The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 22

The search for teammates continues.

Since I didn’t find anyone special among the second years, this time I visited the first-year floor.

Maybe because they were still fresh newcomers, unlike the calmer second years, the first years were full of chatter.

‘The second years have already been through the palace in their first year.’

The difference between those who have yet to face the palace and those who already have was clear.

However, even among these first years, there were some exceptional individuals.

Specifically, the special class for first years.

They were strong enough to be placed directly into second-year classes without any issue.

The special class was on a different level from the regular first years.

“Hmm? A little one is coming.”

“Yeah, he’s tiny.”

I overheard some first-year students talking as they looked at me.

But soon, they saw my name tag and fell silent.

The blue color symbolizing the second years, and the student council emblem.

These two things added weight to my image as both a senior and a member of the student council.

The first years naturally made way for me.

The treatment was completely different compared to walking through the second-year hallways.

‘I’ve already checked the members of the special class.’

But before that, there was someone I needed to bring along.

“Hey, you there, freshman.”

“Y-Yes?”

One startled first-year quickly responded when I called out.

As expected of a first-year, full of energy.

“Do you know where Aisha Bizbelll is?”

The Iron Maiden of the Greatsword.

Aisha Bizbelll.

She’s my junior, and we train together every morning.

Since I’ve been relying on her for a while, I thought I’d take this chance to depend on her a bit more.

The first-year student easily found Aisha for me.

It made sense since she was always doing extra training during lunch.

‘Morning training, then more training after lunch?’

At this rate, Aisha must really be made of iron.

More iron than the skin of steel I have.

Aisha, the true iron human.

As I arrived at the training room, sure enough, Aisha was there.

She was wearing a gym uniform instead of her school uniform, swinging a massive greatsword.

It was absurdly large, yet her sword moved with graceful curves.

No matter how many times I see it, her muscles are extraordinary.

“Aisha.”

When I called her name, Aisha stopped swinging her greatsword.

She turned around, then smiled like she was happy to see a familiar face.

“Oh, senior, what brings you here?”

When Aisha smiled, the first-year who guided me looked shocked.

“Th-The Iron Maiden of the Greatsword is smiling?”

Seeing his reaction, I quickly understood the situation.

Aisha held a position among the first years that made her hard to approach.

A noble from the Empire’s borderlands.

The Bizbelll family of counts.

To sum up the Bizbelll family, they were the warrior clan of the North.

Whether male or female, they all had towering height and incredibly strong physiques.

In fact, when you meet a male of the Bizbelll family…

Ordinary men realize their biological inferiority and become quite intimidated.

Aisha is considered to have exceptional talent, even among the direct lineage of the Bizbelll family.

Moreover, when she entered Zeryon Academy, she was admitted through a recommendation rather than an entrance exam.

Her martial arts grades are currently at the top.

Given that she spends almost every day training, her relationships with other students are not deep.

In fact, I, her second-year senior, am probably the one who talks to her the most at this academy.

So, Aisha was always a difficult figure for the first years.

When she smiled at me, it was no wonder that the freshman who had guided me looked so bewildered.

He stared at me with a blank face, as if asking, ‘Who are you, exactly?’

‘It seems my reputation hasn’t spread among the first years.’

Well, it is a busy time for them as they are trying to adapt to the academy and focus on their studies.

It’s not like they have the time to keep up with academy rumors.

“You can go now.”

When I gave him the signal, he finally snapped out of it and quietly left.

Even as he left, his curious gaze stayed on me.

“So, senior, why did you come?”

By then, Aisha had wiped off her sweat and approached me with a bright smile.

I handed her the drink I had thoughtfully brought along.

I figured she’d be training like this, so I came prepared.

“Oh, thank you.”

“Aisha, have you decided on your palace team?”

Aisha, who had been drinking from the bottle, shook her head.

As expected, I figured she hadn’t decided yet.

“I’m planning to form a team this time. What do you think? Want to join?”

If I could get someone as skilled as Aisha on my team, there wouldn’t be a better vanguard.

When I invited her, Aisha finished her drink and gave me a healthy, radiant smile.

“Was this drink a bribe for that?”

“Yep, and now that you’ve drunk it, you can’t escape. If you try, I’ll blackmail you for accepting a bribe.”

“Scary. But knowing you, senior, it’ll be some weird kind of blackmail.”

“I was thinking of starting by threatening to reduce your morning training.”

“I’d throw my body in the way to stop that!”

The thought of Aisha tackling me made me nervous.

“So, what about the team?”

“I’ll join. I think we’ll work well together, senior.”

We’ve spent a lot of time training together.

There’s no one in the academy who matches Aisha’s synergy with me as well as I do.

That makes two vanguards secured.

Now, all that’s left is…

‘A healer.’

A student of sacred arts.

* * *

Time continues to pass.

Now, with summer approaching, the feeling of early summer has started to set in.

Zeryon Academy was more tense than ever before.

The birth of an apostle by the Archdemon is predicted through the astrology of the four seasons.

On the finest day of spring weather, the day summer begins, the day the night grows longer than the day in autumn, and the coldest day of winter—when each season reaches its peak, an apostle is born.

A newly born apostle possesses only weak powers.

So, academies around the world are sending their students into the palace in line with this timing.

And today, the start of summer when the heat begins in earnest.

At the entrance of the palace in the western zone, which Zeryon Academy oversees, a large number of students had gathered under the guidance of professors and teaching assistants.

Of course, all these students won’t enter the palace at once.

They start with the third-year students who have the highest grades, and then proceed in order.

‘The palace has a bizarre structure.’

The ultimate goal of the apostle is to emerge from the palace, wreak havoc on the world, and hatch the Archdemon.

Thus, all apostles are born in the incubation chamber on the first floor.

But to get outside, an apostle must first reach the side of the Archdemon.

A newly born apostle is weak.

If they came outside in this state, they would just be hunted down by the knights guarding the palace’s entrance and stationed on the final frontlines.

So, they choose to descend deeper into the palace, to absorb the Archdemon’s power and grow stronger.

Therefore, the further an apostle descends, the stronger they become.

And when they fully evolve into an apostle, they begin their ascent to the surface.

The purpose of academies around the world is to stop these apostles before they can start their ascent.

To do that, students are sent in four times a year.

‘No matter how you think about it, the structure is strange.’

Standing in front of the palace entrance, watching the third-year students enter first, I stared at the palace itself.

It was as if it was ready to swallow up everything on the surface.

The entrance was ghastly, like the gaping mouth of hell itself.

That was the entrance to the palace.

‘If I were the Archdemon, I would’ve created apostles by my side from the start.’

Was it really necessary to make apostles at the palace entrance?

Even after all the time I’ve spent playing the game, I still don’t know why the palace is structured this way.

‘From the beginning,’

The existence of the Archdemon itself is full of mysteries.

Even in the ending of Blazing Butterfly, it was unclear whether the Archdemon was truly defeated.

The result was incredibly ambiguous.

‘Deus Ex Machina.’

The god of the machine.

It’s a device used in the story to facilitate smooth progression.

Players referred to the Archdemon by this name.

‘Some say they deliberately left the Archdemon ambiguous to use in the final chapter of a Slayer Academy of the Demonic Palace sequel.’

It’s a shame, but after the release of Slayer Academy of the Demonic Palace, the developer didn’t release any news for over five years.

In the end, there’s only speculation from the players.

There’s no official information about the Archdemon.

“Burnt potato, are you going to keep ignoring me?”

As I was staring at the palace, an irritated voice came from beside me.

It was a girl with a red ponytail and a shiny forehead.

“When is your team coming? Be honest, you tricked me, didn’t you? It was all a lie, wasn’t it?”

Seron Parmia.

She had approached me the day before I finalized my team.

In the evening, she came up to me and said,

「Uh, ahem, hey, burnt potato, I heard your team is one person short.」

I was curious what she wanted to say, but she just kept coughing awkwardly as she spoke.

「Well, I guess, maybe, if you need, I could join your team. Hmm.」

Seron had been going around looking for another team until the very last moment.

But in the end, no team was willing to take her.

At this rate, she’d end up in a last-minute team assembled by the professor, which for Seron, would be the most humiliating outcome.

Finally, her eyes turned to my team.

She judged that joining my team, a group of skilled individuals capable of winning, was better than being stuck with the leftovers.

I glanced at Seron for a moment and tilted my head.

「Why are you talking as if you’re doing us a favor?」

Did she not realize her current situation?

「What? I said I’m willing to grace your team with my presence! You probably haven’t even managed to gather proper team members!」

And then, I understood.

Seron didn’t know how our team was composed, which was why she was acting so confident.

「Our team’s rear guard is Poara Silin.」

「What?」

As I continued, Seron’s expression turned shocked.

She must have heard Poara’s name.

The whole academy had been abuzz about the Spirit Lord incident.

Even some third-year students had tried to recruit Poara.

It would be stranger not to know Poara’s name.

And that Poara was part of our team.

Just mentioning her raised our team’s status instantly.

「And our vanguard is Aisha Bizbell, a first-year.」

「W-what?」

Seron is a noble from the empire.

If you’re a noble, you can’t possibly be unaware of the Bizbell name.

Her face started to turn pale.

It finally dawned on her that the team I had assembled was far stronger than she had imagined.

She probably thought I had just thrown together a random group of people.

「Even now, quite a few people want to join my team.」

Ever since the rumor spread that Aisha and Poara had joined us, I’ve had occasional offers from people wanting to join.

Even though the outcome of our team’s performance is uncertain, many figured it wouldn’t hurt to make connections with Aisha and Poara.

That’s the power of a famous name.

However, Seron had been mostly isolated for a while.

Since she was expelled from the ‘Four’, no one had really spent time with her.

That’s why she hadn’t heard how our team was formed.

Right now, there was no real reason for me to accept her.

Seron finally became aware of her situation and took a step back.

「Seron Parmia.」

I called her full name.

Her shoulders twitched, and her previously confident demeanor faltered.

「If you want to join our team, that’s not how you should be talking.」

I smiled.

「Try saying it properly.」

Will you go to the leftover team, or will you join our strong team?

If she joined the leftover team, her grades would surely suffer, and who knows what kind of ridicule she’d face from others.

Seron, with her pride, wouldn’t be able to endure that.

Her shoulders trembled.

She glared at me with wide eyes, but then bit her lip tightly.

Her forehead began to flush red.

Steam was practically rising from her forehead.

But she somehow managed to suppress her shame and embarrassment.

Then, she quietly bowed her head to me.

「P-please… let me join the team.」

「Louder. Properly.」

「Please let me join the team!」

「More desperately.」

「Please, please let me join the team! Ugh, let me join! Hmph!」

It seemed like she was reaching her limit.

「My dad, my dad said he’d kick me out if I didn’t get good grades this time. Please, please let me join.」

Now, Seron had completely broken down, sitting and crying. I nodded my head in approval.

And that’s how Seron joined our team.

“I should’ve known… There’s no way someone like Poara or Aisha would team up with a ‘burnt sweet potato’ like you. I got tricked! Totally tricked!”

…Is this girl an idiot?

Even after being humiliated like that by me yesterday, here she was acting cocky again the very next day.

At this point, she might as well have erased yesterday’s events from her memory.

I raised my hand and grabbed her mouth tightly.

Her eyes widened as if she was about to shout in protest, but I turned her head to face a different direction.

“Open your eyes and look carefully. They’re coming.”

There, Aisha and Poara were approaching.

When Poara made eye contact with me, she nodded, while Aisha smiled briefly.

“……Re, really?”

Muffled by my hand, Seron stared in disbelief.

I let go of her mouth and wiped her spit on her clothes.

“And, who’s the last member?”

Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t mentioned the last member yet.

Just as I turned my head, someone began walking toward us.

One by one, the other students started to turn their attention in that direction.

Their faces filled with a mixture of surprise and awe.

Meanwhile, Seron stood with her mouth agape and eyes wide open in shock.

“W-wha, what?!”

Seron had finally turned into a complete fool.

“Let me introduce you.”

I pointed to the person walking toward us.

With snow-white blonde hair, dressed in a uniform that was the only one at Zeryon Academy permitted to have gold embroidery on a pure white background.

“The Saint.”

Our team’s final healer, Saint Sirmiel Saint Eden.