Why is Professor Ludger coming out of there?
The students didn’t say it aloud, but they were all thinking the same thing.
The girl who had dragged Ludger over, Seridan, didn’t care about everyone’s stares. She patted her waist and plopped down on the spot.
“Aigo, I’m exhausted.”
For words spoken in such a cute voice, her tone carried the weight of many years.
Everyone stared at Seridan in disbelief.
Looking closely, she wasn’t just an ordinary girl.
The sharper-eyed students realized that Seridan wasn’t human at all—she was a dwarf.
So, to summarize the situation—
A dwarf girl was dragging around the deeply sleeping Ludger.
‘What the hell is this? A dream?’
‘No. This is a dream. But should I call this reality then?’
The situation was so absurd that the students even forgot the fact that they were trapped in a labyrinth they couldn’t escape.
The first to regain °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° composure and speak was Flora.
“Wait. You there.”
“Mm? Me?”
Seridan shamelessly asked back, leaving Flora momentarily speechless.
Not only had she naturally sat down among them, but those innocent eyes looked as if to say, Why are you even talking to me?
“......Yes, you. Just what are you? Why are you the one dragging our professor around?”
Flora’s voice carried force, as if to say that if Seridan tried anything funny, she wouldn’t let it slide.
The intent was clear: intimidation, to make her obedient.
But Seridan saw Flora’s posture and thought she looked more like a hedgehog bristling with spines than anything threatening.
On the outside Flora might look older, but Seridan was already a veteran who had gone through countless battles with Ludger.
Strong-willed Seridan would not be intimidated even if the opponent was Nirva himself.
‘Oh? Is she worried about Nari? Kid’s got heart.’
Seridan instantly understood why Flora was being wary.
“I don’t know. When I came to my senses, this guy was lying there. I didn’t feel right leaving him alone, so I was moving him.”
If she mentioned “Nari” or gave any hint she knew Ludger personally, it would only raise suspicions.
So Seridan feigned ignorance, acting like she was meeting him for the first time.
“Do you know him?”
“......Yes. He’s our professor.”
On the surface Seridan’s words sounded plausible enough, so Flora let her guard down a little.
Of course, she didn’t discard all suspicion.
Her eyes still glinted with the promise to punish Seridan if she tried anything.
But to Seridan, Flora’s hostility only looked adorable.
‘She’s so bad at being honest—it’s cute.’
If Flora had known Seridan’s thoughts, she would have blown her top.
“What happened to the professor?”
“I don’t know. He just kept sinking into sleep.”
“If we wake him......”
“I tried. He won’t get up. Looks like he’s caught in some kind of curse.”
She didn’t mention that the medium of that curse was the demon Nirva.
But Flora wasn’t so dull that she missed the implication.
If Ludger, who had gone ahead into the depths, had fallen to sleep, then it meant that the demon was the one who had cursed him.
Hearing the explanation, the students put their heads together.
Rather than doing nothing, it was better to figure out a way to wake Ludger up.
“If it’s a curse, maybe I should try?”
Aidan was the first to speak.
His anti-magic could cut through spells.
And curses were just another form of magic.
So if someone was cursed, anti-magic should be enough to dispel it.
Everyone nodded, and Aidan gripped his staff, stepping up beside Ludger.
Seeing his determined face, Flora asked hastily:
“Wait. How are you going to do it? By whacking him with your staff?”
“Well, I have to swing the sword form, right?”
“Is it really necessary to hit him?”
“No. I’ll keep some distance and swing without touching him.”
“R-right?”
“Yes. But if that doesn’t work, then I might have to actually strike him.”
“Eh?”
Aidan spoke purely out of concern for Ludger, but Flora couldn’t help thinking otherwise.
‘Is he pretending to worry about the professor while actually wanting to blow off steam?’
How many times had Ludger scolded Aidan in class?
Among eighty students, no one’s name had left Ludger’s lips as often as Aidan’s.
Aidan always smiled and brushed it off, but could there really be no bitterness at all?
“......You really won’t hit him, right?”
“Why would I hit the professor?”
Well......
The other students were clearly thinking the same thing Flora was.
“Here I go.”
Aidan gripped his staff in sword form, activated anti-magic, and swung it toward Ludger’s head.
Flora flinched without meaning to.
So did Leo and Taishy.
Is he gonna hit him? Is he really gonna?
Contrary to their anxious expectations, Aidan’s sword-staff missed Ludger’s head by a hair’s breadth, passing just over it.
“Ah!”
One student let out a disappointed groan and immediately earned glares from everyone. He bowed his head in shame.
“This is......”
Aidan’s expression darkened after using anti-magic.
“No good. This isn’t some normal curse. It’s something much stranger, and my anti-magic can’t cut it.”
He had realized it the moment he swung.
This curse wasn’t anything he could handle. It wasn’t ordinary magic or cursework—it was something of a completely different dimension.
“Then what do we do?”
“If it isn’t a normal curse, then maybe something else is involved?”
“There might be a trigger, right?”
Hearing the discussion, Erendir spoke up with a hesitant suggestion.
“Maybe...... a kiss would wake him up?”
“......”
“......”
The reaction was split right down the middle.
One side looked at her with cold eyes, as if to say, Your Highness, what on earth are you talking about?
The other side tilted their heads, half-convinced: Could be. Sounds plausible, kind of.
Flora too reacted to Erendir’s words.
“A kiss......”
Her gaze drifted to Ludger’s lips.
As he slept peacefully, he really did look like the prince from Sleeping Beauty.
‘If I did it, would he wake up?’
Even if he didn’t, wouldn’t it be...... okay to try?
Just as Flora sank into such thoughts, Sheryl nudged her arm.
“Flora? Flora. What are you thinking so hard about?”
“Hiyaak?!”
Flora’s spine stiffened so much that even her hair stood on end.
Even Sheryl, who had spoken to her, widened her eyes at the extreme overreaction.
Realizing what she’d been thinking, Flora’s face flushed bright red.
“Ah, sorry. Did I scare you too much? Your face is red—are you okay?”
“Y-yeah. It’s just, um. Feels kind of hot in here.”
“Hot? But it’s cool here. Flora, you’re acting weird, you know?”
“A-anyway! Waking up Professor Ludger comes first, got it?”
“Y-yeah.”
Sheryl was overwhelmed by Flora’s intensity and couldn’t bring herself to ask what she was curious about.
First, they needed to sort out the situation.
“Would he really wake up from a kiss? That’s just from fairy tales.”
“But we’re in a dream world, aren’t we? Wouldn’t something like that work better than normal logic?”
The students’ opinions were split evenly.
Some wondered, Does it really have to be a kiss? but no one dared to say it aloud in the heated atmosphere.
“In that case, I’ll try this time!”
Aidan shouted confidently as he stepped forward.
“You little bastard! Why are you stepping up? Wanna die?!”
Within a single second, Taishy had him restrained and dragged away.
“Excuse me.”
It was then that Iona, who had been silent until now, spoke up.
Because she was usually so quiet, everyone turned toward her with half curiosity and half surprise.
“Honestly, it doesn’t make sense that a kiss would wake him up.”
At that, the students who had been silently thinking That’s true, isn’t it? all widened their eyes.
She said it. She actually said it out loud!
But because it came from Iona, and her calm tone carried a strange persuasiveness, no one objected.
Instead, Iona presented a new idea.
“Wouldn’t it make more sense for Aidan to use his magic to split the wall so we can get out of this place first?”
It was a practical suggestion they could act on immediately. The students finally reconsidered their priorities.
It would be great if Ludger woke up, but since they had no way to wake him right now, escaping the labyrinth came first.
With Aidan’s anti-magic, there was no need to risk wandering through dangerous doors—they could break through the walls.
If they were lucky, they might even reunite with other survivors.
“Alright! Let’s give it a try then!”
Aidan spoke energetically and swung his sword-staff at the wall.
Once again, space split open, and a path revealed itself.
While everyone stared at the newly opened passage with hopeful eyes, Flora alone kept her gaze fixed on Ludger lying on the stretcher.
‘A kiss......’
The regretful thought just wouldn’t leave her mind.
* * *
“Hm?”
Nirva, who had been hunting survivors and absorbing their strength, suddenly turned his head at a strange sensation.
“Someone... put a hole in my prison?”
What was this now?
Even Zero Order shouldn’t have been able to move within this dream-prison he himself had created.
“A pesky little rat slipped in through the crack.”
Nirva’s face twisted.
Because of these humans, he had dared to touch the offerings meant for the Goddess herself.
How much self-loathing he had endured for that sacrilege.
Even now, while he was devouring survivors to restore his strength, Nirva faintly sensed that the more he fed, the more he was falling apart.
The more his body recovered, the more his mind deteriorated.
Still, for the sake of the Goddess’s resurrection, he was prepared to endure any humiliation.
But now, suddenly, a hole had opened in his prison, and the offerings were moving about freely.
“As much as I’d like to go there myself...”
The time wasn’t right.
If he went in this half-recovered state, there was a good chance he’d be the one defeated instead.
He hated to admit it, but humans of this era were strong.
“Soldiers. You’ll have to take my place.”
At his command, shriveled corpses twitched to life.
Armor of sand covered their bodies.
Clatter. Clatter.
The sand-wrapped soldiers rose like zombies, their eyes glowing yellow.
They were inferior versions of the [Somnium Terracotta] he had created when fighting Ludger, but for now, even these would have to do.
“Go. Kill them all.”
The dream-soldiers obeyed and marched out.
Having dispatched them, Nirva sought his next prey.
He needed to consume as many intruders as possible to regain strength.
Even after devouring many, his severed right arm still showed no sign of regeneration.
“Ssshh. Haa.”
Nirva steadied his breath and wrapped dream-sand around the stump.
The golden grains shaped themselves into an arm.
A sand prosthetic.
For now, he had no choice but to use this in place of a real arm.
His gaze shifted toward one of the doors hanging from the ceiling.
“Strong... and familiar energy.”
Inside that door, beyond the dream-constructed space, he sensed two presences.
One was a Dreamwalker’s. The other, a half-human, half-elf hybrid.
Nirva’s mouth split in a grin that tore to his ears.
Such delectable prey, so close by.
“Fortunate indeed.”
He didn’t hesitate.
“Open.”
Floating in the air, Nirva extended a finger toward the door. It slid open, connecting to the next space.
Normally, what lay beyond should have been an entirely different scene.
But as the creator and master of this prison, Nirva could skip such trivial steps.
Clunk.
Through the opened door, Sedina and Julia came into view.
They turned their heads at the sudden sound and froze pale at the sight of the golden light shining back at them.
“Nirva?!”
“Run!”
Instinct told them exactly who it was. Their only choice was immediate flight.
Rather than youthful recklessness, a cold judgment of the situation prevailed.
“Quick thinkers. But you dare try to run from me? And you think I’d allow it?”
Nirva stretched out his right hand—
The very hand Franz had severed, now replaced with sand.
The grains of sand spread wide and shot toward Sedina and Julia’s backs.
Julia glanced back as they fled, then shoved Sedina hard to the side, sending them both rolling across the floor.
The sand fist flew past and smashed a gaping hole straight through the prison wall.
Nirva clicked his tongue.
“Tch. I only meant to capture you, but it seems this clumsy prosthetic doesn’t allow fine control.”
He shook his head at the tunnel-sized hole in the wall, then raised the sand arm again to strike.
“This time, I won’t miss.”
Sedina and Julia were so shaken by the attack that they couldn’t even think of running.
As they squeezed their eyes shut, Nirva suddenly stiffened.
‘What?’
His gaze turned toward the massive hole he had just made.
From within the pitch-black darkness, where no light shone, came the low, rumbling growl of a beast.
Unconsciously, Nirva clenched his fist.
‘That...’
He could feel it instinctively.
Whatever lurked in that darkness was his perfect opposite—his natural enemy.