I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 726: Finally Smiling (2)

Rene headed beyond the dimensional gate created by connecting all modern science and magic, wearing a white robe.

The moment she stepped forward, her vision changed, and an imaginary space like a universe filled with starlight unfolded.

At that sight, Rene trembled.

It was a scene that stimulated humanity's primal fear. The image of Rudger falling down into that space was still vivid before her eyes.

Rene steeled her heart.

'It's okay. I ran simulations countless times and conducted repeated research. I even prepared safety measures just in case. So it'll be fine.'

Making a promise to herself somewhat eased her mind.

Rene threw her body down into the imaginary space as the pure white robe draped over her body glowed and gently enveloped her.

Imaginary space is a place where dimensional pressure is constantly applied.

Since the size and scale vary each time, she had to weave defensive spells to resist the dimensional pressure accordingly.

Rene continued descending into the depths of the imaginary space.

Gradually crossing the sea of twinkling starlight, as she fell into the deep abyss, pitch-black darkness filled with nothing visible spread out.

Just looking at it made the hair on her skin instinctively stand on end.

She couldn't imagine what was lurking down there. That's what made it even more frightening.

Setting foot in unobserved space was like that.

This was a place where humans could never survive, especially if that time had been as long as three years, even more so.

But

'Still, I have to check.'

She couldn't believe it without seeing it with her own eyes.

Reason told her that Rudger was dead, but her heart believed that he was surely alive.

'Because he gave me the code with the magic design written on it. Then there must surely be a reason. Brother isn't someone who would act without any reason.'

The power of light surrounding Rene's body gradually weakened.

No matter how sturdy the protective artifact was, it was straining to withstand the force of dimensional pressure.

'I can still endure it. I haven't reached the danger level yet, and I brought plenty of magic stones as backup.'

Rene gathered courage and entered the deep layers of the imaginary space.

If Rudger had fallen down, he would surely be somewhere around here.

'But just how far down do I need to go?'

If she continued like this, even the fixed coordinates would become distorted and she would lose her way back.

If that happened, she wouldn't be able to find Rudger and would become lost in dimensions forever.

Rene bit her lip.

She wondered if she should return now, but Rene decided to go just a little further.

'Just a little. Just a very little more.'

Repeating this to herself countless times, how far had she descended?

The space that had been nothing but black suddenly brightened below, revealing a pure white space.

Rene's feet, which had been endlessly descending, touched the ground.

"This place..."

It was a place filled with pure white sand.

Above, the imaginary space spread out like a night sky.

It was like being in a pure white desert in the middle of the night.

Nothing could be seen in the desert. Literally, only undulating ridges were everything.

Swallowing her saliva, Rene walked through the desert.

Crossing ridges and going down. How many times had she repeated this?

Rene discovered something.

It was some kind of structure made by molding sand.

"...!"

Rene examined the structure. The place touched by human hands looked somewhat like a statue.

It couldn't have been formed naturally.

Finally!

Rene looked around.

Beyond her field of vision, another structure was visible.

Approaching closer, she saw a structure with a more distinct form than before.

It looked like something roughly made by molding clay. She didn't know what it was trying to create, but she could feel that the skill level had improved.

'There's one here too!'

The next thing she found had the appearance of a statue.

Similar, but it bore human form. A gleam appeared in Rene's eyes.

Rene kept walking.

In the direction she was heading, structures made by molding pure white sand passed by one by one.

Some took the form of trees.

Some bore human shapes.

Others looked like beasts.

All of them bore the touch of human hands.

"Hah. Hah."

Rene's steps quickened.

She could feel that she was getting closer and closer.

Her chest felt like it would burst with anticipation as Rene ran across the sandy ground without resting her legs.

Rene, who had been running while panting, stopped walking and placed her hands on her knees to steady her breathing.

Rene arranged her disheveled hair and looked straight ahead.

Her pupils shook more than ever before.

Her tightly clenched hands trembled, unable to contain her emotions.

At the end of her gaze was a large stone tablet.

With a width of over 10 meters, it looked like a giant canvas since it was made by molding pure white sand.

On that canvas, the figures of various people were drawn.

Among the images of people all smiling, many were people from Rene's memories.

And in front of it was a person drawing.

The black hair in her memory had grown longer than before. It was long enough to reach the ground, past the waist.

But aside from that, nothing had changed at all.

The hands of the man who had been drawing stopped.

His head slowly turned, and sapphire-like blue eyes faced Rene.

That color like the sea was exactly the same as what she had seen countless times in her memories.

Rene lifted the corners of her trembling lips into a smile.

If she didn't, she felt like she would burst into tears right away.

"I, I came."

"Ah."

The man slowly opened his mouth.

Having not spoken for a long time, he seemed unaccustomed to the very situation of making sounds.

But perhaps quickly adapting, formalized language flowed out through his lips.

"Is it Rene?"

"Yes."

"You've changed a lot."

Rudger's words contained multiple meanings.

Rene had become a proper adult.

She was taller than before, her hair was longer, and her atmosphere was quite mature.

But what Rudger was referring to included more than that.

"Can you now freely control your magical power?"

Rene answered with a trembling voice.

"Yes. All of it, thanks to you, brother."

"That can't be. It was something you could achieve purely through your own efforts. I did nothing."

"But because of the magical formula you left behind, I was able to come this far."

What Rudger had left for Rene was dimension-crossing magic that he had devoted his entire life to researching.

To move beyond the third dimension, crossing imaginary space to travel to other dimensions.

For that purpose, he created tesseracts, Klein bottles, and coordinate designation formulas.

He created magic that used shadows to leap across space, and finally created the Crystal Corridor.

However, there were still many things he hadn't been able to create.

Rudger judged that it wouldn't be him who would complete it in the final moment.

So he handed everything over to Rene and sent her back to the original world.

Even while sacrificing himself.

"I have many things I want to ask. Just how did you survive? People said you must have surely died. I didn't believe it either, but I couldn't shake off that anxiety."

"Is that so?"

Rudger opened his mouth, recalling three years ago.

"At first, I thought I had died too. But I received help."

"Help? From whom exactly?"

"Gods."

Rudger lifted his head.

"Having finished their revenge against Lumensis, they squeezed out what little power they had left to protect me."

It was thanks to the help of such gods that Rudger survived even after falling down into the imaginary space.

Because of this, Rudger was able to endure and survive in this place without dying even under dimensional pressure.

The fact that he didn't need food intake was also for this reason.

Even so, his body showed no signs of being gaunt anywhere. Therefore, it must be the power of gods.

"But I was merely alive, there was nothing I could do in such a place. This is an imaginary space with nothing in it. So I began to create things here, one by one. I gathered sand and did what I could. It was hard to endure without doing anything."

Making sculptures, drawing pictures, or writing.

The possibility that he couldn't survive here forever couldn't be ruled out.

When the power of the gods protecting him was exhausted, that would be his end so Rudger decided to leave traces of himself.

"So that if someone came to this place, they could discover them."

The picture he was drawing now was the same.

Tracing his memories, he drew the faces and forms of people he had met and formed connections with throughout his life.

Just drawing them felt a bit lacking, so he added happy smiles to their faces.

Drawing and drawing again like that.

Eventually, what remained last was his own appearance.

But Rudger couldn't bring himself to draw his own face in the end.

He wondered if it was okay for him to intrude into this place where everyone was smiling happily.

More than that, he couldn't envision himself smiling happily like those people.

Due to those doubts and anxieties remaining in his heart, Rudger stagnated before completing the final part of the picture.

How long had it been like that?

Finally, a person came. Rene, who was his student and whom he had sent away three years ago, had come all the way here.

In a more grown form than he remembered.

"It seems quite a lot happened before you got here."

"That's right. It's hard to express in words. Do you know how difficult it was? It would have been absolutely impossible if I had been alone."

"If you had been alone?"

"Everyone helped me. Senior Erendir, Empress Aileen too—ah, she's not a princess anymore. Principal Elisa and Teacher Selina, Sedina and Julia and other friends too. And various countries helped as well. The support funds sent by the Yuta Kingdom were significant. The New Magic Tower didn't spare their support either. Language-using mages even came to help several times."

Rene excitedly brought up stories of the people she had met.

They were all people who existed in Rudger's memories.

Each of them had given Rene help, whether small or large.

That's why Rene was finally able to come here.

It wasn't through the power of one person alone.

It was possible because everyone helped.

"How much time has passed in the outside world?"

"Three years. Three whole years have passed since you disappeared and the holy war ended."

Rene bowed her head to Rudger.

"I'm sorry. I should have come to rescue you sooner."

Rene felt endlessly sad about the fact that Rudger had spent three years alone in such a barren space.

A person would go insane after enduring just a week in a place with no one else, but it wasn't just a month or a year—it was a full three years.

Rene felt inexplicably heartbroken.

If only she had done a little better, if only she had slept a little less, if only she had tried a little harder.

Such hypotheticals never ceased.

Seeing such a Rene, Rudger shook his head.

"Don't blame yourself. I know. You must have done your best. During those three years, you wouldn't have wasted a single day. Coming here is proof of that."

"Brother..."

"Three years. Yes, three years. Those guys, the students I taught, must have all graduated too."

"Yes, that's right. All the students you taught are each going their own way."

"Is that so?"

Rudger turned his head and quietly gazed at the picture placed in front of him.

"Three years."

He moved his hand.

A smile was carved onto his own face drawn on the stone tablet.

It was the time when Rene had come to find him.

But it was also the time when this picture was completed.

"Well, it's faster than I thought."

Rene held out the crystal orb she had prepared for Rudger.

It was an item made by imitating the crystal escape device that Rudger had given to Rene. Its performance could be considered even superior.

"We'll use this to return to the coordinates you remember."

Rudger accepted the crystal orb.

The usage was simple. He just needed to flow magical power through it.

Rudger was about to flow magical power when he suddenly looked down at his hair dragging on the ground beneath his feet.

He had left it alone because it was bothersome to cut, but no matter what, it wouldn't be needed anymore.

-Snip.

Rudger cut his hair to his back.

Then he gathered the remaining hair and tied it back.

"Let's go now."

The crystal orb enveloped Rudger and Rene's bodies.

The two people's bodies slowly ascended.

Leaping across the imaginary space, the dimensional gate could be seen in the distance as a blue dot.

"We've arrived!"

"So it seems."

Rene crossed the dimensional gate, pulling Rudger's hand with a bright smile.

Their vision changed with the light. He quietly gazed at the changed scenery.

It was a wide cavity. All kinds of machines filled the surroundings, and plants were growing beneath the dimensional gate.

He could feel the gazes of people around them.

Researchers and mages who had participated in dimensional gate development were staring at Rudger's appearance with disbelieving eyes.

"I never thought it would really succeed."

"Has our effort finally borne fruit?"

"More than that, that person is surely..."

Even though three years had passed, there were people who recognized Rudger.

He was an incomparably famous person on the continent, so it was natural.

Rudger realized from the reactions of living, breathing people that he had finally returned.

That's when it happened.

The main door of the laboratory shaped like a cavity opened wide and knights in uniform came rushing in.

While everyone was confused about what was happening, the knights surrounded Rudger.

"W-wait a moment! What is this!"

Rene was flustered and tried to say something, but Rudger raised his hand to cut off her words.

"It's fine to go."

"But..."

"You don't need to worry."

Since Rudger said that much, Rene had no choice but to move away from his side and pass by the knights.

From beyond the knights, First Princess Aileen—no, now Empress Aileen—approached and stood in front of Rudger.

"Demon King Heathcliff van Bretus. You are under arrest."

Aileen spoke in a cold voice and personally handcuffed Rudger's hands.

Feeling the sensation on his wrists, Rudger quietly looked down at the handcuffs.

Considering that he was the one who had caused the holy war three years ago, it was rather gentlemanly treatment.

Rudger looked around.

He could see familiar faces.

The students he had taught had now become proper adults and established themselves.

That fact made him laugh.

"Hahahaha!"

Rudger couldn't contain his rising joy and burst into laughter.

Everyone was surprised by that reaction and widened their eyes.

He laughed.

Rudger had laughed out loud, like an innocent boy.

It was a face that usually only showed sneers, chuckles, or cold smiles.

People who knew him realized that this man could make such a bright smile.

Even Aileen could only stare blankly at Rudger because of that smile.

Eventually, Rudger, who had stopped laughing, lightly wiped the tears that had formed at the corners of his eyes and said:

"Yes. Shall we go now?"