SRS 13

“…This place feels a bit eerie.”

It wasn’t that late by the clock, but after sunset, the atmosphere around Fantasiademia had turned cold.

When they’d gone out before, it had been earlier, or maybe the boundaries of the academy had been looser since it was still the first day before any roll call had taken place, but the atmosphere hadn’t been nearly this grim.

Yohan raised his guard as the atmosphere in the Rose Garden felt entirely different from last night.

“Don’t you feel a little strange?”

Suhyeok, who was walking just behind him while holding on to Yohan’s left arm, asked cautiously.

“The atmosphere is awkward.”

Kylus, who had quietly taken hold of Yohan’s right arm as if nothing was wrong, replied to him. Yohan looked at the two, walking on either side of him, dumbfounded.

“What are you two doing?”

“Well, you’re a priest.”

“And what does that have to do with this?”

“In case something evil shows up, you can purify it, right?”

Suhyeok explained as he awkwardly laughed. Kylus, perhaps feeling guilty, released Yohan’s arm and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Since Suhyeok did it, I followed without thinking.”

“Wow… you’re unbelievable. That’s just cowardly.”

“Shut up.”

“Haah…”

The two grabbed each other’s collars, bickered, and teased one another. Having grown used to their fights over the past two days, Yohan gave them a tired look and continued walking ahead.

“Yohan! You’re just going off alone?”

Suhyeok quickly let go of Kylus and hurried to catch up. Seeing Kylus return to his side soon after, Yohan shook his head. Even after that scuffle, both still insisted on walking behind him.

They do have a point, though.

The quiet, eerie night made it feel like something cursed, some monster or spirit, could jump out at any moment. And if that happened, he was probably the one best suited to deal with it.

Yohan had no choice but to go into the inner garden path, determined to protect his friends from the front line.

They had only walked a few minutes when they started hearing something. Regular, rhythmic sounds like the cry of a beast coming from deeper inside. Yohan tilted his head, scanning the area.

“What’s that noise?”

“Sounds like a cuckoo?”

Suhyeok leaned forward, squinting toward the dark. It didn’t seem like he could actually see anything in this darkness, yet his subsequent words surprised them.

“It’s a bird. There, up ahead on that big tree, five or six of them perched.”

“You can see that?”

“Please, this is basic for a hunter.”

Suhyeok grinned, his hand still shaped like scissors from rock-paper-scissors. Yohan couldn’t help but be impressed. Maybe monster hunters really did have excellent night vision.

“But it’s weird for birds to sound like that.”

“Yes. The way they’re cooing every second… it’s like…”

“…like the ticking of a clock,” Kylus finished, his hand resting on his sword hilt.

“What’s wrong, Kyle?”

Suhyeok noticed his ready stance, prepared to fight at any moment. Kylus frowned.

“Something feels strange.”

“Are you scared or what?”

“It’s not that. It’s the space….”

Before he could finish, the cuckoo cries suddenly stopped. Then, the loud sound of a clock echoed across the garden.

“……!”

Ding, ding, ding.

The heavy chime made the grass tremble. Trees swayed, and the ground rippled beneath their feet.

“What is this!”

It wasn’t an exaggeration. The earth really moved like waves. Suhyeok lost his balance, nearly falling, and Kylus grabbed his arm. Yohan gave up on staying upright and crouched down to assess the situation.

He didn’t understand how, but the entire space was twisting and warping. The flat ground tilted into an uphill slope, the trees and garden vanished, and cliffs appeared on both sides of them.

In an instant, they were standing on a narrow mountain path. One wrong step could send them tumbling down. Even as Yohan saw it with his own eyes, he couldn’t believe what was happening.

“…An illusion.”

It’s an illusion.

The Rose Garden couldn’t possibly have turned into a real cliff. It had to be some kind of illusion.

When the shifting stopped, Suhyeok cautiously stepped toward the edge to look down.

Swish.

He extended one foot over the cliff, and his body suddenly dropped. Kylus quickly pulled him back onto solid ground.

“Fuck….”

Suhyeok, who had almost fallen, sat down trembling in the middle of the path.

“…This isn’t just an illusion. There’s nothing below. You’d really fall.”

“It was the same when we fought the Hydra. They said everything inside the illusion barrier was fake, but the students still got poisoned for real. The abilities I used worked for real too.”

Yohan stood up as he recalled their final exam. He pulled his friends closer, staring up the long, steep path.

What should we do now?

They’d been told the academy was dangerous at night, but he hadn’t expected the space to twist like this before even ten o’clock.

If that was the case, the rule shouldn’t have said “No going out after eleven.” It should’ve said “Don’t go out after sunset at all.”

…No, maybe that wasn’t it. Maybe surviving illusions like this was part of being a Fantasiademia student, and the reason they banned going out after eleven was because even skilled students wouldn’t be able to endure what came after that hour.

It would be expected for this school.

“What do we do? Should we go back?”

“Can we even go back? The path behind us changed too.”

Since the road ahead sloped up, the one behind naturally slanted down. With cliffs on both sides, there was no way around, so Yohan and his friends fell silent.

“Ah… all this because of Mikael.”

“…Maybe we were too hasty. Mikael’s a student here. He probably knew things like this could happen and was confident he’d get back before roll call.”

“And we couldn’t wait, so we ran out.”

“Yes.”

“Ha…”

The atmosphere calmed for a moment. Suhyeok ruffled his hair and turned around.

“Then should we try heading back? Maybe we’ll find the original path again. It’s probably safer than going uphill.”

“…Let’s do that.”

Anyway, since the outside had changed, it was impossible to go back and find Michael in a place like this.

Yohan saw this as the price of their rash decision. He sighed, turned around, and decided to head back. Though it wasn’t really the same road anymore, it was the only choice.

The moment he took a step onto the downward slope,

Rumble!

The ground shook again.

Huh?

This tremor felt different from before. It wasn’t the kind that came when the terrain was reshaping. This one was…

“It sounds like it’s coming from above.”

Suhyeok stiffly looked up. He stared toward the top of the slope, and Yohan and Kylus followed his gaze.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

The tremor and noise grew stronger until the vibration shook their entire bodies.

And then they saw it. At the end of the hill, a massive boulder came rolling straight toward them.

“……!”

“Run!”

They didn’t have time to think. All three of them turned and sprinted downhill as fast as they could. The huge boulder rolled mercilessly behind them, gaining terrifying speed as it chased them down.

“What kind of insane school lets a boulder that big roll loose?!”

“They’re completely out of their minds!”

“Haah, haah…!”

While Suhyeok and Kylus each yelled in frustration, Yohan, whose stamina was the weakest, could barely catch his breath.

Thud, thud!

His legs felt like lead after the day’s training, but he forced himself to keep running. But the boulder was faster, and no matter how much they ran, the distance between them and the boulder continued shrinking.

If it keeps going like this, they’ll ended up crushed by that boulder.

Yohan’s expression distorted as he foresaw a gloomy future.

Crash!

All three of them suddenly tripped and fell. Something had caught their ankles. When they looked down, they saw thick tree roots jutting out of the ground. Before they could curse, a dark shadow loomed over them. The boulder was right on top of them.

It’s going to hit!

They all braced themselves for impact and closed their eyes.

“Yohan Herse. Im Suhyeok. Kylus.”

At that moment, a calm but cold, called out to the three people.

“What are you three doing here?”

A stern voice was heard nearby, and as they carefully opened their eyes, they saw a being that resembled a bear, not only in appearance but also in physique, holding the huge boulder in one hand and looking down at the three of them.

“Um… who are you?”

A vein popped on the man’s forehead when Yohan carefully asked.

“I’m the dorm warden.”

“Oh.”

“Ah…”

“……”

Realizing the situation, Yohan and his friends blinked at each other.

“Do you know what time it is?”

The warden’s voice was low and stern. Suhyeok answered hesitantly.

“Uh… around 9:40?”

“Wrong. It’s 10:15.”

“What?”

“Huh?”

Yohan flinched in shock. That much time had passed already? It felt like only half an hour, but twice that had passed by.

Another trick of the illusion?

“S-Sir, we weren’t trying to skip roll call, we just—”

“Quiet. Causing trouble on the first night of roll call. Room 304… I’ll remember that.”

Cutting off Yohan’s excuse, the warden frowned and crushed the giant boulder with one hand. Then he pulled the clipboard tucked under his arm and wrote something down.

The others couldn’t see from where they stood, but Yohan clearly saw the words beside “Room 304”: Problem students.

“……”

Problem students…?

I’m a problem student?

He felt wronged, but objectively, they had done something wrong. Yohan lowered his head and remained silent.

The warden led the three back to the dorm.

“Oh?”

“You… you!”

“…It was a waste of effort.”

When they opened the door to Room 304, they found Mikael neatly dressed sitting there as if nothing had happened. They looked at him with betrayed expressions, then leaned helplessly against the wall.