Admission is a Waste of Time Chapter 197

Admission is a waste of time (197)

Lesson 39. I have to have him – 2

Team Phoenix, led by Ulrike Prominence, the successor to the teenage family Prominence, successfully completed a two-week special activity.

Although it took almost the entire period to achieve perfection, it is without a doubt worthy of the highest rating as it laid a solid foundation for the dimension without wasting any time.

“Prominence, are you really okay?”

“Yes, of course.”

However, the members of Team Phoenix were looking at their leader with concern, as her condition had been a bit strange for about a week.

Even when we’re together, there are many times when I’m in a daze, and whenever I get a chance, I’m holed up in my own space doing something.

Some team members thought that maybe she had discovered something in this dimension, but they couldn’t bring themselves to ask her directly.

Eventually, after a week of strange atmosphere, I finished my special activities and returned to Union.

After the submission of the special activity report was completed, the group, now free, gathered in front of the warp gate that Union Academy boasts of – not by using the dimensional line, but by using the power of the Tower of Babel to transport each student to their hometown.

All students who completed their special activities were required to use this gate to return, unless they were accompanied by a full professor who had been given full authority by the president.

“Okay, thank you all for your hard work. Have a nice vacation.”

“Have a nice vacation, Prominence!”

“It was an honor to be able to work with Prominence this semester!”

Team members disappear one by one, greeting each other too politely for a classmate in the same grade.

Ulrike Prominence sent them off with a gentle smile… …but the moment everyone disappeared, her expression turned cold as if she had thrown away the mask she had been wearing.

“It’s trivial… … . How can there be so many worthless things?”

Until this special activity, they had been valuable talents in her eyes, but now they felt incompetent, like scarecrows standing alone in a field on an autumn day.

It’s not that those who were capable suddenly changed.

It’s just that her standards have changed.

Yeah, it started when I watched the Rebellion Channel.

‘Ban Yu-won, who was nothing more than a commoner with no abilities, acquired qualifications that would put him at the graduate level in just one semester. Furthermore, judging by the special phenomenon that occurs every time he climbs the tower, and the fact that he was chosen by the Union from a dimension where there was nothing… … He must be someone with a deep connection to the Union!’

I don’t like it, but the abilities of the things that go with it aren’t that bad.

There was no denying that all of them were superior to their teammates.

Of course, the most outstanding one among them is Ban Yu-won.

He had nothing to spare, from ability, intelligence, to good looks.

It can’t be just his delusion that that arrogant fairy girl is head over heels in love with him.

‘It’s a shame for that woman… … I should have it.’

At first, she watched the channel to be on guard against the possibility and prepare countermeasures――but while watching the video, Ulrike’s thoughts changed.

Of course, he has talent and insight that are dangerous to leave alone, but that doesn’t mean we should rule him out unconditionally.

Anyway, he is a capable person from a lowly dimension with no traditions or customs.

Since there is nothing to insist on or be bound by, wouldn’t it be possible to find the right path if we just eliminate the causes that gave him wrong thoughts and caused him to act wrongly?

It’s about getting rid of one of the incompetents on the team and filling the void with him.

The driving force behind Ulrike’s current actions has been completely replaced by a desire for Ban Yu-won.

‘Even though I’m not happy with them now, I was planning to nurture them little by little over time, but now that I’ve discovered a completed gem, I just can’t look forward to their future.’

Tsk, she clicked her tongue and walked towards the main building of the academy, not the gate in front of her.

The main building, where lectures are actively held during the semester, was quietly asleep during the vacation.

She walked cautiously, fearing that she might wake up a sleeping monster, and eventually reached the spiral staircase leading up to the 6th floor of the main building.

Above this were the offices of each full professor, and this spiral staircase was enchanted to expel those who had no business there and guide those who had business there directly to their destination.

Ulrike’s destination was, of course, the room of her advisor, Clio Hecate.

‘A magic that even the power of Prominence can’t do anything about… … It’s still unpleasant.’

I mutter swear words to myself, but I walk diligently up the spiral staircase.

After climbing so many stairs, Ulrike looked up and saw her destination.

She took a moment to catch her breath before the door and was about to knock when, with a creak, the door opened on its own and a voice welcoming her was heard from beyond.

“Welcome, my beloved disciple.”

“iced coffee.”

Ulrike smiled bitterly, saying, “I tried to hide my presence by hiding it,” and immediately bowed her head deeply as she entered.

“I’ve returned from my special activity, Master.”

“You didn’t come here to say hello like that, did you? Come here and sit down.”

A monster wearing faintly glowing bandages all over his body and a robe over them.

But the purple eyes that were revealed through the bandages that wrapped around her face were emitting an unusual aura that even Ulrike, the successor to the teenage family, was intimidated.

Clio Hecate, the most mysterious being in this Academy, aside from the Dean and Zeno.

There was nothing she spoke that did not come true, and there was no one who was hostile to her and the end was good.

Other professors and students called her with awe, “the prophetess who determines fate.”

“Your steps as you climb the stairs are light. Is it love?”

“no!”

Ulrike shook her head in shock at the words that suddenly came flying at her as soon as she sat down, but she admitted that her counseling was similar.

“There is a junior who I would like to bring to my team by any means possible, given his skills.”

“You’re a sophomore, so the only juniors you have are freshmen. You’re probably talking about the half-year students.”

“… … That’s right, Master.”

“Haha, if I had to pick the most famous person now compared to the beginning of the semester, it would be him. I didn’t really predict it.”

Hecate loosened the ends of the bandages that wrapped my body like a mummy and brought me a teapot and teacups.

She skillfully poured the tea using only her bandage, without moving her hand at all, and held the cup out in front of her as she spoke.

“Then, can you tell me how you found out about your junior?”

“Ahem, actually, we’re not that close… … .”

No matter how much you trust and rely on a teacher, he cannot tell you about the darkness of prominence.

Even if she already knows about it.

Especially in this academy where monsters live.

“It was when I saw the YouTube channel run by that junior. He was young and talented, but unfortunately he took the wrong path and started hanging out with the wrong crowd, so I thought I had to save him… … .”

“Aha… … . You were definitely jealous of the fairy princess who was popular at the Academy for her beauty and abilities. I also heard rumors that the two of you were in a deep relationship.”

“――!”

I thought my breathing had stopped.

When she glared at her teacher, who was deliberately poking her while seeing through her mind, she laughed happily and took a sip of her teacup.

“Isn’t that great? Love is essentially about taking from each other.”

“It’s not love.”

“I don’t intend to theorize about that ambiguous feeling. If there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that the closest thing to it is possessiveness. You want to have him all to yourself, don’t you?”

“That’s… … that’s true.”

Hecate smiled at her disciple’s honest response.

“But what can we do about this? To conclude, it is impossible to form a team with students of different grades.”

Then, with a smiling face, he said something that dashed her hopes into the abyss.

Of course, Ulrike knew that fact well and asked with a serious expression.

“Isn’t there anything that can’t be done with the Master’s power?”

“Think about it carefully, Ulrike. The reason why we don’t allow teams of different grades to be formed is simple. Once you form a team, you have to stay together until the end. And if you change teams, you have to climb the tower again from the beginning.”

“I’ve only finished the first semester of my second year, so it’s not too late. There are quite a few cases where people experience retirement during their third or fourth year and then climb the tower again… … .”

“If you graduate first, the kid in the fifth grade will have to start climbing the tower all over again.”

“There’s no need to worry. He’ll follow me to my family once I graduate. No, before that, he might conquer the tower with me so I won’t have to climb it anymore.”

The master sighed and touched his forehead at the sight of his disciple confidently making such assertions despite having never even met Ban Yu-won before.

Since she has never failed to get what she wants, she thinks that she will be able to win a man’s heart easily.

This isn’t princess syndrome or anything like that, it’s something much more terrifying.

But Hecate foresaw her dangerous thoughts, the nightmares she dreamed――.

“It’s not that there are no exceptions. In truly unavoidable cases, there are precedents for teaming up with someone in a different grade.”

For his own purposes, he was forced to speak of the worst possible outcome for someone.

“Master!”

“Just keep this in mind.”

She gave a serious warning to her disciple who came to her, holding her bandaged hand with a smile on his face.

“This is not something that a student can ever aim for on his own. Of course not… … It is something that can only be done without a team member.”

“What if a member of the team… … disappears? Does all of his team members have to disappear?”

“Not only that. If we want to prepare for the possibility, we should also have no Phoenix team members. That way, if other students intervene, there won’t be any vacancy.”

“aha!”

It was a simple story!

Ulrike Prominence clapped her hands in pure joy.

“That’s what I was planning to do from the beginning. You don’t have to worry, Master!”

“Ulrike, my beloved disciple.”

“Ah! The disciple has acted rashly in front of the master again.”

Hecate smiled sadly and said to her disciple, who was startled by her master’s call and lowered his head, hitting his mouth.

“It’s okay to reflect on yourself, but be careful what you say in the future. There’s no going back.”

“Master… … .”

Hecate’s purple eyes sparkled deeply.

Ulrike Prominence, the future she had foreseen from the moment she first met this false successor flashed before her eyes once again.

Ulrike’s actions, motivated by petty greed, awaken long-hidden truths and legends.

The real one, who was chased out by the fake one, will realize his position and try to return.

Eventually, the situation will spread out of control and involve the entire universe.

At the end of the banquet in hell, when she finds out everything, she will probably curse Hecate for deceiving her――.

‘The master of the tower will return.’

‘I will destroy all the old things and establish a new order, bringing peace to the entire universe.’

There is no way to reverse a prophecy that has already been spoken.

In order to fulfill her prophecy, Hecate willingly sounded the signal flare that would drag countless people into hell that day.