I Became the Childhood Friend Who Commits Suicide

Chapter 47

An overwhelming pressure swept over me.

The blatant killing intent was palpable.

If this continues, I’ll die.

That primal warning filled my mind.

More importantly, his voice was unsettlingly familiar.

I wanted to believe it wasn’t him, but a single figure was already clear in my head.

His calm smile felt chilling.

Slowly, the surroundings began to ripple.

And then…

His true form emerged.

A terrifying pair of blood-red eyes.

The eyepatch I’d seen before was gone, but it was just as I feared.

“…”

“Strange. You’re so calm despite seeing my true self. Did you already suspect?”

I flinched at the teacher’s question.

His piercing gaze felt like it could see through every part of me.

“Did you already know my identity?”

“…”

The more I talked, the more he would figure out. I decided to keep my face as neutral as possible and pressed my lips shut.

Yet, he merely chuckled, keeping his relaxed demeanor.

It was obvious who held the upper hand here.

Could I escape?

If I sprinted with all my might, maybe…

If I could just make it out of the lab, he might hesitate to act in the hallway.

But that, too, was unrealistic. Even if I ran full speed, he’d probably find it amusingly slow.

“Looks like you’re thinking hard. I can guess why. That little mouse must’ve spilled my secret, right?”

The mouse he mentioned likely referred to Sophie.

A slight relief in this otherwise terrible situation.

He must never find out that I know the original story, the future.

If escaping was impossible, I’d have to find a way to get through this for now.

In the end, I had no choice but to speak.

“…What happened to that man?”

“Hm? Oh, the scientist?”

For the first time, the teacher’s smile faded, and he furrowed his brow.

It was as if even the thought of him disgusted him.

“An arrogant fool. He walked a thin line for so long, only to make a despicable plan to keep everything for himself.”

Walking a thin line? Trying to keep everything for himself?

I tried to connect it to the original storyline, but the meaning eluded me.

After all, the first-year science teacher never even appeared in the original.

“What did you do to him?”

“That’s something the old men would know. It doesn’t matter right now.”

He clearly had no intention of answering. And I wasn’t in a position to force an answer.

For now, I had to think my way out.

“I didn’t plan to act so soon, but things have escalated. The elders began to suspect me after I used the health checkup as an excuse to get away.”

The health checkup.

That, too, was an event that didn’t exist in the original.

The butterfly effect triggered by Sophie’s method for identifying demons.

In the end, I was the cause of all this.

What an ironic situation.

“…What do you intend to do with me?”

“Curious? Do you want to know?”

I honestly didn’t care.

I didn’t want to know.

I already knew.

The reason Yoo Hana fell in the original story.

The mental collapse brought on by demonic hypnosis and brainwashing.

The cause was this very man.

That was why I tried to avoid him as much as possible when I met him underground.

But now, there was no escaping him.

I bit my lip.

The brutal sense of helplessness weighed down on me.

I had just started to hope again.

I had decided to reclaim true happiness.

Why must I always suffer?

Was it so greedy to want just a little more?

The teacher leisurely sat down.

He pulled out a cigarette and put it to his lips.

“Hoo…”

The smoke he exhaled drifted toward me, pungent and oppressive.

“Hey. Savior girl. Let’s be honest here.”

“…”

Holding the cigarette, he spoke.

“I don’t intend to hurt you. At least, not right now.”

“…What?”

“Did you never question it? Why are demons like me drawn to you, even though you’re the academy’s only powerless student?”

This wasn’t how I expected things to go.

The teacher didn’t seem intent on killing me. He actually seemed eager to talk.

No intention to harm me?

I wasn’t sure of his motive, but I decided to play along for now.

“…No idea.”

“It’s simple. I need your power. That’s why I won’t kill you.”

There was a strong dissonance in his words.

Saying he needed my power meant he already knew what ability I possessed.

Even though I was still labeled as powerless, yet to awaken.

But then he added, he wouldn’t kill me because he needed my power?

That was contradictory.

If he truly needed my power, he would need to kill me.

There were two possibilities.

He didn’t fully understand my abilities.

…Or, I was wrong about myself.

“So here’s my proposal. How about you come over to our side?”

“…You want me to become a demon? Betray humanity?”

I asked in disbelief, and he chuckled as if he’d heard a silly joke.

“Betray humanity. How amusing.”

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s pitiful. Do you really believe humanity is on your side?”

I had no idea what he was implying.

But it was obvious.

As a human, as a student of the academy, that couldn’t be false.

“Of course. I’m on humanity’s side.”

“You didn’t understand my question. I wasn’t asking where your loyalty lies. I was asking if humanity stands with you.”

What was the meaning of such wordplay?

But a strange unease scrambled my mind.

“In the end, the academy’s no different. They’re only using you to achieve their goals.”

“Using me…? I’m just a powerless student.”

“Didn’t you confirm it underground with the demonic energy? Your codename.”

The letters from that memory resurfaced.

In an unknown language.

“Messiah.”

“Do you know what the Messiah is?”

“…The savior who will save the world.”

“Yes. That’s exactly your power. You’re the key to changing everything in this world. You were destined to be used.”

Destined to be used?

That’s impossible.

There’s no such destiny.

“Do you think refusing my offer will lead you to a happy and beautiful future? That’s not possible for someone who is the Messiah. Do you think the academy will just let you go?”

“No…”

“From the moment they recognized you as the Messiah, the academy planned everything to exploit you, to drive you to ruin with ruthless precision.”

I clamped my hands over my ears.

“No. That can’t be. It’s all lies.”

Nothing like this was in the original story.

Yoo Hana was thoroughly neglected.

And she was simply a tool to target Kim Si woo, the protagonist.

Ultimately, she fell, fought Kim Si woo, and died in defeat.

So it’s all lies.

A clear attempt to deceive and break my mind.

I must not fall for it.

It’s all lies. It’s all lies. It’s all lies.

“Do you know why the academy was established?”

“I won’t listen. It’s all lies.”

“On the surface, they say it’s to train heroes to defeat demons. But in truth, it’s just a tool to gather data on awakened abilities worldwide, to find the Messiah.”

Even as I tried to block it out, his words echoed in my ears.

And a single thread of doubt started to spread.

What if I was wrong?

The truths I’d held dear began to crumble.

I knew the original story might be twisted by my actions, but I’d never thought that the original story itself could be wrong.

Why was I so certain?

There was no reason to believe this world had to follow the original story.

What if this world was a parallel one, similar but with slight differences?

Or, what if the information I knew was distorted?

I began to question everything.

From beginning to end.

Where am I?

Who is this person in front of me?

Am I crying right now?

Or am I smiling?

Is my memory really flawed?

If so, since when?

Since I stopped taking the medicine?

Since I started taking it?

After Sophie died?

Since I met Sophie?

Since I became Yoo Hana?

Or even before that?

I don’t know.

I don’t know anything anymore.

And eventually,

I even doubted myself.

Did I truly possess Yoo Hana?

A mere reader of the original work.

A person who unwittingly possessed Yoo Hana and became miserable.

Who am I?

What am I?

The real me, who isn’t Yoo Hana.

My name.

“…Ah.”

I can’t remember.

My name doesn’t come to mind.

In that moment, something snapped, something I’d been holding back shattered.

“Tell me… is this world even real?”

Sophie’s voice whispered in my ear.

Though I couldn’t see her, she appeared before me.

With a gaping hole in the center of her chest.

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