Chapter 171: Afterstory 3
Chapter 171: Afterstory 3
The moment the incident was officially declared over, the Academy plunged into absolute chaos.
The cause was the bombshell Ellis had dropped.
"Water flows, and rain falls. And so I have no intention of letting the precious items I am to receive rot away in storage."
"Which means—"
Before a rigorously vetted assembly of journalists from every continent, Ellis declared she would broker the trade of the warehouse's contents, and the cameras exploded in a barrage of flashes.
An unspoken custom across the continents held that Constellations did not trade with one another, for a variety of reasons. But Ellis, a Water Priest, invoked the tenets of her doctrine and announced she would serve as an intermediary.
Constellations who had long maintained a dignified restraint now sent their Incarnations rushing to the Academy, eyes alight.
A Water Priest who had dealt with a Fallen Constellation. She preached the doctrine of peace and circulation, and no one dared scoff at it.
How could anyone made a Constellation by the Creator of this flat continent deny that divine name? Even Murim-in and tribal shamans, notorious for their archaic worldviews, could not reject the holy power that mended flesh.
'What is this, a goddamn marketplace?'
A Murim-in and a knight saluted each other on the parade ground, blades leveled. Packing the space around them were cadets in training gear. Even the instructors, who were supposed to be breaking this up, had eagerly mixed themselves into the crowd.
That was only the beginning. Outside the Magic Building, wizards and shamans waged magical duels. Look up, and witches on broomsticks and wizards on flying carpets raced overhead. Knights, martial artists, spellcasters, shamans, espers, and augmented humans all tangled together.
Sending Incarnations to compete and claim the desired items was less humiliating than bidding with money or points. And conveniently, Ellis and her fellow priests could serve as notaries.
Not to mention the cadets who had been livestreaming throughout the crisis. The dueling grounds now swarmed with streamers and reporters. The honor-obsessed sword-wielders had lost their collective minds. This marketplace farce was the result.
"Impregnable Wall's Incarnation, Namgung Hui, has defeated Vengeance Drama's Incarnation, Yerena!"
"I hear the Incarnations of Eternal Light and the Unfaltering Explorer are holding a cross-verification debate outside the west Magic Building?"
"Look over there! The Sword That Severs the Yoke's disciples are swarming in!"
Heavily armed Incarnations in martial robes and mecha suits now outnumbered the Academy cadets in their standard uniforms.
If none of this had anything to do with me, I would have happily spectated—but the problem was it had everything to do with me, and people kept mobbing me because of it.
"It's Lord Nightmare!"
"Oh! We behold Lord Lethargic Nightmare!"
The warehouse itself—the prize everyone was competing for—was full of the items I had accepted as payment for healing services. With the media and livestreams constantly covering my involvement, I had somehow been elevated into a saint-like figure who had emptied his entire personal fortune in the name of justice.
I am a man who would take tuna-mayo mixed into instant ramyun over lobster, who prefers a cold soda to a bottle of liquor worth over a million won—and now I was being praised for my selfless devotion to treating the wounded, for spurning all luxury.
Frankly, it made my skin crawl.
"Right. Don't get hurt in your sparring. Take care of yourselves."
"Thank you!"
"An honor!"
The knight and the Murim-in bowed their heads deeply, then tightened their grips on sword and hammer. The intensity of those glinting gazes was so overwhelming I caught myself using that gentle tone again without thinking.
I can curse up a storm in front of a few people I know, but dropping motherfucker in front of hundreds of strangers feels like a bit much.
Realizing people were about to swarm me with greetings, I immediately turned on my heel and headed for my Incarnations. No one rude and clueless enough to block a man trying to spend time with his Incarnations would have ever set foot in the Academy to begin with.
"Why is your lip poking out a mile again?"
Han Ye-ji had her lips jutting out like a duck.
"...There is nothing left for me to do."
The reason for that naturally sunny girl's pout was connected to the chaos consuming the Academy—literally, she had run out of things to do.
The Heart of the Exiled Serpent and her Incarnation. Until the Incarnation was captured, Ye-ji had a role: keeping watch over the prisoner as a keen-eyed sniper. That role had simply vanished in an instant.
"You really want work that badly?"
"Ha-rin and Hui both went off to work, and I am just hanging around, so I feel weird. Like that anxious feeling when summer break just will not end? It keeps nagging at me."
Namgung Hui, a physical fighter, had thrown herself straight into sparring, hunting for a sword and armor. Jeong Ah-rin, of the druidic bent, was lending her expertise to cataloging the warehouse's plant specimens. The issue was that a sniper like Han Ye-ji simply had no place in all this.
Body-fighting knights and Murim-in had priests to notarize their matches. Wizards and shamans could gather for cross-verification. But a sniper? What reason would another sniper have to watch her? The shooting simulation program was sitting right there. It was not a one-on-one duel format—just post your score, clean and simple.
"Still, a person has got to know how to relax. How long has it been, and you are already poking that lip out so far."
"But..."
Was it the habit from her time as a teenage head of household? She could not shake the mindset that she had to earn money for every scrap of work she did. All she did now was eat and patrol, a leisurely stroll at most—and yet her bank account was pulling in sums that would smack most office workers across the face.
"If you have got nothing to do, help me out."
"Yes!"
So I would just have to give her something.
※
A fair number of Incarnations had started personal livestreams. The points you earned from visibility were supposedly meager, but something was better than nothing. Constellations like me, who lavishly spoiled a handful of Incarnations, were rare. Most contracted dozens—sometimes hundreds—of them, so the Incarnations who earned their own points were the majority.
The prime example: the Incarnations of Beating Lionheart. The gym managers who had trained Kim Ha-eun. Hell, getting even a single gym like them was lucky. Plenty of Incarnations were handed one sword or one staff, thrown into the military ranks, and left to hunt monsters on the battlefield to scrape together points.
'No wonder the competition for Academy instructor posts is brutal.'
Geniuses or not, the underage Academy cadets with no real combat experience would find that terrifying. Go to a war zone, kill monsters, process the corpses, earn points. Or stay at the Academy, show off your abilities, and stream online. And if streaming did not suit you, you could quit anytime. Nothing ventured, nothing gained—plenty of cadets gave it a shot with just a smartphone.
"Are you... serious?"
"Of course."
So Han Ye-ji and I were walking together to lend a little assistance. One hand caught in mine, the other scrolling through streams. She was searching for cadets whose live broadcasts included the keyword "Academy."
The official purpose: a measure to aid Incarnations lacking point support. Taking the explanation at pure face value, Han Ye-ji had agreed to help an Academy junior as a senior.
'She really is dense sometimes.'
A man and woman of similar age walking arm in arm through the scenic parts of the Academy—this was something people had collectively agreed to call a date. Even in a gender-role-reversed world, that social pact held. And she had not noticed that, let alone the looks from everyone around us. Conveniently, walking with an Incarnation meant no one bothered me with greetings. Who would shove their way in to say hello to a man and woman locked arm-in-arm on a date?
"Ah, there is a girl working out in the training facility just past this building."
If I followed her orders—me, her Constellation—we could help an Academy junior. Brimming with an odd sense of duty, Han Ye-ji gave me a shy grin and showed me the screen.
[LIVE] Academy Gym Head-to-Head Comparison [LIVE]
A woman in a cropped top that nearly bared her underbust and knee-exposing four-inch leggings. In my old world, that would get tagged with every thirsty label imaginable, but here in the gender-reversed world, it was just a sensible gym-buff broadcast for staying cool.
Ye-ji had probably picked out a wholesome stream precisely because she was with me. Most of the other search results below it were men.
Hm. A guy working out in tight three-quarter shorts with his nipples showing? A spectacle I would rather not see, and sure as hell do not want my girls seeing either.
"Shall we head that way, then?"
It was a stream with only about a hundred and some viewers. A workout broadcast by a woman, not a man. And the content was not even sensational dueling or sparring—it was a wholesome comparison of the Academy's various fitness rooms. Building A has more treadmills, Building B is set up for bodyweight training—
What kind of person watched this stuff? Well, even in my past life, plenty of people sought out tiny streamers or obscure novels by unknown authors. With that thought, I held Han Ye-ji's hand and walked.
We arrived in front of the building. Just before she opened the door, she finally seemed to notice she had been walking hand-in-hand with me this whole time. Unable to quite bring herself to let go, she tucked away the phone she had been watching the stream on.
"Excuse us~"
Face now burning bright red, she stepped forward. Maybe because she, Jeong Ah-rin, and Namgung Hui had spent all their idle hours together working out—she navigated straight to the fitness room in a building she rarely visited.
"Ah! Oh—sorry, I am streaming right now, is that okay?"
The door opened, and a plump, toned apple of a backside addressed me. Specifically, a woman seated at a machine, hoisting her legs up, who had hurriedly spoken while her rear was aimed in my direction.
At her politeness, Han Ye-ji answered with a beaming smile.
"Yes! But, um, would it be all right if our Constellation appeared in your stream?"