Promotion Quest (7)
The student shot upright with a vicious curse on his lips. "Get out here right now, you son of a—" Only for his words to dissolve into incoherent mumbling as he flopped right back down onto the ground with a heavy thud.
A black butterfly that had been clinging to his head fluttered away as if its work was done. In its place, the young man's comrades lifted him onto a stretcher and began carrying him off. Watching the scene from a distance, one of the academy staff members muttered under his breath.
"They're really going through it, aren't they? All of them. Just rolling around and getting beaten up was brutal enough, but now they're even messing with their minds. Don't you think?"
"Save the chatter for later."
"Come on, our part's already over anyway. Everyone else is locked up inside that thing, so no one's going to hear us."
The direction the staff member pointed toward was dominated by a massive dome formed from what had to be hundreds of black butterflies, maybe more.
"Be honest, doesn't it seem suspicious? Drink some weird potion, take a nap, and wake up stronger? That's ridiculous."
"That's not for us to know. And we don't need to. Just watch your mouth. Even if it looks like no one's around, someone might be listening."
"Ugh, fine. I got it."
This is a bust too, huh? The young man clicked his tongue inwardly.
It had already been half a year since he'd taken this miscellaneous job at the academy. The pay and treatment weren't bad, but there were still things he couldn't quite understand. The biggest one was how the other staff members acted.
In any organization, badmouthing your bosses or coworkers wasn't exactly rare. But here, the longer someone had been around, the more nervous they seemed when dealing with the professors. Sure, the professors were at the top of the academy's hierarchy, so being cautious made sense... but they were still just teachers for a bunch of kids, weren't they?
And if the staff were hard to understand, the students were even more so.
The commoners? Fine, he could accept that. If they didn't grab an opportunity like this, they'd be stuck at the bottom for the rest of their lives. But the nobles? Not just any backwater nobles either—these were children of major city lords and powerful central figures. What could possibly be so lacking in their lives that they'd come here to roll around in the dirt?
Special forces training or talent development, whatever they called it, in the end it wasn't all that different from what lowly mercenaries did. And the one at the very peak of this absurdity was the imperial princess who was probably at the center of that black dome right now.
Born into the imperial family with the most incredible stroke of luck imaginable, yet she chose to suffer like this. What an idiot. She had probably never experienced real hardship in her entire life. Raised like a delicate flower in a greenhouse, she clearly had no idea how the world actually worked. Her head must be filled with nothing but flowers and fantasies. Otherwise, there was no way she would make such a stupid decision.
If he had been born in her position, he would have accomplished something far greater. The world was simply too unfair. The young man let out a deep, bitter sigh in his heart.
"Hmm..."
Now what was he supposed to do with this?
Staring at the princess's mirror while lost in thought, I heard the pebble speak up.
"What are you hesitating for? Just do what you've been doing."
"If it were that simple, I would've done it already. I can't even tell what any of this means."
If I had to describe it, the scenes inside the other students' mirrors felt like watching a black-and-white movie in terrible lighting. The quality was awful, but at least the content flowed in a linear way, so figuring out the story wasn't too difficult. That had made it easy to intervene without hesitation.
But the princess's mirror was different. The image was crystal clear, yet instead of a video, it felt more like an abstract picture book. And not just any picture book—one filled with highly symbolic imagery.
A small pond. A pavilion standing at its center. A golden-haired woman with blue eyes. People screaming. Burning flames. Flowing blood.
Yeah... even at a glance, it was overflowing with ominous energy. What made it even more frustrating was that there wasn't a single image that clearly represented Princess Layla herself. How was I supposed to talk to her if she didn't even appear?
That said, I couldn't exactly step inside the mirror either...
"...Huh?"
Suddenly, something black fluttered past right in front of my eyes. A pitch-black butterfly, so dark it looked like a clump of pure shadow given form. And beside the mirror, a large door had appeared out of nowhere.
Professor Psyche's butterfly flitted back and forth in front of me a few times before hovering between the mirror and the door, flapping its wings as if to show me something.
"Oh ho. It seems like it's telling you to make a choice," the pebble explained, sounding like one of those helpful guide characters from a game.
So, if I wanted to wake up from this dream, I should go through the door. On the other hand, if I didn't want to leave...
Wait, never mind. This choice didn't mean anything at all.
Without the slightest hesitation, I turned my back on the exit and reached out toward the mirror. Of course, simply touching it didn't let me enter. Just like with any normal mirror, my hand met a smooth, solid surface.
The previous mirrors had been the same, so the only thing I could probably do on my own was project my voice through it.
"I'll leave the rest to you, Professor."
But what if I borrowed the power of a true expert? Since this entire stage had been prepared by Professor Psyche, maybe she could do something even more... significant.
The black butterfly hovered in the air for a moment as if hesitating, then landed on the mirror's frame. Just before it was sucked inside, I thought I heard a faint whisper.
Once upon a time... though calling it that felt a little insufficient for how recent it was.
There was a very pitiful woman trapped inside a cage.
She had once been a free, proud, and beautiful princess. She had kind parents, reliable older brothers, loyal nobles, innocent citizens, and above all, a lover whose arms brought her the greatest happiness in the world.
But one day, wicked and filthy monsters invaded her country. They stole her family, trampled her home, and took away even the one she loved most.
She should have died with the rest of them. Yet the monsters did not kill her. It wasn't out of mercy or kindness. Those evil creatures had their eyes on the one treasure she still carried inside her—the child in her womb.
The woman fell into despair. If the child was born like this, it would grow up in the monsters' hands, knowing nothing, and be used thoroughly as their tool. That much was obvious.
Lost in her anguish, the woman eventually came up with a clever plan.
Using a mysterious spell passed down through the royal family, she began to speak to the child inside her belly. She told it about her own life. About the beauty of the kingdom she had lived in. About the preciousness of her family. About their lofty pride and honor. And about the wickedness of the monsters who had stolen it all away.
Whether the child could understand her or not didn't matter. If it couldn't understand, she would simply repeat it until it did.
The monsters, having grown complacent after capturing her, never noticed what she was doing in secret. And then, on the day the child was born, the woman's life faded away as if in exchange.
The monsters were flustered, but at the same time relieved. At least they no longer had to worry about a vengeful, half-mad woman teaching the child strange things. Or so they thought.
And so, the first woman's story came to an end.
Once upon a time... though it wasn't all that long ago.
There was a woman as lovely as a single flower, trapped inside a garden.
The many people around her treated her with great care. It was because she had a very important role to fulfill. If she didn't grow up the way they wanted, or if she withered and lost her health, it would cause a tremendous problem.
Yet contrary to their worries, the woman gladly lived up to their expectations. She was beautiful, graceful, and kind to everyone around her. Many people rejoiced. They spoke of a bright future brought about by the birth of a princess who would sever their terrible karmic ties.
But they did not know.
That ever since she was very young, a certain voice had been whispering curses into her ear. That in truth, she looked at everyone around her and saw only monsters, feeling nothing but disgust toward them.
The woman had not forgotten her mother's grudge. There was no way she could forget. After all, even now, in this very moment, her mother continued to whisper many things into her ear.
Take revenge on those wicked monsters!
Bring ruin to this filthy empire!
Suppressing the burning emotions in her chest, the woman endured. She endured even as she was forced to marry a man she did not love in the slightest, whispering words of affection to him all the while. She endured, waiting for the day she could return to her mother's kingdom.
But what terrible misfortune was this? What cruel twist of fate?
The man she had intended to use as her puppet had become emperor instead of king, and she could no longer control him as she wished. Not only that, the man had begun to find her unsettling and kept his distance. The position she had planned to return to was now occupied by filthy monsters and traitors who strutted about arrogantly, and those monsters had started to suspect her.
The mask she had maintained her entire life was finally beginning to crack.