I Killed the Game’s Heroine

Chapter 6

Arc 01: Today, I killed one of the main characters in the game. Or maybe it was yesterday.

***

Humans are truly strange creatures. Nokra mumbled to herself.

She thought she understood humans, but then someone would appear who was completely beyond her understanding, as if to deny her assumptions.

There were too many exceptions to consider, and sometimes even those exceptions would be surpassed by others.

Was it because her essence was something beyond human? But even humans couldn’t fully understand each other.

In fact, most of the time, they couldn’t even understand themselves.

Maybe that’s why she liked humans. They always created unexpected variables. These variables appeared in so many different forms that Nokra found humans fascinating.

Especially children, whose peculiar traits were even more pronounced, might have been her favorites.

Nokra glanced at the boy sitting beside her, devouring his soup as if he hadn’t eaten in days. The thought crossed her mind for no reason at all.

Her lips curled up into a smile. She was in a good mood. Nokra couldn’t hide her delight at the sight of the boy, who reaffirmed that her choice had not been wrong.

This boy was truly remarkable. Undoubtedly, he had lived a painful life. He had been cast to the very bottom, unacknowledged by the world. Yet, he had not been consumed by the curse.

The fact that she had witnessed the danger surrounding a student she had been concerned about recently—well, it had been a coincidence.

Although she was concerned about the boy in front of her, she had a job to do. She belonged to a search team, but her main role was that of a teacher, and she had students to teach.

Therefore, she couldn’t follow the boy around every day. When she had work to do, she asked others to keep an eye on him.

After checking in on him, she would casually strike up a conversation with the boy, showing her face from time to time. That had been her routine lately.

Today, after finishing her usual work, she had heard from the person she had assigned as the lookout where the boy was, and she had rushed over in surprise.

Just before reaching her destination, Nokra spotted a student wearing the academy uniform.

It was none other than the student she had been paying close attention to lately, the one who had caused the boy to cross her path.

Nokra had been so surprised that she might as well have had a question mark floating above her head. Why was that kid here?

It wasn’t uncommon for exorcists to be short-staffed, and even students were often assigned exorcism missions. But the problem was the location.

The place where the boy and the student had met was a construction site, where the virtual malevolent spirit ‘Mr. Cuckoo,’ classified as B-grade, had recently caused harm to several women.

To be precise, it was an eerie, abandoned area where redevelopment had been halted, leaving only empty buildings.

Had the student gone there alone, without any companions? Nokra felt her brows furrow as she watched the two children.

One child had claimed that even a spirit could be understood through conversation and had successfully proven her words to be true.

The other child, who possessed great talent, had barely survived the harshest conditions of the world and was now suspected of having killed a spirit.

Of course, Nokra didn’t believe that Yeong Hyeong was truly dead.

It wasn’t that she lacked faith in her student, but rather that the notion defied common sense.

If she didn’t believe in the boy, she wouldn’t have sought him out, nor would she have taken precautions in case something went wrong.

To put it in perspective—it was like hearing someone you trust suddenly claim that the Earth wasn’t round but flat.

Wouldn’t it be natural to worry about their mental state or suspect they had taken some strange drug before questioning their belief?

The idea that a spirit had been killed was that absurd.

But putting that aside, Nokra had been paying more attention to her troubled student ever since the report of Yeong Hyeong’s death had come in.

The child, who had befriended that prickly spirit, hadn’t confided in anyone about her worries. Like a child who hadn’t fully matured, she kept her concerns locked inside, unable to resolve them, and wandered aimlessly.

It was a common phase for students to go through as they grew. But when it came to exorcists, who possessed the unique power of spirit energy, it was something that required even more caution.

Children with power often had narrow perspectives, simply because they didn’t know any better.

It wasn’t uncommon for them to become fixated on one idea and cross a point of no return. But the fact that it was common made it all the more tragic.

That’s why, even if the child made mistakes, Nokra, as an adult, had to help. She had followed them in secret, and that’s when she saw the boy and her student meet.

It wasn’t some fateful encounter like in a movie or novel, where a brush of their sleeves would lead to destiny.

Rather, it was an encounter that reeked of blood and death. But they were still children, so it couldn’t be helped.

Nokra’s student was exceptionally talented, had formed a bond with a spirit, and possessed more power than other students. But even so, she was in danger.

Virtual malevolent spirits, which only appeared when certain conditions were met, were powerful precisely because of their restrictions.

Mr. Cuckoo, who could only attack women who turned back upon hearing his cuckoo call, had power that exceeded that of the average B-grade spirit due to this limitation.

Another characteristic of virtual malevolent spirits was that they only appeared when their conditions were met, making them one step ahead of exorcists, no matter how prepared the exorcists were.

With a single strike, they could take a life, which was always a risk for exorcists.

Facing a virtual malevolent spirit without proper preparation was akin to a suicide attempt, no matter how talented or blessed one might be.

It was a common sight among exorcist students who hadn’t been at the academy for long.

The danger of virtual malevolent spirits with ‘restrictions’ lay in the overwhelming and shocking power they unleashed when their conditions were met, something the students didn’t fully understand.

The harder it was to meet the conditions, and the easier it was for the target to avoid them, the stronger the virtual malevolent spirit became.

In that sense, when Nokra’s student boldly headed to the construction site alone, where Mr. Cuckoo was likely to appear, it was as if she was running headfirst into certain defeat and death.

Nokra would have rescued her, but if the boy hadn’t shown up, the student would have at least been seriously injured.

And that encounter—well, it ended. The two parted ways without exchanging a single word.

Unlike exorcists who met by chance in the field and helped each other, these two—no, the boy—left without a word.

The student seemed to have something to say, but the boy ignored her completely.

It was cold, but considering the boy’s circumstances, wasn’t that to be expected?

Afterward, Nokra comforted her wandering, regretful student, doing her duty as a teacher.

She scolded her for entering a dangerous area without permission and then hurriedly chased after the boy.

She found him at the office of a businessman suspected of illegal activities, including connections with the illegal exorcism market.

The boy and the businessman appeared to be talking in the basement of the building.

But Nokra’s sight wasn’t blocked by mere concrete walls, so she could see everything that was happening inside.

Even though she couldn’t hear the conversation, just watching was enough. Nokra saw the businessman pressuring the boy with the help of some illegal exorcists and decided she couldn’t just stand by any longer.

From that scene alone, she understood why the boy had gone to the dangerous site where Mr. Cuckoo appeared.

Those bastards had lured the boy, who seemed to possess some spirit power, into the trap, hoping to see what would happen, all because they didn’t want to spend money hiring a proper exorcist.

Fortunately, because the boy was male, Mr. Cuckoo didn’t appear. But her student had shown up at the scene, and Mr. Cuckoo had emerged.

If any other variables had been present, both her student and the boy could have been in serious danger.

The businessman’s actions were so reckless that any exorcist who saw them would have grabbed their head in frustration.

Although virtual malevolent spirits and regular malevolent spirits were classified differently, they shared one common trait: the more people they killed, the stronger they became.

In particular, if they killed a human with spirit power, the situation became even worse.

If a malevolent spirit killed a child with spirit power who didn’t know how to fight, a D-grade spirit could instantly become a C-grade spirit.

Only those with spirit power could exorcise malevolent spirits, but if someone with spirit power was killed, the spirit would grow even stronger.

If Mr. Cuckoo, a B-grade virtual malevolent spirit who had already claimed many victims, had killed a boy with spirit power…

The worst-case scenario. An A-grade malevolent spirit, visible even to ordinary people, could have been born, causing a disaster.

Nokra, furious, moved with the intent to personally throw the businessman and the illegal exorcists into prison.

But when she saw the boy, she couldn’t wait for him to leave and rushed in, breaking through the floor.

The boy stood there with a cold expression, holding a sword.

And those eyes.

The boy’s eyes were the most dangerous she had ever seen. They were the eyes of someone who could kill without hesitation.

In a panic, Nokra rushed to stop the boy from committing murder. She accidentally gave him a large bump on his head in the process.

Feeling guilty, she brought the boy to a restaurant to apologize and talk things through, but she had been genuinely worried the entire time.

The boy’s life wasn’t something she could judge by her own values or perceptions. Killing to survive must have been a given for him.

The morals, laws, and values of this country might deny such things and shout at children that such situations could never happen.

But just because you couldn’t see it didn’t mean it didn’t exist.

That’s why she was troubled. How could she untangle the cruel beliefs that bound this boy and lead him to a place where light could reach him?

Bringing him to the academy would be the easiest way for her to help him and provide him with various resources. But the boy didn’t want that.

Forcing him to go? That would be foolish.

The boy Nokra had observed knew the benefits of joining the academy, yet he deliberately refused. If she tried to force him, their relationship would be severed entirely.

So, what she decided was to meet him outside the academy, like this, and teach him about spirit power while providing him with various things.

This was the only way she could help without crossing the line the boy had drawn.

But there was one thing that worried her. The boy’s state of mind.

No matter how different his surroundings were, someone who could kill easily was bound to be broken.

Especially someone like the boy, who had the power to kill. That made it even more dangerous. That’s why Nokra found it hard to speak.

She believed that those who killed should be punished. But if the world this boy lived in had forced that situation upon him, could she really blame him?

Could she, as a teacher, teach this boy what he needed to know?

Where should she start? What should she say to reach out to him? As she continued to ponder, Nokra slowly opened her mouth, as if breaking a dam.

“Ah~. That’s a relief~. Honestly, if you had said you didn’t need this either, I wouldn’t have known what to do. But… hey, kid. Before I tell you anything, there’s something I really need to ask.”

“…What is it?”

“Back there, before I arrived. Were you planning to kill those illegal exorcists and the businessman who threatened you?”

“? Do you think I’m some kind of butcher?”

But to Nokra’s surprise, the boy answered. He said he hadn’t killed anyone.

There wasn’t a hint of hesitation or deceit in his eyes. In fact, he seemed to be blaming her for even asking such a question.

Nokra was genuinely shocked, feeling as if her words had been caught in her throat.

The boy was truly sincere. He believed that killing people was wrong and something that shouldn’t be done.

“Just because someone’s a bad guy, does that mean you go around stabbing them? What, do you teach that at the academy? That’s insane!”

“Eh. Ah, no, that’s not it…”

The fact that a child who had lived through the worst of life could say such things was nothing short of a miracle.

The environment had the greatest influence on shaping a person’s values. Family, friends, the atmosphere around them—all of it.

The environment that had shaped this boy certainly didn’t have any positive influences, yet here he was, saying such things.

Had someone in his past taken care of him and taught him the basics of being human? Perhaps. That was likely.

But even if someone had taught him, the fact that he had held onto those teachings while surviving on the cold streets was nothing short of a miracle.

Once again, Nokra mumbled to herself. Humans were truly strange creatures.

So many different kinds of people. Among them, children could become anything, which is why Nokra saw them as treasures.

It was undeniable that she had been influenced by the nature of the ‘things’ that had brought her into existence.

But seeing a miraculous child like this made her believe once again that her choices had been the right ones.

At the same time, however, she wondered.

Her student had claimed that this boy had killed Yeong Hyeong.

So, what could have driven this child, who so adamantly believed that killing was wrong, to commit murder?

Was it because spirits weren’t human? That wasn’t entirely wrong. But if that wasn’t the case—

Nokra blinked slowly as she watched the boy happily devour the pork belly in front of him.

End of Chapter