“How strange. No matter what, I have never heard that sentence even when I searched the archives in the Observatory.” Ary said straightforwardly and casually.

“In all the history of this world, I have never heard that sentence or your name. Whether in the past or the present, it’s as if you never existed.

But look at you… you are standing there with thousands of swords surrounding you.”

Ary looked at The Hunt who was staring at him. The two stared at each other for a while without any other conversation. Finally, the figure known as The Hunt, his palm opened and a sword eagerly fell into his grasp.

The vibration of the sword grew stronger as if falling into endless ecstasy.

“Path of Sword, the first sword…”

Imitation sword.

One sword slash. One sword slash cut Ary without pause as if the attack had been there from the beginning. Ary took a step back while looking at the trajectory of the sword on his body.

His eyes trembled slightly accompanied by a smile. After a while, a world-shaking laughter was heard. Balak who regained his consciousness had to curl up and did not dare to lift his head.

“How amazing…. How amazing. Too bad, it seems like I will lose if we fight. So, see you next time.” Ary took Balak’s body who was curled up in fear and disappeared from this mental world.

The figure of The Hunt let go of the sword in his hand and closed his eyes again. Thousands of swords surrounded him again and the atmosphere became quiet again.

The view of this barren plain was slowly covered by a dark veil and the view of the White Snow Academy area returned. As if the stopped time had returned, everything in this world went as before as if there had never been a problem at all.

***

“Well, this trip was not completely in vain.” Ary appeared beside Meryl and Balak. He returned Balak’s consciousness to his body. When he turned his gaze towards his daughter who was still unconscious, his gaze softened slightly.

A white letter appeared in his hand and he slipped it into his daughter’s hand. Balak healed the wounds that both of them suffered and erased all traces of mana left in this place.

After all that was done, he turned his gaze towards Ivo. “He really is an interesting kid. Not only did he manage to injure Balak who was in the third awakening stage, but that figure also managed to injure me.”

The Hunt…

A swordsman with no talent on two continents.

“He was so humble to say that he had no talent.” Ary laughed as he slowly disappeared. Every trace left of his body was gone as if he had never existed.

“Too bad, even the genius of the Rumanoff family failed to walk the path of the sword. This is a dead end with no turning back. Maybe that’s why he called himself The Hunt.”

“Do you think so too?” When his entire body had disappeared and only his head was left, Ary looked up while looking at the eyes that were constantly watching him.

His lips moved as he slowly disappeared as well. “You Court of The Dead are really troublesome. Don’t touch my daughter in the third test, understand?”

“And send my regards to Seva and Veibel. Tell them I will visit.”

After Ary completely disappeared, the eyes that were looking at Meryl and Balak also disappeared. The first to wake up was Meryl while Balak, his body was transported using magic.

“This is… The real world?” Meryl blinked her eyes a few times. A gentle breeze blew against the clothes she was wearing and gave off a truly calming cool atmosphere.

Her eyes looked around a few times while patting her cheeks and seeing a world filled with turbulent mana. The flow of mana moved gently in the air along with the gentleness of the breeze.

The world she saw as a Magician…, especially with a high level of mana sense was different from a normal human. Even with such a level, she almost died in Ivo Graham’s Inner World.

The sight… It was truly unimaginable.

Meryl opened the letter in her hand and read its entire contents.

‘My daughter, if you are reading this, then you must have woken up. You have no idea how worried I was when I saw you lying helplessly and in such a state. It really hurt my fragile heart. It really reminded me of…’

Meryl briefly read the letter her father had written. Even though it was just a piece of paper, every time she read the last part, all the words would be erased and new, longer words would appear.

After reading quickly, the last part of the letter showed the message her father wanted to convey.

‘This might be a good opportunity to learn about the outside world. You always spend time inside the Lunar Observatory and almost never go out unless I ask you to. But as a father, I will not force you to make this decision. You can choose to continue studying at the Lunar Observatory with the Observers assigned there and return to your old life. Or… you can look towards a world that even we as Observers do not know about.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

The decision is yours. So live your life without the burden that we Observers bear. ’

“Father…” Meryl was a little moved when she read the letter. When she wanted to close the letter, a small piece of writing was on the corner of the paper.

‘Please don’t tell your mother that I wrote this. She will kill me if she finds out. ’

“… Father, you are already over 300 years old and you are still afraid of Mother?”

Yeah… this is her father. And if she remembers how father acted when he was with her… it is better not to remember something like this.

Choice… Father has said that I can choose my path in life. Either return to the Lunar Observatory or…

Meryl's gaze turned to the man who seemed to be staring blankly at the world. When she saw Ivo, a little bit of the remaining memory of the mysterious man in the Inner World appeared. After that, the memory was blank as if there was a huge gap.

She knew that Balak must have sealed this memory or even erased it. They had touched something they shouldn't have touched and being alive was a blessing in itself.

So… Isn't this getting more interesting?

Living in the observatory is indeed fun. Many world histories happen at night that are interesting to discuss. But just looking and reading the archives can't give the thrilling feeling of experiencing it yourself.

Isn't it obvious what choice I have to make?

Meryl walked out from behind the tree. In her hand was a snow orchid flower that she had picked from a tree growing nearby. The snow orchid flower symbolizes inseparable togetherness. In this world, if a snow orchid has grown on one of the trees, no other flowers or orchids will grow making that tree her only property.

When she sat beside Ivo, the Intense gazes of the students who were shocked or amazed could be felt. With her soft hands, people's hearts beat fast seeing a woman as beautiful as her holding the hand of the young man sitting beside her. Even a man who was reading a book beside her was also stunned when he saw Meryl.

Like an angel from heaven who had descended to the world, everyone's gazes were directed towards the two of them. Meryl seemed to not care about everything around her except Ivo. She only cared about the man in front of her.

A man who could even make her give up her comfortable life in the observatory to explore something unknown.

'Although I lost in the Inner World, but I won in the real world. Let's see who will continue to win or lose throughout this life.'

Meryl gave the snow orchid to Ivo, she took out a scarf that she knitted herself with her own hands when she was bored at the observatory. When she put the scarf on Ivo, people's gazes became even more intense.

The world seemed to blur, leaving only the woman's world with the sleeping man. Their hearts ached like they were being stabbed by thousands of needles when they saw the woman giving him the snow orchid.

When some still thought that they still had a chance, their hearts shattered when they saw Meryl bring her silky and beautiful face closer. Their eyes screamed ‘NO!’ but their mouths were silent.

Meryl’s lips moved, uttering sweet words that were even sweeter than honey. It's more beautiful than any musical instrument. They listened with all their might and didn’t want to miss a single one of these beautiful sounds.

Unfortunately, this was also their curse.

“I have decided to chase after you. Even if you don’t hear this, no matter who it is, I won’t let what I have chased become someone else’s. My little Bunny, even if you run away to another part of the world, I will be there waiting for you. So… let’s stay together until death do us part.”

Meryl pulled her head back and looked at Ivo with a deep-seated, crazy gaze. She glanced to the side, seeing someone hiding herself and staring intensely at the two of them from a fairly close distance. Her lips slightly lifted as she gave the person a mocking smile.

After that, Meryl left without saying anything else. While everyone's gazes were still on Meryl, Ivo… slowly opened his eyes.

***

Inside his Inner World, Ivo looked behind the door and felt a feeling he couldn’t explain. The student with him turned around and looked at Ivo.

“Is something wrong?”

“No. Nothing.” Ivo let out a sigh of relief as he looked back at the door behind him.

Is it just me?

This is weird…

Ivo sat on the floor with his eyes closed. When he started to feel everything inside his Inner World, Ivo didn’t feel anything different or strange. The only thing that wasn’t supposed to be there was the trace of mana that disappeared and remained in this place before disappearing without a trace.

“Looks like he’s gone. Dealing with people related to the Observer is really troublesome.” Ivo waved his hand and dismissed the student in front of him.

He was left alone in this place. In the midst of the passing of time, Ivo looked at what was called this Inner World. A room that was so detailed without a single mistake, even a table that looked like white crystal, a complex magic circle that contained 3 other magic circles inside it, and another student who seemed to be sitting while inspecting the magic circle.

The girl didn't realize that her partner had disappeared or realized that Ivo was inside. Even when she turned her body and her eyes fell on Ivo, she didn't know that there was someone else there.

“It looks like I won, Meryl Valentine.” The corner of his mouth lifted into a smile. When Ivo opened his eyes, what he saw was the sight of several academy students watching him from afar.

What did they see?

Ivo noticed something strange in their gazes. They looked doubtful when they saw Ivo and some of the female students looked embarrassed while many of the male students couldn’t help but look at him with envy and jealousy.

One of the men who was on the park bench next to Ivo stood up and whistled when he saw Ivo. He chuckled a little when he saw Ivo and patted his shoulder. “Man… I can’t believe you have such a beautiful girl. Even though your face is quite ordinary, I can’t believe you can shoot so well. Congratulations… my friend, congratulations.”

“What do you mean?” Ivo asked still not understanding.

“Don’t deny it. I saw with my own eyes a beautiful woman with a face that could even make my heart melt if you let your guard down. She sat beside you, gave you a scarf, and placed a snow orchid in your hand.”

“Oh… man. I don’t know if you’re a couple or not, but the eyes that girl showed didn’t lie. They were eyes that would have made my heart fall in love at first sight if not for the steel heart that I had forged in the middle of the mountain. Not only that, she whispered sweet words that were sweeter than the forest honey that I always tasted.”

“You’re really lucky. Having someone like her accompany you during your time at the academy, I hope your life is going well.”

No, what did this person mean? Did something happen while I was asleep due to the effects of that high-level magic?

Aside from the drowsiness that had disappeared even without the influence of magic, I didn’t feel anything strange. Ivo thought as he looked at his neck which was covered with a white scarf and an orchid in his hand.

Some of the second and third year academy students who were free also nodded when they heard the man say that. Even the male students who were very jealous also nodded their heads in agreement with that.

Wait… what? Really… what actually happened?