‘Yeah, fuck off. Not doing it.’

……I desperately wanted to answer exactly like that, but.

‘Let’s think about this rationally.’

My current stats were all F-Rank. I’d used up nearly every item I previously had on hand.

On top of that, for reasons I couldn’t fathom, my notoriety had reached the level of a vicious wanted criminal.

Under these circumstances, what were the odds I’d survive without the System’s cooperation?

I was mulling this over while glaring at the ‘Yes/No’ prompt when—

Screech.

“……!”

The sound of a door opening reached my ears.

Reflexively, I put on the blank expression ‘Chris’ frequently wore.

‘Stay calm. This kind of development is actually familiar. The person who takes in and cares for a suspicious collapsed stranger is, with high probability, a kindhearted villager or a young child. No real need to be on guard…….’

“……Master? Have you perhaps come to your senses?”

No, they’re not.

Neither a kindhearted passerby nor a young child.

A demon with a rotten personality and a body as big as a mountain!!!

“It’s me! I’m Aron…… Aron! Your first disciple!”

I know. And I also know you’re a key figure in the Demon Lord’s army!

‘Fuck, is this the Demon Lord’s Castle? Am I being held hostage right now?’

Cold sweat streamed down my body. Wasn’t this a situation where I should jump up and bolt at any moment?

Even so, Aron…… that is, the First, approached me with long strides, his face brimming with emotion.

“Ah, you don’t need to worry. This is my hideout. A refuge I built separately within the pit. No one other than me could find it.”

Uh, what…… what did you say?

Wait a minute, the pit he was talking about right now—that pit.

The deepest pit in the Demon Realm, where the real Chris had shoved the First in with a “Drop dead!”

A hellhole teeming with monsters.

This place…… was that?

‘Damn it, the moment I step out of this house, I’m dead!’

A place from which self-escape was absolutely impossible. And stuck to my side was the bull-like First.

At this rate, the novel’s genre would unquestionably shift to an obsessive confinement story.

“Master? Ah, you’ve just woken up, so you must be hungry. The only thing we have here is monster meat, but I’ll prepare some. Once you’ve regained your strength, there’s so much I’ve wanted to ask you…….”

Looking at this demon who lacked even the basic common sense that shoving meat instead of porridge down the throat of someone who’d starved for a year would kill them, I made a decision.

I’d add a new setting to the existing ‘Chris’ roleplay.

‘If the First hid me in his hideout and nursed me for a year, it means he wanted me to wake up. Which means he still has something he wants to hear or learn from me.’

But I didn’t know what that was. Even if I did, I couldn’t give it to him. What if he flipped on me after hearing it?

Therefore, I needed to create a reason for this guy to keep me around a bit longer.

I took a brief, deep breath and opened my mouth.

“Wait.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Who…… are you?”

“……Pardon?”

“I don’t remember. Anything.”

Amnesia. And on top of that—

“Where is this—cough……!”

“M-Master!”

I was going with a sickly character roleplay that included coughing up blood!

‘He’d seen with his own eyes that it took me a full year just to open my eyes, so the plausibility was sufficient.’

For this, I’d bitten the inside of my cheek and spat out blood. The fact that ‘Chris’s’ original skin tone was a corpse-like cool tone would help sell it too.

“Cough, cough, hack!”

“Water! Here, drink some water first! Where were the medicinal herbs, the herbs…….”

Sure enough. The First immediately panicked and scrambled about.

Then he tried to shove something that looked unmistakably like poisonous weeds into my mouth, so I barely managed to inhale while pretending to have calmed down.

‘You lunatic! My stomach right now is weaker than a salaryman who’s been through four rounds of drinking last night!’

“Haa……. I feel a bit better now. So, would you mind explaining the situation? I’m your master, you say?”

“……You truly seem to have lost your memory. For you to use such polite speech, Master.”

The First’s face was painted with a sense of futility.

That reaction just from ‘Chris’s’ rudeness returning by about five percent?

‘Wasn’t he the guy who resented his master for turning cold?’

Honestly, I could never understand the hearts of creatures called disciples. They wavered more than reeds, at the level of those dancing inflatable tube men flailing in front of stores.

“No, it’s fine. Please don’t worry about anything, Master. Your recovery comes first. Everything else, we can find together, slowly.”

The First gently took my hand and spoke affectionately.

“Aron, your ‘one and only’ disciple, will take good care of you by your side!”

“…….”

You little bastard, look at this.

It seemed like he was using my memory loss as an opportunity to do some image laundering on himself.

‘Should I play along for now?’

When I slowly nodded, Aron’s face brightened almost like the moon. Then, filled with enthusiasm, he headed for the door, saying he’d prepare a meal right away.

“Ah, just in case you didn’t know—don’t even think about going outside or to the surface. The world has been quite chaotic lately. Something terrible will happen. This place is the safest.”

Yeah, it seemed that way…….

I won’t describe the outside landscape I glimpsed in the moment the door opened. If anyone were eating, it would definitely ruin their appetite.

I’ll just make one thing clear: with this body, even a stroll was out of the question.

But hiding me in this hellfire pit was the safest option?

How fucked up was the surface?

“Hey, System.”

[…….]

I spoke to the guy who was steadfastly shoving the quest description window in my face.

“Looks like things aren’t going quite as pleasantly as you’d hoped, huh? Wow~ I went as far as swapping out my heart and offering it up, and this is how you handle business. Hmm?”

[…….]

“Well, that said, I’m not planning to be difficult. Show me this so-called return reward first. I’ll decide whether to do this epilogue or whatever after seeing it.”

That’s right. I was a player who had already completed one main quest. On top of that, I’d seen the ending they’d be most satisfied with.

In other words, I’d done my part. If they wanted me to do more, the System’s side needed to sweet-talk me properly, didn’t they?

The system window trembled as if ashamed for a moment, then displayed a new blue window.

[★Extraordinary Return Reward★

– Select 3 rewards from those received in the previous main quest and receive them again!

– You can reject quests you don’t like up to 3 times!

– Customization system open! Customize your appearance as you wish!]

Oh.

“Cheapskate bastard. Is this all you’ve got?”

[……!]

Actually, compared to before, it wasn’t a bad reward at all. Especially the third reward—it would come in quite handy in a world where the roleplay of disguise magic didn’t exist.

But it still wasn’t enough. Why?

‘Because I lost my S-rank mana!’

Sure, even if I’d had it, I couldn’t use magic, so the best I could’ve done was serve as a mana shuttle—but it was S-rank, S-rank!

I’d solved the quest at the cost of discarding that, and this was how I was treated?

Was this a joke? They must be confident they could find a better player than me, huh? Shall we all die together? Why don’t I just press ‘No’ right now?

[And finally! There is a tru-f*cking-ly extraordinary reward!]

Another system window popped up in a hurry.

Geez, no need to rush so much that you make typos.

Relax, relax~ I’m not even begging you to let me use magic again. I’m just asking you to follow basic business ethics. It’s better for you too if I stay alive, right?

[……This time, it will truly be a reward that satisfies you.]

“Oho.”

And the sentence that followed was truly sufficient to satisfy me.

Yes, this was the minimum for having a conscience.

I readily nodded.

[You persistent bastard…….]

[There was a brief transmission issue. We apologize.]

[Starting Main Quest ‘Epilogue’.]

[Main Quest: Epilogue 1-1]

[The ultimate goal of this main quest is to collect 100% of the X-Class students’ ‘graduation certificates’.

First, let’s meet the X-Class students scattered across the continent and persuade them to return to the Academy.]

What, did they all desert school en masse? Or did some other problem arise?

Either way, one of the causes was probably…….

‘Their professor bailed on them?’

Hmm.

This called for some self-reflection.

I’d thought that since they’d grown strong enough to defeat the Demon Lord, they no longer needed a master.

The Protagonist and his friends had grown by leaps and bounds compared to the first round, after all.

But that was strictly about their bodies and magical abilities.

Their hearts hadn’t matured at the same pace.

‘Why couldn’t I have recognized that?’

I’d forgotten the teachings of countless senior Transmigrators. A premature farewell only earns you #RunawayGirl and #Obsession tags.

Of course, even if ‘Chris’ had known, she wasn’t the kind of warm person who would have stayed, so it probably wouldn’t have made a big difference.

In any case, I still had a long way to go.

As their master, I needed to at least give them a lesson on separation anxiety.

‘Since I’m at it, I’ll train them hard and make them truly independent adults. Let them reinvent themselves as masters of self-study with this opportunity. So that after graduation, they won’t get dragged into anything for real.’