Ludger clenched his teeth against the sudden ringing in his ears and the splitting headache.
‘Damn it.’
In the middle of the chaos, he checked above his head, but there was no trace of the door having opened.
And yet, the fact that a voice was heard meant that the beings beyond it had reacted violently to something.
‘The one nailed into that Stake.’
The being impaled in the Stake was also rolling its eyes toward Ludger.
The space that had merely reproduced the scenery of a dream had, in this instant, become directly linked with the true depths of Dreamland.
Rumble.
The colossal Stake trembled.
When the thing nailed within tried to move, all of Dreamland shook as if an earthquake had struck.
Ludger calmly channeled his mana.
Thanks to the seal not having been broken, the headache quickly subsided.
The piercing ringing in his ears also receded like the ebbing tide.
Perhaps because the sound was fading, even the thing that had been rolling its eyeballs began slowly closing its eyes.
Even so, the aftershock was by no means small.
It had only moved slightly, yet the entire Dreamland trembled.
This was something that had never happened before.
“What, what in the world is happening...?”
Even Clara Cowen could not conceal her bewilderment at experiencing something like this for the first time.
Her unbelieving gaze turned toward Ludger.
Still frowning as if his head ached, Ludger stared fixedly at the being nailed to the Stake.
From his actions and his eyes, one could not help but feel that such a being was not unfamiliar to him.
He had thought it was not an ordinary magician.
And since it had attempted to explore the depths of Dreamland, he had suspected there might be some connection.
Child. Just what are you?
“...Let us return for now.”
Clara spoke so, suppressing the doubts welling up inside her.
* * *
The inside of the room shifted back to the starlight of the night sky.
“Go on out. I must return into the dream once more.”
“The way to reach the depths...”
“Do not be impatient. I shall send someone before long. For now, confirming the abnormality that has occurred in Dreamland is the priority, so I hope you understand my position.”
“...I understand.”
“It has been a long time since I’ve fallen into a deep sleep.”
Clara said this and curled her body once more.
Her body floated gently upward, drifting like a jellyfish submerged in water, just as when they had first met.
Ludger watched her for a moment before stepping outside.
Zantman and Julia, who had been waiting, turned to him.
“What happened inside?”
“The mages of our school who had been sleeping outside all woke up in a commotion.”
“They all woke up?”
Ludger responded with doubt to Julia’s words.
“Some of the senior Dreamwalkers who had been in deep sleep, they all woke in shock. I heard they felt a massive tremor from the very depths of Dreamland.”
“...”
So then, it had not been a mere illusion?
Ludger forced his expression under control and made an excuse that he did not really know.
What he had just seen was not something he could speak of to anyone.
And even if he did, it was doubtful anyone would believe it.
‘Even I have no idea what this was, so what use would it be to tell anyone else?’
Ludger let out a sigh.
He had come to learn something about Dreamland, but instead it felt like he had picked up an unnecessary burden.
“What did the Master say?”
Julia asked Ludger.
By Master, she meant Clara, the head of the school.
“She said she would be sending someone soon to handle going to the depths.”
“Well, that makes sense. It’d be lacking to send someone right away without proper preparation.”
“Is there anything needed to go?”
“You know how the deep-sea explorers wear diving suits to go underwater? Dreamland is the same. Skilled Dreamwalkers can just walk into the upper middle layer, but if you want to go deeper, you need thorough preparation. Since you don’t have the experience, you’ll obviously need even more ready.”
“I could provide money, at least.”
“If the Master said she’ll send people, then you can consider all the preparation to be handled on this side. You probably won’t have much to do.”
“I see.”
“Still, it’s strange. Even if the Master is kind, in matters like this she’s always thorough.”
Julia let it pass without much thought, but her observation was actually correct.
Clara had, after all, struck her own sort of deal with Ludger.
‘In the end, to reach the depths, I can only wait.’
Since something was clearly wrong in all of Dreamland, it was the obvious course.
It also required time.
For someone who was not a Dreamwalker to enter the depths, preparations had to be even more meticulous.
But what gnawed at Ludger the most was that being in the depths.
The monster nailed into the Stake.
No.
That was not some monster.
It was certainly not a demon.
Rather, it was something far stronger, transcendent.
An existence whose age and power could not even be measured.
Because he had heard much of the attention and voices of such beings, Ludger could recognize it.
‘That one nailed into the Stake.’
It was undoubtedly a god.
One of the gods worshiped by heretical sects—beings known to have all vanished or been exiled, save only for the Lord God Lumenis.
One of them was sealed now at the bottom of Dreamland.
* * *
Time slipped away like sand.
For the students, the happiest of vacations had at last come to an end.
Some with satisfaction.
Others with regret.
Thus Seorn entered its second semester.
“It’s been a while, everyone! How have you been?”
“Wow. Where did you go during break? Your skin’s all tanned.”
“I did some traveling. A southern island.”
“Jealous. I just spent my time at home buried in magic research.”
Students meeting again in the classroom blossomed with chatter.
They were curious what each had done during break, or bragged proudly about their own activities.
Laughter and conversation bloomed everywhere.
Clatter.
That noisy scene paused for a moment when a new arrival entered.
“Hey, isn’t that... Aidan?”
“Aidan, really?”
Flesh-colored hair, glasses, a kind impression.
Before the break, Aidan had been exactly that kind of student.
But the Aidan who entered now—how should one put it?
“Doesn’t he seem sturdier?”
“His clothes look tighter somehow.”
“He even feels kind of wild now.”
Whatever had happened to Aidan during the break, his image had changed considerably.
He had already been known as the strong-bodied fool.
But now his shoulders were broader, and he looked more grown.
Even the gentle eyes behind his glasses had taken on a keener sharpness.
There was something unfamiliar about him.
Even so, some of the female students could not stop sneaking glances his way.
Because Aidan’s changed appearance had made him far more attractive as a man.
Nor was it only Aidan who had changed.
The others who entered with him too.
Leo, Taishy Friad, and Iona Obelli.
The group of four who were often together were clearly different from before the break.
Outwardly, Aidan showed the most striking transformation.
But the others—how to put it? Their aura, their presence, their pressure was entirely different.
As if chrysalises had shed their shells and emerged as butterflies.
Aidan’s group had become stronger, more mature.
They seemed like people who had undergone grueling training deep in some remote mountain.
“These stares are kind of sharp.”
Aidan sat down with an awkward smile.
Though his outward appearance had grown sturdier than before, that familiar, loose grin remained the same, and the subtle stares of the other students felt quite burdensome.
In the past he might not even have noticed such looks—perhaps his sharpened senses made him more aware now.
It felt as though a small inconvenience had been added to everyday life.
“Well, maybe you’re not unrecognizable, but you’ve definitely changed a lot.”
“Really? I mean, yeah, my clothes do feel a bit tight. What about you, Leo? Did you get bigger too?”
“...Are you picking a fight with me right now?”
Leo snapped irritably.
Aidan, still not done with his growth spurt, had grown a little taller over the break. Leo, however, had not.
He was still small in stature, delicate in frame.
The only change was that the light in his eyes had sunk into something deeper, heavier.
Proof that, as a magician, he had crossed another threshold.
The same was true for Taishy and Iona.
“Well, considering what happened during the break, it’s no wonder.”
Aidan chuckled, recalling those days.
Invited by Iona, they had visited the Beastkin Tribal Union and met with the tribal chief.
But the timing was unfortunate—missing persons cases had begun nearby, and tensions with humans were at their peak.
How much hardship they had gone through after being caught up in all of it.
“Seriously. That was chaos, real chaos.”
Even now, Taishy collapsed onto her desk, looking exhausted at the memory.
Her red hair held even stronger magical power now, dyed a deeper crimson.
Where the light touched, a faint vermilion glow shimmered.
It was the intensified mana bleeding out into her hair.
“Missing persons, Outsider raids...”
Just remembering that first day’s events at the Beastkin Union still sent a chill down the spine.
They had ridden a train through the frontier wilderness.
The frontier was so vast that ordinary carriages or wagons could not cross it.
Stations had been built here and there, with trains running between them, and of course, the incident had struck on their very first day.
The Outsiders’ raid.
Beastkin in ponchos and wide-brimmed hats, mounted on horseback and armed with long rifles, attacked the train.
“When they threw dynamite to blow up the tracks, I really thought it was all over.”
“Lucky we barely stopped it. Otherwise, we’d all be dead.”
After driving back the Outsiders and finally reaching the Union, Iona’s father, the Great Chieftain, would not even meet them.
The surrounding beastkin regarded humans with suspicion.
If not for Iona being with them, it would not have been strange for a disaster to erupt right there.
Then came news of the missing people, and as they moved among different tribes, they discovered a suspicious group.
Following them in secret, they stumbled on a hidden laboratory—only to be discovered and nearly killed.
Especially that strange golem made of liquid, impervious to magic—what in the world was that thing?
If not for Sir Iron Mask Roteron, a 6th-Circle mage, appearing then, someone surely would have died.
“Now that I think about it, we were really lucky to make it back alive.”
They had encountered Roteron, and also a masked pair whose identities were unknown.
One was a hulking giant of a man, the other a tiny child.
Not enemies, but not allies either.
Still, when they had to deal with the mad scientist conducting human experiments in that laboratory, they fought side by side.
And those two were formidable.
Especially the giant—each time his fists or feet lashed out, the very air exploded, and everything shattered.
The realization that such destruction was wrought by sheer physical strength alone had been staggering.
Then the experimental subjects went berserk, the insane scientist fled, and in the midst of it all, Outsiders interfered again.
“Leo, you almost died back then too.”
“...Tch.”
Leo mumbled at Taishy’s pointed remark.
Indeed, Leo had been gravely wounded trying to protect Iona.
Only thanks to the renowned shaman of the Union, who used the power of a Spirit to heal him, had he survived—otherwise, he would truly have died.
A mischievous smile crept across Taishy’s lips.
“So, when’s the wedding?”
“...!”
Leo’s shoulders flinched, his face flushing bright red.
Iona, in contrast, remained expressionless, but her amber eyes never left him.
During the break, the relationship between the two had advanced considerably.
The decisive moment had been Leo throwing himself in harm’s way to save her.
Even Iona’s father, the Great Chieftain, acknowledged Leo’s spirit and granted permission for him to be bound with his daughter.
“...That’s none of your business. Maybe you should try being more honest yourself.”
Leo shot back pointedly.
At those words, Taishy’s smile froze.
While Leo and Iona had grown closer, Taishy had made no progress at all with Aidan.
Worse, Aidan had become stronger while living among the beastkin, exploring the wilds, and training.
Beastkin women had aggressively courted him, and Taishy had been busy fending them off.
Leo had watched the whole ordeal from the sidelines.
“That idiot will never know unless you spell it out.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
When Aidan asked, curious, Leo brushed it off with a vague excuse.
Just look at that innocent face.
The fool had even thought the beastkin women who approached him only wanted to be “friends,” and had happily agreed to them all.
The real problem was that his idiotic answers had actually worked.
The beastkin had a culture where polygamy was permitted.
—You’re so manly! Live with me!
—Sure! Sounds good! Let’s get along!
—Ohh! Such a spirited answer!
They were actually impressed by Aidan’s boldness(?).
“A human with such an open mind! He suits our beastkin warriors well!”
Even beastkin warriors who had disliked Aidan had widened their eyes at his hearty replies, nodding in reluctant admiration—it had been a spectacle.
That, and the fact that Aidan had played a decisive role in saving the beastkin tribe, only added to his reputation.
The effort it took to persuade and stop them had left everyone drenched in sweat.
Even Iona had let out a disbelieving laugh when she recalled the moment.
“Man, that was long.”
“Yeah. Really long.”
If the story of their break were written out, it would have been an epic in volumes.
Conflict between humans and beastkin, secret organizations, mysterious allies.
Released as a book, it would have filled an entire series.
“And so, here we are again, second semester.”
“Well, not bad. I kind of wanted to be back in class anyway.”
“That’s just you, idiot. Thinking of assignments starting up again already gives me a headache.”
At that moment, the front door slid open.
The chattering students all fell silent.
Step. Step.
With the sound of shoes striking the floor, the man who took his place at the lectern had not changed at all since before the break.
Still noble.
Still intense.
Just standing there, his presence overwhelmed the entire classroom.
For a moment, everyone in the room shared the same thought.
It felt as though they had returned to that very first day, when they had just entered Seorn and attended this lecture for the first time.
“Let us begin the lesson.”
Uh, professor.
Class from the very first day of the semester?