Chapter 25: Interlude – You Were That Kind of Woman

Inside the Demon Cult’s hideout, I staggered to my feet among the thirty corpses strewn across the floor. The aftereffects of the Soul Stigmata Amplifier Potion hit hard as soon as the potion’s power wore off. Professor Bastion hadn’t been kidding when he had said it was made without considering side effects. The agonizing pain resulting from my body’s energy channels being twisted was beyond imagination.

“

Ugh!

Damn, that hurts,” I muttered.

Nevertheless, the potion’s performance was undeniable. Moreover, this was just a prototype, theoretically only boosting thirty percent of mana capacity.

Grinning in satisfaction, I thought of the Seven Star Herb I had stashed away in my bag and wondered,

If thirty percent gives me this much, what would a full version be like?

Soon, the aftereffects mostly wore off, and it was time for me to investigate the interior of the hideout. However, I wasn’t expecting much from it. The demon bastards had taken extreme measures to maintain the hideout’s security, placing high-level geas even on low-ranking subordinates to prevent any information leak. Even if I turned this place upside down, the chances of finding anything useful were slim. Still, it was better than doing nothing.

I weaved through the corpses littering the floor and searched the cult’s hideout. After poking around for quite some time, I eventually found a small room that looked like a storage area, where heaps of black nails were piled up in a corner. “So, these are the nails imbued with the curse that blinded Iris.”

There were easily hundreds of them. Even though each nail contained only small traces of the curse, at this scale, they were definitely worrisome.

Still, they wouldn’t be enough to cast a curse over the entire academy

, I thought.

I remembered something Senior Sophia had taught me about large-scale rituals. The key factors were the quantity of the materials prepared, how precise the ritual was, and the place where the caster conducted the ritual.

For a ritual of this size, it would be nearly impossible for the main caster to conduct it from outside. It was especially so since the caster had to perform it continuously over several months to drain the power of the Seven Eyes. Even a ritual crafted by an Archbishop-level demon wouldn’t be sustainable if the caster were outside the academy. This implied that the Archbishop of Dreams and Fantasies, Astaroth, had been hiding inside the academy for the entire duration of the ritual.

“No. Not just for a few months,” I muttered.

The demons had mentioned that this was a plan they had been preparing for years. It was likely that long before the ritual even began, the caster had already infiltrated the academy under a false identity. That would make executing and maintaining the spell from within much easier. In other words, Astaroth was currently hiding somewhere inside the academy under a disguise.

However, there were nearly a thousand cadets in the academy. Adding in professors, support staff, contractors, and alumni working in research labs, the number grew even larger.

I wonder who Astaroth has been posing as. It won’t be easy to find that out. There’s no way I can investigate them all

,

I thought.

Even if I tried, would I really be able to find someone hiding so carefully, especially an Archbishop-level demon? More importantly, there was no reason for me to go looking. I glanced around the blood-soaked hideout, chuckling faintly to myself. There was absolutely no reason I had to go out of my way to track them down.

After realizing that their years-long plan had been exposed, Astaroth would be desperate to find out who did it.

They would come looking for me. Also, there was no need to leave any trace that it was me. In fact, if I left behind a trail that was too obvious, they would be suspicious. All I needed to do was wait quietly until the day they came for me.

“Right. He’s hiding somewhere in the academy, huh?” I said to myself.

Before leaving the hideout, I flicked one of the black nails into the air and looked up at the moonlit sky.

I don’t know who you’re pretending to be. I don’t know why you are going to such lengths to target Iris’s Seven Eyes or what you intend to do with the power you steal from her.

In my previous life, Astaroth had died at the hands of the Sword of the Holy Empire before we even had a chance to meet. But in this life, there was one thing I knew for certain. “Astaroth, this time, you’ll meet me before you ever meet the Sword of the Holy Empire.”

* * *

As I made my way back to the academy dormitory from the Demon Cult’s hideout, the streets were quiet under the blanket of night. Looking at my condition, I furrowed my brow. “Damn! I’m more tired than I thought.”

Thanks to the Blessing of Resurrection, all my wounds had healed, but it didn’t cure exhaustion. The aftermath of using the Soul Stigmata Amplifier Potion and fighting thirty demons was catching up fast. I was feeling sleepy.

Time to get back and crash,

I thought.

As I picked up the pace toward my dorm room, I spotted someone squatting in front of my door, dozing off, their head bobbing sleepily. Peeking out from under the hooded robe was a glimmer of soft, pink hair.

I called her name softly. “Iris?”

At once, she jolted awake and leaped to her feet. “You bastard! I mean, Dale! Where the hell have you been?!”

She stormed over to me, visibly furious. “I tried calling you so many times!”

“

Ah!

” Only then did I remember to check my Hero Watch. Sure enough, her messages had piled up.

“When you didn’t answer, I asked around and heard you had gone out to the outdoor training grounds with a permit from Professor Bastion! Do you have any idea how worried I was?!”

If I had suddenly disappeared after getting a permit from Professor Bastion, the professor infamous as the Disciple Slayer, anyone would have panicked like she had.

“I’m fine. Nothing happened.” I reassured her.

“Nothing happened, and you show up looking like that?”

I glanced down belatedly and saw that my clothes were torn in multiple places. “That’s...”

The Blessing of Resurrection only healed the body, not the clothes. While I had at least wiped off most of the blood from the demons before coming back, I couldn’t exactly stitch the fabric back together on the way here.

“I...

uh

... I tripped a bit on the mountain.” I uttered a pitiful excuse, even to my own ears.

“You tripped?”

“Yeah. The thing Professor Bastion asked me to retrieve was in a pretty rough terrain.”

Iris gave me a suspicious once-over, then suddenly grabbed my hand and pointed at the door. “Open it.”

“Isn’t it a bit risky for you to be caught entering the boys’ dorm at this hour?” I asked.

“Exactly, so we better go in before someone sees us. Do you know how hard it was sneaking out here without Camilla noticing?”

At her impatient insistence, I opened the door. The inside of my room was so bare that it made anyone who saw it wonder if it really belonged to someone in the same dorms as Iris.

After entering the room, Iris said, “Okay, take your clothes off and come over here.”

I stared at her, baffled. “Take my clothes off?”

Her face turned beet red as she shrieked in embarrassment, “T-the wounds! I need to check for injuries!”

“

Ah

, right. But really, I’m fine.”

“

Tch!

If you don’t take it off right now, I’ll just rip it off myself, okay?”

That sounded more like a reward than a threat.

Wait, no. Focus, Dale, focus,

I reminded myself.

“Alright.” I took off my shirt and stepped closer.

Iris examined my body with a serious expression. “

Hmm!

No visible wounds.”

“I told you. I’m fine.”

She carefully extended a hand and gently touched my torso. “Nope. Heroes are built so tough that external wounds don’t always show. Doesn’t mean you’re not hurt inside. You said you rolled down a mountain, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Judging by your clothes, it wasn’t just a little tumble. You might have internal bleeding.” She closed her eyes and summoned her power. A soft glow, flowing from her soul stigmata, seeped into my body. It felt like I had drunk warm soup, and its warmth was spreading through my chest.

“That should take care of any internal bleeding,” she said.

“I would have healed on my own anyway.”

She gave me a stern look and flicked my forehead. “

Tch!

Didn’t I tell you not to say things like that? Listen closely. Just because you’re a hero, it doesn’t mean you can treat your body carelessly. Heroes feel pain just like everyone else when they’re hurt.”

Suddenly, a memory, faded and fragile, drifted into my mind.

“You can’t keep pushing yourself like this.”

“I can’t die, remember?”

“But you still feel pain!”

Ah, that’s right

,

I realized it again,

she is that kind of woman. In our past life, and even now, she has always been the same.

Iris looked at me, concernedly. “Dale? Are you crying?”

I wiped at the corners of my eyes and quietly shook my head. “No. It’s nothing.”

An awkward silence fell between us.

Maybe she couldn’t stand it any longer. Iris cleared her throat and quickly got to her feet. “A-anyway! That’s not the main reason I was trying to reach you!”

Suddenly, I recalled that I still had not checked why she messaged me in the first place.

“Dale, are you free this weekend?” she asked.

“Probably. Why?”

“Would you like to go out with me?”

So that’s what this is about. She wants to ask me out. A date with Iris, huh,

I thought.

Of course, it wasn’t like our relationship had progressed to the point where I could call it a proper date. Still, just the idea of walking around with her alone was enough to make it feel like a dream.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

She hesitated, unsure of how to answer. “Well...”

I couldn’t help but smile warmly at her, wondering where she would want to go: a theater in Valhalla City, a café with good vibes, or maybe a famous restaurant since she loved food. In any case, it didn’t matter. As long as I was with her, I wouldn’t care even if it was the slums.

Though surely, she won’t suggest going to the Ant Nest, right?

I chuckled wryly, waiting for her answer.

“Dale, have you ever heard of Ant Nest?” she said.

“What?”

She actually wants to go to Ant Nest?!