Meanwhile, Lu Deric, who had been trailing behind Baek Yu-Seol and Hong Bi-Yeon while staying hidden, was surprised.


    ‘How are they moving so fast?’


    If they were ordinary first-year students, it would be normal for them to encounter monsters or get caught up in extra stories within the Persona. That would naturally slow them down.


    But Baek Yu-Seol was either clearing every myth and legend in record time or finding shortcuts to bypass them altogether. He was moving so quickly that if Lu Deric didn’t sprint at full speed, he would lose sight of them.


    ’The rumors are true. This guy is insane.’


    Lu Deric had heard plenty about how exceptional Baek Yu-Seok was, but seeing it in person was something else entirely.


    Only now did Lu Deric fully understand how remarkable his abilities truly were.


    He had hoped to offer a little ‘senior assistance’ whenever Baek Yu-Seol hit a snag, but the opportunity never arose.


    It was almost frustrating for Lu Deric, who was itching to prove his usefulness.


    ’Well, it’s fine… For now.’


    Lu Deric nced at the floating guideline message in the air.


    [The Tale of a Certain Yokai]


    It was clear. Baek Yu-Seol hadn’t evene close to approaching that story.


    Lu Deric wasn’t sure if Baek had even finished his analysis properly.


    ’The myths and legends that appear here are tied to specific locations.’


    For example, if there was an urban legend about a red-masked figure wandering the city, it wouldn’t make sense for that story to take ce in a rural vige or forest. Most legends were bound to their original settings.


    In other words, for Baek Yu-Seol to find the key legend needed to clear the Persona Gate, he would have to search the slums, not just wander around the city.


    ’This particr story… Is likely set in the outskirts.’


    Lu Deric slowly read the forgotten tale inscribed in the guideline message:


    [The vigers called it the season of blooming mes when they saw the leaves falling. It sounded a bit strange to ■. In the crisp ■ autumn, it was too cold for mes to bloom.]


    Though some words were missing due to iplete analysis, it didn’t hinder Lu Deric from understanding the gist of the story.


    ‘Baek Yu-Seol… There’s no way you’ve gotten this far in the analysis, right?’


    It was impossible.


    Lu Deric’s family, the Lu, were the heirs of ancestors that once spent twenty years clearing a Danger Level 9 Persona Gate.


    His family had mastered the art of Persona interpretation. No matter how gifted Baek Yu-Seol was, he couldn’t possibly have more advanced calctions than Lu Deric.


    Even the geniuses like Hong Bi-Yeon and Ban Di-Yeon hadn’t managed to extract the guideline message yet, while Lu Deric had already grasped the entire ending.


    ’Keep wandering, Baek Yu-Seol, so this senior can help you.’


    But then Lu Deric noticed something strange.


    Baek Yu-Seol, who had been moving quickly earlier, was now walking side by side with Hong Bi-Yeon. He had slowed down as they steadily progressed through the gate.


    No, it wasn’t exactly a leisurely pace.


    If earlier it felt like Baek Yu-Seol was recklessly rushing through the stories, now it appeared like he was taking a much more stable and precise approach to clearing the gate.


    ’... He really is impressive.’


    In fact, this cautious version of Baek Yu-Seol seemed even more intimidating to Lu Deric, perhaps because Lu Deric himself was a meticulous academic type.


    ’But waiting is boring.’


    Watching them quietly exchange words, Hong Bi-Yeon’s striking beauty caught his eye. It irritated Lu Deric for some reason.


    ’It must be because Princess Hong Bi-Yeon is such a beauty.’


    Feeling restless, Lu Deric forced himself to look away from Baek Yu-Seol and resumed reading the guideline message.


    Since he now had time to spare, he could finish what he hadn’t managed to read earlier while chasing them.


    [In the season when mes bloom, there was a child in that vige.]


    [The child’s form was so grotesque that it was unclear if they were human or monster. He lived... in the vige...]


    ———-


    Meanwhile, when Ane opened her eyes again, she found herself in a cold forest.


    She wasn’t exactly lying in the open, but in a structure that resembled a shack—something that had been built in an attempt to look like a hut but had utterly failed. It was a pile of wooden nks that had be her bed.


    “Ugh...”


    Grabbing her head, Ane groggily looked around the shack in disbelief.


    “Is this supposed to be a house...?”


    The ramshackle nks were so poorly assembled that it looked like it would barely keep the wind out. The ce appeared on the verge of copsing at any moment.


    What was even stranger was that the shack was filled with living essentials and trash, as if someone had been living there for a long time.


    Whoever lived there must have endured in this miserable hovel for quite some time.


    “Who on earth lived in this dump...?”


    As she said that, Ane realized her own situation wasn’t much better than whoever had lived there.


    She had been living under a tattered roof in the ruins of her fallen nation, barely managing to escape the rain and wind.


    ’Never mind that... Where am I?’


    Ane tried to piece together herst memories.


    The sky had turned pitch ck.


    The Witch King.


    The talisman had been taken from her.


    ’And then… Did I jump?’


    After that, her mind had be foggy, and she couldn’t remember anything.


    Slowly standing up, she started walking along the forest path.


    The darkened sky from her memories seemed like a lie now since the day was bright and clear.


    The saying, ‘the autumn sky is high,’ something she''d never quite understood as a child, now made sense to her.


    “Ugh. This is tough.”


    The forest path was rugged with barely any signs of human passage, making her descent slow and difficult. She couldn’t help but wonder who on earth had built a shack in such an isted ce.


    After walking for what felt like a couple of hours, Ane eventually came across a gravel road. Relieved, she followed it.


    A stream flowed beside the path, and the rice fields were full with the stalks bowing under the weight of the grain.


    It was a peaceful vige.


    The chirping of sparrows felt like a melody in the air.


    “Huh?”


    Nearby, she spotted an elderly woman. The woman had dropped some fruit and was trying to gather them back into a basket. Ane couldn’t just pass by, so she hurried over.


    “Let me help you, Grandma.”


    As she reached out to ce the fruit into the basket, the old woman suddenly hurled a potato at her head.


    Thud!


    “Ugh!”


    “You wretched creature, how dare you crawl down here?!”


    “W-What...?”


    “Get lost, right now!”


    The old woman stomped on the fruit picked by Ane and crushed it under her foot.


    “Disgusting filth! Filth touched it!”


    Thud! Thud! Thud!


    She wasn’t stomping on Ane, but the fruit held by Ane. Yet somehow, the sight made Ane feel as though her own heart was being crushed like those fruits.


    “Why… Why...?”


    “You’re not human! How dare you pretend to be one? Get out!!!”


    As the old woman screamed at the top of her lungs, vigers started rushing in from all directions, wielding pitchforks and shovels, and charged towards her.


    “The cursed creature hase down from the mountains!!”


    “Chase her out immediately!”


    "Wa-wait! I''m not a monster…!"


    Ane tried to say, but the words got stuck in her throat.


    ’Not a monster?’


    Really?


    Ane wasn’t human—she was a dark mage.


    The word monster wasn’t exactly urate, but it wasn’t entirely wrong either. She couldn’t deny it.


    "Get out! Right now!"


    "Leave the vige!"


    Stones, potatoes, fruit, and eggs pelted her as Ane sprinted away without looking back.


    Even when the vigers'' shouts were no longer audible, she didn’t stop.


    She ran without stopping .


    With her superhuman physical abilities, it took quite a while before she became so exhausted that she felt like her lungs were burning, the sky was turning yellow, and the world was spinning.


    She couldn’t run anymore, her bodypelled her to stop.


    Thud!


    Copsing onto the ground, Aney sprawled on her back, staring up at the sky.


    "Heh… Heheheh."


    Augh escaped her lips for no reason.


    "The sky… It’s beautiful..."


    Stars twinkled above her.


    She had run so far.


    Raising one hand to cover her eyes, she shook her head from side to side.


    ’That’s right… I’m not human.’


    She had spent so much time blending into human society, hiding her dark mage nature with dark magic suppression techniques. Normally, she wouldn’t have been able to get near humans at all.


    ’This is how things are supposed to be.’


    She was despised by humans and feared as a repulsive creature.


    Sigh...


    There was no need to feel discouraged now. She didn’t know why her dark magic suppression had failed, but she had always known this could happen.


    "Alright… Let’s go back."


    After all, she hadpleted her mission. She had gathered information about the Witch King''s movements, and she had survived. In that sense, it was a sess.


    With that thought, Ane got up and began walking down the gravel path again.


    She walked continuously.


    And by the time the sun rose again...


    "... Huh?"


    She realized she had somehow returned to the same vige.


    "A... Monster..."


    About ten vigers were staring at her in shock.


    For a moment, the vigers appeared as if they were teenage students in Ste uniforms, but it was just a fleeting illusion.


    They reverted to their true forms—farmers in their 30s and 40s.


    Gasp!


    As Ane took a step back, the farmers grew more rmed and began to mutter amongst themselves.


    "What the... It''s a monster!"


    "What do we do? Should we kill it?"


    "It''s so grotesque... Do we really have to fight it?"


    "This is definitely that forgotten one, isn''t it?"


    "I-I don''t know! Just attack it!"


    In an instant, the farmers pointed their pitchforks and sickles at Ane like staff and fired off mes and ice spikes.


    Whoosh!


    Boom!


    Why were these farming tools shooting magic?


    Ane didn’t have the mental capacity to question it. Although she was being hated by humans, she didn’t want to hurt them, so she turned and ran desperately with the vigers chasing after her.


    "Hey! The monster''s running away!"


    "Chase it down and kill it!"


    "Damn it! It’s too fast!"


    "Don’t let it escape!"


    Using her superhuman abilities to sprint away once again, Ane copsed in front of a spring deep within the forest.


    Huff. Huff...


    Burying her face in the dirt, she forced herself to take deep, ragged breaths.


    What had she been so afraid of?


    Was it the humans'' attacks?


    What aughable thought.


    Their blows barely even tickled her.


    A dark mage wouldn’t die from being struck by mere farming tools.


    But.


    It wasn’t the physical attacks she feared.


    It was hatred.


    The overwhelming fear of being despised.


    It was so terrifying that it made her knees weak.


    It was so painful that it brought tears to her eyes.


    It was so intense that it felt like her heart might burst.


    Ane wasn’t weak enough to be injured from the fall, but somehow, she was too scared to stand back up.


    She knew that if she didn’t get up now, she might never rise again. And yet, her body refused to move.


    ’Why... Why am I going through this?’


    ’Is it because I’m a dark mage?’


    Ane let out a bitterugh.


    ’Ah! Right.’


    It was only natural for her to be hated.


    She wasn’t human.


    She could never be human.


    ’This... Is my fate, after all.’


    As the cold night wind chilled her to the bone, Ane closed her eyes tightly.


    The starlight disappeared from her view.


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