Betrayal in the Ritual Depths
The door creaked open with a piercing kiiiek.
A sound that never should have reached us if they'd climbed the stairs.
I'm sure of it now—they weren't heading up. They were pushing the cart we're hiding in deeper inside.
The moment that certainty hit me, I bolted out of the cart.
"Lee Na-hyun! Where the hell are you taking us…?"
Shit. I should've jumped out the second I realized the direction was wrong.
"Hmm…? And who might this student be?"
Outside the cart, unidentified figures were already staring our way. They all wore grotesque masks made from goat skulls, and every one of them was stark naked.
"Lee Na-hyun~ Why'd you barge in during the meeting like this? And bringing an uninvited guest without permission…"
"P-P-Principal! I-I-I brought some suspicious ones!"
"Hmm? Suspicious ones, you say?"
"Y-Yes! Th-Th-they dared to defile the sacred symbols!"
"You fucking bitch! What the hell are you talking about!?"
Kang Jia exploded in outrage at the absurd situation, but Lee Na-hyun and the naked teachers completely ignored her.
"I-I-I worked so hard! F-For the school! I did! S-So please… please take me off sex duty rotation! W-Wipe this, wipe th-this thing off me!!"
With that, Lee Na-hyun suddenly hiked up her white dress shirt. A plain pastel blue bra came into view—no frills, nothing fancy.
Her other hand yanked down her skirt and panties.
The skirt slid perilously low, right to the brink of exposing her pubic hair.
But there, on her lower abdomen, something was etched.
A uterus…?
It looked like a pink tattoo resembling a woman's uterus.
My mind cleared, analyzing.
That uterus mark must be the symbol for sex duty rotation—or a sigil that warps common sense to designate a specific student for it.
"Na-hyun, I already told you this world is blatantly Altered Common Sense. Haven't you realized that? So what's with this now?"
I spoke to her in as flat a tone as possible, but Lee Na-hyun spat out something unexpected.
"I-I knew that already! From way back!"
She'd known all along?
Did that mean Lee Na-hyun had broken free from Altered Common Sense's chains on her own, just like me—no outside help?
As I pushed my analytical skills to the max, she opened her mouth again.
"I-I know. Y-Yeah, it's Altered Common Sense… B-But what am I supposed to do? Trust some guy I just met for the first time in my life and b-bet everything on him?"
…I see.
Right—she's no game NPC. She's a living person with her own thoughts, prioritizing her life and safety above all. Whether she'd escaped Altered Common Sense or not didn't matter.
No wonder she was so unnaturally calm back in the library when I first told her to shatter the common sense.
And if she'd realized it long ago… then before I transferred here, she'd already felt the bone-deep terror of Altered Common Sense and the monsters' power—stuff no ordinary human could fight.
The helplessness of losing control not just over her body, but even over bearing children, dictated by others…
It's a soul-crushing despair most normals could never fathom. And this school? It's not one you graduate from just by aging out. Bald 40- and 50-year-old men drag themselves here every day as "students."
Considering the hopelessness Lee Na-hyun must have endured in that hell, her betrayal wasn't so hard to swallow.
From her perspective, the school brass were monsters ruling monsters, while I was some unproven stranger.
In that spot, her safest bet for maximum security wasn't blind loyalty to one side—it was hedging, keeping a foot in both camps.
In other words: give me a shot at wrecking the magic circle, but if it fails, turn on me without mercy and offer me up as sacrifice.
A bit underhanded, sure, but with her life—and her unborn child's—on the line… it was unavoidable.
"Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm! Why do you hate sex duty so much, Na-hyun? It's an essential role to uphold our school's great and noble tradition. An honor."
"B-But! I-I saw it! Th-The babies… after sacrificing the babies, even the duty girls e-end up so horribly…!"
"Ahaha! Na-hyun~ That's just the ascension process of uniting with the great ritual. You might be scared now, but once you experience that sacred process? You'll end up thanking us."
The principal—pot-bellied classic uncle type—replied in a syrupy sweet tone that clashed horribly with his grotesque getup. If anything, it made him creepier.
"N-No… I hate it… I don't want it… Ahh…! D-Don't want to make babies, don't want to give birth!!!"
Lee Na-hyun was spiraling into near-screaming hysterics now.
"Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm! Oh dear~ Na-hyun's really frightened! Then, as a special treat, I'll personally plant my seed in you. Impregnated with the principal's thick, superior seed—far beyond any regular student's? The great ritual will be even more pleased, I'm sure. How's that? Thrilled, right?"
"N-No… No… NO!!"
Lee Na-hyun let go of her shirt and skirt, trying to flee backward, but the entrance where our cart had come in was already blocked by a line of goat-masked men.
Time to move.
No point watching longer—I've learned all there is to know.
Sex duty gets a special seal carved on the lower belly. After birthing the sacrificial child, the girl dies horribly alongside it.
There's a "great ritual"—some evil god—that's the target of the Shakallu-Enshar Magic Circle.
To "uphold" begging favors from that evil god, these fetal human sacrifices are mandatory.
Got everything I need.
"Jia. Kill them!"
"Bash your heads against the wall and die!"
My order rang out, followed by Kang Jia's signature shrill voice echoing through the basement.
But…
"Hmm, hmm, hmm…? And what's this cute little girl?"
What the—?
It… didn't work?
Kang Jia's power—near-invincible since I first woke up—isn't getting through..?
Kang Jia, as panicked as me, shouted again.
"Wh-What…? D-Die! Bite your tongues and drop dead, all of you!"
"Ahahahaha! Oh, you're the new transfer, Jia, right? You've got a fun trick there. Good thing we have the Satyr Skull Masks—might've been trouble otherwise."
Satyr Skull Masks.
Those bone masks they're wearing.
"The principal? He's truly, truly delighted. Overflowing with joy. Na-hyun could make a fine sex duty girl, sure, but right here before my eyes—a perfect seed receiver I never expected! Ahahahahaha!! A soul this close to chaos. The great ritual will be so, so pleased."
"What the fuck is that bullshit!? Don't spew your crap! Die! Die! Just fucking die!"
"Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm~ No use, dear. Since Jia here will make an excellent mother vessel… Na-hyun, sorry, but the principal's fine seed goes to our Jia instead."
This bastard's talking pure shit.
The thought of them raping Kang Jia made my temper flare uncontrollably.
That's when Lee Na-hyun cut in.
"Th-Then, th-then can I, I go now? Right? Y-Yeah? I-I'm off sex duty now, right!?"
Her eyes shimmered with relief at survival.
The face of a vulture securing her safety by sacrificing another.
"Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm… Afraid not? Our Na-hyun must bear a child for the noble ritual too. Just won't be getting the principal's seed. You there—the PE teacher?"
"Yes…"
A raspy voice like scraping metal leaked from under the hulking man's mask at the entrance.
"Take responsibility and impregnate our Na-hyun."
"As you command."
Robotic.
And his dick started hardening. Not from seeing a woman's body or hearing her voice—just from the pot-bellied principal's order.
Crazy fuckers.
"Hmm, hmm, hmm! Now, what to do with that boy over there…"
Me.
Caught between a rock and a hard place.
No escape plan coming to mind.
With Kang Jia's near-cheat-key power nullified so pathetically, our options are slim.
Eight perverts gathered here, and those growling noises outside? The principal must've summoned the janitors with some mental signal.
We're done.
"No need to overthink! For intruding on the great ritual's chamber without leave—death is the only salvation!"
He grabbed something from a metal case on the conference table.
Click!
Silver gun barrel.
Cylinder holding six harbingers of death.
That fucker's got a gun?
Spotless maintenance—the candlelight glinted off the cylinder.
Kiririk—
Whether from my brain overclocking in near-death or whatever, his finger pulled the trigger, the hammer fell back, and the cylinder spun slowly—like slow motion.
Strange, intricate engravings on the spinning cylinder flashed Mysterious.
Too beautiful for a tool meant to end lives.
And in the crosshairs of that lovely killer… my heart.
…Good. Better this way. A clean heart explosion means no extra pain before reset to the next round.
Come on…
I spread my arms wide—
BOOM──────!!
The muzzle flashed.
"Oppa!"