Why Does This Academy Have So Many Incidents?

12 years.

How anxious I was when I finally faced that child again after that time had passed.

Still hating me, and becoming unrecognizably strong by forging that hatred, but still not enough.

Compared to what I went through, and what Sion went through… That child might not have the strength to endure all of that.

She might become like me who gave up everything in the end, crushed trying to endure it all.

Disappointed in a world that doesn’t go as wished, despairing after having precious things so lightly violated.

Wouldn’t she fall to become a being like me…

Even though I thought I could do nothing for that child as someone who could only swing a sword, and cursed myself for that.

‘Believers of Lagrid.’

Love.

Just one love…

‘I who stand before you am merely a human. Unlike the saint who embraced all original sin and disappeared, I am a weak being who can only save one human before my eyes with just a human body.’

When that emotion that had made me so enthusiastic.

When such fragments were seen in that child, I felt all the stirring of those emotions subsiding.

‘But even someone like me can know how valuable this moment is now. I, who embraced this child crying in my arms, know better than anyone how precious this being is.’

Furthermore, a child I had never met before.

When I saw her sincerely blessing the pure birth of life.

‘So I will ask you here. In your eyes, this child awakened from a virgin’s body… Does it really look like a demon? Or does it look like the result of a miracle, as in the verses of the Bible?’

There must have been a lot of resolve to challenge the authority of God while being faithful to that one emotion, and to make His followers bow their heads.

Nevertheless, the radiance shining from that body tells me.

That child is carrying through her own beliefs.

Not with madness or resignation, but with her own will…

Even the child born of me, who had become unable to love humans, learned to love someone.

As if it were only natural, even after leaving my side… Without any difficulty…

‘Sion, has it finally come?’

When I watched all those scenes with my back against the door, I felt the anxiety I had felt all along subsiding.

‘Has the era you wished for finally come?’

There are forces trying to encroach on the era where this happens naturally, stirring under this land.

When I realized that, my steps were already headed there.

As the sun set, and even the rising moonlight was obscured by dark clouds, darkness fell.

Unhesitatingly towards a grave so deep that no one’s feet would tread, so dark that no one’s eyes would see.

---

-…Love?

And perhaps he won’t understand such a reason.

-Just, because of such a thing…

“Yes, a trivial reason.”

Because such a concept wasn’t necessary in the past.

-You’re saying you’re stopping me for such a trivial reason!!!!!!

The space shakes with anger. Everything split from that body begins to rise throughout the space.

Chunks of flesh spreading to every corner of the ceiling punctured across dozens of floors.

All of that gradually solidifies its form, and begins to advance towards where feet can reach, equipped with will.

-No, whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, I’ll just crush everything that stands in my way.

Is this some kind of trick?

To surprise attack from all directions by spreading out like that?

-I am the hegemon…

No, he’s not aiming just for me.

Those beings created like that will go up. They will try to advance upwards, escaping this underground.

-Everyone called me that even before I sat on the emperor’s throne, I sat on the throne in response to those expectations, so no one but me should become the hegemon!!!

An army of the dead rushing out with the momentum to sweep away everything on the ground.

Amidst the roar of the one standing at their center echoing, Celia, who was watching the situation, bit her lip and muttered.

“…That’s just the underlings maneuvering to put you on top to drive out the heir with higher succession rights.”

-Only after crushing all such people could I finally be completed as a hegemon!!

Slash!!

The space splits with a howl.

Along with it, a huge head rising up finally grew to the level of looking down on her.

-I don’t care if they use me or do it for greed. As long as everything is under me, that’s all that matters. It’s enough to crush everyone who goes against me, and standing on top of them, to show that I am the one who should rule this land!

“Didn’t you start the war to unify the continent? But now you say you’ll destroy everything to rule?”

-Yes, that’s how it was at first. Ganian Astora, Sion…! And you, Celia Bertayu, if you hadn’t interfered!

The waterway shatters violently under the swinging hand strike.

All the giant sees as he peeks through that gap is madness filled with anger.

-I will destroy everything in the world you all have built and start over. Even if I have to turn everything in this world to ashes!!

If he can’t have it, he’ll destroy it even if it means regressing to the past.

An incarnation of anger that only has destruction left to pursue, purely destruction.

What’s in front of her is a being that can be defined like that, but Celia didn’t deny all of his forced reasoning.

“At least you’re more tolerable than that Ganian fellow.”

Because a consistently trashy person who’s the same inside and out might be more fitting for the position of emperor than someone who just pretends to be strong but is weak inside.

Although he lacks the gentleness that is rather a hindrance to a monarch.

Therefore, the majesty he exudes must have evoked nostalgia in those who shared the glorious times.

But his fatal flaw was that he gathered the crowd that would participate in his ambition not through loyalty towards him, but through faith, and even the madness stemming from it.

The moment he gave up adapting to the changing era through the cracks he created, he had to be prepared to fight against the justice he held, staking the justice he was pushing through.

A clash of justice against justice.

A slaughter where they kill each other.

He had to accept that at the end of the fierce battle, it would be divided into victory and defeat, with the victor falling to good and the loser to evil.

‘Perhaps Sion would have said so. That a being already denied should never be welcomed.’

If what should disappear into the back alleys of history tries to encroach on the era again, it might be the concept of ‘evil’ that the world cries out against…

But although she understood with her head, she still couldn’t empathize with her heart.

Why do Sion and that ghost of the past.

Furthermore, why do all people live so tied to the past?

‘Is it because nothing remains if they’re not tied?’

Just as a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and the beginning of a high tower starts with its foundation…

A person’s life is also built up from the past. People find answers in the life they’ve lived, and hope that all that time has meaning.

It’s a natural result for a monster born from lingering attachments to deny the present and obsess over the past.

“…Yes, you’re human after all, in the end.”

She realized.

That even the ugliness swarming here is ultimately what can be called humanity.

That even those lumps of desire squirming beneath her were born from such humanity.

-Celia Bertayu. What exactly did you come here for?

On the other hand, how about herself?

Compared to them, can any humanity be found in herself?

-You, who have not received anyone’s support and have entered the path of a madman, will not be able to draw anything in this world to your side. What prompted you to come before me? For what reason are you clashing with me with such desperation?

A monster wearing the mask of a human who is not human.

If she were to define herself, that would be the appropriate term.

Even if her birth could be said to have been in the wrong era, it was her own choice to enter the wrong path afterwards.

“I wasn’t prompted.”

But so what?

“There’s nothing holding me back.”

A sword strike swung as if it didn’t matter.

Along with it, the split space splits all the layers visible to the eye, and the aftereffects collapse the ceiling and floor, blocking the path of the advancing corpses.

The malice that was trying to spread towards the world, at this moment she focuses it all on herself alone.

Lighting shining on a scene darker than any place above ground. And spectators.

Despite the killing intent emanating from all of them, she speaks.

“I’ve never wanted expectations.”

She speaks of her life.

“I’m just doing what I want to do.”

An empty life where she has never received kindness from anyone except one person, and has never shown kindness to anyone…

But the one exception, her husband who was tied to her, said to her.

That although humans started the fight, it was also humans who inherited it.

Although the beginning wasn’t what they wanted, they had to be prepared to fight on behalf of their ancestors who had passed down many things to them.

If the conclusion at the end is reached by those who don’t fit, the choice of that era should also be respected.

“Now that a good era has finally come, the old folks in the back room should quietly exit without interfering with the young people’s play.”

Because it shouldn’t be that someone who isn’t even human, who proclaims himself a god, interferes and disrupts such an ending.

So she fights.

Unable to sincerely follow him, but prepared to shoulder what they cannot handle on their behalf.

‘The world doesn’t have to love me.’

Everything is love.

Purely because of love.

‘It’s okay if the person who loves me isn’t by my side.’

Even if I’m so far away that I can’t understand that heart with my skin.

Because this passion boiling in my heart is the only driving force that makes me move in this empty life.

‘If I can love… If I can love.’

So she stands up.

Straightening the creaking parts of her whole body, forcibly controlling her rising breath and opening her eyes wide.

Controlling her breathing.

“That’s reason enough for me to kill you.”

Speaking only one sentence that encapsulates her heart decisively.

-Sruung.

Along with it, she prepares to swing with all the life she has passed through on the blade that has begun to be forged again.

That is the sword of the empire.

The belief of an ill-fated woman born in the wrong era despite her innate talent.

After falling for the devil’s temptation, even abandoning her humanity…

A woman who turned away even from the longing for an unreturnable twilight, with an intensity that calms the madness stemming from that.

But because of that, she could forge her sword alone in the darkness.

Not understood by anyone.

Without being understood by anyone, with a transparent and pure heart.

Even if its direction was twisted, its color was forged more nobly and purely than anyone else’s.

In this burial ground covered in the name of peace, she can aim the sword in her hand towards calamity.

“Finished catching your breath? Then let’s continue.”

The woman gripping such a sword would not know.

The tragic life she went through to forge that sword, the intense love and the strength that bloomed from it.

That all of those are proof that she is loved by the God she hated.

She will not realize this fact even if she makes this underground her grave and takes that being as her companion.

Especially as much as she hopes that the only one in this world who knows that truth will not come here.

“Really, this damn academy.”

That one person.

The moment she realized that her treasure, who gained the strength to face the world’s sadism with hatred towards her, had entered this place.

“Is it because it’s built on a border? Why do so many incidents happen here?”

The woman loved by God.

Feeling her heart sink at the voice she heard at this moment, she even lowered the sword she had aimed at the monster.

“…Se.”

Why.

Why is that child here?

“Seine…?”

The moment she turned around thinking it might be an auditory hallusion, she saw a white gown and a face soaked in fatigue.

And a faint light shining even in the darkness.

“Why are you here…”

“Never mind that, give me your hand.”

But there was no hostility directed at her.

Just indifferently reaching out a hand towards her.

Even though she had glared at her as if she would kill her when they last met, how is she facing her so calmly at this moment?

“Not that one, the other side.”

She unconsciously reached out the hand holding the sword, but her daughter pushed it away and reached for the limp arm on the opposite side.

Along with the movement of that hand, a ‘cracking’ sound was heard from the arm and intense pain was felt.

But her daughter is holding her hand.

The hand that had only wriggled when she was just born, has now become as rough as her own.

“…What, did you do?”

“Emergency treatment.”

The moment the twisted joint was straightened and the crack in the broken bone was filled along with the tightening of the bandage.

She felt sensation returning to the arm that hadn’t moved all along.

Enough to grip a sword.

“It’s just a temporary measure. You’ll be able to move, but if you try to swing it like usual, it’ll probably hurt enough to kill you.”

Her daughter who casually did such treatment while putting a new cigarette in her mouth.

Then she looked down at the scene spread out below the hole next to her, where countless dead were writhing and restoring the giant’s body.

The ghosts of the old era she had never seen in any battlefield, the ugly lump of desire created by them gathering.

“You’re trying to deal with that, right?”

The child who pointed at them with her finger spoke quietly.

“Pick up your sword as soon as you catch your breath. I’ll help you.”

The moment she thought would never come.

As if telling her it had come only now when she was standing at the edge of despair.