Geumtaeyang Vows Pure Love
I opened my eyes in bed. The same morning as always, the same bedroom, the same bed. Today marked exactly one year since I first woke up in this world. I wasn’t sure whether to feel happy or sad about it. Either way, I gave myself a small word of both celebration and comfort.
You held up well, me.
“Better get moving so I’m not late…”
Today was an important day—the entrance ceremony for the continent’s foremost academy, the National Archesia Academy.
I rose quickly, changed clothes, and put on the uniform: crisp white dress pants, a shirt, a vest, and finally the blazer with its small golden cross emblem stitched over the left breast. After double-checking that everything was in place, I stepped in front of the mirror. The face, after all, completes the outfit.
“…”
I narrowed my eyes and glared at my reflection. Sparkling golden hair and eyes, deeply tanned skin, a sharp gaze. Muscles carved across my entire body, rugged and defined as if perpetually angry. If I posted a photo of this physique online, the comments would probably read something like Steroid junkie acting all superior.
“Yeah. Looking good.”
Today’s Geumtaeyang was as impressive as ever.
“…Sigh.”
A weary breath escaped me. No matter how many times I checked, nothing ever changed, yet I still made myself look in the mirror every single morning. Just in case. Just on the off chance that this appearance might somehow be different. But no miracle occurred, and I had no choice but to keep living this way—in the body of Geumtaeyang, the protagonist of this eroge.
This was the world of an eroge. The game’s title was Garden Stained in Black. A name that instantly told you exactly what kind of story it was. The garden was the academy, the flowers were the heroines who attended it, and the darkness, of course, was me—the protagonist, Darian Kallenberg.
The genre was romance-fantasy NTR training humiliation corruption. In other words, a game where the Geumtaeyang protagonist stole the heroines by any means necessary, sexually corrupted them, and enjoyed all sorts of depraved playthroughs.
Wasn’t that great? Since I was already here, shouldn’t I just enjoy it? No way. Anyone who already enjoyed NTR or humiliation content with a sadistic streak might have cheered, but I was an ordinary person with perfectly normal values and ethics. Pure love was the best. I just wanted to date normally, get married normally, and live a normal life.
For someone like me, being reincarnated into the body of Darian Kallenberg, the protagonist of this game, was nothing short of a catastrophe.
Darian Kallenberg. The protagonist and a textbook Geumtaeyang. Born with dark skin and the lowly status of an orphan, he suffered extreme discrimination from childhood, which twisted his personality and turned him into someone who hated the world… or so the setting went.
His goal was to target this very academy—where the children of high-ranking families enrolled—brainwash and corrupt the heroines, then use their power to destroy the world.
And that was everything I knew about the game. Because the moment I finished the prologue, my pure-love radar had screamed in alarm. Suspicious title, Geumtaeyang protagonist design, dangerous objective. Warning signs everywhere. Probability of it being a humiliation title: 99%.
I immediately searched the title, learned the truth, and deleted the file completely. I erased it from my memory. To the friend who had gifted it to me as an “extremely sweet pure-love game,” I delivered a chair shot the second we met.
Then, while living my ordinary daily life, I opened my eyes one day and found myself reincarnated into the other world I had always dreamed of. The only problem was that the destination was horribly, horribly wrong.
“Why did it have to be here? There were so many better games.”
I grumbled while slipping on my shoes. I had played dozens of pure-love games alone. A childhood friend who only realized her feelings after high school. A next-door older sister who suddenly suggested cohabitation to a busy office worker. The gentle older woman next door who comforted a bullied boy… Okay, maybe that last one was a little risky. Anyway.
If I included all the regular games I had played, the list of possible worlds easily reached a hundred. Yet whatever god was in charge had ignored every single one of them and dropped me into this world. What a bastard. If that god had been a female character, I would have used this Geumtaeyang body to corrupt her first.
“…Tsk. What can I do?”
Complaining wouldn’t change anything. All I could do was what I had to do. After realizing the nature of this world and my new body, I had made myself one firm vow.
Absolutely. No matter what. I would not get involved with NTR, training, humiliation, corruption, or any of it.
Knock knock.
Right on cue, someone rapped on the door.
“Master. It is time to depart.”
“I’m coming right now.”
Good. Let’s go.
I placed my hand on the doorknob.
As I walked toward the front gate where the carriage waited, one maid strode neatly beside me. Selena, my personal maid and the head maid who managed every servant in the Darenberg Count House. Black bob cut, eyes as deep and dark as obsidian. The word alluring suited her perfectly.
“Have you forgotten anything, Master?”
“No.”
“You have memorized the academy’s interior map, yes? You will be able to find the entrance ceremony venue on your own?”
“You’re being overprotective, Selena. I’m not a child.”
“Oh my. Fufu. My apologies. It simply reminded me of the old days. You really were adorable when you were little, Master.”
“Was I…?”
When I had checked the old photo album, even as a child he had simply been a smaller version of Geumtaeyang.
“In any case, please have a pleasant time. I will look after the mansion carefully while you are at the academy.”
“Thanks. I’m counting on you.”
Selena gave me a bright smile. But I could not let myself be fooled by that refreshing expression. Her true identity was the leader of the empire’s largest underworld crime syndicate and a top-tier assassin. She had originally been Darian’s co-conspirator in a plot to overthrow the empire.
“…Is something wrong? Is there a problem with my face?”
“No. It’s nothing.”
Shortly after arriving in this world, when she had thrust account books from various mafia families and crime guilds in front of me, I had nearly had a heart attack. I had desperately talked myself hoarse until I somehow convinced her to postpone their original plan until after academy graduation, but Selena and the criminal organization she commanded remained a constant potential threat to my peaceful life.
“Here, please.”
Lost in thought, I reached the black carriage parked at the main gate. A golden spade-like crest adorned its side—the symbol of the Darenberg Count House.
Naturally, the protagonist was not actually from the Darenberg bloodline. It was a so-called “fabricated house”—a nearly ruined noble family he had simply bought with money to meet the academy’s enrollment requirements.
“…Sigh.”
Staring at that crest made the weight of my situation hit me all over again.
“Oh dear. Even Master is nervous.”
Selena had misinterpreted my feelings. Or perhaps she hadn’t. Either way, it was true that I was tense right now.
From this moment on, I was walking straight into the lion’s den. The setting of the original story—the empire’s greatest academy, the National Archesia Academy. The very place where Darian Kallenberg had thoroughly broken and toyed with the romance-fantasy heroines.
The safest choice would have been to avoid the academy entirely, but… unfortunately, circumstances prevented that.
“Please take care of yourself.”
Selena opened the carriage door and bowed politely at my side.
As an ordinary young man from South Korea with healthy values and ethics. As a pure-love devotee who had walked that path with single-minded devotion.
I would absolutely, positively, not get entangled with anything unholy like NTR or humiliation—not even a single letter of Geumtaeyang.
“…I’ll be back.”
With that vow, I carefully stepped into the carriage.
After an hour’s ride, I finally arrived at the academy’s main gate. Befitting the continent’s greatest institute of learning, the entrance itself was magnificent—more impressive, for example, than the front gate of Seoul National University.
“Anyway, the time…”
I checked my pocket watch. There was still a little time left before the entrance ceremony. Even so, the gate was packed with carriages and people.
When I glanced out the window, I saw new students brimming with excitement and anticipation. Although they wore the same uniform as me, every single one of them somehow radiated noble elegance from head to toe. Children from prestigious families really were on another level.
“They’ve already started arriving, huh…”
I had hoped for fewer people. The less attention I drew, the better.
“…Can’t be helped. Waiting will only bring more of a crowd.”
I stepped carefully down from the carriage.
Instantly, countless sharp gazes flew toward me like arrows.
“Good heavens. What a barbaric appearance.”
A young noblewoman covered her mouth with a fan and muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear. The reactions of the other new students were hardly different—looks of open contempt as if they were staring at a savage, or extreme wariness as if I were a criminal.
“…”
Yes, I’m Geumtaeyang, you bastards. I barely swallowed the urge to shout. Experiencing appearance discrimination firsthand helped me understand the protagonist’s feelings a little… But do you people even know me? Do you have any idea how delicate and pure my inner heart is?
“Oh, look over there…!”
Suddenly the crowd’s attention shifted. A pure white carriage had arrived. The golden flame crest engraved on its surface was—
“Isn’t that the emblem of the Rubelia Grand Duchy?”
One of the five great ducal houses that supported the empire. Which meant the person inside the carriage was…
Click. Click.
The door opened. With elegant footsteps, a young lady stepped down. Silver hair that flowed like the Milky Way, eyes red as blood. An impossibly beautiful face.
…And, true to eroge heroine standards, a figure far more unrealistic than even her face.
I knew exactly who she was. One of the game’s title heroines—Arzenne Rubelia.
“Whoops.”
This was no time to stand around dazed. While everyone’s eyes were glued to her, I slipped into the crowd and observed her carefully.
…She really was stupidly beautiful.
Well, the heroines of this game had always matched my tastes perfectly in the CGs. But the real Arzenne wasn’t just faithful to the original design—she possessed a divine beauty that transcended it. Calling her a goddess descended to earth would not be an exaggeration.
“…No. Get a grip. What the hell am I doing?”
I had nearly fallen into a catastrophic trance. I reminded myself of my situation once more. I was currently inside Geumtaeyang’s body. The very incarnation of NTR and humiliation. Therefore, I must never—under any circumstances, even by accident—become sexually involved with any woman in this academy, let alone the original heroines.
If I did… the terrible outcome would be that they would end up corrupted after endless humiliation, becoming my sex slaves and serving me for the rest of their lives.
How terrifying you are, Geumtaeyang.
“Time to move on.”
I was about to slip away and avoid her when—
“…?”