Chapter 276: I’ll Leave Little Shiya’s Future in Your Hands
Starfall University.
Gentle sunlight filtered through the lush treetops, scattering dappled shadows across the courtyard.
When Last stepped into the courtyard, he noticed that Dean Silver was already slumped over the tea table at its center, impatiently poking at the oversized screen of her senior model phone with her large tail.
Judging from the noisy audio playing from the device, it seemed to be one of those over-the-top melodramatic short dramas about a male protagonist who had been kicked out of a hero's party and was now living a laid-back life in a border town, complete with betrayal and cheap plot twists.
“Damn it! After enduring so many episodes of frustration, we finally get to the satisfying part where the Dragon King returns—and now you cut it off behind a paywall?!”
“This dumbass screenwriter is seriously trying to dangle a revenge arc like a carrot, treating the audience like racehorses to keep us running till the end of the damn show?”
“Does this low-IQ writer seriously think just by cutting the episode here, I’ll obediently pay up and become some kind of cash-cow pig, a pay-to-win consumer?”
While ranting, Dean Silver slammed the wooden table angrily with her paws, but at the same time, her furry tail still obediently reached out toward the recharge button.
Ding-ling—
With a crisp chime, a flicker of pain flashed through Dean Silver’s beastly pupils.
It felt like her grilled fish cake quota for next month just took a hit.
In the end, whether human or supernatural being, none could escape the universal law of “it really is that good.”
“Ahem.”
Last cleared his throat as he looked at the snow ferret glaring murderously at her big-screen phone, as if trying to reclaim the money she had just spent on her monthly subscription with the sheer intensity of her gaze.
“Oh, you're here.”
Dean Silver finally turned around, put her senior phone away into a sub-dimensional space, and gave a casual flick of her tail as a greeting.
“You’ve been out messing around for more than a month, and now you finally feel like coming back to the academy, huh?”
“So, how was the grand tour of the continent with your little childhood sweetheart? Must’ve been fun, seeing all those rivers and mountains. It’s been over a month—surely you two have done everything worth doing and not worth doing, right?”
“But knowing you and Little Ai, both of you are as emotionally dense as bricks… Don’t tell me you really just held hands, kissed a bit, and hugged from dawn to dusk the entire trip?”
Dean Silver blinked her ruby-like beast eyes. “No way, right? No way someone actually spent a whole month alone with their girlfriend and didn’t take things all the way?”
However, in the face of her teasing and exaggerated expressions, Last merely smiled faintly.
“Why don’t you guess, Dean Silver?”
“Hmm… huh?”
Dean Silver’s animated facial expressions froze for a moment.
She eyed Last suspiciously and circled around him, tail swaying.
“Wait… Did I guess wrong?”
“Don’t tell me… you two actually did take that step?”
“Why don’t you guess?”
“Damn, what the hell?! Even you’ve lost your V-card…?”
“So that means, among the eternal virgin mages, I’m the only one left now?”
Watching Dean Silver’s expression shift from mockery to suspicion, then to sheer disbelief—and finally on the verge of mental collapse—Last quickly coughed to interrupt the overthinking of this eternal bachelor—er, eternal bachelorette ferret.
“Right, Dean Silver, you haven’t said yet—why did you call me here this time?”
“Well, I do miss that prismatic food ticket of yours, but this time it’s not me looking for you.”
Dean Silver flicked her tail again, clearly still a bit salty about Last “betraying” their alliance of mages.
“It’s the old principal who wants to see you. He just got back from the Astral Realm and would like a meeting.”
The old principal of Starfall University?
Last was momentarily stunned.
He had long heard of the old principal’s name—in fact, he had received quite a bit of support thanks to him.
From being accepted into Starfall University, to receiving the academy’s assistance as a Night Traveler exploring the Nightworld, and even later, after his identity as a Shoreguard was exposed and his ties with the Gravekeepers severed… yet he was still able to sleep safely for over two years. All of that was thanks to this leader of the academy offering his protection.
Moreover, this old principal was apparently Akxia’s adoptive father. It was thanks to him that Akxia, a relic from the previous era, could enjoy a proper life in the new one.
That said… Last had never actually seen the principal with his own eyes before.
“By my estimate, that old man should be arriving right about… now.”
As if on cue, a faint ripple shimmered through the air.
The next moment, an elderly man with white hair and beard, leaning on a cane, emerged from the ripple and stepped into the courtyard.
“Oh look, speak of the devil.” Dean Silver lazily waved her tail.
“Relax, the old guy’s not bad—just talks way too much. Even the tiniest thing, and he’ll go on and on.”
“Dean Silver, even though you don’t teach classes directly, you are a listed professor at Starfall University…”
The elderly man gave Dean Silver a helpless look.
“As a figure of authority, you should carry yourself with some dignity in front of students. Using such crude language could negatively influence the academy’s atmosphere. I get a whole pile of complaint letters about your conduct every time I return from the Western Continent.”
“See that, Last? The old geezer’s already started nagging.”
Dean Silver raised her tiny paw and directly covered her ears. “Not listening, not listening, turtle reciting scriptures.”
While the man and ferret bickered back and forth, Last was also sizing up the elder.
If he had to describe the man with just one term, the first that popped into Last’s mind was—“Albus Dumbledore.”
A fitting image for a school headmaster, down to a T.
However…
Although the elder had clearly reined in his aura, Last could still detect some subtle and unusual energy flow in his every movement.
“As I thought…”
“You’ve also broken through the bottleneck of the Legendary realm and become a true Angel, haven’t you?”
“It was just a stroke of luck.”
The old principal replied gently, “Among the many Legends of the Western Continent, I was one of the more mediocre ones in terms of talent… I just happened to get lucky in my youth, receiving the favor of the Astral Realm and gaining the ability to travel freely between it and the sub-dimensional spaces of subspace.”
“Thanks to my affinity with the Astral Realm, my lifespan has stretched out longer than most, and I age far more slowly.”
"Even so, it still took me nearly a thousand years of my life to finally touch the threshold of Angelhood."
"And the final step in ascending to become an Angel consumed an unimaginably long time. I secluded myself in the dimensional rift of the Astral Realm for several years before only recently managing to break through."
"If not for that, the Gravekeepers and Cultists wouldn't have run so rampant across the Western Continent these past years."
"Compared to you, dear Shoreguard, who achieved Angelhood at such a young age, and Her Grace Emis, the Judgement Angel bearing the Judgement Holy Grail... my meager success, achieved only at the twilight of life, truly amounts to nothing."
"Principal, a title like that is too much for me and Xiao Ai to shoulder."
Last couldn’t help but speak, “Regardless of everything, I am still a member of Starfall University. Please just call me Student Last.”
"Also, Xiao Ai has always been rather curious about Starfall University."
"She came back with me this time intending to look for a chance to enroll here as well, to experience campus life alongside me."
"At that point, both of us will be your students."
“Seriously? Even the Judgement Angel is coming here?” Dean Silver perked up with interest. “Then I’m getting another premium food ticket, aren’t I?”
“Why do I get the feeling, Dean Silver, that you don’t actually need food tickets—you just have a collector’s obsession?” Last quipped casually.
But right after, he turned his gaze back to the old man before him, his tone growing slightly more serious.
"Also..." Last paused slightly. "To me, everything I experienced at Starfall University was a profoundly meaningful chapter of my life."
"I’m truly grateful to this academy, and even more grateful to you—who built today’s Starfall University from scratch—"
"If not for this academy, I would never have encountered Shiltina, Dean Silver, or Aksia..."
"Nor could I have reclaimed the sense of being human again, no longer living like a machine in Deep Blue Port, numb and hollow."
"But rather, as a living, breathing human, truly living in this world."
"Is that so..."
Hearing Last’s words, a smile naturally appeared on the deeply wrinkled and weathered face of the old principal.
"So this academy holds such special meaning to you."
"‘A sanctuary for homeless Night Travelers, a place to call home and live with dignity... to build a haven where people can smile from the heart’—that was the vow I made centuries ago when I first took office as the principal of Starfall University."
"Student Last, to hear such high praise from you about this academy—this, to me, is the highest form of recognition."
"In a sense, it even makes me happier than my own ascension to Angelhood."
The old man gazed at the university buildings nestled beneath the forest shade, pausing for a moment.
"To be honest, Student Last."
"The reason I wanted to see you this time... is because of Aksia."
"That little girl was someone I discovered by chance while exploring ruins in the Nether Abyss. To this era, Aksia is a complete outsider—she has no past, no connection to this world whatsoever... That’s why I took her in and made her a part of Starfall University."
"Because to her, there’s nowhere else she can belong."
"I know she harbors many secrets within her—related to the previous era, to becoming a Death God... But frankly, I don’t care about those—"
"It may sound a bit shameful, but I never married in my life, and to me, that little girl feels just like my own daughter."
"I don’t care about the secrets hidden within her—about the Death God’s Holy Grail, or the remnants of lost civilizations—so long as that girl can live happily in this world, grow up, and have a place to call her own, that alone is enough to bring me comfort."
With those words, the old principal once again turned his gaze to Last.
"You and Little Shiya—about the past you two shared in the previous era, I’ve heard the general story from her and Dean Silver. I also understand how deeply she feels for you."
"Student Last, to be honest, I was worried at first."
"After all, from what I could see, you never quite fit in with this world—be it your origins, your past, your inherited Nightblade, ‘The Fool’s Library’, or even your identity as a Shoreguard... all of it made you carry far too heavy a burden, preventing you from truly integrating into this era."
"For Aksia, to admire someone so distant and out of place in her world—such admiration might mean she would spend her whole life chasing after your shadow, never able to find her own happiness."
"But now, having seen you in person, I realize I was overthinking it."
The old man smiled slightly. "Perhaps, in the past, you did live in a higher dimension, not like a human, but like a machine."
"But at this moment—"
"There’s no doubt that you are living on the Western Continent, living in this very world."
"Given that, I can finally be at ease."
He looked at Last, and spoke gently.
"Student Last."
"I entrust Little Shiya’s future to you."
"Mm. I will take responsibility."
Last gave a small nod.
After receiving that response, a trace of comfort flashed in the old principal’s eyes.
"I believe in your promise."
"But next, although it may not count as thanks for accepting the responsibility of Little Shiya’s future... I believe I have some news you might be interested in."
"News I’d be interested in?" Last asked in mild surprise.
"That’s right."
"I heard from Dean Silver—about that last Shoreguard of the previous era, the one who opened the Nightworld: the Angel of Fate, Grey... She must have been important to you, right?"
Last’s pupils contracted slightly.
He truly hadn’t expected that this tea gathering called by Dean Silver would actually involve clues related to Grey.
"At the end of the previous era, the Angel of Fate Grey used her authority ‘Pray to Fate’ and made three wishes. The final one—"
"Was to liberate all the Historical Echoes recorded within the ‘Eternal Night Stele’ and to open the path to the ‘Nightworld’ for future generations."
"And as the price for making such a grand wish, in accordance with the principle of ‘Equivalent Exchange’, the Angel of Fate was stripped of her Angelic rank and authority, eternally exiled to drift alone in the deepest reaches of the Starry Sea."
The old man paused for a moment.
"I mentioned it before, didn’t I? Because of a youthful encounter, I’ve had an unusually strong affinity with the Astral Realm—"
"After achieving the Legendary Realm, I spent most of my time immersed within the Astral Realm."
"And because of that, by sheer chance, I once sensed something deep within the Astral Realm—a certain unique star domain."
"Just by getting close to that domain, my instincts screamed of extreme danger. So, I merely recorded its coordinates and immediately left without delving further."
"But looking back now, the abnormality in that star domain seemed somewhat similar to the laws of ‘Fate’."
"Thinking on it now, perhaps that domain is where the Angel of Fate Grey was exiled within the Starry Sea."
The old principal looked at the visibly serious Last, hesitated for a moment, then continued.
"However, based on my observations, there’s clearly some massive law-based restraint at the edge of that domain."
"If that root-level restraint isn’t undone, no living being can ever enter, nor can anything inside ever escape."
"And now that you know the Angel of Fate’s past—you should have some idea of what that law-bound restraint is, don’t you?"
"That final grand wish the Angel of Fate made... was to fall from the Throne, in exchange for the creation of the Nightworld—"
"Then naturally, to break that law-based restraint, the condition is also self-evident—"
"Only by truly clearing the Nightworld, bringing its very existence to a complete end..."
"Can the Angel of Fate be freed from the wish she once made."
"Only then... can she return from the deepest reaches of the Starry Sea... and once more return to reality."