Our first academic day was over.
It was brutal.
“Aghaa!” I groaned, collapsing onto my bed. “How am I supposed to survive a whole semester of this?!”
Whose brilliant idea was it to mix an academic setting into a fantasy story anyway?
For crying out loud, I was in a world with magic and monsters!
I should be embarking on life-changing adventures and going on quests to save the world, not attending school!
Fucking school!
“Arghh!” I whined again, teetering on the edge of tears. I hated school. Always had, even in my previous life.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t good at academics, though. I was actually a fairly decent student. But just because you excel at something doesn’t mean you enjoy it.
“Haaa,” I exhaled deeply. I had to move. There was no time to rest.
Now that our academic year had started, the first big event was going to happen soon.
In the game, every arc had some fixed events you couldn’t escape, no matter which storyline you took.
The scenarios leading up to those events were also unchangeable to a certain extent.
For example, canonically the first major fixed event in the game was Samael — who is me — coming in contact with the Summoning Card of Asmodeus, one of the nine Demon Princes.
That Card was a cursed treasure, just like the Sword of Xaldreth that Michael possessed.
Here’s how it went down — in the game, Samael challenged Michael to a duel during the freshmen party.
And, unsurprisingly, he lost.
Word of his defeat spread like wildfire throughout the Academy, and soon everyone — commoners and nobles alike — was laughing at him behind his back.
Samael, full of suppressed rage and seething with embarrassment, could do nothing but clench his teeth and bear the rumors.
He wanted to snap Michael’s neck, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew he wasn’t strong enough for that.
So, after continuously being mocked behind his back, one day Samael went to the Archives for a few hours, hoping to find some peace and quiet.
The Archives were the Academy’s library, rumored to contain more books than a person could read in three lifetimes.
At the beginning of the semester, not many Cadets visited that place, so Samael thought he’d be left alone there.
But instead, he found a strange Card in one of the reading room’s hidden compartments.
As soon as he touched it, a demon appeared in his vision, introducing himself as Asmodeus.
Asmodeus corrupted Samael’s judgment with empty promises of power, manipulating him into committing a massacre during a class trip to the Spirit Realm — which was another fixed event that happened near the end of the first arc.
Thankfully, I had avoided both of those scenarios.
I hadn’t challenged Michael to a duel, nor had I ventured into the Archives to stumble upon a cursed treasure.
“Though, I should probably go there.”
It would be reckless to leave the Summoning Card of a powerful demon like Asmodeus just lying around in the Archives.
I knew I should destroy it before someone else found it. But the odds of that happening were slim since cursed treasures were drawn to specific traits in people.
Take Xaldreth, for example. He was drawn to Michael’s wraith — his raw anger at a world he saw as unjust and cruel.
No one possessed such clear, unbridled rage as him at that moment. So, Xaldreth called to him.
In the same way, Asmodeus was drawn to Samael’s insatiable lust for power — his burning desire to prove his father wrong for abandoning him and choosing his sister over him.
Samael wanted enough strength to crush the world in his grasp. He wanted to stand above all.
But unlike Michael, he couldn’t control his emotions and ended up succumbing to Asmodeus’ corruption.
Far too easily, I might add.
So yeah, I doubted anyone in the Academy had enough unchecked ambition to pique Asmodeus’ interest.
But still!
Leaving that cursed Card there in the Archives would just be reckless.
I knew I should destroy it, but I couldn’t. Because I knew Asmodeus wasn’t just any demon.
He was a master of temptation. A whisperer of desires.
His suggestions alone were enough to corrupt anyone! Even those with the most resilient minds.
And me? I didn’t have any mental defenses against him. Not yet.
Also, I didn’t trust myself enough to resist his promises of power, strength, and revenge. I knew my weaknesses all too well.
I knew I would cave in.
So, for now, I had no choice but to deal with this matter later — when I had acquired some sort of proper mental protection.
For now, my focus had to be elsewhere.
Like the actual first event coming up in a few days — a team-building mission assignment.
Tomorrow, an Instructor would divide all the first-years into squads of five.
Then, they would put us to the test.
The team that was going to perform best according to their standards would be given their first mission as Hunters-in-training.
So what was the issue? The issue was named Michael.
See, I’d played the game, so I knew exactly what the test was going to be. But I also knew that the only team that stood any chance of winning was Michael’s.
In the game, he single-handedly led his team to victory.
No one, not even Thalia Kaizer Theosbane or Princess Alice Vic. Draken, had a hope.
So, I had to find a way to get into his squad.
I already had a plan for that. So there wasn’t going to be a problem.
But after all that, there was Juliana. I also needed to deal with her.
My plan was to use her to kill Rexerd and then tame her. But if I couldn’t pull that off, I’d have to just kill her.
I usually had more confidence in my plans and my ability to turn the odds in my favor, but this was Juliana we were talking about.
She was as unpredictable as they come.
I had no idea how that crazy wench would react when I’d confront her. So, I had to be prepared to eliminate her if it came down to that.
It would be unfortunate to lose a pawn as valuable as her, but it is as they say — better to cut off a finger now than lose a whole hand later.
“Haaa,” I sighed again. There was a lot of work to do.
Even though all I wanted was to sink into my soft bed and relax for the evening, I pushed myself to get up.
“Let’s start with getting into Michael’s squad,” I murmured to myself as I headed out of my dorm room.
But before I could even leave my bed, I heard a knock on my door.
I frowned. Who would be visiting me at this hour?
Juliana, perhaps?
To my surprise, when I went to open the door, it wasn’t someone who I expected waiting for me there.
In fact, I didn’t recognize this person at all.
It was a boy — about two heads shorter than me — wearing glasses that covered most of his face.
There was a faint blue tint to his eyes, and he shifted nervously from foot to foot.
“U-Um… can we talk?” he stammered.