I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 729 - Side Story 2: The End is a New Beginning (2)

Empress Aileen couldn't understand what Rudger had just said for a moment. The execution of Demon King Heathcliff. It was extremely unexpected that he himself was the one to utter those words.

"Are you serious?" 

"Are you doubting the intent of my words? It wasn't particularly a joke."

Aileen shook her head as if she had a headache.

"I would have preferred it to be a joke. It's more of a problem if you're serious about telling me to kill yourself." 

"It could appear that way. I hope you'll understand. It's been 3 years since I've met someone and had a conversation." 

"That's an absurd excuse. That's not something someone who would be perfectly fine living alone on a deserted island for over 10 years would say." 

"Right. That was a joke."

"......"

Aileen thought that Rudger had really changed but it wasn't a bad thing. Rather, it was good to see him throw off his mask and become closer to his true self. It was just that the circumstances didn't follow favorably.

"If you said that, you must have an intention. What exactly is it?" 

"You've changed too. When you were the First Princess, you would have spoken indirectly, trying to dig out even this kind of intention somehow." 

"If you want that, I can still do it for you. However, right now the situation doesn't allow for it, so I have no choice but to be a bit more direct." 

"First, what I said stands as is. Heathcliff's execution. There's not a shred of falsehood in that." 

"That's why I don't understand even more. Don't you want to clear your grievances? Don't you need to cast off the false stigma the world has placed on you?"

If things continue like this, Rudger will become a villain who goes down in history. He already has. However, though the probability is low, there's still a chance remaining to somehow overturn and change that.

Aileen tried to seize that chance, but Rudger didn't think that way.

"How much time and effort would it take to do that? And how many ideological conflicts would arise in the process?" 

"Is that important?" 

"As an individual judgment, it's not important. But you're the Empress now, aren't you? The choices you must make as a ruler shouldn't be swayed by personal ideology." 

"Hah. This is giving me a headache. Even when someone tries to show you goodwill, you won't accept it."

Aileen wasn't unaware of why Rudger was saying such things. The method Rudger thought of was the first thing Aileen had considered too. However, thinking of it and choosing it were separate matters.

The execution of Demon King Heathcliff. Placing all the sins that occurred in the holy war 3 years ago on one person and achieving complete peace by executing that person.

From a greater good perspective, that was right. If you examine the truth carefully, the causal relationships are complexly intertwined like a spider's web, but would people want to unravel them one by one? You just need to cut the knot itself in one stroke.

Because most people prefer something simple and clear over something complicated.

But Aileen didn't voice that. It wasn't something to say in front of the person involved, asking them to die for the peace of the continent.

'Maybe I've become soft too.'

Aileen is an Empress. For the sake of the Empire's interests, she could endure causing losses to others as much as needed.

Still, the reason she couldn't do that to Rudger was because she owed him a great debt.

The her right now wasn't Aileen as Empress. She was the Aileen who had a long connection with the person named Rudger Chelici.

That day, during the time when she was a powerless girl wandering alleys with nowhere to lean on. Her weak self when she happened to meet that man at the edge of a cliff.

She thought she had killed that weakness when she became Empress, but meeting Rudger after 3 years made her realize it was a huge misconception.

Her weak self hadn't died. Rather, it was alive even more vividly than before.

"Are you agonizing over your human side? That yourself as a person, not as Empress, isn't such a bad thing."

Rudger spoke as if reciting when he saw Aileen like that. Aileen flinched without realizing it. She had concealed her emotions, but Rudger saw through them all too easily.

"How......"

Aileen, who would normally have brushed it off nonchalantly, couldn't respond properly. When facing Rudger's blue eyes, she realized the fact that she couldn't hide what she wanted to hide.

"During the past 3 years. I constantly repeated to myself in the imaginary space. What I would do going forward, what I could do."

Rudger let out a chuckle.

"But it was useless. Because I couldn't escape from the imaginary space on my own. The only thing I could rely on was someone coming to rescue me. To think about the future, the situation wasn't favorable."

But Rudger was human and at the same time a mage. They were beings who endlessly explored and thought.

Rudger, who had been looking at the future, gazed at the present.

"So I decided to try adapting to the imaginary space. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't impossible either. You know what? At the bottom of the imaginary space, there are substances of unknown identity. They're as white as fine sand on a beach and have the same texture. Though the constituent materials are fundamentally different."

After adapting to the imaginary space while looking at the present, Rudger's next choice was one thing. Namely, reflecting on the past.

He looked back on his life and recalled the people he had met one by one. And to not forget them, Rudger drew pictures.

On a board made by scraping the bottom of the imaginary space, he drew the people who came to mind one by one.

It wasn't an action done because it had any meaning. He just thought it would be okay to look back once since he had only been running forward.

In this way, Rudger examined the past one by one and became able to understand people in more detail.

That target included Aileen as well.

"To not forget precious people. And to understand them even a little more. In the imaginary space, I repeatedly retraced and recalled the past like that." 

"......So what about me?" 

"A girl armed with strength and coldness, yet who possesses warmth. That's what First Princess Aileen was like when I first met her."

She possessed the governing ability as an Emperor, but at the same time had a nature that cherished her family dearly.

As a ruler, it was a major flaw, but as a person, it was a strength that couldn't be exchanged for anything.

"Even after 3 years have passed, you remain the same." 

"......"

Rudger seeing through Aileen wasn't because he had some great insight. It was simply the belief that Aileen, the her he knew, wouldn't have changed. Not reason, not logic, not calculation. It was because of such pure belief.

"Because of such belief?" 

"It was because of such belief that I could endure."

People think that to become a great being, they must discard emotions. Because the moment they are swayed by trivial things, they can never rise to high positions.

But Rudger knows that emotions aren't discarded. They're overcome.

Discarding weakness was weakness itself. It wasn't the pursuit of strength. It was running away to take an easier path.

If you truly pursue strength, you must know how to embrace even your weak parts. Only by accepting it and overcoming it can you truly be reborn as a superhuman.

"That's not the mindset a ruler should have. A leader must be perfect."

Having weakness and overcoming it isn't perfection. Perfection is a realm that reaches the extreme of the positive from birth. The very fact that something needs to be overcome becomes a flaw.

"That's right. Being perfect is only possible if you're born with it from the beginning."

Flawlessness. What a beautiful word. There would be many people who pursue it. Perhaps it's the ultimate representation possessed by intelligent beings.

"But I prefer being born imperfect and overcoming it rather than being born perfectly from the start." 

"Why?" 

"Because that's more admirable." 

"......"

Aileen, whose face had been dumbfounded for a moment, soon relaxed and let out a laugh.

"You remain the same. No, you seem to have grown even more." 

"Thanks for the compliment." 

"According to that opinion, I should designate you as a public enemy of the continent and execute you. Is that really okay?" 

"Yes. I have no regrets."

The life he lived as Heathcliff wasn't that short, but there was a more important life than that. He had lived with many names and identities until now.

Though they were created as cover, at least while living with such names, he always lived doing his best.

Therefore, he has no regrets.

"Because Heathcliff's story must end here." 

"An execution you're volunteering for yourself. With this, there's nothing I can say."

Of course, that didn't mean she would just kill Rudger who was before her eyes.

Both Rudger and Aileen knew that Heathcliff's execution didn't mean Rudger's death. It was closer to erasing the existence itself called Heathcliff.

"I'll have to find a stand-in. Anyway, I can just cover any death row prisoner's face with a cloth and execute them. People won't know if he's the real Heathcliff or not. No, perhaps that fact isn't important." 

"I trust you'll handle that well."

The continental situation that starts to become noisy with the Demon King's execution will regain stability once again.

"Then what will you do now? If you erase your name and existence, will you start with a new identity?" 

"There's no need to do that. I already have one."

Toward Aileen, whose eyebrow twitched as if she didn't understand, Rudger said.

"Rudger Chelici. That's the real me."

At Rudger's smile full of pride, Aileen couldn't say anything.

After Aileen left, night came. Rudger looked up at the sky outside the window.

He was in a space too luxurious to be called a prison. From here, even the sky could be easily looked up at.

The sky full of clouds showed nothing but Rudger gazed beyond those clouds.

As if to respond to that waiting, the clouds receded and bluish moonlight spread like a curtain but Rudger knew that it wasn't a natural phenomenon.

'No. If we're talking about scale, would it be okay to call it a natural phenomenon?'

Rudger, who chuckled, closed his eyes tightly for a moment then opened them. Beyond the window where there was nothing, a shadow was floating.

The shadow's red eyes curved like a crescent moon and grinned slyly.

"It's been a long time." 

"Yes. It's been a long time. Master."

Grandel extended her white, slender fingers and the tightly locked window opened by itself.

Grandel didn't ask for permission. Having entered inside, she stepped lightly on the floor with her bare white feet.

"If you returned, you should have said you returned, why make this master come find you directly?" 

"As you can see, the circumstances aren't favorable." 

"Hmph. Just an excuse. You're someone who could escape from a place like this anytime if you put your mind to it."

Grandel snapped at Rudger. Rather than being happy that her disciple had returned alive from the imaginary space, she seemed to be in a bad mood about something.

Rudger pondered for a moment why Grandel was like that. Since she was always capricious, figuring out her behavioral principles was difficult even for Rudger, who had been with her for a long time.

"Were you worried about me?" 

"Worried, what? Rather, if something had happened, I was thinking of punishing you directly myself. I didn't raise you to be that weak." 

"For that, you seem to be in quite a bad mood." 

"That's because......"

Grandel tried to say something but stopped. Instead, while glancing sideways, she kept sending dissatisfied looks at Rudger. Ah, this was the reaction when she was really in a bad mood but couldn't speak because of her pride.

Rudger smiled gently toward Grandel and said.

"I'm sorry for being so late. Mother." 

"......"

Rudger's action was the correct answer. Grandel's expression, which had been full of dissatisfaction, melted smoothly like snow meeting a spring breeze.

"......You're very late." 

"Yes. It's what an unfilial son would do." 

"But it's fine since you understand."

Grandel went to the sofa with toddling steps and buried herself in it.

"Is your body okay?" 

"Are you worrying about me now? You're 100 years too early for that." 

"It's natural for a son to worry about his mother." 

"......Compared to my prime, I'm still lacking. But I've recovered a lot, so there's no need to worry." 

"That's a relief."

Grandel's body was fine, but her soul wasn't yet in a fully recovered state. But even so, her strength, her existence, wouldn't fade.

A lion doesn't have problems just because a few teeth or claws are broken. In the end, it was a problem that time would solve on its own.

"So what have you been doing all this time?"

Grandel couldn't hide her curiosity so Rudger explained to her what he had done after the holy war.

He told her everything, including the story of going to Earth across dimensions.

At that moment, Grandel's expression hardened coldly.

"Wait." 

"Yes."

"Did I hear wrong?" 

"No. You heard correctly."

"......I knew you were extraordinary. I also understood the fact that you were arranged as a vessel of the gods. However, I've never heard the story that you have a mother." 

"The former me was also human. Isn't it natural to have a biological mother?" 

"That place, you called it Earth?" 

"Yes." 

"I'll have to go see it once."

And I'll have to meet her once. To see who this person is, who is my son's mother.