Chapter 316
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 316
Chapter Title: Lesson 62. Change - 1
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Ban Yu-won's group had returned to Union, but by then the incident was already over.
On the surface, nothing about Union seemed to have changed.
Despite such a massive event, everything was perfectly fine, with no signs of disruption whatsoever.
The academy buildings, the tower of course, and even the dimensional barrier that countless outsiders had breached.
"Yu-won!"
The moment Ban Yu-won stepped out of the spaceship—Lilith—that had landed at the station, someone let out a sharp cry and rushed toward him. It was, naturally, Yumina.
No matter how hard she tried to hide her emotions, she couldn't stop her face from twisting.
Seeing him make such a wrecked expression was enough for her to sense something was wrong.
"Yu-won, are you hurt? Tell your sister what happened. That damn bastard Xenon did something to you—"
"I-I'm fine, sis. I..."
He hesitated to say he was okay out loud.
Dokgo Yeon had sacrificed herself in his place, endlessly repeating that she was fine, and the memory weighed heavily on his heart.
"Professor."
Lucelle quietly gave her a hint, speaking to Yumina, who was the only one clinging to Ban Yu-won without noticing the others.
Only then did she check on the rest of the group and finally notice Dokgo Yeon's absence. Her jewel-like eyes widened even further.
"No way, it can't be..."
"It's... my fault."
Ban Yu-won suppressed the urge to shout as emotions threatened to overwhelm him and forced the words out, one grueling syllable at a time.
"I... wasn't wise enough. I was arrogant, complacent. She was someone I should never have let my guard down against. I wasn't prepared. I didn't even consider that I could die."
But Yeon—only she, from the very start—had gone into battle fully prepared to die.
The moment she faced Xenon as an enemy, she must have realized it.
Unless reinforcements arrived, someone there would have to throw away their life to kill him.
Knowing Ban Yu-won was on the other side of the scale, Dokgo Yeon had unhesitatingly offered herself up.
In his place, who had grown numb to danger after too easily overcoming the constellations. At the most pivotal moment.
At the perfect timing to exchange her life for Xenon's.
Without hesitation, she threw away her life and took his head.
It was a noble sacrifice that Ban Yu-won could never hope to imitate.
"Yu-won..."
"Sorry. But... I think I need to rest right now. There's a lot to tell you later. A whole lot."
He stumbled over his words but conveyed his intent, then pulled away from her embrace and staggered off.
Someone suddenly appeared from behind and grabbed him.
It was Lucelle.
"Lucelle, sorry, but I need to be alone right now..."
"No."
Lucelle spoke firmly and tugged his arm.
"You can't be alone right now, Master. You need to be with us."
"You..."
He swallowed back the harsh words that nearly escaped.
He knew all too well how she felt about him.
That's why he thought it would be better for her if he wasn't with her now.
But Lucelle didn't seem to agree. She embraced him with her ample chest and soothed him.
"Let's go to bed. I'll tuck you in. Sleep first, and we can talk when you wake up. I'll listen to everything."
"...Yeah."
The kidnapping was over in an instant.
Once Lucelle dragged Ban Yu-won off to her room, the rest could only stare blankly at their retreating figures.
"What... just happened?"
"Feels like we just got shown the gap in our levels. Kinda pisses me off..."
Shati muttered in a daze, while Mira stomped her feet in frustration.
Asha quietly murmured beside them.
"I wanted to comfort him too..."
Everyone there probably agreed with her.
Yumina, who had nodded along with Asha's words, noticed the students' stares and spoke up in a slightly raised voice, flustered.
"So, will you tell me what happened? Starting from when you first went to Fairytale."
The next day, Union Academy announced a temporary closure through the weekend.
It was the kind of thing unthinkable with finals approaching, but even if they'd handled the aftermath well, the incident itself had been too massive. The students needed time to compose themselves, and the instructors, associate professors, and professors needed time for cleanup.
Above all, the heirs of the Ten Great Families currently enrolled—Ullrike Prominence and Lucien Ortima—were both away dealing with some incident.
They needed time to wrap up their "family business" and return.
"Mm..."
Ban Yu-won awoke in the girls' dormitory, in the room Lucelle and Dokgo Yeon had shared.
He'd cried like a child in her arms all night, so now that he was awake and sane, he felt deeply embarrassed—but
"Sleep well?"
Facing Lucelle, who still held him close with a saintly, loving smile, even that shame flew away somewhere.
"Sorry, Lucelle. Yesterday, I was such a mess."
"No, not at all. It was a huge deal for everyone..."
"Thanks."
"It's my job to always be by your side, Master. But I'm glad I could help."
Lucelle hugged him tightly once more before letting him go.
Then she cautiously opened her mouth.
"Will you tell me? About Dokgo Yeon."
"But talking about Yeon—or any other woman—in front of you..."
"I want to hear it. So I can be even more lovable to you."
Ban Yu-won knew it was just words to comfort him.
But looking into her clear, unwavering eyes, he felt anew how much love she had for him—and what a blessing it was.
"Alright, then listen."
"As much as you want."
While Lucelle flirted sweetly with Ban Yu-won, and Asha sulked at him, in the gaps they didn't see—how he and Dokgo Yeon had interacted.
The gap between her spine-chilling strength and unexpected purity, how alluring it made her.
How her ever-cold expression came alive with dynamic changes in her eyes whenever her emotions shifted—
Listening to all this, Lucelle thought, 'Dokgo Yeon is totally a vixen,' but since she felt the splash damage herself, she decided not to dwell on it.
"So... Yeon stepping up in my place was probably."
As he spoke, he inevitably reached her final moments.
His voice trailed off, thick with moisture, and Lucelle hugged him again.
"It's okay. It's fine..."
"Yeon said that too. 'I'm fine'... But now I realize, when she said it then, it wasn't..."
She wasn't just brushing off her own condition.
She was comforting him, telling him it was okay, not to get hurt—worried he'd grieve recalling that moment later.
Tears welled up again.
But he felt much better.
Thanks to Dokgo Yeon and Lucelle soothing him together.
"Lucelle, thank you."
"You'll save her, right?"
He had already shared the truth about the constellations with everyone.
The shocking revelation that Babel Tower might just be an institution to create constellations, and that students entered Union Academy as pre-constellations, not gods.
But the pendant Ban Yu-won had obtained directly from battling the cultists' main body—its identity as a Student ID—was the surest proof.
He had plenty of thoughts on that, and much to hear from Yumina and Ceron—but that wasn't important now.
What mattered was that at Dokgo Yeon's final moment, the Student ID reacted to her, elevating her—on the brink of death—into something transcending humanity.
That she hadn't vanished, but remained as a constellation.
For now, that was enough.
"Of course I'll save her."
He didn't yet know how to revert a constellation to human, but that was no issue.
He had already restored the sealed constellation Ceron to human form.
After all, this was Ban Yu-won, who wielded all concepts freely and had one foot in creation itself.
As long as she existed in some form in this world, he would surely reclaim her and return her to her original self.
"So help me, Lucelle."
"I'll help. As much as you need. Anytime."
"Uh... well."
Suddenly, as he met her steadfast eyes, he recalled the last conversation between him and Dokgo Yeon.
When she confessed, he'd answered without hesitation that he loved her.
But he hadn't said it to Lucelle or Mira, with whom he'd shared deep bonds long before.
At the time, only Dokgo Yeon was in his eyes, but now he realized how unfair that was to them.
"Lucelle, uh... I lo—"
"No."
Just as Ban Yu-won tried his belated confession, Lucelle shook her head, as if preempting his words.
She pressed a finger to his lips to stop them, wearing a pout she'd never shown even while hearing about Dokgo Yeon.
"Not now."
"...Sorry. I messed up."
"It's fine. I know how you feel, Master. But I don't want words pushed out by guilt."
The gentle woman who had held and soothed him moments ago was gone, replaced by one who stabbed his solar plexus with curt precision.
She poked his chest with her finger for emphasis.
"Tell me later. Like... at night, in bed. Holding me tight, lovingly. I'd be thrilled."
"Got it."
He gave a wry smile and stroked her hair.
She didn't refuse.
In the Chancellor's office, a puppet appeared on the wide table and spoke to Yumina.
—Yes, he refused.
One arm detached, eyes bulging out, equipped with prosthetics—a puppet in utter ruin.
Just a puppet, but the Chancellor always manifested his mental or physical state through them... so he was probably quite fatigued and exhausted right now.
Why wouldn't he be?
He'd exterminated a pirate group that had grown over thousands of years, escaped the tower, and recaptured all the rampaging constellations.
Yet Yumina, facing the puppet now, found him utterly repulsive.
"Have you forgotten what it means to be human, sir? That child won't come running just because you call."
—That's the spirit a successor should have.
The puppet tapped the long staff in its hand on the table.
Dozens of holograms flickered across the vast desk, illuminating every corner of Union Academy.
—The academy repairs seem mostly done.
"The exterior, yes—since you already fixed it all, sir. ...But you'll need to restock the materials from the warehouse."
—Now you must help with that too. You're Vice Chancellor.
Yumina sighed involuntarily at the puppet's words.
The Chancellor had been thrilled that she could wield holy light without being a constellation.
And with Xenon defying him, rampaging, and meeting his end at the students' hands, placing her in the vacant Vice Chancellor seat was perfectly natural.
But honestly, Yumina didn't want the position.
Taking responsibility at Union meant contributing to the Chancellor's order—and she couldn't bear how Ban Yu-won, sacrificed to that intent, would take it.
"I don't want it, really... I don't want Yu-won to hate me..."
—For the day that child becomes ruler, we have a duty to manage and advance the tower more perfectly.
"Would Yu-won want that?"
—His current mental state can't influence the fixed future.
No, I've known for centuries, but I really can't communicate with him.
With a quiet sigh, she pulled out her trump card.
"Yu-won probably already suspects. That you knew Xenon's schemes and let it happen. That's abetting, isn't it?"
—It's for his sake. It's time he learned how the tower operates—and time to end the childish games.
Yumina ground her teeth.
"Dokgo Yeon was my student too. Her life wasn't some trivial thing to sacrifice for someone's mental growth."
—It's not trivial. Constellations are necessary for the tower's maintenance. They exert influence across countless dimensions in the tower's stead, deepening ties between dimensions and the tower.
Every year at Union Academy, some fail to graduate and go missing.
Talented children who, had they just graduated, would have glorious futures.
The tower evaluates them, scores them, selects the fitting ones—and makes them its errand boys: constellations.
Constellations are transcendent, but not by their own ascension; they're forcibly seated by the tower's will.
To them, the tower is nothing but a prison.
The group they desperately formed to escape it—Exodus (Great Escape)—ultimately failed and was annihilated.
—They are sacred managers of dimensions, destined for glory when all becomes one. For a mere first-year to ascend there—though adaptation and training will be needed—is astonishing, magnificent, a blessing.
"...Sir, I really hate it."
You took even the Starlight Performer from me that way.
Holding her life hostage so I couldn't even resent you.
Forcing me to move as you wish.
—Ceron.
"Don't call me that."
It was the name her true family in that now-destroyed world had called her.
No one had used it since the Chancellor brought her to Union and named her Yumina.
It was an endearment allowed only to the Starlight Performer.
"I'm going. If you hurt Yu-won any more, I really won't forgive you. Really."
—I have no intent to hurt him. Merely to make him the universe's brightest being, the new ruler of the unified world—
—Thud.
Yumina shut the door, unable to stomach more of the Chancellor's nonsense.
The puppet left alone stared blankly for a moment, then one intact prosthetic leg popped off and rolled away.
—Fatigued.
—That child is mine.
Eyes.
Eyes glaring from everywhere, poised to devour the puppet.
The Chancellor snorted back.
—Omniscient Observer... How dare a mere servant covet its master.
—Deep down, you want it too.
—...Fatigued.
The Chancellor muttered again and severed the connection with the puppet.
All the eyes closed, and the Chancellor's office returned to peace.