Why Is Everyone in This Dating Sim Trying to Kill Me?!

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Translator: Vine

Chapter Title: Butterfly Effect (7)

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Im Gaeul turned her head to look back at me.

Hmph—

What the— what's wrong with her?

"Nice expression, junior. Surprised?"

Im Gaeul beamed radiantly.

She felt unfamiliar.

Her eyes, usually narrowed with a relaxed expression, were wide open and clear. Her gentle and languid demeanor was gone, replaced by an intensely dangerous aura.

How to put it? The shell was the same, but the atmosphere, the contents—the core of her being—felt completely swapped.

'…Did a demon possess Im Gaeul? No, that shouldn't be the case…?'

Surely, if there were such a risk, I wouldn't have told Im Gaeul to hold the Mana Stone.

As far as I knew, demons, whose main bodies resided in other dimensions, couldn't arbitrarily seize a physical body unless a soul contract had been made.

If that were possible, this world's genre wouldn't be a bright and warm academy story but a desperate survival apocalypse.

It was an event I'd never seen in the game, so I calmly observed her.

'Is it because she held the Dark Mana Stone too early…?'

That was the extent of what I could infer.

Whirrr—

But Sophia. Why are you holding a camera in a situation like this?

I glanced at Sophia, giving her a look, then turned my head back to Im Gaeul.

"…Gaeul-sunbae."

"I'm strong now. I'm no longer a burden to the party. Junior. How do I look now?"

"I never thought of Sunbae as a burden—"

However, it seemed I wasn't the only one who couldn't accept the current situation.

"Y-you're kidding me!!!!!!!!!"

Yeon Woojin screamed towards the sky, his face crumbling as if he'd witnessed something unbelievable.

"To stop the descent! The price has already been paid!!! Fulfill the contract!!!"

But his voice only echoed hollowly through the air.

"…This can't be. My, my perfect plan, it can't be ruined so senselessly…"

As Yeon Woojin muttered to himself, his eyes suddenly turned black.

Swoosh—

And the Mana Stone, which had stopped vibrating, began to hum again.

CRASH—!!!

The remaining demonic energy in the Mana Stone surged, pouring into Yeon Woojin's body.

"Aarghh!!!"

Yeon Woojin shrieked, a tearing sound, then collapsed on the spot like a puppet with its strings cut.

Twitch.

Crack.

Snap. Pop.

Yeon Woojin writhed, slowly rising to his feet.

I stared at Yeon Woojin with cold eyes.

'Yes, I knew this would happen.'

The ritual of descent had been twisted by Im Gaeul's intervention. But there was no way this guy would accept that. So, he must have offered his own body as a sacrifice, forcing the demon to descend by other means.

However, I smirked.

That's clearly a lower grade than the main body descent of a demon. Perhaps a level slightly above the second phase that some fiendkin perform. Of course, since he's a villain who appears a year and a half later, he'll be incomparably stronger than the fiendkin I've faced so far…

'But at this level, I can definitely take him.'

However, there was something I needed to do before engaging him.

"Instructor."

I spoke to Baek Seolhee.

"Yes."

"I'd like to ask you to move the hostages to a safe place now."

At this moment, Instructor Baek was the only one I could entrust the hostages to. She was much faster than I was.

Leaving the comatose hostages in an environment that was about to be shattered was like leaving a child in a space where a bomb was about to drop.

"Will you be alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

I nodded and replied.

Baek Seolhee, who had been silently looking at me, slowly nodded.

Baek Seolhee pulled back to move the hostages. And I, glaring at the fiend, adjusted my grip on Moonlight.

Just then.

"Junior."

Im Gaeul suddenly stepped in front of me.

"…Yes?"

"I'll handle this. You just sit back and watch."

'Im Gaeul is going to handle that guy here?'

I stared at her back with a bewildered expression.

Yeon Woojin, staggering as he rose. His black eyes were bloodshot, and thick veins bulged across his entire body.

He snarled, his face contorting.

"━━━You lowly human!!! What in the world have you done?!!!!!!!!"

His voice, spewing rage, echoed as if two voices overlapped.

"You used shallow tricks to deceive me!? And you even stole my power…"

He snapped his head to glare at Im Gaeul.

"It was you."

"Hmm—?"

Im Gaeul flinched slightly at that, but then she lifted her chin again, maintaining a haughty demeanor.

"That power is mine—. How dare a lowly mortal steal my power… I'll tear you to shreds!!!!!"

Im Gaeul, who had been looking down at him with her head tilted up, used a skill on herself.

"Acceleration, no… Super Acceleration."

At the same time, Yeon Woojin exploded with rage and lunged forward. His suddenly swollen arm reached out to tear Im Gaeul apart.

Whoosh—

Im Gaeul, who had been calmly watching, blurred for a moment.

CRASH—!!!

The swinging arm shattered the floor, causing an earthquake throughout the entire space.

Im Gaeul, who had vanished, reappeared right next to Yeon Woojin.

"That's an afterimage."

Yeon Woojin turned his head sharply, looking bewildered. Then he bit his lip and swung his arm again.

However, all his attacks failed to even graze Im Gaeul's clothes. Im Gaeul's face, which had shown a hint of tension at first, was now overflowing with composure.

She even yawned, as if bored.

"Aarghh!!! If only I, if only I weren't trapped in such a pathetic human body!!!"

The demon cried out, as if wronged.

The demon possessing Yeon Woojin's body was driven to madness. A lowly creature had sought it out after a long time, and so, out of courtesy, it had descended to the mortal realm.

But upon descending, the sacrifices it was promised were nowhere to be found. Instead, it had manifested in the body of a fiendkin. And what's more, its very essence had been stolen!

Being tricked into a fraudulent contract and descending was unforgivable enough, but now to be toyed with by some human woman who wasn't even worth a punch—its rage boiled to the top of its head.

"You, you, I'll tear you apart and grind you alive!!!!!"

But even with such a vivid, seething rage, Im Gaeul replied with a calm expression.

"Ah— I get it now. Your level… How boring."

"Aarghh!!! I'll kill you!!!"

I watched the scene, scratching my head with a complex expression.

'Our Gaeul… she's quite good at provoking demons. But… are you really okay?'

* * *

The scenery I saw had changed.

It felt like standing on top of the world, looking down on everything.

The opponent was probably an enemy she could never have faced before.

But she wasn't afraid in the slightest. She felt no doubt that she would lose.

Power surged within her. Nothing seemed daunting.

Im Gaeul, who had always barely survived under the protection of others, had died today.

This must be the view seen by the children of the Utopia party.

Ah, I am at the 'peak.'

Now, all that remained was to personally finish off the opponent.

Whoosh—!

"I'll kill you. I'll definitely kill you!!!"

The demon attacked, practically flailing in desperation now.

But the opponent's attacks were clearly visible.

"Too slow."

Im Gaeul evaded the attack with just a slight turn of her head and lightly pushed off the ground.

Thwack—

She concentrated mana into the glove on her hand, a gift from her junior.

Hum.

The output was so strong that the mana threads, always transparent, were now glowing pure white.

"Such light doesn't suit me… But, it's fine. This darkness will conceal my threads…"

As she pushed off the ground, she swung her hand.

Swish—

Slice—!

And she was already behind the opponent.

"Or perhaps, it was already cut before the eye could even see it?"

Heh.

Im Gaeul let out a light laugh.

However.

"…?"

When she glanced back, instead of a severed neck as she expected, she saw the fiend with only a deep red scratch mark on its neck, as if it had been harshly scraped.

The fiend's red eyes, turning back to look, still burned with rage as they watched her.

"…Hmm."

Im Gaeul scratched her cheek, slowly nodding.

Then she looked back at her juniors, who were watching her from behind.

"Hey, juniors. What are you doing? I'm a supporter who provides rear assistance. A dealer should be the one to defeat the monster."

"…"

"…"

Jin Yuha and Sophia stared at her, dumbfounded.

* * *

'This person… She just acts like she's something special, but she's pathetic…'

I thought she had changed, but she hadn't. If anything, she seemed even more shameless.

"Super Acceleration—"

With Im Gaeul's power, it seemed she was easily twice as fast as before. It was probably the effect of using the Dark Mana Stone, which was a higher-grade item than the regular Mana Stone.

'So, the core of her personality is the same, she's just drunk on power now?'

It was truly like Im Gaeul. Or rather, unlike her?

In the game, she was clearly a nurturing, motherly older sister type. Where had that woman gone, and why was only this regrettable woman left? No matter how much I thought about it, I just couldn't understand.

'Well, at least her performance is solid.'

I chuckled to myself.

Im Gaeul must have made significant progress from this incident. Using the Dark Mana Stone to channel mana meant she had forcefully broken through her mana pathways with intense power.

"Alright, I'll take care of that guy. We need to finish this quickly so we can have the swimsuit event."

I swung my sword towards Yeon Woojin.