Sothing was off.
This whole situation—sothing about it.
“...You said, friend?”
One misfortune after another. At my words, Ezekiel’s expression stiffened slightly. Judging from the 【Script】, he was now wondering if I’d been hypnotized by Adele.
“Golden Rat. Surely you know how many so-called friends end up betraying us.”
“There’s no need for confusion. She was rely expressing her feelings about .”
“......”
Ezekiel stared at with those vivid pink eyes, typical of royalty. Half concern, half suspicion—just like the 【Script】 said.
So, I bowed politely and turned to leave the office. First things first—I had to resolve this off-kilter feeling inside .
I had to et with Adele.
But the misfortunes didn’t stop there.
Just as I was leaving, Shaman’s assistant, Bugi Bugi, rushed over. “Departnt Chair Ezekiel—ah!” He flinched as soon as he saw .
“What is it, runt?”
“Ah, well... the Director urgently summoned you.”
“The Director? Why ?”
Bugi Bugi glanced up at .
“It’s about a eting concerning Assistant Adele...”
This too was abrupt. To summon departnt chairs—each of whom had packed schedules—this suddenly?
“...Also, Professor Dante is requested as well...”
So I was being called too. No doubt about it. This was a eting to decide Adele’s disposal.
“You going?”
“Yes.”
I headed to the eting room with Ezekiel. Balkan and Shaman were already there, seated. At the head of the table sat Director Hedwig, clad in that ridiculous owl mascot suit.
“Hmm. Welco~!”
A light, bouncy voice, almost playful. But the atmosphere? Far from it. Shaman and Balkan looked grim.
“This is an ergency eting! We are now discussing the identity of an unknown monster—or infiltrator—or sothing that rely looks human that has invaded the Departnt of Assassination!”
“I have a question, Director.”
“Speak, Professor Dante.”
“This is about my assistant, so... why is this eting happening just now?”
“I ant to call it earlier, but everyone kept pretending to be busy. Now we’re all here, though. Mhm!”
I took a seat as well.
The eting began with Balkan, Shaman, and Ezekiel—those who were already aware of the situation—trading rapid opinions.
“Unauthorized use of the ‘List⧉’ during warti already makes her eligible for execution, more or less.”
Shaman, the old man forever labeled a traitor, coldly pushed for Adele’s death.
“To claim the right to kill a young person whose threat level and identity remain unknown... I don’t believe we have that authority.”
Balkan, a man of justice and principle, tried to rein in premature judgnt.
“Then what about quarantine?”
Ezekiel offered a neutral stance.
The debate continued for so ti. With tensions from the Kreutz incident still lingering, one side argued there was no reason to tolerate hostile elents. The opposing side countered that such thinking could justify endless killings in the future. It was a sharp ethical standoff.
Through it all, I kept chasing that sense of wrongness. Sothing in this situation... sothing didn’t fit.
And then—yet another disaster struck.
Mana particles fluttered in from nowhere. Brushed past from sowhere far away... and hit Ezekiel’s consciousness.
“...Wait. The signal from my curse just triggered.”
“Huh? What signal?”
“I cast a ‘Curse of Surveillance’ on that assistant long ago. Any trace of large-scale mana use sends a ping.”
So Adele had just used a massive amount of mana?
At that, Ezekiel glanced at . Even now, he was respecting my place in this.
“Shall we reveal it?”
“Go ahead.”
There was no reason to hide it.
Adele, who just this afternoon said she’d cook at ho—now suddenly using massive mana?
Ezekiel placed his hand on the crystal orb and flowed his mana into it. A static-filled screen flickered into existence like a hologram.
“Wha—no way...”
“...Huh.”
And when the 3D image played out, both Balkan and Ezekiel fell silent.
“......”
So did I.
Because right there—one of the many mysteries I’d long held had been solved.
Adele’s power.
Far off in the distance, wrapped in light, soone was falling away. Adele reached toward them. Her hands ca together like she was dancing, slow and still... and the person’s head exploded.
“...Who were the deceased?”
“Presud outside assassins.”
“Then... what the hell is that technique? It’s not telekinesis...”
Balkan murmured, but no one answered. Even with three [Challengers] present.
No one knew. Because the number of people in the world who could wield that curse could be counted on three fingers.
But I knew.
‘......That’s the Curse of Instant Death.’
Curse No.96. A curse that kills on cast. Rumored to have once belonged to bugged Jinksythe.
Each caster’s version works slightly differently, like fingerprints. Most often, the abdon, chest, or head bursts upon activation.
“Whatever it is... it’s terrifying.”
Balkan clicked his tongue. Even for a military academy stocked with weapons, anything in the 90s was in another league. Adele, essentially, was soone carrying a loaded gun in an elentary school.
And then, amid the confusion, I latched onto a faint clue and asked Ezekiel,
“...How many tis has this happened?”
If this was the second ti or more—
Then I’d give up on Adele right now.
Because Ran had ntioned a bursting head when ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) speaking of her own death.
“This is the first ti.”
The first?
“...Pardon my insistence, but are you certain, Chair?”
“Why? Sothing bothering you? No one can tamper with my Curse of Surveillance. It’s branded with a [Stigma].”
So then it wasn’t Adele who killed Ran.
I shelved that thought for now.
“Professor Dante. May I share sothing about soone from Kreutz?”
“Yes.”
Ezekiel told everyone what he knew about “Adele Muang.”
Then the Director raised a hand.
“I’ll confirm it myself!”
“Kreutz is involved—how do you intend to do that?”
“It’s ti for our little industry to show its worth!”
And with that, the Director placed a call.
To soone from the Kreutz sect. She brought up Adele Muang and a supposed “doppelgänger” indirectly.
“You don’t know?”
—“Mmhmm! First I’ve heard of it!”
“You don’t know? I see!”
The person on the line replied in the sa chirpy tone as the Director—denied any knowledge of doppelgängers. Claid Adele Muang was a devout and beloved high priestess from a faithful family. Said she’d never been involved in anything magical or suspicious.
“......”
“......”
After the noisy call ended, silence blanketed the eting room. We were right back where we started—lost in a maze.
“Let’s kill her.”
The Director was the first to narrow the discussion. That mascot-suited enigma of a monster.
“I agree.”
Shaman too wanted to get rid of what disturbed him.
“I vote to oppose.”
Balkan was against it. Ezekiel shook his head. “I’m neutral. I can’t make a decision.” A response born from the tension between respect for and his own unease at a murder spell that even a grand mage like him didn’t understand.
“...What about you, Professor?”
At last, Ezekiel turned the spotlight on . All eyes fell on .
Normally, a professor’s opinion wouldn’t matter much. But right now, I was considered a key figure within the academy.
“......”
I paused in silence.
【Director Hedwig: ‘Why aren’t you saying anything?’】
【Chairman Shaman: ‘Don’t get soft on us. Professor Dante.’】
【Warrior Chair Balkan: ‘Tough question... but you’ve given us good answers before, haven’t you?’】
Everyone wanted to know what I thought.
In front of was a red button.
The mont I pressed it, Adele would die.
“......”
But hold on.
Doesn’t this seem off?
At least—it felt off to . And so I kept thinking, tracing that strange feeling’s origin...
And then.
Suddenly.
A voice whispered in my ear.
‘Aah, really? Funny how people think the sa~’
Years ago.
The sa voice that recited my research word-for-word from my notebook.
And when I asked for the source, shalessly answered—
“......”
My eyes opened wide. Slowly.
Ah.
I finally understood.
What was wrong with all of this.
Who created this entire situation!
***
It was years ago, back during grad school. Even then, I’d felt this sa kind of unease.
An Excel file’s modified date off by a single day. A stranger’s fingerprint on my data. Seniors exchanging glances behind my back. A professor dodging calls. A PhD student suddenly asking to stay out of the lab.
That creeping sense—of sothing shitty unfolding just outside my reach...
Just like now.
All of this stems from one thing: I don’t know enough about Adele.
But I’m not the only one.
I don’t know.
Ezekiel doesn’t know.
The Kreutz officials don’t know.
Adele Muang herself doesn’t know.
There’s no one related to Adele who knows.
And no one’s offering to tell us.
......Does that make any sense?
No.
It doesn’t.
Maybe in real life, sure. Like in my past. But this world? It shouldn’t work that way.
Because this place is inside a ga. And the ga “Hiaka Academy” isn’t the kind of ga that hides information from players like this.
Every ga has its own design philosophy.
For example, FromSoftware’s Dark Souls series is famous for hiding its lore behind cryptic taphors and vague item descriptions.
Zelda gas, on the other hand, use flashbacks and cutscenes to deliver their story with warmth and clarity.
And this ga—Hiaka Academy—is the latter.
It follows two major rules:
1. The ga’s flow shifts with each main storyline.
Take now, for instance. The “Professor Assassination” arc has mostly fizzled out. Why? Because the devs structured the narrative like this:
[Survival of the Professor] → [Professor Expands Influence] → [Preparations for Demon King War] → [Demon King War]
2. Every main story is preceded by countless clues.
For example:
I knew about Rebellion and Collapse, and The Betting Table even before they began.
And now, I feel it again—Paradigm is about to start, even though it hasn’t been triggered yet.
Because I’m clever?
Because I’m a veteran?
No.
Because the ga told .
No matter how punishing the difficulty, this world is built to be fair—to communicate with the player.
That’s the core design of this universe.
A law that must never be broken. A flow that must always be honored.
And yet, I know almost nothing about Adele.
Her very existence breaks the design.
As if sothing omnipotent is forcibly keeping her hidden.
This isn’t just Adele’s problem. If I’m missing this much information, then Adele’s just the part I happened to uncover.
At the end of this thread—there’s sothing. Just like back then, when soone else’s fingerprint led to my advisor’s filthy sche.
So my instinct is telling this:
“Soone is hiding sothing fatal from .”
That disoriented feeling I’ve had all along...
It’s because this entire situation has been masterfully manipulated by soone.
My head feels like it’s being crushed by a weight of lead.
Then—who?
Who is it? The one who, the mont I started suspecting Adele, urgently scrubbed the 【Script】 to limit my information?
Who is it? The one who, once I realized who Adele had targeted with the “List⧉,” frad her as a threat and nudged to kill her imdiately?
Who is it? The one who never showed their face before but now, out of nowhere, convenes this eting and forces to choose Adele’s death?
Who is it? The one who keeps manipulating the circumstances to make Adele seem dangerous, even though I’ve run countless tests proving her harmless?
Surprisingly, the answer behind all of that...
Is just one star.
‘......System⧉.’
In short:
System⧉ is trying to kill Adele.
And it’s doing so... without telling a damn thing.
Why?
Because there's sothing it must keep hidden.
I don’t know what it is yet.
But one thing suddenly hits differently now—
“Hundreds of Hell-difficulty players all died.”
No ga dev ever underestimates their players. Do you know how many young people cling to gaming as their last remaining purpose in life?
Only those who cleared Hard difficulty were even given access to Hell difficulty.
And all of them died?
What if...
What if Hell mode was bugged to be unwinnable from the start...?
What if System⧉ is trying to cover that up... by killing Adele, a walking bundle of bugs who's stuck too close to ?
< Professor. >
That’s when it ca. 『Whispered Mindlink』. From Ezekiel.
< If it’s hard for you to decline in this setting, give a signal. I’ll reject it on your behalf. >
Even now, he was looking out for . Not out of so sentintal fondness.
< This situation... it all feels too staged— >
—.
And then, it cut off. Abruptly. 『Whispered Mindlink』 severed.
“You two whispering secrets without ? That hurts~!”
...In the Director’s hand.
“Now then!”
The owl suddenly burst out.
“Let’s get an answer, Professor Dante!”
The Director—System⧉’s puppet—focused its gaze. It had always looked like a dumbass owl.
But not now.
“Are we killing the assistant?”
A god was trying to deceive .
“......”
But...
“No.”
“...No?”
The owl’s eyes narrowed.
I looked up and t its gaze.
“No.”
And that set the room off.
【Departnt Chair Shaman: ‘Professor Dante, you bastard...!!’】
【Warrior Chair Balkan: ‘You dare challenge even the Director, to whom even kings bow?’】
These were people who’d always felt suffocated under the Director’s unspoken pressure.
And now, they were stunned by my answer.
“Let’s do it, okay~?”
“No. I oppose the decision to eliminate Adele.”
“Why? Let’s kill her! Co on, it’s dangerous!”
“I disagree.”
The owl’s face began to crumple.
“She just killed soone, didn’t she?! You saw it—bam! Head explosion!”
“A few deaths in the Departnt of Assassination are hardly unusual. First, let’s identify the dead. If they were enemies targeting our own, this could warrant a reward, not punishnt.”
“No no no—”
“Also, I’ll speak with Adele myself. We’ve co this far. I’ll prove her harmlessness personally, in front of you all.”
“No? No?? I don’t like that? I’m saying no?! Professor Dante! Why are you being so—”
“We don’t have ti. I’ll be going now.”
“PROFESSOR DANTE!”
The owl suit twisted grotesquely. Like so demonic creature. Its head expanded. A horrific triple row of fangs erged—hundreds of jagged teeth.
“You think I’m joking right now?”
I stared up at that thing.
Murderous pressure crashed down, suffocating my skin.
“......”
How ironic.
Co to think of it, that’s how developers work too.
They run the ga for players—but constantly clash with them.
There’s no good or evil there. Just a tug-of-war between stubbornness and incompetence. A response limited by their own fatigue.
“Professor Dante. This is your final warning.”
And as a result...
A god is trying to deceive .
“Reverse your decision. Now.”
“......”
......But even if it's a god—it can’t control .
Because this is a ga world.
And a world exists for one reason only:
To serve a single player.
“...I’ll reverse my decision.”
The owl retracted its monstrous teeth, beaming.
“Aaaah~! That’s right! Of course, that’s better! So what’s your revised answer~?”
But here’s the thing.
No matter how much the devs try to one-up the player—
They can never tamper with the foundation of the world itself.
“If Adele dies... then I will leave Hiaka Academy.”
Like a bomb, the words dropped.
“Wha—what?!”
“Professor Dante! You...!!”
The entire room exploded in panic.
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