Surviving Every Worldview - C45

Chapter 45: Their story (1)

“Professor, are you okay, Professor!”

“Blood, you’re bleeding. Please sit down!”

Inside the study hall where Soo Sun-woo and his group escaped, the witch professor was helped to a couch in the lobby by her students.

“Uh, what should I do, who should I call…?”

“…… Just be quiet, you’re making my head ring.”

Professor Witch drew a simple magic circle and the area around her back was mirrored.

Blood poured from the gaping wound, but her face didn’t change a bit.

The professor reached for the scissors herself.

But [Overdose] opened the wound wider, and the scissors dug deeper.

It was not an attack she could force out with her hands.

“You two. Wake up and listen to me.”

“Yes, yes!”

“Get someone from the white magic side. My wounds are deteriorating too fast.”

“Oh, okay!”

The students turned sullen and left to find someone.

When they were out of sight, the witch professor pushed herself up and reached for the open front door.

Now, her hand was in reality.

To the students, it looks like an ordinary school hallway, but to her, it’s not.

‘It’s not the time, not yet.’

The professor withdrew her hand again.

‘I can’t go after the three of them right now.’

None of us know what dangers lurk in the real world.

For example, that wound on her back.

It’s not a wound that should bleed this much.

But for some unknown reason, the wound has been getting worse since she was stabbed, and her body has been heating up.

It’s as if she was poisoned.

‘They even…they took a detour outside through the dormitory.’

She didn’t think they could do it even though their abilities had already been assessed during the duels.

The Academy didn’t even know what they were capable of individually, and they had already bypassed the Academy’s controls.

The witch professor blamed herself for her blind faith in the Academy.

“Oh, there she is!”

The students quickly returned with an adult.

Any educational facility would have a duty officer. However, in this space, which is the culmination of the worldview called the Academy, the duty officer was a bit special.

Science and magic coexisted and were utilized simultaneously, so healing was often done with white magic.

The white wizard, who followed the students, was surprised to see the professor’s gaunt form and asked.

“What happened? You’re not a student, you’re a professor, how could you…….”

“I could have done the healing on my own, I just called you here to investigate what they’re capable of.”

“I’d like to set up a private meeting to ask you the specifics.”

“As you wish.”

The white wizard pulled out the pair of scissors, and the treatment began.

The wound, aggravated by [Overdose], healed quickly, and when the blood was wiped away, all traces of the stabbing were gone.

The blood-soaked clothes didn’t return.

“White magic is better than technology. It’s the least messy for the time it takes.”

“That’s very kind of you, but…be careful. It is not proper for a professor to make comments about the superiority of one over the other.”

Professor Witch put her robes back on and glared at the white wizard.

“I can’t even say that, it’s a compliment?”

“It’s a rule to prevent disruption. You know that, don’t you?”

“Who’s going to listen to you bark rules this early in the morning…….?”

Grumbling unnecessarily, Professor Witch rose from her seat and walked past the two students, patting them on the head.

“Thank you. I’ve got some grown-up things to talk about, so you two can go.”

“Are you sure you’re okay? You’re bleeding a lot…….”

“Yes, I’m fine, so don’t worry about it and get ready for class. Okay?”

“Oh, yeah…….”

Seeing the half-open eyes under the brims of the hats, the boys reluctantly went back upstairs.

Only when the white wizard was sure they weren’t eavesdropping did he relent.

“So, have you figured out who they are?”

“Two of the three were openly showing their faces, and I happened to recognize both of them.”

The white mage nodded.

“One was wearing a mask, but strangely enough, it doesn’t show up well on surveillance magic or CCTV…so we need your word as an eyewitness.”

“It’s obvious, because there’s only one boy who goes to school with those two.”

“Someone has a guess.”

Professor Witch knew Lee Seorin and Seol Do-yeon well, even who they usually went to school with.

She had overridden the Awakeners’ settings to ‘academy student’ beforehand and had the list, and this was the first time her preparedness had paid off.

“There’s a student named Yoo Seon-woo. Do you know him?”

“Of course I do. How could I not recognize such a prominent student?”

“Good thing. He’s not photographed with his mask on, so I’ll need a photo from the student roster.”

The white mage nodded.

“It’s a strange feeling, having someone we thought was a student become our enemy…….”

“What can we do? Every time they come in, they change into one of the original students. That’s the rule.”

“……It is.”

The white wizard coughed and continued.

“Anyway, you should get some rest, and I’ll have to go back and do some more research on your wounds…I’ll see what I can find out before the meeting.”

“Okay. Go.”

“……Yes.”

Professor Witch pulled her hat over her face as an eye patch and stretched out on the couch.

Seeing that she had no intention of leaving her seat, the White Wizard left as well.

……Meanwhile, the cloaked professor’s expression was as serious as ever.

‘We still can’t figure out their powers.’

The White Wizard insisted that he would find out but the witch professor was not convinced.

If they could figure it out, what was the point of wasting time?

He would have found out during the healing process.

The old man would go back and look through his books, and he would never find out anything that way.

The opponents are the “real” people who created all the worldviews.

The Academy, as one of many worldviews, inherently knows less than them.

That’s why they twist and turn to keep their plans from being discovered.

Only then can they defeat the real people before they figure it all out.

“From now on…we can’t let our guard down.”

The Academy stories must be made real.

* * *

“You heard……everything the witch has said so far.”

“Yep. I think I’m done listening.”

“Okay, but leave the recording on for now, okay?”

Meanwhile, in the real world, Seol Do-yeon has been able to listen in on all of the professors’ conversations through the bug she’s secretly placed in the lobby, from the structure of the Academy’s worldview to the information that they know more about our situation than we thought.

I learned a lot thanks to her.

I asked her when she hid the bug, but…….

“I don’t know how to fight, so if I don’t do something like this, I’ll be deported by Yoo Seon-woo.”

“What are you talking about, why would I kick you out after all the time I’ve spent helping you……?”

“If you’re not going to do that, then don’t do it!”

…That’s why she installed the device just before we walked out the door, hand in hand.

She meant to give it to me, but forgot and used it herself.

“Anyway! The three of us have been marked by the Academy now. We can’t go back there in the open. Do you understand?”

With that, Seol Do-yeon looked back at Seorin.

Since she was the last to arrive, we had to explain what had happened but she was nodding her head and dozing off.

Did she hear what we said?

“So…how did you say it happened-?”

“They wanted you just for going outside?”

“……not for some other reason?”

“Yes.”

Sister Seorin smiled and asked with a slightly twisted pronunciation.

“What’s weird? Are you two drunk, not me?”

“I’m not bullshitting, the academy itself has a secret.”

“Then we didn’t do anything wrong back there, because I thought you guys just got into an accident and I went to save you.”

She thought we did something wrong?

What a weird guy.

“Then what are we supposed to do? They’ll come after us if we go in.”

“Yeah? What are we going to do, Yoo Seon-woo? We can’t pretend to be normal students anymore.”

“We don’t have to.”

“You make it sound so easy……”

As Do-yeon says, it’s impossible to use the school’s facilities if you’re wanted…but that’s not a big problem.

If I don’t have a dorm, I can sleep at home, and I’ll have food in my inventory. I can’t use the outdoor facilities anyway.

“Everyone else is just going to the training room to learn Academy magic-”

“That’s…I’m kind of jealous.”

It’s a shame we’ve wasted such a unique opportunity.

First and foremost, being close to the truth is a great reward.

None of that matters as long as I get the plot.

“By the way, why don’t we check out the fourth floor passageway? It’s the most suspicious place.”

“What do you think is down there?”

“Doesn’t Do-yeon know? It’s off-limits to all but the officials there—Suspicious, right?”

“Oh…We can’t just go in? We have to find a passage?”

“Yeah. And…it looks like the passage is outside.”

I showed them both the pictures I had taken on my cell phone.

One of the pictures I took to document my walk outside with Do-yeon.

It showed Seol Do-yeon walking along a line on the ground, arms outstretched, and a circular structure in the distance.

“The academy keeps all students indoors, and there’s no entrance to the basement, so we have to go outside.”

“Why did you take a picture?”

“That one in particular looked suspicious, so I memorized it. Let’s go.”

“Don’t ignore me!”

“So when do you think we should go?”

“……We’re wanted, so it should be when no one’s around, like early in the morning.”

We both agreed.

“Then let’s regroup and go back for lunch. Last time I checked, everyone is in the basement for lunch, so we won’t be disturbed until they get out.”

“What – you asked me to meet you early in the morning, and I just got four hours of sleep…….”

“You can stay up longer.”

“I’m close to your place, show me around. I’d like to sit down and get some sleep…….”

“Sure, sure.”

Sometimes it’s good to stop by home to get ready.

At the mention of my house, Seol Do-yeon stared at me and tugged at my collar.

“…Hey. I have nothing on me but my body, and I ended up coming all the way to where you live. What should I do?”

“Huh? Ah.”

That’s right. She was here, too.

From Do-yeon’s point of view, she had teleported from Songdo to here.

What else can we do?

We’ll have to use the guest room again.

“……You’re coming with me.”

I took them home, but Seorin didn’t sleep as she had promised, instead drinking again.

Instead, only Seol Do-yeon slept soundly, and the rest period passed.

* * *

After a short break to rest and clean up, it was 11:00 am.

We entered the academy, which was once again filled with lies and secrets.

It was lunchtime, so the students were crowded into the underground cafeteria, and we could safely make our way to the dormitory entrance.

It’s not like I didn’t encounter anyone at all, but I was able to easily get past them with my stealth ability.

“Now I have to swipe my card again and…….”

“Wait.”

I stopped Do-Yeon as she was about to swipe her keycard into the screen door.

“We’re wanted. We can’t use our keycard.”

“Right. Then what do we do?”

“Do you want me to get Min-seo and ask him to swipe the key?”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to.”

-Bam!

The screen door recognized the key card I held out and opened the way without a hitch.

“What the hell. I thought you said I couldn’t use your key card.”

“It’s not my key card.”

“What?”

“I borrowed it from a student I ran into earlier.”

Seol Do-yeon looked at me with unfocused, dead eyes.

“Seon-woo is a real thief.”

“All the students here aren’t human, right? I think I just took the card key from a moving robot.”

“……You were in a place like this?”

Just then, a stranger broke into our conversation.

It was a male voice, bright and sociable.

I turned my head toward the familiar voice.

“Hi! I’ve been looking for you because I have a lot of questions, and here you are.”

“……I see you again.”

The man seemed to be pleased to see us, even though we were wanted.

I deliberately let my guard down and called out his name.

“Jang Ji-sang.”