Midterm Exam (15)
Plip plop.
A fierce rain poured down.
The sky was filled with unrelenting gray, not a single ray of sunlight piercing through.
A fishy, metallic tang of blood lingered in the air, unwashed by the downpour.
I couldn't pinpoint where this place was, but it felt familiar somehow... nostalgic, even.
Looking around, neither Shin Iheon nor this era's emperor was in sight.
All that remained were crumbling houses, a charred church, and a cross smashed into the dirt.
Scattered debris everywhere. No people, not even other living creatures.
"...Just me."
I was alone here. I'd been transferred solo from the start, so it was only natural.
And even if those two had come along, they'd have ended up as corpses in no time.
...Because I'd made sure of it.
No regrets.
They both deserved to die.
The one who abandoned us. That emperor, worse than any beast.
All of them—better off gone from the world.
Plip plop.
"Rain..."
The downpour from the gray sky showed no signs of letting up.
Unlike the academy's paved paths, the roads here were packed earth, already turned to sticky muck by the rain.
I walked anyway.
My feet sank deep into the sludge, but I trudged on, scouring the area.
Transfers weren't new to me—not in this life, but the last one too. I'd been through a few.
Rare as they were, with dozens of reincarnations and lives behind me, it was par for the course.
But past transfers had felt different. No familiarity, no nostalgia like this.
Just alien spaces I wanted out of fast. I'd focused on clearing the dungeon, never wandered like now.
"Weird..."
It was strange. Even to me, my actions felt off.
Rifling through collapsed building rubble. Poking at ashen fire pits. Roaming every corner of this village.
Not normal, by my own judgment.
Yet I couldn't stop.
"...Why? ...Why?"
I muttered it to myself, but my body wouldn't obey.
Was this place that important?
No. If it were, it'd be etched in my memories.
Just some passing spot from one of my countless lives. A trivial memory, nothing more.
My hands blackened with soot, my body caked in mud—but I kept moving.
I didn't even know what for.
What was I searching for, digging like this?
No goal in mind, just my body acting on its own.
I didn't understand myself as I spent dozens of minutes combing the ruins.
Nothing turned up. Nothing appeared.
Realizing that, my body finally halted.
I stopped moving and just stared at the sky.
Sodden hair veiled my vision, but through the strands, the gray expanse showed.
Why was I doing this?
I didn't know. Since arriving, none of my actions made sense—not even to me.
No, not just actions. The emotions either.
The longing and familiarity from moments ago. The misery and despair now.
None of it added up.
Yet the feelings were so vivid, so thick, I couldn't deny them.
I just accepted it, gazing skyward as time slipped by.
Squelch... squelch...
Someone approached from behind, trudging through the mud.
I whipped around instinctively—but...
"...Who?"
I couldn't make out his face.
A bizarre sensation. Like some god had forbidden me from seeing it.
But the rest was clear enough. Taller than me. Sturdy muscles clinging under wet clothes. Hands scarred top to bottom. A single sword at his belt.
Mercenary, by the look. Too rough for a knight order—clothes, movements, all crude.
"...Who are you, I said?"
The man didn't answer.
He just kept coming.
Stepping through the muck without a care, heading straight for me.
No words. Just walking my way.
I watched, unmoving.
Why? No urge to dodge this stranger.
If anything, waiting here felt... right.
He finally reached me.
One hand gripped his sword hilt.
Shing.
He drew it smoothly and leveled it at me.
I didn't resist.
Not out of lingering attachment to life, but like before—no need to.
Facing death and feeling no drive to fight... weird, even for me.
Or maybe not. Since that one left us, my sole goal had been clear: make them suffer, even a fraction of our pain, then kill them upon return.
Today, I'd done it.
So perhaps I was content, ready to embrace death.
That had to be it. Most likely explanation.
But...
...I don't know.
Why this nagging unease in a corner of my heart?
I'd achieved my burning desire.
Yet watching that abandoner die had stirred this feeling. What was it?
And why had it swelled even more since the transfer?
I don't know.
...No need to. I'd be dead in seconds anyway.
That blade would cleave me soon.
No point dwelling.
The blade sliced through raindrops toward me.
Somehow, it felt agonizingly slow.
Can't you hurry? Cut me already.
Before this emotional chasm deepens more.
Please.
I closed my eyes, impatient for the blade.
But it never came.
No matter how long I waited, it didn't touch my neck.
I snapped my eyes open in panic—the blade hovered, a hair's breadth from my throat.
"...Why? Why not kill me? Why...?"
He'd come to kill me, surely.
Just end it quick.
Did he sense my wish?
The man sheathed his sword.
Still silent.
He took one step back.
From me.
Then drew again.
Not at me this time.
At himself.
His own throat.
It happened in a flash.
"W-wait...! What are you—!"
I tried to stop him.
If words failed, force it with telekinesis.
But my magic wouldn't connect.
Not even that far? Why?
By the time the question formed, it was too late.
Schluck.
The blade pierced his throat.
Dungeon: Cleared the Demon King of Sloth
"Cleared...?"
What...?
This mean?
No clear conditions, no rewards explained... nothing.
And it ends like this? No.
I don't want to leave like this.
Absolutely not...
But.
Transfers drag you in unbidden.
Leaving works the same. No matter how long I wanted to stay, if the dungeon said no—impossible.
You have acquired 'Sloth'.
Quest reward, probably.
But it barely registered.
My gaze fixed solely on the man.
A faceless stranger.
Yet I couldn't look away.
The more I did, the deeper some emotion stirred.
No—existing feelings intensified, thickened.
Like when I'd killed Shin Iheon myself...
That unidentified emotion. The one that tangled my thoughts the more I pondered.
"Ah..."
...Vision fading to black.
Body enveloped in weightlessness.
The pull back from the dungeon.
Return trips never took long.
Back in the Great Hall building's corridor, as expected.
And there, still two bodies sprawled—
"...One?"
Just the emperor on the floor.
No Shin Iheon.
The realization hit.
Grip.
Someone seized my nape.
"Sellin El Soladion. Take... a look."
The voice from behind.
Shin Iheon.