#38
It was a painting that hung in the temple I had visited with Persis. The sword the demon in the painting was holding looked exactly like the original form of the sword in my room.
“Look at the demon depicted here. Tell me what’s different from humans. Just from the physical appearance.”
I looked at the demon confronting the Duke. I couldn’t confirm the exact appearance since the face was covered by long hair, but I could see how the rest of the body was shaped. Looking at it this way, I couldn’t tell what was different from the Duke standing directly opposite.
When no one answered, Yaksi spoke again.
“Nothing. Just looking at this, they’re exactly like humans. If they kept their mouths shut, you’d think they were human, right? According to documents, they can even communicate with humans. Their physical structure is similar too. So why did they come to be called ‘demons,’ opposing humans? You don’t know? This is your assignment. Find out why they began to be called demons and present it within one page. That’s all.”
After finishing her words, Yaksi left the classroom without looking back. As soon as she disappeared, the writing and images floating above the blackboard vanished, as if shattering in mid-air. The students, who had received an assignment from the very first class, each made a comment about how they hadn’t expected this as soon as Yaksi disappeared.
Certainly, a premonition washed over me that I couldn’t take this class casually from the first session. I had planned to attend just this session and then change, so I wanted to think it wasn’t relevant to me. However, everything Yaksi said was too intriguing to cancel the class now.
I really wanted to know what she thought was the difference between humans and demons. I leaned my arms on the desk and covered my forehead with my hands. From what I saw today, she didn’t seem particularly hostile toward me. Should I take the class for just one semester, keeping a low profile?
While I was contemplating, students left the classroom one by one. I too needed to move for the next class. Just as I made up my mind and was about to pack my things, my eyes met with Persis, who was still sitting beside me. I hadn’t expected him to still be in the classroom.
Involuntarily, I flinched and moved slightly away from him. As I did, the atmosphere emanating from Persis grew increasingly hostile.
Just as I was about to open my lips to say something, Persis stood up and left the classroom without a word. I couldn’t grasp why Persis was acting this way. Thinking that this world was truly full of unknowns, I gathered my belongings.
When I went outside, the corridor was bustling with students moving for the next class. The next was a common class. As I was turning my steps toward the classroom where the class would be held, a loud sound made me stop.
“Ah, disgusting.”
The voice wasn’t familiar, but I knew that line from hearing it many times. It was the line announcing the start of one of the main events in the game.
This is a scene commonly found in works with a class-based society as a background. Someone of higher class tramples on someone else, harming their dignity. It was a minor incident but one of the events that showed the worldview of this game and Iria’s character.
It was a common scene that could appear in any work.
The ones appearing in this event were Rikin and Yutis. Iria, who steps in to stop a noble bullying a commoner, almost reveals her identity by mistake. Fortunately, thanks to Rikin’s intervention, she’s able to move on without revealing everything. Yutis observes the series of events from a step away.
Andelion doesn’t appear in this scene. So originally, I shouldn’t have heard that voice. That’s how it should have been, but…
The noble coldly glaring at the frail boy collapsed on the floor was a familiar face. I had seen him often because, despite being an extra, he had an illustration. Seeing him in person, he was more handsome than I thought. Of course, he couldn’t compare to our Persis.
“Ha, not even grateful for the favor of letting you attend here. Can’t you handle even one simple task properly? Filthy, lowly creature.”
Each word was a dagger piercing into the heart of the fallen boy. Enduring those knife-like words, the boy slowly got up from his spot. Then the noble, who had been watching silently, pushed the boy’s shoulder, making him fall again.
“Say something. If you did wrong, say you did wrong. Say you’re sorry for bothering me. You have to speak. Did I ask much of you? I just told you to bring a glass of water. But you don’t like that? You don’t want to do it?”
I thought he had a remarkable personality just from reading about him, but this was beyond imagination. There was a real difference between seeing with your eyes and hearing directly with your ears.
Now it was about time for Iria to appear. While I was holding my breath waiting for Iria, she didn’t appear no matter how long I waited. I quickly looked around. I scanned through the students who were watching without intervening, but Iria was nowhere to be found.
No way, that’s impossible. Has it come to the point where the protagonist doesn’t even appear in a main event? No matter how much has changed from the original, isn’t this too much? The butterfly effect came to mind—how a butterfly’s wing movement causes a tornado on the opposite side of the earth.
What could have become the variable? Did accumulated differences lead to this change? Overcome by a gloomy feeling, I closed my eyes tightly and then opened them.
“I said, say something.”
The haughty voice irritated me. Despite his refined appearance, his nature was thoroughly twisted. The students gathered around either ignored the two or just watched silently.
For them, this kind of thing was commonplace. It was a scene you could commonly see just by going out on the street.
Iria should appear at exactly this timing… but she seemed to be attending a class in another building, as she showed no sign of appearing no matter how long I waited.
This was becoming too different from the game I knew. If things flowed as I knew, we could see the ending I hoped for. But at this rate, it seemed impossible.
Then there was only one way. If the main event doesn’t proceed, I need to induce a similar incident. The important aspects of this main event were: a noble bullying a commoner, Iria stopping it and getting to know Rikin, and imprinting on Yutis what kind of person Iria is.
The noble, still not satisfied, was seen physically abusing the boy who was on the ground. I turned away, pretending not to see. I couldn’t stop that noble now. The noble had to bully the boy once more in front of Iria. The boy would suffer twice, but it couldn’t be helped.
There was nothing I could do. I’m not Iria. I didn’t have the confidence to resolve that situation as well as Iria, and I didn’t want the situation to change again by my intervention. So I decided to turn away, hoping for a later opportunity. That was the best response I could make right now.
Just as I was about to move away without even giving them a glance, I heard the boy’s small, mumbling voice.
“Help me.”
It wasn’t a mutter hoping for someone to hear. It was just an unconscious utterance that burst out of his mouth. I exhaled deeply.
I recalled my previous life, when I was too busy with tasks to look around. I had no thought of helping others, nor did I receive help from others. I was so pushed to the edge that I didn’t even have time for that.
I don’t regret my past actions, but there were times when I thought things might have been a bit different if I could have looked around just a little more. If someone had helped me even once. If I had reached out to someone even once. I wouldn’t have lived so driven by my own affairs.
But what was I so driven by? Who hadn’t helped me? Suddenly, everything seemed like it was in a fog, and I couldn’t remember properly. Just as I was about to be troubled by my hazy mind, the noble noticed me and spoke in a curt voice.
“What?”
I was somehow standing looking at the noble with the fallen boy behind me. The noble, who had been looking at me silently, recognized who I was and snorted. If he were someone who valued rank, he would have bowed his head as soon as he recognized me, but he didn’t.
He couldn’t help it because I was famous as the virtually disowned son of the Duke’s family.
Andelion in the original story was like that too. A dullard whose identity as the brilliant Duke’s son was unbelievable. He was slower than his peers and couldn’t properly assert his own opinions. So he was always prone to being disregarded.
The current me, though not as much as the original Andelion, was still someone this noble could disregard. To the world, I was known as a young master who, after a sudden high fever during my genius childhood, had become a complete fool who couldn’t take a single step outside the mansion. The first time I showed my face was at the entrance ceremony.
Since I hadn’t properly started school life yet, it was easy to guess what the perception of me would be.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
