55. The New Professor (1)
Just as expected, Professor Raidin failed to keep his promise.
Some sort of obstacle had arisen in the process of transferring Anella in.
I could more or less guess what that “obstacle” was.
‘The principal must have accelerated his research into dark-mana detection.’
After parting ways with Professor Raidin and leaving the First Main Tower, I quietly organized my thoughts.
The dark mages moved in secret all throughout the magic world while perfectly concealing their identities.
It was one of the settings that explained the internal logic of the original story—why the mages were unable to expose them, why they could not stop the dark mages from running rampant, and why all sorts of incidents kept happening.
But that setting did not last all the way to the end.
At a certain point, Eltman Eltwin eventually developed a spell capable of detecting dark mana.
‘I thought he might have finished it around now, but that’s faster than I expected.’
Eltman, having likely developed the dark-mana detection spell, would now want to test it soon.
As the target for that test, he would naturally want to start personally filtering out the most suspicious candidates first—namely transfer students.
The dark-mana detection spell mentioned above had obvious limitations, and the disadvantage that it could not be used on just anyone, but even so, its existence alone was a major branching point that gave the player’s side the power to pressure the dark mages.
Naturally, since it was such an absurdly overpowered spell that it could overturn the current situation, it was supposed to appear only in the latter half of the episode, but depending on how quickly the player advanced the story, there could be a huge difference in the spell’s development speed.
On average, players experiencing Aether World Online for the first time usually had the spell developed by the first semester of third year, or later, right before graduation. At that point, however, the episode was already approaching its endgame, so it did not show very much effect.
But some veteran players managed to push the story forward faster and reduce that timeline to the second semester of second year, and in the entire world, there was only one player…
who induced the spell to be completed the moment spring break of the first semester of second year ended.
That player used the nickname “Dalso,” and was also the only player in the game I had ever truly been close with.
Thinking about that player, who always brought me rare information and chattered endlessly, made a faint smile rise to my lips.
It reminded me of the time when I had still treated and enjoyed this world as nothing more than a game.
‘Anyway… if it’s come to this, then I’ll have to go see Anella often.’
In truth, it wasn’t only Professor Raidin who had failed to keep his promise. I had too.
I had promised to get her transferred into Stella, but in the end, the situation had become one where she would have to enter next year as a new student.
At present, Anella had successfully escaped the society of dark mages, but as a human, she still lacked far too much, so someone had to keep looking after her.
I could not leave every single thing about Anella to Zeliel forever.
“Baek Yuseol.”
“…Hm?”
I had been walking while steadily arranging everything I needed to do next through the Jikbakguri Glasses, one by one, when I heard Hong Biyeon’s voice from behind me.
‘What?’
Why was it?
Why did her voice sound unfamiliar to me?
It wasn’t as though I hadn’t met Hong Biyeon at all while we were practicing League of Spirit. We had crossed paths a few times during classes too, and every so often exchanged a word or two.
And yet this was the first time her voice had felt so awkward.
“Uh… what is it?”
When I turned around, Hong Biyeon was not wearing her Stella uniform, but casual clothes.
It wasn’t flashy. Just a black pleated skirt a teenage girl might wear, and a white T-shirt that fit close to her upper body.
The black jacket thrown over it and the black beret on her head made the contrast with her silver hair stand out all the more.
In principle, once class was over, students were allowed to wear casual clothes if they wished, but most of them were too proud of being Stella cadets to bother changing.
Unless they were the sort who carried confidence even without Stella’s name behind them—like Hong Biyeon—there probably wouldn’t be many who wore casual clothes. Even I wore my uniform all the time, secretly proud of being a Stella student.
“Why are you standing there blankly? You look stupid.”
“No, it’s just… your clothes are nice.”
“…Really?”
At the compliment I threw out without thinking, Hong Biyeon lowered her gaze to the ground for a moment, twined a strand of hair that had fallen over her shoulder around her index finger, then suddenly raised her head and said,
“Dinner. Come eat with me.”
“Now? It’s not even seven yet…”
“We’re going out to eat. By the time we get there, it’ll be dinner time.”
“Why? Busy? …For a commoner.”
“It’s not that.”
As she said, I didn’t really have anything in particular to do anyway, so if I went back, I’d probably just train.
Even while practicing League of Spirit, I had never stopped training for at least three hours a day, but for talentless mediocrity like mine, it was still a laughably insufficient amount.
I would need to train two or three times more than that just to keep up with how fast the episodes were accelerating.
I knew it.
With the story progressing so dramatically faster now, it was entirely possible that it could plunge into a “main episode” at any moment.
That frightened me.
When the time came, would I really be ready?
Could I survive there, still this weak?
Ten years later?
That was not some far-off distant thing.
Even if some enormous incident broke out before Stella Academy’s graduation ceremony, it would not be strange.
Because the moment I started interfering in this world’s story, everything had begun to change.
But…
“…Are you not coming?”
Yet when Hong Biyeon asked that, her expression slowly dimming, for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to refuse.
“N-no, I am. I think I might’ve had plans or something, but now that I think about it, it’s probably fine if I don’t go.”
At my answer, Hong Biyeon lifted the corners of her mouth ever so slightly, then turned on her heel and began walking ahead.
Normally, in a situation like this, shouldn’t she at least match her pace to mine?
But expecting normal behavior from her at this point was probably too much.
“So what are we going to eat?”
“I’ll tell you when we get there.”
I was certain that I would not regret the choice I made in this moment.
Because just watching Hong Biyeon walk ahead of me with the evening glow behind her was enough to make me feel that I was alive.
…Baek Yuseol, who had followed after Hong Biyeon with a cheerful trot, regretted it just a little.
Because he had never imagined the menu would be like this.
“What… is this supposed to be?”
Hong Biyeon’s image was, quite literally, “princess.”
The type who looked as though she would scoop up caviar with a spoon for breakfast, eat the finest truffle fritters for lunch, then elegantly cut into steak and sip wine for dinner.
So he had assumed she would take him to some restaurant or something like that this time too.
“Coconut sand.”
“No, I can see that from the menu. I mean, what country is this food even from…?”
“It’s not exactly a traditional dish from any one country. If it’s a place where palm trees grow, there’s usually some version of it.”
The palm trees of Aether World were somewhat different from the ones on Earth.
Up to the coconut fruit, they were similar enough, but every now and then a mysterious little animal called a “coconut licker” could be found inside.
That creature was smaller than the coconut itself and appeared only rarely, making it one of the rarest creatures around.
Naturally, it was extremely expensive, and as Hong Biyeon supplemented, it was a dish only rich people could afford to eat.
“This is an expensive food…?”
I could not believe it at all.
From the outside, it just looked like a sandwich placed on top of a coconut.
Hong Biyeon had apparently acquired sunglasses from somewhere and was wearing them pushed up on her forehead while eating the coconut sand one-handed.
Beside it sat a non-alcoholic coconut wine, because regardless of how things might have been in Adolevit’s royal palace, students were not sold alcohol outside.
“Hiss…”
Even if it was expensive, it was my first time seeing food like this, so I felt a little resistant to it, but since Hong Biyeon was the one buying me dinner, I couldn’t very well refuse.
So I took a bite.
And immediately, I was shocked.
It tasted better than I had expected.
No, it went beyond merely tasting good…
it felt almost like food bestowed by the gods themselves.
This was exactly how I had felt the first time I was assigned to a unit after army boot camp and ate tuna crackers for the first time.
As I hurriedly ate the coconut sand, one question suddenly rose in my mind, and I looked up.
Beside me, I could see Hong Biyeon’s profile as she slowly sipped her coconut wine and enjoyed the cool outdoor breeze.
“You… can actually taste it?”
That’s right.
To begin with, Hong Biyeon had problems with her sense of taste, and there should have been no reason at all for her to come all the way out here and eat expensive food like this.
Instead of answering, Hong Biyeon gave a faint smile, took a small bite of the coconut sand, swallowed it, and said,
“I can.”
“…Really?”
“Your sense of taste came back?”
“No.”
“Then how can you say you can taste it?”
“Well….”
Hong Biyeon said it without any particular emotion, almost carelessly.
“When I eat with you, I can taste it.”
Huh?
Baek Yuseol, whose hand had been busily moving as he ate the coconut sand, suddenly stopped.
Slowly, he lifted his head and looked at Hong Biyeon’s face.
Only then did Hong Biyeon seem to realize there was something strange in what she had just said, and her expression turned visibly flustered.
It was completely different from her usual face, which was always expressionless and unchanging.
“It doesn’t mean anything, so don’t worry about it.”
“…Okay.”
Hong Biyeon hurriedly covered it up, but Baek Yuseol’s mind remained in turmoil.
Because—
he was someone who knew what condition was required for Hong Biyeon’s sense of taste to return….
After that, an awkward silence fell over the two of them, and neither spoke first.
‘…What do I do.’
What if Baek Yuseol misunderstood what she had said earlier? No…
actually, wouldn’t it be fine if he misunderstood?
‘What am I even thinking.’
Unable to endure even that awkward silence, Hong Biyeon was the first to speak.
“…Baek Yuseol.”
“Why.”
He answered calmly while drinking from his cup, but unlike before, he did not meet her eyes.
She had called his name just to break the silence, but she could not think of anything appropriate to say.
She wanted to say something, anything at all, but it felt as though her brain had stopped functioning.
“Why… do you have something to say or not?”
When Baek Yuseol finally said that after waiting too long, Hong Biyeon, who had hesitated for ages, ended up blurting out the first thing that came into her head.
“…I have something to say about Lady Eizel.”
The moment the words left her mouth, her mind went blank all over again.
After thinking so hard, the thing she came up with was a conversation about someone like Eizel?
Still, it was not a lie. She had genuinely intended to speak with Baek Yuseol about her sooner or later.
“Eizel…?”
That was not what she had really wanted to say.
Hong Biyeon let out a deep sigh, then roughly gulped down her drink and set the cup down with a sharp clack.
Then she laced her fingers together, rested her chin on them, and said,
“It’s… about that woman’s father.”
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