SRS 178

“Look at the ‘you’ inside you, Yohan. That will be the clearest indicator.”

He spoke, yet his words were not entirely his own. Warmth spread through the hand holding his. Yohan gained a conviction akin to gravitational pull.

As he gazed at Mikael with a blank look, the white-haired angel, whose gray eyes shone golden, whispered.

“You are a candle. You can waver as much as you want. But you will never go out.”

“…….”

“I will support you so that I may become that.”

Do not let the ‘you’ inside you go out, either.

Soon, the sunlight that had stung Yohan’s eyes faded. The surroundings were once again deathly silent, and the night sky and the darkness it had cast upon the earth remained the same. Yohan, who had come to his senses belatedly, glanced at the sky and squinted. He felt the divinity emanating from Mikael gradually fading.

Not knowing what to say, he felt nothing but dazed. As he ruminated on what had just happened, Mikael patted Yohan’s back and stood up. It seemed to signal that it was time to leave.

Thump.

Yohan, who had hurriedly risen to follow the angel who was walking ahead, watched Mikael’s retreating back before speaking.

“Mikael.”

He called out softly, and Mikael turned around.

“…I don’t want you to regret it.”

“…….”

“I’m saying this not because I want to be perfect, but because I don’t want you to suffer.”

Mikael’s eyes crinkled at the sincerity conveyed through clear pronunciation, with emphasis on every single syllable.

“I know.”

“…Yes.”

“Let me make this clear: I have never suffered because of you, Yohan.”

Once he let go of the compulsion and greed to be perfect, the answer he most wanted to hear returned in a truthful form. Yohan readily accepted this strange logic. Mikael continued speaking.

“It was me who made myself suffer. It was me who thought [unauthorized copy]of myself when I saw you, and it was me who chose to suffer in that state. You know what I mean, right?”

“Yes.”

“…Right. In that case, you shouldn’t feel any debt to me either. That isn’t your responsibility.”

Mikael reached out his hand. Yohan let out a wry laugh at the way he looked like he was escorting him. He hesitated before taking Mikael’s hand. The angel, who had been recognized for his worth and granted wings again, led Yohan to the dormitory with slow steps.

‘It’s fine to wander.’

Mikael’s words, and the words of the deity who had briefly possessed him, lingered in his mind. Yohan took a deep breath and squeezed Mikael’s hand tightly.

It was a night of deep contemplation.

***

“Yohan? Did you take some elixir?”

“…No?”

“Really? But you look really good.”

Suhyeok, who had just woken up, scrutinized Yohan’s face.

Yohan, who had not only failed to take any elixir but had instead spent the entire night awake worrying about his future path and thinking about where his wandering would end, found those words surprising and looked in the mirror.

He expected to look haggard, but just as Suhyeok had said, he looked refreshed. Come to think of it, his body didn’t feel heavy for someone who had stayed up all night. Yohan’s gaze naturally drifted toward Mikael.

The angel, who had briefly woken up when everyone else did to avoid four consecutive hours of sleep but fell back asleep shortly after claiming to be tired, was still wandering in his dreams.

Did confiding in Mikael about his worries yesterday help?

Or did his god bestow a blessing upon him in the meantime?

After reviewing the possibilities that came to mind, Yohan simply shrugged his shoulders once.

“…Maybe something good is about to happen.”

Since he made up a vague excuse, Suhyeok let it slide without saying much.

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“Uh, what? Yohan! Are you attending school again?”

“Yohan? Hey! Gather around! Yohan is here!”

“What? Weren’t you supposed to have dropped out?”

“I thought Yohan had finally made up his mind and escaped Fantasiademia…!”

“…Yohan. Why did you come back here on your own two feet?”

“Damn it! My grades!”

“Your grades are the same whether Yohan is here or not, Owl.”

“Shut up, you jerk.”

Upon spotting Yohan, the students swarmed around their friend who had returned to school after a long absence.

Yohan watched in disbelief as the people surrounding him and their conversations took place in an instant, before finally managing a smile. Perhaps because he had grown fond of them during their time together, he was glad to see them.

“Hello.”

As he signaled with his eyes that it had been a while, the first-year students, realizing that the Yohan in front of them was the real Yohan and not some hallucination created by a professor, grew even louder.

“Yohan, where on earth have you been?”

“Shul’s bookstore? Did you go there?”

“What about the reference books?”

“I heard the headmaster chased you down and brought you back. Is that true?”

“What? I heard you dug a tunnel to get out.”

“…None of that is true. Who spread such rumors?”

Yohan was bewildered by the preposterous talk coming from all directions and denied it. When he searched for the source to find the origin of the bad rumors before they spread further, his friends avoided his gaze.

“I’m not sure where I heard it from…”

It was a tearful attempt to evade responsibility.

Yohan scrutinized his friends with a stern look for a moment, then let out a sigh.

“It’s not like that. …Just listen to the professors to find out what happened.”

“The professors…?”

His friends looked at him with expressions that screamed “Why are the professors being mentioned here?”

And just then, a giant dragon plummeted from the sky like a meteor.

“Kyaaa!”

“Aaaaaaaah!”

“It’s an attack!”

“Run away!”

At the dragon’s scream, the students gathered in the front yard of the Griffin Hall also screamed and hurriedly prepared to flee on their griffins. As the students, who were seasoned at running away from so many attacks, moved in perfect unison, the dragon, who had crashed face first, let out a “Pfft!” as he spat out the dirt he had eaten. He breathed a sigh and transformed back into a human.

“Everyone, please don’t leave, wait for me…!”

Hearing Professor Ariel’s desperate cry, the students stopped in mid-air.

“Professor Ariel?”

“Why did you come here?”

“The Sky Garden is over there…?”

“Well….”

Professor Ariel hesitated to speak, then he rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a parchment.

“I’ve come to deliver an announcement. Starting today, the zero period gymnastics class with griffins will be changed to a course on how to handle dimensional missions for about three months.”

“What?”

The students were bewildered by the sudden announcement. Even those who had run away under the assumption that the professor was lying, returned in surprise.

Professor Ariel unfolded the crumpled parchment wide and delivered the announcement.

“Honorable students of Fantasiademia… Um, this is just the introduction, so let’s move on to the main point, the main point… Ah, here it is. It says, ‘Therefore, starting today, you will be attending a lecture on dimensional missions during the zero period. We will be educating you on the rules to follow during missions, so please be sure to attend to prepare for the upcoming simensional missions.’ Now, here. Take a look.”

Snap. Professor Ariel snapped [stolen content]his fingers. He enlarged the parchment dozens of times in size and floated it high in the air.

The students, who followed him up to check the contents, were flustered by the flood of information.

“What is this? Evil Gods Contractors appeared and all exams except end-of-month evaluations have disappeared? So, we don’t have to study anymore?”

“You idiot. The end-of-month evaluations are still there, so you have to keep studying. It just means the other practical skill exams are gone and replaced by this.”

“No, what exactly are Evil Gods Contractors?”

“You mean we can go to other dimensions? Does that even work?”

The surrounding grew noisy with the questions of several students. Professor Ariel stammered in confusion, then closed his eyes and shouted.

“Everyone, please be quiet…!”

His actions were timid, however, his voice was anything but. As the fierce and loud shout, like a dragon’s breath, reverberated through the crowd, the chattering students fell silent in fear.

“I will explain what Evil Gods Contractors are and what dimensional missions are today…. After all, the first class is about defining the various dimensional terms used in the Nameless Realm.”

Professor Ariel created a spacious mat in front of Griffin Hall using magic. He signaled for them to sit down. One by one, the students took their seats and listened to Professor Ariel’s theoretical lecture.

Yohan, who was considerably less surprised [unauthorized copy]than his friends because he already had various pieces of information, also sat down.

“Hmm… This isn’t really a course meant for first-year students, but given the circumstances, it’s more like early education for you all. So, I won’t go into too much detail and will just cover a simple definition. Hmm. First, I suppose we should talk about providence.”

Professor Ariel also seemed taken aback by the sudden turn of events; he couldn’t hide his confusion as he fumbled to pull out his textbook, but he soon regained his composure.

He was still a professor, so he quickly adapted to the anomalous situation.

“Providence refers to the natural laws of the universe that integrate and encompass all dimensions. Life is born, dies, becomes a soul, forgets all past lives, and is reborn… The sun rises and sets, the moon rises and sets. Old things wear down, and dead things turn to ashes. These are the natural laws that exist in the natural world. We call a deity who belongs to this providence but possesses the attributes of good a benevolent god. We call a deity who belongs to providence but possesses the attributes of evil a malevolent god. Although they possess opposing tendencies, it remains unchanged that both are deities belonging to providence. Students of the Divine Studies , you know this, right?”

“Yes.”

As the conversation turned to their primary fields, the priests’ eyes brightened. Proud of the students’ enthusiastic response, Professor Ariel turned the page.

“Good and evil are absolutely necessary according to the laws of the dimensions. However, this applies only to divinity that belongs to providence; there are divinities in the world that exist outside of providence, divine beings that have deviated from the laws. These divinities generally take on an evil nature, and we refer to them as evil gods that have deviated from providence. Sometimes, they are also called Dimension Destroyers. Do you know why they are called that?”

Professor Ariel’s voice grew serious. One of the students paused for a moment, then raised his hand, unsure of the answer.

“Is it because they destroy dimensions?”

“That is correct. Divine beings belonging to providence do not endanger the very existence of dimensions. Even in an era where good and evil are at war, the dimensions do not perish simply because a malevolent god has won. They merely exist under the domination of evil. Conversely, Dimension Destroyers possess the power to shatter the dimensions themselves to the extent that they deviate from providence. If they are allowed to run rampant within the dimensions, the laws of nature will become contaminated, twisted, and shaken one by one. Once a dimension is ruined in this way, it is swallowed by a hole and rendered as if it never existed. This hole is what we call a black hole.”

The students held their breath, their astonishment at hearing these laws of the universe for the first time evident on their faces. They realized this was not [stolen content]a lecture to be taken lightly or for fun. Professor Ariel met the eyes of each student one by one and explained.

“And as students who have enrolled in Fantasiademia, you have a duty to act to prevent the destruction of dimensions. That is what dimensional missions are.”