Chapter 192

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Fertisha was splashing in the water.

She kept hitting the stone floor as if urging Ulan to sit down beside her. After a moment of hesitation, Ulan moved over and looked at his reflection in the surface of the water.

‘Such a mess.’

Could it be because he had just come through the tunnel?

He tried to shake off the dirt, but it clung to him. It would feel much better to wash himself clean than to stay like this.

Just as he was thinking that way,

“Should I sit a bit further over?”

“No need.”

“Huh? Then… Eeeek!”

Suddenly, a short scream burst out.

It was because Ulan, who had just pulled down his pants, had jumped straight into the Source of Magic.

Splash!

A huge spray of water shot up in all directions.

After a moment, his heavy body sank below the surface before popping back up, and the dirt covering him was now washed away.

“Definitely refreshing.”

A cool sensation wrapped around his entire body, making Ulan smile.

Meanwhile, Fertisha, watching him, had a look of realization and flashed a playful grin.

“Hey!”

She then jumped into the spring just like Ulan.

With a small splash, her body quickly resurfaced. Seeing this, Ulan asked with a puzzled expression,

“What are you doing?”

Why would she jump into the water when she was already clean? Curious, he asked again, and received a simple and straightforward answer.

“It just looks cooler this way!”

“But your clothes will get wet.”

“Hehe, that’s fine!”

With a bright smile, she spread her arms wide.

“Because I have spirits with me.”

Right after her confident declaration, something amazing happened.

The water clinging to her body turned into droplets and began to fall away on its own.

“See?”

She laughed triumphantly.

Who knew spirits could do such things?

Ulan looked on in amazement. At the same time, a question came to mind, as he had never seen such a thing in his previous life.

“Ah, this is quite comfortable.”

Meanwhile, Fertisha floated lazily on the surface, yawning with a sleepy expression.

It looked like she was about to fall asleep any moment.

“I feel a bit nostalgic too.”

“Nostalgic?”

“The place I used to be was similar to here. There were a lot of trees and a pond where you could dip your feet.”

She must be talking about the Imperial Castle.

He remembered the forest where he first met her was full of life, unlike the ruined surroundings.

“Do you want to go back there?”

“Not really.”

She answered instantly, without a trace of hesitation.

“Although I’ve always stayed there since I opened my eyes, I want to explore a wider world now.”

Her bright red eyes looked up to the sky.

A bird soaring through the completely clear sky. For a moment, her gaze followed the bird before rolling back to Ulan.

“What about you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your hometown. I heard it’s in the northern prairie. Don’t you miss it or want to go back?”

“Of course I miss it.”

He missed the prairie, both in his previous life and now.

“But I can’t go back.”

“Why not?”

“Because I still have work to do.”

“Ah, like graduating?”

That’s one of the reasons, of course.

But it wasn’t his ultimate goal. What he meant by “work” was to win the war against the Abyss.

But… he figured it might take a long explanation to elaborate on that, so Ulan kept his mouth shut.

Then he redirected the conversation.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“What brought you here?”

Fertisha didn’t come to splash around in the Source of Magic without a reason. She must have a more concrete and clear purpose.

Realizing this, Ulan questioned her, and surprisingly, she confessed the truth quite simply.

“As I mentioned last time, I’ve been worried because of the whispers from the spirits.”

“What are they whispering about?”

“They say someone is over there.”

She pointed beyond the fog.

Right after coming out of the tunnel, it was the direction she had been staring at. A place where the true Source of Magic exists, and one day the Gate of the Abyss will open.

It was towards Zone 5.

“It’s a child who’s been there for a long time; they say they’re lonely and seeking help.”

What a ridiculous story.

Life forms shouldn’t even exist in Zone 5. If there really were, they would most likely be monsters or minions crawling out of the Abyss.

As he was thinking this, a memory suddenly struck his mind.

“Wait a moment.”

“Yes?”

“Could that child be a spirit?”

“Huh? How did you know?”

Fertisha’s eyes widened.

It was as if he had hit the nail right on the head. Seeing her reaction, Ulan was now convinced that his guess was correct.

‘So that’s what it is.’

Now he finally understood why Fertisha had wanted to visit the Source of Magic and Zone 5 so much.

‘It must be because of the Trial of the Hero.’

Seven heroes who passed the trial.

Among them, Fertisha’s trial was particularly unique.

Unlike the other heroes, the place where she underwent her trial was none other than the Abyss.

‘In the future, when I first encountered Fertisha…’

Just as he was trying to escape the crumbling Imperial Castle.

Suddenly, dozens of Abyssal Rifts opened all over the castle. And that day was also the day Fertisha underwent her Trial of the Hero.

‘After going through all those ups and downs, she mentioned that she became friends with a unique spirit.’

A mysterious spirit found within the Abyss.

A kind of reward she received for passing the Trial of the Hero. After quite some time had passed, the identity of that spirit was revealed.

‘…Abyss Spirit.’

Eventually, it would become one of the most powerful allies guarding Fertisha. At the same time, a spirit capable of neutralizing the powers of the Abyss.

That is the Abyss Spirit.

Based on this information, he could soon arrive at one conclusion.

‘In Zone 5…’

Is Fertisha’s trial about to begin?

As this assumption drew closer to certainty, her scarlet eyes shone intensely.

The sun hung high in the sky.

Perhaps because it was the weekend following midterms, the reading room was filled with a quiet atmosphere.

It wasn’t completely empty, though.

In one corner of the reading room, a girl with jet-black hair was busy flipping through documents.

“Hmm.”

Noa squinted her eyes.

The documents she was intently staring at were a type of roster. They were the materials she had received from the inspector who came to see Ulan yesterday.

This contained a list of the empire’s investigation team that had come to check on the Abyssal Rift that opened last time.

“Ugh!”

How long had it been?

Once the document sorting that started early in the morning was done, Noa stretched like a cat.

What she had done was to filter out those who had enough power and authority to approach the Source of Magic and open rifts.

In other words, it was to shortlist candidates for the Abyss Worshipper that the White Wolf had witnessed. Finally, out of all the candidates, two names had arisen.

‘Two promising candidates.’

Baruch Celestine.

D’muehl Ron Dermore.

Noa quickly gathered the documents detailing the two candidates and her eyes gleamed sharply.

‘Let’s examine them one by one. First, Baruch Celestine.’

A magician who participated as the deputy leader of the investigation team.

He had reached the realm of a high-ranking mage and was also the only heir of the renowned Celestine Count House.

‘The problem is, this is all there is.’

There was no other special information.

Even Noa, who had played the original countless times, found him to be a rather inconspicuous person.

Yet, he had the necessary qualities to approach the Source of Magic and open rifts, which was why he had been categorized as a candidate.

‘Next up…’

An individual familiar to both Noa and Ulan.

He was connected to Ajuheuh, her mentor in the prairie, and was also the magician who had written their recommendation letters for the Arsen Academy.

‘Count Dermore.’

Her bright blue eyes shone earnestly.

Unlike Baruch, who had little significance, the Count was a well-known character in the original.

He was a man so obsessed with reviving his daughter, who had died of illness, that he contributed to the quicker opening of the Gate of the Abyss.

‘But in the original, the Count was never related to Abyss Worshippers.’

Furthermore, he was currently supporting ‘Silfi Rudrik.’ This meant he was not an Abyss Worshipper but rather linked to the Desert Order.

‘And the Desert Order…’

They were extremely hostile to the Abyss.

In all the unfolding events from the original, the Desert Order fought against the Abyss with an army of undead brought back to life through necromancy.

“Hmmm, then who could it be?”

Noa felt a throbbing headache as she scowled, pondering who the culprit that opened the Abyssal Rift during the summer vacation might be.

‘In truth, the most certain method would be to check the records of those who entered the Source of Magic, but…’

The Source of Magic was the most crucial area within the Academy, as well as the most dangerous.

Thus, all individuals entering through the main gate were automatically recorded by video surveillance devices.

Knowing this from the settings of the original, Noa had approached Marquis Gorphant last night to secure the relevant records.

However, she was unable to achieve her goal.

‘She said there were absolutely no records.’

Moreover, it seemed that the records had been cleanly erased from the start of the summer vacation to its end.

It was as if they had preemptively eliminated any traces of those trailing behind just like now.

“Haah, that’s really meticulous.”

Letting out a sigh from her frustrating heart.

Noa slapped her cheek with her palm.

“…Get a grip.”

There’s nothing to be done about the records that were already gone.

All she could do was use the clues at her disposal to narrow down the suspects. However, there was little she could do from here on out.

The shortlisted candidates were significant figures, and conducting background checks would undoubtedly involve considerable risks.

So, there was a suitable candidate for this task.

‘Marquis Gorphant.’

He was the most powerful person Noa currently knew. Additionally, he was famous for possessing a highly skilled intelligence organization.

‘If it’s him…’

He would surely be able to uncover who the culprit was.

Noa believed this firmly.

Afterward, she placed the sorted documents into an envelope and quickly left the reading room, intending to deliver them to Marquis Gorphant.

Just then.

“Ah, there they are!”

An unexpectedly familiar voice rang out.

She quickly heard loud footsteps following.

“Noa!”

“Here I am!”

It was Ivella and Delia.

They rushed over and immediately revealed their purpose for approaching Noa.

It concerned Ulan.

“Do you happen to know where Ulan is?”

“We planned to have lunch together at noon, but I can’t find him anywhere.”

“Huh? Ah, Ulan… well, I saw him heading towards the Magic Department with a lot of motivation saying he was going to do some volunteer work.”

Noa shared this information, but Delia’s reaction seemed a bit lukewarm.

“So after that, you haven’t met up with him at all?”

“Yeah. He was in the library the whole time.”

She answered honestly since it was indeed the truth.

This made Delia wear a troubled expression.

Not understanding, Noa tilted her head in confusion.

“Can’t you just check with magic?”

“But that…”

“You’ve reached the level of a High Mage, so you can use magic like ‘Eye of the Stars.’

Stellar Magic, Eye of the Stars.

This eight-star rated magic is renowned for its best performance in observation.

It creates a gigantic eye in the sky, allowing one to locate any desired being or item in sight.

But Delia seemed oddly unresponsive.

“…I tried, but I couldn’t find him.”

“What? You used Eye of the Stars and still couldn’t?”

“Yeah, he wasn’t visible.”

Delia casually admitted this.

Noa’s expression then changed upon realizing this.

If he wasn’t visible even with the Eye of the Stars, then it was quite possible that he had left the Academy.

“No way, where could he possibly be…”

Even a fool wouldn’t have gone out for volunteer work outside the academy.

At that moment, Delia added an explanation.

“By the way, there’s one spot in the Academy where the Eye of the Stars doesn’t reach.”

“Really? Where?”

“The Source of Magic.”

That was quite obvious.

The Source of Magic was the origin of pure magic.

It was a type of location that could not be captured by the eye created from magic.

“But originally, there’s no reason for him to go in there.”

Ivella muttered softly.

Just as she stated, it was true.

After the information was reported about someone opening the Abyssal Rift during the summer, access to the Source of Magic had been strictly controlled.

And just as she was about to suggest using Eye of the Stars again to search for Ulan.

Crackle! Crackle!

Strange noises echoed.

It sounded like some static from a radio that was tuned into the wrong frequency. The moment Noa realized this, an occurrence only visible to her appeared.

“…Huh?”

A rectangular window appeared before her eyes.

It was a system notification.

[Notification]

▶ Trial of the Hero – Challenge Started

▶ Challenger: [Fertisha Eve Al Rubens]

[Time remaining until challenge completion]:

*99 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds

Right after confirming this information.

Noa froze like a statue.

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