Chapter 120: Interlude – Personal Meeting (2)

I stood in front of Professor Baldwin’s office door and gently knocked.

A voice drifted from inside. “Come in.”

I slowly turned the doorknob, and the door opened. Professor Baldwin was in her usual black suit, with a cigarette between her lips, her long legs elegantly crossed.

“You’re here. Sit down. I’ll bring you something to drink,” she said.

She stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray and rose from her seat, walking toward the shelves. Looking back at me, she asked, “Whiskey? Wine?”

“Isn’t it more common to offer coffee or tea?”

“The only non-alcoholic drink worth having is water.”

“That sounds exactly like something an alcoholic would say.”

“Heh! It’s fine. Heroes don’t get alcohol addictions anyway.”

She wasn’t wrong. A hero’s body had far greater immunity to alcohol than an ordinary person’s, enough that no amount of liquor could turn them into an addict.

When you think about it, being a hero is kind of a cheat. Bless the soul stigmata, I thought.

“In that case, whiskey,” I replied.

“Alright.” Professor Baldwin filled a glass with ice and poured in the amber liquid, bringing it over.

One sip, and the oaky aroma and sharp alcohol burned my nose. To someone used to cheap beer, this taste was unfamiliar. I stroked my chin and closed my eyes, pretending to savor it. Truth be told, I couldn’t tell one whiskey from another, but when it came to alcohol, a man just felt compelled to act like he knew what he was doing.

I said, “The first taste has a strong oak note, followed by a sweet vanilla aroma that lingers on the tongue, finishing with a subtle woody scent. This must be a fine whiskey!”

“It’s a 27-gold cheap whiskey from the campus store,” Professor Baldwin replied.

“Damn it!”

If you’re going to give me a drink, at least make it a decent one!

She chuckled, tilting her own glass. “Heh. I didn’t know you had such a cute side, Dale.”

Then she settled her drink down, and her violet eyes gleamed. “Then, can I hear the answer to the question I asked before?”

“Before I do that, can I ask what made you think that way in the first place?”

She leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. “Hm,

what made me think that, you ask. As I said before, Dale, you’re too strong. Excessively so.”

“So, you think I came from the future just because I’m strong?”

Professor Baldwin shook her head slightly. “No. That’s not it. If it were just strength, then even if not as much as you, Yuren and the fourth-year cadet Aaron are also formidable. You could call them overpowered, too.”

Her eyes suddenly narrowed. “But you, Dale, you’re different. It’s like… there is a certain seasoned air about you. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but when the Archbishop of Madness invaded, the calmness you displayed far outstripped my own.”

She pulled another cigarette from her case and lit it. “And it wasn’t just that time. During the midterm evaluations, when that eight-eyed demonic monster broke into the test site, and when Bishop Harris set that trap in the village, you were the same.”

I had never panicked, and I had acted immediately. To her, it probably seemed like I had been through situations like that countless times before.

The tip of her cigarette glowed red, and she continued, “A cadet being unimaginably strong can be explained as pure talent. Like you once said, just because something hasn’t happened before doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future. But that composure you’ve shown, that can’t be explained by talent or hard work alone.”

That was why she had concluded that I came from the future.

I let out a dry laugh and ran a hand down my face, then drained the rest of my whiskey in one go. “You’re right.”

“Hm?”

“I am from the future.”

She hadn’t expected me to actually confirm it. Her eyes widened. “You’re serious?”

“You’re the one who asked.”

Looking confused, she pressed a hand to her forehead. “Is it because of those two powers sleeping within you?”

I gave a bitter smile and shook my head. “Probably. But honestly, I’m not entirely sure myself.”

Professor Baldwin flicked ash into the tray. “If you’ve really regressed, just how far in the future did you come from?”

“How far? I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“It’s been too long for me to count exactly.”

“What does that mean?”

“The last time I counted was after about seven thousand years… Maybe it was over ten thousand years. And even after that, a lot of time passed.”

Professor Baldwin shot up from her seat, staring at me in shock. “W-wait. Seven thousand? Ten thousand? What in the world are you talking about?”

I leaned back in my chair and tapped my left chest twice. “You know this already, don’t you? That I have the Blessing of Resurrection.”

Her face went pale. “Don’t tell me, it protects you not just from death but from aging as well?”

I nodded lightly. “Aging is just another form of death.”

She froze. Her lips trembled, and she finally managed to ask in a quivering voice, “Will you tell me? About the future, no, about your past life?”

“It’s going to be a long story. You sure you’re ready for it?”

She nodded firmly and sat back down. “As long as it takes.”

I let out a deep sigh before I began to speak. “Alright then, where should I start?”

Graduating from the Hero Academy at the very bottom of the class and becoming a lowly mercenary; spending ten years in that life before forming a party with Yuren, Iris, Berald, and Senior Sophia; becoming one of the “Final Five Heroes”, humanity’s last hope; fighting the Demon God in the final battle and ending up the sole survivor; and wandering the continent for thousands of years in search of the Primordial Flame.

I told her everything, things only I knew, things only I carried, stories I had never told anyone until now. By the time my long tale came to an end, darkness had already fallen beyond the professor’s office window. I drained another glass of whiskey, which I had lost count of by now, and set it down on the table.

Finally, I said, “That’s all.”

Professor Baldwin stared at me silently, her violet eyes trembling ever so slightly. “Dale…”

She bit her lip before continuing, “Just… how horrible a life have you endured?”

Tears welled in her eyes. Her usual expression, so cold that it seemed not a drop of blood would come out of her even if she were pricked with a needle, was now twisted with sorrow.

I let out a faint laugh and shook my head. “It’s nothing. It’s all in the past, anyway.”

All in the past?

A voice echoed in my mind.It was familiar, too familiar. It was my own voice. In that instant, my vision shifted. I could see a white, endless expanse of snow, and a blizzard howling in the wind. Clouds of white breath escaped my lips. My legs sank deep with every step, and a heavy stillness hung in the air, like a shroud. Everything was white.

“Ah!”

Nothing? All in the past? No. Of course it wasn’t. How could it be?

A gasp escaped my lips. “A-ah!”

“Dale?”

The memories I had long buried resurfaced. The emotions I had suppressed came crashing down like a broken dam, pouring out and drowning me.

Fragments of overflowing emotion slipped through my lips. “I was… lonely. So lonely I thought I would die, but I couldn’t die. No matter how much I endured, endured, endured, endured, endured… it never ended.”

The feelings I had kept locked away came spilling out. “I knew it was an illusion, but I laughed and joked like an idiot, repeating the same stories hundreds, thousands of times.”

Professor Baldwin called out to me. “Dale.”

“And still, it wouldn’t end! I smashed my head, cut my neck, tore out my heart, burned my body. No matter what I did, I came back!”

She grabbed my shoulders. “Dale!”

My vision flickered, and the snowy wasteland gave way to the familiar walls of her office.

She asked worryingly, “Are you back with me?”

“Haa!Haa!” I swallowed dryly, my breath ragged. “Sorry, I got carried away for a moment.”

Professor Baldwin kept quiet.

I stood up and said, “It’s late, so I’ll be going now.”

I was almost fleeing toward the door.

However, Professor Baldwin said, “Cadet Dale.”

She caught my hand and pressed her lips to mine. A soft warmth brushed against me, and our tongues tangled.

After that brief kiss, she cupped my cheeks with her palms and asked, “Feeling any better now?”

I touched my lips, still warm, and gave a small smile. “You smell like cigarettes.”

She smiled faintly. “Mmh! Not the most romantic thing to say after a kiss.”

She drew me into a gentle embrace. Like she were soothing a child, she patted my back. “I’m sorry for making you recall what you’d forgotten!”

I could not muster up any words.

“Hm… But that means…” She paused, her expression turning pensive, then her eyes sparkled and she snapped her fingers. “By that logic, Dale, you’re technically thousands of years old, aren’t you?”

“Well, if you count my previous life, I suppose.”

Truthfully, I never really felt old. If aging meant growing wiser from varied experiences, then in that snowfield, the only things I ever knew were crushing loneliness and isolation.

“Hm. Hmmm. Hm-hmm.”

“What?”

Her violet eyes glittered with a strange excitement. “Heh! That means you’re actually older than me, right?”

I gave a dry laugh and looked at her. “Does that even matter?”

She grinned, hopped up to sit on the table, and crossed her legs. “It does. From now on, I’ll call you *Dale-oppa.[1]”

I was speechless.

“Dale-oppa.”

It was strange. Most men would be thrilled to hear one of the top two nicknames from a beautiful woman, yet instead of sweet excitement, all I felt was the unpleasant sensation of bugs crawling on my skin.

“Professor Baldwin,” I said.

“Fufu! What is it, Dale-oppa?”

I shook my head and sighed deeply. “It doesn’t suit you.”

“Tch!”

And thus, my so-called private meeting with Professor Baldwin ended. It left me with a faint, inexplicable sense of relief.

1. Oppa is a Korean term used by a woman to refer to an older brother, but it can also be used to address a boyfriend or any other older male in a familiar context, where it carries an affectionate or flirtatious nuance. ☜

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