The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 91



The Protagonist of the Side Story

As mentioned earlier, there are five kingdoms and an empire in the world.

Curiously, the empire and the five kingdoms share borders around a central point.

At the center of these borders.

There stands a statue symbolizing the World Union.

A great hero who once stopped a seemingly endless world war.

Wolfram.

Beside the great hero Wolfram, there were five companions who followed him.

They each came from different countries.

Therefore, after the war ended, they scattered to their respective countries and established academies for peace.

These academies are named after the six heroes in each country.

However, Wolfram’s country was the first to be destroyed during the war.

The reason was that Wolfram’s country was the central nation bordering all the countries in the world.

To honor the great hero Wolfram, the world designated the center, which was originally his country, as a sanctuary.

Thus, Wolfram’s Sanctuary was built.

This is the venue for this meeting.

To honor his heroic deeds, peace is maintained at Wolfram’s Sanctuary no matter what happens.

This is a universally accepted rule among the empire and the five kingdoms.

If violated, it would mean turning the entire world into an enemy.

Moreover, it would result in losing all social justification.

Therefore, it was the perfect place for the meeting of the academy members who would become key figures in the world someday.

‘Anyway, the international individual competition will be held here as well.’

The international individual competition held every three years.

For this, my companions and I visited Wolfram’s Sanctuary.

“Welcome, student council members of Jerion. We have been expecting you.”

As we got off the carriage, an old gentleman and several waiting maids greeted us.

Even the emperor of the empire visits Wolfram’s Sanctuary with respect for the great hero Wolfram.

As such, they were very experienced in treating distinguished guests.

“Lady Iris Hyserion, Lady Sharin Sazarith, Lady Isabel Luna, Lady Hanon Airei. Nice to meet you. I am Monoridge, your guide.”

“Nice to meet you, Monoridge. We look forward to your guidance.”

Iris responded with the grace befitting a princess.

“Those who work in Wolfram’s sanctuary have forsaken their own castles and sacrificed themselves to honor the great hero.

Therefore, even the royal family must show them respect and courtesy.”

“Yes, I am in your care.”

With a smile, Monoriji began to guide us.

Of course, Isabel and I were staring intently at Iris’s back.

Iris exuded such grace that it was hard to believe she had been engaged in a petty staring contest with Isabel just moments ago.

“I didn’t know Iris had such a personality.”

As Isabel said, Iris never reveals her true nature.

She always shows the strongest, most dignified side of herself as a princess.

It was rare for her to reveal personal desires like this.

But recently, Iris had changed a lot.

Her restrained true nature occasionally surfaced unexpectedly.

Even today in the carriage, it was the same.

Iris rarely showed possessiveness towards anyone.

“That’s probably thanks to you.”

Isabel’s eyes lingered on me.

Iris often revealed her true nature in front of me.

“She must be in a good mood because she’s been sleeping well.”

These days, Iris’s hobby is sleeping.

She tries to catch even a little sleep whenever she can.

Of course, she still can’t sleep properly without me by her side.

“So that’s thanks to you.”

Well, that’s true.

When I couldn’t deny it, Isabel, for some reason, pouted slightly and followed Iris.

“Hanoon.”

At that moment, Sharin bumped her head against my back.

“I think I know one thing about Hanoon’s future.”

“What is it?”

“You’ll probably get stabbed.”

I pulled Sharin’s cheeks hard as punishment.

“Don’t say things like that, even as a joke.”

“Ugh.”

While Sharin covered her reddened cheeks with both hands, I followed the two of them.

The white marble floor of the conference hall built in Wolfram’s sanctuary stretched out before us.

The conference hall was luxurious at first glance.

It felt more serene than extravagant.

‘It must mean the architect put a lot of thought into it.’

They say it was built by the best architects of the time, who put their heads together.

The building was naturally awe-inspiring.

As we walked along the path, carefully designed to let in natural light, we soon came to a large plaza.

There was a round table there.

Six chairs symbolizing the Empire and the Five Kingdoms, and a white dove decoration symbolizing the harmony of peace, were visible.

Behind them, dozens of seats were arranged around the round table.

The representatives of each country would sit in the center, and the rest would take their seats.

‘It’s a place that’s hard to see even in the game.’

The international individual competition is held only once every three years.

Therefore, by the fourth act of the second semester of the second year, you must have significantly raised your favorability with Iris.

You also need to clear various related items and hidden quests to get to this place.

So, it’s not a place you can easily come to just because you want to.

“Someone’s already here.”

Isabel said as she looked around the round table.

When all the countries have arrived, the representatives of each country sit together at the round table.

So, no one was sitting at the round table yet, but people were seated in the other seats.

They were all kids around our age.

Students from academies other than Jerion Academy.

Students from the Five Kingdoms.

Their eyes all turned towards us as we entered.

“Jerion Academy.”

“Oh, then that must be…”

“I’ve heard the rumors, but you truly possess an exceptional appearance.”

The one who drew the most attention was Iris.

The third princess of the empire, renowned even in foreign lands for her formidable skills, Iris.

It was only natural that she would be the center of attention.

“Then, the one behind her.”

“A mage who has awakened Mirinae.”

“The daughter of the Blue Tower Lord.”

Next in line was Sharin.

The daughter of the Blue Tower Lord, a genius in magic, and an awakened Mirinae, it was inevitable that she would become famous.

In reality, Sharin yawned lazily, indifferent to her fame.

She was consistently uninterested in others’ evaluations.

“Over there.”

“She has the opposite atmosphere of Lady Iris.”

“Like the sun.”

The third to be noticed was Isabel.

Isabel had an appearance that was the complete opposite of Iris.

If Iris was the dark night, Isabel was the bright day.

As the main heroine, she possessed an outstanding appearance that did not pale in comparison to Iris.

On the contrary, their contrasting atmospheres made them stand out even more.

Is it my turn now?

“And the one behind them.”

“Who is that?”

“Never seen them before.”

“Has the same hair and eye color as the third princess.”

“Are they from the Duke of Roblia’s lineage?”

I relaxed my tensed back.

Of course.

Hanon also had a decent appearance, but no matter what, he couldn’t compare to the heroines.

Because of his hair and eye color, which were the same as Iris’s, he would be looked at closely.

Most people wouldn’t even have heard his name.

“Still, it’s kind of cute.”

“Small, is it a first-year?”

“Possible.”

Crazy, who was the last one?

Suddenly, I got goosebumps.

If I find out who said it, I will definitely defeat them for world peace.

Anyway, we entered, drawing attention in various ways.

As we took our seats, led by Iris, the murmuring sounds subsided.

In the meantime, I quickly moved my eyes.

One kingdom had not yet arrived.

In this gap, I intended to identify the key figures of other academies.

‘Originally, there weren’t many opportunities to get involved with students from other academies.’

Now, it’s a world without the protagonist, Lucas.

The lacking parts must be filled from elsewhere.

My eyes quickly scanned the students.

They were the representatives, presidents, and vice-presidents from each academy.

Because of that, there were many unusual characters.

But among them, there were three people to pay the most attention to.

The Kingdom of Illusions, Panisis.

The son of shadows.

Vice-president, Solvas Umbra.

He was talking to the people next to him with a very relaxed expression.

At a glance, he seemed to have good social skills.

It was clear that he was good at handling people.

The Holy Kingdom, Rium.

The noble saint.

President, Acrede Saint Narea.

The graceful saint was quietly silent.

However, knowing her true nature, I thought she would suffer unknowingly.

Seeing it in reality, I don’t know how she hid it.

The Kingdom of Skies, Parazon

The only prince.

Chairman, Ergo Parazon.

His face was a blend of arrogance and dignity.

The arrogance of always being the best was unwavering.

They were strong figures, like stars of the current generation, whose names were widely known even abroad.

Iris and Sharin were the ones grouped with those three to form the six stars.

‘And there.’

Lucas’s exploits would modify it to seven stars, but that was now an impossible story.

However, there was a more important figure than these three.

One of the six stars who had not yet appeared.

‘Soon.’

The kingdom, currently the poorest among the five kingdoms, was on the path to ruin due to consecutive policy failures.

The fallen kingdom, Prelize.

There, someone I was waiting for existed.

Step-

At that moment, the sound of footsteps echoed in the hall.

Everyone’s gaze naturally followed the sound of the footsteps.

As my gaze also followed the footsteps,

Four figures were walking in.

The fallen kingdom, Prelize.

A nation endlessly plummeted by an incompetent king.

They were students of the Academy Ordo established there.

The person at the forefront was hunched over, looking shabby.

As if they wanted to run away from the public’s gaze immediately but had no choice but to lead due to their status.

Behind him, two of the three faces were very dark.

They had eyes that showed they were not pleased with this place.

“Pfft.”

“What a shameful sight.”

The children gathered here were still young.

Perhaps because of this, there were those who looked down on others, intoxicated by their own abilities.

As expected, there were those who sneered at them.

But among them, there was only one.

There was someone who reminded me of a blue flame.

No one could sneer at her.

With her short, bright blue hair and blue eyes.

And her upright posture.

She shone brilliantly in this place.

‘I waited.’

The one who possessed a power most similar to the extinguished flame of Lucas’s will.

The unyielding blue flame

Eve

A side story of the game, the Demon Palace Slayer series.

The Rise of the Blue Flame, the protagonist.