The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 26

Isabel Luna.

She always smiles brightly, a person perfectly fitting the comparison to a sunflower.

Her energy is so bright that it brings a warm smile to those who see her.

However, recently, that smile has rapidly faded.

The reason is the death of her childhood friend, Lucas.

Sunflowers look toward the sun to gather nourishment.

Now that the sun has disappeared, she was left with nothing.

Isabel constantly recalls that day before falling asleep.

Originally, first-year students do not enter the Demonic Palace, but Isabel, along with Lucas, had been part of the special class.

Unlike regular first-year students, the special class is allowed to enter the Demonic Palace early, due to their outstanding abilities.

So naturally, Isabel was supposed to go as well.

But on the day before they were to enter the Demonic Palace, Isabel and Lucas had a small argument over something trivial.

The reason was that Isabel had caught a terrible cold.

Isabel insisted on going together despite being sick, but Lucas firmly refused.

In the end, Lucas left with his newly formed team, saying he’d bring her some tea that’s good for colds on the way back.

But Lucas never returned.

All that came back was the grim news that Lucas had been killed by an Apostle, with no body to recover.

He was her childhood friend, someone she had grown up with.

Their last memory together was of an argument.

Isabel felt empty, hollowed out.

A sunflower wilts when it loses the sun.

She stopped eating, drinking, and sleeping.

Isabel was slowly dying.

Then, one day, someone appeared before her.

A boy who had insulted her childhood friend Lucas in front of everyone.

It was an act Isabel could never forgive.

That boy’s name was Airei.

Consumed by rage, Isabel changed.

Even if it cost her life, she resolved that she would make him take back the insult to Lucas.

She became relentless.

She began eating, drinking, and sleeping again, spending her entire day in training.

To defeat him and to show just how remarkable Lucas had been, she started living again.

Hanon was an odd boy.

As if something had gone wrong from the start, he always looked down on her with sarcasm.

Many in the class disliked him for that, and some blindly criticized him.

But Hanon never batted an eye.

In fact, he would provoke them further, as if daring them to criticize him more.

At the same time, he would casually do things that amazed everyone, as if to prove his beliefs.

A lazy genius, he even defeated an entire group of martial artists when they were being serious, shocking everyone.

‘What on earth is this guy?’

He was impossible to figure out.

Maybe that’s why, lately, Isabel couldn’t stop thinking about Hanon.

“Isabel, are you okay? Are you tired?”

“Ah, sorry. Don’t worry. I’m fine.”

At that moment, Isabel was startled and answered the voice calling her from the front.

This was the Demonic Palace.

And here she was, lost in thought—completely unfocused.

“Ugh, I’m sorry. I made everyone suffer because of me.”

At that, a student from the Divine Studies department, who was being supported by Van from behind, spoke.

He was Geison, ranked 3rd in Divine Studies.

He had been struck by the Apostle’s curse, and his body was now too weak to move.

Normally, he could have purified himself using divine magic, but unfortunately, after an intense battle with the Apostle, he had exhausted all his divine power and was cursed.

Because of that, his recovery of strength to cast divine magic had slowed down.

So, instead of pushing themselves, Isabel’s team decided to return to the surface to help Geison recover, and they were now climbing back up the Demonic Palace.

“It’s fine. The opponent was tough. Honestly, it’s a relief that it ended like this.”

A male student from the Magic Studies department, part of Isabel’s team, consoled Geison.

As he said, the Apostle they had faced on the 3rd floor this time was much stronger than usual.

It was clear that this Apostle had been residing in the Demonic Palace for a much longer time.

If Van hadn’t joined them as a team member, they might not have been able to defeat the Apostle.

Boom!

“More importantly, why has it been so noisy above us for a while now?”

Mina, a Martial Arts student and Isabel’s friend who was leading the group, frowned.

They were climbing the stairs back to the first floor by now.

For some reason, today the upper floors were especially loud.

“Is someone fighting an Apostle?”

“Didn’t the seniors ahead of us pass through already? Could there still be Apostles left, other than the weaklings?”

The students whispered among themselves.

Isabel also glanced up the stairs, puzzled.

At that moment, Van suddenly raised his head sharply.

His eyes gleamed ominously.

“Everyone, be ready.”

Before anyone could understand his brief words,

BOOM!

A thunderous explosion shook the entire staircase.

Startled by the massive tremor, the students all lowered their stances.

For the shockwave to reach even the first-floor stairs, whatever was happening above was clearly a serious situation.

“Let’s hurry up.”

At Van’s urging, everyone rushed up the stairs.

When they finally reached the surface, what awaited them was a thick cloud of smoke.

“What on earth happened here?”

Mina waved her hand in disbelief as she spoke.

Shortly after, the smoke began to clear, revealing the Gray Forest.

The Gray Forest they saw was littered with signs of battle.

Massive roots were severed, the ground was trampled and turned into a gray wasteland, and scattered pieces of what appeared to be the Apostle’s corpse were strewn about.

It was a scene unrecognizable from the Gray Forest they had passed through before.

“This is strange. It’s not like the Gray Forest from before. The Apostle’s energy is thickly filling this place to a terrifying degree.”

Geison shrank back, clearly uneasy.

Even someone as devout as him, ranked 3rd in Divine Studies, was disturbed by the overwhelming presence of the Apostle’s energy here.

“Isabel.”

Just then, Van called out to Isabel.

He was pointing at something.

There, a woman with blue hair was carrying someone, running as fast as she could.

Her face was familiar from before.

It was Aisha Bizbell, a first-year student.

Isabel’s eyes widened in shock.

It made sense, as the person in Aisha’s arms was Hanon.

“H-Hanon?”

Isabel stammered in surprise, and everyone reacted.

“Hanon? You mean that trash?”

Isabel’s friend, Mina, frowned.

“Oh, the famous transfer student.”

A Magic Studies student expressed interest.

“Mina, you shouldn’t describe a fellow academy member that way.”

Geison scolded Mina.

At the very least, everyone knew Hanon’s name, showing how much attention his actions had drawn in such a short time.

“Let’s go.”

Van, the only one who remained calm, took the lead, heading toward Hanon.

Everyone followed Van’s lead and began walking in the same direction.

Slowly, the team on the first floor came into view.

The most shocked among them was Geison.

“L-Lord Sirmiel!?”

It was Saint Sirmiel of Saint Eden, a figure with a status nearly as high as the princess.

The other students were equally astonished.

The presence of a saint had a tremendous impact on the students.

However, Sirmiel didn’t look in their direction.

He was focused solely on healing Hanon in front of him, using divine magic.

Soon, everyone gasped at the sight of Hanon.

He was in a terrible state.

His skin was scorched in places, and he had burns all over. His left arm was completely twisted.

Anyone could tell that his injuries were severe.

“…Seron, what happened?”

Van asked Seron, who stood in shock.

Seron, startled, finally noticed Van and the others.

“Huh, Van? When did Isabel and Mina get here?”

She seemed so out of it that he hadn’t realized Isabel’s group had arrived.

“Seron, can you tell us what happened?”

Isabel asked again, and Seron scratched the back of her head awkwardly.

“Well, uh, an Apostle appeared on the first floor. You know how the Demonic Palace has that pattern where after ninety-nine similar terrains appear, a hundredth terrain shows up, and that’s when a dangerous Apostle appears?”

Seron rambled, but Isabel’s team, being smart and skilled, quickly understood.

The key point was that the Gray Forest had reached its hundredth appearance, and a far more dangerous Apostle appeared.

For some reason, Hanon knew about it, and he led everyone to face the Apostle and won.

That was the conclusion.

“Is that idiot serious? If he knew something like that, why didn’t he say anything and gather more people to fight?”

Mina reacted in disbelief after hearing the story.

But Geison disagreed with her.

“No, the Gray Forest remained unchanged until we descended to the second floor. There may be a specific trigger condition unique to the Gray Forest.”

It could be a condition where the Apostle doesn’t appear until the number of people decreases.

This type of condition had been seen in previous Demonic Palace raids.

Hanon must have known this and waited until all the teams had gone down to the second floor.

“And this is the Gray Forest we’re talking about. The more people there are, the harder the battle becomes.”

Geison pointed to the gray-tinted ground beneath them.

As he said, the more people there are, the harder it is to fight in the Gray Forest.

Whether they liked it or not, they had to fight the Apostle with a small group.

“S-Senior…”

At that moment, Poara, who had been pressing his lips together, spoke up.

“He intended to stay in the Gray Forest until something went wrong.”

Even if nothing happened during the hundredth Gray Forest raid,

Even if the Apostle’s trigger condition required everyone to leave,

He was prepared to handle that.

“He was ready to stay here until the very end to make sure no one would be unable to return because of the Apostle.”

By staying in that spot, Hanon ensured the safe return of the other students who had descended to lower floors.

This is an academy, after all.

Even what happens in the Demonic Palace contributes to a student’s achievements and benefits.

Zeryon Academy is a place where people gather, not just for the mission of protecting the world from the Demonic Palace,

But also to make a name for themselves in the world.

However, Hanon gave up all of that and willingly stayed on the first floor.

Only to make sure everyone else returned safely.

The Apostle that appeared was so dangerous that without Hanon’s guidance, the entire team might have been wiped out.

If any other team had stayed behind, they wouldn’t have been able to stop the Apostle.

They would have been wiped out, and then the exhausted students returning from fighting on the lower floors would have been massacred.

So Hanon, in that wretched state, threw himself into the fight against the Apostle and defeated it.

“He really looks like a burnt sweet potato… but I didn’t mean it to actually happen like this…,”

Seron muttered with a grim expression.

Everyone looked solemn.

Among them, Isabel stared blankly at Hanon.

In her mind, she kept hearing the words Hanon had said on his first day at the academy.

「I came here to make sure no more disgrace falls on the prestigious Zeryon Academy.」

He wanted to prevent any further disgrace from tarnishing Zeryon Academy’s name.

Isabel’s eyes widened in realization.

Now she understood.

It also meant ensuring that none of the students died and that they all returned safely.

As if to say, there would be no more deaths like Lucas’s.

‘That’s what he meant.’

Isabel’s clenched fists trembled.

She had spent all her time wasting away, completely broken by Lucas’s death.

But Hanon had trained himself, facing danger so that something like that would never happen again.

That fact made Isabel feel as though she were being pulled down into a deep abyss.

‘I lost.’

In so many ways, she had lost to him.

As she looked at Hanon, Isabel silently reflected on her own defeat.