The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 27



26 – The Defeat of the Sunflower

Isabel Luna.

She is a person who perfectly fits the metaphor of a sunflower, always smiling brightly.

She had such bright energy that even those who saw her would smile warmly.

But recently, that smile had rapidly decreased.

It was because of the death of her childhood friend, Lucas.

Sunflowers look at the sun and gain nourishment.

Now that the sun has disappeared.

There was nothing left for her.

Isabel always recalls that day when she falls asleep.

Originally, first-year students do not go to the Magic Palace.

But Isabel was from the special class along with Lucas.

The special class, unlike the regular first-year students, was recognized for their skills and sent to the Magic Palace first.

As such, Isabel should have gone to the Magic Palace as well.

But the day before going to the Magic Palace.

Isabel had a fight with Lucas over something really trivial.

The reason was that Isabel had caught a terrible cold at the time.

Even though Isabel insisted on going together despite her cold, Lucas firmly refused.

In the end, Lucas left with his newly formed team, promising to bring back some tea that was good for colds on his way back.

And Lucas never returned.

The only news that came back was that Lucas had been killed by the apostle, without even a body.

They had been childhood friends who had grown up together.

The last memory of such a childhood friend was a quarrel.

Isabel felt completely empty.

A sunflower that has lost the sun withers away.

She didn’t eat, drink, or sleep.

Isabel was dying like that.

Then one day.

A person appeared in front of her.

A boy who had insulted her childhood friend Lucas in front of everyone.

A boy who had done something unforgivable to Isabel.

Hanon Airey.

Consumed by anger because of him, Isabel changed.

Even if she were to die.

She resolved to make sure that Lucas’s insult was retracted before that.

She became relentless.

She ate, drank, and slept, spending her entire day training.

To defeat him and show how great Lucas was.

She began to live.

Hanon was a peculiar boy.

Perhaps because the first button was fastened wrong, he always sneered when he saw her.

Many in the class disapproved of him, and some even blindly criticized him.

But Hanon didn’t bat an eye.

Instead, he provocatively made statements as if to say, criticize me more.

And yet, as if to prove his conviction.

Hanon would do things that would astonish everyone without a second thought.

A lazy genius, even when Ban gave his all, it was shocking to everyone in the Martial Arts Department.

‘What kind of person is he?’

He was an utterly unpredictable person.

Perhaps that’s why, lately, Isabel couldn’t stop thinking about Hanon.

“Isabel, are you okay? Are you tired?”

“Oh, sorry. Don’t worry. I’m fine.”

At that moment, Isabel was startled by the voice calling from the front and answered.

This place is the Demon Palace.

Yet, she was lost in thought, her mind elsewhere.

“Ugh, I’m sorry. I’ve caused everyone so much trouble.”

Then, a student of the Holy Studies, who was being supported by Ban from behind, spoke.

He was Gaison, ranked third in Holy Studies.

He was currently under the curse of an Apostle, unable to muster any strength in his body.

Normally, he would use Holy Arts to purify himself.

Unfortunately, he had exhausted all his Holy Arts in a fierce battle with the Apostle and was cursed afterward.

Because of that, his recovery of strength to activate Holy Arts was delayed.

So, instead of pushing themselves, Isabel’s team decided to return to the surface to let Gaison recover and then climb back up the Demon Palace.

“It’s okay, considering the opponent. It’s a relief it ended like this.”

A male student of Magic Studies in Isabel’s team comforted Gaison.

As he said, the Apostle they faced on the third floor this time was much stronger than the previous ones.

It was clear that this Apostle had stayed in the Demon Palace for a much longer period than the previous ones.

If Ban hadn’t joined the team this time, they might not have been able to defeat the Apostle.

Boom!

“By the way, why has it been so noisy upstairs for a while now?”

Mina, a student of Martial Arts and Isabel’s friend who was walking ahead, frowned.

They were already climbing the stairs back to the first floor.

For some reason, it was extremely noisy upstairs today.

“Who is fighting with the Apostle?”

“We’ve all passed by with the seniors, but the Apostle is still there? Can there be anyone other than the small fry?”

The students whispered among themselves.

Isabel also looked up the stairs, showing her doubts.

At that moment, Ban suddenly raised his head.

Ban’s eyes gleamed eerily.

“Everyone, be prepared.”

In the instant that everyone couldn’t understand his short words.

BOOM!

The sound of an explosion shook the entire staircase.

The students were all startled by the huge vibration and lowered their stances.

The vibration reached even the first-floor stairs.

Whatever was happening above, it was clear that something big had happened.

“Let’s go up quickly.”

When Ban urged, everyone hurried up the stairs with the same thought.

As they all reached the ground, what they saw next was thick smoke.

“What on earth happened?”

Mina waved her hand in bewilderment.

Then, after a while, the smoke slowly began to clear, revealing the gray forest.

And the revealed gray forest bore traces of battle everywhere.

A giant root that had been cut off.

The ground turned gray where someone had trampled.

Even pieces of corpses presumed to be Apostles scattered here and there.

It was a scene that could not be imagined as the gray forest they had passed through.

“This is strange. It’s different from the old gray forest. The Apostle’s energy is filling this place to a dreadful extent.”

Gaison showed a reluctant expression and shrank his body.

Even as a devout believer of the god, ranked third in sacred studies, he was reluctant to be here because of the overwhelming Apostle’s energy.

“Isabel.”

At that moment, Ban called Isabel.

Ban was pointing somewhere.

There was a woman carrying someone, running desperately.

I had seen the face of the woman with blue hair before.

She was definitely Aisha Bizbel, a first-year student.

Isabel’s eyes widened.

It was because the person in Aisha’s arms was Hanon.

“H-Hanon?”

Isabel muttered the name in confusion, and everyone reacted.

“Hanon, that trash?”

Isabel’s friend Mina frowned.

“Oh, the famous transfer student.”

A student of magic showed interest.

“Mina, you shouldn’t refer to a fellow academy friend like that.”

Gaison scolded Mina.

At least everyone knew Hanon’s name.

It meant that his actions in a short period had been shocking enough to attract everyone’s attention.

“Let’s go.”

The only calm one among them, Ban, spoke up and headed towards Hanon.

Then everyone followed Ban towards Hanon.

Gradually, the team on the first floor came into view.

The most surprised among them was Gaison.

“S-Sir Sirmiel!?”

Saint Sirmiel of Saint Eden.

He was there, a person with a status as high as the princess.

Other students were also surprised one after another.

The impact of the name “Saint” was significant even to the students.

But Sirmiel did not look this way.

He was just using holy magic to heal Hanon in front of him.

Everyone gasped as they saw Hanon.

Hanon’s condition was a mess.

His skin was scorched and burned in places, and his left arm was completely twisted.

It was a serious injury, anyone could see that.

“…Seron, what happened?”

Ban asked Seron, who was in a daze.

Seron turned to Ban with a blank expression and flinched.

“Oh, oh, Ban? When did Isabel and Mina get here?”

He seemed so out of it that he didn’t even realize Isabel’s group had arrived.

“Seron, can you tell us what happened?”

Isabel asked again, and Seron scratched the back of his head.

“Well, you see, an Apostle appeared on the first floor. What was it again? They said that after ninety-nine similar terrains appear in the Demon Palace, a dangerous Apostle appears when the hundredth similar terrain appears.”

Seron rambled on.

But Isabel’s team was composed of smart and skilled individuals.

Even though Seron was rambling, they understood perfectly.

The point was that the Gray Forest had reached its hundredth iteration, and a much more dangerous Apostle appeared.

Somehow, Seer Hanon knew this and led everyone to face the Apostle and win.

That was the conclusion.

“Is that guy an idiot? If he knew that, he should have told us earlier so we could gather people and fight.”

Mina, who had listened to the whole story, reacted in disbelief.

But it was Gaison who refuted her words.

“No. The Gray Forest remained unchanged until we descended to the second floor. There might be specific activation conditions unique to the Gray Forest.”

The condition was that the Apostle wouldn’t appear until the number of people decreased to a certain level.

In fact, such conditions had consistently appeared in the history of Demon Palace strategies.

Hanon knew this and waited until all teams moved to the second floor.

“Moreover, it’s the Gray Forest. The more people there are, the harder the battle becomes.”

Gaison pointed to the gray area on the ground.

As he said, the more people there were, the harder it was to fight in the Gray Forest.

Whether they liked it or not, they had to fight the Apostle with a small number of people.

“Se, senior…”

At that moment, Poara, who had been keeping her lips tightly shut, spoke.

“He intended to stay in the Gray Forest until something went wrong.”

Even if the hundredth Gray Forest had no issues.

Even if the condition for activating the Apostle is that everyone must leave their place.

That’s fine as it is.

“I thought you were planning to wait until the end so that everyone could return because of the Apostle.”

If you hold this position until the end, the other students who went down to the Demon Palace can return safely.

For that, Hanon willingly stayed in the Gray Forest.

This is an academy.

What happened in the Demon Palace also becomes the student’s achievement and benefit.

Apart from the mission to protect the world from the Demon Palace.

The place where those who want to make their name known to the world gather is Jerion Academy.

But Hanon willingly waited on the first floor, giving up all of that.

Only so that everyone could return safely.

And the Apostle that appeared was so dangerous that the team would have been annihilated if it weren’t for Hanon’s instructions.

If another team had stayed, they would have been annihilated by the Apostle.

The exhausted students who fought the Apostle downstairs would have been massacred as well.

So Hanon fought the Apostle, throwing his body into the fight, and defeated it.

“I didn’t mean for it to really become like a burnt sweet potato…”

Seron muttered with a dark face.

Everyone had a solemn expression.

Among them, Isabel was staring blankly at Hanon.

In her mind, the words Hanon said on the first day he came to the academy kept repeating.

“I came here to prevent such a disgrace from happening to the prestigious Jerion Academy.”

No more disgrace should come to Jerion Academy.

Isabel’s eyes widened.

Now she understood.

It also meant that no student would die and everyone would return safely.

As if to say, there would be no more deaths like Lucas’s.

‘That’s what it meant.’

Isabel’s fist clenched and trembled.

Isabel had spent her time in vain, completely broken by Lucas’s death.

But Hanon trained himself and confronted it so that such things would not happen again.

That fact made Isabel feel a sense of being dragged down.

‘I lost.’

She lost to him in many ways.

Isabel looked at Hanon and reflected on her defeat alone.