episode_0043

After handing the key to the prison bars to the guard, I felt relieved.

“This is pretty fun.”

In fact, it wasn’t something I did to truly harass the hyena boss, Hela.

They say everyone has a little bit of sadism, but I don’t really have that kind of taste.

The first reason I made her my slave is because it was the only method I had never tried among the ‘ways to make Hela your comrade’.

‘I was very lucky.’

To be honest, when I saw her through the crack in the door of the secret room to figure out the situation after being kidnapped, I knew it was Hela right away.

In Academy Story 2, you can gain companions not only from within the Academy but also from outside, and one of them is Hela.

At first, he’s just an ambiguous character with some level of damage and tankiness, but he has high growth potential, a friendly personality, a willingness to give his liver and gall when you get close to him, and a cuteness that doesn’t match his size, making him a character that’s in demand in its own right.

‘It was also fortunate that we met while he was a criminal and not a mercenary…’

If you meet her normally, you will meet her in a state where she has entered the mercenary business in order to clear away her past and live honestly.

There are many ways to do this, whether you meet him at the mercenary office or find yourself stamping your feet in the labyrinth not far from the academy, and I’ve tried them all.

However, I saw a guide post in the community titled ‘How to recruit Hela early on before clearing up her past and get a great deal on her’ that said that if you somehow sweep away her hideout in a random noble territory and turn Hela into your slave, you can recruit Hela with a completely different story and attitude.

‘It’s quite interesting that I can use the method I remembered from back then.’

I fought Hela for the sake of a fantasy that stimulates a man called a slave (I am an adult male who has been in the solo workshop for a long time, to be clear) and for the sake of content I have never tried before.

The second reason is that I do not plan on increasing the number of females in the group any further, because Hela has a fighting style that does not apply to our females.

If you have two knights with shields and swords (Elfin, Ion), an all-weather wizard (Lulu), a fighter (Hoyo), and a recovery wizard (Me), then the perfect position is a dual-wielding weapon user.

The rest, except Lulu, are good for holding out with a shield or grabbing and hitting one, but are not effective against enemies with weak health.

‘Hoyo should be called a boss dealer rather than a melee dealer.’

You might think that since Lulu is a magician, she can just use area-of-effect attacks, but that only applies in games that consume mana and ether.

In Academy Story 2, which uses the concept of spell slots, there are very limited ways to recover spell slots, and there is always a shortage of slots.

In combat encounters or dungeons where you may have to fight multiple times a day, relying solely on your wizard is a huge waste of spell slots.

‘But Hela is a melee dealer who specializes in two-handed weapons. She’s always a guaranteed performer.’

Let’s compare it to a normal game.

In general, especially in action games, it’s strange that characters who use two-handed swords often have fast attack speeds.

Of course, since it’s a game, even if you ignore the realism and think about it, many games are like that.

However, in Academy Story 2, it is heavy and difficult to hit, but if you hit it, the damage will be so great that beginners’ jaws will drop.

Of course, the option that can be considered representative of the two-handed weapon characteristic is ‘Accuracy decreases and damage increases’, but there are many ways to make up for the decreased accuracy.

‘Because there’s me and Lulu too.’

However, in Academy Story 2, where there aren’t many ways to increase damage, whether it’s magic or physical damage, a trait that guarantees damage can’t be bad.

‘Hela could have resisted somehow because she was bare-handed. If she had been holding a weapon, she would have been hit in the head with the side of the sword and would have passed out.’

The second reason is that Hela, a dual-wielding specialist, will be the highlight of my comfortable labyrinth or external activities, whether it’s a single attack with a heavy vertical slash or an area-of-effect attack with a wide horizontal slash.

‘The third reason is a bit gloomy…’

Let me explain the third and final reason.

The first two reasons alone are more than enough to attract Hela either as a slave or a companion, but the last reason is entirely personal and sinister.

‘Another me…’

Yes, another me, my soul partner, who resides in my lower body.

The females of the pack have yet to see the 100% true form of my soul mate.

There are some tall females among them, like Hoyo, Ion, and Elfin, but no matter how much I think about it, I think they are a little too short to accommodate another me. (To be exact, they are not small, but they are too big for my soulmate to understand.)

However, Hela is larger and more massive than the elfin, the largest of the females in the group (elfin and Ion are not that large).

On the other hand, she is large, and her breasts and hips are enormously large compared to her muscle mass.

So the conclusion I came to was, ‘If it’s Hela, I can accept my soulmate without any problems.’ Of course, Academy Story 2 itself is not an adult-rated or erotic game, so this is just my guess.

It is true that my young and healthy new body and my mind that has been in the solo studio for a long time are intertwined, and the closer I get to the females of the group, the more my sexual frustration grows.

But if I just blindly rush into a group of female dogs, if I can’t properly accept another me of an abnormal size, I’m destined to end up like a dog chasing chickens.

To put it simply, it is a wicked intention to use Hela for sexual processing, but I heard from my male friends and seniors at the academy that if the male wants it, the females of the group don’t have much of an objection to sleeping with a female who is not a member of the group. (It’s not like that for everyone, but since the male is the center of the group, most of them accept it.)

In addition, Hela is a hyena who is often discriminated against in this world. She is easily pushed out in competition with males (strangely enough, the males here tend to avoid hyenas, crocodiles, sharks, mane cats, and humans), and after she is accepted as a companion and becomes close to them, she often shows the text ‘I will live happily ever after with a pretty male’.

I can’t guarantee that we’ll be sweethearts, but I think to myself, wouldn’t it be good for both of us if I let him be my secret girlfriend in exchange for forgiving him for the things he did to me?

“Ain.”

Upon arriving at the night room, the females’ gazes are drawn to it.

“How did you do that?”

When Hoyo asks cautiously, I show her a small vision tool that I have not shown to Hela. In the center of the tool is a bloodstone, the same one embedded in Hela’s restraints.

“I got it.”

“Haa, Ain. That’s the guy who beat you to death.”

“I’m the one who got hit, but don’t you know that? If you keep me as a slave until I die, I think the math will be roughly right.”

Elfin reacts as if she is dumbfounded, but Bam and Lulu are indifferent.

“You can rest assured that the Bloodstone Binding Sphere is invincible. Even a dragon – if it exists – can’t break it.”

Lulu nods at the end of the night.

“That’s an incredibly expensive item for a slave restraint. I don’t know what Ain was thinking when he got it from the Duke of Knight Sustain… Anyway, now that female can’t touch Ain.”

Elfin, Ion, and Bandi look in disbelief at Lulu’s explanation.

“Absolutely?”

“Never.”

“I guess that’s not a wrong statement.”

“Why?”

“She (Lulu) really doesn’t make absolute decisions. In fact, most wizards tend to do that.”

Hoyo nodded in agreement with Ion and Bandi’s conversation.

“Ah, I understand perfectly.”

I don’t understand, Hoyo.

“By the way, who was Mr. Hamu who taught you how to play an instrument back then?”

When I asked, Bandi answered as I just remembered.

“Mr. Hamu left for a city near the academy after work. He said he’ll be there waiting for you to call him.”

“It really helped me a lot.”

The night chuckled at my words.

“Don’t worry, I gave you a really big reward. You’re probably the richest bard around here.”

“Oh, then now that you’re rich, you won’t teach me how to play an instrument.”

When I tell a joke, Hoyo’s eyes widen.

“Huh? No. Hamu insisted on calling me.”

“Really? That’s unexpected.”

If you say so, I think we’ll definitely meet again later. Above all, it was really fun to learn how to play an instrument, as the real females say, and it seems like there’s talent.

“So, that…you said Hela? What are you going to do?”

Lulu asks while slowly eating the cake that the maid, Hodo, brought. Bandi is looking at the cake, but she seems to be holding back.

“I’m taking him out tonight. I asked the guard to make him walk around normally.”

“Ugh, I don’t like it.”

Hoyo makes a pouty expression at my words.

“You’re a bad kidnapper.”

But I smile and say back to Hela what I said to her.

“I’d rather see a bad person turn good than be born good.”

In fact, it’s just a recitation of a famous line from an old game, but Ion, Elfin, and Bam seem to have taken it quite deeply.

“It is better for an evil person to be born good than for an evil person to be reborn good…”

Elfin in particular seems to take it quite seriously.

“Anyway, I see potential in her. And judging by her size, she’ll probably be dual-wielding. Given our composition, it would be helpful to have a dual-wielding warrior.”

“Aren’t there females who use two-handed weapons all over the Academy?”

Ion said, but I shook my head.

“I have no intention of increasing the number of females in the group other than you.”

“You said something I liked for the first time today.”

Although Lulu’s words sound sarcastic, it seems like she’s really happy when she sees her smiling.