ISBER 30

Chapter : 30

I’ll Save You in the Bad Ending Route

Jeremiah Belpet

Leaning on his staff, he wore an ornate coat emblazoned with the Belpet family crest.

Seeing his violet pupils made my previously calm mood crumple, replaced by a surge of irritation.

Damian had two half-brothers. The eldest was Jeremiah Belpet, and the second was Vincenzo Belpet. Both were utterly despicable in Damian’s eyes.

‘They tried to kill Damian when he became the new heir of the Belpet family.’

From their perspective, suddenly being told that a bastard taken in from nowhere would inherit the family must have felt like the ground collapsing beneath them. They tried to force Damian out of the family.

Then came the infamous “cabin incident.”

No matter how much they tormented him, Damian’s father never kicked him out, and Damian showed no sign of leaving on his own. So the two brothers secretly invited Damian to a cabin, sending him a letter suggesting reconciliation.

Damian, delighted that his two brothers—whom he wanted to get closer to—had reached out, went to the old cabin without suspicion. There, his brothers trapped him in a cabin in a forest infested with monsters.

“Help! Please! Let me out!”

Damian’s desperate cries earned only laughter from the two brothers.

“Some lowly brat like him will inherit the Belpet family? What a joke!”
“Loving dark magic, huh? Someone like you deserves to be eaten by monsters!”
“Imagine what father will think when he sees this corpse!”

They imagined their father’s horrified face and laughed. Eventually, the sounds of Damian’s screams drew the monsters closer.

From a tree above, they watched, eager to witness Damian’s end.

Then… Damian went berserk inside the cabin. He annihilated every monster around him and destroyed all the trees.

“Arghhhh!”

The tree the two wicked brothers were hiding in collapsed—one broke a leg, the other was impaled in the eye by a branch.

“My… my leg! I… I can’t feel it!”
“My eye! M-my eyyeee! I can’t see! Aahhh!”

Damian emerged from the ruined cabin and approached his two brothers. His eyes were devoid of any light.

“Ahhh! A monster! Monster!”
“Please… save me!”

Listening to their screams, Damian fainted. He would remember nothing of what happened that day.

The eldest lost his right eye, and the second became paralyzed on one side. Yet Count Belpet, Damian’s father, remarked:

“Indeed, Damian, you are the only one worthy of inheriting our family! The greatest dark mage!”

Damian suffered guilt for hurting his brothers, his father praised it, and the eldest brother still schemed to steal the heirship despite failing to kill him. This was the true Belpet family: nothing short of a complete mess.

‘The one with the eyepatch on the right… definitely Jeremiah Belpet.’

Seeing his face made my stomach turn.

He was here as the stand-in for their ailing father, attending the Roas Academy sponsorship meeting.

‘Typical Belpet arrogance. Look at him strut.’

It wasn’t good to attract his attention. I quickly stepped aside.

‘I need to warn Damian. He has to know his brother is here.’

If Jeremiah found out Damian was taking the Orion exam, he wouldn’t stay still. I had to get Damian to move away immediately.

I hurried to the library, which was surprisingly quiet. The space was so vast that it felt deserted. I searched for Damian but couldn’t find him anywhere. When I realized he wasn’t even at the old tree he often frequented, a foreboding thought crossed my mind.

‘…Could he have already met Jeremiah?’

In the game, Jeremiah always called Damian a “monster,” trying to undermine him. It was part of his plan to prevent Damian from confidently controlling dark magic.

‘I can’t let him face someone like that alone!’

I sprang up and ran out of the library. I had heard Damian might be in the garden, so I rushed there.

The winter wind blew through the leafless branches as I entered the garden along the library path. But no one was there.

“Where are you?”

“Dami…!”

Just as I was about to call out, a metallic voice interrupted.

Damian and Jeremiah stood facing each other. Damian immediately lowered his gaze as Jeremiah’s eyes fixed on him. His body trembled with fear.

“Ah… brother, what… what are you doing here…?”
“Seems you forgot I’m the school’s sponsor, Damian. Naturally, I must attend the sponsor meetings. I am, after all, acting on behalf of Count Belpet.”

Jeremiah twirled his staff, etched with a snake design, and smiled at Damian—a smile reminiscent of a snake satisfied before devouring its prey. Damian looked ready to run.

“Oh, Damian, I have some news for you. Something very worthy of celebration.”
“…Y-Yes? Wh-what is it?”

Damian shrank at every soft, deliberate word. Jeremiah enjoyed watching him cower. He couldn’t hide his smile as he spoke quickly:

“Your nephew displayed dark magic this time. Isn’t that something to be happy about? As your uncle, I congratulate you.”

Crazy. I swore silently.

Jeremiah wanted to usurp Damian’s heirship at any cost. He had even married early and had a son, intending to pass the family onto him if he couldn’t inherit it himself. Now he was trying to turn his son into a dark mage. His actions made me want to vomit.

Damian didn’t know how to react to hearing there was another heir besides him. He swallowed dryly.

“Th-That’s… g-good… news, I suppose…”
“Yes! It means this house now has two successors! Hahaha!”
“…Y-Yes… That is… all you have to say?”

Damian seemed desperate to escape to the library. I hesitated to intervene but this was a Belpet family matter, not mine.

Then Jeremiah, with a low and sweet voice, flicked his tongue.

“Oh, the Orion exam? I think you should reconsider, Damian.”
“Yes…?”

Jeremiah spoke with exaggerated concern:

“What if your partner dies then? Whenever you use magic, someone always gets hurt, right?”

Even I flinched. His tone was disturbingly precise, like a snake’s tongue brushing your ear. Damian’s shadow shivered, his breathing quickened. My body froze, unsure whether to stop Jeremiah, though my mind screamed to act.

“Wh-What are you saying, brother…? Y-you just came all of a sudden…”

Damian clutched his chest, trembling, almost crying.

“This is rational concern! Someone was hurt again, wasn’t it? Was it a professor? You actually injured a professor. Truly, that’s like you. Father was so pleased… even your ears heard it all.”

“Th-That’s not it…”

Damian clenched his fists.

“You couldn’t even do what your eight-year-old nephew did. How can you take the Orion exam? Think of your poor partner.”

“Th-That won’t happen… I-I can control it now!”

He pounded his chest, his voice ringing across the garden, recalling his training.

‘Good. Damian has grown.’

If so, I didn’t need to intervene yet.

Jeremiah’s face, which had been mocking, now turned serious. A cold winter wind seemed to blow between them.

“Really? You think you can? Where does that confidence come from?”

Jeremiah, leaning on his staff, stepped closer. Damian tried to back away, sweating, glaring at him. Jeremiah smirked.

“By the way, do you even have a partner? Who would partner with someone like you?”

He circled Damian like a snake constricting prey.

“…Y-Yes, I do.”
“Oh? Who would partner with a monster like you?”
“N-No, that’s not it…”

Jeremiah was attacking Damian’s low self-esteem. Damian couldn’t reply. Jeremiah seized the moment.

“Whoever it is, they’re using you. Because you’re the Belpet heir.”

“Ah… Ailran isn’t like that! Sh-Shandler family’s Ailran! She is my… my partner!”

Jeremiah’s eyes widened in feigned surprise and curiosity.

“What? The Shandler family? That makes sense! A girl from a ruined family, with no parents, no house, no fortune… partnering with you?”

He placed a hand on Damian’s shoulder. Damian flinched. Jeremiah whispered:

“Desperate for money, it seems. Risking her life to partner with you! Why would she do that? She knows our family is wealthy! Isn’t it obvious, Damian?”

What the hell is he saying?

I was about to intervene but froze. I had initially approached to partner with Damian, so if Jeremiah dug deeper, I might slip up and get caught in his trap.

Fortunately, Damian tried his best to argue:

“A-Ailran… she’s… not like that…”
“Why would anyone partner with someone like you? Think, Damian!”
“B-Because… she…”

His lips trembled. He couldn’t find the right words. Jeremiah leaned closer and said firmly:

“Damian, if you keep being used, you’ll end up empty and discarded. Poor kids can do terrible things. Now, you have a chance to avoid being used. Don’t take the Orion exam. You can’t take the exam properly with a suitable partner!”

His words were venomous.

He knew Damian’s low self-esteem, trauma, and past. Damian paled, gasping like someone bitten by a poisonous snake.

‘Annoying.’

I was angry at my own helplessness. No—I had to act now to protect Damian.

“Stop it!”

At that moment, Damian pushed Jeremiah hard. His clear voice rang out:

“Sh-She’s not like that… Ailran! Ah, Ailran does everything for me!”

His voice trembled, but his eyes burned with fire.

“Don’t speak ill of Ailran! She got me potions, helped me control magic, showed me I’m not a monster, and even helped me make friends! She saved me!”

Damian pressed his hand to his chest.

“That’s why I must take the Orion exam! Don’t speak about Ailran like that!”

It felt like he was speaking not to Jeremiah but to himself. His words strengthened my resolve.

I now knew exactly how to respond to Jeremiah and why I had to partner with Damian.

Jeremiah looked like he’d been struck.

“Th-This…!”

His first time facing Damian, his face reddened, twisted with rage.

“How dare you talk back to me! You lowly brat!”

Jeremiah lost his composure and raised his staff.

I grabbed the nearby mop. Jeremiah’s staff flew from his hands into the grass.

Both he and Damian looked in shock. The mop lay beside the staff.

I struck the staff safely with the mop, then stepped before Jeremiah, standing tall.