Perhaps exhausted from the massive information dump he had received all at once, by the time Greg woke up, it was already evening.
"The Placement Exam events should have ended by now, right?"
That was the first thing Greg thought of upon waking.
In the original game, the Placement Exam was a relatively important event. Victoria and Silvia made their mark, and Lilith's romance route officially began.
But none of that had anything to do with him.
Right now, he had more urgent matters to attend to: he had to sneak out of the dungeon under the cover of night and stop his own maid from transforming into a terrorist.
The mission sounded a bit absurd, but he knew it was no joke.
"By the way, where's that black cat? Why is she gone? Could it be that everything before was just a dream?"
Just as the thought arose, the shadow at his feet suddenly rippled like water.
Then, a black cat abruptly crawled out from his shadow on the ground.
"Hey, how many times do I have to say it? I'm not a black cat, I'm the Goddess of Night. You really are a rude fellow."
Greg: "You're the rude one, aren't you? Entering someone else's shadow without permission is trespassing!"
Nightmare: "Then can I count on you to let me live in your shadow from now on? I don't want to freeze out there with you."
Greg: "No! Since the two of us are bound by fate, why should I be the only one suffering?"
Nightmare: "Hmm, I knew you'd say that."
After saying that, she ignored Greg's protests and dove back in.
Greg: "Dammit, Hajimi! If you don't suffer with me, how are we supposed to build our bond!? Didn't we agree to be each other's only angel!?"
The shadow on the ground distorted slightly.
"I have absolutely no recollection of saying anything like that. But if you insist on defining our relationship, I'd much prefer you call me Master."
Greg: "Hajimi! Hajimi!"
Nightmare: "...I don't know what that means, but I feel like I've been insulted."
Greg: "Don't doubt it, I am insulting you. From now on, I've decided to call you Hajimi—wait, I'm kidding, Goddess! So can you stop turning my shadow into the shape of a catgirl? Seriously, my stomach is starting to cramp. If I throw up, it'll be bad for both of us."
Only after hearing this did the shadow on the ground gradually return to its original form.
But then, Nightmare's voice rang in Greg's mind once more, though this time it didn't seem to carry any playfulness.
"Human, the two of us only met for the first time yesterday, right?"
Suppressing the nausea in his heart, Greg answered weakly, "Otherwise? If I'd met a demon like you earlier, I'd probably have died of frustration by now."
"Is that so... I see." Nightmare's voice trailed off, as if confirming something, or perhaps lost in thought.
Afterward, she went completely silent.
Although Greg felt a bit puzzled by Nightmare's sudden question, the current silence suited his needs perfectly.
He had to concentrate on his next move.
He stuffed a few pieces of the jerky he'd made over the past few days into his mouth and headed toward the dungeon exit.
The reason he chose to leave the dungeon at night was that there were very few students wandering the academy at this hour. Due to the curfew, most students were staying in their dormitories.
Furthermore, since most events occurred during the day, the surface was relatively safer for him at night.
After killing a few minor monsters lurking along the way, Greg arrived smoothly at the entrance of the Academy Dungeon.
He observed the outside world.
The academy under the night sky was starkly different from its daytime bustle.
The grand architectural complexes lay silent and dark under the starlight, with only a few streetlights in the main square casting a soft glow.
Most windows in the distant dormitories were dark, with only a few still showing light.
As far as his eyes could see, except for the occasional silhouette of a patrolling professor walking slowly in the distance, there was almost no one around.
"This situation shouldn't be too dangerous for me. I just need to be careful when passing through those locations with death CGs."
He took a few deep breaths and did a final check of his equipment, ensuring nothing would make a sound.
Then, his gaze sharpened, and he darted out from the shadows of the dungeon entrance like an arrow, heading straight for a thicket near the garden not far ahead.
That spot would provide him with good cover.
His movements were swift and silent, everything proceeding according to plan.
He intended to use the garden trees and building shadows to move circuitously toward the academy's outer perimeter.
However, just as he rushed out of the entrance, with all his attention on the path ahead and potential patrols in the distance—
"Ah!"
From the shadow of a statue's base to his side, a figure also happened to rush out in a hurry.
Caught completely off guard, the two collided head-on with a solid thud!
Was he discovered?!
But just as he used the faint light from a distant streetlight to see the face of the person he'd hit—who was currently rubbing her forehead and frowning—all his alerts and contingency plans got stuck in his throat.
A small, delicate face, features slightly pinched from pain, iconic smooth brown hair, and those chestnut eyes that appeared clear even in the dim light...
"Lily Carlo?"
Greg blurted out, his expression instantly overwhelmed by a massive sense of absurdity and confusion.
What was going on? Why was she appearing here at this time?
Greg looked at Lily Carlo, who was dressed in dark, easy-to-move-in casual clothes with her hair tied back simply, then glanced back at the path behind her that clearly led to the dungeon, before finally bringing his gaze back to her face.
A suspicion that made his mouth twitch surfaced in his mind.
This girl... could she be trying to sneak into the dungeon under the cover of night??
The background characters in this world are way too competitive!?
Rate on N.U.
