The World After the Bad Ending

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My head buzzed.

I could feel strength returning to my fingertips.

Suddenly, something rose in my stomach, and I spewed it out in a handful.

“Cough!”

I opened my eyes, and black smoke escaped my mouth.

And there they were: faces I hadn’t seen before.

Isabel and Ban, along with her teammates.

“Senpai!”

I heard Aisha calling me.

As I expelled the last of the smoke, I knitted my brows.

Why do the kids look like that?

They all had faces akin to that of a corpse.

‘More importantly—’

Did I faint?

My gaze fell upon my body.

At the same time, I saw SirMiel finally lowering her hands.

I quickly racked my memory.

I distinctly remembered throwing myself towards the forest keeper while activating a magic seal.

After the explosion magic seal was triggered, I briefly lost consciousness.

The problem lay in the power of the explosion magic seal.

‘It was much stronger than I thought.’

The magic seal engraved on my steel skin had been conducted under Sharine’s guidance.

Given that, the seal’s power was expected to be considerable, but this exceeded my expectations.

‘…Could it be that there was a synergy between the magic seal and the steel skin under certain conditions?’

The steel skin harbors mystical power.

When the magic seal was incorporated, this outcome might have emerged.

‘I didn’t think I would faint from the scale of the explosion I cast.’

I hadn’t intended to go this far.

I needlessly worried the kids.

“Thank you, Saint.”

“No need to mention it. I simply did what I had to do.”

SirMiel smiled kindly.

As expected of a saintly figure.

“Shall I assist you?”

As Aisha approached, I gestured her off.

“I’m fine. I’m okay now.”

The saint had treated me herself.

In fact, I could move my body much more comfortably than before I fainted.

‘I seem to have handled the forest keeper without trouble.’

The students’ return should pose no problems either.

What puzzled me more was Isabel’s team.

“Isabel.”

When I called her, she flinched and looked my way.

Her reaction seemed a bit off.

“I think we came back way sooner than scheduled.”

Isabel merely stared at me without saying a word.

Her eyes shook violently.

Normally, she would have been grumbling about it.

But today, her reaction was different.

“I was cursed; it’s not the fault of the others.”

At that moment, a Holy Studies student stepped forward.

With very short hair that left an impression, he was Gaisun Jeruski.

‘The party composition is decent.’

It’s a stable setup.

With that composition, we could navigate the lower levels without issue.

“Is that so? In that case.”

If the recovery role was cursed, retreating would be wise.

I asked no further and stood up.

“Hanon team, let’s return.”

I had exerted a lot of strength dealing with the forest keeper.

Our goal for this Act 3, Chapter 3 was safely achieved, so returning was the right decision.

Somehow, our team returned alongside Isabel’s team.

Isabel followed us silently with her lips sealed.

I didn’t know what had changed in her mood, but I hoped it wouldn’t lean toward anything negative.

Having returned safely, I reported the situation to Professor Veganon, who was waiting in front.

She stiffened her face, then quickly told us to rest before rushing off to another professor.

This way, more warnings would be issued to students entering Magung in the future.

‘The transformations in Magung are uncertain and haven’t been discussed much yet.’

The timing for entering Magung is divided into four periods based on the seasons.

Each time, the environment of Magung changes.

Thus, it’s challenging to recognize that a transformation is coming after the occurrence frequency of Magung reaches a hundred during the investigation process.

This was purely a privilege known only to players.

The reason I hadn’t disclosed this fact sooner was simple.

With the protagonist Lucas gone, I aimed to steer the story as closely to canon as possible.

The transformation of Magung wouldn’t gain serious attention until Act 3, Chapter 3.

I had kept it as close to the original as possible.

‘If that’s the case, it has flowed almost exactly as canon.’

The only thing that changed was the characters.

“…Hanon, you.”

At that moment, Isabel spoke to me.

When I turned to her, Isabel quietly looked at me.

I sensed a more subdued atmosphere than usual.

“If the Apostle hadn’t appeared in the Gray Forest, what was your plan?”

She seemed to already know the answer but asked for confirmation.

The appearance of the forest keeper was a confirmed event.

However, that was from the player perspective; they wouldn’t know that.

“I would have waited. Or perhaps I would have stayed until all the students returned.”

In response to my reasonable excuse, Isabel replied with a simple “Okay” before leaving.

Today, it was particularly hard to read Isabel’s mood.

Why was she acting like this?

But I had built up a certain image of Isabel, so I couldn’t ask.

In the end, she left with her team without my question.

I could see professors chatting in the distance.

Our team members seemed exhausted and were sitting down.

Act 3, Chapter 3.

The transformation of Magung, the forest keeper event.

This was the point we had safely crossed.

At the same time, the final boss of Act 3, the Disaster Dragon Maiden.

Nikita Cynthia.

The time had come for her brother, Nia Cynthia, to be assassinated, which would mark the beginning of her dark transformation.

*

The quarter’s Magung event went on without a hitch afterward.

All students returned.

While there were some injured, there were no fatalities.

The students proudly flaunted their achievements.

Yet among those achievements, some stood out.

That was Isabel’s group.

The Apostle they faced on the third floor was a named Apostle who had survived quite a long time.

A malicious character who awaited students’ descent while plotting against them instead.

Ban, with his keen intuition, noticed his presence and engaged him in combat, resulting in the successful defeat of the named Apostle.

Thanks to that, Isabel’s party’s reputation soared considerably.

‘That was a hidden event, and they handled it well.’

If Isabel hadn’t taken him down, I would have intended to handle it in the next quarter.

The Apostle Isabel’s party dealt with was a problem if its survival duration increased.

Thus, I planned to tackle it next, but Isabel’s party did well.

‘Even without the protagonist, they excelled.’

Indeed, they truly were the former protagonist’s party.

“Uh? The mystical energy and magic seal synergize with each other?”

At that moment, a voice reached me from beside.

A girl with eyes as if filled with the Milky Way.

The top of the Magic Arts, Sharine Sazarith.

I inquired Sharine about the connection between the magic seal and mystical energy.

She seemed to find it an interesting detail, perhaps one she hadn’t expected.

“No one else has both mystical energy and a magic seal, so I had no idea.”

Sharine spoke in a languid tone, her eyes sparkling.

Despite appearing to glide through life without much care, she was different when it came to magic.

“If it explodes again like this, it’ll be problematic. I’d like to ask for some research.”

“Sure, sounds good. I’m curious too.”

Fortunately, there were no additional conditions this time.
I was grateful for Sharine’s broad-mindedness.

Putting aside the research into mystical energy and the magic seal with Sharine.

Before I knew it, it was summer.

The humid heat began to rise from the ground.
In no time, the cicadas would start their ruckus.

As a result, the students had lightened their wardrobe.

Right in front of me, Sharine wore a shirt that exposed her arms with shorts.

It was quite revealing.

“Sharine, even though this is a dormitory, isn’t your outfit too light?”

This was a common area in the dormitory.

Though clothing was free here, Sharine’s attire was a bit too relaxed.

At that, Sharine lifted the corners of her mouth lazily.

“Why? You think I’ll turn into a teenage boy?”

Her face was full of teasing.
But that teasing stemmed from confidence.

No one could challenge Sharine, the top student of Magic Arts, among her peers.
But.

“One day, karma will catch up to you.”

Breaking that confidence is a man’s fantasy.
Sharine waved her hand, as if to say not to worry.

“It’s fine. I won’t show up dressed like this in front of Hanon.”

I gulped.

“…Then, why do you dress like this in front of me?”

Sharine chuckled lazily.

“Oh, I wonder?”

What a sly one.

“By the way, Sharine, how’s Isabel lately?”

Changing the subject before I got dragged further into her teasing, I asked.

Sharine leaned back across the table.

“She’s the same as usual, though the training intensity has increased a bit.”

As she said that, she rested her cheek on the table and glanced up at me.

“Did something happen with Isabel?”
“Not really.”

The most recent encounter with Isabel had been her meeting my eyes for a brief moment before darting away.

Now, she didn’t even give me the chance to provoke her.

“Oh, speaking of Isabel, there’s something to share.”
“What’s that?”
“She’s been hanging out with Ban a lot lately. There’s a rumor that something’s brewing between them.”

Ban and Isabel?

Is that why she was leaving in a hurry every time she met him?
I didn’t know about that.

“Isabel is getting training from Ban.”

That’s not a bad decision.
Ban is undeniably a genius in swordsmanship.

That should be of great help to Isabel, who also wields a sword.

“Everyone seems to be in quite a rush to connect these dots. They did the same when Lucas was around.”

She said that, then fell silent.
She must have recalled Lucas’s death.

‘Looks like I had been hanging around Sharine quite a lot.’
Recently, I felt that Sharine’s attitude towards me had relaxed significantly.
So, Lucas’s name probably just slipped out.

“Surprisingly, I didn’t sense anything between the two.”
I tilted my head.

“Didn’t Isabel and Lucas have feelings for each other?”
“Not really. They were more like siblings. Usually, Isabel was the one whining a lot.”

Right, Isabel’s crush on Lucas came after Act 4.
Until then, the story emphasized their friendship greatly.

Isabel’s affection for Lucas is one of the iconic scenes.

Not because Lucas showcased himself brilliantly, but because Lucas, due to various events, screams out in hatred of the world.

Isabel hugs him, wishing to comfort him, and genuinely falls in love.

‘Such scenes are now beyond my reach.’
Lucas was no longer in this world.
All those iconic scenes I remembered had become meaningless.

That fact made my mouth taste bitter in several ways.

“Does Hanon have something like that?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like someone you like or someone you’re involved with.”

How absurd.

“I’ve only been at the academy for less than half a year.”

In this time, how could I have developed a crush on anyone?

“Oh, there is someone who’s on my mind.”
“Who?”
“I’m not interested in dating you, Hanon.”
“Who said it was you?”

I hadn’t even confessed, yet I got rejected.

“Of course, it’s Nikita-senpai.”
“Hanon likes Nikita-senpai a lot.”

Sharine knew my sincerity towards Nikita as well.
This isn’t some infatuation.
I purely like Nikita as a person.

Therefore, when I think of the approaching Disaster Dragon Maiden, my thoughts grow heavy.

“Oh, speaking of Nikita-senpai’s brother.”
I suddenly turned my head.
Could it be that some event has begun?

“I hear he’s coming briefly as an associate professor at Jerion Academy’s Magic Arts department.”
What?
Why?