It was déjà vu.
The protagonist fights and defeats a student from an authoritarian noble family.
The defeated student, consumed by uncontrollable rage, falls into the path of corruption.
Ayla followed the same procedure as Marcus, and her end would be just as tragic.
The only difference between them was their gender.
Other than that, I had thought there were none.
“You became a demon, didn’t you?”
“…Yeah.”
“You hated me that much? Enough to give up being human?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s seriously impressive. I’m not a big fan of saying things like this, but I have to ask—aren’t you even a little sorry to your parents?”
..?
“Judging by your silence, you do feel bad for your parents, huh.”
I didn’t stop mocking her.
There was no need to treat someone who sold their soul to evil out of revenge with kindness.
More than anything, I hated traitors even more than demons.
I didn’t want things to go differently from the original story, but since he came to me for revenge, I had no choice but to end it with my own hands.
“……I’m glad. I’m lucky to have run into you first.”
“Yeah, sure. You became a demon to get revenge on me, so it’d be a shame if we didn’t meet again later, right?”
“With your skills, I figured I could leave it to you.”
“…What?”
‘Leave what to me?’
From the start, it didn’t make sense for Ayla to entrust anything to me when I was glaring at her like this.
She might say something, but there’s no way I’d do her any favors.
“I hated you so much. So much that I wanted to kill you! I won’t deny that feeling.”
“Yeah, I bet.”
“I worked hard to get into Wellton Academy, and then you just waltzed in through a special admission. That annoyed me so much I lashed out…”
***
“And?”
“Your harsh words pissed me off, so I fought you in the heat of the moment. Do you know what happened next? I came here to pursue my dream, but I got summoned back home! They told me to stop bringing shame to the family and go get married in a political arrangement!”
“So that’s your tragic backstory for why you wanted to kill me?”
“Yeah.”
Even with her story, Ayla’s wrongdoing didn’t change.
For a while, I thought she might have been redeemable, but in the end, ‘a rag is still a rag—even after washing.’
There was no value in saving her.
Even if her story was truly heartbreaking, she had still tried to kill me.
Her sob story didn’t justify the damage she’d done to Azuki’s heart.
“You picked the wrong person to guilt-trip. Hearing stuff like that doesn’t make me feel bad—it just makes me want to beat you up even more.”
“Yeah, that’s enough.”
For a brief moment, her voice sounded relieved.
The corners of her mouth trembled as they curled up into a faint smile, and the breath she exhaled sounded like a sigh of relief.
Something felt off.
‘What was this sense of discomfort?’
Ayla had been a villainess from birth and should’ve been completely consumed by evil after becoming a demon.
But the more we talked, the more I found myself strangely reluctant to kill her.
I was starting to believe the illusion that even Ayla had a sliver of conscience left.
“Hey, let me ask you one thing.”
Ayla didn’t answer.
She pressed both hands to her face and began clawing at her cheeks and under her eyes.
It looked like she was trying to stay sane by inflicting pain on herself.
“If you can’t speak, just nod or shake your head instead.”
“I understand that you want to kill me. But what about the others? Do you want to kill them too? Like, say… Erin Muthertz—the one people call the next Hero.”
At the mention of Erin’s name, Ayla’s body flinched.
Demons, ever since their crushing defeat at the hands of the First Hero, were genetically predisposed to harbor hatred toward Heroes.
Naturally, Erin—being of Heroic blood—would feel like a sworn enemy to her, enough to stir murderous rage.
But Ayla was different.
She visibly trembled, forcing herself to suppress her instincts, and slowly shook her head.
“I see.”
There was a clear difference between Ayla and Marcus.
Marcus believed that revenge justified killing Heroes or civilians—he was selfish to the core.
Ayla, on the other hand, longed for revenge but didn’t want to drag in unrelated people.
She genuinely feared being overtaken by the demonic energy eating away at her mind and tried to resist it.
And when she saw me—someone who had once completely overpowered her—she must have felt relief.
She believed that I could stop the monster she had become.
“Okay, your answer just now helped me decide your fate.”
I grabbed the shovel I had brought just in case something like this happened.
Tapping the flat side of the shovel against my palm, I grinned like a maniac.
“From now on, I’m going to beat the hell out of you with this shovel. You tried to kill me, so you should at least take that much punishment, don’t you think?”
Eventually, I stopped what I was doing and wiped the smile off my face.
Ayla, who had kept her sanity until the very end, was finally consumed by the demonic energy.
“It’s going to hurt like hell, but I won’t kill you.”
And when it’s all over—maybe she’ll get to see the light again, as a human.
The source of the demonic energy that had infiltrated Ayla’s body was a succubus.
People usually imagine a succubus as a lewd demon who drains life force through sexual acts, but this world is different.
In this world, they’re simply demons who can absorb the vitality of others through magic, without the need for any carnal acts.
And despite their appearance, they possess terrifying brute strength and are quick thanks to the wings on their backs.
***
Kaaang!
I struck away Ayla’s sharp claws with my shovel and immediately slapped her cheek.
She was fast, but compared to Itshin’s sword strikes, she was still slow.
“Hah! Are you really thinking of not killing that girl?”
“Of course not.”
“What are you doing? Once someone becomes a demon, they can never return to being human!”
“Not even the Earth Mother can bring about such a miracle.”
“Foolish child! Death is the only salvation for people like her!”
“You’re wrong!”
The mentors urged me to kill her quickly, insisting that once a human turns into a demon, there’s no going back.
Their reason for trying to stop me was simple.
Until now, everyone believed that there was no way to reverse such a transformation.
But I knew of a future that would shatter that fixed belief.
“There is definitely a way to turn Ayla back into a human.”
“Tao.”
“Please believe in me. I’ll prove it, no matter what!”
Ayla flew at me again, throwing a punch.
I twisted my head to dodge the blow, but then her tail suddenly wrapped around my neck.
The succubus’s tail had absurd strength, and it lifted me high into the air.
She dragged me through the air and then flew high up before releasing me.
“I’m sick of experiencing falls from high places, damn it!”
This wasn’t just training—it was real combat.
I stirred the wind and landed safely without injury.
Meanwhile, Ayla, who had been falling vertically, pulled off an acrobatic move and twisted her path right before hitting the ground.
Now flying low with added speed, she came at me with another clenched fist.
“Tch! How brute-minded!”
At this rate, my shovel wouldn’t last.
I reinforced its durability with layered magic.
Then I blocked Ayla’s punch at the perfect moment.
“”Grrgh…!””
KWAANG!
Her fist, now heavier than before, slammed into my shovel and pushed me backward.
Even though I blocked it with all my strength, I was still shoved all the way to the wall of the academy’s main building.
I barely managed to stop before hitting the wall and immediately kicked Ayla in the abdomen, sending her flying.
“Over here!”
“What in the world is this commotion… huh?!”
“How could this happen?!”
The loud ruckus inevitably drew a crowd.
Several students and professors from the dueling hall came rushing out.
All of them were rendered speechless upon seeing Ayla, now transformed into a demon.
“Master!”
“”You’ve finally shown yourself.””
There was a reason I’d made such a big noise.
Among the people who came out, there was someone who could help me—Erin.
As soon as Ayla saw Erin, she convulsed and changed her target.
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
I grabbed her tail just as she tried to bypass me and rush at Erin.
Using all my strength, I yanked her back and slammed her into the outer wall.
“I’ll join the fight as well!”
“No, don’t!”
“Master…?”
I quickly stopped Erin from joining in.
Normally, I would’ve welcomed her help, but the situation was different now.
My goal wasn’t to annihilate Ayla—but to save her.
No one but me could be allowed to fight her.
“What do you think you’re doing?! A demon has appeared, and instead of joining forces to kill it, you’re yelling at someone to stay out of it?!”
“There are circumstances I can’t explain. But I can handle her alone, so please, just stand back and watch.”
I put authority into my voice and pressured them with a commanding tone.
Then I asked the spirit of wind to deliver a prepared message to Erin.
The materials needed to turn Ayla back into a human.
I asked her to gather them while I held Ayla off.
I glanced at Erin.
She gave a firm nod and ran into the academy building.
She would now be scouring the main building and the forested hill behind it to collect the materials.
Meanwhile, I had to subdue Ayla without killing her.
That meant I had to protect her.
“”Haaah…! Pathetic nonsense!””
Kaaang!
I deflected an ice spear flying toward Ayla from behind with my shovel.
The shattered ice scattered into the air like sleet.
“Are you out of your mind?! What you’ve just done is an act of treason, aiding a demon!”
“I should be asking you! Didn’t I say to stay out of it and just watch?”
“It is our duty to protect the students by slaying demons the moment they appear! We can’t just stand idly by!”
“The girl who turned into a demon is still a student of Wellton.”
“Are you serious? The moment she became a demon, she ceased being a student! She betrayed humanity and is now just a target for annihilation!”
‘…Fine.’
I had anticipated this from the moment the crowd began gathering.
Erin might understand, but the others wouldn’t listen to the pleas of someone like me—a mere gravekeeper.
So I scraped the shovel against the ground and drew a long line.
“From this moment on, anyone who crosses this line or casts magic beyond it will be treated as an enemy.”
I gave them fair warning.
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