The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 405

The life of this incarnation has flickered by like a fleeting lamp.

From the moment I was born as a Titan, I started my training, beat up Cronos who constantly threatened me, joined the Knights Order, and then beat up the seniors who tried to pick a fight with me—hit and hit and hit.

Looking back, I really spent my childhood just beating people up every day.

What can I say? It didn’t suit my character to just bend and give in.

After officially becoming a knight, I got thoroughly beaten by my mentor and the commander before heading off to train with my master to become one myself.

After that, I roamed around as a shadow, doing everything I could to disrupt the grand plans of the Demon Church.

In that process, I saved Casey, who was on the verge of becoming a test subject, and a girl who was about to be sacrificed in an unnamed territory. The more I moved, the more innocent lives were saved.

It was quite rewarding, and at first, I found joy and fulfillment in something I initially did just so that I wouldn’t have to see the Demon Church thrive.

Then, I learned about the whereabouts of the Elixir of Growth, gathered the Snow Country Exploration Team, and came to the Academy…

—I’m sorry.

The video ended with Amy’s tearful face, as if this was the last scene.

It seems the life of the reincarnated Atlas Titan ends here, and nothing more comes out.

“Is this really how it ends? I’m so disappointed.”

Staring at the screen, which only showed a black screen, I just waited there.

I hoped that maybe there would be a post-credits scene or something; after all, it didn’t seem right for it to end like this.

Though I’ve always lived my life to the fullest so that I wouldn’t have any regrets, it felt too disappointing for it to simply end here.

Is this what they call lingering attachment?

I might not be able to accept the truth that it ended due to a surprise attack from Satan.

It was a brief moment, but now that I had a clear grasp of my traits, I felt confident I could win next time.

“Nothing more will come out, no matter how long I wait.”

Just then, someone spoke to me.

When I came to my senses, I found myself on a running subway train.

I must have been staring down at my smartphone, lost in the video.

I thought I was alone in the train car, but it seemed someone else was there too.

“Do you really think it will end like this? Something else will come out. A credit roll, a post-credits scene… or at least an ad. It shouldn’t just end like this.”

“An ending is usually just like that.”

“What?”

I wasn’t feeling great in the first place; who was this person to speak to me like they were teaching me something?

I felt my irritation rising and decided to look at the man seated across from me.

He had blood-red hair that looked like it was covered in blood, sunken cheeks like a skull, fierce eyes, and a coat of the same blood-red hue, sitting right across from me.

“You…?”

“I’ve watched you all this time, but this is the first time we’re meeting, right?”

He claimed to have been watching me, but it was something I wanted to say.

As soon as I saw his face, I nearly screamed but forced myself to stay calm.

“Hayden Parker?”

“What?”

Of course, he couldn’t help but react, as the protagonist of the wretched novel ‘Devil Slayer of the Academy,’ Hayden Parker, was sitting right in front of me.

…

Hayden was surprised I knew him but quickly came to terms with it.

“So, you’ve known about me. That explains why you treated Amy so well, knowing my actions.”

“That was the reason.”

Since it was the end anyway, I decided to share everything I had kept inside my heart.

I explained why I knew Hayden, and he told me why he was here.

“So you mean to say you didn’t defeat Satan and ended up using that ‘Rewinding Clock’ to go back to the past?”

“Yeah. But something went wrong, and I ended up in a completely different place with a different me.”

“A time-rewinding artifact? That sounds absurd.”

“And you, who crossed into another world, speak about that?”

“Ugh…”

Hayden, the one I had searched for tirelessly, was right here.

However, in this world, there was no boy named Hayden Parker; only Amy Parker, who was born a girl, existed, and Hayden seemed to have become her guardian spirit.

The feeling of alienation I had been sensing was actually because Amy had no mentor; it was her own mind that was the source of that absence.

‘Did I meddle and cause this?’

A strange sense of responsibility washed over me.

What Hayden referred to as his ‘world’ seemed to have moved much farther into the future than I knew from the novel.

The chaotic Empire had nearly fallen under the control of the Great Demons, and during a final battle, they had failed and fled through time.

So he had tried to start again, but it was different from the world he knew, which led him to find me.

At that moment, the train stopped at a station.

When the doors opened, a familiar feeling washed over me; the scent of a station I had always disembarked from when I returned home in my first life.

If I listened closely, I could feel the bustle of many people, even if I couldn’t see them.

“We have arrived. This is the station where you need to get off. If you get off here, you can return to where you want to be.”

“Ah… so it’s really the end, huh? I rushed here hoping to see a happy ending, but it seems I fell a bit short.”

In the end, I wasn’t the protagonist.

The secrets of the world as I knew it revolved around this world based on the settings of novels I had read.

Every character had their own fate, but the main characters held much stronger destiny powers and didn’t crumble easily, no matter what happened.

They wouldn’t end up like me, who was ambushed and ended his life so abruptly.

In the end, I was just a side character.

“What even is a happy ending?”

“A happy ending is a happy ending. It’s the blissful conclusion of the novel I read. I wanted to see you and Amy have fulfilling endings, but I guess that was a bit too much to ask.”

Upon hearing what I said, Hayden expressed doubt.

Having never read any novels, he didn’t even know the meaning of a happy ending.

It seemed he hadn’t fully grasped that he was the protagonist of a story.

“Are you talking about my happy ending?”

“You’ve had a rough time too. As a reader, I feel there should always be compensation for the struggles endured. It’s disappointing, but at least I’m relieved because when I watched the author’s previous works, it was unlikely the protagonist would suddenly be killed off and end in a bad ending. Well, this is where I end… but the ones left behind should do well. The masters are all in good shape still…”

It was disappointing to be the first to get off, but as someone already derailed, there wasn’t much more I could do.

The only thing I could rely on was the inertia of this world.

This author isn’t a first-timer.

Every past work had put the protagonist through their struggles, but in the end, there was always a decent conclusion handed to the protagonist.

As a side character like me, I would vanish like this… but even if there were some hardships, Amy would manage well.

I believed that.

The train’s doors kept calling out to me.

It felt like the only thing left for me to do was to depart, yet my feet wouldn’t move.

It seems this was some lingering attachment.

“Are you not getting off? Once the doors close, you won’t be able to return to where you want to anymore.”

“Forget it. There’s too much attachment left. If it’s come to this, I’ll be a ghost and watch over to the end.”

In the end, when I didn’t get off, the train doors closed.

I wondered if that meant it was the end, but the train kept moving toward other stations, as if it was not yet at its terminus.

“You made a good choice. If you got off here, you might have regretted yielding for no reason.”

Seeing that I chose not to get off, Hayden handed me something.

“You said you wanted to see a happy ending, but that can differ based on perspective. You called me the protagonist. But… I don’t think so. This story is yours. There’s no other answer.”

What Hayden handed me was an hourglass hanging from his neck.

It was the same artifact that hung around Amy’s neck.

I had just learned what this item was as well.

“This is important, isn’t it? Why are you giving it to me?”

“According to you, the protagonists of this world were me and… Amy, and you wanted to see us have a happy ending. But our happy ending has already concluded.”

“What?”

Hayden spoke incomprehensibly.

Had he seen the happy ending already?

No, the Great Demons were still lurking, how could there be a happy ending?

“It was from the moment you rushed over right after becoming a master and saved our hometown from the demons’ attack. From the instant you saved that unsuspecting girl, that was my happy ending. I could never reach that point no matter how many attempts I made, but you did.”

Is that how it was?

To Hayden, the fate of this world didn’t matter.

What he desired was simply for his happy times, when his family was alive.

The aftermath of his continuous rampaging was merely because that wound had hurt him too deeply.

The only way for him to forget that pain was to eliminate the demons.

So even if the story ended as it did, there would be no perfect happy ending for Hayden.

For him, a happy ending would be a story of healing his wounds.

In his story, which could only begin when his parents were dead, such a thing was impossible.

“So now I’m satisfied.”

The train was heading toward its terminus.

Hayden’s story had ended, and the train was speeding off into a new tale.

I had no idea what awaited at the end of this rushing road.

“Thank you for saving my parents. This is the last gift I can give.”

I guess it would depend on my efforts.

Having stumbled this far, I promised to try harder next time.

Somewhere, I heard the sound of sand falling.

————————-

The Academy was ablaze like hell.

The descended Asmodeus wielded the power to manipulate the eternally burning hellfire of the abyss.

Though this wasn’t a hell where the hellfire blazed from every direction, it was still serious since where the hellfire passed, even the air to breathe was completely snatched away, putting the Academy’s fate in jeopardy once more.

The only reason they managed to hold on was that more than three times the usual amount of holy knights stayed at the Academy to purify the seas in front of it.

However, they were already exhausted from merely trying to suppress the hellfire blazing from all directions.

The fact that they weren’t all wiped out was thanks to the intervention of a third force they had never anticipated.

[You filthy demon bastard!!]

[Where the hell][are you moving your filthy][feet to!!!!]

[Hahaha! It seems the world really is about to end!! How could a Great Demon descend into the world!!]

As the Black Forest began to burn in hellfire, the monsters within rushed out to help the Academy’s people, who were barely holding off Asmodeus’s attacks.

[Satan’s plan will begin from here. After turning you all into ashes, I will sprinkle that ash before the Imperial Palace.]

The hellfire, which kept growing larger due to the flames of hell, could not be halted by anyone with the powers of the Great Demon.

There were those who tried to stand against the hellfire in an attempt to confront Asmodeus, but no matter how many injuries they suffered, no entity could land a sufficient blow on the swarmlike Asmodeus, who could regenerate from all wounds due to being comprised of demons.

What exactly were they supposed to do?

As everyone groaned in despair, a pure white light flashed from the sky.

The sparkling light streaked through the sky like a shooting star before abruptly vanishing.

Then it reached the landing point and radiated power.

–Swoosh!!

[Uwaaaah?!!!]

As the flash lit up, Asmodeus’s giant frame, who was looking down at the people, lost both knees.

Black magical energy poured out from the wounds, and Asmodeus’s colossal body fell.

Certainly, the people here had seen that light several times already.

It was the miraculous light that had appeared whenever the Academy faced a crisis this year.

“Atlas?”

Though I was far away, those nearby surely saw it.

A small, blonde man holding the most brilliant light in the world, floating in the sky.

[You…!! You should have definitely died!!]

“Oh really? Did Satan tell you that? But look at me, I’m alive and kicking!”

As that voice came out, which was indistinguishable as to whether it was Asmodeus or ‘Atlas,’ the blonde man laughed at him.

“You should know I said I would definitely come to kill you, so thanks for coming to me directly.”