┃ Task Complete: [Lecture]
┃ Reward: Star Fragment × 1
┃ Task Complete: [Pop Quiz]
┃ Reward: Star Fragment × 1
┃ Task Complete: [Supplemental Lecture]
┃ Reward: Star Fragment × 1
< Star Fragments Owned: 17 >
⋮
One. One. One...
It was like droplets in a desert—just enough to tease you, like a mirage to a dying mouse crawling across the sand.
At this rate, how the hell was I supposed to gather the 800 to 1,000 fragments needed to learn a new Lv.9 ability?
‘To survive, I have to gather Star Fragments. No exceptions...’
Right now, I wasn’t in a position to conduct research or publish papers.
I could write something on [Illusion Arts], but that would draw attention—and exposure would risk revealing the [Forbidden Technique].
‘It’s a matter of being too good.’
My current [Illusion] ability was... overwhelming.
Just how strong?
Let me explain it properly for once.
This world operates on a martial tier system.
Every month, a system star called 「SystemNet⧉」 updates the rankings.
Here’s how it breaks down:
── Tier 3 ──
Iron – Bronze – Silver – Gold
──────────────
These are your average martial artists.
Even Gold ranks are in the top 20%, treated with decent respect pretty much everywhere.
── Tier 2 ──
Platinum – Emerald – Diamond
──────────────
From here on out, they’re high-caliber martial artists.
Top 10%, 4%, and 1% respectively. Not just respected—they’re considered core combat assets in most organizations.
Being a professor requires at least a Diamond rank.
‘I’m nowhere near that.’
In terms of overall combat capability, I was hovering around the [Platinum] threshold.
Now, let’s move on.
── Tier 1 ──
Master (9,999) – Grandmaster (999) – Challenger (200)
– Constellation (33)
──────────────
Now we’re talking rankings.
This is the dream. The kind of status every martial artist in the world covets.
Out of the 15 million martial artists across the continent, if you’re within the top 9,999, you’re treated like a damn celebrity.
Professors within this tier are called senior professors, and they’re in a whole different league from the rest.
For reference, professors fall into three ranks:
───
Professor – Senior Professor – Head Professor
───
If I had to guess, the Dormant Dragon Institute cadets are probably around [Diamond].
Maybe barely [Master] level.
Which is nuts, considering they’re only in their late teens to early twenties.
Anyway, the point is this:
My [Illusion] ability is, shockingly, at the [Challenger] tier.
And not just bottom-tier. We’re talking elite level.
Meaning, I’m probably ranked in the top 80 in the world.
In the entire Hiaka Kingdom? Top 1 or 2, easily.
That’s exactly why I can’t publish anything about [Illusion].
‘When there’s no safety net, the best policy is to lay low. If the world sees my level, they’ll come swarming.’
The moment the [Forbidden Technique] gets exposed, it’s a guaranteed bad ending.
So my only other viable option... is to build up [Relationship Points] with Dormant Dragon Institute.
But that’s not something I can rush either.
Assassination threats are still very much on the table.
****
The weather was cool that day.
I was in the lab, prepping materials for supplemental class as usual, when a broadcast announcement came on.
– All newly appointed neutral professors, please attend today’s senior professor forum at 5 PM.
A forum.
The usual excuse for senior professors to nag the juniors.
Normally, I wouldn’t bother showing up.
But then:
┃ New Event: [Neutral Professor Forum]
┃ Reward: Star Fragments × 5
Five?
Now that changed things.
“Adele. Postpone supplemental class to tomorrow.”
“Yessir~”
I cancelled the pre-scheduled lecture and got ready for the forum...
Only for it to be cancelled out of nowhere.
– We apologize. The senior professor is unable to attend. The forum has been cancelled.
┃ Event Cancelled: [Neutral Professor Forum]
And just like that, the quest reward was wiped out too.
“Ugh, again with this...”
Adele clicked her tongue.
“This happen often?”
“Oh yeah. Honestly, it’s like every other day. Neutral professors... no offense, but most of them are totally burned out.”
“......”
I already knew this from the setting.
Unlike those in Black or White factions, neutral professors were oddly passive.
Anyway, the forum was off, so I figured I’d just head home—but the weather was too nice.
Time for some fresh air.
‘Maybe I’ll hit the park.’
At the park, cadets were hanging out in little groups.
Throwing shuriken into trees, sprinting around with rifles strapped to their backs...
Kind of a bizarre scene, really.
But everyone seemed to be having fun.
So I used the chance to train some [Illusion].
Specifically, balloon conjuration.
Sounds dumb, right?
Blowing up balloons as “training”?
Thing is, making a balloon with illusion magic is easy. You can imagine one into existence with barely any effort.
But I wasn’t making any balloon.
I was working on a [Semi-Permanent Illusory Construct]—
Something that didn’t pop on contact, and mimicked real materials.
To actual specialists, this would be mind-blowing.
This was the kind of [Illusion] you could only pull off if you’d hit god-tier mastery.
‘I can’t create large constructs permanently yet... but for now, this’ll do.’
Done.
I summoned a single, taut balloon.
< Your understanding of Illusion Components has increased: 『Semi-Permanent Illusory Constructs』, 『Material Expansion』, 『Joint Mechanics』, 『Form Coordinate Fixation』, 『Fluid Dynamics』, 『Rubber Texture』... >
< 『World Forgery』 Mastery: 86.56% (▲0.01%) >
As I created more [Illusion] balloons, I let my mind drift.
Where was I right now?
→ Hiaka Kingdom
It was a middling developed nation—
In this world, something like Korea or Italy. Technically developed, but still had to care about how the neighbors looked at them.
→ Hiaka Academy
The equivalent of Seoul National University.
Royal-backed, prestigious, and elite. But these days, it's falling behind Tokyo U and Peking U.
‘What a frustratingly mediocre academy.’
Over the past few days as a professor, Rebecca’s words had kept circling in my head.
— I don’t trust the professors.
— Most of them are unmotivated. And honestly, they don’t even like us.
As seen with the canceled forum—the faculty here had no drive.
Especially among the neutral professors like me.
The passion for teaching cadets had long since faded.
There was no reason to feel invested.
Everyone was just here to collect salaries and research grants.
And since this was still the country’s only top academy, that complacency had rooted in deep.
That created a serious problem.
‘This background ties into one of the more difficult main story routes.’
Hiaka Academy, the game, was famous for its many branching paths.
And among them, one of the hardest main routes was this:
The academy’s reputation is in decline, a traitor has already sold confidential intel abroad, and things # Nоvеlight # start mid-freefall.
In that version, the player's goal was to turn public opinion around and achieve top results in spite of the disaster.
That was the fun of the route—or so the devs intended.
But for me?
Not fun. Just painful.
Because that meant the difficulty was sky-high.
Still, I couldn’t really blame the professors.
Even in the top-ranking academy, being stalked by assassins day and night?
Of course they’d start pulling back.
Just like now.
“Come out.”
Something in the air twitched in surprise.
Then, slowly, a figure began to materialize.
“Did I get caught?”
“You got caught.”
“Hehe~”
Light pink hair. Pink eyes.
A smile like a golden retriever’s.
A first-year cadet from Dormant Dragon Institute.
● Dormant Dragon Institute, Year 1 – Elize
We’d seen each other a few times in class lately.
She’d warmed up to me a bit.
Elize walked over, grinning brightly.
“What are you doing, Professor?”
“As you can see—blowing balloons.”
“Why balloons?”
“Because I wanted to. What about you?”
“Oh, I was just wandering around and ran into you. I like walking around.”
She smiled and sat right next to me on the bench.
Which reminded me of something Kaiser had messaged me once.
— Kaiser: In Dormant Dragon Institute, Elize is one of the top two strongest cadets.
She quietly watched me work on the balloons.
“...You planning to just stare at me like that?”
“Yep.”
“You really have nothing better to do?”
“Nope.”
I silently kept blowing up the balloon.
But now that I had a spectator, I felt like I needed to do something.
I twisted the long balloon up and handed her a dog.
“What’s this?”
“A dog.”
“A dog? Hm. That’s weird.”
Despite the critique, Elize clearly liked it.
Probably thought it looked fun.
“Can I have one too?”
So I conjured one through [Illusion] and gave it to her.
“Fufufbubub...”
She tried her best to blow it up, but it didn’t expand.
“Fububub... mm...”
I was trying to train quietly, but she kept going at it beside me.
I couldn’t not notice.
“Having trouble?”
“It’s hard.”
“Try sealing your lips around it better.”
“Like this? Mmmmf... mmmmhh...”
“No, too tight. You can’t get any air in like that.”
“Mm, then... ffububbfbb...”
“No, tighter.”
“Fuffhuhfbubuck—”
“Hey! Why are you biting it?! Why the hell are your teeth involved in this?!”
After a few minutes of this nonsense—
Her [Illusion] balloon ended up full of holes.
I shook my head.
“You’re really terrible at this.”
“Ehh? That’s mean.”
“What’s mean is your entire mouth.”
“Honestly, I think it’s not me—it’s just that balloon-blowing is hard.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Yes, it is.”
I exhaled once, blew it up perfectly in one breath, and showed her.
“This? This is hard for you?”
“Yeah.”
“What part of this is hard?”
“You’re a professor. That doesn’t count.”
I ignored her and twisted the balloon into a flower.
“There. A flower.”
“It’s ugly.”
“Still prettier than you.”
“You’re so mean!”
And so, we spent some time bickering like that.
But once I made her a sword, a butterfly, and a giraffe, Elize lit up with joy.
She waved them around like a little dog wagging its tail.
The girl gave off this warm, peaceful aura.
Of course, that was just the feeling.
For all I knew, she’d stabbed someone in the neck a couple days ago.
“Do you have anything else?”
“Something else?”
“Yeah. Something I’ve never seen before.”
So I forged a white balloon through [Illusion] and started shaping it.
Took a while—
It was something I hadn’t made before.
After watching me silently for a few minutes, Elize finally started chatting.
“Lately...”
“Yeah?”
“The professors...”
“Yeah?”
“They won’t spar with me anymore.”
“You’ve been winning, haven’t you?”
“Yup.”
“How many?”
“All of them.”
“Impressive.”
Apparently, she hadn’t just defeated regular professors—she’d beaten senior professors too.
She probably couldn’t match the head professors, but still... it was genius-level performance.
“Your family could’ve trained you in assassination. Why bother enrolling in the academy?”
Her father, “Silent Star of the Shadows,” was ranked 24th—the strongest assassin in the entire Hiaka Kingdom.
“Well... our family collapsed.”
“......”
<Sync> activated, and the data floated to the surface of my mind.
Right—Count Xykhos’s house had fallen. Why?
I fumbled for a follow-up.
“Even so, your father was a master of [Stealth]. You could still have trained under him.”
...Ah. That’s right.
“Silent Star of the Shadows” was missing.
Goddamn it. Why did I remember that just now?
“Huh? My dad went missing ages ago.”
“...My apologies.”
“It’s okay. Maybe he just... needed space. Felt suffocated.”
Elize smiled gently.
“My father was really good at hiding. That’s why I like to believe he’s just in the middle of an extended [Stealth] session. Watching over me from somewhere.”
“...I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Sometimes I accidentally bring up family stuff with Gray too.”
Another <Sync> triggered.
Gray—also from a prestigious Black Faction assassination family—had deep internal family issues of her own.
And just then, one of Rebecca’s lines finally hit me with full weight:
“When painting a still life, we turn the rotten side to face the wall.”
They were born into greatness. Carried legacy, bloodlines, raw talent.
But the rot underneath was spreading.
That was the true condition of Dormant Dragon Institute.
“Here.”
Finally done.
The white balloon I’d been shaping.
“What is it?”
“What do you think?”
Long, rounded on both ends.
Exactly what dogs love.
“A... bone?”
Correct.
The moment she recognized it, Elize’s pink eyes lit up with urgency.
“Gimme.”
She held out both hands.
Of course she liked it.
It wasn’t just personal preference—
it was inherited hunger, born from her bloodline.
But I still had some finishing touches to make, so I kept adjusting it.
She moved in to grab it.
“Elize. Wait.”
“Please.”
“I said wait. I’ll give it to you when it’s done.”
“Bone. Please. Now...”
It still wasn’t complete, so I pulled it away—
And she clung on, trying to take it from me.
“Wait.”
The command left my mouth reflexively.
Her body froze.
【 Dormant Dragon Institute Year 1 – Elize: ‘Wait...??’ 】
She blinked. Thought about it.
Would she obey?
Then—slowly—she let go and waited.
Sat perfectly still.
Tailor-made obedience.
...I wasn’t expecting that to actually work.
“Good girl.”
I handed it over, and her face lit up with joy.
“You like it, huh?”
“I love it. Hm...”
Seeing her so happy made it worth it.
Training [Illusion] was boring when done alone, but if every creation made someone this excited?
That made it fun.
And then, while hugging the balloon bone tightly, Elize said:
“You know, it’s kinda weird.”
“What is?”
“I’ve always liked bones. Even as a kid. I didn’t like how people threw them away after eating the meat.”
“......”
“Why do I like bones so much...?”
It was a fascinating question.
She probably didn’t know—
That the Xykhos family descended from an old bloodline of dog beastkin.
They’d lost their tails and ears over generations, but the blood ran thick. Instincts remained.
That’s why I’d made a bone in the first place.
The dog beastkin clans only obeyed those they recognized instinctively.
That’s why her ancient family had once served royalty so faithfully.
Which meant—
Her reaction to my command, “Wait,” wasn’t just politeness.
It was a subconscious act of recognition.
This phenomenon had a name: 「Authority Imprint」.
‘Lucky. Gaining the recognition of a Xykhos is no easy feat.’
Strong. Overwhelming. But drawn to you on a primal level.
Normally, you had to be a royal or a god-tier warrior to earn that loyalty.
I was probably just being mistaken for the latter.
“Can you make a few more?”
“No.”
“You’re mean...”
I was joking.
So I made her five more balloon bones.
“Boooones~♪”
Elize was thrilled.
⋮
┃ Relationship Up: Elize [5] (▲5)
┃ Reward: Star Fragments × 5