That was it. That was the final exam I had prepared.
Fortunately, it ended in a great success. The cadets were each pouring out intense thoughts through the 【Script】.
Honestly, it was really hard. It cost a lot of money too. But thankfully, Gray managed to create a 900-point difference, so I at least got my money’s worth out of the potion cost.
In any case, from here on, it was out of my hands. I had barely slept during this period, so now that it was over, I planned to return to the mansion and finally get a deep rest.
With that in mind, I gave a light nod to the professors who had worked with me, and was just about to turn away—
When I suddenly felt a strange sensation. Something came down from the sky and touched the crown of my head. A very soft and warm sensation.
At first, I thought it was the effect of the [Illusion] I had cast. After all, I had infused the light of the illusion with a sense of comfort and peace.
But it wasn’t that. The sensation was on a completely different level, different in quality.
For a moment, it felt like I was in my mother’s embrace.
Not my mother... but rather, the concept of a “mother” itself—something one could be embraced by in peace, as an energy or presence—it had touched me.
I felt the strangeness and looked up at the sky.
And I saw something astonishing.
The thread of energy that touched my /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ head extended up, up into the heavens—and was connected to one of the stars shining in the night sky.
I got chills.
<「Star of Peace☮」 gazes down at you with warm eyes.>
The star was responding to me. Normally, this event wasn’t supposed to occur until Chapter 4 or 5 of the story.
But I was still only in the transition between Chapters 1 and 2. And yet, the star was looking at me.
<「Star of Peace☮」 is pleased with your footprint and wishes to bestow two gifts.>
┃ Gift [Star of Peace☮]
┃ Reward: Star Shards × 100
No way.
I marveled inwardly. A full 100 star shards at once?
Truly, the rewards given directly by the stars were of a different caliber.
<Additionally, 「Star of Peace☮」 shall, from this moment, bestow the [Stigma] of 『Great Restoration』 upon all places where the bell’s sound reaches for three days.>
A stigma!
This was an even greater gift than the previous one, because 「Star of Peace☮」 was a being that rarely shared its power or blessings, known for its hatred of humanity.
But the [Stigma]—it could purify poison with plain water, slay tigers with mere straw, create humans from clay... divine authority itself.
If it was 『Great Restoration』 from the 「Star of Peace☮」, then the healing effects would be overwhelming.
<「Star of Peace☮」 likes you.>
<「Star of Peace☮」 gives you a kiss.>
The next moment, something soft touched my cheek.
<「Star of Peace☮」: ㅇ3ㅇ ㅇ3ㅇ ㅇ3ㅇ >
Startled, I turned my head.
Whatever touched my cheek had also brushed against my lips.
<「Star of Peace☮」: ㅇㅁㅇ! ㅇㅁㅇ!? ㅇㅁㅇ? >
Ah, sorry.
***
“Professor Dante! What is this!?”
The first one to detect the [Stigma] was Chief Professor Galois. He blinked next to me using 『Blink』, shouting in an excited voice, unable to hold back.
“What is going on here!?”
“It’s a stigma. From the 「Star of Peace☮」.”
“What? The 「Star of Peace☮」 gave a stigma? Ah, no, seriously... That foul-tempered human-hating bastard gave a [Stigma] here?!”
You might want to watch your mouth.
It’s still right next to me.
<「Star of Peace☮」: ㅇㅁㅇ,, ㅡㅅㅡ?? -ㅅ-? >
Yep. It’s starting to get mad.
The Star of Peace always moved in threes. Each represented inner peace, relational peace, and world peace. The three had to be together for peace to exist.
Ironically, despite being called the Star of Peace, it was also one of the most easily angered of all the stars.
<「Star of Peace☮」: └(ㅠД└(｀ﾟДﾟ´)┘*-Д-)┘ >
Look at that.
Even now, it’s stewing in emotional gradient on its own. Like, “I was trying to be nice and you insult me to my face? Now that I think about it, that pisses me off.”
This won’t do.
If I leave it alone, it might take the [Stigma] back.
“...Chief. I’m really sorry, but now that I’ve received the [Stigma], I can’t agree with that.”
“What?”
“I believe the 「Star of Peace☮」 is a benevolent star. It’s just that humans happen to be the ones constantly shattering peace.”
Might as well score some points here.
I subtly gestured toward the sky with my eyes.
【Chief Professor Galois: ‘Hmm...?’】
【Chief Professor Galois: ‘Ah!’】
【Chief Professor Galois: ‘It’s still here, huh.’】
Professor Galois, quick on the uptake, gave a small nod.
“Hmm... Now that you mention it, you’re right. Shattering peace has been a chronic issue for humans since prehistoric times.”
“Exactly.”
“Actually, I hate humans too!”
“Excuse me?”
“I’ve hated them since ancient times! Monsters that destroy the world in the name of progress! No other creature on this earth is as base as humans! We should grind them all into meat paste on a steel plate!”
“Chief, that’s a bit...”
“Silence!! If you’re human too, then you should live with eternal guilt! Humans are garbageee—!!”
A sudden outpouring of anti-human rhetoric.
Ah...
That’s our Galois.
The monster of elite social maneuvering who overcame a plagiarism scandal through sheer charisma!
I admired him purely, from the bottom of my heart.
How did it go over?
<「Star of Peace☮」: ㅇㅂㅇ,, ㅇㅂㅇ,,,♥ ㅇㅂㅇ,, >
Fantastic!
Couldn’t be better!
“But, all that aside—why did the star suddenly appear here... could it be because of that?”
“Yes. That seems to be the case.”
Galois and I both lifted our heads to look at the Christmas tree.
“The stigma... it’s 『Great Restoration』, huh...”
“It seems to apply to everywhere the bell’s sound reaches.”
“How far can it be heard? The sound isn’t that loud from here. Did you install a [Distance Equalization] circuit?”
“Yes. It will echo softly across the entire academy. No matter how far.”
He turned his head, following my gaze.
And so, we looked.
DONG ─
The bell’s sound was still reaching—
DONG ─
Toward the far-off District 0 and District 2—
DONG ─
***
The bell rings.
DONG ─
Above the heads of Elize and Gray, who had just finished their exam.
DONG ─
To Rebecca, who was smoking a cigarette alone in the corner of the academic building.
DONG ─
To Balmung’s ears, crouched on a snowy mountain ridge.
DONG ─
To Kaiser, sitting blankly in front of a dead friend’s grave.
DONG ─
To Kendreik, who was throwing a tantrum about needing to go out and got locked up in the Disciplinary Bureau prison in District 0.
DONG ─
And inside the cave, clutching her wounds in sleep.
To Eve, who alone could neither see nor hear anything.
“......?”
Eve opened her eyes wide and stood up. Then she went outside and heard the bell.
It was the first time she’d ever heard it, and yet it felt so familiar and comforting.
Eve looked down at her white arm. As the wounds healed as if washed away, one certainty rose in her heart.
“.......”
‘The human’ is alive.
***
It was a dark room. Chief Professor Batalion lay in bed, holding a warm, beautiful body in his arms. He indulged in the cloudlike softness of her hair.
“This is so nice. Gloomy.”
“.......”
It was an affair. He had a wife, and so did Gloomy have a husband, but that meant nothing. After leading a national betrayal together, it wasn’t strange for them to develop physical intimacy.
Low-class martial artists age quickly. It was common for veteran rankers to abandon their families and fall for each other. Even here, both had aged decades but still had the bodies of people in their mid-thirties.
Then Batalion suddenly thought of a teasing question.
“Are you the ‘real’ one?”
He thought he was being funny.
He had no idea how irritating that joke was to those who specialized in [Illusion].
“.......”
Gloomy sat up in bed and put a cigarette in her mouth. Her mood had suddenly gone cold.
“What? You’re smoking alone? Gimme a drag.”
“.......”
“You’re not mad, are you?”
“.......”
Annoyed, she tossed the cigarette at him. Then she gazed blankly out the window.
“......?”
Gloomy saw something strange.
“What the hell is that...?”
“Huh? Did you just curse at me?”
Gloomy’s face twisted in disgust.
“Come here. Don’t talk nonsense.”
“...What?”
“I said come here! Now!”
A voice filled with anger—for the first time. Batalion felt humiliated but moved to stand beside her.
And in the 『Mirage』 she’d spread out, he saw something strange at Hiaka Academy.
“Huh? What the fuck is that......?”
Something that absolutely should not exist at Hiaka.
***
After the tree had bloomed, many things flipped in an instant. Humans knew it. Animals sensed it. Even enemies noticed. And so did a certain spirit.
│▽ㅇ)
It was the spirit of 「Peeking Star│ㅅㅇ)」—a creature that delighted in observing people who were devastated or drowned in sorrow.
│▽ㅇ) ....
For nearly a month, it had been making the rounds at its favorite spots, but something about this mood had turned foul. That damn Christmas tree.
DONG ─
The soft bell echoed through people. It was an illusion spell, yet it wasn’t uncanny, or loud, or fearsome... it was purely a sublime sound.
And the spirit hated things like sublimity and peace.
│▽ㅇ)
│ㅁㅇ)
│_ㅇ)
This was bad.
The spirit decided to head somewhere else—specifically, one of its favorite and more “unique” haunts. A child who rarely cried. It had saved that one for later, always wanting to make them cry with its own hands someday.
Not crying in the middle of collective misery? That was promise.
The spirit could only make light interference. So while other targets were starting to calm down, it wanted to savor this one just a bit longer.
And yet.
That stupid 「Star of Peace☮」 had done something pointless again.
“Ugh... what’s that bell...?”
The child’s father regained consciousness.
“Y-You!!”
“Huh!?”
The wife he’d been fighting with and her younger brother ran to greet him in a panic. And then they hugged each other tightly and started crying.
The child was there too.
The one who hadn’t cried.
Clinging to the father who had awakened and unsure what to do, the child eventually watched him fall asleep again, and then bolted outside. To the snow-covered ruins of the street.
The child laughed brightly while running for a long time, then stopped.
From beyond the alley, they saw the towering Christmas tree in the distance.
The child sat down in a daze. Then, bringing their hands together, they began crying, muttering things like “thank you,” and whatever else.
The spirit found it strange.
│_ㅇ)a Why are you crying?
It wanted crying. Wished for crying. Desperately waited for it—and yet at that time, the kid didn’t even pretend to cry. And now? Now that things were all good and the dad had woken up and things ended well, now the kid was crying?
And worse—now that the tears had come, they weren’t even fun anymore?
The spirit thought deeply and finally understood. There was one emotion among all of human emotions that it hated the most, that it found the least entertaining.
And that emotion was now plastered across every face in Hiaka Academy.
And on that child’s face too.
Hope.
│_ㅇ)
│ㅇ)
│)
│