Chapter 1
A torrential downpour drenched the main plaza of the academy.
The desperate duel — fought without any spectators — was now approaching its final moments.
“This is impossible…! No way!”
He screamed in despair, helplessly being overwhelmed by the Bastian knightly swordsmanship wielded by Serine.
His entire body was already covered in blood.
“I was supposed to seize control of the academy, subdue the Six Great Sword Clans, and rise to the pinnacle of the Empire… I, a genius swordsman, cannot fall to the likes of you — a mere woman!”
“Shut your mouth, Ernas.”
Serine’s voice was cold.
“You’re no ‘genius swordsman.’ You were nothing but… a fake with no talent whatsoever.”
Ernas, the False Genius.
He had used the power of an artifact to steal the swordsmanship of others, parading himself as if he had mastered every sword style — pretending to be a prodigy.
But since he could only mimic others’ techniques, he never truly mastered them. In the end, he tried to climb to the top of the academy not through swordsmanship, but through schemes and political maneuvering… until all his plots were exposed, and he fell to become the public enemy — a villain through and through.
“As someone who was once your fiancée, I will punish you for deceiving everyone.”
“Serine Bastian!”
Ernas howled and swung his sword three times in quick succession — the signature technique of the Bastian Knight Swordsmanship, the Vertical Trinity.
However, since it was a crude imitation made possible only by the artifact’s power, there was no way Serine would be defeated by it.
“It’s useless.”
“Ghhk…!”
Slash!
With a single strike, Serine completely broke through his technique.
Ernas dropped his sword, and the tip of Serine’s blade was now pointed at his throat.
“End this false life of yours, Ernas.”
“…!”
In the midst of his despair, Serine launched her final strike — wishing that all of Ernas’s sins would be washed away with the falling rain.
“I’ve checked the manuscript you sent by email, Author!”
While I was resting after sending it off, my editor called me.
“So Ernas finally dies! I’ve been wondering when that would happen.”
“I’d been planning to kill him around this point from the start.”
“Looks like I Became the Protagonist of the Swordsmanship Academy is finally entering its final act!”
I Became the Protagonist of the Swordsmanship Academy.
It was a fantasy web novel I had been serializing for five years — a so-called academy genre story.
It followed a protagonist who entered a school for swordsmanship, growing through various encounters with other characters. It had been the most commercially successful of all my works to date.
“So from the beginning, you planned for Serine — not the protagonist — to take down Ernas?”
“That’s right. Honestly, Ernas is way too weak for the current protagonist to bother with.”
“True, he’d lose his head with just one strike. Letting Serine, his former fiancée, finish him off is more fun anyway.”
The ‘Ernas Ranzstein’ who dies in this episode had been one of the central villains since the early chapters.
He possessed an artifact that allowed him to mimic the abilities of others, and used it to act as though he could wield every sword style — pretending to be a genius swordsman.
But his real skill was pathetic, and the artifact had its limits. Inevitably, he relied on cunning and conspiracies, plotting from the shadows.
Now, in the latest chapter, he was finally brought down by his former fiancée, Serine Bastian.
“Honestly, I’ll kind of miss him. Ernas was the most cunning character in the story — didn’t he add tension to the plot?”
“That’s true. I made good use of him whenever I needed that tension.”
“It was fun watching him play mind games among the Six Great Sword Clans.”
It seemed my editor was reluctant to let Ernas go.
But for Ernas, death was inevitable — there was no way around it.
“Author, have you considered writing a side story after the main story ends?”
“A side story?”
What an out-of-the-blue suggestion.
Some authors did write epilogues or spin-offs after the main story ended, but I’d never done that before.
“I’ve never thought about it.”
“How about an If Route? A story where events unfold differently from the main plot.”
“Ah… so you mean an alternate development?”
“Yes! A story where Ernas becomes the protagonist, defeats the Six Great Sword Clans, and takes over the academy. Wouldn’t that be exciting?”
“Hmm…”
It was an interesting idea… but not exactly realistic.
“For Ernas to avoid ruin, I’d have to rewrite the story from scratch. That wouldn’t be easy.”
“You think so?”
“Yes. He’d have to straighten up and live properly from the moment he entered the academy.”
From the start, Ernas had made enemies everywhere.
As long as those grudges existed, his eventual downfall was certain.
To save him, the story would have to start over entirely.
“Even if we did restart from the beginning… the conflict between the Six Great Sword Clans would still exist, and Ernas’s sword skills would still be terrible. It wouldn’t be easy.”
“Haha, so you think it would be difficult.”
“It’d be extremely hard mode.”
In the end, Ernas was a fake genius, not a real one.
Navigating the story’s events with such poor skill would be no small feat.
“But you know, Author…”
“Yes?”
“Wouldn’t it be more fun because it’s hard mode?”
“…”
I fell silent for a moment, thinking.
Of course, I had no intention of actually writing ‘the story where Ernas doesn’t fall.’
This was just idle chatter.
So I casually replied without much thought.
“Yeah, I guess it would be fun.”
“Right?”
At that moment—
A sudden chill ran down my spine.
What was that?
“I knew you’d say that, Author.”
“…What?”
“The story where Ernas doesn’t fall… I’m really curious to see how that will turn out.”
The chill intensified.
Overcome by an inexplicable dread, I tried to speak quickly.
“…!”
But no words came out.
Because an immense darkness had already begun to swallow me whole.
A darkness filled with countless swords.
‘No way…!’
I’m really curious to see how that story turns out.
The editor’s words echoed in my mind.
And as I grasped their true meaning, I was pulled into the endless darkness.
