3. Unmeasurable

Exactly two weeks had passed since I enrolled at the academy.

My first run had ended in three days. My second, in thirty minutes. Which meant that, by every measure, this run was my new personal best.

Ashburn Hale had survived a staggering fourteen days in this shitheap of an Academy City.

And how, you ask, did I spend those fourteen days?

'Peaceful.'

I did absolutely nothing. Which was exactly why it had been so damn peaceful.

Sure, when the placement exams rated me a hair above dead last, I did briefly consider shouting "Round 4, let's gooo!" — and maybe even firing off a confession at Clara while I was at it.

But apparently it takes kicking the bucket twice to mellow a man out, because my heart had grown remarkably at ease.

So what if it's like this. So what if it's like that.

A life with bumps in it is a blessing. At the very least, mine hadn't been cut short.

Anyway — today, the curfew keeping us confined to Academy City was finally lifted.

Under city rules, first-years weren't allowed outside their academy for two whole weeks after the entrance ceremony, so I'd been cooped up in here this entire time.

But today, at long last, we were free to set foot beyond our academy walls.

Which was why the front gate of Grayton Academy was currently a human flood.

Students stood queued in a line that stretched out of sight, like the wait outside a restaurant everyone swore was worth it.

"Hey, you know about that café? Apparently they serve a parfait the size of your head."

"A parfait? Isn't that the insanely expensive stuff only nobles can afford?"

For the record, over those two weeks I had made a grand total of two friends.

"Expensive, yeah, probably. But I overheard people whispering that it's a must-visit spot — every girl has to stop by at least once."

"What? Seriously?"

The two of them, nattering on about a parfait. The hulking one with bronze skin and a sporty buzz cut went by the name of Bruno. The one with the sly, pointy jaw, currently jabbering away about how we simply had to go eat parfait, was Cobi.

Bruno and Cobi. In my head, I'd filed them under "Tubby" and "Weedy."

All three of us had landed at the very bottom of the academic rankings, so friendship had come naturally. Bruno claimed he was a man of the sea who'd originally aimed for the Blue Sea Maritime Academy, flunked the entrance exam, and washed up at ours instead. Cobi insisted he was actually top-tier material and had only botched his answers by scribbling them down in a panic—

Yeah. Load of horseshit. By that logic, I could stroll into an elite academy too — as long as the exam happened to include Korean history.

"Hey, Ashburn. You're coming too, right?"

"You've gotta come. Face value, man. You're the bait."

"Huh? What was that?"

I hadn't heard them — I was lost in thought. More precisely, I was staring off into the distance at Clara, who was standing in line with some other friends.

"I said, are you coming to the café or not."

"They say the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠place is swarming with girls from the elite academies."

Bastards, faithfully devoted to nothing but their appetites. They couldn't afford a parfait themselves — the whole scheme was to gawk at the girls who came to buy the overpriced ones.

Under normal circumstances I'd have tagged along without a second thought, fully prepared to sweet-talk some innocent young lady — decent face, fat purse, and still clinging to the belief that men were worth dreaming about.

"I've got plans."

"Plans?! With WHO?!"

"A woman? Is it a woman?! You traitorous son of a bitch!"

Bruno and Cobi ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠threw a collective fit.

It was, in fact, a woman. My childhood friend, who'd come to Academy City with me. Her figure could, without hyperbole, be described as downright sensual, but—

She's a bear. A bear, I tell you.

The owner of monstrous strength who used to roam the countryside whacking wild animals with tree branches. Sun-browned skin, hair tied back every single day of her life — closer to a mountain bandit than a girl, really.

"You fucking traitor."

"Man, if you go with just Bruno, your odds drop through the floor."

Yeesh. Pathetic, the pair of them.

Academy City.

A city with a name that sounded like the setting for a story where a Level 5 girl fires railguns — and, true to that name, this was quite literally a place where every kind of academy had gathered.

Every soul on the continent, upon turning nineteen, was semi-forcibly enrolled. Because the city had been founded jointly by every nation on the continent, there were no exceptions.

If your tuition ran short, you could do what I did — crawl into a dumpster academy and live there for free. The quality of your education dropped accordingly, of course. Meals still cost extra. And underage part-time work was legal here.

Truly a marvel of a place, isn't it.

I stood on a stone bridge spanning the river, drinking in the scenery with genuine awe. Towers rose here and there between the blue-gray rooftops, each crowned with a different flag snapping in the wind — every last one of them an academy.

Robed mages strolled past with thick tomes hugged to their ribs. Knights in pristine white uniforms walked with swords at their hips. They must all have been first-years like me, because their faces overflowed with pride and expectation.

Arcadium Magic Academy, Avalon Royal Knight School... Look at them, shoulders squared, strutting around like they own the place. Unbearable.

Two weeks into enrollment, and now that they were meeting students from other academies for the first time, everyone was flexing their shoulders and tipping their chins skyward.

Every so often, though, someone would glance at the gray uniform I wore, wrinkle their nose in disgust, and drift a few steps away from me.

What was the point of arguing? The poster child for dumpster-tier academies, its name slapped on as an afterthought — that was Grayton Academy, the place I called my school.

"Seriously, when is she getting here."

We'd definitely agreed to meet back here when we parted ways on entrance-ceremony day. Wondering what was taking her, I leaned against the railing and yawned.

No phones in this world — a genuine shame, that.

Tch. There aren't even cars here. What did I expect.

That was when an aggressive wave of perfume slammed into my nose. I whipped my head around in shock, and before I could even finish turning, a familiar hand smacked my shoulder.

"Hey! Ashburn! You been doing okay?"

"Seri— ...sorry, who are you?"

Two shirt buttons undone, her cleavage on brazen display. Hair swept up with a flashy ribbon, a lollipop stick jutting from the corner of her mouth.

"It's me! Seria! Haha! I've changed a ton, right?! My seniors taught me all sorts of stuff!"

The surreal sight of a country bear-girl transformed into a full-on party girl in a mere two weeks.

"Here, you try one too. It's candy — it's crazy good."

She shoved a lollipop straight into my mouth. When I nearly lost a tooth to her monstrous strength, I knew for certain it was Seria.

"What is all this? Did you get a boyfriend?"

A change this drastic usually meant a boyfriend—

Seria's middle finger shot up on the spot.

"Bullshit! Did you forget I got into Jade Maiden Martial Academy?! This is the first time I've laid eyes on the creature known as 'man' in two weeks!"

"Ah. Right."

Seria had been accepted into Jade Maiden — a prestigious academy even among the all-female ones. The whole village had crowed about their pride and joy, even carrying her around on their shoulders the way they would a bride.

And me?

'You two grew up playing together — how come she made it and you didn't?' That was about the extent of the looks I got.

"My seniors dolled me up, okay? It's our first weekend outing as first-years. They told me not to let anyone here intimidate me."

"Ahh. Gotcha."

Sounded like she was getting along with her seniors just fine.

"Anyway, Ashburn. Don't you have something to say to me?"

Seria poked me lightly as she asked. I gave her a slow once-over, top to bottom, then cut straight to business.

"You look pretty. Wanna go out?"

"...How can you just SAY something like that?!"

Flabbergasted as she sounded, her face was burning red. She jabbed a finger at me and launched her interrogation.

"Th-that's not how you do it! Aren't you supposed to read the mood first?! A-and say it in a cooler way!?!"

Excellent point. Rest easy.

"Childhood friends ending up together — that's how the story's supposed to go."

"Shut up! Do it again!"

"I thought that if I did things this way, I could make you mine!"

"Don't feed me that crap! You think a confession ten years in the making gets waved through like THAT?!"

"Truth be told, my favorite animal has always been the bear."

"So you're literally just admitting I look like a bear!"

Ohhh, look at her bristle. If that's not a bear, what is?

Face blazing scarlet, Seria huffed and puffed where she stood.

Just say yes already at this point! I have been through far too much lately! I'm exhausted, seriously!

"Don't make me laugh! Tonight! After the Academy City hot-air-balloon event wraps up, there's going to be fireworks! You're going to confess again there! Got it?!"

"Wait, confess AGAIN? Hey, you technically already accepted just now. What I want is to get in some quality booby-rubbing with that chest of yours."

"BOOBY-RU—!"

Ah. I'm dead.

Normally, this was the exact moment the bear claw came out and shredded me limb from limb—

"C-confess."

Slowly lowering her raised fist, Seria answered, her face scarlet from jaw to hairline.

"If you confess properly... I-I'll let you do the booby-rubbing."

"For real?"

"That's why — when the fireworks go off! Confess! PROPERLY! Got it?!"

And with that shout, she bolted off.

That silly, silly bear.

If Seria had gotten one thing wrong, it was this: unlike the prestigious academies, our curfew was ruthlessly strict. We were required to be inside the dorms by seven in the evening. The climax of the hot-air-balloon event and the fireworks display? Midnight.

Anyway — back at the dorm. After evening roll call, I was busy getting ready to head out. The time: 11:40 PM. Hauling myself over the wall would be a bit of an ordeal, but I already had a rope stashed and waiting.

"Hey, Ashburn. You're seriously going?"

"Right when we ask you to come hang out with us, too."

Room 1101. Bruno and Cobi, dropping by my room. It was well past lights-out, but the two of them had their own reasons for being awake.

"There are girls waiting for us at the girls' dorm, you know?"

"Turns out they totally know you, by the way. 'The handsome one,' they called you. They said you'd better come, no excuses."

The two idiots had somehow pulled off an actual successful pickup. Not noble young ladies from outside, mind you — they'd sweet-talked girls from our very own academy into hanging out with them all night long.

"Shut it, you lecherous bastards. Big bro here has some supremely sacred pure love to go achieve."

Come to think of it, the harem had been the problem all along. Going after Clara as a harem target — that was where the misfortune began. From this moment on, my guiding doctrine would be the pure-love harem.

"The winning pick is the childhood friend, though."

"Ugh, you're no fun."

"C'mon, Bruno, let's get moving. Suits us fine if he's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not coming."

Just you wait — Ashburn's signature weapon (exclusive equipment). My childhood friend, an at-least-F-cup bear who had gone and become a human being. Getting myself nose-ringed and led around by a bear-woman — Ungnyeo, the she-bear of Korea's founding myth, no less — my Korean genes were clearly alive and well.

And so, each of us carrying his own objective, the three of us quietly climbed out the window and slipped beyond the dormitory.

"I'm off. Have fun, you two. And wrap it up, yeah?"

"You absolute lunatic."

"Who do you take us for — you? We're going to have a nice, wholesome night."

If it's so wholesome, why are you sneaking out at midnight to do it.

I wanted to snipe back at them, but their hands were already full of board games and a deck of cards — maybe they genuinely meant the wholesome part.

I'd just finished my goodbyes to my dim-but-decent friends and turned to head straight for Seria when—

DOOONG!

A bell tolled across the night.

What else would you expect from a backwards, medieval-minded academy. Announcing the arrival of midnight with a bell, no less.

"Whoa, they even ring the bell at this hour?"

"Huh. Didn't know that."

Bruno and Cobi were buzzing — the crisp night air, the thrill of bending the rules. Me, on the other hand? I felt dread crawl up my spine.

Hard as it might be to believe looking at me, I had died twice. The insomnia that came with it meant nights spent wide awake past midnight were hardly a rarity for me.

Why is the bell ringing at this hour?

"Huh?"

"What?"

"It's never rung before."

Not once. Not a single time.

GRRRRUUK—!

Out of nowhere, something began bearing down on my head. At first it was just my chin dipping; a heartbeat later, my neck had bent.

"Wha—?!"

"Wh-what the hell?!"

"...!"

The others tipped straight into panic. And this was no mere "something pressing down on us." If I absolutely had to put it into words: an invisible ceiling was descending.

"Fuck! PUSH!"

I drove power into my thighs and braced the sky with both hands. To heave the invisible ceiling back up, the three of us started shrieking our battle cries into the dead of night.

"HRRRAAAAAAGH!"

"WHAT IS IT?! WHAT IIIIS IIIIT?!"

"HNNNNNGH!"

But the sky kept coming down. At a perfectly constant speed, without a single tremor of hesitation.

At last our backs bowed and our knees buckled — and the instant our palms met the ground—

Clap.Clap-clap.

Applause. From directly behind us.

One pair of hands. Then two. It kept multiplying, growing louder and louder, until it was pouring down like a violent squall.

With the cascading applause came stares — so vivid I could feel them on my skin, prickling hot between my shoulder blades.

But no matter how frantically I scanned our surroundings, no one was there. Invisible gazes stabbed into us, one jab after another, spectating every twist of our struggle.

"Wh-who's there?! Who is it?!"

"Please save us! SOMEBODY, PLEASE!"

"I know someone's out there!"

"Don't just watch — HELP US!"

In place of an answer, the applause only swelled. At first I thought I could count the hands. Then dozens, then hundreds of sounds layered over one another, until it was impossible to tell where any of it was coming from.

It felt as though, from the very beginning, every single seat in that grand auditorium had been full.

We had simply been the only ones who didn't know.

Tears and snot streaming down their faces, Bruno and Cobi begged.

"Please! Save us!"

"Please! Stop — make it stop, please!"

I tore my gaze around the area. We'd screamed this loud — at least one dormitory window should have banged open. Somebody, anybody, should have stuck their head out to snarl at us to keep it down.

But no one appeared.

CLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAP!!!

The grating ovation. And I think I understood, now, what the applause was saying.

Delight. Awe. Jubilation.

The flailing of the three of us was being demoted, moment by moment, into their evening's entertainment.

"Don't look at us—!"

A revolting, nauseating sensation — our deaths being transmuted, right before my eyes, into their inspiration.

"You bastards! Eyes OFF us!"

CLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAP!!!

The ovation had grown so thunderous it drowned out even Bruno's and Cobi's voices. And in the end, whimpering like a kicked dog, I began to crawl on all fours — toward the direction that led out of the academy.

Seria!

Was she okay? While she waited for me, had she been dragged into something like this too — something neither of us could even begin to understand?

What if, right at this moment, she was waiting for me. Enduring something this terrifying all alone?

"Seria—!"

And then, at last, the ceiling finished its descent. The instant I was flattened face-down, my cheek pressed against the ground—

CLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAP!!!

—accompanied by a resplendent roar of applause—

"Seri—"

KRRRAAACK—!