I Realized It Was an Academy Game After 10 Years

“Hey, Renny. Do you know who this is?”

“I don’t really know either. It’s my first time seeing them.”

Are they a student who just happened to end up here? I looked down at the fainted female student.

Purple hair. Pale skin. Small build.

Definitely not a heroine. As far as I remember, there hasn’t been a purple-haired heroine. Maybe I’m just not remembering… but for now, I can’t recall anything. Based on my experiences so far, I usually get a rough idea when I hear a name or see a face.

But what’s this unsettling feeling?

“Hey, just pick her up. There must be a place to lay her down in this building. Let’s ask the professor.”

Right. She’s a patient, so I need to lay her down.

I carefully lifted the ammonia-smelling female student, just like Renny suggested. She’s light… and her hands are damp. Supporting her wet backside with my hand felt a bit weird.

“Even though you look a bit intimidating, you shouldn’t faint like this… You’re really the biggest coward there is.”

That’s something I couldn’t disagree with. I do have a slightly ugly scar on my face, but isn’t it a bit harsh to treat me like a monster? Karina, Renny, and Millia didn’t say anything about my face. Objectively, I might look a bit scary, but I don’t think I have a truly ugly face.

Did I show my feelings on my face? A hand rested on my shoulder. It was Renny, of course. She lightly tapped my shoulder and said,

“Don’t be so sad. Out of all the guys I’ve met, you’re the best… so far.”

Seeing her stutter, is she embarrassed? I didn’t know she was this shy.

“…Thank you.”

“Um, no worries.”

The corridor fell silent in an instant. The only sounds were our shoes tapping on the floor. The awkward atmosphere created by Renny and me lingered until we knocked on the research facility door.

“Professor Lennon! We’re here!”

“Come in!”

As Renny opened the door, the research facility I had seen about two weeks ago came into view. It didn’t look much different from last time, but a box placed in one corner caught my eye, standing out under the bright lights.

“Looks like we have one more guest today.”

“Ah, yes. She’s my junior now.”

“Oh, a junior… must be nice.”

“Is there a place to lay her down?”

At my question, Professor Lennon shifted his gaze reluctantly to the fainted female student in my arms and sighed. His reaction seemed to indicate he recognized her. It’s hard to believe that someone coming in and out of this building wouldn’t know each other.

“A person? Huh… Elisa? She fainted again, huh?”

Again? It’s not her first time fainting? I looked at Professor Lennon with a puzzled expression, and he provided the answer I wanted to hear.

“She’s my student. She’s generally weak, so she faints often. At least this time she was lucky. Last time, she was left unattended for nearly half a day and caught the flu. Poor thing.”

Professor Lennon stared at Elisa in my arms with a complex expression. I may not have met that many people, but I could tell his feelings were a mix of emotions.

“The room at the end of the corridor to the right of this research facility is hers. Take her there and change her clothes, too…”

“Johann, hand her over to me.”

“I’ll go with you.”

Don’t leave me alone here feeling awkward! But Renny ignored my desperate gaze and left the research facility alone.

“There’s a chair over there, so sit.”

“…Before that, is there somewhere I can wash my hands?”

“There’s a sink over there.”

I quickly walked to the sink and scrubbed my hands vigorously with soap that smelled like cucumbers. Now the unpleasant feeling is gone. Where’s the chair?

Ah, is that it?

I pulled the chair over and sat down in a suitable spot. Professor Lennon had shifted his focus away from me and was opening the box containing the cursed item we had brought in, resuming his work. Seeing his complete disinterest in me made it seem like I wasn’t of much concern to him. I quietly crossed my arms and leaned back, staring blankly at the ceiling.

Witch.

A witch.

The entrance ceremony, the Hell Hound incident, and the demon summoning episode.

What was the next episode again? I remember quite a few, but recalling the exact order was tough. Including the main story and sub-stories, it’s a game that takes nearly 80 hours to see the ending. Naturally, the number of main quests is high.

The reason I could recall the demon summoning episode so easily is that it was quite an impactful story.

It was an episode featuring the first real bad ending branching out in this game.

The Hell Hound incident, although it had a bad ending, was close to a tutorial in difficulty, so unless you were a complete beginner, it was hard to see the bad ending. In fact, the achievement completion rate for team X reached about 78%, which means a lot of people cleared it.

However, the demon summoning episode had a difficulty level that skyrocketed to 50%, making it far tougher than the previous episode.

Stronger monsters, annoying gimmicks, and even time limits. It was full of elements that made clearing a hassle.

So, while it was notorious among newbies, that was really from the newbies’ perspective. For veterans like me, I remembered all the information about that episode… Uh… I actually don’t seem to remember much?

If I recall correctly, the plot involved discovering traces of a bizarre ritual on campus, several students going missing, and ultimately a student becoming the medium for summoning a demon. The term “witch” referred to a student possessed by that demon.

…If she weren’t wearing a school uniform, it would be hard to even guess her gender given the state she was twisted into.

Thus began the episode where, if the protagonist and their companions killed the “witch,” Karina would mourn the victims, leading to a pretty unsettling conclusion. Known for being bittersweet and unpleasant, this episode had a reputation for dividing opinions.

At one point, veterans seriously dug into the backstory of that episode.

But even veterans couldn’t discover who the victim that turned into a witch was.

There was shockingly little information, as if someone had actively erased it.

The only information the veterans managed to uncover was that the student who became the witch had poor social relations and was genuinely a being with “witch’s blood.”

…But I have to find that witch first and get close to her?

“…Such an absurd quest.”

Couldn’t we get some clearer hints? Why do you want to turn my life from hellish difficulty to hellfire difficulty?

A decade of hardship should be enough.

Life, damn it…

“Hey there.”

“…Are you talking to me?”

“Who else could it be here?”

“…That’s true.”

Why did he suddenly speak to me in the middle of his work? Was my mumbling bothering him? When I looked at Professor Lennon in confusion, he cleaned his glasses with a cloth and asked me,

“Do you know about curses?”

“I don’t.”

“A curse is a strong aggregation of hatred. You can only cast a curse if you truly hate someone. Thus, to use a curse, you must also be consumed by the curse of hatred.”

Hatred… huh.

Well, if someone wasn’t that obsessed, they wouldn’t even think about casting a curse.

But why is he telling me this?

Did my face show my confusion or something? Professor Lennon kindly explained why he brought it up.

“It’s a topic a knight should know. It’s also just casual chit-chat to take a break.”

What a casual topic for a professor.

“Is that so.”

“Returning to the topic… Because hatred is used as the fuel for curses, they have been taboo for a very long time. If someone emerged using a curse, it was common to immediately take their head. That’s why those who cast curses have hidden in the shadows. The leadership of Kalon Church wanted to eliminate curses from this world entirely but failed every time.

They were as persistent as weeds. As for how they survived, it dates back hundreds of years…”

Was I more thirsty for conversation than I thought? Professor Lennon’s lecture about curses kept going, and a flood of information jammed my ears, making it hard to think straight. At this rate, it might be easier to fight Hydra again.

Renny… come back quickly. This is a crisis. I can’t escape alone!

In the end, it was our brown-haired, tanned knight, Renny, who saved me from the crisis. When she opened the door, she looked at me and the professor with a face full of confusion.

“Professor. I’m back. But why do you look like that?”

“…Just had a headache from a class I haven’t heard in a while.”

“Ah…”

Renny nodded as if she understood my feelings. It seemed she had suffered through one of the professor’s random lectures as well. Well, he wouldn’t just do this to me.

“Is Elisa all right?”

“She just fainted, so I washed her up and changed her clothes.”

“Thank you. As a guy, I find it really awkward when something like this happens…”

That’s true, it is pretty uncomfortable.

“…I want to see Lady Karina soon.”

“I understand. Follow me.”

We followed Professor Lennon through a door in the corner of the research facility. The faint smell of chemicals indicated it was a room used as a hospital. I spotted Karina lying on a bed in the corner after what felt like a long time.

She looked just like a sleeping princess in the woods.

…When will she wake up?

If Karina doesn’t wake up, everything will fall apart.

“Lady Karina…”

At some point, Renny was holding Karina’s hand, carefully caressing the back of it.

“I’ve removed most of the curses, and now only the core of the curse remains. It’s rooted in her heart, so it’s delayed… But I swear on my honor that I will remove the curse that’s consuming the saint.”

Professor Lennon’s voice echoed from behind.

The heaviest statement I’d heard today.

Thoughts about the witch and Karina swirled in my head, making me dizzy, and I could only nod in response.

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