World Tree
The first-year class tournament’s winners’ bracket matches defied everyone’s expectations, and for some reason, Cha Eunsol’s performance stood out prominently.
She had become an object of ridicule, people saying she wasn’t a lazy genius but merely a lazy bum, yet this time she revealed her true skills, surprising those watching the matches.
The classes considered favorites to win were all swept away one after another at her hands.
It was no wonder that she came to be worshipped by her classmates as the indisputable goddess of victory.
“Cha Eunsol is a goddess!”
“We love you even if you’re lazy! You can just eat, sleep, and poop for all we care!”
“Long live Goddess Cha Eunsol!”
“Eunsol, if there’s anything you want to eat, just say the word! We’ll raise you like a pig! You can be a pig if you want!”
“We’ll pig you up! You pig, pig, pig!”
“Yum, yum. Thanks for the compliments. Then, I want to eat rose tteokbokki.”
“You there, what are you all doing! Order from Baemin at once! You know we have to get fried food and sundae too, right!?”
“Instructor! It’s late at night, so I think all the stores are closed!”
“Then make it yourselves and present it! The Goddess Eunsol is going to lose weight!”
“Even the instructor is calling her a goddess….”
Cha Eunsol’s class was in a festive mood day after day, achieving victory in every match they fought.
As for me, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of deal her homeroom instructor had proposed to her.
In any case, her class advanced triumphantly and finally faced Gang Hanbyeol’s class in the finals.
As was briefly mentioned in the game, the result ended in Gang Hanbyeol’s victory.
“Eunsol, great job! It was a good match. If it were up to me, I’d want to take something, but I can’t steal a friend’s belongings and break our loyalty…. Still, it’s a shame, so I’ll at least take a sausage!”
“Ah, no way…. My sausage…. I’d rather you take my family’s treasure….”
“No, I couldn’t do that. It must be a precious treasure to you. I’ll make do with this!”
“My sausage is more precious…. You’re mean.”
Putting aside the fact that Gang Hanbyeol had unintentionally incurred Cha Eunsol’s resentment through this matter.
He once again rose in prominence and received the attention of the public.
In other words, it also meant he would become the target of even more enemies in the future.
Whether to verify his skills, to reclaim stolen weapons, to settle grudges, or simply because he was the disciple of the Fighting Ghost Seo Jeongjin.
His enemies would surely come to defeat him.
In fact, after the class tournament ended, challenge letters flooded in to him.
Among them were quite a few people related to the Heukma Oga.
‘It’s probably the gang following O Junsu starting to make their move.’
Two hectic weeks passed, and the final exams were now not far away.
This meant the O Junsu episode of the Heukma Oga would occur soon.
For the time being, I decided to pay attention to the circumstances around me, including Gang Hanbyeol, to prepare in advance.
As a side note, our class, which had been placed into the losers’ bracket early on, achieved decent results thanks to Min Arin’s fierce efforts.
Unfortunately, the reason we couldn’t aim higher was because the damage our classmates suffered during the match against Nam Yuri had been immense.
―Ah! That was fun! This is what they mean by “lost but fought well,” right?
―How many kids dove in to take you on…. And could you please control your strength a bit….
―Sorry! I’m not good at controlling my strength!
Although she had become somewhat more approachable while hanging out with us, Nam Yuri was fundamentally someone who disliked being ordered around by others.
Acting solely according to her whims, she displayed a lack of teamwork with her classmates and inevitably fell into the losers’ bracket quickly.
And so, she ended up facing us.
We had to endure damage to subdue her as she dove into our formation alone and ran rampant.
Thanks to that, Min Arin gritted her teeth, saying her winning momentum was broken because of her.
―Bread, bread, bread, Nam Yuri…. Why the hell do the girls around me keep making me angry!?
―Eunsol doesn’t match your personality, and Haneul is because of grades, but Eunbi and Lisa haven’t done anything to make you angry yet, have they?
―What? Eunbi? Go Eunbi? Do you know how humiliating it was to grant her wish this time!? Do you know what it felt like to become some chuunibyou mage like Megumin or whatever!? Who do you think I am…. Making Min Arin of the Mageblade Min family cosplay? Go Eunbi, you bread….
―Uh… but you still have Lisa.
―Even she, you never know these days. I don’t know when she’ll make me angry….
―Ah, I see.
In the end, Min Arin, who had been chewing on Nam Yuri’s name, had no choice but to give up on the remaining matches.
Meanwhile, Yeon Haneul’s class met Yong Haerang’s class in the semifinals and was defeated.
The reason was truly absurd.
―As expected, this path was the correct answer!
―What? What? How the hell did she get here!?
Who would have known that Yong Haerang, who had gotten lost, would infiltrate Yeon Haneul’s class camp after a series of twists and turns and steal their flag?
With their main base raided like that, Yeon Haneul and Go Eunbi had no choice but to suffer a hollow defeat.
‘As expected, reality has even less plausibility than a novel.’
But what happened to the triplets’ class?
Sorry, but I’m not particularly curious.
I only remember that they were placed into the losers’ bracket midway and finished with a poorer record than our class.
* * *
As the class tournament period passed, we were able to return to our normal daily lives.
Gang Hanbyeol was still spending busy days accepting challenges from students, but even so, it was different from before—he could breathe easier now.
With relatively more free time, we made time to hang out and enjoy drinking sessions like before.
On top of that, Yeon Haneul and I stuck together whenever we had a moment.
We somehow made time for each other to make up for the time we couldn’t meet during that period.
Whether eating, studying, or training. Also when taking walks, going somewhere, or doing anything else.
Except when we were in our rooms or in class, it felt like we were almost always together.
It had gotten to the point where I thought:
“We’ve been seeing each other too often lately, haven’t we?”
On the way back to the dormitory after self-studying at the library with Yeon Haneul.
I brought it up to check her thoughts on the matter.
To that, she answered with a sulky face.
“So you don’t like it?”
“No, I like it?”
“Then why are you asking?”
“I’m just asking because I’m curious. Don’t you think so?”
“Hmm…. We do see each other a lot these days. We even call each other before going to sleep after going home.”
“Ah, I hadn’t considered that.”
If you ask whether I dislike the increased time I spend with Yeon Haneul, of course I like it.
Sharing trivial conversations or walking with the backs of our hands brushing against each other—this time feels like it heals both body and mind.
Of course, I still needed personal time.
Just as I did, Yeon Haneul surely had times when she wanted to spend time alone occasionally.
Nevertheless, for the time being, I wanted to be with her as much as possible.
Because….
As it turned out, our thoughts aligned.
Unable to wait any longer, she quietly took my hand.
Before we knew it, our fingers were interlocked.
“The final exam period is coming up soon…. It’ll be hard to make time again while preparing for exams, so I want to be together a lot, even now….”
“That was what I was thinking. How did you know?”
“Tsk, why wouldn’t I know? If it’s your thought, I know everything.”
“Yeah, you’re so great.”
Ever since that day when we tried to hold hands and go to sleep but got caught by the dorm supervisor and things fell through.
Our relationship had grown a bit closer.
We had started holding hands more freely than before, and when there was no one around like today, we even interlocked our fingers.
―Aren’t we going to… hold hands today?
―….
―My hand is empty….
―Of course we have to hold hands. Of course we have to….
―Tsk…. Fool? Why are you talking like that?
―I guess I’m a fool when it comes to you.
―Ah, what the heck! It’s really cringeworthy, so stop it!
By now, Yeon Haneul would feel disappointed if we didn’t hold hands when we were alone.
And although it took some courage, I would put my arm around Yeon Haneul’s shoulder when the chance arose.
Unable to be content with just interlocked fingers, I untangled my hand from hers and reached for her shoulder.
“Ah….”
“It’s a bit chilly because it’s night, isn’t it?”
“….”
With my hand on her shoulder, Yeon Haneul flinched and trembled.
She stood stiffly as if nervous, but rather than resisting my touch, she pressed her body close to mine.
Soon, she smiled bashfully and wrapped her arm around my waist.
“Yeah…. I think the weather is a bit cold.”
“It’s warm like this, right?”
“Yeah!”
She was soft and supple.
Yeon Haneul’s scent tickled my nose and made my heart flutter.
I maintained my composure as best as I could and walked the night road with her.
Reeeeee!
It was the time when June was beginning.
It was still a loooooong way until summer properly began.
Yet the cicadas were crying out—it seemed they had utterly despised their time spent as larvae underground.
‘These oblivious—no, these guys who’ve mistaken the season. So noisy.’
Random fact: It is said that cicada larvae, which spend several years underground, emerge to become cicadas and engage in mating to bear offspring.
At this time, the male cicada apparently makes noise to seduce the female.
In other words, the sound of cicadas is, to cicadas, the sound of asking to mate.
To put it in human terms….
‘Should I say they’re making noise asking to do it mindlessly?’
sssssssssseeeeeeeexxxxxxx.
Is this how I should describe the sound?
Thinking about the life of a cicada that spends years in the dark underground with no fulfillment whatsoever, I can understand why they are so desperate to mate.
I heard that male cicadas evolved in an extreme way, hollowing out more than half their bodies to emit an attractive sound to females.
And then they die after about a month of mating….
“What are you thinking about? You suddenly went quiet….”
“Didn’t you say you know all my thoughts earlier?”
“Tch. So you’re not going to tell me?”
“I was just…. thinking that the cicadas are noisy.”
“Right? It’s amazing that cicadas are already out. Is it because this is the Academy City? It’s not even summer yet….”
To sum it up, cicadas spend almost their entire lives underground for the sake of about one month of reproduction.
Isn’t the cicada the very creature that lives to reproduce?
If I said this thought aloud to Yeon Haneul, I’d probably get cursed out for killing the mood, so I should stay quiet.
So I decided to say something else.
“I guess they think it’s summer. I’m still freezing to death.”
“Me too. I’m cold….”
“Then since you’re cold, we should hurry inside.”
“No… let’s go slowly.”
“…Shall we crawl along?”
“Yeah, crawl along slowly….”
As if saying she can’t do without me.
We gripped each other tightly in our embrace.
Our steps were as slow as a turtle’s.
* * *
Although the final exam episode was scheduled, that didn’t mean there were no episodes in between.
Several episodes were waiting before O Junsu of the Heukma Oga seriously began to make his move.
Among them, the episode we experienced today was extremely important for the story moving forward.
Because it was related to Gang Hanbyeol’s power-up.
“There might be people who have already seen it, but what do you think? It’s really amazing up close, right?”
“Wow….”
That day, Saturday.
We had come to see the World Tree growing in the center of Academy City as part of the Mystery Exploration Club’s activities.
Kim Samo, who served as the club president, explained briefly about the World Tree in a proud tone.
Unfortunately, it soared up endlessly, obscured by clouds, so his explanation didn’t register clearly with those of us looking up at the World Tree.
To such an extent were we overwhelmed by the World Tree, with its lush greenery and majestic presence.
About 200 years ago, starting from the Great Upheaval, this world’s dimension became unstable.
Because of this, time and space twisted, causing all sorts of anomalies; monsters emerged from rifts, and gates eroded the world.
Borrowing an expression described in manaology, the world began to lose its existential power and shatter.
In other words, it was perishing.
Not in the national sense of destruction experienced during the Great Upheaval era, but in the complete sense.
‘Research on dimensions has revealed that it won’t be destroyed right this moment, but….’
That didn’t mean we could rest easy.
The analysis was inaccurate, and merely based on the present.
If the trend of dimensional instability intensified, the predicted future would inevitably be shortened.
Moreover, I, who retained memories of my past life, knew that destruction was near.
‘It really is a sunfish of a world, perishing in every possible sense.’
That is why the World Tree is important.
It holds the world together so it doesn’t shatter, and acts as a pillar that fixes the unstable dimension.
Thanks to the World Tree, the world is currently extending its life.
In particular, this World Tree in Academy City possessed the second greatest power among the World Trees that had crossed over to this world together with the Grace Empire.
‘The first is the World Tree in the Grace Empire.’
That might be why the starting point of destruction in the game generally originated from Academy City.
It was the prevailing speculation in the game community.
Soon, I shook off my thoughts and looked around.
Around the World Tree, I could see other people out on excursions to enjoy the weekend.
‘I think we’ll meet soon….’
Performing the function of protecting the world and being considered sacred by humanity, the World Tree had been under strict management since it was in its original world.
The World Tree before my eyes was no different.
It was managed by an elf of the Grace Empire who bore the title of Guardian.
Of course, Guardians didn’t reveal themselves unless something special happened.
But according to the game’s flow, she would surely appear after sensing Lisa’s presence.
As if affirming my prediction, soon the Guardian approached us.
“I sensed a pleasant presence, and as expected… it was a visitor who inherits the name of Grace. It is an honor to meet you. I am Odelia, the Guardian who manages the World Tree of Academy City.”
I Became the Childhood Friend of the Mid-Boss