The Teacher Who Refused to Be Forgotten
After becoming Artin, Yang Hee-min shut himself inside his room for nearly a month. An unfamiliar body, an unfamiliar world, unfamiliar people. The situations that had seemed comical or enviable when he read about the novel’s protagonists became neither funny nor enviable once they were his reality. He had become an extra—not the protagonist—in a world fated for destruction. He was still Yang Hee-min, yet everyone around him called him Artin. The man who had once lived like garbage in the corner of society, slowly dying alone in a semi-basement room, now had a roommate and a noble family name, even if only on paper. None of it brought him joy.
In five years this world would end, and he was a pathetic excuse for a human being who had never killed so much as an insect, let alone exercised properly. I have to remember the setting and the plot. That’s the only way a guy like me can survive in a place like this…!
For that entire month, Yang Hee-min awkwardly asked Shao Mei for three blank notebooks and began writing down every detail of the novel he could recall. He filled the pages compulsively, as if possessed, and when he finally looked over the notebooks, he reached a clear conclusion: saving this world was impossible for him.
Beastmen who can kill a man with one hand, dragons, liches, even a fallen Sword Saint… A guy like me wouldn’t last a single second!
Once his objective self-assessment was complete, his actions were swift. The day after he filled the third notebook, Yang Hee-min requested a meeting with his homeroom teacher, Senia Reeves, to drop out.
Well, the counseling itself shouldn’t take long. A teacher like her probably doesn’t want a student like me anyway.
He had skipped every class, spoken to no one except the persistent Zorba and Shao Mei, and barely exchanged five words a day with his own roommate. He was less than air—an invisible presence. Surely she would be relieved to see him go.
That was what he had thought, but…
In the counseling room where the two of them sat alone, Senia chattered with a bright expression. Artin was slightly flustered. Every teacher he had ever met in his previous life would openly show annoyance the moment they were alone with a student.
…Or maybe she’s just happy because she expected me to drop out.
His cynical personality immediately supplied another plausible explanation. After all, the only reason he would ever come to her was to drop out. That had to be why she looked so pleased.
"…I’d like to drop out. I’m returning to the Ludwig territory."
Yang Hee-min smiled bitterly as he spoke. The reason he wanted to go back to the Ludwig lands was simple: he didn’t want to get caught up in the disasters that would strike the Academy. Even the woman sitting in front of him—Senia Reeves—would die in just a month. He had no intention of getting involved. He wanted to survive until the bitter end, even if it meant living like a cockroach.
"S-suddenly? Did something happen? Are you sick? Or are you struggling to keep up with the curriculum?"
"No… I just don’t think the Academy suits me."
At her clichéd, fake-sounding surprise, Yang Hee-min laughed inwardly. How long had she even known him to act so concerned?
Come on, just hand over the papers, sign them, and let’s part ways. You’re an NPC who’ll die in a month anyway.
It felt like a waste of time trying to persuade someone who would be dead soon. A few rounds of back-and-forth and she would probably give up and sign the withdrawal form. I never got to drop out in real life, but I guess this is my first time doing it in this world.
As Artin was thinking how ridiculous it all was, he felt an unfamiliar touch.
"Is someone bothering you? I heard rumors that Rexton harassed you from the very first day of admission. Is that true?"
"…T-Teacher?"
"Or maybe you couldn’t keep up with your studies while adjusting to life here for the past month? If that’s the case, Teacher will help you! So won’t you reconsider dropping out?"
Watching Senia clasp both his hands tightly and gaze at him with such earnest sorrow, he couldn’t help but look bewildered. The reason was embarrassingly simple.
It was the first time anyone had ever spoken to him like this.
"N-no, it’s not just the studies. I don’t think I can handle swordsmanship or martial arts either…"
"Then you can study magic! Or do you simply not want to fight? In that case, there are paths like alchemy, astronomy, or administration! Should we start with career counseling?"
"No, I just… I just want to drop out."
"How about theology? Or you could become a teacher like me!"
"No, dropping out…"
No matter how clearly he expressed his wish to withdraw, Senia continued pouring out sincere, passionate persuasion. Yang Hee-min gradually found himself being swept along by her pace. Facing a type of person he had never met before, hearing words he had never heard, experiencing a situation he had never experienced, Yang Hee-min paradoxically felt fear.
"I-I’ll come back another time!"
In the end, the first day’s counseling session stretched over an hour. Yang Hee-min kicked open the door of the counseling room and fled.
Back in his room, Hee-min agonized over how to persuade Teacher Senia, but he couldn’t come up with an answer. So the next day, instead of attending morning assembly, he took a boat at dawn and escaped the Academy.
…Yeah. This is fine. There’s no need to waste mental energy on NPCs.
The memory of fleeing the Academy as if running away was his first and last memory of Senia from the first round.
After the hell of the first round ended and Hee-min returned to the Academy, he was a little different. He had realized that the people of this world were real, and that if he didn’t struggle, destruction would simply repeat. So Hee-min began to learn how to make an effort. He sought out every teacher he could find, learned everything they would teach him, chased after every opportunity he could discover, and fought desperately so he wouldn’t die.
Yet among all the many professors and teachers he visited, there was one person he never approached.
"Good morning, Artin! The weather today is really…"
"I’m sorry. I have an assignment I need to finish today."
"Artin! Did you enjoy your lunch…"
"Sorry! I have to go do sword training right now."
Even in this round, Teacher Senia kept approaching Artin, but Hee-min continued to reject her advances.
…She’s going to die during midterms. With my current strength, I can’t protect her.
After experiencing countless deaths in the first round, Hee-min had developed a bad habit. He began deliberately distancing himself from characters who were fated to die according to the plot. Perhaps it was only natural. The pain of losing people he had grown close to was too heavy a burden for Artin, who had felt that shock for the first time in this world. As the first round dragged into its latter half, Hee-min’s mind had grown increasingly worn and barren. He never wanted to experience that pain again.
…Two weeks. Only two weeks left.
Yet the closer the time came, the more Hee-min’s head filled with the horrific tragedy that would occur during midterms. The teacher who had reached out to him first. The students whose faces he had come to recognize. All of them dying in a single accident. Hee-min tried to resign himself to it, but he couldn’t.
Artin had casually said he tried to save Teacher Senia, but across three separate opportunities he had poured everything he had into trying to protect her life. To overcome the guilt he felt toward the person he had allowed to die every five years, he had carved away at his own bones with effort and given her endless attention, all in the hope of saving her.
But in the fourth round, when Senia died while he was away, the despairing Artin made the worst possible choice.
…I was never close to Teacher Senia anyway. Saving her was always going to be difficult. It couldn’t be helped. She just dies too quickly.
He began to carve her out of his own mind bit by bit. The effort he had made to save her, the gratitude he felt—without erasing them, he wouldn’t have been able to endure. He told himself firmly that in the next round, he would not look after Teacher Senia.
…She’s going to die anyway. There’s nothing I can do, right?
What Artin didn’t know was that even in the fifth regression, four years later, he would still become entangled with Teacher Senia.
Just as always, Teacher Senia approached him even though he didn’t want it, once again claiming a part of his life.
The memories of the past had come flooding back. Memories I had erased, carved out, and killed—memories I never wanted to recall.
"…Did you know? No matter how many times I meet you, Teacher is always, without exception, a good person."
She had been a good person every single time we met. Like a field of pure white snow. Maybe I had unconsciously refused to step on that snow. But strangely, Teacher always came to me, and absurd happenings would always occur until we somehow ended up in a close relationship. If her death could be called fate, then perhaps this too was fate.
"Yeah, I like Artin too! You’re the benefactor who saved my life, after all."
"…I said you were a good person. I didn’t say I liked you."
"Hic! Does that mean Artin hates Teacher…?"
At those words, I fell into a brief dilemma. Had I only accepted her because I was drawn to her body?
…What a stupid question. What a pathetic thought.
There was no way. If I had truly hated Teacher Senia, I would have cut off our relationship in this round. If she hadn’t mattered to me, I wouldn’t have worked so desperately to save her. And if I had only thought of her as a good person, I wouldn’t have come all the way into her unconscious to try to understand these feelings.
"…I’ll give you that answer in reality, Teacher."
But it wasn’t an answer I could give to the version of her inside her unconscious. I released the embrace. Leaving behind the unconscious Teacher who looked regretful at the loss of my arms, I waved and began walking out of her mind.
"Sirca. When we return to reality, can you hide your presence?"
"Hehe, are you planning to make a cool confession, Master?"
"…Shut up. It’s embarrassing to talk about my feelings with someone standing right next to me."
"Yeees~ Will you properly repay me for today’s help later?"
In a way, I owed it to Sirca. Thanks to her, I had remembered memories I had tried to forget. I needed to give her proper compensation.
"After midterms, I’ll spend the whole day on a date with you. Is that okay?"
"Hehe♡ You’ll have to pay a hefty price for making a succubus fall for you, you know?"
I nodded and gave Sirca a light kiss on the cheek. She must not have expected the surprise attack; her face flushed bright red. It was incredibly cute.
"Let’s go. Back to reality."
"…?"
"…??"
What the hell is this?
"Teacher? What are you…"
"I-I… um, that is… I can explain everything… You know that, right, Artin…?"
When I opened my eyes, the sight before me was Senia Reeves clumsily climbing on top of me as I lay in bed.