The tower occupied a smaller area than the main building but was greater in height. After landing on the top floor, Evelyn opened the roof door and descended the seemingly endless spiral staircase until they reached somewhere near the floor in the middle. After a bemused moment, she suddenly nodded to herself.
“I see,” she murmured while placing her palms on the dusty wall. “I was wondering why I didn’t see the core of the summoning magic even though I could sense a strong reaction… The wall was made of magic stones.”
Chi-Woo recalled that Eshnunna had said something similar.
“Does that mean this whole tower was used as a catalyst?”
“Something like that, but ultimately different.” Evelyn looked back to Chi-Woo and knocked on the tower’s wall with a fist.
“This tower itself is acting as the core.”
“?”
“And the buildings within its range are probably its catalyst.”
Chi-Woo gaped slightly. In other words, the entire academy—or more specifically, places where there were magic stones—was basically the summoning circle.
“…That’s massive,” Chi-Woo muttered.
“So what?” Evelyn said indifferently. She seemed strangely confident in this field.
“Could you return things to normal?”
“Who do you think you’re talking to?” Evelyn snorted, seemingly telling Chi-Woo not to look down on her with her gaze.
Evelyn’s logic was simple. The center of the academy had been opened to another world due to the summoning magic; to turn things back to normal, one had to reverse the process that had brought to bear said magic. That was the safest and the most effective method.
The only thing they had to worry about now was whether anyone had the ability to perform an event of such a scale. A mere human couldn’t sustain a magic circle this large, and that was exactly what had brought upon this catastrophe. However, Onorables Evelyn wasn’t human. She was a witch who had died and surpassed human existence.
“It makes me curious.” Evelyn’s eyes shone with a dazzling light as she looked up at the ceiling. “I wonder how it will compare to the never-drying spring inside me.”
Her body gradually became semi-transparent. And a figure of light emerged above her head like before. The seemingly eternal light intensified in brilliance until it scattered. And then, Chi-Woo clearly heard a strange vibration near his ears.
Simultaneously, geometric patterns flowed across and filled the empty wall. They flowed just like water, and also like salmons swimming against the currents, they went up from down. Like a giant vacuum had been attached to the ceiling, everything was getting sucked in. The process wasn’t loud at all, but one would be hard-pressed to describe it as silent.
Chi-Woo felt like he was standing inside a place filled to the brim with indescribable and strange vibrations. But this feeling didn’t last long, and the speed at which the shapes and symbols flowed increased continuously until they were moving so fast that he could no longer see their patterns. It was like he was inside a theater, standing in front of a giant screen as a hubbub of quiet noises whizzed around him. Then, as if someone had lifted the curtains on both sides of the theater, light poured into his vision and overwhelmed it with pure, blinding white before it started flickering.
“…” Chi-Woo opened the eyes he had closed at some point due to the brightness, and saw the same interior of the tower without substantial changes. The only difference was the lighting. Originally the place had been illuminated with red lights like those of a red-light district, but they were now replaced by familiar colors. Chi-Woo hurriedly peered through the tower’s window. He could see the capital from there. The colors outside were the same as the inside. Then, a message popped up.
[Restoring an abandoned part of the World.]
[Absorbing restored part of the World.]
[User Choi Chi-Woo’s innate ability, [Blessed Luck] is partially restored.]
Chi-Woo’s mouth opened wide in shock. His two abilities, Blessed Luck and Deus ex Machina, were linked, and only by spending his Blessed Luck could he activate the latter. Thus, knowing he couldn’t use these abilities limitlessly, he had been trying to save his Blessed Luck, and yet it had already dropped to 60—which was only a bit more than half of the original amount. The absorption ended up restoring his Blessed Luck by a great amount.
Even Chi-Woo hadn’t predicted this reward. After all, who would expect a piece of Liber which had separated from the rest of the world to have stayed intact for centuries? Chi-Woo stared at the witch blankly. As the burning light dissipated, Evelyn’s flying hair settled down, and she opened her eyes again.
“It’s over,” Evelyn said in a low voice while twirling her hair. “I’ve returned everything back to its rightful place.”
“…”
“They should’ve driven the parts of the other world out rather than trying to get their world back,” Evelyn said. What she said was too difficult for Chi-Woo to understand, but he understood one thing. Thanks to the witch, he had received a reward that would have normally been really difficult to get without doing anything.
“How is it?” Evelyn asked, pretending to be carefree.
“…You are so cool. Really amazing,” Chi-Woo said with genuine admiration. After all, Evelyn had restored the lost part of the world as easily as taking something out of her pockets.
“Ah, please,” Evelyn turned around and waved, “I haven’t done anything praiseworthy. It’s nothing, really.” But even as Evelyn said this, her head was tipped to the ceiling with her nose high up in the air.
Chi-Woo thought Evelyn was acting a bit differently today. She wasn’t usually like this, but for some reason, today she seemed to have been showing off how great she was. It was like something had hurt her pride recently, and she was trying to make up for it now.
“But it is a bit wasteful,” Evelyn said while stroking the wall. “There are many uses for such a great amount of magic stones.”
“Are we unable to use them now?”
“Of course. It had to endure a summoning and a reverse of it. It probably would have broken if I hadn’t maintained it. These stones are now nothing more than rocks that mana could pass through a bit more easily than regular rocks.” However, Chi-Woo didn’t really feel sorry for the loss since he had gotten something much more valuable than magic stones.
“Thank you so much,” Chi-Woo said with his head deeply bowed. “I will pay you back for the favor I received today.”
“Yeah.” Evelyn appeared very satisfied, as if she was thinking this was how things should be. “This is a very trivial matter for me…but I look forward to your payment. Especially since it’s coming from a human like you, I’m sure your words hold great weight.”
Then, Evelyn looked up and said, “Okay, let’s go up to the rooftop again.”
“Sorry?”
“We have to check who sent the signal.”
‘The Survivor.’ The words passed through Chi-Woo’s head.
While making her way up, Evelyn said, “The survivor is probably either of the two: the one who caused all this, or one very lucky person.” Evelyn shrugged as she continued, “Well, it’d be the most hilarious irony if it’s the former.”
When the two arrived at the rooftop, there was no one there. However, something was different. The rooftop was divided into several parts, and a corner of the rooftop was crushed. While the other parts appeared normal, the crushed corner looked to him like a broken mirror.
“Look closely.”
Evelyn picked up a rolling debris and flung it toward the broken area. Chi-Woo’s eyes widened. As soon as the debris touched the crack, it disappeared without a trace.
“A space inside a space. It’s an interesting idea.” Evelyn hummed. “It’s quite well done considering how hastily it must have been created. I almost fell for it too.”
Chi-Woo looked to Evelyn for an explanation, and she obliged by pointing at the crushed corner and saying, “Whoever it was created a standalone space. To put it simply, they exploited the gap existing at the intersection of the two worlds and created a subspace. Now that one of the two worlds has disappeared, there is no intersection, and the subspace is left like this.” She reached out with both hands. “Who made this? I’m sure there weren’t many professors, much less students, who would know how to deal with space like this.”
Evelyn curiously spread out her hands and moved them around like she was carefully taking off a gift wrap. As she did that, the space actually peeled off—there was no other way to describe the mysterious spectacle.
As a result, the warped space returned to one, and the interior was revealed.
“…Oh my.” Evelyn halted with her head down, looking slightly taken aback. Chi-Woo hurriedly walked up to find a person with short white hair. She was lying down as if she was dead. Her body was too small to be an adult, but it was hard to make out her appearance clearly with her face down.
Chi-Woo knelt on one knee and carefully checked on her. Her heart was still beating, but even though he kept calling out to her, she didn’t answer. Even shaking didn’t get any reaction out of her. Rather than being fast asleep, she seemed to have fainted out of exhaustion.
“As expected,” Evelyn spoke up.
“Was this person the one who sent out the help signal?”
“No.” Evelyn shook her head. “This isn’t a person.”
“…What?” Chi-Woo couldn’t believe his ears.
“And this help signal is…” Evelyn began moving mid-sentence and pointed her chin towards the collapsed figure. The necklace around the survivor’s neck flickered several times before it started glowing with soft light, blinking every once in a while.
* * *
A cat and a human were squabbling outside the academy.
“No—! You can’t do this to me!”
“Even if it’s you, I can’t let you in.”
The human causing a racket was none other than Eval Sevaru, and the cat blocking him from entering was Nangnang. In the midst of their verbal duel, the entrance slammed open. Nangnang and Eval Sevaru looked back at the same time, and both of their faces changed to shock.
“Mr. Eval Sevaru?”
“Uh? Who’s…” Eval Sevaru glanced at the figure Chi-Woo was holding with a princess carry. Since there was a robed figure behind him, it didn’t seem to be the magician Eval Sevaru heard that Chi-Woo had gone to the academy with.
“A survivor.”
Nangnang sharply asked, “What?”
“We found a survivor inside. Since she seems to be in a critical condition, would you please inform Ms. Eshnunna? I’ll be right behind you.”
“I’ll immediately go and tell her.” Nangnang quickly ran through the dark night.
* * *
The bed that Chi-Woo woke up in after losing his consciousness was occupied by a different person today. No—Chi-Woo wasn’t sure if this being was even a person since Evelyn had told him she was not human. The girl still seemed lifeless. A little old to be a child, but too young to be called a woman. She looked like a student who just entered middle school.
All that was speculation, of course. The only thing Chi-Woo was sure of was that she came from hundreds of years ago, and that she was the only survivor in the academy. The mysterious girl showed no signs of ever opening her eyes. Moreover, rather than sleeping, it seemed like she was in the middle of slowly dying.
“Her hair is very fine.” He heard Eshnunna say.
Eshnunna held a strand of the girl’s white hair and carefully caressed it. “Her skin is soft too.” She touched the girl’s chubby cheeks with her thumb. “And judging by her clothes…I don’t think she was of ordinary status.” There was a slight crease in the girl’s clothes, but there wasn’t a single blemish on her white coat.
Chi-Woo agreed. The girl was white as snow. She looked like a noble or of high birth through and through; nothing about her resembled an ordinary citizen.
Chi-Woo asked, “I wonder whose daughter she was.”
“Yes, but there’s something else…” Eshnunna didn’t finish her sentence. She was at a loss for words.
Chi-Woo understood her sentiment. Even mountains and rivers could shift in mere decades. With such limited information, it would be nigh impossible to guess the identity of a person from centuries ago. Chi-Woo focused more on his eyes as he looked at the girl. He could see light flowing out of her body. Chi-Woo was slightly surprised; it was the first time he saw such a white and pure light from a soul. Then, information about the girl appeared in the air.
<User Information>
<Physical Abilities>
[Strength F]
[Durability F]
[Agility F]
[Stamina F]
[Mental Fortitude D]
‘…What?’ Chi-Woo’s eyes narrowed. First of all, she didn’t have a name, and even her age wasn’t revealed. However, her rank was three stars. She was the second person he ever met to have three stars, the first being Hawa. And he had no idea what her class and title meant.
“I have so many questions for her,” Eshnunna said. “It would be best if I could ask her those questions directly.” Then she smacked her lips and continued, “…But only if she opens her eyes.”
“She probably won’t,” Evelyn spoke in an almost bored tone. “She doesn’t seem skilled enough of a sorcerer to warp space, and her life force is very weak. She must have exchanged her life force for the power to survive a little longer.”
Evelyn continued, “It’s stupid. No matter how desperately she wanted to live, how could she use her own life force to live? In the end, she didn’t solve anything and got her priorities wrong.”
Chi-Woo, who was nodding at Evelyn’s words, suddenly felt Eshnunna’s piercing gaze. Chi-Woo mouthed ‘what?’ at her, but Eshnunna didn’t reply. Instead, she shut her eyes and shook her head.
Evelyn continued, “Well, whatever. I’m going to leave now.” This visit had taken longer than planned. Now that she had satiated her curiosity, there was no need for her to stay any longer.
“Lady Evelyn, I’m very grateful for your help today.”
“Yeah, thank me as much as you want.” Seemingly remembering something, she continued, “Oops, I almost forgot. Be careful of the Demon Empire.”
“The Demon Empire? Why?”
“They have been acting suspiciously. I don’t expect something serious to happen, but…” An annoyed look overtook Evelyn’s face, like she had recalled something unpleasant. “Anyway, the Demon Empire considers this area under our sphere of influence. We don’t know how they’ll act, so be careful.” Evelyn opened the window. The cool night breeze rustled her hair. “And don’t forget.”
Thud. Evelyn sat on the window frame and looked back at Chi-Woo. “What you said to me before.” She smiled and tilted her body forward. Rather than falling to the ground, she disappeared as soon as her body touched the air. Evelyn had departed, leaving the three of them in the room.
“Ms. Eshnunna, you should go rest,” Chi-Woo suggested softly. Eshnunna had already stayed up all night to take care of him, and it would be too harsh to ask her to take care of this girl today as well.
“I’ll ask you to take care of her in the afternoon, so you should get some sleep for now.”
“But…”
“Please don’t worry. It’ll be alright.”
“…I understand. Please don’t strain yourself.” Eshnunna couldn’t turn Chi-Woo down again. She gave him a fleeting look of concern before taking her leave, gently closing the door behind her. Alone now, Chi-Woo stared at the sickly pale girl in front of him.
“…I don’t know.” Chi-Woo let out a long sigh and opened his bag at the same time. Although he hesitated, he took out a bottle of holy water and opened the girl’s mouth. If he left the girl like this, she wouldn’t survive the night. Still, Chi-Woo had no idea whether or not he should save this girl. Despite feeling conflicted, he tilted the bottle to pour holy water into her mouth in the end.
Trickle. He bowed and prayed for the girl’s recovery. He didn’t know how much time passed until—
“…Ha-ugh!” The girl let out a gasp. Color began to return to her pale face, and sweat began to pop up on her forehead. Then, Chi-Woo heard her breathing. He put the water bottle back into his bag and wiped the sweat off her forehead before covering her with a blanket. As he turned to leave the room, he thought to himself, ‘Saintess, three stars, I hope you show me the value of the holy water I just used.’