Became the Academy Romantic Phantom Thief

311 – Reality and reality

“······.”

I was at a loss for words and looked at Eldina blankly.

Eldina stares at me with a puzzled expression, perhaps noticing my gaze.

“Hmm? Why do you do that? “Did you get something on my face?”

No, it is not Eldina.

To be precise, it would be more accurate to say that he is a different entity from the Eldina in the reality I was in.

After she was resurrected in human body, she changed to her normal and friendly speaking style.

Her haughty and dignified tone now is different from when she was with me as a goddess, that is, now.

She barely came to her senses and hurriedly shook her head.

“Oh, no. It’s nothing···.”

“Foot. “Why are you suddenly acting so awkwardly and respectfully?”

“···No.”

Awkward. It seems that in this strange world, Eldina and I are just classmates.

But she didn’t necessarily think it was a bad thing.

Rather, there were times when I wondered what would have happened if Eldina and I had started a relationship as equal friends.

“Sister. Could it be that you were harassing Crow again?”

At that time, I suddenly lost my breath at the voice I missed so much coming from behind me.

“You’re harassing me. “If anyone hears it, they will misunderstand it.”

“What is a misunderstanding? “Don’t you really feel sorry for Cro?”

Pure white hair and eyes. A girl who gives the opposite impression to Eldina, who has a dark image.

She was another goddess whom she had not seen for thousands of years and who she always remembered and longed for as an image that remained in her mind.

Eater was standing by her back door with her white dog, trying to tell Eldina what she wanted.

The silver-haired girls standing next to each other looked so similar that one could have mistakenly thought they were the same person, but the height difference was about a head of height, making them look like her older sister and younger brother.

···Everyone was here.

No one was abandoned or forgotten, so much so that it could be said to be unreasonable, but everyone was equal and gathered in one class under the name of friends.

Of course, after witnessing that scene, I realized even more keenly that this was a completely different world from reality.

This place was like a utopia, so to speak.

It is truly another world in the most ideal form.

If the Goddess of Fate had said, this unreal space was not a dream or fantasy.

A world of possibilities that clearly exists. Another reality that is not wrong, just different.

They say that if I choose this world, I can live forever.

It is not the miserable ending of being lost in fantasy and forgetting reality.

The only thing that determines which of the two worlds is real is my will.

If I choose this place, the world I have lived in so far will become nothing short of an illusion.

‘···There’s no way I can understand something like that!’

As expected, this is not the case.

In theory, what Goddess Fate said may be true, but my heart simply could not accept it.

Sitting in this ideal world, abandoning the reality of the situation?

Then what happens to Eldina, Eterna, and everyone else waiting for me on the other side?

No matter how much I thought about it, there was only one answer for me to choose.

As soon as the moment of decision arrives at midnight tomorrow, I will return to reality without hesitation.

This place is just a sweet dream.

The place I would return to was decided from the beginning.

I will never be caught up in the shallow temptations prepared by the goddess of fate.

“And again. Why do you keep making such stupid expressions from earlier? “It’s really strange today.”

Rachel narrowed her eyes and looked at me suspiciously.

After she vaguely explained that gaze with her awkward smile, she decided to distance herself from them as much as possible.

There is no need to get closer. These are people who will break up at midnight tomorrow anyway.

A fake that doesn’t even exist in reality… I tried to deceive myself as much as possible, but it was impossible to treat them as fake.

“That’s right. Did you see the latest episode of Phantom Thief Raven on TV yesterday!?”

“Are you still in love with such childish animations, even though you are only in high school?”

“How childish! “How fun!”

There was one thing I learned.

Unlike reality, this world was not the era of the Industrial Revolution, but closer to modern times.

It was also a worldview in which magic did not exist.

A stage that is very similar to the Earth in my memories, but where people who formed a relationship in the original world live together.

Here, I was not the phantom thief Raven.

In the first place, Raven was just an animation character that did not exist in reality.

There is no evil organization that seeks to destroy the world, no transcendental being who far surpasses human limitations, and no god who created the world and resides in heaven.

A world so peaceful that, of course, life-threatening battles are nothing more than a vain fantasy.

If you live in this world, there is little chance of experiencing the sadness of losing someone.

The fate of dying a miserable death, which had always bound me, also became meaningless.

Everyone can be happy. No one is sad or distressed.

···But is that really right?

That may be true in this world, but what about in reality on the other side?

If I disappear, uncertainty cannot occur. Those left behind will bear the karma I have accumulated so far without being able to resist fate.

No need to think. I have to go back to the original world.

“Huh? Where?”

I awkwardly answered Yulia’s question, standing up from my seat.

“Ah… “Okay, I’m going to go to the bathroom for a moment.”

“Go quickly! “We’re all going to have lunch together!”

“hahahaha, it’s okay to go first. “I’ll follow you slowly.”

Then Juliet flashed a sinister smile and suddenly jumped out, teasing me.

“Aha. “I guess it’s not a small matter, but a big matter?”

“Lord, Juliet…! You don’t have to say that…!”

The young lady, Julia, blushed and scolded her Juliet.

It was very refreshing to see those two people getting along so well and bickering.

More than that, if Juliet grows up normally, she seems to have that kind of personality.

Well, even when I was working as my secretary, I had a vicious side that liked to make fun of others.

Anyway, while I was trying to leave the class first to avoid the situation, someone quietly grabbed my collar.

Not Eterna…, But a smaller girl. It was white.

“You have to come quickly.”

“···Yes. I’ll be going soon.”

Unbeknownst to me, I was stroking her head with a bitter smile on my face.

Her thoughts became complicated as she watched the girl enjoying the touch with her eyes closed, as if it were very natural.

It was refreshing to see Hayang naturally mix and match with other people like this.

Because she always lived alone in the moon-lit clock tower.

She lives in a mirror world where no one comes to visit. She has been waiting for me to come someday, for nearly eternity.

Of course, I have no doubt that Hayang will also meet a happy ending when everything ends in reality.

But that is not happening right now. I’m convinced that if I just take one more step forward, it’ll all be over, but that doesn’t mean there’s no chance that I’ll fail at the last moment.

It is a contradictory paradox.

When I heard that Juliet had a difficult past, I realized that my plan was wrong from the beginning.

It is not right to sacrifice the present under the pretext of having a happy future.

Because I was so sure, I returned all my plans to a blank page and threw my whole body into making sure everyone was happy as quickly as possible, and we managed to get to this point.

But in order to put those words into practice, shouldn’t I rather choose this world…?

Well, in today’s world, everyone is already happy.

Why do we bother to go back to a world where everyone is still suffering?

Because this place is fake and the world I originally came from is real…?

That’s just my imagination, but if what Goddess Fate said, both worlds are definitely true.

Then what will happen to this world when I return to the original world?

My mind is confused. In the hallway, my legs became weak and I almost collapsed, but I managed to support myself by leaning on the wall.

It can’t be like this. The more you think about it, the more worries you have.

But is it really the right answer to ignore the current world and return to the original world?

‘There is no right answer to this test. There is only a choice.’

The last words left by the goddess of fate are repeated once again in my memory.

What choice should I make?

To wake up, I forced myself to wash my face with cold water in the bathroom sink and looked in the mirror.

···Let’s admit it. That this place is also reality.

Such a clear sensation is not a dream or fantasy.

As the Goddess of Fate said, this is a different world from where I originally came from.

Even so, the memories I accumulated do not exist here.

In the end, there is a right answer.

I have to return to the original world.

After barely convincing myself, I came out of the bathroom and there was someone leaning in the hallway waiting for me to come out.

It was Sharon.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?”

Her sharp eyes looked straight into my heart.