“Kudangtang!!”
It felt like I rolled down about four or five flights.
“Gaaaah…”
The pain exploded throughout my body—the price of tumbling down an entire staircase without any proper falling technique.
As I groaned in agony, the person who had brought me underground approached and spoke.
“You don’t need to worry here. Those things won’t come down.”
“W-Who are you?! Stay back!”
“Calm down. I’m not one of those monsters. I’m just a normal person.”
“You expect me to believe that?!”
“It’s the truth. If I were really allied with those creatures, why would I bother bringing you down here? I could’ve just finished you off upstairs in one swipe.”
“…”
Fair point. Her reasoning was sound, and I finally calmed down enough to look at her properly.
She was a female student wearing an academy uniform, with long black hair that reached her lower back.
Her striking appearance was definitely familiar.
Soon, I remembered where I’d seen her before.
“You’re… no, you’re Elaine from Class 1-A, right? Ahem, my apologies. I must’ve hit my head while rolling down the stairs—I was a bit disoriented.”
She was the student I’d met on my real first day—the one trying to climb over the wall.
I hadn’t seen her since then and had completely forgotten about her.
Who would’ve thought we’d meet again like this?
“Technically, you did roll down the stairs, but you didn’t hit your head…”
“Anyway. Where exactly are we, Elaine?”
Ignoring her correction, I changed the subject and glanced around.
The surroundings were completely different from the academy I’d just been in—more like a cave.
Had I suddenly teleported somewhere?
“This is the academy’s underground.”
“Oh, I see… Wait, what? The academy has an underground? As far as I know, the First Main Building doesn’t have anything like this.”
If it had existed, I would’ve escaped down here the moment those grotesque humans surrounded me.
The academy had an underground cave all along?
No, more importantly—how had I missed something this massive? I’d scoured this building multiple times over the past few days.
Elaine shrugged, as if she didn’t know the details either.
“From what I know, it shouldn’t exist either. But what can we do? It’s here, and we’re standing in it.”
“…Well, I guess this academy already has more than its fair share of impossibilities.”
At this point, I was too exhausted to be surprised.
Fine. So there’s an underground cave. What about it?
Compared to the grotesque humans hiding in the school or the endlessly repeating days, a secret underground space was downright realistic.
“Let’s set aside the issue of this underground area for now. What I really want to ask is about you, Elaine. Do you know anything about… this situation?”
“Not really. If I did, I wouldn’t be hiding in this dingy cave. Actually, I wanted to ask you—how did you regain your senses?”
“How? I don’t really have an explanation. I just started feeling something was off a few days ago, and it kept getting worse until I suddenly snapped out of it. When I did, I remembered everything from the past few days.”
“A sense of dissonance, huh… So that’s another possibility.”
“Does that mean your case was different?”
“Yes. This is just a guess, but in my case, it was probably because of my Gift.”
“Gift?”
“Right. My Gift is ‘Strong Mental Fortitude.’ Normally, it just lets me stay awake longer to study, but I never expected it to keep me sane in a situation like this. Because of it, I didn’t experience any sense of dissonance, nor do I have any memories of the repeating days.”
“So you were lucid from the start.”
“Probably. I can’t say for sure.”
After that, Elaine and I exchanged the information we had.
Though, to call it an exchange would be generous—since I’d only just regained my senses today, I had almost nothing to contribute and mostly just listened to her explanations.
By the end, I’d learned a few key things.
First, about the time loop.
The day resets exactly at midnight, rewinding back to the morning—specifically, about 30 minutes before first period, during morning assembly.
The actual looping span is about 15 and a half hours, shorter than a full day.
That would be around the time I was introducing myself, huh?
And no matter how far you run, once the day resets, you’re pulled back to the academy during morning assembly.
Not exactly surprising.
If escaping this bizarre phenomenon were as simple as running away, that would’ve been the real shocker.
Second, about the grotesque humans.
They try to act like normal humans—at least, until they realize they’ve been exposed.
Honestly, calling their behavior normal was a stretch, but considering even I hadn’t noticed how bizarre they were until I regained my senses, Elaine said ordinary people wouldn’t suspect a thing.
However, on the contrary, if they sense that their true identity has been exposed, they will disregard their surroundings—just as I experienced—and attempt to eliminate any witnesses by any means necessary.
The next piece of news was the most fortunate for me.
The grotesque humans, like ordinary people, lose all memories of the previous day when the loop resets at dawn and resume their mimicry of humanity.
This was welcome news for me, as I had been agonizing over how to escape when the loop restarted the next day.
And finally, the number of grotesque humans was gradually increasing with each repetition of the loop.
It was impossible to determine the exact count, but at the very least, there had been far fewer of them in the beginning.
“I see… So even the teachers in the faculty room…”
“They weren’t like that before, were they?”
“No. At least in my memory, the grotesque humans were only students.”
“If the number of grotesque humans is increasing, does that mean they aren’t entirely separate creatures from humans but rather ordinary humans who’ve mutated for some reason? Or is it that ordinary humans disappear at the start of the time loop, and grotesque humans take their place?”
“…I don’t know.”
Elaine’s expression darkened at my words.
She had been composed and mature, having realized the loop before me, so I’d momentarily forgotten—but she was only a first-year student at the academy.
In any case, since I was now living as a teacher at the academy, I didn’t feel any particular sense of duty as an educator, but leaving a good impression on the students would be a powerful asset when progressing through the main story later.
I comforted her, lifting her spirits with hope.
“Don’t worry too much. Every problem has a cause, and if there’s a cause, there’s a solution. We’ll definitely find a way. At the very least, we have more time than we could ever need, right? In a way, since time is infinite, we can’t even afford to give up on solving this.”
“…Even in a situation like this, you refuse to abandon hope, Allen. As expected of someone extraordinary.”
“It’s nothing that impressive.”
Really, it wasn’t.
After all, I knew this world was one from a work of fiction.
I still couldn’t recall the exact title, but the intense sense of déjà vu I felt upon receiving the Everlight Academy invitation made it clear—this was a world from one of the stories I’d read in my past life.
And if this was an academy-themed story, then no matter what events unfolded, there would inevitably be a way to resolve them. That’s just how narratives work.
It was less a logical conclusion and more one based on narrative convention, but at the very least, she seemed reassured by my calm demeanor.
“…Thank you. I feel less anxious now.”
“Good. The most important thing when tackling any challenge is a steady mind. It’s too late to head back up now, so why don’t we wait here together until midnight?”
“Hehe. I suppose so. Well, if we must.”
With those words, Elaine smiled faintly and sat down beside me.
Just moments ago, while being chased by the grotesque humans, everything had felt unfamiliar and chaotic—yet having just one person to share this ordeal with brought an unexpected sense of relief.
Honestly, though I had put on a composed front to comfort her, perhaps it was I who had been comforted by her presence.
And so, we sat together in the corner of the cave, passing the time with idle chatter.
If I’d known it’d be like this, I should’ve stopped by the snack stand before being chased and stocked up on food.
At least the hunger will reset along with the day, so that’s a relief.
But no matter how pleasant the atmosphere, sustaining a conversation for hours was still difficult, and as topics began to run dry, I made her a suggestion.
“Before we start our full-scale investigation tomorrow, why don’t we explore this cave first?”
“This cave?”
“Yes. Compared to the time loop and the grotesque humans, a hidden underground space in the academy is a trivial secret—but it’s still worth checking out, don’t you think? Consider it a warm-up before the real investigation tomorrow.”
“Alright. To be honest, I’ve been too scared to explore this underground cave alone, so I’ve never ventured beyond the stairs.”
And so, Elaine and I set out to explore the cave with light hearts.
The cave was surprisingly bright, as if it contained some kind of luminous mineral, allowing us to see clearly without an external light source.
There were no major obstacles, so we soon reached the end.
And there, at the end of the cave—
“…Ah.”
“Allen?”
“Aah…”
I—
“AAAHHHHH—!!”
“Allen!?”
—Finally remembered the title of this world.
“AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!”
This world was called “The Abandoned Count’s Daughter of the Academy”.
A web novel popular among female readers for its smooth pacing, elegant prose, and emotional depth—a romantic fantasy academy story.
But what truly made it infamous was the absurd narrative drift that occurred in the latter half.
That single drift propelled The Abandoned Count’s Daughter of the Academy into infamy, turning it into a notorious topic of discussion across communities, regardless of gender.
Even I, who didn’t typically read romantic fantasy, had been curious enough to check it out.
At the dead end of the cave stood a massive stone door, at least several dozen meters tall.
Covered in eerie and ominous engravings and decorations, the enormous stone door—
All of it was meant to seal away the being behind it.
But in the end, that seal was meaningless.
It was as futile as an ant trying to stop an elephant.
Because this world was destined after all,
To end with the awakening of the Outer God imprisoned beneath the academy.