1. Not that kind of person
** 1. Not that kind of person
Academia, the middle dimension, is the second world arranged for the warriors in the game who have reached the ending.
If you save the world, stop evil, protect your loved ones, and see the end in any other form, the warriors are given a ‘choice’.
Will you continue to live in the original world, or will you run towards a higher and greater goal?
The choice of the latter among them is called ‘Ascension’ in Academia.
As an analogy, it is said that all new students summoned to Academia are ascendants chosen by their own will.
“Due to the reaction that transcends dimensions, your old memories may be confused now. However, there is no need to worry too much as the aftereffects will recover naturally after about 15 days at most.”
After the entrance ceremony, the assigned class conducted an orientation session, and the doubts were resolved to some extent.
Fortunately, the professor in charge relieved the freshmen’s anxiety by constantly conducting Q&A. Thanks to such efforts, it seems that now I can adapt to this world to some extent.
While it still sounds far-fetched, the fact that we’ve been in the sub-dimension of games has come to a point where we can accept it to some degree.
“Today is the first day, so I will end here. You can go straight back to the dormitory to get rid of your travels, or it would be nice to walk around the academy’s vast grounds and figure out what kind of place it is.”
The neatly dressed woman with glasses said that and finished her first class.
“Yes, and… “
Her gaze, wandering through the air in search of something of hers, suddenly stopped at one point. I was at the end of it. I don’t know why, but in a moment that I can’t express in words, it seemed that various emotions were fluctuating in her pupils.
Somehow, for a long time, each other’s gazes were entangled in the air.
“Ah.”
Realizing the fact, the professor in charge belatedly looked around at the students and said, evasively.
“I almost forgot to say this. Within the academy, there are basically restrictions on the use of magical powers and abilities, except during class hours or special situations. Since this part is directly related to the safety of students, the president is directly managing it, so please respect the policy of the academy.”
As the students were dumbfounded by the news that seemed like a thunderbolt in the dry sky, the professor in charge added more to her words.
“Still, if you have a valid reason to regain your original strength, ask for a meeting with me or other professors. It’s not like there aren’t any examples.”
Only then did the buzzing stop.
It was an understandable reaction. It’s like they found out that their abilities were being limited without their knowledge.
To be honest, I was a little surprised too.
‘When the hell?’
The power was sealed without any sense of incongruity. I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to move my mana, but the mana coiled inside my body was quietly burning in place, not even moving.
“This is… “
What kind of a big man is the chairman of the board who said he manages these seals himself? He was still a faceless person, but he was already vague.
By the time the students all checked the seal on themselves, the professor in charge, who had been quietly watching us, had disappeared before he knew it.
Instead of that.
“Oh my gosh! Let’s see our juniors’ faces!”
Starting with a woman who is a tiger beast who slammed through the door.
“Hmm.”
“Kyaaa! Chicks are cute~”
“Anyway, the fuss… “
The atmosphere was reversed by the senior jockeys who lined up.
A crowd filled the front of the podium at once.
What kind of situation was this? The freshmen just kept their mouths shut and their eyes wide open.
Amidst the subtle tension in the classroom, the first woman who entered the room revealed her name.
“Nice to meet you, I am Sherida! We are all seniors who are one generation ahead of you, and according to custom, we came to inform you about this and that as opposite seniors!”
Then he suddenly took out a large box from somewhere, and inside it was a bunch of things that looked like supplies.
Looking at the items, there were basic clothes, watches, brochures, and various artifacts that I had never seen before.
I don’t know what they are, but I thought it would be quite helpful if I received them, so everyone was salivating.
Sherry glanced at the crowd with one arm hanging over the box and grinned.
“Okay, come out of the game first.”
**
There are no new students in the classroom who do not recognize that the original dimension was actually a ‘game’, in other words, the play of the gods.
However, it was unfamiliar to me that even among such games, the ‘genre’ was divided.
What is ‘fighting game’, ‘FPS’, standard ‘fantasy’ and ‘steam punk’? It is a feast of words heard for the first time.
The important thing is that the ‘pattern’ shared by people from similar worldviews was engraved on certain body parts. For example, like Sherry who came from a fighting game, some new students had patterns identical to Sherry’s on their arms or legs.
Academia seemed to call the pattern a ‘stigmata’.
“Anyone with stigmata that looks just like me, stick around here~”
Sherry excitedly waved her arms and called out her juniors.
Then the sound of chairs being dragged came from everywhere. All of the people who woke up were from fighting games, so their muscles were swollen.
The musclemen who went up to the podium soon returned to their places holding an armful of supplies. He still had a puzzled look on his face, but there were eyes of subtle envy from those around him.
“Keuheum, next!”
Sherry deliberately cleared her throat and gave her seat to her classmate. Following her, a man with a calm expression stood on the podium and said,
“…Wade. It’s just a normal fantasy background, and it’s also the most numerous stigmata in Academia. The guy with the same stigma as me should come out immediately.”
It was only then that those who roughly noticed how the situation was going, let out a small exclamation.
Yes, Academia was a place where the culture of procrastination was deeply embedded. A senior from the same background takes care of a junior from the same background, and that junior takes care of a new student from the same background.
New students who have just started biting the tip of the tail must have instinctively realized how important it was.
Soon after that, the atmosphere in the classroom changed completely. Looking sideways to see who came from the same genre of game, a friendly conversation has already begun to flow between them.
Fighting, fantasy, horror, steam punk…
They had stigmata that characterized their origins.
For example, the fighting style stigma looked like a rough expression of a clenched fist, and the fantasy style stigma looked like a crossed sword and staff.
I looked down at the back of my hand.
‘…What is this?’
The shape of a heart curved to the point of being grotesque rather than dazzling. My stigma looks a little different from the others.
Rather than being a symbol, there were spots that resembled the tattoos of succubuses that had been subjugated in the past. And that wouldn’t be very good.
Even now, no one with the same stigma as mine has appeared. I felt something strange even around me, and I was throwing a glance at me, who was broke.
“…Hmm.”
I just tapped the pattern on the back of my hand. The thought that the stigmata was too swanky didn’t leave me.
I feel strangely uneasy…
Well, even though it looks a little odd, if I wait soon, my turn will come.
At that time, you will be able to confirm my background and the aspects of me that will be close to me in the future.
**
“…..”
I am sitting alone in an empty lecture hall.
From noble mtl dot com
As for how this happened, this is…
“…What is this?”
If there’s one thing I can say for sure, it’s that I’ve been a loner. To the letter.
Fight fight, horror if horror, fantasy if fantasy, four or five people got together, but I was still alone.
It is said that there was not a single person from a similar background as me. There was no one looking for me among the freshmen and seniors who stopped by the lecture room to see their juniors.
On the contrary, a few of them would glance at me while chatting among themselves. That strange air flow continued all the way, and it seems that the freshmen have noticed that I have something.
“I really don’t know what it is.”
Is this correct?
If I keep going like this, even after a few weeks, I have an intuition that I will die helplessly in the midst of collective bullying, let alone adapt.
It’s dangerous.
“…..”
A faint smell of food waste rises from the school uniform. At the entrance ceremony held just a few hours ago, the evidence of the hostility expressed by people I had never seen before.
And the cold attitude of the seniors that continued after that.
I wondered if I had done something to be hated by them, but thinking that I was a newcomer who had arrived here less than a day ago, I was about to go crazy.
There is only one hypothesis left.
“I don’t want to believe it… “
I looked down at the back of my hand in silence. What was engraved there was a clever pattern called ‘Stigma’. It was in the shape of a shady heart with the tattoo of a succubus removed.
“Even if there is something wrong with my origin, there must be.”
And I plan to investigate it from now on.