Chapter 21: Would I have been better just to take it?

Even if you stumble upon a treasure chest while wandering through a dungeon, you shouldn’t carelessly open it.  

It could be a mimic disguised as a treasure chest, eagerly waiting to devour an adventurer.  

Likewise, even if there’s something I need, I shouldn’t enter the professor’s office, where someone is constantly eyeing my body with ulterior motives.  

Because in the professor’s domain—the office—she could gobble me up at any moment.  

Of course, it’s not like I’d be physically eaten, but it feels like my energy gets completely drained.  

Anyway, the commonality between a mimic and a professor is that you shouldn’t recklessly open or enter either.  

What kind of nonsense is this, you ask?  

My mental strength’s been sucked dry, so I’m not even sure myself.  

“It might just be my imagination, but it felt more dangerous than when I fell into a trap room in the Great Labyrinth.”  

[The goddess acknowledges the hero’s efforts, saying she truly worked hard.]  

Having barely escaped Professor Shin Arin’s office—where she told me to “absolutely” come back anytime if I was curious or needed something—I placed a hand on my chest and took slow, deep breaths.  

She acted like she’d let me go, but it was a sticky, reluctant release.  

And the vicious part? 

She only spoke gently and treated me kindly, making it impossible for me to fight back.  

It was truly a hellish ordeal.  

I thought I’d carelessly walked into her office only to be dragged all the way to grad school.  

“Phew.”  

Still, I felt relieved since it seemed I’d soon get the dungeon pass I came for.  

If I could clear up to a C-rank dungeon, I’d be able to visit a good number of the candidate locations I’d scoped out in advance. 

Gathering various materials and getting some support would likely make improving my constitution a lot easier.  

It was something I’d experienced once before, albeit over ten years ago.  

Though I couldn’t use all sorts of magic, when it came to curse-breaking, there were two experts here:  

The hero who saved the world and the goddess.  

One was half-transcendent, and the other was blatantly a transcendent being—an elite duo.  

[The goddess shrugs her shoulders, showing off her dignity.]  

Well, being in a different world and unable to fully use her powers was neither here nor there.  

No, wait—I can at least swing a sword and cut something, but our goddess can’t even speak properly.  

Hmm.  

[The goddess glares, asking if I’m mocking her right now.]  

“No, hold on, now that I think about it, it feels like you’ve been talking less lately. You said it’s fine to speak sometimes, so why don’t you?”  

Is she plotting something?  

Maybe secretly preparing an event or something?  

[The goddess flinches, her body trembling slightly.]  

Looks like I hit the nail on the head.  

“I’ll just pretend I don’t know anything.”  

Surprise gifts are best when you’re completely unprepared, after all.  

Let’s not think about it on purpose.  

Then our silly goddess will secretly prepare a wonderful gift for me!  

[······.]  

Probably, someday?  

[The goddess clamps her mouth shut and glares at the hero.]  

***

“So how have you been living all this time? Just chilling? What’ve you been up to?”  

“I’ve been living, always waiting for you.”  

“Shut up!”  

“What number husband am I?”  

“The first, and the last.”  

And so, after living for 1,000 years, one day—  

On a nice, pleasant day—  

It was the first person I ever liked.  

“If I could meet you again, when spring comes, let’s go see the sea far away. I should’ve told you that over and over again… Someone I miss, again.”  

Thud.

The goblin collapses and closes its eyes.  

And the boy, now a grown man, walks off beyond the frame with a smile, disappearing from sight.  

Imagining that scene, the goblin quietly laughs.  

And so, the 12-episode drama came to an end.  

[Sob… What about our goblin?! No, how could a drama—how could it end like this?!]  

[The goddess, her face streaked with tears, sniffles and says the female goblin is so pitiful.]  

Well, by my standards, I think the original goblin story I saw in another world was better.  

Here, the female goblin takes on the role of a “tall uncle” figure, which feels oddly awkward.  

The original dialogue was better too, I think…

[The goddess glares and demands a retraction.]  

[“No, how could you say something so harsh about our Kkaebi Yoon-sol?!”]  

But I didn’t even do anything.  

I didn’t kill the female goblin, nor did I say her acting was bad.  

I just said it felt a bit awkward due to the disconnect from the world I originally lived in.  

[The goddess glares again.]  

Wait, did I really mess up so badly that she’s unleashing her carefully conserved divine power to scold me?  

No, no. Let’s just keep quiet in times like this.  

For some reason, she seemed way more immersed in this than when we usually watch dramas together.  

“Alright, it’s my fault.”  

[The goddess declares that she’s relieved I admitted it now and will let it slide this time.]  

“Oh, thank you so much.”  

Pleasing the goddess is no easy task.  

There was this incident where our cute and beautiful goddess got sulky for a while.  

So I watched a modern romance drama that I thought she’d like, and wow, she really loved it.  

“I said I’d sleep around episode 9 and got scolded for it.”  

She asked why I’d go to bed at the most important moment.  

“Do you want to die?”  

I said I was getting sleepy and heading to bed, and she literally said, word-for-word,

“Do you want to die?”  

And after the drama ended, she kept nagging me even when I just thought about it.  

At this point, her scolding me isn’t just an annual event—it’s at least a weekly occurrence.  

“I wonder if I should bother smoothing things over.”  

By the way, I’m saying this secretly so the goddess can’t hear my thoughts, so it’s fine.  

“Goddess, stop peeking into the hero’s mind! Abolish it! Abolish it!”  

[The goddess sniffles, mourning the female goblin Yoon-sol’s ending.]  

[(T_T)]  

[She deeply empathizes with her.]  

Well, the goddess has been alone for hundreds of years, so she’s probably lonely too.  

That’s likely why she talks to me more often and spends time with me, at least to some extent.  

But still—  

Tweet tweet tweet tweet-

“I’ve got to go to school again, so staying up all night watching dramas isn’t exactly ideal, right?”  

Today, too, marked the start of another tough day.  

[The goddess cheers me on, saying, “Let’s do our best today!”]  

It’s been about five years since I broke free from constraints like sleep or meals, so I wasn’t tired.  

They’re more like recreational habits now.  

Eating chicken or ramen and chugging cola—it’s just fun, that’s all.  

It’s a lingering habit from my ordinary human days, so I keep it up.  

There’s no issue with my condition, but while I didn’t sleep at all, the goddess—who finished the drama—is all smiles.  

Somehow, it makes me feel a little mischievous, like I want to tease her.  

Sigh. She said she’d prepare a surprise gift separately, so I’m really holding myself back.  

“Greetings. I’m Aris Severus, and I’ll be teaching the Advanced Magic course for this year’s new combat department students. Nice to meet you.”  

Oh, and there was a new professor today.  

It’s already been three weeks since the semester started, and while classes hadn’t been canceled so far, it seems she’s taking over the “Combat Theory and Practice” course from Professor Shin Arin on a rotation basis.  

“Well, she did have way too much time on her hands.”  

Even in this peaceful era—  

In a world like this—  

Incidents of monsters popping out of dungeons with a bang are rare, but it’s definitely tough for an S-rank hunter to always stick around at school.  

No wonder when I went to her office, she was oddly clingy.  

“Maybe she’s been busy lately.”  

The cycle isn’t clear, but it seems the rotation happens roughly every two to three weeks.  

If Professor Shin Arin handles anti-monster combat, then today’s instructor, Professor Aris Severus, seems to be in charge of anti-magic lessons.  

Tap, tap, taptap.

Jet-black hair, red eyes.  

Unlike her expressionless face, her hands moved nimbly, drawing intricate yet swift magic circles on the board.  

The mana she exuded felt fitting for a high-ranking mage worthy of being a school professor.  

“She’s probably at least baron-level, maybe even viscount-level.”  

As I gauged her approximate strength, Professor Aris completed a magic circle layered with dozens of shapes and showed it to the students.  

“I’ll explain why you, who are meant to defeat monsters, need to prepare for magic as well.”  

When the professor said this, the other students looked puzzled.  

If they’re learning magic, they’re learning it—so what’s she going to explain?  

The answer was simple.  

“Fall deep into it, 《Magical Illusion Manipulation》.”  

Clap clap.

“Now, everyone, you’ve fallen asleep.  

To the land of illusions, together.”  

Whoooosh— 

The magic circle she’d just drawn on the board glowed, flaunting its power.  

“Did they all fall asleep?”  

Professor Aris Severus calmly scanned the students who had collapsed onto their desks.  

The spell maximized its effect the moment someone “saw” the magic circle.  

Whether they were elite students or seasoned hunters, if they didn’t know about it, they’d fall victim.  

“There are so many vicious tricks these days.”  

Hunters don’t just face monsters.  

Villains, deranged dark mages, or, in extremely rare cases, high-risk transcendent beings that pop up.  

Hunters need to learn how to handle monsters while also knowing how to counter magic.  

The point of her class was to experience these things one by one and study how to break them.  

Aris Severus naturally assumed everyone had fallen under the spell and was about to erase the magic circle after a quick scan—  

“Hm?”  

But then something odd caught her eye.  

Not someone nodding off drowsily, but a student with perfectly clear, wide-awake eyes.  

The sole survivor of the lecture hall, Shin Yuseong, raised his hand with a faintly regretful expression and said,  

“Uh, would it have been better if I’d just fallen for it?”  

At that nonchalant voice, Aris’s eyelid twitched for a moment.  

To be continued…