Within the Illusion
Lionel stroked his mane as he gazed at the vanished examinees.
“How kind of you. In the old days, wouldn’t you have just tossed them into a gorge crawling with monsters?”
“Kind? I merely changed the order of things a little.”
What Baba Yaga had cast was a grand spell combining illusion magic with large-scale group teleportation.
The place the examinees had actually gone was not Snow Mountain, but the Academy Grand Auditorium.
“Come. Let’s go see how the examinees are faring in their test.”
Snap!
When Baba Yaga flicked her fingers, the space around Lionel and herself instantly transformed into a vast hall.
There, countless monitors displayed the sleeping participants in real time.
Examinees lying on mats in the Grand Auditorium came into view, watched over by active-duty heroes.
“When did you prepare all this?”
“From the moment I was selected as chief proctor, of course. Did you really think I would cast magic of that scale on a whim?”
“You’ve arrived, Lady Baba Yaga.”
A man in white carrying documents bowed his head in greeting as he passed.
“Yes, yes. Carry on with your work.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Those uniforms… from the research institute?”
Some of those managing the monitor room were researchers from the Central Area.
“That’s right. A joint operation with Central.”
A chilly smile hung on Baba Yaga’s face.
“Want to see what they’re going through right now?”
Lionel quickly focused on the monitors.
Huh.
As a veteran hunter, he instantly grasped the nature of Baba Yaga’s 0th Exam.
“Calling you kind was a slip of the tongue. You are a cruel one.”
“Cruelty and wickedness are the basic virtues of a witch.”
Kyaang.
She raised both arms in a threatening pose, but with her childlike appearance it only looked cute.
Ahem.
Lionel, whose hand had almost reached out of its own accord, coughed and hurriedly clasped his hands behind his back.
“Anyone with a heart too soft to overcome even this has no right to become a hunter or a hero.”
Through the dizziness of the warp they barely arrived at a warm cabin, piercing the cold wind.
Knock knock!
“Is anyone inside!”
Desperate to escape the freezing cold that threatened to kill them, they rushed in—and inside—
“Oh my god…”
“Oh, Lord.”
The being they missed most in the world was waiting for them.
One examinee discovered his parents, who had passed away in his childhood, standing inside the cabin with warm smiles.
“Mother! Father!”
As the examinee sobbed and embraced his parents, the mother and father chuckled softly and patted their son’s back with affection.
“Please… don’t leave me!”
“This child. Where would we even go?”
“You’ve had it so hard out there in the cold. Oh my, your hands are frozen solid. Come inside quickly. Dear, go warm up some milk for the boy.”
“Alright, our son. Mom will make you some hot chocolate, so wrap yourself in a blanket and sit by the fire.”
It was a scene he had longed for even in his dreams.
The warm glow of the campfire, even the hot chocolate his mother handed him.
“Yes! This is it! Both of you are alive. Both of you…”
Please, if this is a dream, don’t let me wake.
The young man who had wished so desperately had, before he knew it, become the boy of those days once more.
On one side, a pet that had passed away long ago came running, tail wagging.
“Woof woof!”
“Alex?”
In that instant the examinee’s eyes reddened and he sank to the floor.
“Oh my god… Alex, Alex! Do you know how much I’ve missed you.”
Pant pant!
The dog, breathing hard as if trying to make up for all the lost time, approached with small steps and pressed its body close, nuzzling into its owner.
Lick lick.
“Hahaha, Alex, wait a second! Hahaha! Stop it.”
As the dog wagged its tail so hard it might fall off and licked his face all over, Alex’s owner burst into laughter even as he cried.
From its appearance to its warm body heat and breath, its short barks and even the smell of drool—everything was exactly as he remembered from when it was alive.
“Alex. Alex.”
His voice trembling, he called the dog’s name and hugged that small body tightly with both hands.
Someone else was gazing at the face of a lover who had died long ago, sharing a passionate embrace.
“Nora!”
Clatter.
The examinee even discarded the sword and shield he normally treasured more than his own life and ran toward the one he had loved.
Whoosh!
And he embraced her with all his strength.
“Never. I will never let you go again…”
Nora smiled faintly and gently caressed his face with her fingertips.
“My love, you’ve had it so hard all this time, haven’t you? Your face has gotten so thin.”
The examinee fought back tears, nodding with trembling hands.
“I won’t leave you alone again. Please… Nora… don’t go anywhere.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll always be by your side.”
She looked at his face for a moment, then slowly lifted her head and kissed him.
The Reunion Illusion.
It was a high-dimensional illusion magic created using Baba Yaga’s loyal servant and home, the Chicken-Leg Hut.
The scenery of the warm cabin gradually transformed into the happiest memory-space they remembered.
The more the examinees believed the hallucination was real and refused to wake, the more firmly their minds were bound there.
Baba Yaga watched the scene with a merciless smile.
“Yes. Those of weak heart, sleep with the forgotten ones inside the illusion. Dream a sweet dream for even a moment, then shake it off and go home.”
Lionel raised his eyebrows and spoke in protest.
“This is in poor taste.”
Baba Yaga replied with a cold sneer.
“Not a single person is injured. Not a single person dies. Where would you find a gentler test than this?”
Looking at Lionel, Baba Yaga wore a slightly twisted smile.
“If even a cat like you has someone you wish to see, I wouldn’t mind arranging a meeting myself, you know?”
Lionel narrowed his eyes at Baba Yaga for a moment, then raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.
“…I apologize. Once I go in, there are too many people I would have to see. It would certainly interfere with work. I’ll postpone it to another time.”
“What an unlovable cat. What are you so afraid of? It was a joke. A joke.”
Keh keh keh.
Baba Yaga burst into laughter, and Lionel shook his head slightly at her reaction, wearing a complicated expression.
The illusion was equally cruel to everyone.
To those who carried deep wounds in their hearts, the warmth they had longed for all their lives approached more strongly than any poison, holding them fast.
Yet there were certainly those who were not easily shaken by the Reunion Illusion and overcame it quickly.
“Those from prestigious families are certainly different. To cut down even their own parents without hesitation.”
“The Grand Duchess who came from the ice palace outside the Area is no ordinary person either.”
Most of those Baba Yaga and Lionel were watching were talented individuals they had expected, but there were also unexpected dark horses.
“That child overcame it faster than I thought.”
The one Lionel was watching with interest was none other than Dorothy.
Dorothy ran crying into her parents’ arms and embraced them.
“Mom, Dad! I missed you… I love you.”
Up to this point she was no different from the other participants.
“What’s wrong, my daughter.”
Dorothy, her tawny hair braided back, smiled gently even as tears flowed.
It was not mere joy of reunion.
“I love you. Forever… I’ll keep missing you even from now on. I really wanted to tell you that.”
Leaving those words, Dorothy calmly turned her body.
“I’ll definitely pass this exam… so please cheer me on from heaven!”
“Baby?”
“Dorothy, where are you going?”
“Come back to Mom and Dad!”
Leaving behind the illusions of her mother and father who tried to grab her too late, she swallowed her tears and ran out of there at full speed.
“Indeed… that’s no ordinary resolve.”
Baba Yaga, nodding in satisfaction as she watched Dorothy, then wore a bitter smile as she looked at one particular screen.
On that screen were the very specimens of chaff she had most wanted to filter out.
“Cat, do you see that?”
The side Baba Yaga was looking at was in a serious state.
The cabin had transformed into a different appearance faster than any of the other participants.
“Those children will have a hard time getting out.”
The proctors shook their heads as they looked at the blond siblings.
Inside the illusion, Siu and Sia had returned to their happiest moment.
Together with Tiss and the children of the orphanage, they were smiling with faces happier than anything else in the world.
Siu and Sia had started this exam under a small misunderstanding.
“Ugh.”
“You okay?”
“Ah, I just got a little dizzy for a second.”
The vivid dizziness they had just felt was clearly the aftereffect of spatial transfer magic.
Having experienced movement by spatial ability users several times while operating as members of the Order, Siu and Sia mistakenly believed they were actually on Snow Mountain, not in an illusion.
“As expected, Baba Yaga?”
“I guess at S-rank, even long-distance teleports like this are possible.”
Their misunderstanding deepened because they believed it was magic cast directly by the renowned hero Baba Yaga.
“Starting with survival right from the beginning.”
“The difficulty is pretty high.”
“Oppa, if this is a test, there should be something around here. Let’s look.”
“Yeah. A cave, or at least somewhere to take shelter from the blizzard—a cliff, anywhere is fine.”
To avoid the blade-like cold wind in the blizzard-swept Snow Mountain, they needed to quickly grasp the surrounding situation.
“Oppa, over there.”
“That must be the test site.”
Spotting a cabin in the distance emitting a faint light, Siu and Sia walked toward it through the snowstorm.
Knock knock knock.
“Is anyone inside!”
“Just a moment.”
When they knocked, a voice from inside asked them to wait a moment.
“Ah?”
At that voice, Siu and Sia’s bodies froze like stone.
A voice that was unfamiliar yet familiar, one that had been growing fainter in their memories.
“No way. That can’t be…”
Though they spoke words of denial.
Thump thump.
The siblings’ hearts began to beat of their own accord.
And.
Creeeak.
The door opened, and the person standing there was—
“Who is it?”
“Tiss… Unnie.”
“Tiss…”
It was Tiss.