I Became The Only Healer In The Academy [EN]: Chapter 298

298

A strange man’s mana began to envelop Yae-in’s body.

The mana didn’t feel unpleasant, so Yae-in entrusted herself to it, and the surrounding scenery changed the moment she opened her eyes.

“Wh-Where is this…”

It was the final battlefield.

She had been instantly transported to where the Hunters were gathered.

Although the man and Yae-in had suddenly appeared, they didn’t attract anyone’s attention.

Everyone was simply staring blankly at Seong-hyeon and the Owner’s battle.

“I can’t fight.”

“Haha. Do you think I brought you here to fight?”

Even as he responded to Yae-in’s words, the man’s gaze was fixed inside the barrier.

Unlike the laughter in his reply, his eyes were quite anxious and uneasy.

Yae-in’s gaze also turned inside the barrier.

The things she had anxiously watched from home were now unfolding before her eyes.

It might have been a romantic moment for a child, but what was happening inside was far from romantic.

Frankly speaking, she couldn’t see anything.

Continuous waves and a massive surge of mana.

If it weren’t for these two things, she might have mistaken the inside for a silent, empty space.

“What…do you see?”

In this situation, the only person she could rely on was the strange man who had brought her here, so Yae-in slightly tugged at his sleeve and asked.

“Well…a little?”

“How is it? Is it okay?”

What kind of answer should he give?

That they would overcome everything, that Seong-hyeon would walk out of the barrier as always, as if nothing had happened.

He couldn’t say it.

To be precise, it wasn’t that he couldn’t say it from the beginning.

A situation had unfolded that prevented him from saying it.

“H-How…”

A completely different future from what the man had seen.

It was Kal who had brought Yae-in here, and Kal was staring into the barrier with a frozen expression, completely unprepared for the situation.

“O-Oppa…” [A Korean term for ‘older brother’ used by females.]

A situation that didn’t match the future he had seen in the slightest.

Kal was surprised by the situation itself, but more than anything, he was astonished that Seong-hyeon had ended up like that.

‘That Kim Seong-hyeon…’

Was that really Seong-hyeon?

Was there a special reason why he sent a doppelganger or something?

He couldn’t help but have thoughts that denied reality, that the corpse lying pathetically on the floor with its heart ripped out couldn’t possibly be Seong-hyeon.

“Mister.”

“Uh, huh?”

Unlike Kal, a flustered look was evident in his voice.

What would this child, who had been saved by Seong-hyeon, say after seeing that sight?

What would she say, and what should he say to her?

Kal, who was agonizing over this, couldn’t help but be surprised by Yae-in’s next words.

“Are we…too late?”

It felt like he had been hit in the head.

Even this child was asking what she should do now, but he, the one who brought her, was just trying to escape, unable to believe the situation.

“We are…”

————————–

Fading away, no, completely disappearing consciousness.

The second time experiencing this familiar death, only the situation of death itself was familiar, and nothing else was.

“I’m more composed than I thought.”

He kept thinking about the others who would be left alone without Seong-hyeon, but it was as if his emotions had disappeared, and he wasn’t worried at all.

“But where is this?”

After experiencing regression firsthand, Seong-hyeon had come to believe in the existence of the afterlife, but this place didn’t look like heaven or hell.

A white space where nothing existed.

To put it bluntly, it felt like a boundary between life and death.

“Welcome.”

A moment later, an unidentified voice was heard.

This voice was neither male nor female, neither child nor old.

It was just a voice that was nothing, but it also sounded like all voices.

“Who…”

There wasn’t even a visible form.

However, the single word of welcome felt like it had been waiting for Seong-hyeon.

“You are the only one among the residents of this dimension who knows of my existence.”

“Only…knows?”

The fact that it referred to itself as a resident of the dimension and that only Seong-hyeon knew.

There was only one answer that could be inferred from this.

“Could you be…”

“Do you understand now?”

It was the Owner of the First Dimension.

There was no other answer besides the Owner of the First Dimension.

“I thought you had entered eternal slumber.”

“It’s not eternal slumber. I’m just sleeping for a long time and unable to wake up on my own.”

“Does that mean…the battle between me and the Owner of the Second Dimension was a stimulus?”

“Of course not. That level of stimulus can’t awaken the Owners from their eternal slumber.”

That meant that ordinary stimuli couldn’t wake them up.

“Especially in my case, the standard is higher than the other Owners.”

“Then how…”

“There was a sacrifice from the Owner of the Third Dimension.”

The Owner of the Third Dimension who had met Seong-hyeon.

That Owner had awakened the Owner of the First Dimension from eternal slumber at the cost of their own demise.

The only thing an Owner of a dimension could do at the cost of their demise was to awaken another from eternal slumber.

That was how different the Owner of the First Dimension was from the Owners of the Second and Third Dimensions.

“Do you know the current situation?”

A slightly sharp tone from Seong-hyeon.

However, the Owner of the First Dimension liked Seong-hyeon’s sharp tone even more.

“How could I not? It’s happening in my dimension.”

“Then why aren’t you doing anything?”

The content of the words was a question, but Seong-hyeon’s attitude was not.

It was an attitude of questioning why they weren’t doing what they should be doing.

If another being had said this, they could have been annihilated on the spot without any problem, but Seong-hyeon was different.

The Owner of the First Dimension knew everything he had done so far.

“It’s not that I’m not doing anything, but that I can’t do anything.”

“The most powerful being, the Owner of the First Dimension, can’t do anything?”

It was hard to understand.

That such a powerful being couldn’t do anything.

At Seong-hyeon’s expression, which seemed to be asking for an explanation, the Owner continued the explanation simply.

“The will left by the Owner of the Third Dimension at the cost of their demise was only to awaken me from eternal slumber. As you saw, the Owner of the Second Dimension also needed to restore their power.”

The Owner of the First Dimension didn’t have such a process.

They hadn’t recovered their power, and there wasn’t even a being to restore their power in their place, like Seong-hyeon, who played the role of a vessel.

“An Owner of a dimension disappeared, and all you could do was awaken from eternal slumber?”

“The other Owners and I are different beings. The other Owners are beings that I created by taking away my power.”

“So…”

Then it made sense.

Since they were beings he had created, it would have been insufficient to awaken them from eternal slumber in a fully restored state.

Besides, the Owner of the Third Dimension didn’t seem to be in a normal state either.

“Then where is this? I was definitely stabbed in the heart.”

Could a human who recognized that their heart had been stabbed show such a calm expression?

“That’s right. Originally…you would be assigned a dimension to spend your next life in by now.”

“Does that mean you brought me here?”

“Yes. This is an absolute space that is not subject to anyone’s interference. It’s a space where even I can’t arbitrarily bring anyone in.”

“Then how did I get in?”

“Death.”

The only way to get here.

Only death.

It wasn’t a place you could come to just by dying.

The minimum condition.

That condition was worth, and Seong-hyeon was the only resident of the First Dimension who met that minimum.

“All this time, the Owner of the Third Dimension…”

“That’s right. The Owner of the Third Dimension created the door that threatened the First Dimension, but it was all for the First Dimension.”

“The Owner of the Third Dimension also knew about this space…”

“They had no choice but to know. Since they were born from me.”

Everything was designed.

Except for the regression, which was the will of the Owner of the Second Dimension, the mysterious windows that appeared to Seong-hyeon.

The Owners of the doors that could only be met after reaching a certain level of power.

The worth that had naturally increased as a result.

However, the disadvantage of the Owner of the Third Dimension’s design was that it was the same process that the Owner of the Second Dimension wanted.

Because it was the Owner of the Second Dimension who wanted the growth of the vessel.

“But now…isn’t it meaningless?”

All of this design had fallen into place, but only one thing had gone wrong.

Seong-hyeon had failed to surpass the Owner of the Second Dimension.

Even if he hadn’t surpassed them, it would have been fine if he hadn’t died so futilely.

“There’s another reason why I called you here. To be more precise, you had to come here.”

“Does that mean I had to die…”

“That’s right. You have far surpassed the limits of the human race and are a being who has received the power of the Owner of the Second Dimension, but you cannot handle the Owner of the Dimension.”

If you think about it coldly, the words of the Owner of the First Dimension were correct.

No matter how strong you are in one dimension, you will eventually not be able to handle the Owner.

However, the Owner of the Third Dimension would also know this, but despite that, they helped Seong-hyeon become stronger.

Not by removing him.

“The reason I guided you here. It’s because…”

The voice of unknown origin gradually began to take shape, and a form began to appear through the pure white wall.

“Coronation.”

“Coron…ation?”

It was just a single word, but its meaning was clearer than any lengthy explanation.

The position of the Owner of the Dimension, inheriting that position.

“The moment you return from here, you will become a proxy with all the authority of the Owner of the First Dimension.”

“Proxy?”

“Until the time I allow it, you can rise to the same worth as the Owner.”

“But if it’s the moment I return, does that mean I can return again?”

Returning again was no different from coming back to life.

But how?

His heart had already been ripped out, and the ripped-out heart had burst.

Right in front of Seong-hyeon’s eyes.

“The ability you have to identify vital points. When you saw the Owner of the Second Dimension, what did you see?”

“Unexpectedly, the pelvis…wait. Why was only the pelvis a vital point?”

“The heart is not a vital point. At least not for a being with the worth of an Owner.”

Seong-hyeon had surpassed the limits of humans, but he had not escaped the framework of the human race itself.

What could break even that framework was the worth of the Owner.

“What is the price?”

“…I desire the demise of the Owner of the Second Dimension.”

The answer that followed after a moment of hesitation was creating a strange sense of unease, but Seong-hyeon had no choice anyway.

Accepting death as it was was an impossible choice.

“I understand.”

“Excellent choice.”

It wasn’t that he doubted the Owner of the First Dimension.

However, the way they had hesitated just now felt like there was something that even the Owner of the First Dimension couldn’t change.

“If I go back…can I win? All my power has been taken away.”

His heart had already burst, and everything contained within it had become the property of the Owner of the Second Dimension.

“You will become the same worth as the Owner. Before, you were in a position of borrowing, but now it’s a situation of truly distinguishing the Owner. Since you have become the same worth.”

“Then that’s a relief.”

Now he had been given another chance to fight, and he had even surpassed the limits that had existed since the beginning.

Since it was the only being that had given him two deaths, a revenge befitting that was necessary.

He had received a second chance, and he would never miss it again.

“Now. It’s time.”

The Owner of the First Dimension, with the form of a gentle goddess, placed her hand on the wall, and at the same time, Seong-hyeon’s corpse was visible.

With all time frozen.

Seong-hyeon, who had been watching his own corpse limply with a short sigh, walked out of the wall with the Owner of the First Dimension’s farewell.