༺ Return by Death? ༻

‘What a crazy bastard.’

I recognized what he was trying to accomplish, but it was too extreme.

I really thought I was going to die.

“What’s going on, Si-woo? Ha-eun told me to come so I did, but you guys started fighting…”

Seo-ah, who didn’t seem to grasp the situation at all, questioned me.

‘Yeah, I should take advantage of this situation. That was probably why he attacked me anyway.’

“You heard the announcement earlier about the chairman looking for me.”

“…Yeah.”

“And you saw that bastard attack me, right?”

Looking around, everyone had an understanding expression on their face, except for Ha-eun.

In addition, as if being around Ha-eun and Seo-ah was still awkward, Lee Hyun-a looked really uncomfortable.

‘Why is Lee Hyun the most suspicious?’

I said that to gauge their reactions so I could find out who among them was the chairman’s daughter.

Between Ha-eun and Lee Hyun-a, it had to be one of them. Someone had hidden the fact that they were the chairman’s daughter for over six years. I intentionally mentioned him attacking me as a way to test their reactions.magic

But the issue was that Lee Hyun-a’s reaction was more suspicious than either Ha-eun or Seo-ah’s.

But he’s a guy…

“Seo-ah, you should know that already, but the chairman was doing something bad. He attacked me because he got scared he might get caught.”

The chairman likely intentionally attacked me so that I could have an easier time convincing my comrades.

With his level of power, he likely noticed Ha-eun and the others approaching his office and timed his attack properly, making himself look like a villain.

‘Pretending to be the bad guy, huh?’

To be honest, it was all still a bit suspect. The chairman I knew wouldn’t act this way.

I wasn’t sure what he had planned, but because he remembered what happened before I regressed, it could be related to that.

Well, since he had set up the board, I just had to make the moves.

“I have something I need you guys to do.

Slowly, I told them about the dungeon and the information related to it.

***

“Of course I can do it, Master!”

“Um, of course I can. But why is Ha-eun calling Si-woo ‘Master’…?”

“…”

Perhaps due to Ha-eun’s excitement, the rest of the group easily agreed to come along.

Seo-ah only questioned why Ha-eun called me “Master.”

Lee Hyun-a remained discontent.

‘I have to convince him.’

The chairman had said that if anyone went off on their own, they would die.

I wasn’t sure if I could believe him, but for now, I didn’t have a choice.

Even if I didn’t like Lee Hyun-a, we had been comrades for six long years.

‘Well, there’s a way.’

Giggling, I thought of a way to force him to come with me.

Smiling lightly, I whispered something into her ear.

“Hey, Lee Hyun-a.”

“…?!”

As if surprised, he backed away quickly.

Was hearing his real name that much of a shock for him?

Regardless, I had gotten the response I wanted.

“How did you know-?”

“I have my ways. I don’t know why you’re hiding it, but that’s not important.”“What do you want?”

“Come with us to the dungeon. If you do that, I at least won’t make it public.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“That’s harsh. I’m just making a proposal.”

“…”

Lee Hyun-a was staring at me with disgust.

Whether it was because he didn’t want his true name revealed, he agreed to come along

“Ha-eun calls Si-woo Master just because of that? Not just anyone, but Ha-eun?”

“It hurts!! Let go of my cheek!”

“It doesn’t make sense. The Ha-eun I know is so prideful, she would never bow her head to anyone. C-Can you call me Master too?”

“You have to be deserving of that title! I’m the Dark Flame Dragon! I won’t bow to just anyone!”

“Is that right?”

I looked at Seo-ah and Ha-eun strangely as they continued their loud banter.

***

Classes weren’t held that day because of an insufficient number of students.

‘…At this rate, they may never hold classes.’

The reason the current academy admitted students was to exploit them and take advantage of their resources.

Now, the situation had changed very drastically.

Even that bastard might not be able to find a solution easily. I couldn’t be sure, though.

Right now, I had something I needed to focus on.

“So this is the only thing we have to destroy?”

The trap the chairman had told me about was the priority.

‘I don’t know what kind of bastard is behind this, but I’ll take him alive.’

None of the others needed to help me.

‘I will catch whoever is in this dungeon by myself. I’ll get as much information as I can out of him and stop anything dangerous from happening in the future.’

“Doesn’t a dungeon like this normally have a boss monster?”

“It’s strange that there’s nothing…”

“Something definitely feels off.”

The chairman must have been telling the truth about this place being a trap. There were many strange aspects to this dungeon.

A normal dungeon would have rooms with normal monsters and a hidden room with the boss.

But in this dungeon, there were no monsters at all.

To be more specific, there was nothing in the places where monsters would normally be.

“Ha-eun.”

“Hmm?”

“Conserve as much of your mana as possible. If something goes wrong, we have to use [Mass Teleportation] to get away.”

Because this place likely held a clue about that bastard, I had no intention of turning back.

Until I gained something valuable, I would see this expedition to its end.

But the others couldn’t follow me.

I was confident because of [Magi Manipulation], but because I couldn’t guarantee the safety of my comrades, I gave an order to Ha-eun.

‘Seriously though, there’s nothing here.’

Due to the lack of monsters, we made it to the boss room with unnatural speed.

A huge door was in front of us, symbolizing the grandiose boss room.

Nothing had happened up until now. I had prepared something for the boss, but maybe I wouldn’t need it.

-Screech

We pushed the door open.

“…Si-woo.” As soon as we entered, Seo-ah called out to me with a surprised expression.

It was natural for her to be surprised.

‘Th-That’s the dragon from back then.’

The dragon that had killed everyone but me and died as a result of my final attack.

It seemed the hatchling of that dragon was in the room.

“Isn’t it dead? Can a dungeon boss even die a natural death?”

“It’s dead?”

“Look! It’s not even moving!”Because I assumed it was a trap, the dragon I had thought would be alive was not moving at all.

Looking at its corpse, it looked like it was only maintaining its form despite being dead.

‘…What is this?’

Even if it was that dragon, I had confidence I would win. Even though I had used a different method last time, I had killed it before.

But why is it dead? Is this not the trap?

What was happening?

‘Something’s wrong.’

I couldn’t understand it, but something felt off.

That dragon and its flock were definitely that bastard’s henchmen and remained by his side.

But why would one be dead?

‘Did the trap itself get screwed up?’

Thinking quickly, I recognized two possibilities.

Firstly, he set up a trap using that corpse, or the trap he had created was destroyed somehow.

Neither possibility was good.

“Ha-eun! [Mass Teleportation], now!”

“Oh dear, I can’t let that happen.”

At that moment, a girl appeared in front of me.

She was smiling brightly, but it was strangely cold.

-Snap!

As soon as she saw Ha-eun attempt to cast her skill, she flicked her finger. With that noise, I could tell something had gone wrong.

“I can’t activate my skill, Master. What should I do?”

“What?”

She was preventing the skill from being cast entirely? I didn’t know how she did it, but we couldn’t run anymore.

“Who are you?”

“Hey, don’t be so cautious. I destroyed all the traps here for you. Shouldn’t you be grateful?”

“I asked you who you are.”

It made no sense.

The very fact that she interrupted Ha-eun’s skill meant she wasn’t on our side.

“That hurts my feelings, even though it’s not possible for you to remember me right now.”

It seemed she had no interest in answering, so I used the [Eye of Greed] to look at her status window.

[Sta]

Name: Mane

Le@: #!*@(!)

!#: @!@

[$1: @!#] [St%: +)] [@#$:(#] [!$#: $*#!] [@##: $^]

(Remaining attribute points are 0+_)

Skills:

$$#(!@#) $!#$(!@$) Skill Limit #$(S) #@I#!(!$+) Return by Death (S)… [click to see more]

‘What?’

Everything in the status window other than the name was a complete mess, but there was something far more surprising than that.

“Return by Death?”

The skill I no longer had could be seen in the status window of the girl in front of me.

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