A deep darkness settled over the mountains. Atop a spire-like peak of jagged rock sat two figures: a young man with silver hair and a single gold monocle and an old man covered in tattoos from head to toe. They were the Archbishop of Depravity, Mephisto, and the Archbishop of Beasts, Jackal. These two monsters, who stood at the pinnacle of the demonic hierarchy, gazed down upon Valhalla City and the Hero Academy in the distance.

Jackal let out a throaty laugh, shoulders shaking as if he were savoring the situation. “Well, well, well. This doesn’t look too good for the mighty Archbishop of Depravity, does it?”

Mephisto said nothing, his lips pressed into a thin line. Even for him, this failure had been a bitter one. His usually calm, mocking expression was stiff, his face like stone.

After a moment, he replied, “Yes. I admit, I didn’t expect the Blessing of Frost to dissipate so easily.”

Jackal’s laugh rattled like phlegm. “Heh. I can’t remember the last time I saw that look on your face. Decades, perhaps? So what now? Planning to give up?”

Mephisto’s response was firm. “Of course not. The plan isn’t completely ruined yet.”

Bent, twisted, yes, but it was not broken.

Jackal narrowed his eyes, stroking his beard. “The plan, huh.”

He then asked, “By the way, I’ve been curious about something.”

“Yes, go ahead,” replied Mephisto.

“What exactly is your plan’s true purpose?”

Mephisto chuckled softly, as if the question itself were absurd. “Purpose? Why, to release the Demon God from His seal, of cour—”

Jackal burst into a metallic-sounding laugh before Mephisto could finish. His eyes gleamed with a chilling sharpness, cutting straight through the other man. “How many years do you think I’ve known you, Mephisto? You never intended to break the Demon God’s seal. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.”

Jackal turned his gaze toward the distant Hero Academy. “Trying to make Yuren Helios into the ‘Sun,’ creating Artificial Soul Stigmatas, and even trying to claim that witch for yourself, all of it.”

His eyes glowed with a feral light, and a low, savage growl echoed through the forest. Hundreds, no, thousands, of beasts emerged, surrounding Mephisto in a tight ring.

The tattoos covering Jackal’s body flared with an ominous glow. “You were sabotaging the plan to unseal the Demon God, weren’t you?”

Mephisto kept quiet.

Jackal chuckled darkly, his shoulders trembling again. “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice that you’ve been secretly meeting with a hero?”

Mephisto let out a wry laugh, shaking his head. “This is... rather awkward.”

“I’d say I’m the one who’s more surprised. So, care to explain? Why is a demon like you conspiring with a hero?”

Mephisto’s lips curved into a faint smile. “Hm. The reason is simple. He had something I needed, and I had something he needed. That’s all.”

“And what exactly is it that you both needed?”

Mephisto smoothly interrupted him. “And, I also have something you need, Lord Jackal.”

“What did you just say?”

Mephisto adjusted his golden monocle and continued, his tone calm and confident, “Wouldn’t you like to know how to enter the Abyss?”

Jackal’s eyes widened in shock. “Y-you know that? How?”

Mephisto’s smile widened. “Haha. Just as you’ve discovered what I’ve been hiding, I’ve done my share of discovering too, haven’t I?”

The wrinkles around Jackal’s eyes twitched in agitation.

Mephisto extended a hand toward him. “Well then, what do you say? Shall we join forces for the sake of our mutual goals?”

The forest sank into silence once more. Darkness hung heavy, wrapping the world in stillness like a curtain.

***

After that unfortunate incident, Iris locked herself in her room, claiming to be sick and refusing to answer any messages. I let out a quiet sigh as I stared at the message thread with no reply. Well, I guess I couldn’t really blame her.

“Maybe it’s a good thing we don’t have any classes this week,” I muttered.

Since the other groups hadn’t finished their mentoring sessions yet, this week’s Practical Combat Training class was postponed.

I flopped onto my bed with a sigh. At that moment, a message alert sounded from my Hero Watch.

Ding!

I wondered if it was Laneige again. While she didn’t bombard me with hundreds of messages these days like she did that first day, she still texted three or four times a day, at least.

I checked the screen. “Huh? It’s not from Laneige?”

The message was actually from Professor Baldwin. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Professor Baldwin: Dale, could you come to my office immediately?

I blinked. It was still early morning, and the sun hadn’t even fully risen yet. What could she want at this hour? Still, I thought I would just go there and see. So, I replied that I would be there soon and left the dormitory.

The golden autumn leaves fluttered in the chilly wind as I stepped outside. “It’s starting to get cold.”

When I came back to this lifetime, when I was reborn, it had just turned spring. More than half a year had already passed. Half a year was short if you called it short and long if you called it long; in that span of time, my whole life had been overturned. The life before the regression felt like a dream.

“No.”

I closed my eyes. A vast white plain unfolded in my mind with frost settling on my skin, a whirling blizzard, the sight of my comrades dying, and my being powerless, only able to scream.

“It’s not a dream.”

It couldn’t be a dream. That distant time, that endless nightmare, forged the man I was now.

“I mustn’t let myself relax yet.”

I couldn’t stay drunk on the sweetness of this life. No matter how much I had changed, there was no guarantee that those changes would necessarily lead to a better future.

Pushing those complicated feelings aside, I headed toward Professor Baldwin’s office. “Let’s go.”

When I reached her office, I tapped lightly and stepped inside. Professor Baldwin was there, cross-legged in her chair, smoking a cigarette.

“You came,” she said.

“Isn’t it a little early for a visit?” I asked.

“Hm! I’m hurt. Do I not merit a visit from you unless something’s wrong, Dale?” She stubbed the cigarette out in the ashtray and stood up, walking over with a teasing smile to ruffle my cheek. “There’s no class this week, so I thought I’d just see your face. That would be reason enough. Is that not allowed?”

“Well, that’s not what I mean.”

She pinched my cheek as she laughed. “Heh heh. I’m joking.”

Since she didn’t smile often, every time I saw that small smile, my chest would flutter.

But it was brief. The smile fell from Professor Baldwin’s face, and a violet, piercing glint flashed in her eyes. “I smell a strange woman on you.”

“Huh?”

“Hmm. It’s not Iris, and it’s not Yurina.” She scanned me from head to toe with that sharp, piercing look as if she could see through me. “Have you got another woman around you lately?”

Her insight was ridiculous. How could she tell by scent? I stared at her in disbelief.

Professor Baldwin sighed while shaking her head. “In just a few days, you’ve already got a new woman? You really don’t let your guard down, do you, Dale.”

“No, I didn’t seduce anyone,” I explained.

She tightened the pinch on my cheek and squinted. “Of course you didn’t. You never intend to. As always.”

I decided there was no point dragging it out, so I forced the topic onto something else. “So, why did you call me here?”

Professor Baldwin turned to her desk and sat, slipping another cigarette into her mouth. “The reason I called you is something I was informed about during the mentoring sessions.”

“What happened?”

“A ten-eyed demonic monster was reportedly sighted near the academy.”

“A ten-eyed monster near the academy?”

Not every mentoring party went south to the monster-infested regions like Aaron’s. In fact, trips to the far south were rare. Most mentoring took place closer to the academy, in hunting grounds where mainly three- to four-eyed demonic monsters popped up. If cadets claimed to have seen a ten-eyed demonic monster, that was something else entirely.

“Of course, there’s no solid proof. The cadets who saw it fled in panic and couldn’t get a good look,” she added.

“Hmm.”

“My personal opinion is that they probably misidentified something.”

True, if cadets had actually come within sighting range of a ten-eyed demonic monster, they wouldn’t have escaped. Rather, they would have been instantly overwhelmed.

“Still, we need to investigate. If a ten-eyed demonic monster is roaming near the academy, we can’t leave it alone,” she said.

A ten-eyed demonic monster was powerful enough that only heroes known as Rankers—and even among them, only the high-ranking ones—could reliably deal with one. If one showed up near the academy, it could mean massive casualties.

“That’s why you called me?” I asked.

She lit the cigarette with a playful grin. “Heh heh. A delicate woman like me can’t go on an investigation alone, can she?”

I snorted at her response. Professor Baldwin and the word “delicate” didn’t fit together at all.

She continued, as if unbothered, “Honestly, I’ve had little time to be with you lately, Dale, so I thought this would give us a good excuse to meet.”

“Isn’t that a bit... blunt?”

She gave a wink. “Why? Don’t you like blunt women?”

The wink was so shameless it made me shake my head.

“All right, I’ll go. Since there’s no class anyway,” I said.

“You’ve always been last in grades but meticulous about attendance, haven’t you, Dale?”

Don’t make me into a joke, ugh.

She leaned back, smiling teasingly. “Just kidding.”

However, the smile faded quickly, and the violet gleam in her eye sharpened. “Now then. We’ll go and investigate together. And then, while we’re there, I want to hear, calmly and in full detail, who this new woman around you is.”

I suddenly got the feeling that I had walked straight into a spiderweb I hadn’t noticed.