People prepare when crisis approaches.

They overcome when despair descends.

But when destruction arrives, they give up.

And in the life that remains, they think about what they could do. Things they never got to enjoy, things they never managed to achieve.

As they reflect upon themselves like this, they suddenly realize there were shackles around their ankles. And that those shackles were the reason they had to endure it all. The moment they realize this, people shatter the shackles and become beasts.

And what follows, naturally, is the pursuit of instinctual violence and blind pleasure.

Right now, the Academy was in exactly that situation.

Two months had passed since that day.

“Haa…”

On another morning of a dying world, I found myself opening my eyes once more. The remnants of sleep hadn’t faded, leaving my mind hazy. Just five minutes. The delusion that just five more minutes would be enough seized me.

Of course, a delusion is nothing more than a delusion. I shook off my lingering fatigue and rose from bed. Without even taking time to wipe the sleep from my eyes, I looked at the calendar.

“It’s Monday…”

I let out a deep sigh at my own words. The reason was similar to before the destruction. Monday was the day I had to go to the Academy.

No one had told me to do so; it was a day I had set for myself. Twice a week, and especially on Mondays, I would go to the Academy without fail. The purpose, naturally, was information gathering and restocking supplies.

The latter purpose was particularly pressing. I had managed to grab enough food and other essentials the day I fled the Academy alone, but there were still many things I lacked. Toothpaste. Soap. Most of them were hygiene products I hadn’t thought of at the time.

Toothpaste, in particular, was a real pain. Why hadn’t it occurred to me back then? Having to endure a week with no toothpaste left felt like I’d been sent to hell.

On top of that, I needed to prepare for the possibility of escaping the island, so I made a point of visiting the Academy at least once a week. Of course, it was something I loathed with every fiber of my being, so I always sighed before heading out.

“Haa…”

Even so, I still had to go. I got up right away, stuffed the necessary items into my backpack, and rose to my feet, using my sword as a cane. For someone who had been hesitating, it was a remarkably quick preparation for going out.

“…Kol-rok. Kol-rok.”

A cough escaped me the moment I stepped out the door. A foul stench had been creeping in, seumul-seumul, from the side. I shut the door firmly and turned my gaze toward the source of the smell.

Soon, the nameplate mounted beside the door caught my eye. My own nameplate, set up to greet visitors. It was effective, but the smell was giving me a serious headache. Regardless, the effect was undeniable, so I blew a puff of air, hwuk, in its direction for good measure.

At that, the swarm of flies that had been burrowing into the severed hand took to the sky in unison.

Whose hand was that again? I couldn’t remember, but the moment I acquired it was clear in my mind. It was about a month after I had left the Academy. A group of male students had somehow tracked my trail and broken into my home. The moment I saw the blunt weapons in their hands, I drew my sword without hesitation.

I slashed off the wrists of the two at the front, and they fled just as fast as they had come. I considered relocating, but for the time being, I mounted one of the severed hands beside the door as a warning. The effect was far more outstanding than expected.

But the fact that such people had come looking for me meant the Academy was no longer functioning properly. From that point on, I began scouting the area. And within two days, I realized my suspicions were correct.

I wasn’t happy about it at all. Perhaps, deep down, I had hoped I was wrong.

And it had crumbled far faster than I had expected.

“…”

As I walked, chewing over memories that weren’t even that distant, the Academy came into view in the distance. I let out another sigh and covered my nose with my sleeve. Even the smell of that place was different now.

“Ugh…”

The first thing to hit me was the stench of blood.

Perhaps I was partly to blame for that. The ones who had fled with severed wrists that day had bled far more than expected, and some hadn’t survived, leaving dark, swollen shadows in the shaded undergrowth. I deliberately didn’t check whether there were rotting corpses in that direction. It would only make me feel worse.

Still, the smells that followed weren’t my doing. They were the foul odors of a daily life that had been twisted out of shape—food waste, stagnant water, and mixed in with it all, the stench of blood and the fishy smell of semen.

Enduring those smells and pressing forward, the nose unfortunately adapts. Once that happens, the sense of wrongness fades, and for just a brief moment, you get the illusion that things have gone back to the way they were. Because to the eye, the Academy looked no different from before.

I despised that moment. It felt like I was becoming part of the corrupted daily life myself.

At any rate, the scene in front of the school gates was no different from before. The wide-open gates, and the two people standing guard in front of them. One of them was even someone I knew, making it all too easy to mistake it for the way things used to be.

But fortunately, today, the closer I got, the more I was greeted by noises that were anything but ordinary. I deliberately listened in, forcing myself to feel the wrongness.

“Heok… heok… ugh…”

“Ah… ah-ahng…”

…

“Euh-ha… hu-uu…”

“Ah-ahng… ah-ah…”

“Hu… fucking bitch… haa…”

“Good grief…”

As crude profanity filtered through between exhausted sighs and miserable moans, a cynical smile crept onto my face unbidden. The closer I got, the louder the crack-crack sound of flesh slapping together grew.

“Ugh… eu-ugh…!”

“Ah… heu-ik… ah-ah…!”

The gatekeepers hadn’t noticed my approach, too absorbed in what they were doing. At least one of them had enough decency to hide his partner among the bushes, thrusting away vigorously from behind. Suppressing the rising nausea, I called out loudly to the one I recognized.

“Professor. Stop that and do your job.”

“Heok… heok… who— no, Lo… Lope!”

“A-heu-ik!”

The professor snapped his hips back in a panic and yanked up his pants in a flash. Beneath the woman’s tearful cries, bodily fluids dripped steadily to the ground. Unable to stomach the sight, I turned away and gave him time to compose himself.

“Y-you… how did you come without any warning…”

“When have I ever announced my visits? Just pull up your pants.”

“Ah… yes. I’m sorry.”

Drenched in sweat, bbijil-bbijil, he bore a fleeting resemblance to the man who had delivered the news of destruction to us that day. If one were to dig beneath the surface, perhaps a remnant of his former sense of duty and conscience still lingered somewhere.

“Heuk… heu-heuk…”

But the evidence of depravity hidden beyond the underbrush flatly denied that possibility. The girl was still quivering, pareul, in her thighs, yet desperately trying to burrow deeper among the leaves. That figure, trying to preserve whatever last shred of dignity she had left, was utterly pitiful.

Of course, it wasn’t as if the professor’s position was completely incomprehensible. He too must have tried to protect the students at first, but the shock of learning that the Headmaster and his associates had fled the island must have been devastating. And when he heard they had taken every remaining boat with them, he must have despaired.

By that point, most of the security guards had already vanished, leaving him with neither the power nor the justification to keep the students in line. Most likely, even the will to do so had been erased.

That didn’t justify his actions, though.

“S-so what brings you here, Lope? What is it today?”

“Why do you think? I came to trade.”

I gestured with my chin and gave my backpack a couple of taps. Inside were practice gloves and things like balloons. For a moment, the professor’s eyes flickered with interest.

“Ah, right. A trade. What did you bring?”

“What’s it to you?”

“No, I was just… asking.”

“Then I’ll be going. Unless you have further business.”

“W-wait a moment! I was given orders… no, a request, to report when you showed up…”

“I’ll deliver it myself. And I’ll put in a word about you while I’m at it.”

“Ah…”

At my words, the professor’s face crumpled into a mess. Fear welled up in those pathetic eyes. The authority over this Academy now belonged to others, not the professor.

The ones who were the second most perceptive in this Academy, and the most vicious.

Reluctant as I was, I began climbing the Academy stairs once more to meet them.

The moment I stepped inside the Academy, I gripped my sword handle. Soon, voices from a distance began drifting over, accompanied by shadows.

“Ah, fuck… this is bullshit.”

“What.”

“I think we can break through soon. The defenses are better than expected.”

“Right. Tearing my nerves apart, these bitches…”

And the voices cut off abruptly the moment they stood before me. They stopped in their tracks the instant they saw me and called my name in a daze.

“Lope…”

“I’m here to trade.”

“Ah…”

They were unfamiliar faces, but they seemed to know me. One of them even clutched his wrist—the one that hadn’t been cut off. And before I could say anything, both of them bolted off in some direction.

They were probably going to fetch someone. It wasn’t the first time this had happened, so I waited without panic. After a moment, a man with a familiar appearance walked out.

“Hey, Lope!”

His voice was even unnecessarily cheerful. Instead of showing my displeasure, I looked behind him. Three or four shadows were loitering around the corner, but showed no signs of approaching.

The guy seemed to read my mood, grinning ssik as he spoke.

“Don’t worry. They won’t come closer.”

“Good. That’s a relief, Roman.”

“I talked things through with them, like always. You guys don’t need to be so tense either! Lope is my friend, after all.”

“…”

Of course, I wasn’t friends with him. Even before, we had merely been in the same class, sharing little more than a passing acquaintance. What I remembered about him was that he was a shrewd, cunning character. I recalled him always hovering around the biggest or most magically gifted guys in class.

And after that day, it seemed he had put those talents to use, attaching himself to the ones who had taken over the Academy. He had curried their favor with the lie that he was friends with me. Apparently, being able to converse with a sword-wielding lunatic held more value than one might think.

I didn’t particularly deny it, either. Having someone like him as a connection inside the Academy wasn’t a bad thing. Though his overly familiar attitude did rub me the wrong way.

“So what’s up today, Lope? Need something?”

“This and that. So I brought things you guys need, too.”

“Oho…”

I pulled out the practice gloves and balloons in front of Roman. He nodded with satisfaction.

“Not bad. Alright. Tell me what you need. Is it essentials like last time?”

“Yeah. And it’d be nice if you filled me in on what’s happening at the Academy. Is this much enough?”

“More than enough. You’ve got good taste, by the way. Who would’ve thought things like this would become essential when things went to hell?”

I hadn’t known either. I had packed the gloves just in case, but I never expected balloons to be stashed underneath.

And I certainly hadn’t expected those items to be used in that manner.

“We were running low on condoms, too… this works out perfectly.”

“…”

“By the way, Lope. You don’t need any? I mean… just asking.”

“I’m fine.”

I had no desire to know how they modified these gloves and balloons for use, nor did I want to imagine it. Roman stuffed the items I handed him into his bag and asked in a noticeably lighter tone.

“The quantity is about the same as last time. Should I give you the same as what I gave you before?”

“Throw in some food, too, and we’re good.”

“Of course. I’ll be right back. Wait here.”

“Actually, hold on. There’s something I want to ask.”

“What is it?”

“Are you guys still doing that? Searching.”

“Ah. Hunting.”

Roman replaced my word with a more repulsive one. Put nicely, it was searching for missing persons. In their words, it was hunting prey.

To be more precise, it referred to the act of hunting down students who had gone into hiding to escape the ones who had seized control of the Academy.

“Still at it. There are plenty of… missing people we haven’t found yet. But we’ve searched just about everywhere we can. What’s left are locked rooms and wherever those bitches are barricading themselves.”

“Still at it, huh.”

“The Academy is big, but there aren’t many places to hide.”

The implication behind those words was far more vile than they sounded. What happened to those who were found by their search parties required no great imagination to figure out. One only needed to look at the girl by the school gates.

At least, as he said, a group of students evading them had sealed off one remote building and were holding out, but how long that would last was anyone’s guess. Any obstacle, any magic, would eventually be breached given enough time.

That was why I wanted to find the people I was looking for before that happened, by any means necessary.

“So what. You got someone you want to find? Who?”

“There’s… you know. That blind girl I mentioned before. The only other one besides me who majored in swordsmanship.”

“Ah, her. Still haven’t found her. I asked around quietly, and it doesn’t seem like she’s with those bitches.”

“What about Saya? Have you seen her by any chance?”

“Saya?”

“…The mute. The one in our class.”

I finished speaking heavily. That day, I had searched the classroom for Saya, but she was nowhere to be found. I had been too busy gathering essentials and given up quickly, but now I regretted it. I should have at least kept track of Saya’s location. And that blind underclassman’s, too.

“Ah… her. Don’t know. But what, do you have a fetish for disabled bitches or something? You sure look out for them.”

“Watch your fucking mouth.”

“Sorry. Didn’t mean it like that. I just… is there no one else you want to know about?”

“…”

I kept my mouth shut. Not because no answer came to mind, but because I didn’t want to ask about the name that had.

Lena.

That name had always lingered in my mind. But I couldn’t even figure out what I wanted to know. It was a name that simply surfaced without any tender feelings attached, so I couldn’t even grasp whether I wanted to know her whereabouts. If they had captured her—if they hadn’t—how would I react?

“Oh, right.”

Roman let out an exclamation as if something had just occurred to him. His tone suggested he had just remembered something he’d forgotten.

“I don’t know about the ones you mentioned, but there is someone whose status I can tell you for certain.”

“Is that so.”

“Want to know?”

“Who?”

When I asked, he raised one eyebrow and answered.

“The Student Council President.”