I Need the True Ending to Graduate - Chapter 16

As the days began to grow warmer and the season of budding flowers arrived, he kindly asked if I had been doing well all this time, and then suddenly brought up the matter of tuition fees.

[…I know this matter may come across as somewhat abrupt to you, Miss Even. However, I have no choice but to write this letter for a reason.

Do you remember what I told you when I called you to the laboratory last time? That if you ever needed my help, you should tell me at any time.

I said I would support you in every way I could, but I began to feel that you wouldn’t rely solely on those words.

It’s because I have yet to gain enough of your trust. It hasn’t been long since I became your advisor, so it’s only natural.

For a moment, I forgot that fact. I also forgot how difficult it must have been for you to bring yourself to speak up, even if you faced hardships.

So, although it may be a little late, I am sending this letter in case you might need my help.

From what I have learned, the deadline for paying tuition and dormitory fees is next week.

If you haven’t yet found a patron or are in need of one, I can become your patron.

The funds required for payment and the documents needed for patron registration have already been prepared, so all that remains is your reply saying that you need my help.

If this is truly a moment when you are desperate for someone’s help, then take my hand. If you do, I won’t hesitate and will gladly reach out to help you.

Please don’t feel burdened and tell me freely. I’ll say again that the words I spoke to you back then were nothing but the truth.

Then, I will wait for your reply.]

‘What, not only does he know the academic schedule, but he even prepared the payment amount and the patron documents in advance?’

After reading the letter from him, I felt a complex mix of surprise, gratitude, and burden.

First of all, I was thankful that Jeran Ennessy cared about me.

Checking the tuition and dormitory payment deadline, which had nothing to do with him, and reaching out before the date arrived was too troublesome to be done out of mere kindness.

On top of that, he was a professor and a noble.

I knew all too well how rigid the class system was, and the fact that someone like him had accepted a commoner like Lucia was already something I was grateful for.

Yet on top of that, he offered to pay my tuition and had even prepared the paperwork to become my patron in advance.

Spending his time and concern to look after a student like this was no easy task.

And from my perspective, he must have thought it would be difficult for me to ask for help, so he considered my feelings and offered first.

Yes, Jeran Ennessy was sincere toward me.

I was very thankful, but because of that, I felt all the more burdened.

I was nothing more than one of his many students.

No matter that Jeran Ennessy was a capture target and had been unfailingly kind from the very first meeting, this felt a little too much.

‘Would someone really do this much for a student?’

It didn’t seem like he was merely motivated by a teacher’s concern or the wish to help a struggling student.

‘It’s a bit overwhelming, but that doesn’t mean I can just ignore a letter from the professor.’

Although his goodwill was excessive, the content of the letter itself was something to be grateful for.

If I had not gotten the amount I wanted from Evan Bell, I probably would’ve shed tears of gratitude upon receiving Jeran Ennessy’s letter today.

‘Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out.’

Thinking so, I took out a sheet of stationery and wrote him a reply.

I thanked him for looking into my circumstances and being considerate despite being busy.

However, I told him that I had already obtained the necessary money and paid the fees.

I apologized that, despite the time and effort he had spent preparing for me, I had to send such a reply.

Still, I expressed my heartfelt gratitude and promised that if I ever needed help, I would consult him first.

After sending that letter by magic, I received his reply the very next day.

Without showing any signs of displeasure, he simply said that it was fortunate, and ended his letter kindly by telling me that I could always rely on him.

Although this small, unexpected happening had occurred, in the end, things were resolved smoothly, and thanks to that, I was able to begin the semester without issue.

‘Perhaps it’s because I went through so many twists and turns just to remain at the Academy, but even if I’m not exactly joyful, I feel deeply moved.’

Memories flashed before my eyes—falling into the world of Thump Thump Magic Academy just a week before my thesis defense, then suddenly losing both my advisor and patron, and all the hardships I had to endure as a result.

Never in my life had starting a semester been so difficult, which only made the feeling more profound.

‘Now that there’s no risk of being expelled, all I have to do is write my thesis and raise the affection of the capture targets. And while doing so, I’ll also dig up hidden information.’

And now that I had safely welcomed the new semester, it was time to do what I had postponed due to unavoidable circumstances.

That was preparing to write the thesis.

I had already confirmed that Lucia’s grades and the graduation requirements posed no issue.

All that remained was to write a graduation thesis good enough to qualify for graduation, but as everyone knew, I knew nothing at all about magic, and I also knew next to nothing about the field Lucia had been researching.

The game system would help me, but I couldn’t know to what extent, so I couldn’t simply rely on it.

At the very least, I needed some basic knowledge.

So before properly writing the thesis, I planned to go through the reference books, papers, and research texts listed in the research proposal Lucia had written, which had been highly praised by the professor, and study them step by step.

‘I never thought I’d end up reading papers and research texts in a library inside a dating simulation game.’

Feeling a faint sense of monotonous boredom in this familiar routine that was no different from real life, I prepared to head to the library. Then suddenly, a status window popped up.

[Quest: Sit and study in the Academy Library Reading Room. (0/1) (!)]

“……?”

For a moment, I was glad to see the status window again after such a long time, but then I was flustered by the message instructing me to study.

‘I was planning to go study anyway, even if you didn’t directly assign me a quest like this…’

Maybe because I had lazed around idly like a slug all vacation without doing anything productive, the system worried I would not go anywhere near the library.

‘Still, no matter what, would I really abandon my thesis and just waste time?’

…Of course, if I could, I did feel a little like lazing around forever.

But I was the type of person who properly did what I had to do. Apart from writing the thesis, I wasn’t the sort to put off my responsibilities or act unfaithfully.

Besides, to return to my original world, I had to see the true ending no matter what, so I couldn’t just fool around.

It was not as if I had any intention of settling down to live permanently in the game world either.

‘What do you take me for? Do you want me to show you what going astray really looks like?’

Feeling annoyed, I glared silently at the status window. Meanwhile, my body was busily changing clothes and packing my bag with the list of papers and research books I had already noted down to read.

Grumbling uselessly, I finished preparing to go out.

Then I left my dorm room and headed to the library.

***

When I stepped outside, a breeze with its chill somewhat softened greeted me.

The once quiet place, almost devoid of people, had become lively and bustling, clearly showing that the semester had begun.

Even the desolate and dry scenery within the Academy during winter now overflowed with vitality as spring came.

Though the air wasn’t yet fully warm and the flower buds were still tightly closed, the sight of colorful buds clustered on the bare branches was enough to feel the presence of spring.

When the weather grew a little warmer and the flowers began to bloom, the Academy scenery would become even more splendid.

The bright faces and laughter of the young, shining students brushing past me would also enrich the scenery further.

‘It’s the best time of their lives.’

I thought so inwardly, even while keeping a blank expression as I walked.

When one is shining, one does not realize it, and only after it passes does one know—that irony existed in life.

I wasn’t old enough to talk about life as if I had lived it all, but I was old enough to long for the moments when I had shone.

‘When I get back, I’ll never go to graduate school again.’

Thinking such trivial thoughts, I continued walking.