I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 840 – Side Story 113: Like a Midsummer Night's Dream (3)

Even with Rudger's gentle rebuke, Grandel's expression showed no signs of softening.

"I think it's shitty, so I'm calling it shitty. Why are you interfering?"

"...This is unexpected. To think you'd be awake when the sun is up so early in the morning." 

"I've been up all night with my eyes open and was about to sleep. That's when I saw such an unpleasant sight." 

"Even so, don't you think calling it unpleasant is too much?"

Even to Rudger's minor protest, Grandel only responded with a sneer.

"Ha. A guy who's not even up to par yet is taking away my disciple, and you're saying I should just generously overlook that sight?"

Grandel was pointing specifically at Rene.

Rudger wanted to tell her that Rene was by no means lacking as a master of spatial magic, and that even now she was building up achievements and fame as a magical researcher.

But he decided to stop midway. It was none other than his teacher, Grandel, who had made this assessment.

In the eyes of an 8th Circle mage, even a spatial mage who was the talk of the town would inevitably seem trivial. It was just a bit unusual, but that wasn't anything great. Of course, this was an assessment made entirely from Grandel's perspective. Rene was already a remarkable mage.

Perhaps reading Rudger's gaze and expression, Grandel scrunched up her face and let out a deep sigh.

"Ugh. Really. I taught you so hard to live without being pushed around anywhere, and the result is that you've got a ring through your nose for one woman?" 

"...A ring through my nose. That's too much." 

"That's exactly what having a ring through your nose means! I'm still not pleased!"

It seemed that Grandel was upset because of Rudger and Rene's relationship. Grandel regarded Rudger like her own son. The two were teacher and disciple, but relationships couldn't be analyzed in such a one-dimensional way.

For Grandel who had raised Rudger since childhood, there was also maternal love mixed in toward her disciple. Rudger knew this too.

'Though for raising me like a son, wasn't it excessively harsh.'

He decided not to voice this thought out loud. If he did, his teacher who was already in a bad mood would become even more irritated. Soothing her was quite an arduous task for Rudger. Is this how a zookeeper feels when having to calm an angry tiger? What made him even more frustrated was that the only tool available to soothe her was about as effective as a tiny clover.

"It's already a done deal, isn't it?" 

"I never gave permission!" 

"For someone who says that, I know you didn't vehemently oppose it either. If you had truly disliked it, teacher, you would have opposed it desperately."

At Rudger's valid point, Grandel pressed her lips tightly together. Separate from not being pleased with Rene, among the people scattered all around, Rene was at least one who met Grandel's standards.

Looking at it this way, it might seem like her evaluation of Rene was harsh, but this was actually high praise. It was none other than meeting Grandel's standards. Though she would insist otherwise, Rudger knew that was a lie.

His teacher was absolutely not the type to bury what she truly wasn't interested in or didn't approve of due to trivial emotions.

In the end, the choice made by the upset Grandel was to act emotionally.

"Right. So now your fiancée is more important to you than your teacher? Now you won't even look at this teacher! I've lived in vain! My disciple is abandoning me like this!" 

"No, teacher. When did I say such a thing?"

In the end, Rudger had to spend his entire morning soothing Grandel before entering class.

"Phew. This is exhausting."

Even though class hadn't started yet, Rudger already felt the fatigue of having worked overtime for several days without rest.

Soothing his sulking teacher was that difficult. He had somehow managed to get through it, but the problem was that such incidents would occur periodically in the future.

But what hung on his lips was a smile. That even such a bothersome matter made him smile was because he was that happy.

It was all thanks to Rene, his lover and fiancée.

'To think such a time has come.'

He had thought he would live drifting around without ever being tied to anyone for his entire life. He had said that was fine. Loneliness was something to endure and that was all. He had thought he didn't need relationships with anyone.

But Rudger now knew. His past self had been wrong. Becoming someone's lover, and loving someone, was a precious source of vitality in life that couldn't be exchanged for anything.

Suddenly left alone, Rene's face came to mind. The image of her deliberately dawdling because she didn't want to go to work was vivid. In fact, rather than not wanting to go to work, he knew she had deliberately dragged out the time because she didn't want to be separated from him.

Though he found that appearance cute, he had told her to endure it and go as a working adult. But seeing how she kept flickering and coming to mind like this, it seemed that the one who wanted to be together was actually himself.

While self-deprecating about whether he had such a romantic side, a gentle laugh escaped at the tickling warmth rising from deep in his heart.

When working, he had only focused on work and never paid attention to anything else, but at this rate, he was worried whether he could even properly conduct today's class.

'But the fact that I'm having such worries is also proof that I'm that happy.'

Happiness. Rudger was certain that he was very happy right now.

But the greater that happiness, the more anxiety grew in his inner self as a counterbalance. A future that he wouldn't have conceived of originally was naturally being drawn.

This worry had probably arisen because of the dream he had while sleeping last night.

In the dream, Rudger was a younger man than now. In his hand was a blood-stained dagger. Before him was a woman who had become a cold corpse in the moonlight, bleeding.

When he turned his gaze, he saw the young Rene watching him from there. Her eyes were only hollow at the shocking reality.

In the dream, he had to erase young Rene's memory. But that was a meaningless act.

Rene had a limited lifespan, and he had to put in much effort to solve it.

The dream's content didn't end there. In the dream, he saw Gabriel Cosmo. He had become a shabby old man due to excessive use of time magic.

Sitting quietly on a sofa exhaling wheezing breaths, it was after he had completely burned up his own life for Rene. In the dream, Rudger exchanged a few words with him. Outwardly he tried to act as if he was fine, but his heart felt crushed.

Gabriel smiled with satisfaction. Then he closed his eyes without leaving a successor and without anyone to remember him. It was a completely different life from him now, who was recognized as a time mage in this era and had grasped great honor.

'Was that really a dream?'

Dreams are the result of the unconscious gathering together. They should have realistic elements while also having some absurd aspects where things don't quite add up.

But the dream he had wasn't misaligned anywhere. Like perfectly fitting puzzle pieces, the before and after situations were logically assembled. Rather than a dream, it was like looking at a past that had already occurred.

Naturally, Rudger had never experienced such a past. He had never even imagined such a thing. That's why it was strange.

'What exactly was that dream?'

Thinking of his current happy reality, it would be fine to just ignore it. But Rudger didn't carelessly dismiss his intuition. If a dream made him uneasy, he needed to find at least the minimum cause for it to feel relieved.

In the end, Rudger pulled out a communication device from the shadows with a small sigh.

"It's me. Could you meet me briefly right now?"

"It's been a while. Have you been well?"

A quiet cafe in Leathervelk with no people around Rudger greeted the person who had just arrived and sat across from him.

"I've been doing well enough. The problem is I'm too busy."

It was Franz who answered that way while taking his seat.

"I've been dying helping Julia improve dream magic these days. It's fun, but it feels so distant that I don't know when it will end." 

"I wonder if I've called a busy person for no reason."

Franz narrowed his eyes and gazed at Rudger.

"It's fine. If you're calling me directly like this, there must be a good reason for it. Since I've received a lot of help from you, this much is nothing." 

"Hearing you say that puts my mind at ease." 

"So, what exactly is the reason you called me like this?"

Rudger talked about the dream he had recently and the sense of dissonance related to it. At first, Franz listened silently wondering what kind of worry this was, but by the time the story was ending, his expression had become quite serious.

"Hmm. This is unexpected. A dream so vivid as if you experienced it directly." 

"So it's not ordinary after all?" 

"If the symptoms you described are exactly as you say, this might not be a simple dream. Perhaps, it could be a kind of signal." 

"A signal?" 

"Right. Like how someone stranded on a deserted island puts a note asking for rescue in a glass bottle and floats it away? The dream you experienced is similar to that. But what's puzzling here is that it's not another person's perspective but yourself from a completely different position."

Through dreams, one can experience another person's life. But in the end, that's a 'stranger's' life. As long as one maintains only their own sense of self firmly, they won't be swayed.

Rudger's dream was different. Even in the dream, the subject was Rudger himself. Above all, the people seen in the dream were also his acquaintances. This couldn't be another person's position.

"May I check for a moment?" 

"Go ahead."

When Rudger consented, Franz manifested a formula while flowing magic power above his palm. The formula flashing with pale green light covered Rudger's head. It was like wearing a helmet.

The green magic power symbolizing dream magic moved around Rudger's head here and there. Rudger closed his eyes tightly without resisting the magic power.

After about a minute passed, Franz recovered the magic power and released the formula. The conclusion reached that way.

"It was as I expected." 

"As you expected?"

Rudger opened his closed eyes and asked.

"The dream you said you had. It's not a simple dream. It's information that flew in from somewhere. And actually experienced information at that." 

"The subject of that information was me. But I've never experienced such a thing." 

"That would be the case. But the fact that this is information doesn't change. You can be certain of that." 

"That means...there's another me?" 

"I don't know where the information flew in from. You said you suddenly woke up from sleep and realized it? It could have flowed in from outside like a kind of thought. Perhaps outside a world we don't know, another you might exist." 

"Another me."

He doubted whether that was possible, but recalling the scene he saw in the dream, it wasn't entirely impossible either. Isn't there such a thing? A parallel world, one that's the same yet subtly different.

Perhaps such memories of his had crossed over from such a parallel world.

"If that's true, there's nothing more I can do for you as a mage of the dream school." 

"...I see. But just confirming the symptoms is a great gain. Thank you." 

"Considering the debt I owe you, this much is nothing."

Franz shrugged his shoulders and grinned.

"I should get going." 

"Right. Since we're both in busy positions. Still, it was good to see your face after a while. I'll head back to the school." 

"Alright. Take care."

Rudger was about to send Franz off when suddenly, he recalled a certain memory related to him.

"Franz."

Franz, who was about to leave the cafe, turned to look at Rudger.

"What?" 

"Is Clara Cowen doing well?"

Franz widened his eyes then soon let out a hollow laugh.

"Why are you suddenly asking that?" 

"It just came to mind." 

"Is that so? Well, she is quite old, so it's understandable to be worried."

Franz waved his hand saying not to worry.

"She's very healthy so you don't need to worry. She handed over the school head position to me and is traveling here and there." 

"...I see."

Seeing Franz's somehow relieved face, Rudger felt a strange sentiment.