I Became a Genius Mechanic at the Academy

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‘If I’m going to do it, I might as well do it right.’

Although Ed had unexpectedly taken on the role of a clown, he poured his heart into the rehearsal.

He delivered sharp remarks that could shatter the mental state of Lucas and Claire with all the acting skills he could muster.

As a result, Eve and Elena, who had been bursting into laughter at Ed’s clown act, turned serious.

Being someone who knew demons better than anyone, Ed’s committed performance sent chills down their spines.

“…Perfect. Even though I know it’s you inside, it feels like a real demon.”

Ed, who had truly become one with the character and created a virtual demon.

Elena stroked her chin, acknowledging Ed’s talent.

If combined with her own magic and His Majesty the Emperor’s ‘spatial domination,’ anyone would be fooled.

“Your clown performance is quite interesting.”

But at that moment.

The Emperor began to waddle over, scratching his back.

He appeared more like an unemployed man in his 40s than an emperor, opening his bleary eyes as if he had just awoken from sleep.

“W-Welcome, Your Majesty!”

Yet even in such a disheveled state, the Emperor was still the Emperor.

The moment Elena saw him, she quickly knelt and bowed.

However, the Emperor merely chuckled and placed a beer can atop Elena’s head as he said,

“Hey. Don’t you remember? We’re friends; no need for formalities.”

In an instant, his affectionate gaze shifted toward Elena.

But that look was quickly devoured by a long-standing boredom.

Yawning as if everything was a bother, the Emperor approached Ed again and spoke.

“Hey. Hadoyu, you’re really putting on a show?”

The Emperor casually tossed a beer can to Ed as if they were great pals.

Ed promptly lifted his spider leg to catch the beer can.

-Poosh!

Or at least he tried to, but he failed.

The sharp tip of his spider leg pierced the beer can, causing it to explode.

“Oh. I should’ve paid more attention. Sorry.”

The Emperor said this, opened the beer can, and began to gulp it down.

Ed, emerging from the Cassandra Suit, received another of the Emperor’s recently thrown beer cans and drank alongside him.

The Emperor smirked slightly and began speaking.

“Hey, Hadoyu. Do you remember? After finishing development, we would go up on the roof and finish the day with a beer.”

“…Of course.”

“…Hehe. It’s nice to see your memories coming back. It feels like we’re having moments like this again.”

“…Right. Moments where we drink beer with the Emperor and reminisce.”

“Hehe.”

“By the way, you must have had it hard too. Living all alone while holding onto such memories.”

“…Well, yeah. I’ve held onto those memories for a long, hellish time. Now, I don’t even know what’s real. My original world feels like it was eons ago, and I can’t tell what ‘I’ really am. The moment I inherited piled-up memories, my current self got buried, turning into an indescribable entity.”

“…”

“…If I don’t succeed this time, Sephilia will end up like that too. My accumulated ‘self’ over countless years will blend with her identity, making her lose who she truly is. She will no longer be my daughter but ‘my’ daughter.”

-Thud.

The sound of something hitting the ground.

The Emperor turned his head toward the source of the noise.

There stood Elena, with a shocked expression, staring at him, having dropped the beer that was on her head.

Soon, as her shoulders trembled, she spoke to the Emperor.

“W-What… what was that? That Sephilia… no, the Princess is going to become your Majesty?”

“…”

The Emperor looked sternly at Ed and Elena, alternating his gaze between them.

Finally, the Emperor spoke to Ed.

“Didn’t you say anything?”

“…Uh.”

“Why not?”

“Because my Master cares for the Princess.”

“…”

The Emperor nodded as if he understood Ed’s response.

He then took a sip of his beer, burped, and turned to Elena.

He swiftly threw the empty beer can at her and said,

“…Soo-yoon. Or, it’s Elena now. Whatever your name is.”

“…”

“Listen. Hado… no, Edgar Fix and I, we came from a world that’s not this one. You’re the same.”

“…”

“We who fell into this world had to think about survival first. The will of the game wanted to eliminate us, after all.”

The Emperor began to recount the mythos of ‘Genesis.’

The great history of how Heavenly Beings fought and triumphed over the Lords of Hell.

“…Well, thanks to Ed’s sacrifice, the war came to an end. The Grand Duke was sealed in ‘Doom’ and peace returned to the world. But we still couldn’t go back to our original world. We could only return after the root cause of all this, the Lord of Hell, was dealt with. Thus, we, known as ‘Heavenly Beings,’ settled in this world.”

Afterward, the Emperor explained the story of the Heavenly Beings.

How they lived after Ed was sealed with the Lord of Hell.

“First, the four Royal Guards who were the strongest didn’t pass on their memories to their descendants. As a result, they gradually became locals of this world and eventually forgot about Ed. Then, they began endless wars to claim this land.”

“…”

“However, Hado… no, we, Ed’s closest friends, couldn’t let him go like that. So, one of our party members built a stronghold inside the ‘Sea Wall’ to prepare for the future, and I founded the ‘Orserk Family’ to prevent the bloodline of the Heavenly Beings from dying out, ending the wars. When Ed eventually returns, a powerful empire needed to support him.”

The Emperor detailed the background behind the establishment of the ‘Orserk’ family.

He continued, explaining how he started to inherit memories, awaiting Ed’s return and to maintain absolute imperial power.

He explained the ‘curse of memory’ where the child of a child of a child became the ‘first Emperor.’

“…The anxiety over Sephilia’s symptoms. The fear that this world might be fake. That all stems from a defense mechanism. Subconsciously realizing that someday they might be absorbed into me, they’re just preparing themselves mentally: this world might be fake. No, more precisely, the fear that their own life might just be a fleeting dream.”

“…”

“…Well, the reason I don’t love Sephilia is also due to that. I’m going to become her, so it’s kind of disgusting, right?”

Stumble.

Hearing the truth, Elena staggered and held her forehead.

Ed quickly rushed over to support her.

Elena pushed Ed away and shouted.

“N-No, let go…!”

“…”

“I-I don’t need to play the student role any longer… If Sephilia is going to be like that… if you, if you are something different from the Ed I once knew, then our relationship is meaningless—”

“Master.”

At that moment, Ed’s expression hardened as he called out to Elena.

He then grasped her shoulders and looked into her eyes.

Ed said,

“Who you are is something you decide for yourself.”

“…”

“I am Edgar Fix. I accidentally formed a bond with you when I carelessly fixed your magical robotic leg, and from that bond, I’ve become who I am now with your help. As long as you define yourself as the Great Mage Elena, you will always be my Master to me.”

…The subject of one’s identity is determined by oneself.

At Ed’s advice, Elena’s wavering gaze began to settle like calm waters.

Her tumultuous heart was finding peace.

‘It’s warm… You’re worried about me.’

However, Elena’s path to stability was not solely due to his advice.

The tender emotions that seeped into Ed’s eyes.

The gentle wish for her not to be hurt.

Reading that warm feeling from his expression and gaze, her heart healed.

“…By the way, was there a time in your previous life when we were in love?”

Thus, without realizing it, Elena blurted out a long-held question.

Ever since she learned that Ed was ‘reincarnated,’ she had wondered if there were times when he was her lover.

“…Yes. That did happen.”

Ed readily acknowledged the truth.

In the early stages of his infinite reincarnation, he had indeed shared a romantic relationship with Elena.

“…What were we like?”

Elena cautiously inquired about their relationship.

What were they like as more than master and student?

Finally, a grin appeared on Ed’s face.

“…It was fiery.”

“…Huh?”

“You were the predator. You devoured me countless times.”

“…Me? How?”

“…You know what I mean.”

Ed threw out a suggestive line, smirking.

Elena’s face turned bright red as if it were going to explode.

She wriggled out of Ed’s grasp and shouted.

“Th-That’s impossible! I-I could never be so shameless—”

“It was kind of an obsession.”

“—a woman, uh?”

“It wasn’t about lust but rather an obsession. An obsession to leave behind a powerful descendant.”

“…”

“Because, Master, you had a vague awareness of the Lords of Hell that were stirring in ‘Doom.'”

“…”

Elena nodded.

Her subconscious indeed felt anxious about the Lords of Hell and warned her to keep her guard up.

She had suffered from nightmares about them every day, burdened by the concern that she had to stop them.

“Because of that anxiety, Master, you became very interested in raising successors. When I awakened my talent as a fellow Heavenly Being, you felt sexual impulses to some extent. You probably wanted to give birth to a strong child to face the Lords of Hell… that’s what I think.”

“…”

Elena lowered her head, her expression uneasy.

What had her original self, with complete memories, been through to feel sexual impulses strong enough to be wary of the Lords of Hell?

At that moment, Ed, who had been deep in thought, opened his mouth.

“…And I think, Master, you probably projected another person onto me.”

“…Huh? Projected another person?”

“In other words, you were seeing someone special through me.”

“…”

Elena’s expression hardened.

What Ed said sounded as if she had dated him as a substitute for someone else, which was no different from what she was truly feeling.

“Of course, that doesn’t mean you didn’t love me.”

However, Ed hastily added the following words before Elena could misunderstand.

He started to explain why he thought that way.

“Master loved me, more than I deserved. But that love stemmed from your obsession rather than genuine feelings. Your gaze when you were with me felt somehow hollow. It was as if you were missing someone even while being with me.”

“…I’m sorry. That must have hurt.”

“Why should the current Master apologize? The Master from that time… no, the Elena from that time is a completely different person from you now.”

“…But ultimately, you’re still the same person.”

“…It’s alright. I was happy. It’s just that there’s a hole somewhere in your heart that you couldn’t fill, and that will remain as regret; we did our best.”

Ed spoke, recalling the time when he was with Elena as her lover.

The way Elena tried her best to love him, and how he suffered, unable to fill her emptiness.

Honestly, Ed felt sorry.

Because the refuge he chose after failing to fill her heart was Enya and Isabella.

But ironically, by meeting Enya and Isabella, Ed felt it was right not to get connected with Elena.

Her emptiness was something he could never fill with his efforts.

Thus, his relationship with Elena was more like companions than lovers.

More like helpers than companions.

And more like a master and disciple than helpers.

In other words, the current distance between them was just right.

At this distance, the two could force themselves not to turn feelings of love into something they would not.

Nor did they need to strive to fill hearts that could not be filled.

“So, Master. We’re doing just fine now. Not more and not less; just this level of distance.”

Thus, Ed defined his relationship with Elena.

A relationship where both could be happiest.

A master and a disciple.

“…Someday you’ll find it too. How to define your relationships with yourself and those around you.”

And Ed encouraged his former lover Elena.

That she, too, would someday find herself and place those around her in their rightful positions.

However, Elena still spoke to Ed with a complicated expression.

“…Do you think I can? I don’t even know who the real me is. I didn’t even know that Sephilia, who was like a younger sister to me, had such a secret…”

“…Of course. Even if it seems impossible, it ultimately depends on your efforts. The proof is right in front of you.”

Elena nodded as she looked at Ed before her.

He had managed to gain the current Enya and Isabella after countless failures.

“And besides, saving the princess is simple. Defeat the Lord of Hell and save this world. Then, Orserk can finally escape from her duty.”

As Ed said that, he looked toward the Emperor.

The Emperor, still appearing lethargic while smoking, eventually stuffed the empty beer can into his pocket and muttered,

“Well, yeah. My paternal instincts vanished a long time ago, but after all, she’s still ‘my’ daughter for now. I also want to keep her safe as much as I can.”

The Emperor then rose from his seat.

With his eyes narrowed sharply, he glared at Ed.

“Of course, for that to be possible, you’ll have to earn my trust. Given the mission that’s lasted for centuries, if it’s not a guaranteed victory, then we’ll start the ‘succession ceremony’ as planned.”

Elena swallowed hard, her face tense.

She was well aware of what the Emperor meant by the ‘succession ceremony.’

In other words, it meant he would impose himself over the princess.

If that happens, the princess’s personality would be entirely consumed, turning into an apathetic emperor.

‘I won’t allow that to happen, never.’

Thus, Elena made a vow.

To save this world and protect Sephilia as well.

That was the true and only desire of the ‘current Elena.’

“Hey, Hadoyu.”

But just then.

The Emperor, who had summoned a sofa to lie down on, called for Ed.

He then pointed at the crystal ball containing the figures of Lucas and Claire.

“Do you have time to just stand around? They’re almost all here.”

As per the Emperor’s words, Lucas and Claire had arrived at their target location.

However, Eve interrupted, saying that it was fine since she was stalling for time anyway.

Just like the cliché where a huge swarm of monsters pours forth before the boss appears.

She was creating the mood by sending out the creatures she had prepared until now.

“Now, all that’s left is for big brother to show up. Everything’s ready.”

With that, Eve handed Ed Cassandra’s helmet.

Ed immediately donned the Cassandra suit and helmet and headed toward the location where Lucas and Claire were.

Now it was time for this dad to play dress-up with his son.