Chapter 34: Club (1)
Only after the incident did 30 Stella Academy knights finally reach Marthevis Cemetery.
The Magic Investigation Unit recovered the necromancer's body, and the Marthevis Cemetery underwent a purification process.
“We're doomed! How are we supposed to make a living now?”
“Oh, we’re all going to die! Us ordinary citizens are all gonna die!”
The merchants stood stiff-necked, shouting at the top of their lungs, but it was to no avail.
“Would you have been able to shout had your heads had fallen into the hands of skeletons? If it weren't for those students, you’d already be dead!”
“Uh, I mean...”
“I hope no one else is ever harmed by those kinds of selfish thoughts. We'll start purification today.”
“Oh, please give us a little time…”
"Right now!"
Baek Yu-Seol hadn't known this, but it seemed Stella's influence could even move public authority.
The students safely returned home on the airship operated by Stella. As soon as they returned, Baek Yu-Seol received a stern reprimand from Instructor Lee Han-Wol.
“A certain someone said he was going to practice in a place with beautiful mountains and fresh air. The air in the cemetery must've been pretty rejuvenating, huh?”
Baek Yu-Seol had no retort to the heavy sarcasm. “I uh... got off because something happened on the way.”
"I see,” Lee Han-Wol said, turning around to leave. “You’re hereby penalized according to the rules. There are no exceptions.” Pausing, he added, “However, even though you violated the school rules, the fact that you jumped into the battlefield without hesitation to protect your friends is commendable. I’ll give you a corresponding reward. Please wait.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
“I’d have been in a bad mood if I had done all that and only gotten penalty points.”
"Haah, I'm exhausted."
It was nearly dawn, and although the purple night sky was really beautiful, it was time for the sun to rise.
His thigh still hurt. Despite receiving emergency treatment from Flame and an excellent healer, it would continue to hurt for a few more days.
Luckily, it wasn't a serious injury, and his recovery rate was surprisingly faster than an average person's, so he was told he could return to classes soon.
Due to the influence of Mana Leakage Delay, his recovery ability also improved.
‘I don't want to be back to class so quickly. Can't you just put me in the hospital?’
Thinking such thoughts, he hobbled along until someone approached with light steps and tapped his shoulder. It was Flame.
“Old man, I owe you one.”
“Is that so? Buy me a meal later.”
"A meal from a student who doesn’t have money to eat herself?"
“I’m a student too.”
"Fair enough."
Baek Yu-Seol let out a small laugh. Contrary to his initial thoughts, he was starting to think that Flame wasn't such a dangerous person after all.
Due to the players manipulating Flame in the game, there were many cases in which she robbed Eisel’s talents and opportunities, but the real Flame was not like that.
Afterward, Deok Cheol-Gwang, Ban Di-Yeon, Hong Bi-Yeon and her group members, as well as Kashif Derek, thanked him one after the other and disappeared.
Last was Eisel.
However, her expression was quite dark. Seeing that, Baek Yu-Seol had an ominous feeling.
'Why’s she like this?'
Eisel was a person who always had a bright smile on her face. No matter what burdens she carried, she stood firm and overcame all hardships and adversity. She was such a great character.
“I am really thankful for today.”
"Uh. Buy me a treat later,” Baek Yu-Seol jokingly replied.
Watching his nonchalant expression, Eisel thought silently.
There was one fact that she knew from this incident. No, even before that.
'There are many outstanding people besides me in this world.’
She considered herself a genius. That thought had not changed even now. However, there were plenty of geniuses who were just as good or even better than her.
It wasn't until after entering Stella Academy that she truly realized.
The world was wide, and there were many geniuses.
She had entered the academy with the intention of becoming the best, but she soon realized that it could never be achieved easily.
She had to be the best.
So she had been working hard to be the best.
But now she had a question.
‘Will it work just because I try hard?'
There were so many geniuses who had already left her behind even though they were the same age as her.
Such depressing thoughts kept running through her head, and Eisel struggled to rein them in.
She suppressed all the anxiety in her heart.
Anxiety was more terrifying than fear.
Fear was a response to perceptible and real danger, whereas anxiety was derived from the inner subconscious.
‘I can do it,’ she reassured herself internally. Yet, her limits were clear. No matter how much medicine you apply, if you don't treat the fundamental wound, the blood will always find a way to seep out.
Without even realizing it, Eisel asked him, “Can I… do that too?”
Hearing that question, Baek Yu-Seol composed his expression.
It wasn't a good question.
Not because the question itself was difficult, but because it was a question she shouldn't have asked.
In the original story, Eisel experienced every trial imaginable for a protagonist and somehow overcame them.
The necromancer's attack should have been no different.
She would have worked hard to overcome the ordeal with her own strategies, and eventually, her efforts would have led to a positive outcome.
However, due to Baek Yu-Seol’s intervention, Eisel only faced trials without overcoming them herself.
Like a damsel in distress, she merely depended on others around her and was saved—that was the limit of her role.
Therefore, despite going through several episodes, she still had a fragile heart.
Initially, she endured the light drizzle, got used to it, endured the downpour, and eventually endured the waterfall and even the tidal wave.
Yet her resilience to trials themselves had completely vanished.
'... What shall I do?’
There was no use for ignorant consolation.
Empty words were meaningless.
They would only hurt her more.
Instead, he said from the bottom of his heart. "I don’t think you need to ask me. You’ve already achieved things others said were impossible."
“... Huh?"
A girl who lost her parents at a young age and was abandoned as the child of a traitor.
However, she did not give up on life in the end and immersed herself in her magic.
During a blizzard, she hid her body under a cave and trembled, but she studied with a magic book she used her last penny to get from a used bookstore.
Even when she had to starve, she would prefer a pencil to a loaf of bread. She would sleep for two hours a day, and in the midst of toiling labor, never let go of her pen.
And, miraculously, she entered the most prestigious academy called Stella Academy.
What else could this be, if not a miracle?
"So, you’ll probably keep achieving miracles in the future too."
Eisel closed her lips tightly and looked at him without saying a word.
A cool breeze blew and brushed past her hair.
“How do you… know that for sure?”
“Because I’ve been watching you all along.”
"Huh?"
He instantly snapped back to reality. 'Wait a minute. Does that sound like I'm a stalker?'
Saying he had been watching her all this time made him sound like a pervert.
Realizing his slip of the tongue, Baek Yu-Seol quickly turned away.
Luckily, his face was shaded by the setting sun.
“I should get going.”
As Baek Yu-Seol hurriedly left, Eisel stood there for a while, mulling over his words.
'He's been... watching over me...'
No one had ever shown interest in the traitor's child.
Even if they did, it was to mock and throw stones at her, not out of any genuine concern.
However…
Today, that idea had been shattered.
'You've already achieved it...'
The words rang through her heart, circled the blood vessels throughout her body, and pierced her head.
Her heart started beating slowly. Her passion for magic and her goal that seemed to be lost were waking up again.
Before she knew it, dawn broke in the distance.
A new morning unraveled itself.
The world's best mages were gathered in the city of Camelon, the home of magic.
In a certain place.
The Magic Elders’ Council had people who had fallen so deeply into magic that they could no longer get out of it.
Curiously, among those present, there were very few people in their 40s or older. Most of them looked to be in their 20s and 30s.
“What? A necromancer? In this day and age…”
“They don't really die. They just keep coming.”
The elders of the Council of Elders heard the news from an agent of the Dark Mage Extermination Squad who appeared to be older than they were.
“Pfft, they’ll disappear on their own.”
It wasn't once or twice that necromancers couldn't forget the old days when they ruled the world and made a fuss.
However, there was one piece of information that surprised even the elders who didn't pay attention to the necromancer.
The Class 8 mage, Rudrick, asked with his eyes wide open, "What? Stella's cadets defeated the Class 5 necromancer?"
"Yes. Thirteen students participated in the fight and came out unscathed. Even I can't believe it, but it’s said that only one student took down the main body of the necromancer."
“That doesn’t make any sense. Even if he was about to die soon, a necromancer is still a necromancer. What, are you saying that some of those students were at Class 4 or higher?”
"No."
‘Well then, that’s simply impossible, isn’t it?’ Rudrick couldn’t believe it.
He couldn’t have imagined it. That was why it appeared even more strange.
'How can students defeat a necromancer?'
A properly raised necromancer could command thousands of troops. Even if he were only Class 5, it would not be strange if the actual danger was judged to be Class 6 or higher.
Yet 13 students defeated the necromancer.
"I can't believe it."
“But it’s true. In particular, among the students was Princess Hong Bi-Yeon of Adolevit.”
“Hae Won-Ryang, the successor of the Full Moon Tower; Flame, a genius mage who commands light, nature, and matter; and Eisel, the successor of Morph, were among them.”
"Hmm. I see. Then they must've had some kind of plan."
All four of them were geniuses.
Rudrick had to omit the latter part. In this magical society, the existence of a real genius had a mysterious power that made nonsensical phenomena understandable.
“Then it must be one of the four who killed the necromancer.”
“Again, that's not it."
"What? Who could it have been?”
The knight hesitated for a moment, then slowly parted his lips.
“It was a student named Baek Yu-Seol.”
“It’s the first time I’ve heard the name.”
“Yes. He’s a very unique student with a strong sense of chivalry. I hear that Stella’s principal, Elthman Elwin, is keeping an eye on him...”
“Huh, true. I’ve lived a long time, and I rarely encounter such interesting things.”
‘Baek Yu-Seol, huh? I’ll remember you.’
He had a feeling they would soon meet…
Many people thought that the flow of time was constant, but that was an illusion. There were as many as two factors in this world that could give a variable to the speed of time.
First, Einstein's theory of relativity.
According to it, very heavy materials could affect the nature of space and cause time to slow down.
Second was weekends.
That was right.
In the blink of an eye, it was Monday. The weekend was gone.
'I didn't do anything on Sunday...'
Still, today was a special day.
When an ordinary mage did something momentous, he was invited to the Mages Association of Camelon and was given a reward. Stella was different. If there was a need for a reward, they did it by themselves.
This was only possible because the Principal was a Class 9 mage, one of the few ten such people on the entire continent.
Thirteen students stood in a line on the platform, and behind them, the entire student body was arranged in neat rows.
Baek Yu-Seol, the star of the show, did not care much for the fanfare. In one corner, magicians dispatched from the Mage Department and the Mage Tower buzzed around, reporters snapped photos, and a few nobles milled around.
‘Couldn’t they just quietly summon us and give a commendation? I don't know why people of such high rank like showing off.’
"Hmm…"
Contrary to his thoughts, Hong Bi-Yeon seemed to be in a great mood. Without even realizing it, her lips were curled up in a smile that almost reached her ears.
‘She must have received a lot of praise.’
She had spent her whole life trying to earn her mother's approval, and now she was being awarded for being a model student.
"What are you looking at?"
Hong Bi-Yeon caught Baek Yu-Seol staring and her expression suddenly hardened. However, a slight smile still played at the corners of her lips.
‘Do you enjoy it that much?’
He then took a close look at the faces of the students lined up beside him: Hong Bi-Yeon, Flame, Hae Won-Ryang, and Eisel.
He had intended to stay out of the main characters' way and quietly do his own thing, but within a few months of entering the school, he ended up involved with everyone and even became one of the most notable students.
"And what are you so happy about?"
"Huh? W-What do you mean? I fought too, you know?"
"Yeah, right. You’re pretty good at talking for a troll."
"A troll..."
In one corner, Ban Di-Yeon talked down on Kashif Derek as if she were genuinely disgusted.
Eisel wasn't very friendly to Kashif either, so he ended up being bullied alone.
‘You don’t have to be so angry.' He wondered if there was a need for that.
‘By the way, Deok Cheol-Gwang’s muscles are no joke.’
Deok Cheol-Gwang was one of his favorite characters in the game. Although he seemed to be constantly bullied by Ban Di-Yeon, it was still nice to see.
'I'd like to get to know you a little more, but now isn’t the time.’ Baek Yu-Seol idly wondered if he could become friends with him.
While everyone was chatting…
Thump!
The noisy hall suddenly became quiet.
After a long wait, the true protagonist of the event had finally appeared.
The students receiving awards were not the main characters. The reporters weren’t there to take pictures of them. The officials from the Mage Tower weren’t there to see them either.
Standing at the pinnacle of humanity, the master mage of Class 9, Elthman Elwin.
They gathered to see his face. He was famous for never showing his face.
'Wow.’
In the game, Elthman Elwin appeared quite often as he was one of the characters with the possibility of being included in the main character's reverse harem.
There were rumors of the plans being dropped due to censorship.
His age was set to 300 years, but his handsome teenage facial features were perfectly framed by his silver hair.
He always had a bright smile, but he was the world's strongest magic warrior with a destructive nickname of 'slayer'.
That was the true identity of that boy walking with a wobbly gait.
Gulp.
The sound of someone next to him gulping reached him.
Even though Elthman wasn’t exuding any mana, an indescribable pressure gripped Baek Yu-Seol’s heart and bladder. He suddenly needed to pee.
He instinctively wanted to lower his eyes and bow his head, but he forced himself to keep his head up.
Elthman Elwin didn’t pay much attention to students who couldn’t withstand his aura and lowered their heads.
Baek Yu-Seol didn’t really care. For his plans in the future, the Principal need to pay a fair bit of attention to him.
“Oh, you guys are freshmen? Nice to meet you!”
“Principal, that’s idle chatter. Please follow the order of events.”
"Ah, I understand. You nag a little too much."
When the assistant secretary who followed Elthman quietly whispered, he complained like a boy his physical age who was bothered by his mother's nagging. He then picked up the letters of commendation.
After a moment of contemplation, he said, "Hmm, I’ll skip the formalities."
All the rehearsals that took at least three hours were condensed into just four words.
While everyone was shocked, Elthman patted the students on the shoulder as he walked past them.
“Good job, everyone. You’re really unique. Keep up the good work.”
It seemed like a greeting, but he made eye contact with the students one by one.
Most of the students averted their gaze or lowered their heads, but Baek Yu-Seol stared back, pretending to be in a staring contest.
When Elthman finally reached him, he smiled enigmatically. “You’re still working hard. Just as expected.”
‘Still working hard? What does he mean?’
But Elthman moved on, and Baek Yu-Seol couldn't figure out the meaning behind his words.
Regardless, once Eltman passed, he let out a sigh of relief.
He had been so nervous, he thought he would die. His eyes were so dry from staring that they were almost tearing up.
He decided to eat some blueberries when he got home.
Just like that, Elthman Elwin encouraged all 13 students, and the event ended quickly after he handed over the commendations.
"Oh, and I almost forgot. You know the student who took down the dark mage? They’ll be getting a reward money. Use it to buy yourselves some nice snacks."
Reward money. There was someone who noticeably flinched at the mention of that word.
It was Eisel.
“And that concludes the award ceremony! Thank you!”
With that, the event truly ended.
As the students and officials began to disperse, Baek Yu-Seol hurried to avoid getting caught in the crowd.
As expected, a significant number of external magic tower representatives approached him.
“Did you say your name is Baek Yu-Seol? Student, have you chosen any mage tower to enter after graduating?
“Do you have any thoughts of joining our company as a combatant?”
It was to be expected. Ma Yu-Seong and Flame had gone through worse things than this.
Ideally, Baek Yu-Seol wanted to accept all the offers. They were from famous magic towers he had heard of even in the game.
However, he couldn’t join any of them. He wasn’t a real mage. If they knew he was a half-baked mage who couldn’t truly use magic, would they still cling to him?
No, he didn’t think so.
“No. I refuse.”
So, he turned down all the offers. If, in the future, a mage tower still contacted him after knowing he was a half-baked mage, that would be the place that genuinely wanted him.
Until then, he planned to reject all the tentative offers thrown his way.
“Now, hold on a second. Could you please tell me the reason?”
‘Reason?’
He couldn’t say he was a crippled mage, so he gave another reason.
“Because it’s trending these days.”
"What...?”
In modern stories, protagonists thrived on their own without relying on guilds or anything else. That was the trend.
Right?