I Became the Childhood Friend Who Commits Sui**de

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A crushing sense of pressure enveloped my body.

A blatant aura of malice was seeping out.

If this continues, I will die.

That instinctive warning filled my mind.

What was more significant was that his voice sounded familiar.

I wanted to deny it, but a figure had already appeared in my thoughts.

His relaxed smile sent chills down my spine.

Slowly, the background began to shimmer.

And then.

His true form was revealed.

Eyes glowing with a horrific red hue.

The eye patch he once wore was gone, just as I expected.

“…”

“How interesting. You look so bored even after seeing me. Did you expect this?”

I flinched at the Vice Principal’s question.

His sharp gaze seemed to pierce through my innermost thoughts.

“Did you know my true identity?”

“…”

The more I spoke, the more likely I was to be deciphered.

I decided to keep a blank expression and seal my lips tightly.

Yet, the Vice Principal merely chuckled, maintaining his composed demeanor.

It was clear who had the upper hand in this situation.

Could I escape?

If I dashed with all my might from this spot…

If I could just make it out of the science room, it’d be difficult for him to act recklessly in the hallway.

But that was probably impossible.

No matter how fast I ran, I’d just be moving at a snail’s pace in his eyes.

“It seems your mind is quite cluttered. I have a rough guess, but that little mouse must’ve surely told you my identity.”

The little mouse referred to was probably Sophie.

Was that a small blessing amidst the misfortune?

I absolutely couldn’t let it slip that I knew the original story, i.e., the future.

If I couldn’t escape, I had to somehow maneuver through this situation.

To do that, I had no choice but to speak.

“What happened to that person?”

“Hmm? Oh, the scientist, you mean?”

For the first time, the Vice Principal erased his smile and narrowed his eyes.

As if just thinking about him was making him sick.

“He’s quite the arrogant one. He dabbled in tightrope walking, and now he’s come up with a disgraceful plan to devour everything himself.”

Tightrope walking?

Devouring everything alone?

I tried my best to connect it with the original story, but I couldn’t grasp its meaning at all.

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

“What did you do to that person?”

“The old folks might know that. The important thing isn’t that.”

He didn’t seem willing to share any information.

But it wasn’t like I was in a position to force him to answer.

Right now, I had to rack my brain to find a way out.

“I hadn’t planned to move so hastily, but the situation isn’t good. I had to make an excuse of a health check and force my way out, which has started raising suspicions with the old folks.”

Health check.

That was also an event that didn’t exist in the original story.

Thanks to the butterfly effect caused by Sophie’s way of discerning mana.

Thus, once again, the root cause was me.

What an ironic situation.

“…What do you intend to do with me?”

“Curious? Want to know?”

I wasn’t really curious.

I didn’t particularly want to know.

I already knew anyway.

The decisive reason that Yu Hana crumbled in the original work.

Mental breakdown due to the brainwashing and hypnosis of the mana beings.

And the cause of that was this man.

That’s why I tried to escape as quickly as I could when I met him underground.

But now, there was no way to avoid him.

I bit my lip.

An unbearably harsh feeling of powerlessness overwhelmed me.

I had barely started to hope again.

I had resolved to regain true happiness.

Why did I always have to suffer like this?

Did I have such grand ambitions?

The Vice Principal leisurely sat down.

And pulled out a cigarette to smoke.

“Hoo.”

My sigh turned into smoke that wafted toward me.

The stench of cigarette smoke.

“Hey, Savior Girl. Let’s be honest.”

“…”

He spoke while holding the cigarette in his hand.

“I don’t exactly plan to harm you. At least not right now.”

“…What?”

“Have you ever questioned it? Why do mana beings, including me, swarm around you? To the Academy’s only useless student, no less.”

This wasn’t the development I expected.

The Vice Principal didn’t seem to have the intent to kill me right away.

Instead, he seemed more relaxed, wanting to chat.

He doesn’t plan to harm me?

I didn’t know what his intentions were, but I decided to go along with the flow and respond.

“…I don’t know.”

“It’s simple. Because I need your abilities. That’s why I’m not killing you.”

I felt a strong sense of unease from his words.

The fact that he needed my abilities meant that he already knew what I was capable of.

Even though I hadn’t even awakened yet and was labeled as useless.

But then came the follow-up words.

So, he wouldn’t kill me?

That was a contradictory statement.

If he needed my abilities, he should eliminate me.

There were two possibilities.

He either didn’t have a clear grasp of my abilities.

… Or I was just mistaken.

“So let me make a suggestion. How about you come over to our side willingly?”

“…You want me to become a mana being? To betray?”

His absurd suggestion made him burst into laughter.

Like he had just heard a terrible joke.

“Betrayal. How laughable.”

“What’s so funny about that?”

“Because it’s so pitiful. Do you really think that humanity is on your side?”

What was the intent behind that question?

It was a given.

As long as I’m a human and a student of the Academy, that premise can’t be false.

“Of course. I’m on humanity’s side.”

“You didn’t grasp my question. I didn’t ask whose side you were on. I asked if humanity is on your side.”

What point is there in such wordplay?

Yet, an inexplicable sense of anxiety scrambled my thoughts.

“In the end, the Academy is no different. They’re only thinking of using you for their goals.”

“Using me…? But I’m just a useless person.”

“You confirmed it through the mana beings underground. You know what your codename is.”

Characters of letters emerged in my memory.

In a language with no discernable meaning.

“Messiah.”

“Do you know what a Messiah is?”

“…A savior to save the world.”

“Right. That’s your ability. You hold the key to change everything in this world. In the end, it’s a fate destined to be used.”

A fate destined to be used?

What kind of fate is that?

There’s no such thing.

Such a fate doesn’t exist.

“Do you think rejecting my offer means a happy and beautiful future awaits you? As long as you’re the Messiah, such a life is impossible. Do you think the Academy will just let you be?”

“…No.”

“From the moment they realized you’re the Messiah, the Academy set up plans to use you. A thorough plan to utilize and drive you to ruin.”

I covered my ears.

“No. That can’t be true. It’s all lies.”

None of this appeared in the original story.

Yu Hana was thoroughly neglected.

And only served as a tool to conquer Kim Shinwoo, the protagonist.

In the end, she fell into corruption and died after losing to Kim Shinwoo.

So everything he said is a lie.

A blatant trick to deceive me and drive me mad.

I couldn’t let that slip by.

It’s all a lie. It’s all a lie. It’s all a lie.

“Do you know the original purpose of the Academy’s establishment?”

“…I won’t listen. It’s a lie. It’s all a lie.”

“On the surface, they pretend to train heroes to fight off the demons. But in reality, they just gather data from ability awakeners worldwide, all to find the Messiah.”

Even if I tried hard to block my ears and ignore him, his words lingered.

And gradually, a thread of doubt began to spread.

What if I was wrong?

The truths I’d been so sure of started to crumble slowly.

Even if my actions could twist the original story, I had never thought the original itself might be wrong.

Why had I been so certain?

There was no reason to be completely convinced that this world was definitely the original world.

What if it’s a parallel world that closely resembles the original but has slight differences?

Or perhaps, there was a chance my information was distorted?

I began to doubt everything.

From A to Z.

From beginning to end.

Where am I right now?

Who is the person in front of me?

Am I crying now?

Or am I laughing?

Is my memory genuinely incorrect?

If so, when did it start?

After stopping the medication?

After starting the medication?

After Sophie died?

After meeting Sophie?

When I possessed Yu Hana?

Or was it even before that?

I don’t know.

I no longer knew anything.

And in the end.

I began to doubt even myself.

Am I truly possessed by Yu Hana?

A reader of the original story.

Unknowingly possessing the character Yu Hana, spiraling into misfortune.

What am I?

Who am I?

The real me, not Yu Hana.

My name.

“…Ah.”

I don’t know.

I can’t remember my name.

At that moment, something that I had been holding back shattered and collapsed.

“Hey, is this world real right now?”

Sophie’s voice tickled my ears.

She reappeared before me, someone I had never seen till now.

With a gaping hole right in the center of her chest.