Ch.127127. A Somewhat Unusual Relationship

“That’s the story so far.”

Aria’s voice from beyond the door was emotionless. Her tone was dry and flat—perhaps the only way she could manage to speak about such things.

On the other hand.

I was in a state of shock, having never heard anything so shocking since entering this game.

My mind couldn’t function properly. A single sentence trapped me, preventing my thoughts from flowing freely.

‘It was me.’

I was the one who had broken her like this.

Her obsession with me and her bizarrely twisted need for validation—I had created them.

Deliberately.

To make Aria more obedient to me.

I had intentionally made her excessively attached to me and manipulated her into depending on me.

‘I understand.’

The current me could operate like this since Aria’s first year because I had learned spirit magic.

But the first-cycle Shinwoo Kim had fought with Deus Verdi’s original soul for a full two years.

He had thrown away the entire early part of the game, and being in the first cycle, he would have known it was impossible to see a proper ending.

So the first-cycle Shinwoo Kim chose.

He treated Aria like a game character, trying to steer toward what he thought was the best ending.

In this game that required a second cycle, he must have abandoned his humanity even more to see a happy ending in the first cycle.

“Ha.”

A rough, hot breath escaped me. I never thought I would experience such emotions.

Thud.

I banged my head against the door in self-reproach, clenching my fists tightly.

I was trembling so much from the force that I couldn’t control myself.

Now I understood.

Now all my questions were answered.

And also.

I realized that even the current me could follow a similar path as my past self.

“Haah.”

Another sigh escaped me.

Without it, the tightness and numbness in my chest would have made my head explode.

I felt pathetic for driving this child to such extremes, yet I understood it all too well.

With just a slight twist, it could have been the path I would take.

Disgust rose within me at the actions I might have repeated.

“Professor?”

Aria called out, concerned about me. The doorknob shook slightly as if she had placed her hand on it, but she didn’t open it.

“Wait.”

Seeing this, I forced out a word. The desperate utterance was unlike me.

“I need to step away.”

“Ah, yes! I understand! I’ll wait!”

Yet I could hear no footsteps, suggesting she was still standing by the door.

Even as I felt guilty about leaving her behind, I moved away.

Findenai, who was sitting on the stairs with an unlit cigarette in his mouth and his chin resting on his hand, slightly turned his head as he sensed my presence.

“What, are you done…?”

Upon seeing me, Findenai’s mouth fell open, dropping his cigarette. Then he abruptly stood up and forcefully carried me on his back.

“What are you doing?”

Though I was bewildered by his sudden reaction, Findenai gritted his teeth and carried me down the stairs.

“Shut up. Shit, what kind of conversation did you have that made your face look like that?”

“What?”

“Forget it, you don’t need to know. If she wasn’t someone you cared about, I would have snapped Aria’s neck.”

“No, you can’t do that.”

I barely managed to utter a response, and Findenai replied with irritation.

“I know, damn it.”

Findenai took me to my room in the professors’ dormitory. After laying me down, he immediately turned around.

“The school nurse? I’ll go get that person, so wait a moment.”

“…”

Findenai immediately went outside.

I caught my breath and glanced around. The room was quiet with no one else present.

My eyes naturally closed as I sank into thought.

And I began to reflect on myself as a person.

Until now, I had been working hard in my own way. To prevent the continent’s destruction, I had been steadily preparing for that day in my own manner.

The world where the boundary between life and death collapses, as Aria mentioned?

I’m sorry, but.

‘That’s not the true ending.’

Strictly speaking, it could be considered a game over right before the ending.

Originally, I would have prevented the boundary between life and death from collapsing while saving the leader of Dante.

And after that, the ending would be determined by other episodes.

My first-cycle self failed near the ending.

In the end, it meant Aria hadn’t completely witnessed this world’s tragedy.

But what good was that?

She was already so broken.

A sigh escaped me.

The image of Aria Rius smiling innocently and chatting with students when I first started the game flashed through my mind.

Her determination to get back up and move forward with a smile no matter what happened, even if she fell to her knees in tragedy.

Her belief that it was fine to sacrifice herself for others.

All of it had crumbled and disappeared in my desperate attempt to avoid the bad ending prepared for the first cycle, replaced by a murky obsession.

She wants my approval. She wants me to love her.

Because only then would I not leave her.

Because only then would the tragedy she witnessed that day not repeat.

In the midst of murky emotions.

In the midst of numbness and crushing guilt.

Somewhat unexpectedly.

[What are you doing?]

The Dark Spiritmaster appeared.

[You asked for some time alone and this is what you’re doing?]

“…I’m just resting for a moment.”

As I spoke, the Dark Spiritmaster was about to say something in disbelief.

[You look terrible, you know?]

After looking at my face, the Dark Spiritmaster examined me with a concerned voice.

[What’s wrong? Is it because of that girl? Should I go scold her?]

We both knew she would return without being able to do anything.

Yet the Dark Spiritmaster clenched her fist and made a fuss.

Come to think of it, the Dark Spiritmaster was also one of the victims of my first-cycle self.

Perhaps that’s why.

I unconsciously spoke emotionally, as if grumbling.

“I just realized that I was a more despicable being than I thought.”

A man who thought he could handle things well, but could collapse at any time.

A foolish being who would try to use anything in the end.

At worst, even the disgust of gaslighting an innocent country girl to make her dependent on me.

Even if it was out of necessity, the fact that I actually did it was shocking.

[You?]

The Dark Spiritmaster tilted her head as if asking what I meant, but I said nothing more.

If I opened my mouth any further, I felt I might spill more unnecessary words. Like a child.

[I don’t understand why you, who has been like an iron wall until now, are shaking so much.]

“…”

[You, who didn’t seem human, are starting to look a bit more like a person. And the reason you’re shaking like this is…]

The Dark Spiritmaster gently embraced me. It was a completely unexpected action, and I couldn’t feel any physical sensation.

But she was using mana to transmit a faint warmth to me.

[Because it’s your weakest part, I suppose.]

“I…”

[I know I can’t approach beyond that carelessly. That’s your past alone. So I’ll wait from a distance.]

The Dark Spiritmaster, who had gently moved away from me, smiled softly.

[I don’t mind how long it takes. I’m already dead anyway.]

“…”

[But you’ll surely overcome this quickly.]

After saying that, the Dark Spiritmaster slowly disappeared. She was giving me time for myself.

Afterward, Karen and Erika, whom Findenai had brought, came to see me, but I sent them away.

Alone in the room, I closed my eyes and thought deeply.

Why had I, with my typically mild emotional fluctuations, been so affected by Aria’s actions?

The reason was.

“It’s not because of Deus’s past.”

It’s not simply because of the evil deeds my first-cycle self committed.

“Much earlier than that.”

Earlier than the first cycle.

The story of when I lived as Shinwoo Kim.

My past that I had hidden from everyone’s view, which ironically made me appear to have no weaknesses.

The Dark Spiritmaster had once said to me when I captured the soul of Dina, Dante’s Black Mage:

– To fight monsters, please don’t become a monster yourself.

Perhaps my first-cycle self.

Had become a monster to survive.

* * *

The sunset coming through the window.

A black-haired girl staring at it endlessly.

She was just blankly gazing.

She was bored.

It was tedious.

And even a little painful.

It was normally her room in the dormitory, but now that she felt trapped, it was mentally difficult to accept.

Then.

Bang.

The door opened without warning.

Aria quickly turned her head and smiled brightly.

Deus Verdi was standing there.

But soon after.

“You’re a fake.”

Aria glared at him with narrowed eyes. He resembled Professor Deus, but that was an impostor.

Someone was disguising themselves very elaborately to deceive her.

Thinking this, Aria immediately raised her mana, but.

A somewhat unexpected answer came from Deus’s mouth.

“That’s right.”

As if it were completely natural.

“I am not Deus.”

What would follow was.

A somewhat different story.

Not the clichéd relationship between student and professor.

Nor the common story of one who loved and one who was loved.

A game protagonist who repeatedly suffered death for a happy ending.

A boy who continued the game to escape tragedy.

It was the time of two people with a rather unique relationship.