The Black Knight Swore to the Blind Saintess
Monday morning.
I'd slept like the dead, and by the time I woke up, all hell had broken loose at the Academy.
Choi Jiyoon had apparently already contacted the Hunter Association and gotten in touch with the personnel who had overseen the dungeon exploration beforehand.
The survey team's position was that the professor had cherry-picked their exploration results to force an ill-advised dungeon entry.
Unable to ignore the influence of S-rank hunter Choi Jiyoon, the Association dispatched an investigation team straight to the dungeon on Sunday evening.
The professor, who had connections inside the Association, only grasped the situation after the fact and tried to reach her—but by then it was far too late.
Around midnight on Sunday, the corpses of S-rank cadets Kim Seonghyeok and Jang Suhyeon were discovered inside the dungeon.
The professor was placed under emergency arrest first thing Monday morning.
"I sent four S-ranks into a B-rank dungeon—never in my wildest dreams did I imagine they would die. Yes, yes. I've never even heard of an anomalous dungeon like that. I sincerely apologize for the concern this has caused the nation."
It was broadcast in the news at length.
So the protagonist actually died.
My careless assumption that the protagonist would somehow survive no matter what had been dead wrong.
In the original story, the dungeon wall collapses and buries the protagonist, Kim Seonghyeok—and that's precisely what triggers his awakening.
This time, he wasn't buried, and he never awakened. Worse, the party had split into two groups of two and three, moving separately, which halved their fighting strength.
The most fatal detail was that Kim Seonghyeok, a regressor and a veteran of Academy life, had never once encountered this dungeon before. This was the first event he experienced after changing fate in his second regression—so he had zero intel on it.
What a tragedy.
I paid my respects to the two dead men and left the dormitory.
There was an F-rank class that morning, but I skipped it.
In the group chat with Seolha and Jiyoon, I followed the promotion procedure exactly as the two of them had laid out for me.
I went to the Student Affairs office, filled out the application to join the S-rank class, and submitted it.
"Kim Ian. Your paperwork has been received. Head to the measurement room, get your awakening rank measured, and pick up your certificate."
I headed to the measurement room.
"Kim Ian?"
"Yes."
"Come on in."
A woman with horn-rimmed glasses let me into the measurement room.
Inside was a small gymnasium-sized space with fairly high ceilings.
"You awakened Holy Explosion, is that right?"
"Yes, that's—"
"And how exactly do you know it's S-rank Holy Explosion?"
Couldn't exactly tell her I read my status window.
"Just... a feeling, I guess."
Ryu Jiyoung
Occupation: Hunter Academy Staff
Condition: Exasperated
*Sigh. These kids awaken one little skill and suddenly think they're S-rank.*
"If the measurement comes back B or C instead of S, you'll have to resubmit the application. You do understand that?"
"Oh, really? It doesn't happen automatically? I have to apply again—"
The staff member let out a sigh.
"There's simulation mana over there."
On the table she pointed to sat a spray can.
"Ah. Got it."
A spray that releases mana like oxygen when you press the nozzle to your nose. After inhaling the simulation mana, the employee stepped into a glass-partitioned booth and spoke to me through a microphone.
"Cadet."
"Yes."
"I'll summon Demon, Undead, and Ghost-type monsters in order. Just take them down with Holy Explosion using the simulation mana."
"Understood."
"Demon attribute first."
The first hologram to appear was a truck-sized Cerberus with five heads.
I snapped my fingers.
Holy Explosion
Keheuk.
The Cerberus dropped dead.
The staff member was blinking at me in a daze.
What? One-shotting a Cerberus? Is he actually S-rank?
I stared at her intently.
She couldn't hold a candle to Jiyoon or Seolha, but she looked about twenty-five and was decently cute.
Gazing Molestation
"Huk!"
Her hips jerked suddenly.
Wh-what? What's happening? Why am I—
"Um. Aren't you doing the next one?"
"Huh? Oh... right. Next, Undead attribute."
She manipulated the console panel.
A giant tentacled zombie appeared.
Holy Explosion
Pop!
Uwaaaaagh.
The zombie crumpled to the floor with a thud.
I silently looked at the employee.
Gazing Molestation
"Nngh."
The staff member, who had been standing, sank into her chair, her face flushed crimson.
"F-finally, the Ghost attribute... let's try."
Shuuuuung—
With a swirl of black wind, a grim reaper wielding a massive scythe materialized in the air.
A genuinely creepy sensation crawled over me.
Holy Explosion
Kyaaaaahk.
The reaper dissolved into smoke and vanished.
I looked at the employee behind the glass and walked over to her.
Gazing Molestation
Gazing Molestation
Gazing Molestation
"Nnngh♥"
The microphone was still on.
The female employee, who had let out an unthinking moan, turned scarlet in an instant.
As I approached the glass, she began to panic.
"Ah, um... you can't come in here."
"Are we done?"
"You can go now."
"Sorry, what?"
The employee spoke hurriedly from behind the glass.
"Your S-rank has been confirmed, so you're free to go."
She seemed unable to get up from her chair.
"What? I heard I'm supposed to receive a certificate..."
"Ah, ah—it's a mobile certificate. I'll process it in the system and send it to you by text."
"I see. Yes, understood. Thank you very much."
I left the measurement room.
Hm. It does seem to have some kind of effect. But if I want to really learn how to use the skill, I should obviously test it on Jiyoon and Seolha first, shouldn't I?
A short while later, a text message arrived on my phone.
Ugh, what a hassle.
Now I'd have to move to the dormitory where the S-ranks lived, too.
Alright, that settles it. For the next few days, I'm doing a time skip with no contact with Jiyoon or Seolha.
All three of us needed a period of rest, both physically and mentally.
It did bother me that my body was an Addictive Body, though.
I can hold out for a few days... probably.
Thud.
Just then, someone shoulder-checked me as they walked past.
Well, "shoulder-checked" wasn't quite right—the person was so short it landed closer to an elbow-check.
Either way, it was a blatantly deliberate move.
I turned my head.
They had stopped too, and were looking back at me.
A cute, prickly-looking girl with twin tails.
We stood there, staring each other down for a moment.
"Hmph!"
She looked furious. She snorted, tossed her head, and walked on.
Wait, no way.
There was exactly one cute girl described with twin tails in So-A-Ka.
Seo Yujin (Virgin)
Occupation: Hunter Academy Cadet
Condition: Irritated
*Two S-ranks just died, and some F-rank trash is...*
So-A-Ka's third heroine.
A rude, selfish lunatic who did whatever she pleased—the heroine readers hated the most.
And the heroine I'd pushed as the true love interest, all the way down to writing comments about it.
Why, you ask?
Because it was oddly endearing how a brat like that only ever lost her temper at the protagonist. And because there's nothing more reassuring than a lunatic taking your side.
At this point in the timeline, she and Kim Seonghyeok shouldn't have even started their flirtation yet. Two fellow S-ranks just died, and an F-rank like me came back alive—so of course she's pissed.
There was a saying at the Hunter Academy: S-ranks were the nobility, and F-ranks were commoners.
It was rhetoric spouted by a tiny handful of S-ranks who discriminated by ability alone.
And Seo Yujin belonged to that tiny handful—an extremely radical meritocrat.
Once I'm back, I'm going to have to give her a proper lesson in ideology with my Big Cock for Training.
I picked up my pace.
"Rhea. The Black Knight Swore to the Blind Saintess. Ready?"
Look at her, conserving words for the sake of narrative consistency.
Adorable.
"Send me over."
Shwoom—
The world went black before my eyes.
I opened my eyes.
The sea stretched out before me.
Dead center of the open ocean.
I looked around.
Skreee— skreee—
The cry of gulls.
I was on a ship.
A massive sailing vessel.
I examined the clothes I was wearing.
Thankfully, they looked rather high-class. At the very least, I clearly wasn't one of the sailors working the ship.
"My lord."
Someone approached and addressed me.
Hands politely clasped together—definitely a servant of some kind.
"...Hm?"
I answered awkwardly.
"I found the person you mentioned. They're at the front of the main deck."
I swept a hand down my face and asked.
"Mm. Now, who was it? Who did I ask you to look for?"
"You told me to look for your mentor, my lord. You said the most devout and revered priest in the Empire was aboard this ship."
"Ah, right, that's it. Where are they?"
The servant led the way.
I glanced around as we walked. Aboard the ship were not only sailors but also nobles, merchants, mercenaries, and quite a few mages.
The Black Knight Swore to the Blind Saintess.
A pure-romance story about a black knight—abandoned by humans and raised by demons—who meets a blind saintess and slowly learns what human love is.
A beautiful love story, but in the end, the blind saintess dies trying to protect the black knight.
The story closes with the shattered knight defending humanity from evil, standing against the demon faction.
The blind saintess and the black knight had unquestionably loved each other truly and deeply.
Right up until the ending, they never once touched.
At least, that was how it felt to me—and I thought that was enough to make it a good story.
But Rhea, as the Goddess of Heroines, apparently couldn't stomach an ending where the saintess dies.
Though something's strange here.
No matter how I combed through my excellent memory of this novel, the sea had never once served as a setting.
The servant guided me to the priest.
The people around kept their distance, sneaking glances at the priest like fans gawking at an idol, too starstruck to approach.
The priest bowed her head lightly toward me.
The priest was a woman.
Nothing strange about that—women could become priests in this world.
The female lead herself, for one.
Hold on a second.
"Your name?"
She asked for my name.
Rhea had told me who I was in this world.
I put on the smile of a shrewd businessman.
"My name is Ian Castollini. I run a modest toy shop in the capital."
"Mister Castollini. It's a pleasure."
"Likewise."
"My name is Emilia Rosebloom. This gentleman told me about you. You wish to make a donation to the cathedral in the capital? Is that truly so?"
Emilia Rosebloom.
The heroine of this novel.
She gazed up at me with those famously clear eyes, beaming with an innocent smile.
God, she's gorgeous.
Focus, Kim Ian. I think you're fucked.
I recalled the passages of the novel.
Emilia Rosebloom was the sole survivor of the sinking of the Lorraine.
She lost both her eyes in the explosion that sent the ship to the ocean floor.
Washed ashore on a deserted island, Emilia gathered the thirty-five corpses that drifted in with the tide, laid them out on the white sand, and held a funeral mass for them.
One month after the disaster, when the navy discovered Emilia on the island, she was kneeling before the bodies in prayer.
She was said to have eaten nothing and slept not at all for that entire month, offering prayer after prayer.
As if to prove those words, not a single corpse had decayed.
And in that moment—
I caught the scent of oil drifting past my nose.
Gunpowder, too.
We were standing in front of the cargo hold.
The scene before my eyes began to move in slow motion.
IIIIAAAN, you motherfuuuuckerrrr—
My body moved on reflex.
I yanked Emilia into my arms and dove for the sea.
KA-BOOOOOM!
As we plunged into the water, I witnessed a chain of massive detonations tearing through the ship.
Had we still been on deck, the odds of instant death would have been near certain.
It was almost miraculous that in the original story, Emilia had lost nothing but her eyes in that inferno.
"You fools! The end of the world is upon us!"
Someone was screaming atop the sinking ship.
Looked like the terrorist black magicians.
Splash.
Gurgle, gurgle.
Emilia and I sank beneath the waves.
.
.
.
Pwaaah!
I spat out a mouthful of seawater.
The sun beat down hot. Waves crashed somewhere nearby.
"Mister Castollini. Mister Castollini. Wake up, please."
Someone was shaking my body.
I blinked.
My blurred vision gradually came back into focus.
A platinum-blonde saintess.
Emilia Rosebloom was looking down at me with eyes full of worry.