An Angel Lives in the Academy
Chapter 188: The Angel Who Receives Observation Class (11)

The Central Superhuman Academy is a noisy place. One cannot expect the silence of a religious facility in an educational institution where students gather, but noisy is still noisy.

Since the academy operated on a credit system, it didn’t quiet down even during class time. The only time it was genuinely quiet was probably late at night.

However, even in this noisy Central Academy, there were two places that remained quiet all year round.

One was the Central Academy’s Main Library #1, a library that housed all sorts of forbidden books and where strict silence was maintained by the Magical Studies Department’s assistant teachers.

The other was the Professors’ Building.

Known as the place where the Central Superhuman Academy professors live and eat, and despite there being no rules prohibiting students from entering, it was a place where students never set foot.

As Soya now gazed at the entrance of the Professors' Building, she was acutely experiencing why students didn't approach this place.

The traces left behind by each professor were slightly visible here and there.

Long sword marks on the walls, rolling liquor bottles, someone's unidentified blood, and claw marks of an unknown origin, along with traces of battles.

Soya swallowed hard.

‘What? Do the professors fight with each other sometimes?’

They say that in a fight between whales, it’s the shrimp that get crushed. It wasn't for no reason that students avoided the Professors' Building.

‘Honestly, there aren't many normal ones among our professors.’

If anyone could be called normal, it would be Vice Principal Professor Park Jin-ho… but the rest of the professors…

‘Lusa goes without saying, and Professor Hexi and the others are really…’

Shudder- Feeling her body trembling slightly, Soya slapped her own cheek hard.

Slap—

“Ow, that hurts.”

There's no point being scared now.

Every second was precious.

She needed to find Leffrey as quickly as possible.

Before the angel falls and becomes a fallen angel, like that morning star of old.

*Clench—*

Soya, putting strength into her small fist again, was moving her steps toward the Professors' Building without hesitation.

‘I don’t feel anything.’

While Soya felt relieved at this fact, she couldn't raise the corners of her mouth.

‘There aren't any security systems or anything like that, I see.’

How arrogant.

The confidence that said they could handle anyone who entered the Professors’ Building.

Complete faith in their own strength.

The composure and arrogance that only true powerhouses could exude.

“…That can't be it.”

Soya didn’t believe it.

The professors were truly powerful beings, and therefore the girl realized they wouldn't be arrogant.

Because she herself was the same.

There are things you only realize when you reach a certain level.

‘I still have a long way to go.’

Slowly gathering her magic, Soya searched for the way down.

‘There should be lecture halls 0 to 9 in the basement of the Professors’ Building, the ones known as the first academy.’

According to rumors, that was the case.

A facility built long ago by the headmaster to teach the professors, lecture halls 0 to 9. That facility was said to be located beneath the professors' building.

“Soya-style Black Magic. Peek into the Abyss.”

Making several hand seals in an instant, Soya opened her mouth while drawing up her magic.

As her pink lips briefly chanted the words of magic, a black aura immediately began to rise from behind the girl.

Peering into the Abyss.

A high-level detection magic that, when expanded to its maximum, makes all dark places within 2km become Soya's eyes.

A magic inspired by how people feel gazes in darkness where there's nothing, which was frightening in that only in completely bright spaces without even shadows could one escape Soya's eyes.

However, if there was a weakness, it would be the tremendous amount of information flowing in at once…

‘Found it.’

But this wasn't much of a problem for Soya.

Although the basement was hidden by illusions and protected by a barrier, this wasn't much of an issue for Soya.

Because she had another spell.

Soya began to form hand seals again.

She formed those hand seals so fast that it was almost mesmerizing.

If other Magical Studies students saw Soya forming five hand seals in a single second, they would tremble with a mixture of awe and inferiority. Even Professor Klein would have been unable to stop singing praises.

“Soya-style Black Magic. Alone in the Darkness.”

Alone in the Darkness.

A teleportation spell that could take her anywhere within a 2km radius covered in darkness. It was often used in tandem with the “Peer into the Abyss” spell.

Although it had the drawback of only being able to teleport alone, its advantage of completely ignoring the opponent's barriers and concealment more than made up for this shortcoming.

And so, Soya arrived at the basement of the Professors’ Building.

“Wh-What is this feeling?”

The Professors’ Building basement felt strange.

The first impression evoked a huge facility that would only appear in a science fiction movie, and the second impression brought to mind the ruins of an ancient civilization that had perished long ago.

In a way, it looked like the last ruins of an apocalyptic story that would unfold in the future, and if you rubbed your eyes and looked again, it also looked like a magnificent facility representing the heyday of human civilization.

‘Its appearance isn't changing. Only my way of thinking is changing.’

But the appearance wasn't changing.

It's just Soya's interpretation that changes.

Even so.

If there was one commonality to be found in this confusing appearance,

“Utopia, or dystopia.”

Soya, amidst the rapidly shifting thoughts, found a single answer.

“Places that cannot exist in this world.”

As Soya reached that conclusion, the facility began to reveal itself.

An eternal space that cannot exist in this world, one that cannot be reached by those who have been tainted on earth.

“Artificial Heaven?”

Although it was a rather bold guess, but Soya, as a mage, could only come to such a conclusion.

‘A space that’s perceived differently by each person, yet shows only spaces that cannot exist in reality…’

Soya’s thoughts began to deepen.

However, Soya shook her head again and quickly began searching for traces of Leffrey.

“Where are you.”

Leffrey, who could no longer be found by darkness or traces of magic. Soya hid her frustrating feelings while pulling at the brim of her witch’s hat.

“Ugh.”

‘Leffrey’s borrowed one of the lecture halls 0 to 9 to prepare for the worst-case scenario of him going berserk and falling. Then the characteristic of the lecture hall he borrowed is either isolation or protection.’

Nibbling on her fingernails.

Soya suddenly felt like eating some really sweet chocolate.

‘The surest way to isolate or protect someone is to completely hide that existence from this world.’

That was how it worked in superhuman studies.

The very fact that one could recognize someone was being protected meant it couldn't be called complete protection.

‘Leffrey is in a lecture hall that doesn't exist.’

Or rather, a lecture hall that couldn’t be perceived would be more accurate. But how could one locate a lecture hall that’s impossible to perceive?

‘…Impossible.’

Cold despair ran down Soya's back.

“What should I do.”

Her hands were lost and wandering, not knowing what to do.

Soya's sharp gaze that had been showing courage until now softened completely, beginning to hold transparent tears.

“What should I do.”

It shouldn't be too late yet.

She had immediately run here after seeing Leffrey disappear, so he couldn’t have fallen yet.

“What should…”

But if she wastes any more time…

‘Black Magic Princess Soya?’

That boy who suddenly called her a princess.

‘What's wrong? Do you still have an injury somewhere?’

The one who saved her from that cold water, from the end of that lonely life.

‘Want to stay at the cathedral with me? As my party member, I mean.’

Her first party member.

‘I’ll always be here for you.’

Someone who’s like family.

‘I can only keep living… until I know…’

The one who saved her from Bethel’s darkness.

The angel who had always been there for her…

Was going to disappear.

“No….!”

And that was something Soya couldn’t bear.

In the middle of a crudely created heaven, the girl finally fell to her knees.

As Soya clumsily wiped away her tears, a few people who were watching her tried to move.

“Crying like a baby.”

But they stopped because of the next girl who appeared.

“Seriously, you should have said something before leaving. ‘I'm going to the professors' Building, the boy is there.’ You should have said something like that so I can help.”

But since this was a story between a guardian angel and heroes, they couldn’t intervene.

“Wol…”

“Stop crying. You’re always crying over every little thing. Quickly report the situation.”

As Soya explained the situation while stifling her sobbing voice, the pink-haired girl smiled and patted Soya's witch hat.

“Don't make fun of me for being childish!”

“I didn’t say anything. I just patted your head.”

“That’s the same thing! I won't forgive such a black magic-hating actions!”

“…You seem completely fine now. Meow.”

A wind silently began to swirl.

It was a sign that Hongwol was gathering her strength.

“Wait, you're injured.”

“I’m a tough ca… I mean, a tough person.”

And as Hongwol lowered her stance, Soya immediately mimicked her. Perhaps because she had done it a few times before, she seemed quite familiar with it.

But her posture was a bit stiff due to lack of flexibility.

“This, this feels like punishment.”

Easily ignoring Soya's complaints, Hongwol laughed like a villain.

“Leffrey is trapped in a place we can't perceive? Then there’s only one way.”

Hongwol’s idea was simple.

A space that can't be perceived. That it’s preventing itself from being perceived by interfering with their cognitive abilities, meaning the space has some kind of awareness.

Then she could use the Cat Hero’s karma technique.

“If it can recognize us and hide itself, then we just need to make it impossible for it to recognize us…!”

And with that, Soya and Hongwol disappeared.

One of the adults watching the scene said,

“Will those kids be able to do it? Perhaps we should have intervened from the start…”

“This professor believes they can do it.”

One adult cleaning his monocle opened his mouth.

“Our intervention would be meaningless. Angels are too pure beings. Therefore, in a corrupted world like this, it is their fate to fall. Even Leffrey cannot escape this fate.”

“However, the only one who can break such fate, the being who changes the world, is precisely a hero.”

A large-built adult clasped his hands together as if praying with desperation.

“We must have faith in those children.”

The adults, each in their own way, prayed blessings upon the heroes' path ahead.

* * *

As Soya and Hongwol erased themselves from this world, a room shyly revealed itself.

The name of that room, which imitated an aspect of heaven, was Lecture Hall 2.

The heavenly characteristic of this lecture hall was ‘sanctuary’.

The power to reject everything that doesn’t belong to Heaven.

“That room, it just appeared.”

“I know.”

The two girls were about to reach out to that sanctuary that no one had been able to reach until now.

“I’m going to punch him hard as soon as I see him. And then.”

“Then?”

“And then I'm going to hug him…!”

Maybe after opening that white door, they can save the antisocial angel Leffrey and show him that he wasn't really antisocial at all.

“Yes, I should do that too. Punch him hard once, and then give him a really tight hug.”

“That’s right. Leffrey!”

The two girls reached for the white door at the same time.

They were trying to change fate, by reaching for something that couldn’t be reached.

“Come out!”

*Clatter—Rattle, rattle.*

“…It’s not opening.”

“…..”

And the two girls stopped.