Blurred vision.
Confusion, perhaps, as Yoo Eun-ha’s eyes are shaking rapidly.
And finally, the golden thunderbolt piercing the barrier and striking Azathoth.
Thankfully, it wasn’t a situation where my entire life flashed before my eyes.
That means I’m still alive, right?
“…………………… Huff!”
As soon as I opened my eyes, I began feeling around my body.
My last memory is definite…
‘I remember being tortured by Yoo Eun-ha, and water dripping on my head but…’
Ah, and I remember pushing Eun-ha away, and before I knew it, taking the final blow from Azathoth.
It feels like something else is there, but it’s as if my memory has been erased, and nothing comes to mind.
-Urk!
“Ahh…!”
Getting stabbed in the stomach from the front is apparently referred to as ‘Donut’, but what do they call it when you get hit from the side…
‘Skewer?’
Anyway, am I safe now?
‘Everything seems fine, so…’
Did I manage to get her out safely?
The golden lightning I saw just before I fell unconscious was, as expected, Eve’s lightning.
“Still… the memory is hazy.”
Clearly, after being kidnapped by Yoo Eun-ha and having water dropped on my head, my last memory is of shielding her from Azathoth’s final blow. But there’s no recollection of what happened in between.
‘What should I do now?’
A new variable has appeared.
A Demon clad in a thousand armors named Azathoth, constantly hindering the protagonist and helping him grow. Eventually, Azathoth meets his demise at the hands of the now stronger protagonist, leaving behind items that significantly boost the latter’s combat power.
‘I have no clue what happened to Yoo Eun-ha. I feel rather disoriented.’
I was about to lie back down because my back felt sore when suddenly—
-Urk!!!
“Ahhh?!”
While trying to support myself, I felt an intense stab of pain.
In that fleeting moment, I rolled off the hospital bed with a dizzying sensation.
-Klang!
‘Now that I think about it, my condition was semi-paralyzed, wasn’t it?’
The crosses that pierced my body during Eun-ha’s torture clearly had an effect to suppress regeneration. Combined with the curse I had already taken on my body… my magical circuit seems to have been completely destroyed from within.
The pain caused by the tangled magical energy coursing through my body was indescribable. It felt as if someone were squeezing the life out of every organ inside me with their hands. The feeling was extremely unpleasant.
The reason I didn’t feel any pain until now was because the magical energy wasn’t circulating, was it?
“Keuhk… Keuuk, Ahhhh…!!”
-Bulk!
And while I was writhing and screaming in agony, the door to the ward opened…
“Se-ah!”
Immediately, I felt something heavy and soft press into my head. And with that, my consciousness faded into darkness once more.
…
…
“Are you awake?”
After sleeping for about four hours, I woke up, sat on the bed, and managed to have a conversation with Eve.
At first, she hugged me tightly while sobbing and worrying, and I thought I could just let it slide. But then she asked,
“Are you… alright?”
“Yes. I’m moving normally… but what happened to Eun-ha?”
“She’s currently detained in our guild’s confinement room. I’ve seen all of her and your memories.”
“…… What?”
Through Eve’s voice came quite the shocking statement.
‘Wait, kidnapping and torturing me constitutes a major crime…’
“I entered your mind to find out what happened.”
And so, Eve began to elaborate.
“So… it’s true?”
“Yes, she kidnapped you to kill you. However, she claimed that you saved her from an unknown monstrous hand that fell from a dark gate in the sky. All this while she herself was injured, but you sacrificed your body to save her. I confirmed this by reviewing your memories.”
‘…She confessed this easily?’
I thought she would deny her crimes until the end, hurling threats and insults at me the entire time she had kidnapped me.
‘Still, why did I take that attack for Eun-ha?’
“We’ve decided to place her under confinement at the Academy dormitory while we continue our investigation, and until then, she’ll remain in our Guild’s custody.”
‘…This is rather ambiguous.’
While it’s true that Yoo Eun-ha kidnapped me and caused a lot of commotion, it’ll be problematic if she ends up dying here.
‘Honestly, if I were to encounter someone who tried to kill me three times, I’d probably feel the need to deal with them preemptively, just from a lack of security.’
Because I had already killed Yoon Seong-ho.
Even more so when the protagonist Seo Ji-an in the original died in front of my eyes, any ordinary person would have gone insane.
‘… Yoo Eun-ha cannot leave this situation like this, never.’
She’s one of the main protagonists of the original story, a hero who helps the protagonist capture Mephisto.
Most of the things Eve was saying were related to “life imprisonment” or “death penalties.”
I clutched Eve’s arm and pleaded with all my might.
“Director, I’d like to see Eun-ha.”
“…… Huh?”
However, from Eve’s eyes, I could feel a piercing hostility. This was a warning not to bring up Yoo Eun-ha again.
“Absolutely not. We haven’t yet definitively ascertained her motive.”
“I can explain later, please…”
-Krrrk!
With all the strength I could muster, I clutched Eve’s arm and looked at her desperately. Her expression only became angrier as a result.
However, I did not let go of her arm…
“Fine, do as you wish then.”
Reluctantly, Teacher Eve accepted my request.
“However, under the condition I accompany you. If Yoo Eun-ha tries anything stupid, the meeting will be immediately terminated, understand?”
“Thank you, sincerely.”
I didn’t hear the muttering comment from Eve behind me, but at least I was finally able to see Yoo Eun-ha. That’s all that mattered for now.
Still, I needed to move…
’…?’
My legs wouldn’t obey my command.
“Th-they’re…”
“Did you expect to walk normally after such severe injuries?”
-Thirr…
“I’ll carry you.”
Eve prepared a wheelchair for me, and I entrusted myself to her teleportation magic.
-Shooosh…!
“Director Guildmaster… and… Se-ah?”
“It’s been a while.”
Upon finishing the transport, we arrived at a room that resembled a laboratory, where we were greeted by a member of the Golden Guild.
And when I turned my head, I saw her.
-Thump!
“GGGhhhhkkkk…!”
“Still refusing to talk about her motives?”
“Yes, she shares everything else… but refuses to admit her motives.”
“She’s got willpower.”
“Yes, we’ve subjected her to water torture, pulled her fingernails out, cut off parts of her body then reattached them… and yet she doesn’t flinch.”
I could see Yoo Eun-ha screaming in agony while being restrained and subjected to various forms of torture.
…
…
…
-Krrk!
“Aaaahh!”
“Her arm is broken, Team Leader.”
“Just cut it off, administer high-grade potions, and when it regenerates, start again by pulling out her fingernails.”
“Yes.”
Even though her arm was broken, the people around didn’t seem fazed at all. They calmly poured a potion on her damaged arm and began breaking the newly regenerated limb.
Her fingernails and toenails had already been pulled out, and the bright marble floor was smeared with blood. Seeing this spectacle, I…
“Open the door, now.”
“……Yes.”
-ZZZiiing…!
“Wait! If you open it like that…! Yoon Se-ah, you’re…!”
Taking advantage of the moment of surprise that Eve showed, since she didn’t know I could use the strength of my eyes, this was my only opportunity.
“Move.”
-KRRRRRAAANG!
I fiercely hit the unknown people who were touching Eun-ha with my psychokinesis.
‘At least it’s a high-grade potion, so if I make her take it all, recovery should be possible.’
I saw the figure of Eun-ha lying helplessly.
Since I couldn’t move my legs, I lifted my body using telekinesis and quickly grabbed the dropped high-grade potion.
“Eun-ha!”
Crying out Eun-ha’s name, I wanted to get to her right away, but…
-Krraaak!
“Uurgk…?!”
“Yoon Se-ah, what are you doing!?”
My body was entangled in a net created by Teacher Eve, and once again, I was pulled back into her arms.
“Let me go!”
“I told you not to act rashly.”
“Didn’t you see how severely she was tortured? Are you just going to treat Raon Academy students this way? She’s still a child…!”
“……And you?”
“Huh?”
This sudden question…
“You didn’t suffer anything from her? Considering your body riddled with holes where your life was hanging by a thread… All this state is her fault…! Don’t you feel enraged?!”
‘…Oh, she saw everything, huh… Therefore, she knows everything.’
Including the hunt in the gymnasium where I was tortured while listening to cruel words.
‘Wait, does this mean Eve already knows Yoo Eun-ha is a time-loop player?’
“At that time with the humanoid demon, you weren’t thinking about her safety, why isn’t that the case?”
Each word of Eve carried with it a heavy sense of sorrowful anger.
-Her guildmaster is upset… This reaction has only been witnessed once in five years.
-Five years ago… When Vice Guildmaster left the guildmaster to close the S-Rank gate, leading to her demise…
-Tread carefully, that’s forbidden speech in the guild.
The guild members present seemed to understand Eve’s feelings as they looked at me.
‘…I made a mistake.’
Momentarily, I had forgotten the setting of Eve Meitner, who has lost so much.
It appears I was too focused on Yoo Eun-ha’s safety according to the original storyline.
‘She wouldn’t have wanted her student to be this damaged.’
Eve Meitner is a kind and cheerful person. Unfitting for her position as Director, she sometimes disguises herself as a student to mingle with the Academy students. She’s a genuinely warm person who would persist in supporting and protecting anyone she considers important.
“…I’m sorry.”
I embraced Eve weakly.
Given the severity of my body’s condition, Eve accepted my movements without resistance.
Since I’ve never acted this way before, Eve was speechless.
Though the scent of vanilla from Eve’s skin did cross my senses, now wasn’t the time to indulge in such things. The priority was calming Eve’s anger.
“I’m sorry, I guess I was too focused on my own feelings.”
“……No, I pushed you too hard. I’m sorry, Se-ah.”
“…First, please heal Eun-ha. I can explain everything.”
“……Alright.”
Eve signaled, and the high-grade potions were poured onto Yoo Eun-ha’s body, quickly restoring her.
We then teleported to an interrogation room.
“Yoo Eun-ha’s recovery is ongoing, but the torture is on hold.”
[Understood.]
“You need to convince me, with an explanation.”
I instinctively knew that one of Eve’s abilities, lie-detection, was now active.
…
…
…
“You were split in half.”
‘Ah, I thought it was just a hole from one side to the other. So, I was cleaved in two?’
That would explain Eun-ha’s trembling eyes right before I collapsed. I had assumed it was just a hole through my body, but I must have been split like a coffee-flavored ice cream.
“Director, Yoo Eun-ha is not a bad person. She’s one of the heroes striving to protect this world.”
“…”
Understanding the truth of my words, Eve clutched her head and whispered in anger, ‘Then why is Yoo Eun-ha…!’
‘Good, it seems we’re on the right track.’
After receiving a promising outcome from Eve, I clenched my fists in joy, making sure she didn’t notice, and now all I need to do is privately talk with Yoo Eun-ha to find out what’s really happened.
“Haa… Alright, I won’t kill her.”
“Yes, thank you very much……..”
“But as compensation, don’t even try to see her face until you’re fully recovered. Or else, I’ll make sure you can’t.”
“……What?”
Suddenly, this was like hearing a thunderstorm strike.
“So, let’s end today here… Rest in my arms.”
“That… what… kind of..”
Then, as if Eve cast a spell, I couldn’t resist the warm and drowsy sensation taking over me, forcing my eyes shut…
…
…
“……So this is what a safe house feels like.”
“Isn’t it? This is among the most securely enchanted safe houses used by the guild director.”
“…Thank you for the info. Umm… Hero, what’s your name..?”
“You can call me Han-ra informally.”
“……Alright, Han-ra.”
I woke up in one of the large mansions presumed to be among Eve’s personal estates, not in the Academy dormitory.
we going so fast woosh woosh