Chapter : 11
I’ll Save You in the Bad Ending Route
Damian Belfet
“Hm? What are you talking about? Isn’t your partner standing right behind you?”
“No! I cannot partner with someone like him!”
The boy shot a glare at the student standing behind him. The other boy’s long, dark navy hair covered his face entirely, hiding his expression.
At that moment, Professor Rivender brightened and shouted.
“Oh my! Isn’t this none other than Damian Belfet, the sole heir to the Belfet family!”
Damian flinched. The students gasped, turning their attention to him. Whispering broke out.
“He’s partnered with Damian? Poor thing…”
The boy clenched his teeth and glared at Damian.
“Professor! There are tons of students who’ve gotten hurt sparring with Damian. He can’t control his magic!”
Damian Belfet.
Known as the biggest troublemaker in the entire school.
A hunched back, shoulder-length messy hair, and eyes completely hidden by long bangs—an eerie boy whose expression could never be read.
No one welcomed him. Everyone looked at him with a mix of fear, contempt, and disgust. No one wanted anywhere near him.
There he is. The game’s hardest route, the strongest S-tier character—Damian Belfet.
In this game, he was an S-tier, late-bloomer character.
“What nonsense! How can you say that to Damian!”
Professor Rivender, noticing the children’s hostile looks, turned red with anger.
“You kids have no idea how incredible of a wizard he is! He is the only one in this school… no, one of the very few in this entire nation born with the Dark attribute!”
Dark magic, like Light magic, is unlike other attributes—never inherited from parents.
Only certain people could manifest it, for reasons unknown. Its mysterious nature—and rarity—bred prejudice.
They don’t even know the difference between dark magic and black magic.
Black magic refers to all forbidden spells that require a sacrifice or price.
Damian slowly raised his hand.
“…Professor… I-I’ll just practice alone…”
He bowed his head, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. But Professor Rivender flung his arms wide.
“What are you saying, Damian! I know your true ability! Aren’t you the hero of that Heretic Massacre Incident!”
Silence fell instantly. Students stared, speechless.
Even I tensed.
That’s not something you say in front of students.
Damian’s face cooled.
“T-The… Heretic Massacre Incident?”
A student asked timidly. Rivender burst into excited explanation.
“Yes! You don’t remember because you were young? The whole world was in an uproar back then! An eight-year-old slaughtered an entire sect with dark magic!”
“Slaughtered?”
“With dark magic?”
Students gasped like they’d heard a horror story. Only Rivender grew more enthusiastic.
“The one who wiped them out is this very Damian Belfet standing here!”
He threw an arm around Damian’s shoulders. Damian’s breath came ragged. Then Rivender grabbed Damian’s bangs and forced his head up to show his right eye.
“Eek!”
The students screamed. Beneath his bangs, one eye glowed blood-red, and the other was entirely black—no white at all, like a monster’s.
“This is the proof! They tried to sacrifice him to their god—he awakened powerful dark magic instead and annihilated them! Dark magic is incredible! It’s not the same as black magic!”
Damian trembled violently, head bowed. Students stared with disgust.
Watching Rivender parade Damian like some freak show made me feel sick. Damian shoved him away.
“S-Stop… P-Professor p-please…”
He was shaking so badly it was visible from afar, and even his shadow wavered. Rivender grabbed his arm again.
“Come now! Show everyone your dark magic! Let them witness its greatness!”
“H-Huh?”
“I’ll help you control it!”
He dragged Damian to the center of the arena, drawing a practice sword.
“Show them the difference between dark and black magic! Show them how great it is!”
Damian’s shadow rippled violently. Students watched, terrified.
The shadows surged like waves.
“S-Stop…”
He covered his ears and crouched. I covered Pina’s ears, knowing what was coming. Rivender barked:
“Hurry up!”
The moment he said it, darkness swallowed our vision.
“What? What’s happening?”
Darkness fell across the morning arena. I grabbed Pina’s arm.
“Ahhhh!”
Lamps exploded one after another. Glass shattered. Students screamed, frozen.
I tightly shut my eyes.
Then—
“AAAAARGH!”
Rivender’s scream. It faded into the distance, then—thud.
No one moved. I stood frozen, waiting for the spell to end.
Finally, the net of darkness shrank back into Damian’s shadow. Light returned.
Damian stood trembling, drenched in cold sweat.
“Kyaaa!”
Students screamed when they saw Rivender collapsed beneath a toppled lamppost—crushed in the exact shape of his fall.
“Professor, are you okay?!”
“Can you move?!”
He groaned, trembling.
Well, you got your wish to see dark magic.
Students turned to Damian. He was covering his ears, panting.
“…Monster.”
Someone muttered. Panic rippled. Fingers seemed to point without pointing.
Damian clutched his head and bolted from the arena.
Pina stared between Damian and Rivender.
“Wh-What do we do…”
“I’ll go after him.”
“Huh? O-Okay.”
I couldn’t leave him alone. I ran after him.
Damian ran toward the rear gate. I chased, but he disappeared fast.
“Where’d he go?”
Footprints littered the snowy grass—too many to track.
I steadied my thoughts. Then turned right, into Loas Forest.
The forest was used for herb and monster training. Only advanced students entered—so Damian used it as a hideout.
I passed a sign: Warning: Low-level monsters. First and second years must be accompanied by a professor.
Spirits whispered around me.
“Someone’s here again.”
“Oh my, look at that aura—body and soul smell different.”
I turned toward the voices—instantly, they vanished.
Soon, I saw the “Lightning-Struck Tree.” A shoe poked from a hollow.
I knocked twice.
Damian emerged, startled, crying. I kept my tone gentle.
“You okay?”
He wiped his tears, glaring with his red eye.
“H-How did you find me… Who are you…”
“I was worried.”
He looked ready to shove me away, but I knew he wasn’t someone who hurt others on purpose.
“Sorry for scaring you. I traced your footsteps.”
“…”
He said nothing and crawled back inside, clearly rejecting me. I sat and tried again.
“That must’ve been terrifying. Did you get hurt?”
Tears dripped silently.
“G-Go away. I… I’m a monster. Don’t stay with me… You’ll get hurt too…”
Seeing him shake broke my heart. I grabbed his trembling hand.
“That’s not true. You didn’t hurt anyone on purpose. And the professor was the one at fault.”
He stared with his unscarred left eye—gleaming like a ruby.
Eventually, he pulled his hand back.
“S-Stop. Don’t pity me.”
His voice turned sharp—Damian, whose low self-esteem spat words like instinct.
“I-I don’t need pity… You’re just here to mock me too! J-Just leave me alone!”
His shadow flared defensively.
“…I don’t do that.”
But he turned away.
I sighed. Spotted a blue herb, picked it, and held it out.
“Heal your hands.”
“What?”
“You’re bleeding.”
Only then did he look—blood dripped from his palms. He’d clenched his fists so hard he’d cut them.
“….”
He took the herb and curled up.
I stood.
“I’ll go. If you need anything, say so. My name is Airan Chandler.”
I left. For now, it was enough if he remembered my name.
Because I was going to bring Damian Belfet—the hardest route, strongest S-tier—onto my team.
The next day, gripping Laotis’s Tear, I planned how to meet him.
A rare potion worth 5,000G—probably S-rank since Freya and Aaron brewed it.
I would give it to Damian and recruit him for the Orion Trial.
Called the three-star rank-up exam, the Orion Trial required a pair to enter a labyrinth and score enough to place in the top five.
To pass, you needed the best partner.
Candidate one: Pina.
But she wasn’t taking the trial—so no.
Candidate two: other S-tier characters.
Freya and Aaron already took the test and became four-star mages.
Rowen, another S-tier, was off campus and also already passed.
That left Damian.
He was the only S-tier I could partner with.
Worst difficulty, best potential.
Cripplingly low self-esteem, trauma, and unstable powers—hard to handle. Even when recruited, dark magic came with heavy restrictions.
That’s why no one picked him first. Who wants a hard-to-use, hard-to-recruit character?
But all that changed in the war a year later.
Brainwashed by the mastermind, Damian reappeared as the enemy.
His overwhelming dark magic annihilated the protagonists again and again.
Damian Belfet became the first great wall players slammed into—the Wailing Barrier.
After that, gamers called him:
“The Demon King of Fear.”
