The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 24



23 – Spring at the Demon Palace

Seron’s dumbfounded face, not expecting the Saint to be brought, didn’t return to normal.

Leaving her be, I decided to introduce the others.

“Aisha, Poara, this is the Saint, who has agreed to join our team.”

“The, the Saint?”

Like Seron, Poara also looked at the Saint with a surprised face.

“Senior, how did you bring the Saint into the team?”

Aisha, who had the least change in expression, asked.

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Well, no one else seemed to have asked the Saint.”

So I asked and brought him.

I gave him a reason that made sense to him.

“…Of course, this idiot sweet potato wouldn’t do it!”

At that moment, Seron, who was behind me, shouted.

Seron was grabbing my collar tightly, his eyes wide open.

When I glared at him as if asking why, Seron’s forehead turned bright red and smoke seemed to rise from it.

He looked like he was about to die from frustration.

“Are you out of your mind?! What if something happens to the Saint after bringing him?!”

Saint, Sir Miel of Saint Eden.

His status as the Saint of the Empire’s greatest religion, the New Church, is just below that of the royal family.

If something were to happen to the Saint…

None of the students could bear the responsibility.

That’s why, until now, no one had ever brought Sir Miel into a team, even though he was already in his second year.

It was an unspoken rule.

But my reaction was, “So what?”

I had the best card to use.

There was no reason to leave it unused.

“Even the Princess is going in.”

I pointed to the third princess, Iris High Sirion, who was already preparing to enter.

Even the princess, who has a higher status than the Saint, is entering the magic palace.

“The Princess’s situation is different!”

Iris is the top student in the martial arts department.

Not only is she excellent in swordsmanship.

She is also outstanding in academics, a model of both literary and martial arts.

As she was evaluated to have the greatest talent among the royal family in history.

It was a great national loss for her not to enter the Demon Palace.

But the situation is different for the Saint.

He, too, is of course the top of the Divine Studies, but what he deals with is healing magic.

It’s not the power to protect himself.

So, the students who had to protect the Saint were worried about what might happen.

“If we protect the Saint well, it will be resolved.”

“That’s easier said than done!”

I raised my hand and flicked Seron’s forehead.

“Kyah!?”

She screamed and covered her forehead.

Seron glared at me, asking what I was doing.

“Then do it. Did you think the Demon Palace was a place to play? Do you think there is a more reliable priest than the Saint?”

And above all.

“With the Saint right next to you, is that what you should be saying?”

Seron’s shoulders flinched.

This blockhead finally realized the situation and started to look at Sirmiel’s reaction.

Then Sirmiel shook his head with a benevolent smile.

“I’m fine. It’s a story I already knew.

I also knew it would be burdensome, so I haven’t joined the team until now.”

Sirmiel voluntarily explained the situation to the professor.

He decided not to enter the Demon Palace unless an offer came.

“But even knowing this, Brother Hanon called me.”

Sirmiel rolled up his white sleeve and showed his determination.

“Since you called me, under the name of the Lord, I, Sirmiel, will do my best.”

Seron opened her mouth slightly.

She couldn’t say a word, perhaps feeling guilty about what she had said earlier.

I looked at the other two, leaving Seron behind.

“Aisha, Poara, you two have no problems, right?”

“Yes, we vaguely expected something like this when we joined your team, senior.”

“I-I’m fine too!”

What did Aisha expect?

“Senior, you always lead us into strange situations, so I expected it.”

Aisha knows too much about me.

She also seemed to have a very good ear.

“Team, Hanon Airei.”

Just then, the team call was heard.

When I signaled with my eyes, everyone followed me.

Only Seron sighed deeply, his face full of worry and concern.

When I arrived in front of the labyrinth, Professor Beganon was standing there.

Today, she was in uniform, and when she saw me, she raised her eyebrows slightly.

“Hanon, you’ve brought together a ridiculous team again.”

I thought I was going to get scolded.

But Beganon didn’t say much else.

Instead, she reiterated the dangers of the labyrinth.

“Remember, the most important thing in the labyrinth is your lives. If it seems dangerous, run away. There’s no need to sacrifice your lives.”

She said this while pointing to the knights of the labyrinth’s final front.

“Even if an apostle appears, the adults will handle it. You just do what you can.”

Sending boys into the labyrinth to reduce casualties on the surface.

Beganon spoke as if she wasn’t entirely happy with the reality of this world.

She had only one wish.

For everyone to return alive.

“I will remember.”

This is a promise that must be kept.

Sensing my determination, Beganon said nothing more.

“Take care.”

We entered the labyrinth.

The entrance of the labyrinth opened its mouth wide as if it would swallow us whole.

As we stepped inside, a chilly wind brushed past our faces.

After a while, when I looked up, the sun was shining down on a field of grass and trees.

“This is it.”

Aisha, who had just entered the Demon Palace for the first time, hesitated.

It was no wonder, as the scenery before her was completely different from what she had seen just moments ago.

This place, filled with vegetation, was clearly a peaceful place by anyone’s standards.

“This is strange. It’s definitely a forest, but I can’t feel any spirits.”

Poara, who was standing next to Aisha, looked around the forest with a bewildered expression.

As he said, it was indeed a forest before their eyes, but there was an unmistakable sense of alienation.

“Tsk, this entrance is the Gray Forest.”

Seron, the only one among them with experience in the Demon Palace, clicked his tongue.

The first floor of the Demon Palace is divided into four distinct areas.

One of them is the Gray Forest.

This is where we have entered now.

“If it’s the Gray Forest, then surely.”

“Yes, as time passes, gray zones appear throughout the forest.”

I answered Saint Sirmiel as I stepped forward.

Then, the grass I had been standing on just moments ago turned gray.

In the Gray Forest, all the paths you pass through turn gray.

And the moment you step on these gray zones,

‘Your stamina gets drained in an instant.’

It’s a place where you must never step on the same spot twice.

That place is the Gray Forest.

“It’s a fascinating forest.”

Aisha was amazed to see the ground she stepped on turn gray.

“There’s nothing fascinating about it. It’s the most tiresome forest.”

Seron, who had experienced it, made a disgusted face.

As she said, the Gray Forest is not a place I am fond of either.

Above all, the trigger of the Gray Forest is arguably the worst among all the places on the first floor of the Demon Palace.

“What are you going to do? If we delay any longer, we won’t be able to move.”

Seron urged.

As she said, if we spent any more time here, the Gray Forest would become a place where we couldn’t set foot due to those who moved ahead of us.

“No, we are not moving.”

“What?”

Seron turned around with a bewildered face.

It was a face that clearly didn’t understand what I was saying.

I can’t blame Seron for his reaction.

But it has to be this way.

“We are not going to the second or third floor.”

Act 3, Scene 3 of the Labyrinth Event, the Forest Keeper of the Gray Forest.

Originally, it would have been an event for Lucas to handle.

But now, Lucas is gone.

So, it’s up to me to take over this event.

I lifted my head.

“From now on, we all.”

And my next words left everyone in shock.

“Take a good rest.”

We need to conserve our strength before the event.

* * *

Inside the labyrinth, the Gray Forest.

Although it was inside the labyrinth, the sunlight filtering in and the gentle breeze made it a perfect place for a nap.

With trees scattered around, there was plenty of shade, and unlike a real forest, there were no insects at all.

So, there was hardly a more comfortable place to rest.

“Does this make sense? We came to the labyrinth, and we’re resting?! Are you out of your mind!”

But instead of the sound of insects, there was something noisy.

It was Seron, chattering beside me.

Leaning against a tree and resting comfortably, Seron couldn’t stop complaining and eventually started shouting.

I squinted one eye and looked at Seron.

“Why, is there a law that says we can’t rest in the labyrinth?”

“Ha, you idiot, don’t you know what mission we came here for?”

“I know very well.”

A young soldier dispatched to stop the evil that sends apostles to the surface to destroy the world.

That was the very purpose of the Academy, and the reason it was established.

All the students attending the Academy take pride in this fact.

Even if it means risking their lives.

“Is this how someone who knows acts? What are you thinking! With a team like this, we should go down and fight the apostles!”

“Hey, apostles aren’t only below.”

Apostles certainly exist on the first floor as well.

To be precise, it’s not wrong to say they are most densely distributed on the first floor.

The place where apostles are first born is the hatchery located at the center of the first floor.

“Who doesn’t know that? But in the end, all the apostles go down below!”

However, most of the apostles born descend to the lower levels to gain power.

As a result, the number of apostles on the first floor decreases at the fastest rate.

“It’s common sense to go down to the lower floors to defeat more apostles!”

When Seron insisted on this, I opened my eyes drowsily.

“Yeah, so let’s go down later.”

“I really don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Seron looked at me with a face that couldn’t comprehend me at all.

But I had no choice either.

I had my own reasons.

So I grabbed Seron’s shoulder and pressed him down to sit.

“Don’t get heated, just rest. It’s not like I said I wouldn’t go down.”

No matter how much I tried to persuade him, Seron eventually got tired.

She sat down and muttered curses about me to herself.

I’ll have to smack her forehead later.

“Senior Hanon, another party is passing by.”

In the meantime, Poara, who was in charge of reconnaissance, reported.

Poara’s spirits were spread all over the gray forest.

As such, they were acting as scouts and reporting consistently.

“It seems like it’s the last party now.”

Another group of students headed towards the center.

To go down to the second floor, they all had to go towards the center.

‘Is it time already?’

Before we knew it, we were the only ones left who hadn’t gone down to the second floor.

“Seron, how many times has the Gray Forest been involved until now?”

As I stood up and asked the question, Seron glanced this way.

Her face was full of displeasure.

“This is the second time since I enrolled.”

“Yes, it’s the second time for you, and the ninety-ninth time since the Labyrinth opened.”

Seron’s eyes widened slightly.

It was a reaction as if to ask if I had been counting such things.

But this point is very important.

“The environment of the Labyrinth has been steadily changing for a very long time.”

The reason the Labyrinth is dangerous every time is because of that environment.

No matter how much investigation is done, at some point the environment changes.

There are times when we have to take risks and send out an investigation team.

And now.

This period, when Lucas enrolled, is precisely the time of the Labyrinth’s transformation.

The point when the Labyrinth strategy stabilizes.

Due to the Labyrinth’s transformation, numerous casualties occur, and in the midst of this, apostles are born with complete power.

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It is truly an era of upheaval.

“Usually, when the Labyrinth’s changes reach a hundred times, based on the birth of an apostle, peculiar phenomena often occur.”

Seron’s pupils began to gradually enlarge.

She stood up with a bewildered face.

“You, don’t tell me.”

“The Gray Forest is the hundredth time today.”

My eyes opened coldly.

“Perhaps today is the most dangerous day in the Labyrinth strategy.”

There is no way to return to the surface immediately after going down to the lower floor of the Labyrinth.

To be precise, there is a way, but only I know it.

So the students’ return journey is also arduous.

In fact, after completing the Labyrinth strategy.

On the way back, more injuries occur.

The sense of accomplishment from having conquered it made us complacent.

Thus, Act 3, Scene 3, the Demon Palace.

It is an event that causes the worst human casualties in history.

The starting point that signals the period of transformation in the Demon Palace.

How you overcome this starting point drastically changes the difficulty of clearing the game.

Rumble!

At that moment, the entire gray forest began to resonate.

Seron’s face turned pale as he felt the tremor.

In contrast, I slowly lifted my head towards the sky.

The sky, which had been bright until a moment ago, began to darken.

And through the darkening sky, something like long tree roots began to descend.

“It’s here.”

The already prepared Saint Sirmiel stood up from his seat.

The reason I could bring Sirmiel to this Demon Palace team was because I had told him this story in advance.

The possibility of significant human casualties.

Keeping this possibility in mind, Sirmiel willingly followed me.

“Hanlon team.”

I called everyone while pulling out the heavy shield from my back.

“From now on, we will break through the exit for the safe return of the students.”

The true apostle of the gray forest.

We will defeat the forest keeper.