Aether's Far East, Eastern Terrace.
There was a beautiful tourist spot called 'Heavenly Dragon Cliff.'
It was so nad because the shadow cast by the cliff when the sun shone upon it resembled a dragon ascending into the heavens.
Although it seed like the place had reached the end of its life as a tourist destination due to corruption by dark magic over the past 100 years, it remained a popular spot for adventurers.
The breath of life still lingered in this place... But today, it appeared that breath had finally ceased.
Clouds began to rise from the ground.
Not taphorical clouds, but the very clouds that hovered in the sky.
However, due to the distortion of space, those clouds had lost their sense of direction and temporarily descended to the ground. They appeared like a blanket of mist.
As the clouds were swept away by the wind, the landscape revealed was no longer a cliff, but more akin to a basin.
The once majestic and imposing cliff had completely collapsed, turning into flat land.
The mountain range that ford the backbone of the East had been uprooted and forcibly relocated.
Adventurers visiting this place might need to redraw their maps.
"... Ah. This is troubleso."
Rudrik Hallow, the Lord of the Manwol Tower.
He tried to wipe the blood trickling from his mouth with his sleeve. However, in the next second, he realized that his right arm had long been crushed and disappeared beyond the rift in the dinsion.
"Haha. It seems the Twelve New Moons are still a bit too much for ..."
The duel with New Moon Space had been a valuable experience for him.
The magical duels of spatial mages were unlike any ordinary magical duel.
For them, the phrase 'seeing a step ahead' lost all aning as they fight while disregarding spatial constraints.
Step!
New Moon Space erged through the clouds, his expression cold as he gazed down at the fallen Rudrik.
"You're wasting your ti. Is there any reason for this, mage."
"Who knows."
Even though he knew he would lose, it wasn't entirely aningless.
He could alter a very trivial event that was set to happen in the future.
If Rudrik's predictions were correct, New Moon Space would now sense the deranged fate from the New Moon Silver.
Of course, any class 9 mage could sense the current distortion of fate, so there was no way New Moon Space would have missed it.
However, he likely wouldn't have discovered the most critical cause of this change in fate.
The mont the Twelve New Moons recklessly intervened in the world, all events and stories would be altered.
New Moon Space would not move in ignorance. He would certainly seek out the one cause through the New Moon Silver that was distorting fate and attempt to eliminate it.
That couldn't be allowed.
New Moon Space could observe the entire world, but... He couldn't see the very small and trivial things.
This fatal flaw must be exploited as much as possible.
Soday... Until the boy could stand against New Moon Space.
"There are less than 10 years left until the end of the world. Such aningless struggle, mage."
New Moon Space said as he gazed into the void, searching for traces of the vanished New Moon Silver.
However, true to his reputation, the old man had fled quickly, leaving no trace behind.
"... Next ti, I won't let it slide like this."
New Moon Space said this before disappearing through the grayish space.
Sigh...
Rudrick Hallow exhaled a hot breath as he slowly stood up and brushed his left hand over the spot where his right arm had vanished.
As he did, a golden light shimred, and in an instant, his severed arm regrew.
The process of restoring the missing limb had consud an enormous amount of mana, but it was better than being crippled.
"By the way, you're quite impressive."
Rudrick spoke as if talking to himself into the empty space.
Surprisingly, a silver line appeared in the air, and the space cracked open, revealing the figure of New Moon Silver, who had disappeared long ago.
"To think you're skilled enough in spatial manipulation to deceive even one of the Twelve New Moons..."
"Ti and space are inseparable. After living on the run for hundreds of years, you have to get good at it."
New Moon Silver murmured bitterly.
"Have I been living too irresponsibly and letting everything go too easily?"
"... That's not true."
Rudrick denied his words, but he couldn't help feeling sorrowful.
Perhaps... New Moon Silver had seen so terrible vision. Sothing even more horrific and brutal than the end of the world, which was predicted to occur in ten years.
That was why he gave up on his foresight.
He chose to abandon everything, including his mories. He entrusted them to his fragnt, and lived a secluded life, which led to the current situation.
'What on earth did he see that made even New Moon Silver unable to overco his fear and turn his back to flee?'
This was a question that had always troubled Rudrick.
"Are you worried?"
When New Moon Silver suddenly asked this, Rudrick nodded.
"... Yes."
The old man smiled bitterly, turned around, and walked off sowhere.
"I really am a pitiful sight."
But why did his back appear light?
It was as if he had shrugged off all the burdens he had been carrying.
There was no doubt about it.
He had made up his mind about sothing.
It was likely a decision he had made long before even eting Rudrick.
What had caused him to change?
Just as the question arose, it was answered.
There was only one person in this world capable of challenging fate like this.
'It's only been half a year since he appeared in the world, yet...'
He was a remarkably quick boy.
With that thought, Rudrick closed his eyes.
He was utterly exhausted from the earlier battle... So he needed to rest a bit.
———-
Compared to modern tis, the communication thods in Aether were exceedingly inconvenient.
It wasn't just that there were no personal cell phones—if the other person wasn't near a phone, getting in touch with them was incredibly difficult.
"I'm fine so you don't need to worry."
Especially when the person on the other end was the Elf King.
For an ordinary student to contact her privately without scheduling it in advance was practically unthinkable, but thanks to Alterisha, Baek Yu-Seol had managed to get the number for his personal phone set up in the dormitory, so contact was barely possible.
"Are you sure nothing's wrong?"
"Of course. Are you worried about ?"
When Florin responded with a teasing tone, Baek Yu-Seol replied nonchalantly.
"Naturally, I am."
"... Oh, really?"
She was silent for a mont before she let out a soft laugh.
"Hehe. I don't know why, but that makes feel good."
Even after hearing her response, Baek Yu-Seol couldn't feel relieved.
It wasn't just that he was worried about her—he was worried about himself.
Recently, sothing had gone wrong with his mind.
To be precise, it was more accurate to say that there was a problem with the skill 'The Blessing of Yeonhong Chunsamweol.'
Baek Yu-Seol knew his own ntal strength well. While it was ridiculous to quantify ntal strength, he'd always considered himself to have been born with a reasonably strong mind to have overco a difficult childhood with a positive attitude.
On top of that, he'd received the blessing of Yeonhong Chunsamweol, so he thought he had developed a ntal fortitude that wouldn't waver or crumble under any circumstances.
But there was a persistent negative feeling invading his mind.
'Despair.'
So, it would be correct to assu that there was a problem with Yeonhong Chunsamweol...
Yet, Florin was doing just fine without any worries.
Recently, she had been taking off her mask more often, which had been quite refreshing.
There was no problem with Florin, who received the blessing of Yeonhong Chunsamweol along with him.
This ant that the issue wasn't with Yeonhong Chunsamweol but rather with his own mind.
If that was the case, there were two possible reasons.
Either Baek Yu-Seol had beco so negative that even the blessings of Yeonhong Chunsamweol couldn't handle it, or there was a problem with soone ntally connected to him.
It was not the forr.
He'd always lived with the mindset of 'What's the worst that could happen? Death?' and enjoyed life without any particular worries.
In other words, it ant that 'Celestia,' who was ntally connected to him, was definitely the cause.
"Hmm. Do you have ti?"
"... Ti?"
Florin hesitated for a mont as if pondering, and that was when Baek Yu-Seol realized he had made a mistake.
To ask the Elf King, who was always busy, if she had ti. And that too as a student...
Even a chimpanzee wouldn't ask such a silly question.
"Oh, I'm sorry—"
"It seems I can make ti."
"... You can?"
"Yes. Although it's hard to carve out much ti since I'm swamped with work..."
She let out a deep sigh full of worry.
It appeared the void left by the retirent of Orenha, her aide, was quite significant.
"Hmm... Even a brief mont is fine. I was thinking of going to see Celestia."
"Oh my, really?"
Baek Yu-Seol heard that Celestia was one of Florin's very, very close friends.
Perhaps even her only friend.
Anyway, she cherished Celestia greatly, and as a High Elf, she would be extrely sensitive to any changes in the spirit's state.
Besides that, Baek Yu-Seol also wanted to arrange a ti to et with Celestia together.
"That sounds wonderful. When should we set the ti?"
"Is this weekend okay?"
After speaking, a trivial thought crossed his mind.
'Could it be that the king is just as busy on weekends as on weekdays?'
But Florin answered without hesitation.
"Yes! Then, let's et on the weekend."
After ending the call, Baek Yu-Seol checked the ti.
It was almost ti to head out for dinner with Mayuseong and Eisel under the pretense of club activities.
Since it was sumr, he didn't need a coat, so he just wore a vest over his academy uniform shirt and stepped out.
In the hallway, several second-year seniors were gathering and heading sowhere in a hurry.
By their attire, Baek Yu-Seol could tell right away.
'League of Spirit'
If Soul Chess was the top intellectual sport in the magic world, then League of Spirit was definitely the top physical sport.
Of course, Stella Academy had a League of Spirit club, and its size was incomparable to Baek Yu-Seol's food club.
It received an astronomical amount of sponsorship, almost rivaling professional sports teams. It made sense considering that every year, a massive tournant was held where youth teams from magic academies gathered.
Moreover, considering that this academy carried the prestigious na of Stella, the astronomical sponsorships appeared almost inevitable. After all, this was a matter of pride between academies.
"Hmm, this is troubleso... What should we do?"
"Let's just bring in senior Malek from the third year."
"That senior has excellent individual skills, but his teamwork is... And he doesn't follow orders well."
"And the remaining slots have be filled by first-years. If we bring a third-year student, we'll get a penalty."
"What can we do?"
As Baek Yu-Seol tried to walk past them, it appeared like they were facing so sort of difficult issue.
He had a hunch.
'A sub-episode flag.'
In the ga Aether World Online, if one played with the character 'Edna,' this kind of event happened quite frequently.
It was a very common and cliché setup where an ordinary commoner girl, Edna, who wasn't particularly interested in clubs, ended up filling in as a substitute in the League of Spirit, where her dazzling talent was discovered.
This served as a prologue event that players go through before engaging in a League of Spirit match online, and it was an episode that over 90% of players experienced.
And now, that event was happening here.
"Hey, aren't you Baek Yu-Seol, the first-year student?"
"Yeah. I've heard you're smart."
"It doesn't seem like you've played League of Spirit before... But wouldn't you do just fine?"
Then the seniors approached Baek Yu-Seol and asked.
"Have you ever tried League of—"
"I'm not interested."
He quickly declined and made a run for it.
"Wait. Just listen to us until the end! It doesn't matter if we lose the match!"
"I'll buy you sothing delicious afterward!"
"No thanks."
As unfortunate as it was, Baek Yu-Seol had no interest in the League of Spirit.
To be precise, he was tired of team gas.
When he lived in Korea, he played 5 vs. 5 team battle gas to the point of exhaustion, and he realized one undeniable truth.
'When five people gather, one of them is bound to be trash.'
Even among those seniors, who knew who might be the troll. There was nothing more frustrating than losing because of bad team luck when you played really well.
Baek Yu-Seol definitely preferred 1 vs. 1 individual play.
"Just once..."
He shook off the senior's hand reaching out to him from behind and quickly picked up his pace.
'Sorry, but I'd rather they ask Edna for that kind of favor.'
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