Chapter 5
The girl, who had been craning her neck upward for a long time, let out a sigh-like murmur.
“It’s… so big…”
The 12-story dormitory building loomed like a solid fortress wall.
She genuinely marveled at the imposing scale of the Academy dormitory. Considering she had just been desperately begging for her life moments ago, it seemed I had at least succeeded in calming her down.
“Do you remember what I said?”
“Huh? Ah, y-yes… Go straight out the front door, then up the stairs all the way to the 12th floor. Room 1205.”
I nodded and glanced at the windows that were still lit.
Fortunately, roll call was still in progress. Rooms that had finished roll call turned off their lights, but lights were still leaking from windows above the 10th floor.
That meant my room’s roll call was still a ways off.
“I’ll go in first. Count to ten, then come up after me.”
“Y-yes… okay.”
The dormitory’s main gate closed at midnight. But since I was the planner of this game, I could think of another way in. I grabbed the girl’s arm and walked her toward the window at the end of the first floor.
Game planning is, after all, a form of creation.
Naturally, a creator’s personal quirks seep into their work—and this game was full of mine.
I hated meaningless numbers.
That’s why I always tried to attach some significance to dates, character ages, or room numbers that appeared in the game.
A perfect example: my dormitory room number, 1205, being Mi-ri’s birthday.
Meaningful numbers don’t need to be memorized—they just stick. And that quirk of mine was now serving as my lifeline.
I had memorized the room numbers of all the major characters.
My birthday is January 8th.
With eight rooms per floor, Room 108 is right here—end room on the first floor. This is where Yohan Esperts’s best friend lives.
Iron bars covered the dormitory windows.
The girl pressed herself tightly against the wall beside the window as I had instructed, hiding her body. I drew my sword and slashed through the bars of Room 108.
Crunch—crunch—
The famous blade sliced the iron bars like straw, and they clattered to the ground.
I quickly gathered the fallen pieces, then knocked on the glass.
Knock knock knock—
“Evangelos. It’s me. Yohan.”
Knock knock knock knock—
“Evangelos. Come to the window.”
Knock knock knock knock knock—
“Evangelos. Open the damn window already.”
“…Huh? What?”
A small commotion seemed to stir inside the room. Soon, Evangelos’s face appeared at the window. His hair was a mess—he must have been lying in bed.
“Yohan?”
“Yeah. Open the window first.”
Flustered, Evangelos unlocked the window.
I climbed straight through the opening he had made.
In the shock of this sudden reunion, he hadn’t even noticed that the bars on his own window had been cut away.
“What the hell, man…? You just got here now?”
“Yeah.”
“…Ha. Why so late? Roll call’s happening right now. That’s why I told you to come with me.”
I knew exactly why he was saying that.
<The Savior from Another World> had many branching routes to support its story structure. Among them, in the very early game—when Yohan Esperts first arrives at the Academy—there were exactly three possible routes.
One: arriving together with Evangelos, who was worried about his friend from a fallen family.
Two: arriving with his younger sister.
Three: hitchhiking in the carriage of the Empire’s twelfth princess.
Of course, I wasn’t an idiot. At a moment when every second counted, I wasn’t about to look my worried friend in the eye and say…
— “Actually, I’m the developer of this game, and I chose the third route just so I could personally appreciate the character I put the most effort into designing.”
I wasn’t that stupid.
I came up with a simple excuse.
“Hangover.”
“…You’re unbelievable. Stop drinking so damn much.”
Mentally, I finished counting to ten. I grabbed Evangelos by the arm.
“Wait—let me check out your bathroom for a sec.”
“Huh? Bathroom?”
I dragged him along and opened the bathroom door.
Evangelos looked completely bewildered about what was going on. Once inside, I turned on the bathtub faucet.
Whoosh—
Water poured out.
“Wait… why the bathroom now?”
“If the water pressure here sucks, they’ll move you to Dormitory B.”
“Huh? What are you talking about? You don’t even have money.”
“I’ll just earn some.”
“??????”
What I needed was noise. Enough sound to cover the girl climbing in through the window after me.
I babbled random nonsense while focusing on the sounds coming from beyond the door. Fortunately, the girl was following my instructions to the letter.
When I heard the door open and close, followed by her footsteps fading away, I turned off the faucet.
“Yep. Water’s fine.”
“???”
“Alright, see you tomorrow.”
“???”
I ruffled his red hair once, then stepped out and closed the door. I pretended not to hear the muttered “Did that bastard eat rat poison or something?” coming from the other side.
I hurried toward my own room.
***
Fortunately, roll call ended without any major incident—aside from getting my knee joints brutally scolded for not having performed the Blood Plate Method yet.
The duty officer briefly explained tomorrow’s schedule in a bored tone before leaving my room as if the whole thing was a hassle.
A short while later, his booming voice echoed down the corridor.
“Dormitory Building C roll call complete! Students who haven’t performed the Blood Plate Method yet—do it before you sleep! You won’t die from letting a little blood from your palm! And any student caught wandering the halls after this hour will receive demerit points! Get a good night’s sleep and assemble at the small parade ground by 9 a.m. sharp. That is all!”
A small sigh escaped me. Roll call was finally over.
Rubbing my bruised knee, I spoke toward the wardrobe.
“You can come out now.”
The girl hiding inside cautiously poked her head out. After locking the room door, I looked at her.
A frail frame with visible shoulder blades, short stature, long black hair reaching down to her waist, and a face that looked about my age.
Right now, in my room, there was a character who had never existed in the original scenario’s timeline. And I could easily deduce the reason such an unprecedented situation had occurred.
In the original scenario, there was no scene where Yohan Esperts stood in front of the bulletin board and cried.
Both [Problem Child of the Academy] and [Mulkan’s Sword] were events that triggered immediately upon arriving at the Academy and moving to a specific location.
And each event had a subtly different trigger spot.
Moreover, both events forcibly moved the player back to the dormitory with the line, “If I don’t head back to the dorm soon, I’ll be late for roll call,” once they concluded.
Therefore, the two events could never overlap.
But I had wasted unnecessary time…
And that delay had been just long enough for the “problem child” soldier to drag this girl past the location of Mulkan’s statue.
In the end, this entire mess had happened because I stood there bawling my eyes out in front of Mi-ri’s credit message.
A brief silence fell between the girl and me.
Looking at her expression—equal parts fear and relief—I couldn’t immediately think of what to say. Should I introduce myself? While I was hesitating, she was the one who broke the silence first.
Gurgle—
When I saw her clutching her stomach, a small chuckle slipped out. I handed her one of the mocha breads from my backpack.
“Eat.”
“Ah—th-thank you!”
A spark of life returned to her face. I almost said, “I’m not going to snatch it back, so take your time,” but then realized I didn’t even know her name. Even though I had planned the game myself, it was impossible to memorize the names of every minor character who appeared only briefly.
“What’s your name?”
“My name…? Oh— Arien.”
I nodded and walked over to the Blood Plate container.
“Don’t worry about me—just eat.”
Arien did exactly that.
She eagerly tore into the bread and chewed. While listening to her munching sounds, I drew the dagger.
This was the moment.
The direction of Yohan’s growth would be decided here.
There was a reason—aside from the fact that only two people were developing it—that <The Savior from Another World> took ten full years to make. Beyond the tiny team size, the sheer complexity baked into the game design document itself contributed to the difficulty.
Starting from this point, every character’s aptitude—including the protagonist’s—was randomly assigned.
The Blood Plate Method identified 166 possible aptitudes for the dantian.
Those ten years of development had been spent meticulously accounting for every aptitude, every situation, and every possible combination.
I drew the knife across my skin.
Slice—
Bright red blood welled up below my thumb. At the same time, I heard the girl choke on her bread.
“Cough—hack—cough…!”
“The door there leads to the bathroom. Turn the faucet for water—drink some.”
“Y-yes… cough… hack…”
I could guess why she was startled. She probably thought I was self-harming.
Once Arien disappeared into the bathroom, I opened the lid of the Blood Plate container and let my blood drip inside.
Drip—
The drop of blood that fell onto the pitch-black liquid spread out in white tendrils, slowly forming a shape.
Arien burst back out from the bathroom.
“Master—! What are you doing?!”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
Master, huh.
No matter what kind of slave life she had endured, I had zero interest in that kind of relationship.
“Speak quietly. And just call me Yohan.”
“Huh?”
“Yohan Esperts. That’s my name.”
“Yohan Es… perts?”
“Yohan Esperts.”
The white tendrils spreading in the Blood Plate began to separate into distinct strokes. Then those strokes interlocked, forming a diagram.
Four long straight lines extended and met at their ends.
My Blood Plate diagram formed an M shape.
The Blood Plate diagrams had detailed settings attached to them.
I didn’t need to look at the guide document on the desk—I already knew what it meant.
My diagram fell under the category of symmetrical classification.
If the revealed pattern was vertically symmetrical, the aptitude was [Reflection].
If horizontally symmetrical, it was [Replication].
In my case, it was an M shape—horizontal symmetry.
In other words, [Replication].
But…
My aptitude wasn’t just one.
The diagram had four strokes rising and falling up and down.
“…Two aptitudes at once.”
By number, it was the 23rd and 112th patterns out of the 166 possible Blood Plate forms.
“This is one of the rare combinations…”
I roughly tore off a sleeve from my shirt and wrapped it around my hand as a makeshift bandage. Then I mentally ran through the events tied to the second aptitude.
A low-probability aptitude.
One that only classifies when exactly four strokes zigzag up and down in a specific pattern.
My second aptitude was [Deception].
***
In the circus troupe, bathwater gets reused. As the youngest, I was always last in line.
By the time it was my turn, the water was usually ice-cold.
How long had it been since I last bathed in warm water?
After finishing my bath and putting the one-piece dress back on, I stepped out and asked,
“Um… master…”
“Yohan.”
“Ah, yes. Yohan Es… sir knight… where should I sleep?”
“On the bed.”
Of course it would be like that.
There was only one bed.
To think that after finally escaping and reaching this place, this was what awaited me.
Even though I had braced myself for the possibility someday, my lips still trembled. The bread and the bath weren’t given for free.
Nothing in this world is free.
With resignation, I slid the shoulder strap of my dress to the side. The man watching me let out a small, wry laugh.
I thought it was a vulgar laugh.
“I see what misunderstanding you’ve got.”
“…Huh?”
“You can keep your clothes on.”
It took me quite a while to process those short words.
“…Huh?”
“Turn off the lamp and come here.”
“…Huh?”
“I said turn off the lamp.”
I did as told and extinguished the lamp on the desk. The room darkened, and my heart calmed a little.
But moonlight can’t be turned off.
I hesitated, then climbed onto the bed and lay down stiffly in attention posture, unsure what position to take.
“One thing you need to keep in mind. While you’re staying here, you must avoid being seen by anyone. Always keep the door locked. If someone tries to open it with a key, hide under the bed—not in the wardrobe.”
The breath against the back of my neck was so distracting that I couldn’t properly process his words. Because of that, he had to repeat himself three times.
“If anyone finds out you’re here, I’ll be in trouble too. This is the Academy—a military facility of the Empire.”
“Ah… yes…”
“There’s a way to get you out eventually, so just endure for a little while. Hang in there.”
As I listened to the explanation, it finally sank in—belatedly.
This man had taken risks for me: saving me, sneaking me in here.
The intense image I had of him killing that soldier resurfaced.
‘Is this what a real knight is like?’
There had been plenty of people who said they would be my knight when times were hard, but none had actually acted like one.
They had all just been sweet-talking with ulterior motives.
Countless faces flashed through my mind.
The circus trainer who had been especially cruel to me.
The ringmaster who had planned to sell me off to some lord for a high price.
The soldier who lured me with promises of escape only to try forcing himself on me in the end…
This man was different from all of them.
And yet…
And yet…
“Why…?”
“Why what? That’s what I want to ask.”
“Huh?”
“Why are you crying?”
“Huh? Me?”
When I touched my cheek, my hand came away wet with tears.
Oh.
I was crying.
It was strange.
When he patted my shoulder a couple of times, the dam suddenly broke. Inside I kept telling myself ‘Hold it in. Hold it in.’ But these stupid eyes just kept pouring water.
“Hnng…”
“If you make noise, we’ll be in trouble.”
I hurriedly pulled the blanket over my face. After sobbing and hiccuping for a long while—and even blowing my nose—I suddenly realized something in horror.
What I had pulled wasn’t the blanket.
It was the hem of this man’s clothes.
“Uwaa— s-sorry…”
“It’s fine.”
He withdrew his hand and said,
“Instead, I have a small request.”
I thought I knew what the request would be. And I had already decided not to resent it. But when my hand reached for the strap of my underwear, he caught my wrist.
“You’re misunderstanding again. It’s not for now—it’s something I’d like you to do when I wake up.”
Heat rushed to my face.
Embarrassment burned my cheeks.
“Ah—yes. What is it?”
“In the morning, if you happen to wake up before me…”
After hearing his request, I nodded. It was a bit odd, but that much I could do easily.