episode_0023

[20 minutes ago]

“Hmm, I think we can enter here.”

We were still inside the dungeon.

A vivid light that could be clearly distinguished from the surrounding colors even from afar.

It was indeed the portal I was looking for, one that could take me back to the academy.

“Screech! Screech! How dare you treat this Reaper-nim so carelessly! I will find you again!”

The Reaper was now grinding her teeth, venting her anger at me. For a moment, the incident with the werewolf came to mind, and I glared at her, but she looked pathetic flapping around on Savior’s shoulder.

I stopped glaring and moved towards the portal.

“Savior, you can let that person go now.”

“Screech! Scree… Me, you mean…?”

The Reaper, who had been trying hard to escape Savior’s shoulder, seemed surprised by my words to let her go easily and questioned me.

“Yes… my ears are starting to hurt, so please just get lost already….”

With a fed-up expression, I gestured for the Reaper to go far away.

“It won’t be long until we meet again… I look forward to that time…..”

The Reaper continued to adopt a strange pose, covering her face with one hand, and glared at me.

She tried to exit the academy that way.

But as she walked, she seemed to realize something was wrong and returned to the underground dungeon in front of us.

“There’s no need to pay attention to someone like that, let’s go.”

Savior looked at the entrance of the underground dungeon where the Reaper had entered for a moment, but when I spoke to her, she nodded and followed me.

“By the way… um… Rapier…”

“Yes, what is it?”

On the way back to the dormitory, Savior suddenly asked a question.

Her voice was very cautious.

Perhaps she was first wondering if it was alright to ask me this question.

“How do you know about dungeons like that?”

“It’s simple. You just need to observe carefully.”

I disappointed Savior, who seemed to have asked hoping for some profound answer.

As someone with a strong challenging spirit, she probably wanted to challenge Baikal again, who had utterly crushed her.

But since I had shattered such expectations, her disappointment must have been immense.

As we entered the dormitory hallway, I narrowed the scope to just Savior and me to provide a more tangible answer.

Only then, Savior’s face became clearly visible, revealing her beautiful features like a torch.

“Don’t worry. There will be plenty of opportunities for revenge. And if I may tell you one truth.”

I decided that there was no longer a reason for Savior to follow me, nor for me to use her as I had been.

So I told her the truth.

That she didn’t need to follow and protect me by my side, and that she didn’t need to feel guilty about that match.

After I told her everything, she closed her eyes quietly for a moment and then spoke to me.

In a very calm voice.

“I knew it… Ever since our swords clashed… the aura I felt from you wasn’t that of an ordinary person…”

A slight doubt arose from her words, and I questioned her.

“Then why did you come back, saying you would follow me?”

Then she smiled a refreshing smile, one she had never shown before, and said.

“Because I grew interested… I realized today. That if I stay by your side, I can definitely grow… And…”

Savior’s face reddened slightly as she spoke the last sentence.

“Thank you for saving me in that dungeon… I was nothing but a burden there…”

-Savior [Affection 40/100]

‘Ah, System, please stop messing with me. I didn’t do anything… If it gets any higher here, how am I supposed to act between Aris and Savior….’

I forced a smile and dismissed the blue window.

Of course, as a man, there was nothing particularly bad about it, but the problem was that the first person I met, and the one who harbored feelings for me, was Aris.

Although she was called the Saintess, I had ‘clearly’ seen her in all routes, so I was a little afraid.

Of course, if you put it that way, all heroines are scary.

“Haha…. It’s nothing… It was my duty…. Didn’t I tell you to come along?… Then saving you was only natural…”

Savior looked at me with slightly surprised eyes and then made a request.

“May I occasionally request a sword duel?”

“Ah, of course. Savior, a strong person like you is always welcome.”

And so, Savior followed me, smiling an unreadable smile, as if pleased she could hone her martial arts, or perhaps pleased to see me, for whom she had developed affection.

“Ah, we’ve arrived now.”

I arrived at my room, tapping my staff as lightly as possible on the floor, and Savior, who had escorted me, also bid me farewell and left.

“Today was a good experience.”

“Don’t mention it. I’ll call on you again next time.”

With that, I entered my dormitory room through the slightly ajar door.

[The System is frustrated.]

[Sudden Quest]

[Become more deeply involved with Aris 0/1]

[Reward: Skill Enhancement Ticket X 3]

[Emphasizing quest.]

‘What is this….’

The price of clearing the dungeon.

And as a result of gaining their power, I was extremely tired and couldn’t properly disperse and recover my magic.

I glanced at Aris, who was stirring slightly, but thinking she wouldn’t be awake at this hour, I simply changed my clothes and lay down on the bed.

“Brownie, just rest here until I call you… Understood…?”

Leaving these words behind.

***

[The next day]

“Ray… what do you… think of me…?”

After the boring history class ended, Aris, who was forcefully linking her arm with mine, asked me.

Her eyes seemed desperate, as if wanting a specific answer.

“My… precious friend… who always helps me…”

Although I found her behavior a bit strange, I didn’t pay much attention and simply replied that she was a friend.

I thought that my relationship with Aris was precisely this: a close and kindly helpful friend.

I had said that because if I were to form a deep relationship with Savior, Aris, or any other heroines, extremely troublesome things could arise.

Disappointment.

It seemed Aris tried to hide it in her eyes, but from the flow of her magic, it was clear she was disappointed.

‘Ha… this is a damned if I do, damned if I don’t situation…’

According to the System, it was certain that she harbored romantic feelings for me.

However, I wasn’t even considering accepting her feelings.

[The System urges me to decide quickly.]

‘What exactly does the System keep telling me to decide…’

[The System is frustrated.]

Aris was still walking, leaning on my shoulder.

‘Why does it feel like she’s getting closer and closer…?’

While it was clearly just linking arms and guiding the way when we first met, now it felt like she was doing it simply to fulfill some personal desire.

“Ray….. I… you…”

She tried to say something.

Instinctively sensing something, I said to Aris.

“Aris, I’m just going to see the professor for a moment.”

I unlinked my arm from hers for a moment and headed towards the faculty office, the opposite direction from where we were going.

Aris tried to grab me, but I walked away too quickly for her to catch me.

‘Something… something…. it was scary…’

I wiped away a few beads of sweat from my forehead and thought.

Aris, who originally used to give everyone a bright and warm smile, had now started to give it only to me.

I had seen this phenomenon in one of the routes.

What happens when the protagonist forms a deep relationship with one heroine but also gets close to another.

I stood outside the professor’s private office for a moment, intending to pass some time and wait until the emotions in Aris’s eyes had subsided.

However, at that time, I still didn’t know.

That Aris’s feelings had not yet cooled, and that a worse situation would arise.

“Ah, Rapier.”

As I stood there, unable to see the future, I heard someone call my name and turned around.

It was Savior.

She gently waved her hand, greeting me.

“Do you happen to have some time now?”

The current me was overlooking the heroines’ states.

Aris, in particular, was a heroine with a fragile heart. The object of her affections, who had saved her from trauma and made new feelings blossom, had been escorted home by someone who called it a ‘good experience’ last night, whatever had happened. There was no way Aris would think well of such a person.

And I, who had accepted such a thing.

I was about to answer this question when I felt something behind me.

An ominous gaze, more chilling than even Astoria’s Heavenly Slaughter Star, could be felt from behind me.

Startled, I unfurled my magic, but there was no one behind me who could have caused such a sensation.

‘What… I thought it was someone from the Demonic Cult….’

I let out a sigh of relief and turned back to Savior, but that gaze continued to watch Savior and me.

From a not-so-distant spot, the gaze that watched us was erratic and trembling.