SRS 108

“Are you feeling better?”

Mikael handed Yohan a cup of calming tea he’d brewed for him after he’d woken from a nightmare. Yohan took the cup and checked the time. Less than thirty minutes had passed since his last glance. Fortunately, he wouldn’t be late for his class.

“Thank you.”

“What kind of dream had you that startled you so?”

“…Hmm.”

Yohan maintained his silence, pretending to drink the tea.

Mikael, who came from the same dimension, was an angel. Therefore, he would surely know about taboos, but the fact that the person in the dream was Cheplen weighed heavily on Yohan’s mind, making it difficult to speak.

“Can I tell you later?”

But if he wanted his help, he couldn’t keep quiet forever. After some hesitation, he chose to postpone it. Mikael, though looking curious, didn’t press the troubled-looking Yohan any further. Yohan was once again grateful for his consideration.

“Lately, I feel like I’m always just getting help from you.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Then do me a favor.”

“Huh?”

Yohan watched him gather his cup from the desk opposite him and stand up. Mikael quickly washed the cup with magic, then turned his back to Yohan to tidy away the teacups.

“If you look out for me as much as I’ve helped you, the debt in your heart will disappear.”

His ears seemed slightly red as he said this, though Yohan couldn’t be sure. 

It could have been the contrast with his white hair making them appear red.

Yohan stared at Mikael, whose hair was tucked behind his ears, then nodded.

“I will.”

After answering plainly and leisurely emptying his teacup, Kylus and Suhyeok, who had been resting, also woke up. 

Seeing the two wake up at the same time, without having set an alarm, made him smile. It was starkly obvious that their time as mercenaries together had profoundly influenced their lifestyle.

“You two didn’t even talk to each other, yet you woke up at the same time.”

When he remarked on this curious coincidence, Kylus and Suhyeok’s faces immediately scrunched up.

They immediately turned to face each other and launched into a noisy argument about whether one had woken up because the other did, or why the other was copying them. Yohan felt guilty for seeming to have sparked the boys’ quarrel, but he nodded in agreement when Mikael comforted him by saying it wasn’t strange for them to fight over something like that.

“Stop fighting and let’s go to the lecture hall. It’s almost time.”

But he mediated the fight to maintain at least a shred of conscience. Kylus and Suhyeok bickered a few more times for no reason before getting up from their seats.

“Um… so each dimension has a guardian deity and an evil deity…”

The lecture content seemed to hover just out of reach, brushing past his ears. Yohan felt grateful that the general education class wasn’t included in the month-end evaluation, and he consciously pushed away a certain voice that was unconsciously trying to enter his consciousness.

It had been a tiring day in many ways.

***

“Yohan. Are you going to the headmaster’s office again today?”

Mikael asked on the way back after the zero period class. Yohan hesitated. His original purpose for visiting the headmaster’s office had been resolved by Suhyeok’s scheme, leaving him in an ambiguous situation.

But….

“…I guess I should go.”

The dream he’d had the previous night weighed on his mind, making it impossible to stay still.

“Really? Then let’s go together again.”

“No. I can’t keep putting you out every time.”

“It’s fine to owe me. And I don’t really think of it as you owing me. I’m coming because I want to.”

“But…”

“But you know what? Is it really fine to just barge into the headmaster’s office like that?”

As the two bickered back and forth, Suhyeok suddenly caught them off guard.

Yohan, who hadn’t really thought about it, blinked and looked at Mikael.

“…Oh, really?”

“…I guess I did say it like it was totally normal to just go in.”

Yohan, realizing that the headmaster was, after all, a person with that title, and that he and Mikael had been taking the headmaster far too casually, rubbed his forehead. Suhyeok shook his head, watching the two of them looking dazed.

“That’s why rumors keep swirling behind your back, Yohan.”

“What rumors?”

“That you’re in a master-disciple relationship with the headmaster, or that you’re close friends, or that the headmaster favors only you, or that you actually hold the headmaster’s weakness, or that you were in fifth grade but reverted to first grade…”

Suhyeok’s words continued endlessly after that. At first, Yohan listened humbly to the rumors his friend relayed, thinking ‘That could be possible.’ But as they grew increasingly bizarre, hearing stories that he was originally a white dragon who transformed into a human, or that he was actually a divine beast, even changing his species, Yohan felt dizzy.

“Why on earth are those rumors spreading…?”

“Why? The other kids might complain about the headmaster, but they’re scared of him. Unless he calls them, they never go to see him on their own… and even if he does call, they don’t just go willingly. But you’re different.”

“……”

Even if he had ten mouths, he wouldn’t have known what to say. Yohan looked slightly embarrassed and found himself unnecessarily checking his friends’ reactions.

As he recalled his school life so far and wondered if he really had to become a white dragon at this rate, Suhyeok patted his shoulder.

“Well, I’m rooting for you anyway. School life is fun because of you. If everyone just acted normally, there’d be no events.”

“…But isn’t it already too eventful within the school itself?”

Just look at the barrier problem, such an abnormal thing shouldn’t have happened. At Yohan’s remark, Suhyeok’s expression turned cold.

“That’s hardship, Yohan, not an event.”

“Ah…”

“Anyway. Kylus and I are roughly handling the rumors behind the scenes, so just act however you want. You can’t escape the rumors anyway, given that you’re supposedly closest to Mikael.”

“Me?”

This time, Mikael pointed at himself with a slightly surprised look. Suhyeok nodded.

“Before Yohan blew up, you were the most talked-about first-year. It got so bad that some kids even spread rumors you were an angel.”

“……!”

Mikael and Yohan’s shoulders jerked simultaneously. Suhyeok, who was excitedly relaying Mikael’s rumors, seemed oblivious to their reaction.

“…I had an idea, but I guess we really do stand out.”

“…Hmm.”

Feeling a bit alarmed, Yohan and Mikael decided to behave more quietly from now on.

But since he’d had that strange dream, he couldn’t give up on visiting the headmaster’s office this time. He said he’d just stick to that, and Suhyeok casually brushed off Yohan’s earnest promise.

“You think that’ll work? You’re the eye of the storm.”

“…If I just behave myself from now on.”

“Well, that’ll be tough.”

Suhyeok shrugged and advised him to just keep living as he always had. He explained that once a reputation was set, it was hard to change.

“…Maybe not.”

Yohan, who felt even more resentful, entered the dormitory determined to quell the rumors surrounding him. He started by changing his appearance.

He ironed his clothes to look even more tidy, removed all accessories, and wore a plain school uniform. He straightened his posture, walked more slowly and cautiously, and headed toward the Divine Studies classroom.

Today, he resolved not to ask the professor a single question.

Though he usually asked whenever something puzzled him, he sat down determined to be quiet. Yohan opened his textbook and checked the time.

Class was about to start.

…But Yohan kept checking the time for over ten minutes.

“What? Why isn’t the professor here?”

“It’s already been ten minutes.”

“Was class canceled today?”

“Huh? I haven’t heard anything.”

Eleven minutes into the first period. If it were any other day, the angel professor would have rushed in the moment the bell rang. But not a single strand of his hair was in sight. The students, who had been sitting quietly, began to whisper. Even as they murmured, the thought that the angel professor might be watching them from somewhere kept them rooted to their seats. They just exchanged nervous glances.

“Hmm…”

Yohan tilted his head and fiddled with his textbook. Given the angel professor’s character, if he couldn’t teach, he would have said so, not just vanished without a word. Just as curiosity about what had happened was growing, one student, unable to bear the boredom, rose, opened the window, and leaned out to peer below before shouting.

“There’s the professor!”

“He’s coming?”

“No? He’s fighting?”

“……?”

In that instant, the image of the building that had spectacularly exploded in the minds of the Divine Studies students flashed before them. The next moment, everyone rushed frantically toward the windows and the entrance.

“Stop him! Stop him!”

“Let’s go out and stop the professor!”

“If the building gets destroyed again, the headmaster will come!”

“Damn it. That means we’ll have to take that weird class from that god again!”

“Right. If that happens, Yohan and Mikael will definitely suffer again…”

“But they did teach us well.”

“That’s true.”

“…Huh? Come to think of it, it wasn’t so bad…”

“Let’s go stop the professor!”

Feeling a sense of crisis from his friends’ ensuing conversation, Yohan shouted from the front and jumped out the window with Mikael. Only after running toward the angel professor did he remember his vow to walk cautiously, realizing his mistake too late. But it was too late now.

The overwhelming premonition that staying put would mean another unwanted stint as a teaching assistant made him unwilling to linger in the lecture hall even for a second.

“ …So Suhyeok was right after all.”

Yohan quietly lamented to Mikael, who was running alongside him. Mikael soothed him in his usual calm tone.

“It’s okay. Even if word gets out that you’re a white dragon, I won’t distance myself from you.”

“…….”

Yohan fell silent. He’d thought it before, but his dear friend was terribly inept at offering comfort with words.