The girl before him, this seemingly fragile noble dy...

  was terrifying.

  Extremely terrifying.

  So terrifying that he, the nominal “World Warden,” this “senior” who had completed the Demon Hunter Academy’s basic education, instinctively couldn't bear to stay in her presence for even one more second.

  To even think about her for another second would invite a... primal, soul-deep revulsion.

  “Why… why do I feel this way?” Dulles unconsciously whispered.

  He raised his own hand, looking at the strange, red, web-like patterns that flowed across it like living things.

  In a trance, he was suddenly struck by a strong, deep, instinctual sense of wrongness.

  He felt, he shouldn't be like this.

  These red scars... they shouldn't be on his body...

  For a single, terrifying moment, it felt as if his cognition had shattered the invisible “shell,” and the world outside the “shell”... was a maw of absolute despair!!!

  A torrent of emotions, mixing terror, unease, and despair, was about to overwhelm him like a bursting dam!

  But in the next second, that flicker of vulnerability, the kind that appeared after “glimpsing the truth,” vanished instantly. As if it had never been there.

  He returned to that Warden-like, unnatural stillness.

  “Next, I just have to wait for all of them to gather…” His tone was completely normal, as if he were just stating a mundane item on his schedule. “My task will be almost complete.”

  He randomly chose a garden bench to sit on and thought of nothing more.

  Just with hollow eyes, he silently stared in the direction of the town, where Arthur was.

  ………………

  Withdrawing her gaze from the window, from Dulles’s retreating back, Pandora shook her head. There was no point in thinking about things she couldn't figure out.

  Besides, judging by the results, Dulles’s “resurrection” wasn't necessarily a bad thing for her. The Warden’s transition could proceed smoothly. And she herself could, justifiably, go to that legendary “Demon Hunter Academy.”

  Although she still had some reservations about joining this mysterious organization—she understood far too little about it, and trust was out of the question—it seemed she had no other path to choose.

  “For now… I'll take it one step at a time.”

  And see what this so-called “Demon Hunter Academy” is really all about…

  Leaving the room, Pandora summoned everyone in the manor who was still awake.

  After Dulles had left, these people had woken up one after another from that strange slumber. Still carrying a hangover-like daze, they followed the inner guard’s orders and gathered in the spacious hall on the first floor.

  Pandora stood on the steps of the hall.

  Following Dulles’s instructions, and combining it with her own understanding of this world, she id it out for them. She spun them a yarn about the world being on the brink of destruction, and an ‘Ark of Salvation’ coming to the rescue.

  Of course, she just swapped “Ark of Salvation” for a version more suitable for the “Demon Hunter Academy.” After all, who wasn’t good at making things up on the fly?

  The events of the past seven days, her various actions, had already made these survivors, more or less, consider the idea that “the world might already be ending.” Now, having it confirmed by a “superior” made them accept it all at once.

  So what if the world was ending? Wasn’t the mysterious “Demon Hunter Academy” here to save them? They even felt that they were the “lucky ones” who had been chosen.

  After telling them they just needed to wait for the right moment, to make their final preparations before gathering outside the manor, Pandora waved them off to go about their final preparations.

  This wasn't her rule, but Dulles’s requirement. Aside from one change of clothes, each person was only allowed to bring one item. And that item could not be a “container.”

  The rule was insane, of course. But it was also brilliant. It gave them something to stress over, a trivial problem to distract them from the world-shattering one.

  Lastly, Pandora summoned her most trusted confidants—besides Elsa, there was the knightess Aurora, “Gabby” Lucien, “Thumbs” Ham, and the “Little Kitchen Maid” Betty, who had only just woken from a nightmare and was still a bit unsettled.

  The reason for singling them out was simple. Pandora was going to give them the right to choose whether or not to know the truth.

  Lies weren't always a bad thing. For most ordinary people, the truth was too terrifying. That they were merely a “fruit” growing in this “Orchard.” That their former retives, elders, friends... all the people they knew, were nothing more than “Live Iron Golems” that could be switched to zombies at any moment...

  This kind of truth was enough to shatter the cognition of most ordinary people, driving them completely mad, or into total nihilism.

  Therefore, Pandora only gave this choice to these few, her most trusted and valued confidants.

  In the end, under Pandora’s calm gaze, which granted them ample freedom, they made their choices.

  “Gabby” Lucien chose the lie.

  His face, which usually held a hearty grin, was now a mask of struggle and guilt. He looked at Pandora, his voice hoarse. “My dy… I… I’m scared.”

  He was a man with a big mouth, unable to keep his thoughts to himself. It was his greatest strength, and now, his greatest weakness.

  “I’m scared… I can’t control this damn mouth of mine. If I get drunk one day, or I’m showing off in front of the boys… If I leak the secret, I could die ten thousand times and still never be worthy of your trust.” This burly man, who could be ferocious enough to stab Cole until he was a bloody mess, now looked like a child who had done wrong, his head bowed low.

  In contrast, the timid, easily flustered “Little Kitchen Maid” Betty chose to know the truth. She clenched her fists, her body still trembling, but her gaze was exceptionally firm.

  “My dy… I don’t want to live in a lie.” Her voice was small, but it held an undeniable resolve. “I don’t want… to be a child anymore. Someone who can only hide behind others and needs to be protected.”

  She thought again of her brother’s death. That burden she had secretly carried, a responsibility that perhaps should never have been hers, now became the… catalyst for her pursuit of a more resilient spirit. She hoped she could become stronger. So that one day, she might have the right, to protect those she wished to protect.

  And so, in the end, it was Aurora, Betty, and “Thumbs” Ham. Three people who learned the cruel truth of this world.

  As expected, all three of them had their worlds shattered, just in different ways.

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