Magic Academy's Bastard Instructor Chapter 313: Vanitas [5]

"Where did you even co from?"

Even now, despite lissa standing directly in front of him, part of him still felt unable to properly process the reality of the situation.

"Well..."

lissa scratched her cheek awkwardly afterward before beginning to explain.

According to her, she had been born into a family of mages. At first, her life had been completely ordinary by modern magical standards.

She grew up with no mories or any understanding regarding Araxys, reincarnation, or her past life, simply believing herself to be another child born into a mage household.

But then, everything changed on her sixteenth birthday.

"That’s when the mories started showing up..."

At first, it had only been bits and pieces. Dreams that felt too vivid to simply be dreams. Familiar emotions toward people she had never t before. Strange flashes of mories involving another life, and another older brother whose face she could never fully rember, no matter how hard she tried.

Then gradually, the mories only beca stronger.

Eventually, lissa began piecing everything together little by little until she finally realized the horrifying truth surrounding her own existence. She rembered Araxys. She rembered the ritual. She rembered agreeing to beco humanity’s salvation for Zen’s sake.

And most importantly... she rembered him.

"So after that, I tried looking for you..."

Because only now did he realize sothing.

"...Wait. How old are you right now?"

lissa blinked once before answering naturally.

"Twenty-six."

Silence imdiately overtook the cabin.

Because that ant it had taken her an entire decade just to find him.

Ten years spent searching endlessly throughout a world vastly different from the one she originally rembered, all while having mories from another lifeti and chasing after a brother who had hidden himself within a dinsion nobody should have been capable of reaching in the first place.

And sohow, despite all of that, lissa still found him anyway.

"...And how exactly did you find ?"

lissa tilted her head slightly afterward as though the answer itself were obvious.

"Well..."

She pointed toward herself.

"I just followed the connection."

The mont those words left her mouth, Zen’s expression furrowed.

Because of course.

lissa was still tied to Araxys as its anchor, while Zen himself had spent decades repeatedly exposing his existence to higher-order phenona through reincarnation research, dinsional manipulation, and attempts at transcending the cycle.

Whether intentionally or not, his existence had already beco deeply intertwined with the sa forces connected to Araxys itself.

To lissa, finding him probably felt like instinct. Like tracing a thread endlessly pulling her toward him, no matter how far he tried hiding himself from the world.

"Every ti you did sothing with whatever it is you’ve been doing... the connection would get stronger."

lissa slowly looked around the cabin afterward.

The countless research notes scattered everywhere. The layered magical formations embedded into the walls. The dinsional distortions fluctuating throughout the room itself.

The atmosphere surrounding the cabin no longer even resembled an ordinary human residence anymore.

"Oppa..." lissa’s voice softened. "...You’ve been alone this whole ti, haven’t you?"

"...."

Zen said nothing.

But perhaps that silence alone already answered the question better than words ever could.

The cabin itself reflected the state of his mind perfectly. Endless stacks of research notes filled every corner of the room while incomplete formulas and dinsional calculations were scattered recklessly across tables, walls, and even the floor itself.

There was no warmth here. Nor any sign that soone had truly lived here as a human being.

"...."

It did not take long before Zen completely broke down.

Before lissa could even properly react, Zen abruptly pulled her into his arms and buried his face against her shoulder as sobs echoed.

"Oppa—"

lissa imdiately froze in surprise. This was the first ti she had ever seen him like this.

A broken man who had spent more than a century drowning in guilt, isolation, fear, and obsession entirely by himself.

"I’m sorry..."

Zen’s voice cracked between each sob.

"I’m sorry..."

The words repeated over and over again afterward. For decades, Zen convinced himself he had already accepted the consequences of his decisions.

He told himself that sacrificing everything, including his own humanity, was necessary if he wanted to eventually save civilization from the Alephs.

But now, with lissa standing before him once more, that resolve was completely shattered.

Because for the first ti in over a century, Zen was forced to directly confront the one person he could never truly justify himself to.

"It’s okay, Oppa..."

lissa’s voice softened gently afterward as she slowly wrapped her arms around him despite still looking visibly startled by his sudden breakdown.

"It’s okay..."

For several monts, she held him closely while Zen continued trembling against her shoulder like soone who had finally reached the limit. T

"I know you never ant to hurt ..."

lissa’s fingers lightly tightened around the back of his clothes.

"And I know... you probably didn’t have much of a choice either...’

Zen imdiately clenched his fists harder afterward.

For him, those words hurt even more. Because in the end, she still understood him despite everything.

"I should’ve found another way..." Zen muttered weakly between breaths. "I should’ve protected you..."

lissa shook her head. "You tried."

"No... I convinced myself I did," he said. "In the end, I still made a choice..."

"...."

For several monts, lissa remained completely silent afterward.

But eventually, she gently pulled back just enough to properly look up at him.

"Oppa. If you really didn’t care about ..."

The dim light throughout the cabin reflected in her eyes.

"...You wouldn’t have spent all this ti drowning in guilt in the first place."

"...."

For several long minutes afterward, lissa simply allowed her older brother to break down in her arms without saying anything further.

The cabin remained completely silent aside from the quiet sound of Zen’s uneven breathing and sobbing.

"Are you okay now?"

"...Yeah."

"Should we go get so fresh air?"

"...Ah."

Only then did he suddenly realize that for over a century, he had not gone outside even once.

"Co on, Oppa."

And because of that, Zen no longer even knew what the outside world looked like anymore.

Human civilization had continued evolving throughout the years while he remained trapped within this cabin, obsessively trying to solve an impossible problem alone.

Entire generations had already been born and died while Zen remained frozen in place ntally, endlessly chasing the sa goal without ever allowing himself to move forward.

And so, for the first ti in over a century, Zen finally stepped outside again.

"...Has it really been that long...?"

The world was completely unrecognizable.

The Korea Zen once known no longer resembled the nation preserved within his mories at all.

The land itself had changed drastically over the course of ti, reshaped by magical influence, shifting civilizations, and the fall of old political structures following Araxys’s descent into the world.

Modern civilization, as Zen rembered it, was gone.

In its place were kingdoms. Empires, even.

City-states built upon magical infrastructure and ancient-looking architecture, vastly different from what he knew.

Massive stone structures infused with mana towered over cities while transportation systems replaced much of the technological landscape that Zen once considered ordinary.

Even humanity itself looked different now.

Over generations, the constant migration and integration of civilizations after Araxys gradually blurred the concept of race itself entirely.

The distinctions humanity once obsessed over throughout the old world had slowly faded as populations mixed endlessly across continents over the course of a century.

People no longer looked distinctly "Asian," "European," "Middle Eastern," or anything else that Zen once recognized so rigidly in the past.

Instead, humanity had beco... blended.

It was common to see soone with pale skin and obviously East Asian facial features speaking with an accent originating from regions once belonging to Europe.

Others possessed darker complexions alongside naturally light hair inherited through generations of mixed bloodlines that no one even considered unusual anymore.

And strangely enough, no one appeared to care.

The world Zen originally ca from had once been deeply conscious of race, nationality, ethnicity, and countless superficial differences humans used to constantly separate one another.

Yet after the collapse of modern civilization and the reconstruction of society under entirely new systems, many of those distinctions gradually lost aning altogether.

Humanity had bigger concerns now.

Just as Araxys predicted, humanity adapted once again.

And yet, despite all the changes civilization underwent, one thing surprisingly remained.

Belief.

"...Is this the Vatican?"

Zen stared toward the enormous empire dominating the region before him. Its architecture resembled an overwhelming fusion of holy cathedrals, ancient kingdoms, and magical civilization, intertwined together into one unified authority.

An empire entirely built around religion, faith, and worship.

Massive statues depicting divine figures towered across the capital while bells echoed endlessly throughout the streets below.

Countless citizens prayed openly without sha while holy insignias covered nearly every visible structure throughout the city itself.

Perhaps religion was simply humanity’s way of coping. A thod of preserving hope against a universe fundantally too horrifying for ordinary people to truly comprehend.

"Huh...?"

Zen’s brows slowly furrowed afterward.

Because the more he observed the empire surrounding them, the stranger everything began to feel.

At first glance, it rely looked like another religion humanity had developed throughout the last century in order to cope with the collapse of the old world and the countless catastrophes that followed afterward.

But sothing about it felt... wrong.

The citizens continuously referred to a holy existence known as Lumine.

Massive cathedrals were built in its honor while countless priests and worshippers prayed toward it with frightening devotion.

Statues, paintings, and symbols depicting Lumine could be seen practically everywhere throughout the empire as though the entire civilization itself revolved around that singular divine figure.

And yet... the longer Zen stared at those depictions... the colder his body gradually beca.

Because the holy figure humanity now worshipped did not resemble so abstract god, dragon, or incomprehensible celestial being as he had originally expected.

...For so reason, the statues portrayed soone familiar.

"Ah, I forgot to bring this up..." lissa imdiately said.

Beside him, lissa slowly raised her gaze toward the enormous statue towering over the capital city.

"...Jihyeon..."

Silence imdiately overtook him afterward.

Because the statue standing before him, the very sa figure millions seemingly worshipped as Lumine throughout this empire, had a face similar to the Jihyeon they knew.

No, it was not just similar, but identical.

Even the expression carved into the statue itself resembled the cold yet compassionate look Jihyeon always had.

"...."

Zen knew.

It was her.

A perfect one-to-one resemblance.

Then, a chuckle escaped his lips.

"...You really worked hard, Jihyeon."

Even after death, Jihyeon still continued carrying humanity forward.

Eventually, lissa tilted her head slightly beside him.

"Actually..." she began. "I’ve been aning to ask this whole ti. But what exactly did Jihyeon Unnie even do?"

"That’s..."