest would consume me, driving me mad.
I pitied myself for dragging this child to such an extreme, yet it was so understandable.
A path I could have taken with just a slight twist.
Revulsion surged at the acts I might have repeated.
"Professor?"
Aria called out worriedly. The doorknob rattled slightly as if a hand had touched it, but the door didn't open.
"Just a moment."
Seeing that, I forced out a curt word. The words tumbled out like a struggle, uncharacteristic of me.
"I'll step away for a bit."
"Ah, yes! Got it! I'll wait!"
Even so, no footsteps indicated she had left the door.
Feeling guilty about leaving her like that, I moved anyway.
Pinden A, chin propped on her hand with a cigarette in her mouth, sat on the descending stairs. Sensing my presence, she glanced over.
"What, it's over alrea—"
Spotting me, Pinden A dropped her cigarette, mouth agape. She jumped up and hoisted me onto her back forcefully.
"What the hell is this?"
Startled by the sudden reaction, I faltered, but Pinden A gritted her teeth and carried me down the stairs.
"Shut up. Fuck, what did you talk about to make your face like that?"
"What?"
"Forget it, you don't need to know. If she wasn't someone you care about, I'd have snapped that Aria bitch's neck."
"No, you can't do that."
Finally managing a word, I spoke. Pinden A snapped back irritably.
"I know, damn it."
Pinden A took me to my room in the faculty dorms. She laid me down and turned away immediately.
"Healing professor? I'll fetch her, so wait here."
"......"
Pinden A dashed out.
I steadied my breathing and glanced around. The room was silent and empty.
My eyes naturally closed, sinking me into thought.
And reflection on myself.
Until now, I'd acted diligently in my own way. To prevent the continent's downfall, I'd steadily prepared for that day.
A world where the boundary between life and death crumbled, as Aria described?
Sorry, but.
'That's not the true ending.'
Strictly speaking, it was a game over right before the ending.
Normally, you'd save the Dante leader and prevent the boundary from crumbling.
Then, subsequent episodes would determine the ending.
In the first playthrough, I'd failed near the end.
So Aria hadn't fully witnessed the world's tragedy.
But what did that matter?
She was already so broken.
A sigh escaped.
The image of Aria Rias from the game's start flashed in my mind—purely smiling, chatting with students.
No matter what happened, even kneeling in tragedy.
Her resolve to rise, smile, and press on.
Her belief that sacrificing herself for others was fine.
All crumbled and vanished in my desperate bid to avoid the first playthrough's bad ending, replaced by murky obsession.
She craves my recognition. She wants me to love her.
Because only then will I not leave her.
Only then will that tragedy not repeat.
Amid the murky emotions.
In the suffocating guilt that crushed my heart.
Out of nowhere.
[What are you doing?]
The Black Necromancer popped up.
[You asked for a moment alone and this is what you do?]
"......Just resting a bit."
At my words, she started to retort in disbelief.
[Your face looks awful.]
She scanned me worriedly.
[What happened? That girl from earlier? Want me to scold her?]
She knew she'd accomplish nothing even if she went.
Yet the Black Necromancer clenched her fists and fussed.
Come to think of it, she was one of the victims of the first playthrough me.
Perhaps that's why.
Unknowingly, I grumbled emotionally.
"I've realized I'm uglier than I thought."
I thought I could handle it, but I'm a man who could crumble anytime.
A fool who would use anything at the end.
Worst of all, gaslighting a pure country girl into dependency.
Even if necessary, the shock of actually doing it lingered.
[You?]
The Black Necromancer tilted her head in confusion, but I said no more.
Any further words might spill uselessly, like a child.
[You've been an iron wall until now, so I don't get why you're shaking like this.]
"......"
[The inhuman you is starting to look human. And the reason you're shaken...]
The Black Necromancer gently embraced me. So sudden, with no sensation.
But she transmitted faint warmth through mana.
[The weakest part of you, right?]
"I..."
[I know I can't pry into that. It's your past alone. So I'll wait from afar.]
She pulled back slightly, smiling softly.
[No matter how long it takes. I'm already dead.]
"......"
[But you? You'll overcome it soon.]
With that, the Black Necromancer faded slowly, giving me time.
Later, Karen and Erica arrived with Pinden A, but I sent them away.
Alone, eyes closed, I pondered deeply.
I, with faint emotional swings.
Why had Aria's actions swayed me so much?
The reason was.
"Not because of Deus's past."
Not just the atrocities of the first playthrough me.
"Much earlier."
Before the first playthrough.
When I lived as Kim Shin-woo.
A past hidden from all, leaving no visible weaknesses.
The Black Necromancer had once said to me, who captured Dina the black mage of Dante's soul:
- To fight monsters, please don't become one.
In the first playthrough, I probably.
Became a monster to survive.
* * *
Sunset filtering through the window.
A black-haired girl gazed at it endlessly.
Just staring blankly.
Bored.
Tedious.
Even a bit painful.
Her dorm room, usually taken for granted, felt hard to accept now that she thought of it as a prison.
Then.
Bang.
The door flew open without warning.
Aria whipped her head around, beaming brightly.
There stood Deus Verdi.
But soon.
"It's a fake."
Aria glared, eyes narrowed. It resembled Professor Deus, but it was fake.
Someone disguised meticulously to deceive her.
Thinking that, Aria immediately raised her mana.
But a somewhat absurd reply came from "Deus's" mouth.
"Yeah."
As if it were obvious.
"I'm not Deus."
What followed.
Was a slightly different tale.
Not the clichéd student-teacher relationship.
Nor the worn-out story of lover loved and loving.
The protagonist of a game who died repeatedly for a happy ending.
The boy who continued the game to escape tragedy.
It was the time of two people with a slightly unique relationship.