Chapter 200 : Graduation
Chapter 200: Graduation
An ordinary yet busy daily life continued.
It wasn’t as though there were no hardships, but even so, everyday life was precious.
And just like that, two years passed.
Wol-ah became an elementary school student, and I was no longer active as the Devil Knight, but as a Hero in my own right.
I even gained a respectable alias.
Flame Emperor (炎帝).
It was a hundred times better than an embarrassing alias like Devil Knight.
I wasn’t the only one who gained an alias.
Park Siwoo received the title Spear Saint (槍聖), Helena became Dragon Princess (龍姬), and Dan Chun-woo became Sword Master (劍豪).
That wasn’t the only surprising news.
Over the past two years, Yoo Yi-seo sought instruction from the Top-ranking Heroes she had connections with and finally succeeded in reaching the realm of a Top-ranking Hero herself.
The alias given to her was Heavenly Thunder (天雷).
I respected Yoo Yi-seo’s achievement.
Unlike me, Park Siwoo, and the others, who had reached our realms through the shortcut known as the Trial Space, Yoo Yi-seo had pursued her own power solely through her own efforts.
And what had been the result?
In the end, she obtained exactly what she wanted and became strong enough to stand beside us as an equal.
At present, we were the most closely watched people in the entire country.
A lot had happened over those two years.
The greatest change was the ‘Gate.’
Beings from other dimensions frequently began emerging through the Gate that had been revealed to the world.
Some could be communicated with.
Others could not.
The world gradually began to change.
Beings from dimensions never seen before slowly began blending into society, and conflicts and problems naturally arose because of them.
Of course, there weren’t only problems.
The technologies of other dimensions were fascinating to us as well.
And so, we were working to adapt to those changes.
The remnants of Pandemonium also tried to start another war.
Of course, their operation collapsed before they could even properly attempt it.
There was no need for all of us to move.
Yoo Yi-seo alone wiped out every last Pandemonium force involved.
I opened my wardrobe and pulled out a nostalgic outfit.
Today was an important day.
As I changed clothes, Wol-ah flung the door open.
“Mr. Seongwoo! Are you ready?”
Over the past two years, Wol-ah had grown even cuter.
Only a little, but she was beginning to show the poise of a young lady.
She had also grown much taller.
Two years ago, she had barely reached my waist, but now she came up to my chest.
And Wol-ah looked especially excited today.
“Why are you so happy?”
“It’s my first time going to the Academy! I’m so excited!”
The Academy, which had been thoroughly destroyed after the Great War, had finally been rebuilt after two years of large-scale construction.
And today was its graduation ceremony.
As for who was graduating, that hardly needed explanation.
I hadn’t been a particularly good student.
After reaching the level of a Top-ranking Hero, I rarely went to school.
Honestly, there wasn’t much reason to.
The Academy’s Instructors were simply too low-level to teach us anymore.
Even so, there were adult circumstances behind why we continued visiting the Academy from time to time and ultimately graduated.
After the Great War, public opinion of Heroes had fallen.
Heroes were admired because they protected people’s everyday lives from external threats.
But once the Great War began directly affecting the public’s lives, it was only natural that people’s opinion of Heroes worsened.
In other words, this was practically a publicity campaign.
A scheme to use the existence of Top-ranking Heroes unlike any in history to elevate the prestige of Heroes beyond what it had been before.
Of course, separately from that, Park Siwoo and the others still wanted to continue attending the Academy.
There were things one could only enjoy while being a student.
Naturally, things didn’t go exactly as they wished.
Park Siwoo and the others were already Heroes known throughout the world for their tremendous strength.
Wherever they went, attention followed them.
Because of that, they couldn’t visit the Academy often.
After finishing my preparations, I asked Wol-ah,
“What about Master?”
“She left first.”
There was another rather surprising piece of news.
The Heavenly Demon had not returned to her original world.
More precisely, she kept saying she would return, but continued putting it off day after day.
Perhaps the existence of the Gate gave her peace of mind, knowing she could return to her homeland whenever she wanted.
Even more surprisingly, the Heavenly Demon had become an Instructor at the new Academy.
It was quite unexpected.
And somehow, she had blended into the Academy surprisingly well.
She had earned a reputation as the most terrifying Instructor in the Academy.
The Heavenly Demon’s classes were extremely harsh.
Even harsher than the Sword Empress’s special classes in the past.
Of course, according to the Heavenly Demon, even Wol-ah could handle them perfectly well, but I didn’t believe a word of that.
The strange thing was that although she was the most terrifying Instructor, she was also the most popular.
Even Disguise Art couldn’t diminish her devastating beauty, and beneath her cold exterior was an unexpectedly meticulous and attentive nature.
On top of that, for Cadets who had only just awakened to Mana, enduring even one of the Heavenly Demon’s classes produced overwhelming growth.
So to the Cadets, she became the Instructor they least wanted to encounter, yet also the Instructor they wanted to experience at least once.
There was even a Heavenly Demon fan club among the Cadets.
The Heavenly Demon herself also seemed fairly satisfied with her current job.
She complained that the Cadets were weak, but the fact that she had already remained employed as an Instructor for an entire year proved otherwise.
Wol-ah and I headed toward the newly rebuilt Academy.
Or rather, we were about to.
Vroooom-!
A car that looked expensive at a glance was parked in front of the house.
The window rolled down.
A familiar face appeared.
“Groom, get in!”
“Lia? I told you that you didn’t have to come pick me up.”
“What’s wrong with me coming to see my boyfriend?”
With that, she opened the car door.
Lately, Lia seemed completely obsessed with driving.
Seo Da-hee, who was one year older than me, had already graduated from the Academy, become an adult, and immediately gotten her driver’s license.
The reason was obvious.
It was so we could date more freely.
Wol-ah and I got into the car.
The newly rebuilt Academy was smaller than before, but correspondingly more extravagant.
You could practically tell from the entrance alone that they had poured money into the place.
Countless reporters were camped out in front of the Academy gates.
Lia looked at me and grinned.
“See? Aren’t you glad you came in Big Sis’s car?”
“Big Sis, my ass.”
“Why?! You always call Da-hee ‘Big Sis!’”
Lia shouted with a sulky expression.
“I’m even older than Da-hee!”
“Still no.”
This was something like my final shred of pride.
Calling Seo Da-hee ‘Big Sis’ was enough.
Besides, how was I supposed to call someone who acted that childish ‘Big Sis’?
There were many people at the Academy.
Suddenly, I remembered the Academy entrance ceremony from what felt like the not-so-distant past.
The bewilderment and confusion I felt when I first fell into the game world.
But greater than that had been the excitement and anticipation.
“I can’t believe we’re graduating already.”
It felt bittersweet, and the scenery before me seemed hazy, almost like a dream.
This wasn’t my first time graduating from school.
I had graduated from high school in my previous life as well.
But the emotions I felt then and the emotions I felt now were completely different.
Park Siwoo, Helena, and Dan Chun-woo had arrived before us and were already seated.
Our seats were at the very front of the Cadets’ section.
I saw their faces practically every day, so I wasn’t particularly happy to see them.
But one person was missing.
“Where’s Eunha?”
“She said she was coming. Beyond that, I don’t know.”
“I heard she arrived in Korea yesterday.”
“Did she oversleep?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me.”
Eunha did not become a Hero.
Nor did she attend the Academy like us.
What she wanted was true freedom, and to fulfill that dream, she left Korea.
More precisely, she used the enormous reward money she received from the government for dealing with the End and went traveling around the world.
She occasionally returned to Korea to prove she was still alive, but even that only happened once every few months, making her difficult to see.
Still, whenever she came back, it was nice to see how much she had changed.
Two years and all those experiences had been more than enough time to transform Eunha.
Before long, the graduation ceremony began.
Someone I had never seen before stepped onto the stage.
It was a junior who had become the new Student Council President after Yoo Yi-seo.
“We will now begin Sirius Academy’s 18th Graduation Ceremony.”
The graduation ceremony wasn’t particularly special.
Outstanding Cadets received awards, the Instructors gave their greetings and tedious speeches,
and then came the presentation of diplomas.
The person who gave me my diploma was none other than Instructor Kang Jae-seok.
His once-empty left sleeve had been replaced by a prosthetic arm.
Afterward, Park Siwoo gave a speech as the representative of the graduating class.
He had spent quite a long time agonizing over this speech.
As he stood up, the tips of his fingers trembled faintly.
Seeing that, we all grinned at him.
Park Siwoo stood before the podium and slowly opened his mouth.
“H-Hello. Standing in front of such a large crowd is making me nervous.”
Soft laughter spread through the audience at his voice.
“A lot—really, really a lot—has happened over the past three years. I imagine they were difficult years for many of you. A massive war broke out, and we also faced entirely new changes. And despite all of that, we’re gathered here today.”
Before long, his expression had become serious.
The audience gradually began listening closely to every word he said.
Helena, sitting beside me, whispered,
“That was originally supposed to be your place, wasn’t it? How do you feel?”
“Standing somewhere like that doesn’t suit me.”
“For someone who says that, you wrote half of that speech.”
“Well, I am pretty good at lecturing people.”
By then, Park Siwoo’s speech had reached its middle.
There was a strange power in his voice that stirred people’s hearts.
“The road ahead of all of you will be thorny. I would like to tell you something more pleasant, but this is the reality we face. We are living through an era of upheaval.
The world is accepting new changes, and we stand at the center of them. Living as a Hero is painful. You may lose precious friends, and perhaps you may even lose your own lives.”
“Did he really have to include something like that?”
“I didn’t write that part.”
Familiar words flowed from him.
Lines I felt like I had heard several times somewhere before.
“Even so, everyone, do not be afraid. We have already overcome countless trials, and we will continue to do so. Turn your trials and suffering into weapons and keep moving forward. That is what we Heroes must do.”
It resembled what Park Siwoo had said to the dying End in the game’s ending.
Amid thunderous applause and cheers, the graduation ceremony came to an end.
Outside, snow was falling.
A white snowflake landed on the bridge of my nose, cold against my skin.
Many people stood beside me.
This kind of everyday life would continue from now on.
And I intended to savor every last moment of it without regret.
Together with the precious people by my side.
(The End)