I Need the True Ending to Graduate - Chapter 109

It seemed the professor who handled the thesis review was also in charge of the demonstration.

Looking at the faces of the professors who entered the practice grounds, they were the same faces I’d already seen during the thesis review, including Jeran Ennessy.

It seemed the professors who participated in the thesis review were divided into groups and assigned like that.

‘That’s more convenient.’

Since this professor did the thesis review, it wasn’t like that professor could evaluate the demonstration.

The way the demonstration proceeded was simple.

They called four people in alphabetical order, and those whose names were called came forward and stood in a line with a set distance between them.

Then, before the demonstration, they took out the materials needed to activate the magic circle they’d applied for in advance and prepared to cast the magic.

Once it was confirmed all four had finished preparing, they demonstrated one by one.

The professors evaluated each person’s magic.

“But even if your magic ends in failure, your graduation won’t be canceled. The demonstration is only a place to give bonus points, so please remember there will be no deductions.”

Jeran added that with a gentle smile that reassured the students. Still, the tension didn’t leave their faces.

No matter how much they were told it wouldn’t affect graduation, this was a place where their results would be evaluated by others. There was no way they wouldn’t be nervous.

In any case, as announced, the demonstration began.

One by one, the magic of the students graduating in the same year as me activated and then disappeared, repeating.

‘Everyone’s amazing….’

I didn’t know much about magic, but maybe because it was magic based on their graduation theses, the scale of the magic being activated was enormous.

On top of that, each person’s mana color was different, and the structure of their magic circles was intricately intertwined, so every time one activated and faded, it felt like fireworks were bursting and then vanishing.

I watched other people’s magic in silence and kept clapping quietly.

Then when I suddenly turned my head and looked around, I saw a few people lingering around the edges of the practice grounds.

It wasn’t a particularly small number, and most of them looked like friends or juniors and seniors of the students. They didn’t care about anyone else and had their eyes fixed on only one person.

And as if it were only natural, Ruad was among them.

He was taller than most women by a head, and even compared to other men, he was exceptionally tall, so he stood out without needing to look for him.

‘I thought he’d be waiting outside the practice grounds.’

I couldn’t understand why he was standing there watching me.

‘Is he standing there because he’s anxious after that conversation earlier?’

As I thought that, Ruad’s head turned this way.

I pulled my gaze away before our eyes could meet and pretended to diligently watch someone else’s magic circle.

As the nervous clapping of the students waiting for their turn continued, before I knew it, my turn approached.

My preparation was perfect. There was nothing to hesitate over.

All I had left was graduation.

The demonstrations of the three people before me were all finished, and now only my turn remained.

The three professors who had been standing in front of the student beside me moved together and walked toward me.

Jeran’s light green eyes met mine.

It was a face I was seeing for the first time in a while, since it had been a long time since I started writing the thesis in earnest.

Jeran was still handsome like a figure in a masterpiece painting, and the gaze he fixed on me was warm.

Just enough to make my resolve waver, a little.

He seemed to think my stiff expression was tension ahead of the demonstration, and he spoke to me gently.

“Miss Lucia Even.”

“Yes, Professor.”

“Have you been well? You must’ve had a hard time writing the thesis and even going through the review, but did you get any sleep?”

In truth, while writing the thesis, I felt like my hair was falling out from agonizing over which ending to choose, and I didn’t sleep well, but I smiled and nodded.

“I’ve rested well. Well enough that you don’t need to worry.”

“But….”

Jeran trailed off, and his green eyes sank deeply. His gaze swept over my face.

“Your complexion is too bad. You should feel relieved now that graduation is close.”

“….”

“Are you nervous because of the demonstration…. Or do you have some other worries?” Jeran asked in a soft tone. His concern for me was obvious.

Meeting the gaze of the man who’d been consistently kind from the first time we met until now made my heart, already unsettled, heave hard.

It felt like some huge emotion was climbing up my throat, but I forced it down and smiled.

“It’s nothing. I just… didn’t sleep much because I was nervous about the demonstration.”

“Once you finish the demonstration today, go back to the dormitory and rest well. Don’t worry about anything.”

“Yes, I understand. I will.”

I nodded and promised Jeran as he earnestly urged me. Part of my chest stung, but I pressed even that down with a smile.

Soon, Jeran returned from being my kind advisor to his position of evaluating the magic demonstration, and he asked, “Are you fully prepared?”

“…Yes.”

“Good. Then please begin.”

As I took a deep breath as if to firm up my resolve, a status window appeared before my eyes.

[Would you like to activate the magic?]

[YES / NO]

Before I knew it, the ground beneath my feet was shining gold.

The familiar magic circle, one I’d seen so many times, the one completed with the help of the game system, filled the practice grounds.

‘If I press this button, the magic activates and I return to my original world….’

Before pressing the button, I gave Jeran my final farewell.

“Thank you for accepting me as your disciple, Professor Ennessy.”

“…Miss Even?”

“Then, take care of your health.”

Leaving behind Jeran’s expression, as if he sensed an ominous premonition with no clear reason, I quickly pressed the button.

[YES]

The moment I pressed it, the magic circle unfolded in an instant, and multiple enormous magic circles lit up above, stacked layer upon layer. Then they began to turn, meshing like gears.

‘It’s not magic, it looks like a single mechanical device….’

I only had time to marvel briefly before an intensely bright golden light swallowed me.

The light was so strong that my vision washed white, and even Jeran’s urgent face reaching out to me was wiped away cleanly.

Then darkness came for a moment.

[…Loading.]

How much time passed? A new status window appeared before my eyes.

[〈Thump Thump Magic Academy〉 True Ending cleared!]

[Returning to the real world….]

While the loading continued for a long time in the dark, a strong light suddenly struck my eyes.

I hurriedly shut my eyes tight, scrunching up my face.

Then the light seemed to fade, and when I slowly opened my eyes, I was standing in a scene that felt familiar somehow.

A narrow, stifling room that becomes full just by placing a bed and a desk.

A desk with several books scattered messily.

On top of it, my laptop and, inside the document program that was open, the thesis I wrote.

My phone, the one I used, was lying neatly on the bed.

I hurriedly gripped the phone in my hand and checked the date and time.

The moment I saw the numbers on the screen, my eyes went wide and I covered my mouth with both hands.

I’d finally succeeded in coming back. Back to my studio apartment, where my thesis was, with a week left until the thesis review.

***

After seeing the true ending in 〈Thump Thump Magic Academy〉 and safely returning to reality, I also succeeded in graduating in reality.

Rather than saying I succeeded in graduating, it would be more accurate to say I clung to it, grabbed onto their pant legs and begged to graduate, and barely scraped by with a close call, but since that was far better than not graduating, I decided to fully enjoy this joy.

I somehow graduated from graduate school, but I didn’t make any plans at all for what I’d do to make a living, whether I’d get a job, or what I’d do next.

It wasn’t that I didn’t think about it, but whenever I thought about what I should do to make a living, it felt bleak and I couldn’t come up with an answer.

‘But I can’t go back to graduate school, either.’

Graduate school was sickening now. From now on, I wasn’t even going to glance in the direction graduate school was in.

With only one thing certain, that I’d never go to graduate school again, and with no plans at all for what came next, I decided to clean up my place and go back down to my parents’ home for now.

I planned to go down and rest well at home while thinking slowly. About my future, and about how I’d make a living, and everything.

And right now, I was diligently packing my moving boxes to match the moving date.

I paused to rest and stared out the window, lost in thought, then pulled my gaze back and looked at the bright yellow rose stuck in the vase on top of the sink.

Originally, I had it on my desk, but since I’d already gotten rid of all the big stuff, I had no choice but to put it on the kitchen sink.

I didn’t know how the rose I got from Ruad ended up crossing over here with me, but I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away, so I bought a cheap vase and stuck it in, and it stayed with me until now.

‘I’m moving soon….’

I wondered whether I should take it with me or not.

When moving, it was best to throw away all the small miscellaneous things to reduce the load as much as possible.

But this rose couldn’t really be called a trivial little thing. It held meaning and memories.

If I said I didn’t miss Ruad, or Evan, or Jeran, that would be a lie.

Sometimes I missed them, so around the time I passed the thesis review and regained my freedom, I searched to play 〈Thump Thump Magic Academy〉 again, but strangely, all I got was a result saying there was no such game.

I dug through my records and found the site where I’d pre-registered, but the address was already gone, and it’d been closed for a long time.

In the end, I couldn’t meet them again even inside the game.

In the last letters I sent them, I revealed the fact that I wasn’t the real Lucia. That the last year at the academy, the year I spent with them, wasn’t her.

And I also said that I wasn’t a person of that world, and so I couldn’t live in that world, and that even though it couldn’t be helped, I had no choice but to use dimensional transfer magic to return to the place where I lived.

I didn’t know whether they’d understand my choice or not, but I wanted to explain why I had no choice but to make that decision.

Because I thought that was the way to part while hurting them less.

‘There’s nothing more agonizing than parting with someone you love without a single word or explanation.’

Even though it was hard to say those words to their faces, so I used letters instead, maybe even that felt selfish to them.

No matter what, it was the same as trampling on their sincerity, regardless of my circumstances.

Even so, I hoped my sincerity would reach them.

‘At least I want to somehow confirm whether the letters I wrote to the three of them were received.’

But to do that, I’d have to go back to the Calypse Empire, and there was no way for me to be possessed by the game again.

I didn’t have any mysterious power like mana at all.

All I could do was think that they probably arrived safely, and that they were probably doing well.

‘Maybe they’ve already forgotten someone like me completely and are living happily with Lucia, played by someone else.’

Thinking that made me feel a little strange, but that was outside of what I could do anything about.

“I should just work hard on preparing to move….”

I got up and finished packing my moving boxes.

Each time the clear tape ripped off with a loud sound, boxes packed full piled up one by one in a corner of the room.

When the cleanup was almost finished and I was agonizing over what to do with the yellow rose at the very end, someone rang the doorbell.

“…?”

‘No one’s coming today.’

The moving company staff were scheduled to come three days later, and my dad, who was going to carry the important heavy stuff, was scheduled to come the day after tomorrow.

Even as I found the sudden doorbell strange, I walked to the entryway as if drawn in.

“Who is it?”

The moment I absentmindedly undid the lock and opened the door, I finally sensed something was off. The air beyond the door was different from usual.

But the door was already open.

Through the crack of the opened door, an unfamiliar shoe tip suddenly thrust in, and then the door was flung wide open.

I staggered back in surprise, and then, under the sharp stares pouring down on me, I slowly lifted my head.

Then three men with familiar faces called my name in unison.

“Lucia.”

…It seemed 〈Thump Thump Magic Academy〉 wasn’t over yet.