This Was Not My Intentions
My head throbbed with a dull, heavy ring. Strength slowly seeped back into my fingertips. Suddenly, a violent surge welled up from deep within my stomach, and I coughed up a mouthful of something dark.
"Urgh!"
I opened my eyes, a wisp of black smoke escaping my lips. Through the haze, unfamiliar faces came into focus. It was Isabel, Van, and the rest of her team.
"Senior!" Aisha's voice called out to me. Exhaling the last of the smoke, I furrowed my brows. Why do they look like that? Every single one of them looked as if they were staring at a corpse.
Wait. Had I fainted? I looked down at my body. Sirmiel was only just lowering his hands, his holy light fading. I quickly retraced my memories. I definitely remembered throwing myself at the Forest Keeper while activating my Magic Engraving. But after the explosion went off, everything had gone black.
The issue was the sheer power of that explosive Magic Engraving. It was way stronger than I thought. The engraving carved into my Steel Skin had been done with Sharin's assistance. I had expected it to be formidable, but this went far beyond my calculations.
...Could there be some hidden synergy between Magic Engraving and Steel Skin under specific conditions?Steel Skin possessed the power of a Mystery. Engraving a spell directly onto it might have triggered an unexpected reaction, leading to this absurd output.
To think I'd knock myself out because the blast I triggered was too massive. This wasn't my intention. I had worried the kids for nothing.
"Thank you, Saint," I said.
"Think nothing of it. I merely did what needed to be done." Sirmiel offered a gentle, benevolent smile. He truly carried himself like a saint.
"Do you need help standing?" Aisha asked, stepping closer. I waved her off.
"I'm fine. I can move perfectly now." A Saint's direct healing was no joke. In fact, my body felt lighter and more fluid than it had before I blacked out.
The Forest Keeper seems to have been dealt with. The students' retreat should go smoothly now. What puzzled me, however, was Isabel's party.
"Isabel," I called out. She flinched, her gaze snapping toward me. Her reaction was... off, to say the least.
"You returned much earlier than expected." Isabel stared at me in silence. Her eyes trembled violently. Normally, she would have snapped back with some complaint, but today, her reaction was entirely different.
"It's because I fell under a curse. Don't blame the others." A student from the Holy Magic department stepped forward. It was Gayson Jeruski, easily recognizable by his buzz-cut hair.
Not a bad party composition. It was a balanced, stable lineup. With a team like that, they wouldn't have any trouble navigating the lower floors.
"Is that so? Then you made the right call." If their primary healer was cursed, retreating was the only logical choice. Without pressing further, I pushed myself up.
"Team Hanon, let's head back."
I had expended a massive amount of energy dealing with the Forest Keeper. Having successfully achieved the goal of Act 3, Chapter 3, returning was the correct decision. Somehow, our team ended up heading back alongside Isabel's. She walked in silence, her lips pressed into a tight line. I had no idea what kind of emotional shift she was going through, but I could only hope it wasn't heading in a dark direction.
Upon our safe return, I reported the situation to Professor Beganor, who was waiting at the entrance. Her expression hardened instantly. Telling us to go rest, she rushed off to consult with the other professors. This would ensure that future students entering the Demon Palace would be warned of the heightened danger.
The transformation of the Demon Palace is still too shrouded in uncertainty to be a topic of discussion. Students entered the Demon Palace four times a year, aligned with the changing seasons, and the environment shifted with each cycle. Consequently, even the academy's researchers had failed to realize that a major transformation occurred precisely on the hundredth iteration. This was a privilege of knowledge granted solely to me as a player.
There was only one reason I hadn't revealed this beforehand: with the protagonist, Lucas, gone from the picture, I had to keep the overarching narrative as close to the original canon as possible. The transformation of the Demon Palace would only truly take center stage after Act 3, Chapter 3. To ensure things progressed as they should, I had let the events unfold naturally.
This should keep us mostly on track with the canon. Only the cast of characters had shifted slightly.
"...Hanon," Isabel spoke up, her voice quiet. When I turned around, she was staring at me with an uncharacteristically subdued expression. The air around her felt heavy, drained of its usual fire.
"What would you have done if an Apostle hadn't appeared in the Gray Forest?" She asked as if she already knew the answer but wanted to hear it from my own mouth. The appearance of the Forest Keeper was a hard-coded event, but that was only from a player's perspective. To the characters in this world, it was an unpredictable anomaly.
"I would have waited. Or perhaps stood guard until all the students returned safely." I offered a plausible excuse. Isabel simply muttered, "I see," and walked away. It was exceptionally difficult to read her mind today. Seriously, what is wrong with her? But given the distant, aloof persona I had built up around her, I couldn't just casually ask. In the end, she departed with her party before I could get a word in.
In the distance, the professors were engaged in a heated discussion. My own teammates, utterly exhausted, slumped onto the ground. Act 3, Chapter 3—the transformation of the Demon Palace and the Forest Keeper event—was officially behind us. But with its conclusion came the prelude to the final boss of Act 3: the Calamity Dragon Girl, Nikita Cynthia. The time had come for the assassination of her brother, Nia Cynthia—the tragedy that would spark her descent into darkness.
The first quarter's Demon Palace event concluded without further incident. Every single student returned. Though some bore wounds, there were zero casualties. The academy buzzed with excitement as students proudly boasted of their achievements.
Yet, among the many tales of valor, one achievement stood head and shoulders above the rest: Isabel's party. The Apostle they had encountered on the third floor was a named Apostle that had survived in the abyss for a very long time. It was a vicious creature that deliberately climbed the floors to ambush talented students as they descended.
Fortunately, Van's sharp instincts had allowed them to detect the threat early. They engaged in battle and successfully eliminated the named Apostle. Thanks to this feat, the reputation of Isabel's party soared. In contrast, our party's achievement went largely unnoticed by the general student body, as very few had witnessed the transformation of the Demon Palace firsthand. Only the professors truly understood the gravity of what we had prevented.
It was a hidden event, and they handled it beautifully. If Isabel's team hadn't defeated it, I had planned to hunt it down myself next quarter. The Apostle they slew was a ticking time bomb; the longer it survived, the more catastrophic the trouble it would cause. I was glad they spared me the effort.
Even without the protagonist, they're doing just fine. They truly lived up to their status as the original hero's party.
"Huuuh? A Mystery and Magic Engraving synergizing with each other?"
A lazy, drawn-out voice drifted from beside me. It belonged to Sharin Sazaris, the top student of the Magic Engineering department, whose eyes held the depth of a swirling galaxy. I had just asked her about the potential connection between a Mystery and Magic Engravings. Even she seemed caught off guard, her curiosity instantly piqued.
"Well, no one has ever possessed both a Mystery and a Magic Engraving at the same time, so I had no idea~" Sharin slurred, her eyes sparkling with excitement. She usually carried herself with a sleepy, detached air, as if nothing in the world could bother her, but magic was always the exception.
"It'll be trouble if I trigger another explosion like that. I'd like you to look into it."
"Sure, sounds fun. I'm curious about this too~" Fortunately, she didn't demand any ridiculous conditions this time. I silently thanked her for her generosity.
My research with Sharin aside, the seasons were steadily marching toward summer. A humid, heavy heat began to rise from the earth, and it wouldn't be long before the cicadas started their relentless chorus. Naturally, the students' attire grew lighter. Even Sharin, sitting right in front of me, was wearing a sleeveless shirt and short shorts. It was a bit too revealing.
"Sharin, I know we're in the dorms, but isn't that outfit a bit too light?" This was the dormitory's common room. While students were free to dress casually, Sharin's definition of casual was pushing the boundaries.
Sharin curled her lips into a lazy smirk. "Why~? Is it making you feel like a hormonal teenage boy~?" Her face was practically dripping with mischief. It was a teasing born of absolute confidence. No student of our age could ever hope to fluster the top mind of Magic Engineering. But...
"Keep that up and you'll get yourself into trouble one of these days." Knocking that smug confidence down a peg was a universal male instinct. Sharin merely waved her hand dismissively.
"It's fine. I don't dress like this in front of anyone but you, Hanon~"
I swallowed hard. "...Then why do you dress like that in front of me?"
Sharin let out a soft, sleepy chuckle. "Who knooows~?" What a sly fox.
"Anyway, Sharin, how has Isabel been lately?" I quickly changed the subject before she could tease me any further. Sharin slumped her upper body onto the table, stretching out like a cat.
"Same as usual. Though she's stepped up the intensity of her training a bit." Resting her cheek against the wooden surface, she peered up at me. "Did something happen between you and Bel?"
"Not really." Lately, whenever Isabel and I crossed paths, she would just stare at me in silence before abruptly turning on her heel. She didn't even give me a chance to banter or bicker.
"Oh, actually, there is some news about Bel."
"What is it?"
"She's been hanging out with Van a lot lately. People are starting to whisper that there's something going on between them."
With Van? I suppose I hadn't noticed because she always stormed off the moment she saw me.
"Bel is getting sword training from Van~"
It wasn't a bad decision. Van was an undeniable prodigy when it came to the sword. His guidance would undoubtedly be of immense help to Isabel, who also wielded a blade.
"People are always so desperate to matchmake. They did the exact same thing back when Lucas was around..." Sharin trailed off, suddenly falling silent. She had realized she had brought up Lucas's death.
I guess I really have been spending a lot of time with Sharin lately. Her guard around me had dropped significantly over the past few weeks. That was likely why she had let Lucas's name slip so easily.
"Though, to be honest, I never got that vibe from them," I said, tilting my head. "Didn't Isabel and Lucas like each other?"
"It was more like a sibling dynamic. Bel was usually just whining and throwing tantrums to him~"
That made sense. In the original game, Isabel didn't fall for Lucas until after Act 4. Before that, the story heavily emphasized their platonic friendship. The moment she fell in love with him was one of the game's most iconic scenes. It wasn't because Lucas did something conventionally heroic. Rather, crushed by a series of tragedies, Lucas had wept, screaming his hatred for the world. Isabel had held him close to comfort him, and in that moment of shared vulnerability, she had truly fallen in love.
A scene I'll never get to witness now. Lucas was dead. Every beautiful, iconic moment I remembered had been rendered utterly meaningless. The realization left a bitter taste in my mouth.
"What about you, Hanon?"
"What about me?"
"You know, someone you like? Or someone you're being shipped with?"
I scoffed. "I haven't even been at the academy for half a year." How could I possibly have developed feelings for someone in such a short time?
"Though... there is someone I've been keeping an eye on."
"Sorr~y, but I have no intention of dating you, Hanon."
"Who said it was you?" I had been rejected without even confessing.
"I was talking about Senior Nikita, obviously."
"You really do adore Senior Nikita." Sharin knew how highly I regarded Nikita. It wasn't romantic interest; I simply respected and liked her as a person. But whenever I thought about the Calamity Dragon Girl, whose tragic fate was drawing closer by the day, my thoughts grew heavy.
"Oh, that reminds me. Senior Nikita's brother..." My head snapped toward her. Had some event already triggered?
"Apparently, he's coming to Jerion Academy to serve as a temporary adjunct professor of Magic Engineering."
Wait, what? Why?