That's Today: A Fleeting Dream for Eternity
It was today. A short dream for eternity. That was what the original novel called this episode—the raid on the entrance ceremony. A meticulously woven plan by the mongma to ensure the survival of their dying species. A vicious nightmare inflicted on innocent victims while they dreamed of a future where they might rise again. The original work referred to this desperate thrashing of a race cursed with such a pitiful yet cruel fate as a deluded dream.
“...But why isn’t anything happening?”
The headmaster was absent, and his proxy was delivering the speech in his place. By now the fog should have rolled in and the attack should have begun. Yet nothing was occurring. Unlike the novel, the entrance ceremony was unfolding exactly according to the prearranged schedule.
In the original story, everything should have already descended into chaos.
“Huh? Are you waiting for something?”
On top of that, the Saint, Eden Holloway, was nowhere to be seen. With the classes separated as they were, Class A should have contained thirty students including the Saint. Instead there were only twenty-eight. Both Fate and the Saint had vanished.
Something is definitely going on here.
If only one of them had disappeared, I might have brushed it off as a minor variable. But both vanishing at once meant a clear causal event had taken place. And if the Saint was alone with Fate, doing who-knew-what, then he was in danger.
How is someone who hasn’t even finished growing supposed to handle an entire horde of mongma without any help?
He might be hard to kill, and his holy attribute did have an advantage over them, but still—
Fighting the entire mongma race is basically suicide.
Mongma. A species that fed on dreams and killed their victims once every last dream had been drained. After centuries of the empire’s relentless extermination campaigns, they had become almost impossible to find. The handful that remained had gathered at the academy in one last bid for resurgence.
They’re planning to suck the dreams out of every promising young talent here…
Then they would try to flee with whatever they could gather. Today’s raid was a desperate gamble in which they had wagered the continued existence of their entire race.
Still, they have to die. There’s no other choice.
No matter how tragic their circumstances, we could not allow a race that had spent lifetimes draining the dreams of dozens—sometimes hundreds—of people and then killing them to survive. Both the empire and the Holy Kingdom knew this, which was why they had hunted the mongma with fanatical zeal for centuries.
There are probably only about a dozen left now.
And even those would be the absolute elite of their kind. The weaker ones would have been culled long before they could reach this place. So the odds of an still-immature Saint defeating such elite mongma were…
“You look like our dog at home when it really needs to poop.”
Lucia’s voice cut through my thoughts. She must have found my expression amusing, because she chuckled softly and looped her arm through mine. Then she tugged me close until our sides pressed together and added with a bored face, “It’s seriously dull, right?”
“Initiating physical contact without the other party’s consent is a crime, you know.”
“Why are you acting so formal all of a sudden? You’ve let me do it until now.”
When she put it that way, I had no comeback. Though it wasn’t as if I had ever actually given permission. Come to think of it, had I consented to any of the physical contact she had forced on me so far?
“Jack, why don’t the two of us sneak out and have some quiet fun?”
Either unaware or uncaring of my sidelong glance, Lucia climbed up my arm like a cat and made the suggestion. Her eyes sparkled. She clearly found the acting headmaster’s speech unbearable.
I had to admit it was pretty boring. It felt exactly like listening to the principal’s speech back in high school.
“Don’t you think spending time with me would be more fun? Last time was enjoyable, wasn’t it?”
“No.”
I couldn’t abandon the Saint and run off to play. I tried to gently disentangle my arm, but the moment she sensed me pulling away she yanked it all the way against her chest and hugged it with both arms.
“Ah… ugh…?”
The soft pressure against my forearm froze my thoughts completely. Before I knew it I had forgotten about escaping and was only letting out a stupid, wordless groan.
To a college student who had never properly dated, that soft sensation was far too powerful a stimulus to process.
“Hmm? Why are you suddenly acting so strange?”
She tilted her head at my malfunctioning self, then quickly noticed my arm trapped pitifully between her breasts. A sly smile spread across her face.
“Wow… This is actual, undeniable sexual harassment…”
Lucia shook my arm free, then leaned in with a seductive smile that tickled my ear. Technically she had been the one to force my arm there, but my brain was too scrambled to offer any coherent protest.
“If you wanted to touch, you should have just said so. I would have let you as much as you wanted.”
“N-no… That wasn’t my intention…”
She watched me stammer with open delight, then undid the top two buttons of her blouse. She linked arms with me again and asked, “So what do you want to do? Shall we slip away and have some cozy time alone right now?”
I had finally recovered from the earlier shock. Pulling myself together, I answered, “I have something else I need to do.”
How could I possibly play around with Lucia when I needed to go deal with the mongma? I was still watching for the right moment to leave unnoticed while organizing my thoughts. It was definitely not because Lucia hugging my arm had distracted me and made me miss the timing.
I already told Grayson to follow me, so the moment I leave my assigned spot he’ll come on his own.
From the sound of the proxy’s voice, the speech had passed the halfway mark. It should be fine to leave now.
I tried to shake Lucia off and slip away quietly when—
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”
Heidi suddenly appeared, shoving Lucia aside and glaring at her.
“Why are you clinging to Jack’s arm and giggling? Weren’t you rejected?”
Lucia snorted and stared back at Heidi without a word.
This is bad.
Of course Lucia and Heidi were completely incompatible. Heidi hated her for trying to steal every man she liked, and Lucia—whether out of jealousy or not—seemed to despise Heidi and went out of her way to torment her.
“You mess with any guy who crosses your path, so what do you want with my childhood friend?”
Heidi hid me behind her back, gave a thumbs-up, and smiled with satisfaction.
…Why did that annoy me so much?
“What’s it to you? I want to play with Jack.”
“Not satisfied with the guy you’re seeing, now you’re even going after my childhood friend? You vile woman.”
Their burning, furious eyes clashed in the air between them. Any other guy watching would probably cheer and call it a catfight, but—
How could anyone enjoy this situation?
One was a crazy person trying to seduce me without any real intention of bothering anyone else. The other was my so-called childhood friend who might poison me at any moment and send me to my death.
If nothing else, I absolutely have to keep my distance from Heidi.
Even when Jack was in Class B with almost no points of contact, the crown prince had still arranged his assassination. If we created even more contact by being in Class A together, I had no idea which male lead might try to kill me or how.
Maybe I should start dating someone to prove there’s zero chance of me taking Heidi…
The thought crossed my mind, but I quietly shook my head. Those guys would suspect something even if they saw it with their own eyes, so it would be pointless anyway.
I let out a quiet sigh and glanced sideways. Heidi and Lucia were still bickering.
“I’m not interested in those other guys, but I genuinely like this one. Can’t you let me have him?”
“Is he an object? Who are you to decide whether to give him away?”
“Um… what exactly is going on here?”
When I spoke up, dumbfounded by their pointless quarrel, Heidi waved her hands as if to say not to worry. No—I needed to leave. If they kept blocking the path like this, how was I supposed to get through?
“Hey, Heidi. I really need to go now…”
She looked at me with a shocked expression and muttered, “No… for real? You actually fell for her that fast?”
Lucia, seeing both my words and Heidi’s reaction, put on a triumphant smile, stroked Heidi’s head, and said, “See? Jack says he wants to go play with me. So why don’t you be a good little kid and listen to the speech quietly?”
She grabbed my arm, giggling, and started dragging me away.
Uh…
I immediately felt embarrassed and tried to pull my arm free. But then I realized the direction she was heading was exactly where I needed to go, so I decided to follow quietly. Arguing here would only give Heidi another chance to act smug and prolong the fight.
I didn’t know the exact situation, but with the Saint’s life possibly hanging in the balance, I couldn’t just stand by and—
“What do you feel like eating? Any favorite foods?”
She really seemed to think I wanted to go out with her. Having beaten Heidi, she was smiling brightly, and for some reason it put me in a bad mood.
“I have something separate to d—”
I tried to separate from her with a curt tone, but she cut me off.
“Then after you finish that, let’s go eat together. The entrance ceremony ends early today anyway, right?”
“Why would I eat with you, Lucia?”
She let out a small laugh and poked me. “I told you, didn’t I? As payment for the money I gave you last time, you have to be mine for a whole day.”
Then she added with a bright, lemon-fresh smile, “And that day is today.”