I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 766 - Side Story 39: What Remains Unchanged Even When Going Beyond (2)

The core of the advice Rudger gave was only one thing.

Namely, never forget the fact that you are 'you'.

People change.

They face various incidents, and the larger or more shocking the scale of those incidents, the more they are driven to change because if they don't change, they cannot survive.

There is no one who can flexibly overcome every conflict. Conflict is a collision that distorts the trajectory of life.

One can break through that collision head-on, but there are limits to that.

The first time or two, somehow it can be managed, but if it continues, gradually something somewhere breaks down.

The durability of one's humanity diminishes.

That's why many people adapt to such collisions, or conflicts.

Or they let them flow away so that the pain is minimized. Or completely ignoring them is also an answer.

However, Clinton's case was a bit different.

The collision he had to experience was absolutely unavoidable, force majeure.

His own ability increased, the position where he stood changed, and he was exposed to vast possibilities he had never known before.

That was greater than all the conflicts and hardships he had lived through in his entire life combined.

In a great torrent, even a great mage is merely an individual.

Clinton must have been afraid. Rudger understood that fear because any human would naturally feel fear.

"Wherever you go, whatever scenery you see, you just need to not forget the fact that you are you."

Clinton closed his mouth as if he had realized something from those words.

He looked up at the empty air once, then looked down at the blazing campfire.

Taking various sceneries into his eyes, he sometimes fell silent, sometimes sighed, and sometimes let out a laugh.

At the end of that, he closed his eyes briefly and then opened them.

In his eyes that had only been wavering throughout, a firm light was contained.

"Have you realized something?"

"Thank you. Thanks to you, my head has become very clear."

As if it wasn't just a perfunctory remark, Clinton's voice was refreshing like someone who had finally solved a puzzle.

"Yes. I had forgotten this obvious thing. What I wanted to become when I first started learning magic."

In his childhood, Clinton was lucky enough to catch the eye of a mage master and was able to receive teachings from him.

Clinton had talent and could quickly climb to much higher levels than other people.

As he continued climbing like that, people around him began to see him differently.

The mage of the century.

A genius who might appear once in a hundred years.

The expectation that perhaps Clinton might advance human magic.

Clinton found that expectation burdensome yet also pleasing so he worked even harder and steadily honed his skills.

At some point, when he came to his senses, he had become the Empire's greatest mage.

He had finally stood at the pinnacle of everyone.

He should have felt proud of that, but strangely, one corner of his heart felt empty.

At that time, he didn't know why that was.

He thought that the reason he was so calm when he should have been overjoyed was simply because he had grown older.

But that wasn't it.

"I had forgotten. In my very young childhood, what I wanted to become and why I learned magic for that."

Yes. What made him feel empty was because he had forgotten the dream he had first held.

That precious wish that Clinton as that young boy had held.

Over the long years, he had gradually worn it away while trying to meet the expectations of those around him.

That's why he felt futile.

That's why he felt vain.

But what was even more distressing was the fact that he didn't even know what he had forgotten.

Like having a happy dream, but after waking up, not being able to remember the content of that dream.

"You see, I wanted to make my family happy with magic."

Yes. The dream he had dreamed of in his childhood wasn't something so grand.

He just wanted to learn magic and use that magic to make his family happy.

The trigger for that was really nothing special.

"When I was very young, in a time when I was a troublemaker beyond imagination now. There was a festival held in the city, and I ran off with my friends saying I'd go see it."

Once he started recalling it, the hazy memory gradually became clear.

To the point where it was strange how he had forgotten this until now.

"At that time, there was a circus troupe. They showed all kinds of flashy tricks, but honestly even to my young eyes, they weren't that outstanding. It was just somewhat interesting at best."

What caught Clinton's eye as he was about to leave disappointed was a shabby-dressed middle-aged man sitting in the corner.

"He was a mage. A wandering mage with no affiliation. The reason he was with the circus troupe was because he didn't have money to buy food right away, so he came as a day laborer."

That mage used magic to earn his meal.

It was extracting mana, converting it into elements, and then changing them into the shape of animals.

He had no talent as a mage.

Even at that age, he had so little magical power that he was out of breath just from casting magic once.

Thinking about how magic is said to boast tremendous destructive power and glamour in the world.

What meaning could there be in creating birds, squirrels, or cats made of mere water or ice fragments, or wind.

Even that must have been the result of the mage doing his best.

People found it quite fascinating that it was magic, but left right away when they realized it wasn't the flashy magic they had expected.

But Clinton was different.

The boy of that time stood there as if enchanted by that magic, watching quietly.

When everyone around had left and only that mage and Clinton remained at the spot.

The mage who had exhausted his magical power soon took off his hat while catching his breath and bowed his head to Clinton, his final and only audience member.

"That magic that others said was nothing special and left in disappointment... caught my eye to a strange degree."

Yes. Clinton had fallen for that magic.

Though stories say magic splits the earth and shakes mountains.

Young Clinton simply thought the bird made of ice crystals, the cat made of water, the squirrel running on the wind were so cool that he wanted to become a mage.

It was a very insignificant motivation, but it was the first dream he had held since he was born.

"I just liked magic."

Clinton chuckled.

"To realize that fact again at the edge of the 7th tier. Could there be anything more foolish?"

"It's not foolish. If you put it that way, what would I become?"

Rudger comforted Clinton with a self-deprecating tone.

Would that seem stupid to others?

If you put it that way, Rudger was no pushover either.

"Ah. Right. You too had plenty of opportunities."

What Clinton was referring to was a somewhat delicate matter was something that could be known because it was him.

"Transcending humanity, to the world beyond... in other words, couldn't you have obtained divinity?"

Yes. Rudger was a human who could become closer to a god than anyone else.

In fact, if he set his mind to it, he could have risen to the position of a god. Now that Lumensis had fallen and many gods were imprisoned would have been the perfect time.

But Rudger didn't do that.

He willingly gave up divinity and chose to be human.

Even though he could escape from all suffering and grasp all knowledge of past, present, and future.

Even though just tasting a fragment of that transcendent knowledge would have been as hard to escape from as a drug.

Rudger willingly gave that up knowing it.

"Why did you do that? If it were me, I couldn't have done that at all."

"That position is too much for me."

Rudger said that, then soon shook his head.

"I just, frankly, didn't like it."

"Didn't like it? Being a god?"

"That's part of it, but probably the biggest reason I gave it up is this."

Rudger spoke of the thoughts he had held at that time.

"I just prefer living as a human."

Human life is painful.

Most of human life consists of suffering in the end.

Happiness and joy exist, but they're just moments that sparkle during life.

There is no eternally continuing happiness.

If one becomes a god, one would certainly become detached from such things.

But Rudger thought that very thing was an even more painful life.

"If there is such a thing as perfection in the world, I think that would be the most terrible punishment."

If it's perfection with nothing to fix at all, that ultimately means stagnation, stopping in place.

Because it's perfect, there's no need to fix anything, and therefore no need to go through various trials and errors.

Sadness, pain, joy, anger.

A crystallization of nothingness with none of that.

Could that really be called perfection?

"I will live as a human who keeps struggling and continues moving forward endlessly."

"Hehehe. Yes. I see. So that's what it was."

Clinton let out a hearty laugh.

Yes. Now he too could sympathize with Rudger's words.

He too had gone through countless trials and errors.

Though he was called the genius of the century, it wasn't that he had no failures.

When he was suffering blocked by some wall, he would imagine such things.

How nice it would be if he had truly transcendent talent that wasn't blocked by such walls.

But thinking about it now, that was wrong.

It's precisely because he was blocked by that wall, frustrated by it, but ultimately challenged it and was able to overcome that wall, that there was a sense of achievement and joy.

If one just passes over it like walking past a stone in the road.

If every wall in the world doesn't block one's path and exists just like stones strewn around.

Where in life could one feel joy?

The turbulent life that exists for everyone would inevitably be smooth for oneself.

A plain where nothing can be seen, that is merely vast.

What value would there be in just quietly walking there?

"I was afraid of pointless things."

"Overcoming that is also one of humanity's pleasures."

"Yes. I have gained a teaching today."

Clinton laughed softly with his shoulders shaking.

Before long, the snow had stopped. The clouds draped over the sky disappeared, and the clear night sky of the northern continent was revealed.

Stars were studded thickly above the sky.

One looks up at those stars as if silk adorned with sparkles is hung down.

A massive Milky Way was revealed and the aurora also unfolded across the sky.

It was a sight that could only be seen in the Yuta Kingdom where frigid blizzards raged, but at the same time it was a very rare sight.

Perhaps other people of the Yuta Kingdom were also looking at that scenery.

Thinking that today was the anniversary commemorating the victims of the civil war, it was a truly beautiful coincidence.

"As expected."

Rudger muttered while looking up at that scenery.

"There are times when looking up like this is beautiful."

If one became a god and looked down at this scenery, it could never become such a spectacular sight.

That's why living as a human was enjoyable.

-Crackle. Crackle.

The campfire in the night continued to burn.

* * *

The next morning, having parted with Clinton, Rudger was now thinking of leaving the Yuta Kingdom.

Then where should he go now?

Strictly speaking, it would be right to visit other kingdoms close to here, but Rudger decided to change his mind this time.

"This time, shall I go to a place on the complete opposite side of the continent?"

Since he knew the coordinates, distance didn't matter.

It would use quite a bit of mana, but would it be as much as before?

Rudger immediately summoned Aether Nocturnus and wrapped it around his body.

Rudger, who had contracted into a black dot like that, jumped beyond space through shadows and arrived at a certain place.

-Whooooosh!

In the surroundings that had been full of frigid cold air, hot wind suddenly rushed in.

Though Rudger had taken off his hat, scarf, and gloves in preparation for this, the suddenly rushing hot wind was indeed not to be underestimated.

"This place is also quite a spectacle."

An endlessly spread wilderness.

The place he had come to now was the southern part of the continent, the exact opposite of the northern continent.

This place where hot heat and vast wilderness spread was also territory where beastmen lived.

Vroooooom!

At that moment, some kind of engine sound echoed from afar.

When Rudger looked back toward the source of the sound, he could see a group of people approaching this way.

They were all riding motorcycles, and dust clouds billowed up along the trajectory they were passing through.

The animal ears briefly visible indicated that they were not humans, but beastmen.

'Wait, but motorcycles?'