I Need the True Ending to Graduate - Chapter 96

“Did nothing unusual happen to you, Professor? You suddenly became someone who exploits their own student overnight. It seems like you must’ve been getting a lot of bad looks from those around you.”

“Bad looks, huh… I did indeed become a terrible person overnight.”

Jeran nodded and readily admitted it.

“It seems people are whispering that I acted like a prude, then sold out my colleague just to make a commoner woman I liked my own. An unscrupulous traitor, apparently. But honestly, it doesn’t feel all that bad.”

“….”

I was startled by how severe the criticism was, worse than I’d imagined, but Jeran didn’t seem particularly bothered by the complete nosedive his reputation and public image had taken.

He wore a surprisingly calm expression. There wasn’t the slightest sign of regret or distress over choosing to protect me even at the cost of his own image.

If anything, he looked relieved, and that resolve seemed firm, like a newly risen star.

I was left dumbfounded, unable to understand where such strength came from.

‘He hesitated so much about having sex with me, though.’

“…Professor, how can you be so unaffected by all this?”

I stopped walking without thinking and asked. The words came straight out, without any prior intention.

Jeran stopped as well.

“You’re being insulted for things you didn’t even need to endure, all because of me. Don’t you regret taking me on as your student?”

“Not at all. Your face looks much brighter than before. And you’ve started smiling more often, too.”

Jeran said that and smiled softly. His green eyes shone with joy as he looked at me, as if my smile and happiness mattered more to him than anything else.

“That alone is reason enough to have no regrets about taking you in as my student. If there’s anything I regret about you, then that would be….”

Jeran trailed off, then pressed his lips into a firm line. His expression darkened as well.

And in his eyes, emotions I couldn’t understand welled up.

As a deep silence settled, the atmosphere around Jeran and me gradually grew subtle.

A gentle yet cool breeze brushed over our hair once, then passed by.

When the wind died down, I quietly waited for his answer, but Jeran ultimately swallowed his words.

Instead, he asked me a question. For some reason, his gaze was a little more cautious than usual, warm as it rested on me.

“…Miss Even. How are you now?”

“….”

“Are you happy?”

I didn’t know what kind of answer I should give Jeran. The question was too abrupt.

Asking whether I was happy now implied that I hadn’t been happy before.

Everything I knew about Lucia’s past came from what I’d seen through Ruad’s and Evan’s memories. Of course, it wasn’t something that could be called happy, but….

Still, no matter how I thought about it, Jeran didn’t seem to be speaking on the premise of what I’d seen. It felt like there was some other meaning behind his words.

As I hesitated, unable to answer, the status window I’d seen recently suddenly surfaced, glowing brightly.

‘No, I haven’t even had sex with Jeran yet, so why is this suddenly….’

[Hidden Event! Pleasant Academic Conference Presentation Complete!]

[Jeran Ennessy’s past has been unlocked.]

“…?”

‘Wait, presenting at the conference was a hidden event? It wasn’t something I absolutely had to do while crying and forcing myself just because my advisor told me to?’

I barely had time to feel betrayed before my vision swam, and Jeran’s past unfolded before my eyes.

***

“The world will be easier than you think, and living rightly will be harder than you think.”

Those were the words my mentor once called me over and said to me.

I couldn’t clearly remember whether it was when I was twenty, just before graduating from the Academy, or when I was twenty-two or twenty-three, after I’d begun to throw myself fully into research and achieve results.

However, there was one thing I remembered for certain. When I first heard those words, I couldn’t understand them at all.

No matter how young I was, I knew at least that the world wasn’t so lenient. And I found it hard to understand what was so difficult about living rightly.

If stealing was wrong, then all you had to do was not steal. If you were supposed to help someone in trouble, then you just helped them.

What was so difficult about the simple act of not doing what you were told not to do, and doing what you were told to do, that he felt the need to impress it upon me so earnestly….

Jeran, who might have been twenty, or perhaps twenty-two or three, thought for a moment before asking.

“…I’m sorry, but what exactly does that mean?”

“As time passes, a day will come when you understand my words.”

That was all my mentor said, and he never mentioned it again. His expression made it clear that explaining it any further would only tire his mouth.

Jeran knew that his mentor wasn’t a particularly kind person.

Of course, he was worthy of respect as a wizard and as a researcher, and Jeran did respect him. But he had none of the kindness of a parent bird feeding its young, patiently explaining one thing after another to disciples who didn’t know.

If you noticed, you noticed. If you failed to notice, then you would remain a fool forever.

Knowing his mentor’s eccentric personality, Jeran found it difficult to understand his words, but he didn’t press further.

Instead, like an unsolved riddle often does, that sentence lingered in Jeran’s heart for a long time.

Several years later, the mentor who had left him with that unsolved riddle passed away, and Jeran was appointed as a professor at Calypse Magic Academy, as if succeeding him.

Knowing well that academia wasn’t so easy a place that graduating early and entering the Academy at a young age would automatically earn him a professorship, Jeran was all the more grateful for that summons.

The years he’d spent staying up through the nights to research, writing papers, traveling across the Empire to personally examine, record, and analyze magic circles that were actually being used commercially, flashed through his mind like a panorama.

‘To return to my alma mater not as a student, but as a professor… it feels strange.’

Even so, it was simply unfamiliar because it was something rare to experience in life. Jeran’s chest was filled with excitement and anticipation.

He knew himself that his abilities and knowledge were still insufficient to teach students.

So he resolved to devote himself even more diligently to studying, research, and teaching, so that he could be of help to many students.

And if among them he were to discover a student with outstanding talent, he wanted to actively help that talent fully bloom.

If by producing many excellent and talented wizards in that way, he could contribute even a little of his meager strength to the Empire, he thought that would make him truly happy.

Jeran became a professor at Calypse Magic Academy with those feelings in his heart.

***

Winter, just before the start of the semester.

In a season when the cold breath of winter wind still hadn’t yet faded from the streets, Jeran was organizing the laboratory he would be using from then on.

Though it was called a laboratory, the interior itself was nothing special.

All it contained were the basics that were provided: an absurdly large desk, a long rectangular table with chairs, and bookshelves lined up along the walls.

On top of that, the floor was filled with more than a dozen large boxes that hadn’t yet been organized, making the place thoroughly cluttered.

Even so, Jeran was very pleased by the simple fact that he had his own space for research.

‘It’s empty like this now, but as time passes and the hours I spend in this laboratory accumulate, it’ll be filled with the things I like.’

Just imagining that scene was enough to put him in a good mood.

But when he looked at the books he hadn’t yet managed to organize, the thought that he still had a long way to go naturally made him sigh.

‘I did sort through them as best as I could….’

Still, he wasn’t the type to carelessly leave what he’d already brought lying on the floor, so Jeran diligently organized the books.

He opened a box, checked the books inside, and repeated the process of placing them onto the shelves according to his own system, when someone knocked on the door.

Knock, knock.

Jeran paused in his organizing and stared blankly toward the door. Then he asked, “Who is it?”

“Who do you think it is. It’s me, Isabella Cornell.”

“Professor Cornell…!”

The moment he heard the name of the person who had helped him in many ways during his student days, Jeran set down the book he was holding and hopped over the boxes, opening the door.

A middle-aged woman of small stature greeted Jeran with a bright smile. “You seem busy trying to make your laboratory usable. Looks like you don’t even have time to sit and drink tea with me.”

“That’s not true. But the lab is a bit messy, so I’m not sure how suitable it is.”

Jeran stepped back slightly, feeling a bit embarrassed, and showed her the state of his laboratory.

Isabella tilted her head slightly and quickly scanned the lab visible past his torso, then said, “…It’s certainly not an atmosphere where you can leisurely drink tea and chat.”

“Then….”

He was just about to say that he was sorry, but it might be difficult to serve tea right now, and that he would visit Professor Cornell’s laboratory when she had time instead.

But she lightly brushed past Jeran and stepped into his laboratory, then sat down in a suitable spot.

“Even so, since I’ve come all this way, I can’t just leave. It’d be a waste of my trip here, too.”

“Are you really all right? There’s quite a bit of book dust.”

“My laboratory shelves are full of books piled up and collecting dust as well. Don’t make such a fuss.”

“Haha. That’s true.”

At Isabella’s remark, Jeran let out an awkward laugh.