Chapter 280
Chapter 280
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 280
Chapter Title: After Everything Ended
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Time passed.
Time I couldn't even track.
Back then, when Kalli saved me like a miracle. I had steeled my resolve, which I had nearly let go, and thrown myself outside to save Karite somehow.
Though my body creaked and staggered, I couldn't stop walking. The moment I finally encountered an instructor, handed Karite over, and pleaded desperately…
The thread of tension in my heart snapped.
I lost consciousness then, as if I had done all I needed to do. I have no memory of what happened after.
However. Now that I was awake and lucid, I could finally be at ease with the sight before my eyes.
“……”
When I glanced to the side, I saw Karite, breathing softly as if sound asleep.
—Karite is alive.
That was more important than anything else.
I had given up on everything, believing she couldn't be saved no matter what I chose, yet by some miracle, she was alive.
Relieved by this reality, I found it hard to think of anything else.
How long had I been gazing at Karite like that?
“…For now, just rest easy. There's nothing seriously wrong with your body, so you should recover naturally with time.”
Hearing her voice, I nodded blankly and gently shifted my gaze.
There, I saw Kalli with an apologetic expression. Beneath her disheveled red hair, her face was not bright.
The woman who had saved Karite and me, and who was still staying by my side. To me, she was more lovely than anyone.
…She was the woman who had saved me when I had given up on everything at the end.
That was why I couldn't understand why she was looking at me so apologetically.
“You don't have to be so sorry.”
“No. I should have been more careful with you, Student Han Cheon-seong… I'm truly ashamed.”
Ever since regaining consciousness, I had been focused solely on the fact that Karite was alive.
Even so, I understood the gist of the things Kalli had been telling me.
She blamed herself for another major incident occurring, and for me getting caught up with the Apostle because she hadn't sent me back properly.
Finally… by telling me she had let the unidentified Apostle escape, she was apologizing for almost everything.
And even knowing all that, I didn't have the slightest desire to blame or resent Kalli.
“I'm just… grateful that Karite and I survived.”
I calmly conveyed my sincere feelings and carefully reached out my hand.
Slowly.
I took her hand, which rested on the bedside.
In this space enclosed by curtains, with only Kalli, myself, and a glimpse of Karite through a slight opening, I felt I could act without reservation.
“…”
Though she accepted my hand, Kalli bit her lip faintly.
I took in a clear view of her face and offered a gentle smile.
Gently…
Then, caressing her hand as if it were the most precious thing in the world, I spoke again.
“It was an accident no one could have predicted. Even though Karite and I were caught up with the Apostle, we're alive. We only survived because you arrived in time, Instructor Kalli. Please don't blame yourself anymore.”
“Student Han Cheon-seong….”
“Besides, you found the biggest clue, didn't you?”
“…Yes. That's true.”
Even with Kalli's reluctant reply, I felt it was the greatest gain.
I hadn't known the Apostle would be strong enough for Kalli to actually let it escape, but from that very escape, Kalli had found a clue—a trace of its power, and what it was.
How could Apostles keep appearing within the Empire?
The source of it all. Instead of executing the Apostle, Kalli had managed to seize that clue.
‘Bloodstained Despair.’
Although the victims of the third episode couldn't be avoided.
I had to witness people die.
But it didn't just end there.
“The deaths of the students this time… they won't end as mere sacrifices.”
Speaking calmly, I voiced my conviction.
“……”
Looking at Kalli's expression, which had grown even heavier, I thought about how the incidents up until now had been unavoidable ‘accidents.’
No one could have prepared for them.
The fundamental core, the source of the incidents. Because it was unknown, they were impossible to stop, no matter what.
But the clue Kalli had just obtained.
Because of it, there was now a way to prepare for the fourth and fifth episodes to come.
That clue… was the most crucial key.
—There is someone inside the academy colluding with the Apostles.
What Kalli sensed from the Apostle she couldn't kill was that it was likely a human who had formed a complete contract with an Apostle.
The reason why these incidents were happening, and why students were the targets, had now been fully revealed.
‘I can stop the incidents.’
I know that great chaos will surely befall the academy.
The chaos will be of a scale incomparable to yesterday's incident, and it will swallow the academy whole.
But from my perspective, it was necessary chaos.
Now that a clue that never appeared in the original story has been fully revealed, we won't just be helpless victims anymore.
“We can definitely find the collaborator.”
“We'll find them, no matter what. Starting today, a massive investigation into the instructors and internal staff of the academy will begin.”
I nodded, looking at Kalli, who replied in a resolute tone.
Gently.
And as Kalli gently squeezed my hand back, I felt a little more at ease.
…Even with so many thoughts running through my mind, I was once again simply grateful for this reality.
That Kalli had saved us.
A glance.
And that Karite, who I thought couldn't escape death, had survived like this…
The feeling of being able to be grateful for reality.
…I was now realizing more keenly why that was.
‘I didn't lose her.’
I thought I couldn't save her, but we were narrowly saved.
And so, I didn't lose Karite.
Unlike my belief that I had to overcome everything on my own in an impossible situation, she found me and saved us.
…It wasn't hopeless after all.
The decision I made at the end.
The fact that my choice to protect Karite back then had bought us a little more time, allowing us to be saved, now felt like a stroke of heaven's luck.
‘Rather than trying to survive alone, I had resolved to die with Karite…’
To think that choice would end up saving us both.
“Student Han Cheon-seong.”
At her calm voice, I turned my gaze back to her and opened my mouth.
“…Yes, Instructor.”
Kalli, who was gazing at me, cautiously reached out a hand.
One hand was already holding mine, which I had extended earlier.
Softly.
With her other hand, she gently stroked my hair.
“Are you really feeling okay…? You don't have to push yourself to think so much. It's okay to just rest.”
A laugh escaped me at her voice, so full of concern.
“I'm already resting comfortably.”
I truly felt I couldn't be more at ease.
Despite my words, Kalli gently shook her head.
“Still, I hope you can relax a little. And from now on, a Golden Knight will be assigned to guard you. The recent string of incidents and the appearance of the Apostle have been judged as threats to you, Student Han Cheon-seong. The Imperial Family has accepted this and decided to dispatch an Imperial Knight.”
I was quite surprised by her following words.
“…A Golden Knight? Do you mean *the* Golden Knights?”
“That's right. Normally, we would have just assigned an instructor from the academy to you. But after this incident, the Imperial Family has declared their full intervention in the academy's affairs. As a sign of their commitment to protecting you above all else, they've announced they're dispatching a Golden Knight.”
Kalli smiled as she gently stroked my hair, as if telling me to be at ease with this news… but I was simply astonished.
The recent incidents. I was always at the center of them.
The Apostle had targeted me so blatantly that everyone was bound to know I was its objective.
But even so…
‘Dispatching a Golden Knight to be my personal guard.’
The Golden Knights.
…The knights who came to the academy during past incidents could be called ‘Imperial Knights.’ They, too, were all powerful individuals.
But the ‘Golden Knights’ Kalli just mentioned were on a completely different level.
Even now, Golden Knights were stationed at the academy to protect the royalty. But that was exclusively for the ‘royalty.’
Beings who completely surpassed any ordinary officer.
They were called Imperial Knights precisely because they guarded the Imperial Family, the most important people in the Empire.
And for that reason, they are considered beings who have reached the very pinnacle of power.
It was no exaggeration to say they possessed power nearly on par with Kalli, who stood before me now.
And they were not beings meant to protect a commoner like me.
‘…Wait.’
I stopped thinking, my mind a tangled mess.
“Instructor Kalli. Even so, aren't the Golden Knights high-ranking nobles?”
“They are. But the Golden Knights are generally known to be righteous in character. You don't have to worry too much, Student Han Cheon-seong.”
Even with Kalli's gentle smile and reassuring voice, I couldn't relax.
The nobles of this world.
Compared to the nobles in other novels I've read, they don't look down on commoners that much, but high-ranking nobles definitely still had that tendency.
The Golden Knights existed to protect the Imperial Family, so the requirements were extremely strict.
It was a position that could only be attained by an exceptional knight from a completely trustworthy family of high standing.
Beings who could only ascend to that rank if they lacked nothing in personal achievement, skill, character, and family background.
*Gulp.* I swallowed hard, my mind going blank.
‘I doubt they'll treat me well…’
The lowest noble rank one could hold to become a Golden Knight was that of a marquis.
That meant this was a level of nobility from a family higher than any I had yet met among the nobles at the academy.
Of course, I had met the highest of them all, the royalty, but they were an exception…
“And they've informed us that the Imperial Knight will arrive this afternoon. It should be something to look forward to.”
“…In just one day?”
“Yes. They said they'll be using the portal in the Imperial Palace. The royalty and the Golden Knights aren't bound by time, no matter where they go.”
At Kalli's calm statement of fact, I could only blink blankly.