I Became the Mastermind Who Betrays the Heroines
Chapter 142

Chapter 142 – Drunkard (6)

“I came to keep my promise.”

I stood there, arms around her.

Violet hair fluttered faintly.

Around us, only the thinnest hush lingered.

The silence of the underground prison had fallen instantly.

“……”

I looked down at the warmth cradled in my arms.

Her condition was beyond dismal.

Not a single uninjured limb. Her forehead marred with blood. A pallid complexion utterly void of life.

Selena sat on the floor, staring up at me.

Her red eyes trembled blankly.

Did I scare her too much?

She looked like she couldn’t make sense of anything.

It was all a mystery to her—

Why she was still alive.

Why her self-destruction had failed.

Why a familiar face stood before her.

Her confusion was etched clearly across her expression.

Even the mask of stoicism had shattered—she must’ve been completely shaken.

I gave a bitter smile.

‘You did it.’

I had been watching all along.

Waiting to see what choice she would make.

Whether she’d wake from her stupor or fall into her mistakes again.

I had believed in her.

I believed in the remorse that spilled from her lips, ragged and pale.

I believed in the faint light flickering behind her eyes.

Because if it were her—

I was sure she would not, like the old me, let herself be devoured by sorrow.

I waited for her to make a choice.

And then—

—I just… sobered up, that’s all.

She chose sobriety.

Even if the poison amassed over years would make it agonizing to face sober reality—

She chose to keep moving forward.

“Professor.”

Still lost in a daze, Selena blinked at me.

I brushed her cheek gently and whispered softly,

“Thank you.”

For answering my faith in her.

I smiled faintly.

And then, from the point where my palm met her skin, a shadow began to seep.

Like water into cloth, the spreading darkness quietly soaked into her skin.

With the dissolution of falsehood, her wounds began to heal.

Shhh—

All the devastation that had marred her slowly disappeared.

All that remained was pristine skin, white as snow.

As the pain subsided, the fog in her red eyes cleared as well.

Our gazes met.

“Please sit tight. This won’t take long.”

I removed my cloak.

Then gently draped it over her shoulders.

Though she was stained with dirt and blood, the white fabric now covering her seemed to wrap her in purity.

As though hiding her tattered self beneath it.

“Hm.”

I turned around.

At the edge of my vision stood angels clad in white robes.

Not a single step out of formation.

They were none other than Astro’s elite unit.

Splash—

At their feet lay nothing but traces of crimson.

The floor was littered with corpses.

The guards who had been protecting the dungeon only moments ago.

Now, they were nothing more than rotting meat.

As the scent of blood thickened in the air, the angel at the front of the line spoke.

The vice-captain.

“Master.”

“Miss Neria.”

“We’ve completed infiltration and secured the lower levels. Please grant the order for the squad to proceed to the surface.”

“Enemy forces within this base number around two hundred. We have ten. Roughly a twenty-to-one disadvantage.”

I narrowed my eyes slightly.

As if asking for a satisfactory answer from them as their master.

“How long will it take?”

“Exactly thirty—no, within twenty minutes, the surface will be cleared.”

“Very good. Then I give the order here and now.”

The angels’ eyes gleamed like stars.

I called to Neria and all who stood behind her.

An order of annihilation.

“Stars,” I called.

“……”

“Light up the night.”

All the angels bowed as one.

Their fluttering robes shimmered white—

A reflection of the stars.

“All shall be done as you will.”

And then—

The stars began to move.

Until every inch of those white robes was stained crimson.

The light flared brightly.

---

The cleanup of the base was over in moments.

It had been a relatively small facility to begin with.

Its forces were swept away like fallen leaves.

The blades and magic wielded by the squad knew no mercy.

Especially Neria.

“Light, come forth.”

Fwoooosh—!

Brilliant starlight judged evil.

Heat that left not even corpses behind.

The cultists tried to retaliate with chimeras and black magic.

But none of it could stop the silver-haired girl—

And they were reduced to ash.

The remaining angels followed the vice-captain’s lead, each carrying out their sentence upon the guilty.

I merely stood there and watched the purification unfold.

After a little over ten minutes—

“Master. The operation is complete.”

“Good work.”

Only ten of them—

Had wiped out a base housing over two hundred in ten minutes.

Truly, their firepower was something to behold.

The vice-captain saluted me.

The base was now secure.

At last, I extended a hand toward the drunkard.

“Professor.”

“……”

Selena, still collapsed on the floor.

Perhaps she’d finally processed what had happened.

The surprise and confusion from before had faded.

Now, only a complex expression remained.

Kneeling alone, she turned her head from my outstretched hand.

As if rejecting my kindness.

“It’s over.”

“……”

“Let’s go home. To the place where everyone is waiting.”

The Academy.

I invited her to return with me.

But she would not take my hand.

Perhaps she was still struggling.

Perhaps she lacked the courage.

Her lips trembled.

“...Judas.”

“Come now.”

“I can’t. I can’t go back there... not shamelessly.”

“Pardon me for a moment.”

“Eh?”

Thump—

Without waiting, I pulled her into my arms.

A faint warmth spread between us.

Before she could resist, I lifted her up.

The posture was what one might call a "princess carry."

“Y-Judas…?”

“Shhh.”

Just like that night.

The night we shared at the banquet.

The night I escorted her.

Selena clutched at my sleeve in fluster.

“W-Wait… where are you taking me?”

“I already told you. Home—there’s no place like the Academy. Everyone is waiting for you.”

“Everyone…?”

“Yes, everyone. When the patient in the infirmary vanished, they all panicked. The headmaster, your students, your colleagues… even that Professor Kadel has been searching for you.”

“...Why?”

She slowly lowered her head.

Soon, her eyes brimmed with tears.

But she didn’t let them fall.

As if she didn’t deserve to cry.

She bore the weight of her sins like a noose around her own neck.

The guilt was unbearable.

“I don’t deserve it. I have no right to return to the Academy…”

“Why would you think that?”

“You know what I almost did.”

“Professor.”

“I nearly destroyed the things I loved. I almost destroyed those who loved me. All because I used my own grief as an excuse.”

Her eyes trembled violently.

She looked like she could die at any moment.

The shoulders in my arms quivered weakly.

“Just… let it end here.”

A single plea.

Maybe a desperate one.

She wanted to end her miserable life on her own terms.

To take responsibility.

But—

“How foolish.”

That was not responsibility.

“What you seek is nothing more than escape.”

Death cannot be the answer for responsibility.

Nor should it ever be.

Those left behind suffer deeper wounds.

Unresolved regrets become scars.

If she truly sought redemption, she had to face it head-on.

Even if it tore her apart.

“You must live. Only then will the chance for atonement come.”

Only the living are granted that opportunity.

In death, there is no redemption. No chance to make things right.

“But…”

“Why do you believe everything has already ended?”

I had observed her for a long time.

A woman with many scars.

But warm-hearted, nonetheless.

Always feigning indifference, yet never truly cold.

She never neglected her students.

It was no coincidence they respected her.

She had built that bond herself.

It was proof of her love.

If—

If she hadn’t chosen revenge,

I believed she might have been a truly fine educator.

And I believed it still wasn’t too late.

She had finally emerged from the tunnel of regret.

—Shove it.

—Five years was more than enough.

Having shed her old sins—

Her life was finally at the starting line.

For the first time, she had chosen love over hate.

And in doing so, the world gave her permission to stay.

In my world—

In her world.

“Professor.”

In the original story, you deserved death.

You had brought misery to too many with nothing but rage and sorrow.

But not in this world.

No one had suffered.

No one had been hurt.

“You haven’t destroyed anything yet.”

And so long as nothing has been destroyed, there is still hope.

I believe that to be true.

“Because I stopped it.”

I stopped your sins.

I stopped the tragic spiral.

All the regret, the guilt, the suicide—

Those words no longer held any weight.

I told you from the beginning:

I wanted to save you.

“So it’s alright.”

“But Judas… you were hurt. You’re in a wheelchair… your body so frail…”

Her hand trembled against my sleeve.

She must’ve remembered.

The sight of me in that wheelchair.

The bittersweet look she’d had on her face as she stared.

It had pained her more than she let on.

“Your sin may be heavy indeed.”

“……”

“But still.”

I was grateful.

That you chose differently.

That despite the pain, despite your past, you made another choice.

My pathetic past life, soaked in despair—

For the first time, I saw another possibility through you.

Perhaps even the old me…

“We’re bound by something special, aren’t we?”

Maybe all I needed was someone to reach for me.

Maybe I could have changed—if only I’d been given the chance.

And through you, I felt a bit of salvation.

So I swear—

“When you take responsibility… I’ll be by your side.”

That’s what it means to be tied.

Just as I tamed you, and you tamed me—

We now bear responsibility for each other.

After all, if people lived only as individuals,what meaning would relationships have?

It is because we clash that we learn peace, because we hate that we learn to love, because we err that we learn forgiveness.

And so long as we do not give up, the chance to begin again will always come.

“Selena Drunkard.”

What you needed to beg for was not death.

It was forgiveness.

And I—

“I forgive you.”

I no longer blamed you.

I placed that truth upon her lips.

—Everything. Not a single exception.

—All my firsts belonged to Judas.

And now, this too was a first.

I was the first to forgive her.

There would be countless apologies, endless penance—But perhaps that’s why this forgiveness had meaning.

I would become the hope in every step she took forward.

A hope that someday,

She would be forgiven for all her sins.

“So, Professor.”

I offered myself.

As her very first hope.

“Let’s go home. To the place where we’re all waiting.”

“……”

Her gaze froze in place.

Her crimson eyes filled with dew, and then the dam broke.

Tears carved deep trails down her cheeks.

Relief, joy, doubt, hope, sorrow—Every emotion swelled in crashing waves.

Her voice trembled into a muffled sob.

“Why… Why are you… so kind to someone like me…”

Why?

Why was I being so kind?

Without hesitation, I answered.

“Because I’m your student.”

And that was the final push.

The drunkard buried her face against the Serpent’s chest.

Tears soaked through the shirt between them.

And as her sobs grew louder—

I walked quietly through the shadowy corridor.

Though darkness surrounded us, my path was clear.

It was bright.

And just like that—

Light finally began to shine upon the life of the traitor, the drunkard.

A light she may carry with her forever.