Chapter 22: A Villain route exclusive quest

Kael slowly approached the crowd. The closer he got, the heavier the atmosphere became. Students stood packed together around the central fountain, but none of them seemed willing to step closer to whatever had happened in the middle of the plaza.

Kael’s eyes moved across the crowd and surprised at the emerging tension among them: Fear, confusion, and anger.

Beneath all of it, a growing hostility. That last emotion immediately caught his attention.

Something had happened. Something bad enough to make students from both departments look at each other with suspicion.

Kael pushed through the crowd to see what was in the center.

"Excuse me."

A few students glanced at him before reluctantly stepping aside. Kael had become somewhat recognizable within the academy not only because of his duel with Leon and Victor, but also because he was widely known as the only student with the Rank F Hero Core and the lowest combat. Even students who didn’t know him personally had probably heard his name.

His attention was fixed on the center of the plaza. Then he saw it. Kael stopped. His pupils contracted.

The academy’s central plaza had always been one of the most impressive locations within Astral Dominion Academy.

At its center stood the Hero Statue. It depicted a legendary hero from the academy’s founding era, clad in magnificent armor and holding a massive spear toward the heavens.

The Spear of Judgment.

The weapon wasn’t merely a decorative part of the statue.

According to the game’s lore, the original spear had supposedly been forged from a rare astral alloy and enchanted with powerful defensive magic. Although it was no longer usable as an actual weapon, it had remained permanently embedded within the statue’s hands as a symbol of the academy’s founding creed.

Power Decides Truth.

Today, however, something else had been embedded upon it.

A body.

A lifeless body of a student had been impaled against the massive spear. His uniform was soaked with blood. His body hung limply several meters above the ground, pinned against the stone statue as though someone had deliberately placed him there for the entire academy to see.

Kael’s face went blank.

For several seconds, he couldn’t move. The surrounding voices became distant. The plaza disappeared from his awareness. All he could see was the body.

’What...’

His mind struggled to process what his eyes were seeing. Then his gaze sharpened.

’This wasn’t supposed to happen.’

He knew that much.

Absolutely.

There had never been an incident like this two days before the Wilderness Survival Examination in the game. Not in any route. Not even in the hidden quests he had discovered during his time playing Eclipse Hearts.

Kael slowly clenched his fists.

"What happened?"

Someone behind him whispered.

"They found him this morning." Another one answered.

Kael listened to them.

"I heard he was killed last night."

"No, that’s not what I heard. They said he was attacked by someone from the Villain Department."

"Are you sure?"

"That’s what everyone is saying."

Kael’s eyes narrowed.

Villain Department.

His gaze moved toward the students dressed in black and crimson uniforms. Several of them were already arguing with Hero Department students.

The one taking the lead from the Hero Department was Leon Valcrest. His cold gaze locked onto another named character, a familiar face. It’s Lilith Thorne. Her playful smirk met Leon’s gaze with the same energy.

"You think we did this?" She asked.

"Who else would?" Leon responded.

"Watch your mouth!"

"Enough!"

A professor’s voice thundered across the plaza.

The students immediately fell silent. Several instructors and academy security officers had surrounded the statue, preventing anyone from approaching.

Kael barely heard them. His attention remained on the corpse. Something about this situation bothered him. Not simply because someone had apparently been murdered. There was something else.

Something familiar. He couldn’t explain it yet. Kael had seen countless quest scenes in Eclipse Hearts: Murder mysteries, political conspiracies, faction conflicts, assassinations, framed characters, and false evidence.

There had been practically everything.

But this scene...

His eyes slowly moved from the corpse to the enormous spear. The position. The location. The way the body had been displayed. It wasn’t simply murder.

Kael’s expression gradually changed. A memory surfaced. Not from the main storyline. From a quest chain he had encountered while playing the Villain Route.

He remembered the objective. Create discord between the Hero and Villain factions. The quest had been designed specifically for players who chose the Villain Route. One of the easiest methods involved creating a fake murder. A player could use a special item to create a perfect replica of a student, then stage the corpse somewhere highly visible.

The goal wasn’t actually to kill anyone. The goal was to make both factions believe that someone from the opposing side had committed murder.

Once the accusation spread, the player could manipulate the resulting conflict and increase the hostility between the two departments. It had been one of those quests Kael remembered because of how ridiculous it had seemed.

At the time, he had laughed at the quest description. Players had found it amusing. A convenient way to increase faction reputation. A little chaos and a little manipulation. Nothing particularly serious because it was a game.

But now...

Kael stared at the body hanging from the Spear of Judgment.

His face gradually paled.

’No.’

His breathing became shallow.

’That’s impossible.’

He remembered the quest and the method.

And most importantly...

He remembered that the quest had never been part of the main story. It was a player-exclusive quest.

Something players could undertake after choosing the Villain Route. An NPC wasn’t supposed to know about it.

Kael swallowed.

’Why is this happening here?’

He looked around. Students were whispering. Professors were attempting to control the situation. The Hero Department students were angry. The Villain Department students were defensive. Exactly as intended. Kael felt a chill run through him.

’This is the same.’

The same objective, method, and desired result. Someone was attempting to create discord between the two factions. Just like in the game.

Kael’s thoughts began racing.

’Did someone else transmigrate?’

The possibility immediately surfaced, however, there was no evidence. Not yet. And even if another person had knowledge of Eclipse Hearts, what’s their true purpose for doing it this time?

Another possibility appeared.

’Could this be part of the original world?’

Kael’s eyes narrowed. Perhaps he had misunderstood everything. Perhaps Eclipse Hearts wasn’t a game world in the way he thought. Perhaps the developers had simply transformed actual historical events into quests. The thought made his stomach tighten. He didn’t like that possibility.

Not at all.

Because if the game’s quests were based on events that had actually happened... Then his knowledge of the game wasn’t telling him what would happen. It was merely telling him what had happened before.

Still, that was also just another theory.

Kael stared at the corpse again. His expression became grim.

His mind was trying to reconcile two completely incompatible realities. The game and this world. After a few seconds, he opened his mouth.

"Something’s wrong."

"What?"

Seraphina’s voice suddenly came from beside him.

Kael instinctively turned in surprise. As expected, Seraphina was standing right beside him. No wonder there was suddenly a flowery fragrance in the air. He was so focused that he didn’t notice her arrival. She had apparently arrived while Kael was standing there in a daze.

His usual relaxed expression had disappeared.

"Seraphina Eversnow..." Kael muttered out of reflex.

"Yes. What happened?" Seraphina asked in her usual emotionless voice. She just arrived as well and noticed the crowd.

Kael didn’t answer immediately.

"Uhm. As you can see, a student was killed and they’re saying someone from the Villain Department did it."

Seraphina frowned.

"Do you believe that?" She asked.

Her tone was serious.

"I’m not sure," Kael said.

Seraphina nodded as if understanding his reply.

But Kael wasn’t finished. He continued, "But... if someone from the Villain Department actually wanted to kill someone, why would they leave the body here?"

Seraphina’s eyes narrowed.

"Exactly. That was the point. The body wasn’t hidden. It was displayed. It was as if the culprit wanted people to find it. Could they be wanted for outrage? They wanted accusations between the two factions. Maybe they wanted the two factions to fight each other."

The students around them who heard their words immediately realized it as well.

"That’s right. Why is the body deliberately left alone in the open?"

"That’s true. Suspicious, isn’t it?"

The one who said those words were mostly the minority who had have close friends from the other factions. They didn’t want this incident to be the cause of breakdown among their relationships.

A while ago, they were so silent, they didn’t want to admit that it was done by the other faction as it could create a breach in their friendship. But now that someone pointed out the obvious, everyone started to reevaluate if it was right to accuse the Villain Department right away.

Although it didn’t fully get rid of the tension, it at least lessened it a little bit.

Kael glanced at Lilith, but for some reason, he saw her staring at him as well. When their eyes met, she smiled mischievously and winked before turning around then walked away while saying, "Tsk. Arguing with an idiot is a waste of time and less exciting."

Kael rubbed the back of his head. Lilith truly had a peculiar character among all the heroines.

Leon didn’t like what Lilith said, but she already stepped away and he could do nothing about it. He glanced where Seraphina was. When he saw Kael standing beside her, he frowned. But he didn’t say a word before turning around and left as well.

Suddenly, one of the professors, Professor Vista, shouted from beneath the statue.

"Everyone, step back!"