The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 14

Sharin Sazaris.

One of the most unpredictable characters in the Blazing Butterfly arc.

Her eyes, as if holding a galaxy beneath her sleepy eyelids, quietly gazed at me.

Just that alone gave me the feeling of being pierced by something.

“What nonsense is this? Are you still half asleep?”

I made an excuse for now.

“Then, should I go ask the professor?”

I hurriedly reached out and grabbed her by the back of her neck.

“I was wrong. Stop right now.”

Experts aren’t fair play.

Fight fairly with timing and fabrication.

Sharin glanced at me while her neck was held.

When I let go of her, she twirled around.

“I really like the fresh cream bread they sell at the cafeteria for lunch.”

“I can’t stand greasy things, though.”

“I like it.”

I barely held back a sigh.

“So I just need to bring it to you at lunch, right?”

“Yup yup.”

So this is the cost of keeping her quiet.

“See you then.”

Sharin waved her hand lazily and headed towards the Department of Magic building.

After staring at her back, I turned to leave as well.

She’s fickle, but she keeps her promises.

At least, until lunchtime, she probably won’t go around blabbing.

‘For now,’

I should take care of my duties.

No matter how much I need to be disliked by Isabel, it would be problematic if it’s for being lazy.

* * *

Today, once again, I managed to avoid Isabel in the morning class.

Recently, the looks from the women’s faction have been getting more and more menacing.

Even the guys don’t seem to approach me much, maybe because they don’t want to be on the receiving end of those glares.

Thanks to that, I’ve been enjoying a peaceful school life.

Honestly, I’ve been too busy to care about friendships anyway.

‘Focusing on just the main people is enough for now.’

Whatever it is, I need to put out the most urgent fires first.

I packed my things and left the classroom.

Just then, I saw the other students heading to lunch.

I followed them to the cafeteria.

Normally, I would choose something simple for lunch and head to the student council to find Nikita.

But today, something came up, so I couldn’t do that.

I bought fresh cream bread and a red bean bun for myself, along with some tea and a drink.

As I was about to leave, a familiar face caught my eye from the opposite side.

Surrounded by a crowd of people, there was a weary-looking boy.

With messy, short brown hair and large round glasses.

He’s the most famous first-year student, a spirit mage who’s contracted with the Spirit Lord.

Poara Silin.

“Poara, why don’t you join our team? If it’s you, I can recommend you to the professor for a special entry.”

“What are you talking about? Poara is joining our team! Get lost, you who came late!”

“You guys, stop being so greedy! You each have a spirit mage already! We don’t have one at all!”

And that crowd is currently fighting over Poara.

It’s the scramble for him before the upcoming Demonic Palace Tournament, after the mock battle.

In preparation for this, they were trying to secure a skilled person like Poara in advance.

In the Demonic Palace Tournament, the team members are the most important factor.

The floor you can reach depends on how capable your team members are.

That’s why the mock battle originally had a strong PR feeling.

It was a way to advertise yourself to strong teams, showing them, ‘I have this much skill, so take me.’

The professors also aimed to form as many strong and good teams as possible.

So, the result of this mock battle was extremely important.

However, some people were desired by every team, even without participating in such mock battles.

Poara, right there, was one of them.

‘First-year students usually need about half a year of training before entering the Demonic Palace.’

But sometimes, there are exceptions who stand out.

At Zeryon Academy, they created a special class for such individuals.

Poara wasn’t originally part of the special class.

But he successfully made a preliminary contract with a Spirit Lord.

So, whether by choice or not, he’s now part of the special class and is set to enter the Demonic Palace alongside the seniors.

Of course, Poara hasn’t been assigned to a team yet.

That’s why the students are flocking to him like this.

‘Poor guy.’

Or is he?

Thanks to his contract with the Spirit Lord, his life’s on the fast track now.

On second thought, there’s really nothing to pity.

If anything, I’m the pitiful one for never even seeing a spirit’s face despite all my effort.

“Ah! Senior Hanon!”

At that moment, Poara suddenly called out my name.

Why is he calling me now, of all times?

When I looked at him in confusion, he gazed at me with eyes sparkling like an abandoned puppy’s.

There was a desperate plea in them, begging me to rescue him from this situation.

As a result, all the students surrounding Poara turned their attention to me.

Their stares seemed to ask, ‘Who do you think you are?’

Wow, what a bold attitude.

Among them were even some third-year seniors.

But their gazes didn’t faze me in the slightest.

It’s because the looks from the girls in my department are far sharper.

I walked over to Poara and grabbed his arm.

Immediately, the students’ gazes grew even sharper.

“There’s some student council business. I’m thinking of taking Poara with me. Is that a problem?”

With that, I confidently displayed my student council badge.

The students hesitated and backed off.

I felt the thrill of power.

After all, Poara is also currently part of the student council.

If I said I was taking him for student council business, they couldn’t argue.

The students stared at me with frustrated expressions.

They looked like they had just lost a prize they thought they had caught.

Should have joined the student council.

Say it with me, power rules.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, sir!”

I led Poara outside, and only then did he let out a relieved breath.

He then bowed his head deeply toward me.

“Senior Hanon, thank you so much. You really saved me!”

“You’ve had it rough too.”

Now that I thought about it, there was something about Poara.

I decided to take the chance and ask him.

“Poara, do you have any plans to boycott the student council later on?”

“Huh? Wh-what? There’s no way I would do something like that!”

Poara frantically waved his hands, so much so that his glasses went crooked.

‘Guess he’s not thinking about that right now.’

Well, his whole life has changed.

Still, I’m a bit concerned.

Even though the world has changed a lot from how it used to be, if he doesn’t join the boycott, it weakens the leverage of those who do.

‘But this isn’t an immediate issue.’

I’ll think about this more later.

“Uh, Senior Hanon.”

Then, Poara looked at me as if he had something to say.

It’s annoying to see a guy sneaking glances like that.

“What is it? If you’ve got something to say, just spit it out.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful in the Great Forest of Spirits. I couldn’t do anything but hide.”

Poara spoke with slumped shoulders.

I’m pretty sure I told him not to come, though.

It seems he’s been bothered by it.

“I don’t think there’s anything to apologize for.”

“While you were fighting that Mystery, all I did was make a contract with the Spirit Lord. It wasn’t until after that I realized you had collapsed.”

Poara muttered, repeatedly apologizing.

Honestly, I was glad he didn’t get involved at all.

But it seems he didn’t feel the same way.

Looking at him now, he’s not a bad kid.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“Still, isn’t there something I can do for you? I feel like I’ve just been causing trouble, and even my family would be ashamed of me for that. I really want to do something for you!”

“Not really…”

I was about to say there was nothing he needed to do, but then stopped mid-sentence.

I rubbed my chin for a moment, then turned to Poara.

“Well then, can I ask for your help when I need it next time?”

“Of course! Anytime!”

Poara’s face lit up immediately as he answered.

He looked like a brown retriever.

‘I’ve got a decent card here.’

A Spirit Lord contract holder.

There will be plenty of opportunities to make use of that.

Thinking about it further, I realized I could solve the boycott issue at the same time.

‘I’ll make good use of him.’

In the end, he’s a Spirit Lord contractor I made.

I’ll have to put him to work as much as I can.

After parting with Poara, I arrived at the Department of Magic building.

Along the way, some of the magic students gave me curious looks.

“He’s really short.”

“Is he a first-year?”

“His name tag was red. Haven’t seen him before, have you?”

“Wait, could he be the transfer from the Martial Arts department?”

Some of them seemed to recognize me.

Rumors spread fast.

How can word travel that quickly?

I brushed off the students’ stares and kept walking.

At the same time, I glanced around the corridors of the magic department with curious eyes.

Unlike the barren hallways of the Martial Arts Department, the Magic Department had all sorts of things.

‘It’s actually kind of interesting to look at.’

Various magical artifacts were displayed like art pieces.

As I walked, curiously observing them, I soon arrived at the second-year classroom.

The room was half-empty, probably because most of the students had gone for lunch.

The problem was that Sharin wasn’t there.

‘She’s not here.’

I thought she’d be here since she asked me to bring it to the Magic Department classroom.

I guess I’ll just leave it on her desk and go.

As I was about to enter, I suddenly felt someone’s presence behind me.

Just as I turned my head, I realized someone’s forehead was right in front of mine.

Oh, we’re going to crash.

Wham!

With a loud sound, both of us fell backward.

“Owwwww.”

Holding my forehead, I looked up to see Sharin, also clutching her forehead and curling up.

She looked at me with a teary expression and protested,

“Why did you turn around then?”

“The one who snuck up behind me is the one at fault.”

As the pain subsided, I walked over to Sharin.

When I offered my hand, she grabbed my arm and wobbled to her feet.

Seems like the impact from the collision hit her pretty hard.

“…The bread?”

The first thing she did was ask for the bread.

“Yeah, I brought it. So, where were you just now?”

“I went to pick some flowers.”

“Where exactly are there flowers?”

Of course, her hands were empty.

Then she lifted her sleepy eyes and said,

“No sense at all.”

“Yeah, I’ve got plenty of sense. Why use such roundabout language to say you went to the bathroom?”

I obviously knew the answer already.

A slight look of dissatisfaction crossed Sharin’s eyes.

“Harsh.”

“I’ve got a reason to be. You made me run errands for you today.”

I followed her into the classroom and placed the bag of bread on her desk.

“So, you won’t be telling anyone about what happened earlier, right?”

As I asked, Sharin casually took out the bag of bread.

Then, seeing the contents, she immediately began opening the red bean bun.

“Hey, hold on.”

I quickly stopped her as she was about to take a bite.

She looked at me as if asking what the problem was.

“You asked for a cream bun, so why are you eating the red bean bun? That one’s mine.”

“Cream buns are too greasy.”

“You said you liked them this morning.”

“I changed my mind.”

Should I just hit her?

“Harrup.”

Suddenly, Sharin licked my hand, which I had placed in front of her mouth to stop her.

Startled, I pulled my hand back, and she took a big bite of the red bean bun.

Her small cheeks puffed up as she chewed it down.

I could only stare at her in disbelief as I pulled out a chair and sat across from her.

“Tasty. Thanks.”

“You don’t sound grateful at all.”

“Well, Isabel told me to say thank you whenever I get something.”

I sighed.

It’s best not to get involved with this fickle person, but here I was.

Defeated.

Reluctantly, I took out the cream bun and took a bite.

As expected, the greasiness spread through my mouth.

Red bean is definitely more my style.

Suddenly, I noticed Sharin staring at my cream bun.

“You said you didn’t want any.”

“Things always look tastier when they belong to someone else.”

Without hesitation, she leaned forward, opening her mouth.

“Ahh.”

Her tiny mouth opened, and I could see her uvula clearly.

I stared for a moment before lifting my fingers instead of the cream bun.

Snap!

She shut her mouth, as if signaling she’d bite my fingers off if I tried.

Reluctantly, I gave in and handed her the cream bun.

Once again, she took a big bite.

Even though cream was smeared all around her mouth, she didn’t seem to care.

She chewed vigorously and swallowed, then tilted her head as she looked at me.

“So, why did you buy this for me?”

I should hit her.