Chapter 81 Volume III – Chapter 2: Study Goup Meeting

Darkness.

An endless darkness where I can’t hear, see or even feel anything.

How long have I been here? I should be able to feel time naturally, but I can’t even do that.

And yet… frankly, it doesn’t really matter.

I let things go a long time ago, I didn’t really care what happened to me since I ran away from my world, from my father.

All I cared about was living freely as I wanted.

I wonder… did I succeed?

Did I manage to save Aiden? I did exactly what he told me, but… I don’t know what happened.

I tried to strain my memory and remember what happened.

I didn’t even know it was possible if Aiden hadn’t told me, but somehow I managed to fuse with his soul. And then… it was chaos.

Something was spreading through his soul, making him sick.

If I had intervened from the beginning, maybe I could have prevented it, but almost half of the process was already over. So I did the first thing that came to mind.

It was spreading through Aiden’s soul. So just like Aiden had said, if I split the soul in two, it was supposed to stop spreading.

Of course, it was a total gamble, there was a chance that I could kill him with my own hands instead of saving him, but he was going to die anyway if I did nothing.

So, in one fell swoop, I split Aiden’s soul in two.

When I did this, the chaotic soul suddenly shook violently and began to dissipate.

I tried to hold it together while it was fused with the soul. If it slipped away, Aiden’s body would be nothing but an empty shell. So I did my best to hold the soul together and sewed it back together like a tailor.

It had worked.

When it was all over, the soul had finally stopped spontaneously disintegrating and was more stable. So my focus shifted to the other half of Aiden’s soul.

I had barely paid any attention to it during the process, so I was truly stunned by what I saw.

The other half of the soul had sewn itself back together, just as I had just done. Not only that, it was in harmony with the part of Aiden’s soul I had saved.

They were separate but they were supporting each other, standing together and still moving as one.

The only problem was… as I looked at it, a shiver, a feeling of discomfort ran through me. On the outside, it was stable, in harmony with its other half, but inside it was very different.

There was a war going on inside the soul itself, full of chaos. No, it was like chaos itself.

It was inviting me in, trying to pull me in.

I was so weak from trying to save Aiden’s soul, I had no energy left because I had given almost everything to the process and so I couldn’t resist it.

So I did what I did before Aiden summoned me to this world. I put myself to sleep and put a protective barrier around me.

As long as I slept, my energy would be replenished, and this energy would be used by the barrier and protect me from that chaos.

And all the while, I would continue to accumulate a certain amount of energy, and when I was finally vigorous enough, I would wake myself up.

That’s all I had to do.

I just… had doubts about when I would wake up.

What if it took me hundreds of years?

Wouldn’t Aiden be dead by then?

If he dies, can I wake up in the real world?

I don’t know, but I don’t think I have a choice.

Actually… I’m worried.

Things seem to be going well here, but I don’t know what’s going on outside.

Has Aiden stayed the same, has he changed, what happened to him while I was gone… I have no idea.

At the same time, a different thought popped into my mind.

How much time did we spend together? I… I was usually in the background, getting inside him and watching what he did.

In fact, did I even know him in the first place?

I thought back to the first time we met, and my nonexistent brow furrowed.

Aiden… He is very knowledgeable. He even knows the language of the spirits, how to sign a contract with them, and how to get me out of the border. It’s like he knows more about me than I do.

He knows that much about me, but how much do I know about him? Are we really bound to each other, even though we have a contract?

‘Then let’s get along well. After all, a century is a long time for me.’

I suddenly remembered what he had said to me.

A century… a really long time and I, if Aiden is still alive, will spend it with him.

I… should keep a better relationship with him, shouldn’t I?

I should be there for him as someone who lives in his mind, as a source of some of his power.

Until now I had underestimated this contract thing, I had seen it as a trivial thing, but the time I had spent here had helped me to realize some things.

Determination flooded my whole body and I focused on the energy within me.

How much more do I need? I can’t be sure…

In this way, I put all my focus on the energy that I had accumulated inside me and watched it build up. One by one, I observed every bit of energy entering my body and tried to calculate whether it would be enough or not; when would be the soonest I could wake up.

Until the time when I would wake up, I just focused on that.

*******

“I’ve emailed you the full content of the style you want, download it to your watch and you can start working without fear of losing it.”

Just as the professor said, I opened the email and downloaded the file, and an app appeared directly in the main menu of the watch.

The content of this app was all about the ‘only half found’ content of a style called ‘Ambiguous Flow’.

The professor was still hesitant because of the status of the style, I could see from his facial expression that he was not satisfied, but I was grateful to him.

“Thank you for trusting me, professor. Believe me, you won’t regret it.”

Satisfied, I closed my watch and drew my sword, pointing it at the professor.

Even though I had just gotten my hands on the style and wanted to study it, I wanted to raise the professor’s mood a bit, he looked really pensive.

“We shouldn’t stand idle, right?”

Fortunately, I got a positive result from what I was doing, a slight smile appeared on the professor’s face when he saw that I was eager to duel with him.

“Yes… We shouldn’t wait idly.”

The professor drew his sword and pointed it at me, and then we just looked at each other around the room without doing anything.

It was training without any skills, just using our swords.

I was not allowed to use any mana, to strengthen myself in any way. That’s exactly why Professor Calvin’s training was painful, even though I couldn’t use mana, he didn’t compromise himself too much.

It was difficult to fight with pure sword skill against someone so familiar with the sword, but it was also effective.

Thanks to this, I had become quite advanced in swordsmanship in just a month and a half.

First, we both took a deep breath, focused on each other and then the professor and our swords clashed.

I thought I was slowly getting to the point where I could stand up to him, but… I didn’t realize what was happening for a moment when I lost my balance and staggered with the recoil I felt.

I felt such a recoil that it was as if I had hit an indestructible wall.

“What? Did you think we would always stay at the same pace? If so, how will you develop, get up!”

The slight smile on the professor’s face widened. His earlier hesitation was gone, replaced by a sadistic expression.

Shit…

*******

When I walked out of the training building, there was only one thing on my mind.

Professor Calvin is a demon.

Wasn’t this man a guardian of virtue…?

I don’t understand why he has such an… evil side.

I took a deep breath despite my aching muscles, headed toward the dormitory building and after a while, I went to my room without incident. I let myself fall on my bed while continuing to hurl insults at the professor.

I didn’t stay in bed for long though, instead, I went to the bathroom and took a quick shower.

Normally I would take a shower either early in the morning, before going to bed, or if I was really pissed.

The reason why I showered so early in the evening was that my whole body was covered in sweat thanks to the professor and I was going somewhere.

Today was the first day we were going to meet with the new members of the ‘Study Group’. I couldn’t go among them smelling of sweat.

After my shower, I changed into comfortable, ordinary clothes. Even though it didn’t make much sense anymore, after putting on my usual coat, I took my tablet with me and headed straight to the café where the karaoke rooms were.

This way it only took me six minutes to get from my dorm room to the usual karaoke room.

When I arrived in front of the room, I didn’t knock right away.

Although I’m calm in most situations, I’m a little nervous right now.

When I used to study with Adrian and Julian, there were only ‘three’ of us, so I was more relaxed, but this time… there will be six of us.

It’s the first time I’m going to meet so many people at once, and besides, I’ve been quite a loner in the past. My experience for a situation like this is literally zero. That’s why I was nervous.

I took a deep breath, poured a small amount of mana into the Absolute Mind, and felt relaxed.

Well… I guess I have to thank it for that.

I calmly reached for the door, prepared to knock on it, but it suddenly opened before I could touch it.

So I found two violet eyes looking directly at me.

“Uh… Thank you?”

Celine didn’t seem surprised to see me.

How did she know I was here?

“My instincts are good.”

Ah… True, her passive skill might have predicted that I was here, but if it’s going to react even to something as simple as this… it’s more frightening than I thought.

Although I couldn’t help but hesitate at the answer, I slowly went inside without saying anything and Celine closed the door behind me so I could take a quick look inside.

Adrian and Julian were sitting like puppies about a meter behind where they always sat, staring at me. In the spot they particularly avoided was Lucia, a blonde girl with a rather ordinary black mask on her face.

It’s possible to mitigate the effects of charm in this way, even in the game she wears the same mask for a while, but it’s a temporary solution.

Because a simple mask cannot cover the effects of statistics so easily, it can only reduce them a little because it covers her face.

I turned my eyes back to Adrian and Julian, and when I did we locked eyes and then I suddenly felt like laughing.

Adrian was expressionless, but I could tell he was wary of Lucia.

Julian, on the other hand…

I swallowed my laughter, ignored Julian’s silent ‘cries for help’ and took off my coat once I was next to them.

Thanks to the Absolute Mind, I didn’t feel so mesmerized, even though Lucia still looked more beautiful to me. I was calm and it served me well. Of course, that couldn’t be said for the others.

I glanced around the room again, aiming to look at Adrian and Julian and laugh, but then my brow furrowed.

Oh… Sue isn’t here?

I quickly checked my watch, then the messaging app, and looked at the group details.

Sue wasn’t in the group.

Not that she had left the group or anything, but she still hadn’t joined the group even though I had invited her to join earlier.

I thought she needed some time and then she would join the group on her own, but the group invitation was not indefinite. It expired yesterday.

Should I nudge her a little bit to come?

I want her to act independently of me though, she shouldn’t always be guided by me.

Still, I’m upset that I couldn’t see her…

Whatever.

Celine and Lucia were talking to themselves, and Adrian and Julian were standing in the same spot they had been just a moment ago.

No lie, the atmosphere was a bit tense.

“Okay!”

At my sudden shout, all eyes turned to me and I smiled slightly.

“If everyone’s gathered then-”

~knock! ~knock! ~knock!

My words were interrupted by a knock on the door of the room. I turned to the door with a puzzled expression.

“I’ll check it.”

I quickly went to the door, opened it without waiting, and then I was greeted with the scene I had expected.

An involuntary smile formed on my face.

“Welcome, Sue.”

I wanted to step aside and make way for her, that was my intention, but then I realized something else and paused.

The slight smile on my face instantly disappeared when I saw the figure standing just behind Sue.

My eyebrows raised meaninglessly, and my eyes widened. I just froze where I was.

Alysia, with her waist-length silver hair and coal-black eyes, was looking at me with her tablet in her hand.

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