Chapter 4
The duty officer wrapped a bandage around Adrinne’s palm and asked,
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
Adrinne sighed inwardly while putting on the complete opposite expression on the outside.
“No, I don’t, Duty Officer.”
“Relax. Why so formal with ‘Duty Officer’?”
“Then what should I call you?”
“When it’s just the two of us during roll call, you can be a bit more casual.”
He then mumbled something to brush it off.
“Like… oppa or something.”
Adrinne felt goosebumps rise all over her body.
‘Oppa? Really?’
‘You could probably call him daddy and it wouldn’t be that far off.’
The duty officer looked at least ten years older than her, by conservative estimate.
It was simply unpleasant. The way his eyes moved over her body didn’t feel like scanning—it felt like licking.
At the same time, it was a gaze she was all too familiar with.
The gaze of men filled with desire.
If she reacted to every single one of these looks, social life would become impossible. So she had long since perfected the art of pretending she was completely oblivious to the lust directed at her. And being able to pretend so perfectly was, in itself, proof that she saw through it all.
“It still feels a little awkward. And… I think I’ve taken up too much of your time already.”
“Hey, come on. I can finish checking the other rooms in no time. Or should I finish roll call first and come back here afterward?”
She wanted to retort, ‘Do you have a death wish?’
Guardian Knight Joan had exceptionally sharp hearing, and the dormitory walls did nothing to block his ears.
“I’m a bit tired…”
“Hey, don’t get the wrong idea. As duty officer, I just wanted to tell you some things about life here. There’s a lot of fun stuff you should know.”
She despised people who couldn’t take a polite hint. So she smiled even more brightly.
“I’ll take my time learning it all.”
“No, listen. For example, there’s that statue of Mulkan on the platform in the grand parade ground…”
Irritation slowly rose inside her. She had only asked for a brief word of advice about the Blood Plate Method, yet now he was about to recite the entire ancient history of the Academy.
And she already knew plenty about Mulkan.
The founding figure of chivalry, a hero.
Called the guardian of women and children.
Adrinne didn’t dislike conversations that exchanged knowledge. But no matter how she looked at it, this duty officer didn’t seem like someone particularly learned.
She decided there was nothing worth hearing.
“Thank you for the kind words. I’d love to talk more, but… what can I do? I’m still feeling the travel fatigue, so I think I’ll go to bed early.”
“Oh… really?”
“Yes. I’m so tired I could collapse right now.”
“Ahh, poor thing. You must have a weak constitution. Got it. I’ll come back another time.”
After leaving Adrinne’s room, the duty officer finished roll call on the remaining rooms.
The amount of time he spent in each room was directly proportional to the beauty of its occupant.
The corridor fell quiet.
Just as he was cheerfully thinking up excuses and heading toward the room with the golden-haired girl…
Schlick.
Something unexpected touched his throat.
“Wh-what?”
“Speak quietly.”
The voice came from directly behind him. The duty officer tried to lower his eyes as much as possible to assess the situation. The hand reaching around from behind wore a black glove, and in that hand was a knife.
‘An… assassin?’
A word he had rarely needed in his life.
A thick male voice continued to the now-rigid duty officer.
“I won’t explain at length. It’s all written in the Academy regulations too. The duty officer’s role is to guide the students’ daily lives and prevent any possible accidents. Harassing young female students goes against that duty.”
The duty officer thought,
‘Academy regulations? Fuck, who the hell follows that shit these days?’
The tip of the knife slid down along his body.
From his heart, to his stomach, and finally to his groin.
“If you think you’re going to keep doing such vulgar things, tell me now. I’ll help you.”
“H-help?”
“Once I cut away the useless parts, maybe those thoughts won’t come up anymore, right?”
He felt like he finally understood the other man.
‘This guy’s completely fucking insane.’
The duty officer looked down at where the knife tip was pointing. From his perspective, that part could never be considered “useless.”
When he gave a small nod, the commanding voice continued.
“This is your only pardon. Go straight back to the duty office like this. By the way, there’s a loaded crossbow aimed at your back. If you turn around or hesitate even for a second before going down the corridor stairs, it will fire.”
Cold sweat seeped from his tightly clenched fist.
This was the girls’ dormitory building. Therefore, a male voice here could only belong to one of the attendants.
The duty officer mentally ran through the list of female students he had been hitting on.
Room 102, Room 307, Room 808…
Too many suspects.
For a moment he considered turning around and fighting back, but he quickly gave up on the idea.
He had enough sense to judge his opponent. The man had snuck up behind him in this quiet corridor without so much as a rustle from a mouse or bird.
“I-I’ll go, so don’t shoot.”
“Go.”
The duty officer walked forward slowly and quietly. He swallowed hard.
He was especially careful not to let any movement toward the stairs be mistaken for turning around. A well-made crossbow could pierce plate armor.
The leather armor he wore would offer no protection at all.
A short while later, the duty officer’s figure disappeared from the corridor.
The man who had threatened him gave a wry smile.
“Fear comes from the imagination.”
There had never been a crossbow to begin with.
Only after the footsteps had faded far enough did Joan relax the knife-throwing stance.
***
Mulkan’s sword, which had just cleaved the opponent in two, was cleanly sheathed again—as if it had only sliced through empty air.
Thud—thud—
The soldier’s lower body and upper body hit the ground one after the other…
Splatter—
And then the blood that had sprayed into the air poured down over them.
“Ugh…”
The recoil from channeling sword qi made his head ring for a moment. His vision blackened, and he couldn’t distinguish his surroundings.
To keep from losing balance, he had to plant the sword tip into the ground and lean on it.
Grind—
A grinding sound leaked from between his clenched teeth.
His resolve was clear.
He would have to get used to this dizziness from now on.
Because he had to survive and go back.
Because he had to return alive and meet Mi-ri again.
Because he had to apologize to her.
Not for his failure itself, but for the way he had changed—become twisted—after that failure.
“Huu…”
With slow, deliberate breaths, his vision gradually returned.
The scene he had envisioned countless times in his mind was now spread out before his eyes.
Beneath the soldier’s bisected upper torso dangled intestines like slack rubber bands that had lost their tension.
These unflinching, graphic descriptions were probably one of the main reasons this game had received a distribution ban.
“Eup… mmph, hup-eup…”
The girl with the gag was slumped right where she stood.
“Mmph…! Eup!”
Even as she trembled violently, she tried to push away the blood flowing toward her with her feet. A perfectly understandable reaction.
It was just hard for him to empathize.
It felt similar to when he first saw Adrinne. This soldier, too, was a character born from his own hands.
That made it difficult for him to feel any human sympathy. The only difference between this character and Adrinne was one thing.
This one had fulfilled his role and died.
That wasn’t the same as loss. Some characters are completed by their deaths. As their creator, he felt no guilt, no thrill—nothing at all—from that death.
Ignoring the girl’s desperate, pleading eyes, he looked down again at the sword in his hand.
Hiss—
The blood coating the blade burned away like smoke.
No one knew more about this sword than he—the one who had planned it.
The reason it came to be called [Mulkan’s Sword] was because of the achievements Mulkan left behind. Originally, this blade had been kept deep within a hidden dungeon on Ogre Island.
Because it was an ancient artifact, it had its own original name.
Ego sword: [Instrument of Justice].
Most ordinary citizens of the Empire misunderstood ego swords as “swords that possess an ego.” A misconception born from their extreme rarity.
But the true nature of an ego sword was “a sword that interferes with the wielder’s ego.”
That was why he had been able to cut down an Academy corporal in a single stroke.
When swung for the sake of “justice,” this sword unleashed moves that shattered common sense.
“Eup… mmph!”
Tears welled up in the girl’s eyes as she stared at him.
It seemed what she feared most now wasn’t the already-dead soldier—
—but him, the one who had so cleanly bisected that soldier.
She must have thought the next person he would kill could very well be her.
Of course, it was a complete misunderstanding.
I would have to keep using this ego sword from now on. And to do that, I had to abide by the “justice” that this sword defined.
The definition of justice for this blade had already been established in this era.
Under the name of chivalry.
In other words, to wield this sword, one must never bring harm to women or children.
“Don’t be scared. I’m not going to kill you.”
“Mmph… hnnnngh…”
Even though I spoke seriously, the girl’s sobbing didn’t stop. Either way, it wasn’t a pleasant sight or sound.
“I’ll take the gag off, so don’t scream.”
I sheathed the sword and approached the girl. After removing her gag, I immediately felt a strong sense of dissonance.
It could only be called dissonance.
A sensation only the person who constructed this event could feel pressed against my temple. Soon that sensation coalesced into a single sentence.
‘Is this situation even possible right now?’
As the developer, I had tested this game countless times. But never—not even once—had the event [Mulkan’s Sword] overlapped with [Problem Child of the Academy].
And as someone who designed it, I could explain exactly why.
The timelines didn’t overlap.
These two events were never supposed to intersect…
“P-please help me… sob… please help me.”
Only after swaying once did I finally look down at the girl clinging to my leg.
Tears rolled down her thin cheeks.
“If I go back like this, the ringmaster will kill me.”
“Ringmaster?”
“Yes… Handel, the circus ringmaster.”
“Ah…”
It came back to me belatedly.
The detail I had written in the setting document.
This girl was a slave belonging to a circus troupe. A tragic character who gets betrayed—stabbed in the back—by the Academy corporal who promised to help her escape.
“Please… sir knight. Please save me.”
Unfortunately,
I wasn’t a knight.
I tried to shake her off my leg. But she clung to it desperately, as if my foot were her lifeline.
“Please, please!”
“Let go of my hand.”
“If the ringmaster does roll call and finds out I ran away before then…”
In that instant, it felt like my thoughts ignited.
‘Roll call?’
I whipped my head around. The hands of the clock tower pointed to 12:17.
Then I looked back at the dead soldier.
“Fuck…”
Only then did I understand.
Why two events that should never have overlapped had overlapped.
And at the same time, I realized I was in deep trouble.
Letting this circus slave go free was impossible.
She was an eyewitness to a murder scene.
The moment anyone discovered her, what I had done would also come to light.
But killing her wasn’t an option either.
If I killed a woman or child, I would no longer be able to use Mulkan’s sword.
And one more thing.
The most critical problem of all.
Right now, I had no time to spare. I needed to get back to my dormitory room as quickly as possible. If I didn’t return before roll call, I wouldn’t have an alibi for this murder.
And unfortunately…
Dormitory roll call had already begun at midnight.