Namhyeon, who had pretended to lie down in bed and turned off the lights, quietly opened his eyes in the now-silent dorm room in the early hours past midnight.
Confirming that Jia's presence had completely subsided in the living room beyond the wall, he reached out into the air. As he unleashed a familiar mana, the air split with a rippling wave, and a door leading to the subspace opened without a sound.
The moment he crossed the threshold, the cramped room of reality vanished without a trace, revealing the grand and massive hall of a mansion. And there, led by Head Maid Hatsune who had been waiting in advance, the Dragon Maids bowed their heads in unison.
"Welcome, Master. We have been waiting."
At Hatsune's polite greeting, the other maids also brightened and welcomed Namhyeon. Namhyeon responded with a light smile and, escorted by them, headed to his familiar office.
A splendid and spacious office. As Namhyeon leaned back and sat in a plush chair, Hatsune approached as naturally as breathing and served him warm black tea. Namhyeon, taking a sip of the fragrant tea, opened his mouth.
"Hatsune, how well do you understand the current situation?"
"Yes. To the extent that we, along with this subspace we reside in, have crossed over to Master's original world."
In the past, when he had first taken them in, Namhyeon had already revealed the truth that he was a stranger from another world. Hatsune was perfectly aware of the situation with an unwavering gaze.
"Good. From now on, life will be very different."
"Yes. We shall assist you with all our heart and soul, Master."
There was not a hint of hesitation in Hatsune's answer. Whether Namhyeon went to a barren battlefield or a strange otherworld, it mattered not to her. She was filled solely with blind loyalty, a vow to serve him perfectly from behind no matter where her master went.
"That reminds me, how much food is left in the mansion?"
When they were in the other world, Namhyeon had directly procured necessary supplies such as magical beasts and elixirs, but now that they had crossed into the real world, resupply in the same manner was impossible. To Namhyeon's question, Hatsune answered as though she had calmly finished her calculations.
"We have no problems for about three months."
"Understood. I'll get food and necessary supplies from outside within that time."
At Namhyeon's words, Hatsune's brows narrowed minutely. It was because she did not wish for her master to pound the pavement in the dangerous outside world himself.
"Please do not overdo it, Master."
"No. As the master who took you all in, it's a responsibility I must naturally bear."
At Namhyeon's firm yet affectionate answer, a deep and captivating smile finally spread across Hatsune's face.
"Then I shall be going. Contact me immediately if anything happens."
"Yes, Master."
Leaving the brief meeting behind, Namhyeon received the reluctant gazes of the maids, then opened the door leading back to his real-world room and disappeared.
Immediately after Namhyeon left, the clumsy maid Para abruptly poked her head through the gap of the office door.
"Master left already? He should have stayed a bit longer..."
As Para dragged her drooping tail along the floor and grumbled sulkily, Hatsune, who had been carefully wiping the teacup Namhyeon had drunk from, quietly opened her mouth.
"He will come again. Master will never abandon us."
Buried in Hatsune's voice was absolute faith and trust bordering on blind worship, untainted by any doubt. Using that blind affection as fuel, Hatsune always strove to maintain a perfect space solely for her master.
.
The next day came, and Namhyeon wandered around the academy.
"Look there, the leech sucking off I Jia."
"A guy who can't live up to his face and just mooches off a woman. Doesn't he get tired of it?"
Every time he passed through the hallways, he heard whispering. Thanks to his handsome appearance, there had been several female students interested in Namhyeon at the beginning of his academy enrollment. But each time, Jia had driven them away with murderous intent, and so Namhyeon had lived in utter isolation for all four years at the academy without a single friend of the same sex.
Jia considered that isolation natural and even happy, and the Namhyeon of the past had suffered under that suffocating control. But the academy's reality, which he had returned to after decades, could not give him any excitement.
*Nothing special.*
Even the class content was pathetic. To him, who had twisted the laws of the world with illusion arts and created a subspace, the professor's lectures on magical beasts and various combat techniques were pathetic.
The place where Namhyeon's steps, walking with a bored expression, stopped was in front of the student-exclusive request board. Notices for safe low-rank dungeons managed by the academy or subjugation requests for shallow-ecosystem magical beast habitats were plastered all over it. To procure food and supplies for the subspace, currency from the real world was needed. As Namhyeon scanned to see if there was anything suitable, a fair arm shot out to block his path.
"You don't have to do this, Hyeoni."
It was Jia's firm voice. She took out her card and tried to force it into Namhyeon's hand.
"I told you to use my card if you need money. Why would Hyeoni risk himself bothering with such a low-rank dungeon? You just..."
"Ah, right."
Namhyeon gently but firmly pushed away Jia's hand.
He recalled what happened in the past when he had secretly taken a request to pull his own weight. Jia had somehow appeared like a ghost and annihilated all the magical beasts his party had been hunting with S-rank force.
The Hunters who went with him fled in terror, and Jia, covered in blood, smiled brightly and shouted, "Hyeona, I took care of everything!" It was a terrible memory that had thoroughly trampled Namhyeon's independence.
*How do I peel this leech off?*
Namhyeon's gaze, seeking a justification to escape Jia's sight, turned toward the training ground next to the board.
Graduation candidates were sweating buckets against mana measurement devices and training dummies. It was the 'Graduation Review,' a final re-evaluation of their rank before graduation.
Seeing that scene, a brilliant idea flashed through Namhyeon's mind.
*Ah, that's right.*
If he turned the academy's rules to his advantage, a perfect justification would be born. Namhyeon turned his body toward the training ground.
"Jia. I'm going to take a rank test."
"What? Why? I don't think it'll be much different even if you do it now."
Jia grabbed Namhyeon's arm in confusion. In her worldview, Namhyeon had to be a forever-protected, weak D-rank. The idea of his rank rising or him growing stronger meant escaping her control, so Jia's eyes began to tremble slightly.
Namhyeon slowly removed Jia's hand that was holding him, showing a cold smile that had become ingrained in his body from the other world.
"I'm a Hunter Academy graduate, so it's a bit shameful to remain a D-rank for all four years."
"H-Hyeona...!"
Ignoring Jia's desperate call, Namhyeon strode toward the training ground reception desk. Behind him, Jia's gaze followed him persistently, shaking uncontrollably.
Even when Namhyeon had declared he would take the rank test, Jia hadn't really tried to stop him.
'At best, he'll barely scrape a C-rank. Hyeoni can't do anything without me.'
She stood with her arms crossed, wearing a relaxed smile. The arrogant conviction that Namhyeon would forever be weaker than her lay at the base of her consciousness.
First came the basic mana measurement. When Namhyeon placed his hand vacantly on the transparent crystal orb, the eyes of the administrator operating the machine soon widened as if they would pop out.
"Huh? Whaaaaaaaat?!!!"
"Is something wrong?"
"T-This is... a machine error? No, he's broken past the limit?!"
Namhyeon's mana had already reached a realm where the academy's old-fashioned measurement device couldn't even begin to gauge the numbers. Namhyeon asked nonchalantly toward the administrator, who was sweating profusely in panic.
"What do I do now?"
"A-Ah, yes! N-Next, you must face a magical beast in the simulation room."
Namhyeon nodded and walked into the massive simulation room covered in transparent reinforced glass.
Shortly after, the system virtually materialized a magical beast of the most 'suitable' difficulty according to Namhyeon's measured mana data. As pixels in the air gathered to form a massive shadow, Jia's face, which had been watching the situation leisurely from the waiting room, turned deathly pale in an instant.
"What is that?"
It was a scene that made her doubt her own eyes. What appeared before Namhyeon was a three-meter-tall colossus wielding a red axe, the A-rank magical beast 'General Minotaur.'
"Are you kidding?! How is our Hyeoni supposed to fight something like that! Turn it off right now!"
Jia's veins bulged as she slammed her fist against the control room window. With a thud, S-rank killing intent filled the waiting room.
"Stop! If you don't turn it off right now, I'll smash all these damned machines!"
"Y-You can't! This system automatically summons the most suitable magical beast proportional to the Hunter's mana ability just measured...!"
"Shut up and stop it right now!!"
Jia lost her reason. In her head, there was nothing but the terror of the frail(?) Namhyeon being crushed by that terrible axe. The moment Jia was about to smash through and burst into the control room.
Inside the room, Namhyeon slowly brought his two hands together to form a strange seal.
In an instant, blue mana welled up like a mirage from beneath Namhyeon's feet and began splitting into dozens of 'Namhyeons.' It was a Martial Art he had learned from a Daoist of the other world—Phantom Clones composed of translucent mana.
The Phantom Clones each held phantom swords sharpened to be even keener than the real thing.
And without hesitation, they leaped toward the General Minotaur all at once.
Kuaaaaaak—!
Before the massive A-rank magical beast could even swing its blunt axe, dozens of phantom swords pierced the beast's vitals from all directions and shredded it. No matter how powerful a magical beast, before overwhelming numbers and precise sword strikes, it was little more than a sandbag. As though proving the universal truth that there's no answer to a gang beating, the General Minotaur scattered into pixels and vanished without even letting out a proper scream.
Ziiing—
[Simulation terminated. The review is complete.]
Along with the system's mechanical voice, Namhyeon's final rank appeared on the main screen.
[Final Rank: Unmeasurable]
The academy's system could normally measure up to A-rank at maximum. In other words, the words 'Unmeasurable' effectively meant that Namhyeon was a powerhouse possessing at least S-rank might.
"...Huh?"
Jia's hand, which had been about to smash the door, stopped in mid-air.
Her gaze alternated between the words 'Unmeasurable' on the screen and Namhyeon, who was walking out of the room lightly dusting himself off.
*Hyeon... my Hyeon, is that strong?*
It was the moment the axiom that he was a weak being she had to protect for her entire life shattered into pieces. Jia stared blankly at Namhyeon with empty eyes, as though her soul had left her body.