Became the Slave of the Hell Archduke (2)
Esdinas Academy. The place that had been rendered in 2D illustrations or 3D half-moon views in-game felt strangely unfamiliar now that I could actually walk around in it.
"What do you think? Pretty well implemented, right?"
Chang Yeom walked ahead with her hands clasped behind her back, her light steps brimming with pride. It wasn't weird at all.
"It's not just 'well implemented'."
"Pardon?"
"You could call this the real thing without exaggeration."
It was just like the actual academy brought to life in reality, concentrating every element from the game. The unnecessarily long marble bridge stretching from the main gate all the way to the academy grounds, the pigeons that briefly perched midway before flying off—it was all perfectly replicated. Though there were no people.
"Master."
"Yeah, hold on."
When I called out to Chang Yeom, she turned around and waved at me.
"I did tell you to call me 'Master' to clearly establish our contract's master-servant dynamic, but honestly, I'm not thrilled about you just keep calling me that nonstop."
"......?"
"Just call me Chang Yeom. Speak casually too."
"And you'll drop the formal speech as well?"
"Whoa, straight to casual, huh? Sure. We're chatting casually right now, aren't we?"
Chang Yeom grinned. She was still using polite speech, though.
"If formal feels more natural, stick with it. Of course, rest assured I'm fully aware of our contract's hierarchy."
I pointed to the seal of Chang Yeom engraved on my neck. Regardless of speech patterns, in this soul-bound master-servant relationship, who held the upper hand was crystal clear.
"Perfect. Then follow me. I'll give you the Esdinas Academy tour."
"Before that."
I pointed downward.
"Do you know what kind of place Esdinas Academy is?"
"Of course I do. It's the most historic educational institution in the Mid-Realm, isn't it? Let's start there."
There was a bite to her words.
"The Empire, the Kingdom, the Merchant Alliance, the Holy Church. All the continent's major powers built an 'academy' right in the center of the continent and sent their heirs there from a young age to study together. In truth... it's basically the adults fighting their proxy wars through their kids."
"Wars fought using their children."
Esdinas Academy. From the moment it was founded, it had been established for base purposes.
"Officially, they say it's to build bonds and get along from childhood. But in reality, the heirs from each nation who enter the academy compete against each other."
"Grades, abilities, talents. Each country sends new students every year, and three years later, on their 20th birthday, they judge whether those heirs are worthy to succeed their factions based on their academy performance."
Chang Yeom knew the background of Esdinas Academy well, as expected.
"Heirs who rack up excellent grades and make lots of friends come back with higher succession rankings, while those who flop get demoted and eventually booted from the line altogether."
"They've been taught from before enrollment that their entire future and life hangs on those three years at the academy, so the students grind like mad. Except in special cases, that is."
It was called an academy, but it was essentially a university. Not even a place for youthful scholarly pursuits—it was a battlefield for jobs, specs, and networking. That was Esdinas Academy, with its traditions and history spanning centuries.
"But even that's actually a device to hide a certain secret."
Chang Yeom took my hand.
"People dig into the academy's facade, mock it as a cesspool of cutthroat competition, and sneer."
Flutter.
"Never bothering to seek out the 'true purpose' left by the academy's original founders."
Blue phoenix wings unfurled from Chang Yeom's back, and with her grip on me, we shot toward a certain spot.
"You know what that is, right?"
"I do."
Chang Yeom had brought me to a building in Esdinas Academy, one deep in the woods, far from the other lecture halls.
"The Old School Building."
You know, every school has one of those.
"The first building when Esdinas Academy opened, now an abandoned structure no one uses anymore."
It boasted centuries of tradition, but the facilities were so outdated and dilapidated that repairs or remodeling had their limits. The kind of place with rumors among students like 'ghosts haunt it here,' and actual events tied to that.
"This place's abandoned library."
Boom!
Chang Yeom plummeted straight toward the four-story library building. Her mana-charged landing resembled a meteor crashing to earth.
"Here lies the 'truth' the founding fathers of Esdinas Academy wanted to hide."
The underground archive of the library. Bursting through the ceiling of the long-forgotten underground archive, we descended into the basement, where musty old books lay scattered amid collapsed shelves. It looked like an earthquake had turned it into ruins, with traces so overwhelming that maintenance had been utterly abandoned.
"Here."
Toward the floor below, Chang Yeom thrust her fist upward dramatically.
"Underground."
Whoosh.
Striking the library basement floor with a hand brimming with blue flames punched a massive hole straight through, and something haze-like began seeping out from below.
"A massive cavern leading underground."
Beneath the underground archive yawned a hole about eight pyeong wide.
"Hold tight. We've got another 10km down."
Chang Yeom extended her hand to me.
"If you lend me some power, I could probably fly down myself."
"What if I refuse?"
"...Like this?"
I stepped in front of Chang Yeom and took her hand.
"Puhuhu."
Chang Yeom smirked, then floated up slightly and spread her wings.
"Forgive me if it's a bit hard to breathe."
Squish.
Something soft and plush pressed against my face. Along with the fabric of her uniform, it was warm and squishy—the texture like gripping pudding or mochi if squeezed—
"Mmph...!"
"Hold on tight?"
It smothered my face, and I reached forward.
Grab.
Unlike the vicious SS-rank mana sacks, her slender waist felt so thin it might snap under my grip. To outsiders, it might look pathetic—a guy burying his face in the chest of a girl far smaller than him and clinging on—but
'If that's what Master wants.'
Since Chang Yeom wanted me to hold on like this on the way down, I had no choice but to oblige.
"Going down~"
Chang Yeom clutched my head firmly between her hand and chest, spreading her wings.
Whoooosh—!!
A plummet utterly unlike a zipline or bungee jump. She flapped her wings midway to brake, but it felt like skydiving without a parachute—my nonexistent heart dropping into my stomach.
'And I made the protagonist and characters do this in-game.'
This cavern. A secret discovered in the 1,000th playthrough. In my thousandth run, I vented all my rage. How? By smashing the academy to bits. Using the protagonist and his SS-rank-powered comrades, I triggered the option to destroy the academy under certain conditions and razed it entirely. And uncovered it: the secret the founders had 'sealed' beneath the Old School Building's underground archive.
Question. Did the academy's founders—the inaugural dean, the emperor who funded it, the pope of the time—truly not foresee that the academy would one day pit children against each other in competition?
No. They knew. They knew and still built the academy, forcing that competition upon them.
'To hide this place, betting that even if it was discovered, they could handle it.'
A secret they hid even while turning the academy into a battleground, imposing hyper-competitive society on their descendants.
"Ta-da. 10,000 meters down. We've arrived."
...Reaching a depth matching the Mariana Trench's lowest point, Chang Yeom tapped the bottom with her foot.
"The gateway to the Demon Realm."
Yes. This was a passage directly connected to the Demon Realm.
"A route to invade the Mid-Realm that no one in the Demon Realm ever found, a classified path the humans of the Mid-Realm discovered and sealed themselves."
Chang Yeom snapped her fingers all around, revealing statues resembling human figures embedded in the walls at the cardinal directions.
"The four saints who took responsibility for the academy, excluding the inaugural dean."
They looked like scaled-down versions of the marble statues in Esdinas Academy's history museum, matched to the real individuals.
No. These were the petrified actual persons.
"A world seal based on their flesh."
"...Yeah."
In the 1,000th playthrough, I found this place and crossed into the Demon Realm.
"The emperor, the kingdom's swordmaster, the grand magus, and the saintess. Those four sealed this place themselves."
"Yes. Even the inaugural dean who oversaw everything at the academy. And those five... left no traces behind. Lest this place be discovered."
For fear that records might lead someone to fling open the gate to the Demon Realm. Or that others might probe the memories left in their corpses, they sealed themselves here before death.
"So, question. Why did I bring you straight here?"
Chang Yeom set me down. I stepped onto the magic circle, facing her.
"Because this is a place you were originally supposed to remain ignorant of."
"Exactly. So how did I know about this place?"
Chang Yeom tilted her head with a smile.
"While those trapped in hell have yearned for tens of thousands of years to return to the Mid-Realm—our original homeland—how was it that I discovered this?"
"Obviously."
I pointed to my head.
"Because you took everything of mine."
"...Puhuhu."
"Everything about me. That included my memories, right?"
"Let me ask one thing."
"No. You already know the answer."
Because you took everything of mine.
"You thought that if I offered you everything, you'd learn all my memories, thoughts, and plans. So you must know what purpose I had in contracting with you."
"You think I'll help you?"
"It's a deal of sorts. Becoming a slave with my soul as collateral, to join hands with the strongest, most reasonable-seeming..."
I dropped to one knee before Chang Yeom.
"...most vengeful toward the goddess."
"You know saves and loads don't work here, right?"
"Yeah."
The words "save" and "load" came from Chang Yeom's mouth.
"I'm serious. As a player, and as a human being."
"......."
"I want to escape this world and return to my original one. You want revenge on the goddess."
We shared a common goal.
"Kill the goddess."
"Hey, 'Player'."
Chang Yeom asked me.
"What if you can't go back even after killing the goddess and plunging the Mid-Realm into chaos? Even then—"
"Then I'd just be Slave A to the Hell Archduke who slew the goddess. I'd pine with homesickness forever..."
I kissed the back of Chang Yeom's proffered hand.
"But by then, this place would be where I belong."