Chapter 616: Lecture(3)
Chapter 616: Lecture(3)
There is a very famous meme in the world of web novels. Everyone calls it the "Light Path Ending."
The sentence "It was summer" follows in the lineage of the Light Path Ending, and most of them eventually boil down to "Ah, dammit, it was all a dream."
In truth, the dream ending is a common cliché used everywhere, but if you use it without proper setup, you're bound to get cursed out.
You need sufficient probability, but even with it, you usually still get flak. It essentially means that everything the characters have done up to that point was meaningless.
However, the Light Path Ending was on a completely different level. It meticulously gathered foreshadowing along the way, only to drop a massive meteor at the very end.
I can't even describe how shocked I was when I saw that ending. It was to the point where I wondered if an author was even allowed to do that.
While "It was summer" follows the "Ah, dammit, it was all a dream" lineage, it will likely never be talked about as much as that specific ending.
"Cough! Hack!"
"Are you okay? Here, a handkerchief."
I had been so startled that I choked, and as I coughed, Adelia handed me a handkerchief from beside me.
I took it from her and hurriedly wiped around my mouth. She even patted my back, which helped me recover faster.
After a few more lingering coughs, I looked at Cherry. She was blinking slowly, looking like she had no idea what the problem was.
First it was the "It was summer" incident, and now it was the title of her new work. I couldn't tell if she was doing this on purpose or if it was truly a coincidence.
'...It has to be a coincidence.'
Still, since it was one of the ultimate symbols of ill omen, I couldn't help but be concerned.
Once my coughing subsided to a manageable degree, I asked in a slightly lowered voice.
"...Could you tell me a little bit about the content? I can't really get a feel for it just from the title."
"Hmm..."
Cherry didn't seem to suspect anything. She lowered her head slightly at my question.
Judging by her habit of blinking slowly, she seemed to be deep in thought.
In the meantime, I finished tidying up the spots I hadn't reached with the handkerchief. I was just glad I hadn't sprayed anything on Cherry's face.
"...A story about a hero chosen by God who saves the world and brings about prosperity?"
After a short deliberation, Cherry revealed the general plot. I made a strange expression upon hearing it.
It was a setting so common it was practically the definition of a cliché, but one specific work came to mind the moment I heard it.
"Isn't that just the Xenon Biography?"
It seemed Adelia had the same thought at the exact same time. If you told anyone else that plot, nine out of ten would say it was the Xenon Biography.
On Earth, there would be too many examples to give a single answer, but in this world, the Xenon Biography was the definitive standard.
"No... it's not a novel like the Xenon Biography... It's just... there's something else to it... Yes..."
Cherry glossed over it as if she didn't have a proper explanation. Despite her gloomy way of speaking, she usually said everything she needed to say.
Seeing her hide something like this made me even more curious. Just what kind of novel was she writing?
"Is the protagonist of this work a girl too?"
"No... it's a man..."
"A romance?"
"Hmm... there will probably be romance too..."
I couldn't get a handle on it at all. Eventually, I gave up on prying.
But the worry remained. As they say, if coincidences keep piling up, it becomes fate—though I hoped that wasn't the case here.
It might be overstepping, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to mention it once.
"Sorry for asking so many questions. I just suddenly remembered a bad memory."
"A bad memory...?"
"Yeah. It goes like this..."
I made up a plausible lie. I told her that I had read a book when I was young where a happy daily life turned out to be nothing but a dream.
I had said something similar during the "It was summer" incident, but this was slightly different. It was a mix of half-truth and half-lie.
From Cherry's perspective, it was a story that made her tilt her head in confusion, but Adelia, who knew about my past life, had a different reaction.
She looked like she couldn't believe what she was hearing, her expression saying, What kind of demonic story is that?
"Wow... For me, that would be like if all the happiness I've experienced so far was a dream, and I woke up back in the Ters Kingdom? In that place I never want to return to?"
"It's worse than that. It's like living miserably in the slums and then being handed over as a sacrifice to demon worshippers."
"Ugh..."
Adelia shuddered as if the mere thought was horrifying. Since she had suffered a past just as unfortunate as Cherry's, it probably felt even more real to her.
The same went for me. What if all this happiness was a dream and I woke up as Kim Yoo-hwan back on Earth?
I wasn't lying—I would have truly killed myself. My heart was already hollow enough; that would have just torn it wide open.
Despite our different perspectives, we shared a common thought. Cherry blinked a couple of times and reacted quietly.
"Whoa..."
She let out a soft exclamation. Since she also came from an unfortunate family background, I thought she would empathize.
However, her reaction was closer to admiration than empathy, which caught me off guard.
"The person involved would probably want to dream forever."
"O-Oh? I... suppose so? Since they'd want to escape reality."
"Mmm..."
Cherry seemed to have been struck by inspiration from my words and began to think deeply. I sipped my coffee in silence.
In moments like this, it was best to stay as quiet as possible and not disturb her. If I interrupted her focus, she'd likely get incredibly annoyed.
After a few minutes had passed, Cherry nodded slowly and spoke in her characteristically gloomy voice.
"I should write a book like that later... I brushed it off when I heard it before, but hearing it again, I think I've grasped something..."
"That's good to hear."
"Are you planning to write it yourself, Senior...?"
"No. You write it, Cherry."
I answered firmly. Themes related to dreams are quite difficult to pull off.
Besides, I had plenty of books to write in the future. I had to finish Blood and Iron, and I still had material related to mythology left.
If I added any more to my plate, I wouldn't be able to handle it, and I'd run out of time. I couldn't stay trapped in a "can" forever.
"Thank you... A good idea just came to mind..."
"Just a word of caution—try to avoid the kind of ending I mentioned as much as possible. You might gain notoriety, but it'll bring you a lot of trouble."
"I don't like those kinds of endings either... I always pursue happy endings..."
The "It was summer" aftermath aside, Cherry's debut work had actually concluded with a happy ending.
The side story she released recently was also about the main characters' sweet newlywed life and a parenting diary. The reception was quite good.
She did get some criticism regarding the parenting parts, but that couldn't be helped. How was she supposed to know without having raised a child herself?
Because of that, people generally guessed Cherry's age to be in her late teens at most.
'I think she used Ariel as a motif, though.'
The mischievous parts were clearly Ariel. There were also descriptions here and there about being as cute as an angel.
While I was lost in thought, Cherry pulled out a notebook and began scribbling things down.
She was faithfully following my advice to always record settings before she forgot them.
"This should do... Are you sure it's okay for me to write this...?"
"I have other things I need to write. When are you going to write that one?"
"I'll probably write it whenever I have time... I'm writing the new work I mentioned earlier bit by bit because of certain circumstances..."
I nodded. It seemed best to end the conversation about her work there.
I was asking too many questions without realizing it, and Cherry might find it burdensome.
"Alright. Come to think of it, you're about to become a junior, right? Which major are you going for?"
"I want to enter the Humanities Department..."
As she said that, Cherry stared intently at me. I met her dull pink eyes.
It seemed she wanted to study under me once I became an official professor. I couldn't help but chuckle.
"If I become a regular professor, apply. I'll accept you."
"Really...?"
"Yes, really."
"Wow..."
Her monotone voice remained the same, but the emotion behind it was 'joy.' I could tell by the way her mouth hung slightly open.
Since she rarely showed any facial expressions, even a slight change was enough.
'But with Cherry's skills, wouldn't she be better as a teaching assistant rather than an undergraduate?'
If she came as a teaching assistant, we'd spend more time together in the laboratory.
Of course, unlike me, she hadn't revealed her identity, so that was something to consider later.
"Being by your side... heehee."
"..."
She is happy, right?
*
My lectures continued even after my meeting with Cherry. It was only a short week, but I couldn't let my guard down during each session.
Being bombarded with all sorts of questions was the norm, and occasionally, difficult questions were mixed in.
Fortunately, they were all within the scope of what I had anticipated, so answering them was smooth.
A prime example was the issue regarding the 'control' of language.
"Language is a blessing bestowed upon mortals by the Gods. Wouldn't allowing such a blessing to proliferate haphazardly be an insult to the Gods?"
This question came from someone who usually looked at me with disdain. According to what I heard from Lina, he was a writer of considerable repute.
However, like most writers in this world, he had been producing works that were more like textbooks than philosophy, so his reputation wasn't great. He was mostly forgotten now.
I wasn't sure how he had managed to attend the lecture, but I gave a blunt answer to his question.
"Not at all. In fact, it is quite the opposite."
"The opposite?"
"Yes. When do you think language truly loses its value? When it proliferates freely? No. It is when it is 'controlled.'"
Language vividly reflects the culture of its people. There is a reason people say language is the nation.
The easiest way to culturally pillage a people is to control them so they cannot use their language.
Communication is the most vital part of humanity, and if you cut that off, occupation becomes easy.
At the same time, it is extremely difficult. Even during the Japanese occupation of the Republic of Korea, though they enforced the Name-Change Policy, they could never perfectly control the language.
"Language must never be controlled. Just as one sows seeds and plants grow from them, the Gods sowed the seeds of blessing within us. Do you really think the Gods would be pleased if we controlled the plants so they couldn't grow?"
"..."
"The opposite of freedom is not order, but control. Be careful not to confuse the two."
After that "teaching" of sorts, the number of people nitpicking me about language-related issues dropped sharply.
Thanks to that, the lectures became a bit more comfortable... but a bigger problem remained.
"Professor Isaac. If I may, could I ask a question?"
"Oh... what is it, Professor Virus?"
Professor Virus, the humanities professor who had been keeping an eye on me since my freshman days, made a request.
He asked just as the lecture was about to end, so all eyes were naturally drawn to us.
"It is a personal question, so you do not have to answer. I was simply curious after hearing what you just said."
Being questioned by a true expert—a veteran—made me instinctively nervous. Why was someone who had been watching with interest suddenly asking a question?
While I was bracing myself internally, Professor Virus asked a question befitting a professor of humanities.
"Which do you consider more important, Professor: Order or Freedom?"
"Hmm... I will answer that in the next session. There isn't enough time to answer it properly now."
Fortunately, I managed to extend my life by using time as an excuse. My heart was pounding after being questioned by Professor Virus of all people.
And so, the next day.
"I would like to hear yesterday's answer, Professor Isaac."
The time had come to reveal the depth of my knowledge.