The Accomplice
The fireworks exploded with sharp cracks. Deafening cheers slammed against my eardrums, the blinding light of chandeliers stabbed my eyes, and the cloying scent of perfume sprayed by noble students rushed over me all at once. The metallic stench of blood that had been burning my nose just moments ago was gone. So was the damp smell of earth, the cold stone floor of the flowerbed, and the fading warmth of the woman in my arms.
In their place stood a dazzling grand auditorium.
“……Hah, hah.”
The breath I’d been holding burst out all at once. My heart hammered wildly. Thump. Thump. Thump.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you? You’re drenched in cold sweat.”
The male student standing beside me stared at me like I was crazy. I looked down at my hands in a daze. Nothing. The blood that had soaked my palms just moments ago was gone. The searing pain in my side had vanished, along with the sensation of her dying in my embrace. Instead, I was wearing a crisp academy uniform that looked freshly ironed.
“Is this…… the entrance ceremony from the original story?”
“Dude, are you still half-asleep? Of course it’s the entrance ceremony. What the hell are you talking about?”
The entrance ceremony. A whole month ago. Time had rewound.
It wasn’t a dream.
My fingertips trembled. This was the world inside the novel Pilgrim of the Eternal Night. I was the only reader who knew the entire story, and I had transmigrated into the F-class extra named Roy.
And the death I had just experienced? That was no dream.
It was the bad ending of the 999th regression. The final scene where Adelia failed once again and met her death once more.
Instinctively, I turned my head toward the front of the auditorium.
“Now then, we will have the oath from the representative of the new students!”
“Will the called student please come up to the stage!”
The professor’s voice echoed through the hall.
“Top admit, Adelia!”
Thunderous applause shook the entire auditorium. A girl with platinum blonde hair stepped onto the stage. No, calling her a girl didn’t feel right. She was twenty years old this year. By imperial standards, she was already an adult. The youngest SS-class Sword Master in imperial history. The top student of this intake. And the tragic protagonist trapped in an endless hell.
Adelia.
Even from a distance, she was breathtakingly beautiful. Her platinum hair caught the chandelier light and shimmered like silver, while her crimson eyes sparkled like jewels. The neat white uniform only made her presence more striking.
But I knew. I knew how broken she was beneath that beautiful shell.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine times. She had died nine hundred and ninety-nine times. Torn apart by the Demon King, betrayed by her comrades, used by the empire, forced to crawl like a dog while bound by the Hero’s Covenant. And in the end, she had died in my arms.
The memory still felt like it lingered on my palms.
That was when it happened.
Hidden Condition Achieved: ‘Observer’s Qualification’
Exclusive Trait: ‘Observer’s Eye’ has been unlocked.
A strange blue system window appeared before my eyes. This scene had never existed in the original story. There was no way an F-class extra like Roy would have unlocked such a trait.
Because I’m the reader who saw the novel all the way to its ending?
I didn’t have time to organize my thoughts. The moment my gaze landed on Adelia on the stage, red text floated above her head like data.
My breath caught in my throat. I had expected it. There was no way a person who had died 999 times could be sane. But seeing it with my own eyes was different. That wasn’t a living person. It was a soul shattered like glass, forcibly pieced back together and kept upright only by lingering sense of duty.
SAN at -99%?
The fact that she was even standing there was a miracle. But there was one more unfamiliar line at the very bottom of the status window.
Current Desire: Searching for a ‘God’ who will save her
A god?
The moment doubt crossed my mind, Adelia’s head slowly turned on the stage. Instead of reading the oath she was supposed to recite, she began scanning the auditorium like someone searching for a lost lifeline. The noble seats. The commoner seats. The faculty. And the farthest corner. The line of E-class and F-class failures. Among them, the only F-class.
Her gaze stopped on me.
The distance was great, but I could tell. The vacant look in her eyes regained its spark.
Warning: Target has ‘Designated’ you.
Any ordinary person would have frozen under that gaze. But I didn’t look away.
You remember?
The 999th death. On the cold flowerbed floor, the moment she took her last breath in my arms. She remembered.
“Miss Adelia? The oath……”
The dean held out the microphone. But Adelia didn’t even look at him. She stepped down from the stage.
Click.
The sound of her heels echoed through the auditorium.
“Huh……?”
“Why is the Hero coming down?”
“Hey, move. Can’t you see her eyes?”
The crowd parted like the miracle of Moses. Adelia walked straight toward me, looking at no one else.
Click. Click.
The closer she got, the more the noise in the auditorium faded. The cheers, the murmurs, the professors’ panicked voices all grew distant. All that remained was the sound of her heels and my heartbeat.
Thump. Thump.
Up close, Adelia was devastatingly beautiful. Her platinum hair spilled messily over her shoulders, and her crimson eyes trembled like glass on the verge of shattering. The fitted white uniform did nothing to hide her figure. Every time she drew a shaky breath, her shirt pulled dangerously tight, and the skirt below her narrow waist revealed the movement of her long legs.
A face as pure as a saint’s. And beneath it, a body radiating raw sensuality. Several male students nearby gaped like idiots. Some pretended to look away only to steal another glance.
But that wasn’t what caught my eye first.
Cold sweat. Trembling pupils. Shaking fingertips. That wasn’t the body of someone trying to seduce. It was the body of someone who had died 999 times and still refused to fall.
Adelia stopped right in front of me. Up close, it was even more heartbreaking. Her breathing was irregular, her lips deathly pale. She looked like she might collapse at any moment, yet her eyes burned with terrifying clarity.
She looked up at me. Her lips quivered. Slowly, her hand rose.
“……!”
My body tensed instinctively. Was she going to slap me?
Tap.
Cool fingertips touched my cheek. She wasn’t striking me. Her fingers gently traced the line of my jaw, as if checking whether a fragile piece of porcelain was real. The touch was desperate, aching.
“……Warm.”
Adelia murmured in a daze.
“What……?”
“It’s the same as back then. So warm it almost burns.”
Her crimson eyes trembled finely. Only the two of us in this auditorium of thousands knew what she meant by ‘back then.’ The moment of death. Not the cold stone of the flowerbed, but the final warmth she had felt in my arms. She was confirming it now.
“It’s you, isn’t it?”
Her voice was small. But it struck my eardrums like thunder.
“The person who held me while crying at the very end.”
I couldn’t deny it. I couldn’t lie. Not when her status window was shaking red right before my eyes. I swallowed dryly and nodded.
“……Yeah. It’s me.”
The casual tone slipped out. Murmurs spread through the crowd.
“Is that guy insane?”
“He’s the only F-class in the academy, right?”
“He just spoke down to the Hero?”
For an F-class nobody to speak casually to the empire’s Hero would normally be enough to get his head chopped off. But I couldn’t bring myself to use honorifics. To me, she wasn’t the ‘Hero.’ She was the woman who had just died in my arms.
“Ah…… ah……”
A short sigh escaped between Adelia’s lips. It sounded like relief. Or maybe ecstasy. She suddenly grabbed my hand. For a second I thought my bones would shatter. The grip of an SS-class Sword Master. But she didn’t seem to have the presence of mind to control her strength. She clung to my hand like she would fall back into hell if she let go.
“I found you.”
She smiled. Just a faint one. A living smile she had never shown even once during her 999 deaths.
“My only variable.”
That single sentence flipped the entire situation. The auditorium exploded.
“What the hell is this?”
“The Hero just grabbed an F-class’s hand!”
“Do they know each other?”
“Held her while crying? What does that even mean?”
The whispers spread like a wave. Chaos erupted on the faculty stage as well. But Adelia acted as if she couldn’t hear any of it. She brought my captured hand to her own cheek and rubbed it carefully.
“Why do you think it was?”
She whispered.
“Why was your embrace, someone with no connection to me at all, so warm?”
That gaze wasn’t normal affection. It went far beyond a drowning person clutching at straws. It was deeper. Salvation. Faith. A blind longing for the only being who had caught her at the edge of the cliff.
“What’s your name?”
“Roy.”
“Roy……”
She rolled my name slowly, like someone reciting a prayer.
“Roy. My only witness.”
Goosebumps rose across my skin. This was dangerous. This wasn’t normal love. A person who had died 999 times had found the one person who remembered her final moments. It wasn’t hard to imagine what that meant to her shattered mind.
“I…… I…… 999…… ugh!”
Adelia tried to speak but suddenly clutched her throat. Her body staggered.
The ‘Causal Constraint’ has been triggered.
This individual cannot disclose information regarding regression.
I saw it. That cruel restriction from the original story. Adelia could never tell anyone about the hell she had endured. If she tried, her throat would close and her head would feel like it was being torn apart. She had died 999 times, yet she could never explain those deaths to anyone. That was why she had gone mad. Because she had been alone.
“You don’t have to say it.”
I said quietly.
“……!”
Adelia’s eyes widened.
“You died 999 times.”
Her hands stopped.
“And in the end…… you were in my arms.”
At that moment, Adelia’s eyes crumbled. The hell she couldn’t speak of because of the constraint. The one person who understood it. The only witness who could prove her suffering. That truth severed the last thread of her sanity.
Thud.
Adelia dropped to her knees. The empire’s youngest SS-class Sword Master. The Hero who had died trying to save the world 999 times. That woman was now kneeling before me, an F-class extra.
“Hah……!”
“Holy shit, what is this?”
“Is the Hero actually kneeling? For real?”
Gasps of shock erupted throughout the auditorium. But Adelia ignored them completely. She wrapped my hand in both of her trembling ones. Hot tears fell onto the back of my hand.
Drip. Drip.
“I found you.”
She lifted her head. Her face was wet with tears. Yet her expression was filled with such joy it looked like she had gained the whole world.
“Finally…… I finally found you.”
“Adelia.”
“My faith.”
Her fingers dug into my hand.
“My salvation.”
Her crimson eyes looked up at me. Inside them swirled love, gratitude, madness, and faith all mixed together.
“My Roy.”
At that moment, the system window flipped red.
System Warning!
Major Character ‘Adelia’ has designated you as her ‘One and Only God.’
The world line is twisting.
The original scenario is changing.
I swallowed a bitter laugh. Now I understood. The mad Hero who had died 999 times had begun to worship me. I was the only one in this world who could remember her. To her, whose mind had been ground down to -99%, I must have looked like salvation. No. I must have looked like a god.
“Stand up, Adelia.”
I took her hand and helped her rise.
“Yes……”
Adelia stood obediently.
“If that is what you wish.”
That was when it happened.
“What is this disgrace! Miss Adelia!”
A sharp rebuke rang out from the stage. Grand Sage Marcus. The white-bearded old man shouted with a flushed face.
“This is a sacred entrance ceremony! Return to the stage at once and form the Hero’s Covenant!”
The moment she heard the words Hero’s Covenant, Adelia’s body went rigid. It was called a covenant, but it was really a slave contract. The instant she touched the Holy Grail, the system would forcibly inject the Demon King subjugation quest and strip away the Hero’s free will. It was the root cause of why Adelia had died crawling like a dog 999 times.
“Covenant……”
Adelia muttered. Her eyes flipped in an instant. The woman who had been crying in front of me vanished. A bloodthirsty demon turned its head.
“Disgusting.”
Shing.
Her hand moved to her waist. She was about to draw her sword. It looked like she would leap onto the stage and cut Marcus’s throat right then and there.
Warning: Target’s destructive urge is running rampant.
3 seconds until Bad Ending route entry.
No.
If she rampaged here, it was over. If this round also began with the ‘Hero’s Massacre,’ the ending I wanted would be impossible. I yanked hard on the hand I was still holding.
“Adelia.”
“……!”
“Endure it.”
Her crimson eyes turned toward me. Killing intent still lingered in them.
“B-but…… that old man is trying to make me take the covenant……”
“You don’t have to.”
“……What?”
“You don’t have to take that damn covenant.”
I looked straight into her eyes. I wasn’t completely sure. Even though I knew the entire original story, the scenario had already begun to twist. But I couldn’t hesitate now. What Adelia needed wasn’t logic. It was an order. Certainty. And someone to hold onto her.
“Don’t take any oath you don’t want.”
“……”
“You don’t have to go back to that hell.”
Adelia’s eyes shook violently. I swallowed and continued.
“I’ll find you another path.”
“Another…… path.”
“That’s right.”
I glanced at Marcus on the stage. That old man still didn’t realize what he was doing. Or rather, he probably knew and was pretending not to.
“So don’t believe in that old man.”
I looked back at Adelia.
“Believe in me.”
The power of those words was absolute. The killing intent that had clouded Adelia’s face melted away like snow. In its place came a terrible, rapturous ecstasy.
“Yes.”
She answered with a trembling breath.
“I’ll believe in you.”
“……”
“I’ll only listen to you.”
System Warning!
Main Event ‘Hero’s Covenant’ has been destroyed.
Scenario Progress: 0%
The system has detected a massive error.
Red messages floated wildly in the air. The original story had gone off the rails. The very first scene I knew had been shattered by a single sentence from me. I didn’t know whether this was good or bad. But one thing was certain. I had stopped Adelia from being bound by that covenant again.
“Miss Adelia!”
Marcus shouted again.
“Return to the stage immediately! Do you intend to abandon the Hero’s duty?”
Adelia’s fingertips twitched once more. I didn’t let go of her hand.
“Don’t go.”
“Yes.”
The answer was immediate. The surroundings stirred again.
“This is insane……”
“The Hero is actually listening to his orders.”
“Who the hell is that F-class guy?”
“What is their relationship?!”
I ignored those gazes. Or at least pretended to. Honestly, my legs were shaking a little. Thousands of imperial faculty members, nobles, and knight candidates were staring at us. I was an F-class extra. In the original story, I was supposed to appear in a single line and disappear. Yet here I was, ruining the entrance ceremony while holding the empire’s Hero by the hand.
Is this really okay?
Of course it wasn’t. But it was already too late. Adelia showed no sign of letting go of my hand, and the way she looked at me had long since left the realm of normalcy. The eyes of someone who would die if she let go. No, the eyes of a fanatic who had finally found the god she believed in.
I let out a small sigh.
“Let’s go.”
“Where to?”
Adelia asked. Her voice was gentle. It was hard to believe she had tried to kill Marcus just moments ago. I looked at the wide-open doors of the auditorium. Sunlight poured in from beyond them.
The first scene of the original story. The Hero’s Covenant. The Demon King subjugation quest. 999 failures. All of that hellish scenario had begun inside this auditorium. So the answer was simple.
“Outside.”
“Outside……”
“Outside this hellish scenario.”
Adelia gripped my hand even tighter. It hurt. It really hurt. But this time I didn’t pull away. She smiled faintly.
“Yes, Roy.”
And then, very quietly, she added.
“My god.”
A strange sensation ran down my spine at those words. I couldn’t tell if it was fear, a sense of responsibility, or resignation toward this absurd situation. I turned my back on the professors and nobles who stood with their mouths agape. Thousands of gazes bored into my back. No one tried to stop us. Because a mad Hero was radiating murderous intent right beside me.
And so Adelia and I left the entrance ceremony behind. Shattering the first scene of the original story. Beginning the 1000th story that continued from the end of the 999th death.