Why on Earth Am I Sitting Here Like This?
Why on earth was I called here and made to sit like this? Arina sat on the guest sofa inside the chairman’s office—a room that students and even professors rarely entered. She held a rigid, upright posture like a wooden doll, her gaze nailed straight ahead. Her body trembled uncontrollably as if stuck on vibrate mode, while her eyes shook even more violently. Cold sweat poured down her back, steadily soaking the luxurious sofa.
If she’s this nervous, I almost feel bad for calling her. Watching Arina, Majoan scratched his cheek with an awkward expression. He had only mixed her in among the students he summoned as an excuse to confirm the Death King’s identity. Seeing her so tense made him feel like he was tormenting a young girl, and guilt slowly crept up on him.
“For now, drink the beverage in front of you and calm your mind.”
“Ah, yes!”
Wanting to ease her tension, Majoan smiled gently and offered her the drink. He had prepared orange juice, guessing she would prefer it over green or black tea. Arina accepted the glass—with its square ice cubes floating inside—with trembling hands and carefully brought it to her lips.
“Ah, it’s hot!”
Startled by the unexpected sensation, she quickly pulled her lips away from the glass. Arina stared blankly at the orange juice, eyes round and blinking. Majoan let out a playful chuckle at her reaction.
“How was that? Quite a surprise, right?”
It was a simple trick—momentary sensory manipulation. But performing it so subtly and naturally that no one could detect it was truly remarkable. It was a high-level feat that even Arina’s keen senses had completely failed to notice. Seeing her awestruck face, Ern offered a benevolent smile.
“It seems your tension has eased a little, fortunately.”
“Ah.”
Arina let out a small gasp. At some point, the trembling that had vibrated through her body had subsided. No, her mind had grown calm, almost as if she had reached some form of enlightenment. The change was too dramatic to be the simple result of being startled awake. Soon realizing the cause, Arina stared intently at the hot orange juice with its floating ice cubes that she had just drunk.
“Your senses are sharp, just as I heard.”
He had infused the drink—the medium in this case—with mana to apply the spell formula directly inside her body. Then he manipulated her electrical signals and hormone secretion to artificially dissolve the tension clinging to her. Put simply, he had used magic to instantly transform the orange juice she drank into a highly effective calming remedy.
“Just as you heard?”
“I’m too busy to visit the academy often, but I still receive regular reports on the students.”
Benedict Academy was an institution Majoan had personally founded, even carving his own name into it. Given how responsible he was about his duties, there was no way he would have simply dumped all the academy’s affairs onto the president, Hounds.
“There’s no particular problem or special matter, so sit comfortably. We’ll begin the conversation once the other child arrives.”
“Yes…”
Even though he told her to relax, and his consideration had loosened some of her tension, the discomfort didn’t disappear completely. Ah, I wish this awkward meeting would end soon. Just as her mind began to fill entirely with that thought, turning everything white—
Knock, knock.
The light knocking from outside the door snapped her drifting mind back to attention.
“Excuse me.”
The first thing that caught her eye was the vivid blue hair. The person who opened the door and entered was someone she knew all too well.
“……”
The other party clearly hadn’t expected Arina to be there either. The moment their eyes met, his widened in surprise and his body flinched. But he quickly composed himself and bowed deeply to Majoan.
“Jeon Raydel greets Majoan.”
When she had first entered, she had simply stood there in a daze, staring blankly at Majoan. Seeing such a disciplined greeting made her feel a fresh wave of embarrassment at her past self. As her face flushed and she lowered her head, Majoan laughed heartily and gestured toward Jeon.
“Yes, nice to meet you. Take a seat.”
“Yes.”
At Majoan’s words, Jeon paused for a moment, glancing at the spot beside Arina. After what seemed like a major decision, he sat down. Arina, who still had her head lowered, didn’t notice, but Majoan—who had seen it clearly—let out a soft, fond chuckle.
“The reason I called the two of you this time is because, among this year’s new students, you two stood out the most.”
This year’s first-years included an unusually large number of remarkable students—so many that they could be called a historic class. There was Princess Marily Raymond, already renowned among magic researchers as a prodigy despite her young age, and Togun Masao, who had overcome the curse of being a mana rejector to pass Benedict Academy’s entrance exam.
But when looking purely at the realm of magic, the two students before him were the most advanced among the first-years: Arina Grant, a genius born with exceptional mana affinity and detection ability, and Jeon Raydel, who was slightly behind her in raw talent but ahead in actual skill.
“Every year, I make sure to set aside time to have a conversation with the most outstanding student of that year’s entering class.”
Majoan liked children. More precisely, he enjoyed imagining the talents and possibilities they possessed, and the futures they would unfold. The very reason he had founded Benedict Academy was to help bring out the potential within those children as much as his power allowed.
“I asked the professors to keep the fact that I meet with outstanding students every year a secret. I thought that if this became known, the competition would become even fiercer than it already is.”
Moderate competition could be a driving force for growth. But excessive competition would inevitably lead to negative outcomes. Worried about such a future, Majoan had earnestly asked the professors not to speak of this.
“It would be nice if I could speak with every single student in the school, but I simply don’t have enough time.”
So he hoped they would keep this a secret as well. Shaking his head with a touch of regret, Majoan offered the two students—who were still staring at him intently—a gentle smile.
“That’s why I called you here to talk comfortably. As I said earlier, there’s no need to feel burdened. In return for indulging my selfishness, if there’s anything you want to ask, I’ll answer whatever I can.”
It was a well-known anecdote that a lunch with Majoan had once sold for 25 billion shilling at a charity auction hosted by the royal family. For some, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was not at all an overinflated ego that made Majoan hide these meetings with top students in advance. A conversation with someone who had reached such lofty heights could become a treasure that granted countless insights with even a single word.
“……”
But the two of them were still too young to truly feel that reality. They simply stared at him blankly, unsure what to say. Having seen such reactions from children every year, Majoan waited patiently for them to find their voices.
“…Majoan, did you have a dream?”
The one who broke the brief silence was Arina. It was a question stemming from the worries she had carried ever since entering the academy. Perhaps it was because she had just heard about it again from Professor Magnus. Suddenly, she felt curious. The Majoan whom Togun and countless other mages looked up to as their goal—what kind of dream had he held while climbing to his current position?
“That question is incorrect.”
Majoan lightly shook his head at Arina’s question.
“You should have asked not what dream I had, but what dream I have now.”
Present progressive, not past tense. His words also implied that even now, after reaching the realm of an absolute being, Majoan had not yet fulfilled his dream. Even at this very moment, he was taking steps toward his goal.
What kind of magnificent dream could it be that even Majoan, who stood at such towering heights, had not yet achieved it? Meeting the children’s eyes brimming with curiosity, Majoan gazed into the distance for a moment as if recalling something.
“My dream is to turn this nation into a country filled only with happiness.”
Though he now stood at the most glorious position in the kingdom, Majoan’s childhood had been very different. He did not even know who his parents were. The starting point of his memories was himself wandering through back alleys. If the person who had been the kingdom’s prince at the time had not taken in the shivering boy wearing nothing but ragged clothes in the middle of winter, he would likely have met a miserable end somewhere.
It was a meeting that could truly be called a miracle. The prince might have simply taken him on a whim, but thanks to that, Majoan survived. While working in the palace, he happened to encounter magic and discovered his own talent. And through magic, he rose to the position of an absolute being, gaining the power to command respect from all.
All of it stemmed from that single encounter.
That was why Majoan did not wield his power arbitrarily like other absolute beings. Instead of showing off as an absolute, he sought only to correct the kingdom as a loyal subject of Ellemental. He wanted to reach out to children who were dying without being able to display their talents—just as that person had done for him in the past.
“I know it myself. That this is an impossible dream.”
The world always has two sides, like a coin. Just as light inevitably casts a shadow. He had advanced magic, spread magic tools into daily life, and improved convenience. He had paid attention and worked hard so that no one would starve to death as in the past. But solving one problem only caused another to arise in turn. As Majoan progressed, crime grew more intelligent and stood against him anew.
It was likely a repeating cycle that would continue until the world itself was destroyed. Yet Majoan never gave up. He firmly believed that such a world would come one day.
That is why the Death King is so remarkable.
As long as the world always had two sides, people like his childhood self—who were abandoned by society—would inevitably appear. The place such people flowed into was the underworld. It was an abyss of the human world that even the greatest Majoan, despite knowing of its existence, could not figure out how to change.
But the Death King had completely conquered that place in just a few years. He had earned the loyalty of every criminal who held distrust toward the world, winning a faith-like trust from them. And he had become their shield, standing against the world head-on.
Tugwi and the Empress mocked him for playing the role of king of the trash, but Majoan held no ill will toward him. Whatever his intentions, he too was a person who had transformed the world, just like himself.
In fact, ever since the Death King took control, the crime rate in the underworld has dropped sharply.
Order was being established in a world that once had none. In a sense, this too was a creation. A new civilization was blooming, and a kingdom centered around the Death King had been born.
“I was happy and proud to have been born in this country. I want to create a world where everyone can die with that same thought. That is my dream.”
Yes, the world would change one way or another. If Majoan created reform from above, and people like the Death King supported those who had fallen and lifted them up, then perhaps his dream would one day come true. All he had to do was steadily move toward that goal.
It seems right.
Thinking that, Majoan glanced at Arina’s arm. What was attached there was a mana restriction cuff with a green turtle keyring. It was unmistakably the one he had given to the Death King. Only then did Majoan recall that the Death King had asked him about a method to train mana operation. That question had probably been for this student.
More definitive proof was the gaze of someone watching them intently from outside the window in the distance. Feeling that gaze pleasantly, Majoan—now certain of the Death King’s identity—spoke to the children who wore expressions of surprise at his dream.
“Having a dream is good. But it doesn’t have to be particularly specific. Even if it’s vague and far-fetched, set as your goal something you truly want to do. Something that makes you feel you would die if you didn’t.”
“……”
“I will cheer for your journey as you seek that dream.”
They might never find it in their entire lives. Hoping they would find what they truly wanted to do, and that they would definitely achieve it, Majoan—as a senior who had walked the path of life before them—offered them a benevolent smile.