The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 126

If you were to discuss Adele’s life story, you would have to start from the commercial city of Oldek.

Her first memory was of the seagulls flying in the sky above the harbor.

As she got off the boat, holding tightly onto her mother’s hand, the view of the busy pier filled Adele’s eyes. Only then did she realize that she had set foot in a faraway foreign country.

A war refugee that had abandoned her homeland, fleeing the western continent that was in the middle of a war of conquest. Adele’s parents, whose faces she could barely remember, were barely considered citizens.

Although they settled in Oldek, living in the slums for a few months, her parents were unable to adapt to Oldek’s money-focused culture.

No matter what they did, people would stab them in the back, take advantage of them, and they would get caught up in fraud—falling instantly into debt.

By the time they came to their senses, they realized there was no room for people like them in Oldek. With debt piling up, pressure from loan sharks, and no money in their pockets, it was difficult to even eat a slice of bread. Life wasn’t all that different then when they lived as war refugees in the Western continent.

Adele grew up much too quickly. She believed that one day she would no longer have to live that kind of life. So, even on the morning of that day, she had already finished steeling her heart.

A pier lined with intimidating commercial buildings. Adele’s father took her to a bench on the opposite side as he sat down next to her.

He was carrying a lot of food, which was rare to see on a normal day.

A sandwich filled with warm bacon, sheep’s milk mixed with a fruit syrup, and even a chocolate cookie that cost more than an entire month’s worth of food… He continued to watch Adele enjoy the food.

He looked at Adele quietly for a while before he slowly stood up and spoke.

“Daddy has something to do, so I’ll be gone for a while. Wait for me.”

He then brushed off his pants a few times… After looking at Adele for a bit longer, he started to slowly walk away.

Adele kept her head down as she muttered, eating the sandwich. She spoke softly as she looked at her father’s back, watching as he was walking away.

“You’ve gone through a lot.”

Hearing those words, Adele’s father trembled before continuing to walk away, disappearing into the crowd little by little.

Adele continued to eat the food before she got up from the bench and headed to Oldek’s cathedral, where she often went with her parents to pray. After arriving, she ended up praying the entire day.

After praying for a long period, she didn’t stand up until the final service for the day was over. Then, after High Priest Verdio delivered his final words, she pushed her way towards him as he came down from the podium and spoke confidently.

“I have become an orphan.”

Everything after that happened in a flash.

She lived and worked at Deldros Orphanage, which was supported by the Telos Religious Group. She washed the bed linens, mopped the hallway, fetched the drinking water, and read books at night.

It was also the first time she played the lute. She had picked up a lute with a broken string down by the pier. Adele got a new string and tuned it all by herself. She used to get sheet music for hymns back at the cathedral and would play them. She even started to make her own songs as she plucked the strings on her own.

She spent her years living a faithful life as a servant of God at the Oldek Cathedral. But like most things in her life, things weren’t always smooth.

One day, Adele saw the future.

A scene where Verdio, the high priest of Oldek Cathedral, had come down from the podium and knocked over a candlestick. The candlestick’s flame then moved towards a decoration in the church, wreaking havoc.

At first, she thought it was a dream. However, Adele continued to stand next to that candlestick—just in case. Just as she had seen, Verdio knocked over a candlestick. Before the fire reached the cabinet, Adele quickly put it out by pouring water over it.

In that moment, Adele had caught the attention of Verdio.

Once or twice a month, she would see scenes of the future without any warning… It was hard for Adele’s life to change drastically because of it, though, since her foresight ability was one that she couldn’t control.

Most of the time, it was the future of those who had no link to her. It was interesting, but that was all it was.

However, Verdio continued to keep a close eye on Adele’s ability. Eventually, on the day Verdio was recognized for his abilities and appointed as Archbishop of the Holy Father Building, Adele was also recognized as the next Saint. They then made for the Holy Father Building together.

The Holy Father Building was a majestic and grand building. They had robes made of expensive fabric, more than ten servants, extravagant meals, and admiration from high-ranking clergymen.

All of those things had fallen into her hands overnight. Of course, it wasn’t just pleasant things.

She also had to pray every day, be taught manners, and study more—she even lost time to sleep. Still, it couldn’t be compared to the life she had when she lived as a poor war refugee.

After a long exchange of opinions between bishops about whether or not she was suitable to be the next Saint, they came to an agreement that somewhat matched the decision the Holy Father and the Archbishop made… Eventually, Adele officially started the process of taking the vacant position of Saint.

She was baptized by the Holy Father, the Archbishop, and the greatest apostles. She inherited the will of the Holy Father Building. The Holy Blessing was engraved onto her body. And the official letters of notice announcing her rise to the position of Saint were written to nearly all the heads of various countries.

The more baptisms and blessings she received, the stronger Adele’s divine power grew. Although she had no talent in Sacred Magic, she was tremendous in her role as a vessel for divine power. And the greater her divine power became, the clearer the futures she saw became.

Eventually, when all the procedures were complete aside from her stigma ceremony, Adele finally got a glimpse of her own future…

And just as the story goes, she gave up on becoming a Saint.

Archbishop Verdio swung open the Saint’s room as he entered.

The spire, where the Saint resided, was a place that even the Holy Father was reluctant to step foot in. However, strictly speaking, Adele wasn’t the Saint yet.

Verdio asked her about it. He raised his voice as he asked her just what in the world she meant when she said she wanted to give up on becoming the Saint.

She stated various reasons, such as anxiety, loneliness, and the lack of ability to fill such a position. Instead, she wanted to voluntarily serve Telos in another way.

After more than an hour of arguing, Verdio shook his head as he stormed out of her room. Adele could sense it.

Verdio… It seemed he had noticed to some extent that Adele had seen a glimpse of the future and had given up on being the Saint because of it.

Because of that, he knew there was no way to convince Adele otherwise. It was the wrong choice to try and make her become the Saint.

In the end, Adele didn’t become the Saint of the Telos Religious Group… Instead, she took a position as the keeper of the torch in the Holy Father Building.

Spending years taking care of the torch, Adele was tormented by the future that she had seen.

A burning chapel. A massive Holy Blue Dragon seen through the broken stained glass. Archbishop Verdio standing at the podium, saying that the plan had gone wrong. In order to subdue Genesis, the Holy Blue Dragon Velbrok that could even defeat Gods, they needed to sacrifice a Saint with enormous divine powers.

As that scene came to her mind again, Adele would startle from her sleep.

And with that, time continued to pass.

Adele took care of the torch as she played her lute, looking up at the sky. When night fell, she listened to rumors of the Holy Father Building by overhearing the high-ranking priests talking to each other.

As the days went by, the Holy Father Building’s financial condition continued to worsen. The subjugation of the non-human races in the North had also come to an end. There was no longer a war. And in times of peace, under the reign of His Majesty, the wise Emperor Kroel… People gradually stopped looking towards God.

The power of the Holy Father, who even the emperor used to bow to, gradually weakened. It had been a long time since there was a reign of peace, and people gave their respect and admiration to the Kroel Emperor instead.

Archbishop Verdio was a clergyman, but also a businessman.

If God didn’t perform miracles, then people would not believe in him. And if the number of believers didn’t increase, the Holy Father Building would cease to exist.

In order to retain the people’s admiration and increase the prestige of the Holy Father Building, they had to show a miracle from God.

However, for that to happen, there were a lot of things that were needed to be prepared.

A few years later, for the first time a new Saint was born with tremendous divine power—power that could even be compared to Adele’s… Clarice quickly climbed to the top of the Holy Father Building.

Playing her lute from the top of the spire, Adele was always watching Clarice.

Clarice couldn’t interact with the passage of time by using divine power to control Celestial magic like Adele could, but the amount of divine power she held was at a level that couldn’t be compared to any of the priests.

She held a graceful demeanor, was quick at assimilating, and held an ideal personality—as if she were born to become the Saint.

Even though she thought that Clarice was suited to being at the top of the Holy Father Building… Adele couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of guilt.

Originally, the Saint that was killed for the sake of the Holy Blue Dragon was Adele. And as long as she tried to run away from that future, that meant someone else needed to take her spot.

In the end, that replacement was none other than Clarice. That was a fact she was certain of.

Sitting by the window near Clarice’s room, she played the lute while talking to her, spending time with her, and becoming close friends with her. Even more than she had thought, Clarice truly possessed a heart as beautiful as her appearance.

The more she spent time with her, the more the guilt deeply ingrained in her heart grew.

Adele couldn’t say it. “I ran away because I didn’t want to die. And your death is the result of my struggle to survive, Saint.” Such words… were unable to ever leave her mouth.

Adele didn’t want to be hated, nor did she want to reveal the dark truth behind herself to Clarice, who was always sitting by the window and listening to her play the lute with those twinkling eyes.

So instead, she sang about the beauty of freedom.

Instead of being satisfied with an achromatic life at the Holy Father Building, she encouraged her to chase after freedom and explore the vast and wide world.

Clarice already felt unsure of her current life and was ultimately pushed forward to search for a new meaning.

With that same mouth that was forced to chew on stale bread back in the slums of Oldek, Adele sang about the romance filled in the world as if she herself knew about it. She sang about the contents of books she had read in a corner of the crummy orphanage’s bug-infested room, as if she had experienced them before with her own two eyes.

She had never seen the beautiful and strange rock formations of the Lamelin Mountain Range, the vast grasslands of Pulan, or the great desert Dresstaya. All she knew was the depressing brick floor of the back alleyways of Oldek, where the only thing she saw were the rats playing.

However, Clarice continued to have such dreams as she listened to Adele sing such songs.

A dream of playing around the world, enjoying the beautiful scenery, and forming a relationship at the end of her journey that would forever stay by her side… Clarice held those thoughts close to her chest.

Even though the person that nurtured such a dream was a fake minstrel that had never experienced such beauties of the world, the dreams Clarice had weren’t tainted. And Adele was grateful for that fact alone.

However, Adele couldn’t continue to stay at the Holy Father Building. Her own heart wouldn’t allow her to do so any longer. For Adele, being next to Clarice was nothing more than deceiving her.

So, in the end, she went in another direction once again.

From the Western continent, which was in the middle of a war, to the commercial city of Oldek. Then to the Holy Capital Karpea, before finally going to… the southernmost point of the empire, Acken Island.

In the early morning, before the sun rose, she packed all her belongings as she left the spire while holding her lute.

She didn’t have a specific destination in mind. There was no one she could call a friend in the world, and she couldn’t even confirm whether or not her parents were still alive.

She was just going to go where she wanted to. Maybe it would be a good idea to visit the land of alchemy—Krett—to sightsee, or explore the streets of the empire’s capital Kroelon, or walk through the Lamelin Mountain Range while marveling at the vast beautiful view—or attend a place like Silvenia Academy, to learn magic.

Either way, she has saved up quite a bit of money over the past years. Also, she was quite confident in her singing skills, so she was sure that she could take care of herself.

She snuck out, looking up at the Holy Father Building, which was as magnificent and tall as ever. A massive outer wall surrounded the spire like a prison, as if expressing the sheer majesty of their God.

The cold early morning air of late fall left her mouth. Turning around, she looked at the road that continued to stretch out endlessly.

In that manner, the girl had finally become a traveling minstrel.

***

“Eugh, Keuk…”

She tried to move in the most inconspicuous places she could find, but when she finally got near the school’s cathedral she had to step out onto the main street.

People around her began to stare at Adele, who was walking while dripping in blood, asking her if she was alright. But Adele didn’t answer them as she continued to stagger walking towards the cathedral.

She arrived quite early. At first, she didn’t know when the Holy Blue Dragon’s resurrection would take place. Now, even with her eyes closed, she could predict the timing of everything to some extent. It was enough for her to even guess what was taking place in the cathedral at that very moment.

What happened afterwards was now all too terribly familiar for her. It wasn’t anything difficult for her to imagine though.

Her body, which wouldn’t listen to her, would open the door to the cathedral and head on through. Then Taldarek, the third seat of ‘Apostles of Telos’ that was guarding the entrance, would say that outsiders were forbidden from entering. But the moment he would try to stop Adele, she would roll up her sleeve to show him the ‘Holy Blessing’ that was engraved on her arm.

In that moment, Taldarek would bewildered and she would take advantage of it by slipping inside, eventually making her way to the large chapel.

On the podium was a relic left by ‘The Primordial Swordsman’ Luden. A necklace made of Velbrok’s tooth that was placed inside a luxurious box. A relic that would play a key role in resonating with the Holy Blue Dragon Velbrok, waking him up.

The ‘Apostles of Telos’ that were called over from the Holy Father Building would end up taking their battle stances as they positioned themselves across the chapel.

Next to the podium, Archbishop Verdio and Holy Father Eldane would stand together, making the final decisions on their plan to deal with the Holy Blue Dragon once it was resurrected. They were checking on the location it would all take place before going over to Trix Hall to bring Saint Clarice.

It didn’t matter what Adele told them when she broke onto the scene. She had already tried it all.

The ‘Apostles of Telos’ were a tremendous power that could even withstand tens of thousands of troops with just five of them gathered. But in front of the Holy Blue Dragon, they were nothing but worthless sacrifices.

Why did they come to the conclusion that the dragon of calamity that existed in the history books could be dealt with by the power of humans?

But the high-ranking priests, who were consumed by their own arrogance and desperation, didn’t listen to her. There was no point in trying to argue with them.

The ‘variable’ that they didn’t expect was the fact that the Holy Blue Dragon descended upon them much faster than they had expected. That was because the seal that the Great Sage Silvenia had maintained was older and much more unstable than they had believed.

The sheer size and power of the Holy Blue Dragon was much greater than they could have ever imagined… making them all unable to move even the slightest bit. They could have never imagined that the Holy Blue Dragon, whom they had only heard about in books, would be such a massive calamity.

What they came to realize after the fact was that only the Saint could save their arrogant selves. In order to put that massive calamity back to rest, it was necessary to sacrifice the Saint, who had enough divine power to kill the Holy Blue Dragon.

However, they weren’t able to bring Saint Clarice, who was supposed to be the sacrifice if necessary, all the way over from Trix Hall.

Adele saw the ‘sacrificing magic circle’ that was painted in the middle of the Chapel. They probably needed Clarice to kneel there and pray. Only a Saint that had received Telos’ blessing could put Velbrok to sleep by sacrificing her divine power and life.

It was time for Adele to reflect on her past life once more and rid herself of the guilt she had accumulated because of Clarice.

Death was terrifying, but what was scarier was living in pain and torment, to the point that one would think it was better to die.

She had wandered across the world in pursuit of romance, but in the end, she could never rid herself of the guilt that stayed in her heart.

That was why Adele never visited Clarice, not even after hearing that she had entered the school a while back.

Because she thought she didn’t deserve to see Clarice.

However, now it was the time to end it all.

Pushing her way through the apostles, she sat down on the magic circle as she prayed. A dark red magic power erupted from the necklace made of Velbrok’s tooth. She could clearly feel murderous intent.

She felt that eerie and thick magic power eating away at her life.

However, something happened that no one expected… Adele’s enormous divine power merged with Celestial Magic. Her divine power could see into the future and twist the passage of time.

Since she was at a level that no other Saint had ever reached, that was completely unprecedented.

The Holy Blessing that surrounded Adele’s body began to activate, as if to protect her life.

As Velbrok’s magic power surrounded her body, in order to save her life… using the divine power that was imprinted onto her body… the world ended up rewinding, going back in time.

A realm of Celestial Magic that no Saint had ever reached. All of it took place because Adele was able to reach it… the reversal of time. In terms of magic, it was an area that fell under taboo.

However, going back in time didn’t mean that the situation was resolved. It was only delaying the event from happening.

“Cough… Cough…”

Ultimately, the reason the story didn’t finish there was because Adele still had quite a bit of divine power left.

Only if she were to use up all the divine power inherent in her, to the point she couldn’t turn it into magic power any more, would it finally be over. Regardless of her talents and the fact that she had reached a level that no other Saint had achieved before, after repeating it dozens—no, hundreds of times—she would eventually run out of divine power to activate the Holy Blessing.

Her vision blurred as she bled out severely. No matter how great the Holy Blessing was, Adele’s body was reaching a point where she was running out of divine power and would no longer be able to activate it.

There really wasn’t much time left.

Thinking that the seemingly endless repetitive loop was coming to an end, a side of Adele even began to feel relaxed.

It was a fleeting life, but that didn’t mean she didn’t do anything with it. Even though she was spouting lies, Clarice continued to listen to her song as she looked at her with bright eyes. To her, that fact alone brought enough meaning to her life… Adele smiled faintly as she continued to stagger away.

“Now… maybe once or twice… three or four more times… this will all come to an end…”

Last time, Clarice had stormed into the Cathedral. It happened much faster than she had expected.

Still, there wasn’t much time left. She barely had any divine power left in her body.

Thinking as much, Adele continued to walk towards the cathedral. However, after looking back at everything… In the end, she thought her life wasn’t as bad as she once thought.

However, life didn’t always go according to one’s expectations and plans.

In the first place, Adele was complacent. It must have been because her mind had become hazy after dying constantly.

The variable that she didn’t predict and Clarice, who had been going back in time with her… At that point, she should have figured it out.

“What…?”

Halfway up the stairs, Adele saw the Saint’s large and luxurious carriage parked next to the cathedral.

Creak.

The moment she looked up, it felt as if someone was grabbing her back.

“Wh-Whaaaat…”

Adele, who was being dragged away, was unable to break free as she was seated on a nearby wooden bench.

The person that had pulled the back of her neck and forced her to sit on the bench was completely unexpected.

“Is orange juice good? Or are you fine with just water?”

“…Huh…?”

“I prefer water, so you can have the orange juice.”

They were drinks from the school’s snack-shop that had been poured into mugs. It was especially good and refreshing with ice floating around inside.

The man in front of her… was Ed Rothstaylor. He looked down at Adele as if it were a normal situation, putting the drink in her lap.

Adele struggled to grab ahold of the mug with her blood-stained hands… She looked up at Ed, completely dumbfounded.

Ed sat down next to the dumbstruck Adele as he looked up at the cathedral.

He then gulped down the water before exhaling heavily. He leaned back as he looked up at the cross, high in the sky.

Adele… was too shocked to say anything.

Ed continued to look at the cathedral for a while, not saying a word.

“Th-This… This is…”

“Hey.”

Adele, who had been sitting completely dumbstruck for a while, finally spoke—only to be cut off by Ed.

“You will die soon.”

Those words were familiar to her… Adele quietly grabbed the mug as she replied.

“…I know.”

“…Alright.”

After that, they didn’t say a word for a long while.

Even though the Holy Blue Dragon would soon arrive, creating chaos, the school was still peaceful. Looking at the cathedral’s cross, it looked as if it were praising the reign of peace.

“Is that it?”

“…What?”

“I’m asking you if that’s it. You don’t have anything else to say?”

When Ed asked her another question, Adele started to get confused, wondering what she was supposed to say.

The fact that Ed had suddenly appeared and grabbed ahold of Adele was a completely unexpected incident in the first place. She couldn’t even consider that Ed himself might be a variable in the first place.

However, Ed’s existence… It was the only variable that Adele couldn’t be aware of.

A man that had gone a different direction every time the world repeated itself, trying to find an answer.

The fact that all that time, Ed had been right there next to Clarice, Adele was completely unaware of it.

And she didn’t know the intent behind his question, either.

Completely ignoring the rules of the constantly repeating reversal of time. Unexpectedly showing up right in front of her and saying those words.

She knew all too well that she was going to die. She had seen it in her sporadic visions of the future. She experienced it repeatedly as time reversed itself.

But how could Ed have known that…? From Adele’s position, there was no way of knowing that answer.

Adele decided on what she would say. There was nothing more for her to say to him.

Rather, there were lots of things that she wanted to ask, instead. She tried to check things slowly, but…

She started to feel something rising in her as she sat on that bench.

Looking around, she was in the back alley of the commercial city of Oldek.

Warm steam rose from the bacon sandwich she held in her hand. The man that was walking further away from her was Adele’s father. She was going to say something, but in the end, the only thing she could say after thinking long and hard about it was‘You’ve gone through a lot.’

Thinking about it again, the same was true at the window of the spire at the Holy Father Building.

Even in front of Clarice, who looked up at her with dazzling eyes, she had tried to say something.

However, in the end the only thing that she could utter were songs that romanticized one’s freedom.

“I’m scared.”

Adele looked at the hand that was holding the mug as she trembled. There was a sound of her gulping, as if she were trying to hold it in. Then, a trembling voice barely escaped her lips.

“I don’t want to die.”

Adele lowered her head as she continued to cry for a long time.

Ed sat quietly next to her, just looking up at the cross on the cathedral.

“Alright.”

With his arms resting on the backrest of the bench, he looked up at the sky that seemed endlessly vast.

“Why did you struggle with saying something so obvious?”

Adele and Clarice had both gone through heaven and hell, but there was no way for Ed to know that.

It was probably a story that was nightmarish and terrifying for the both of them.

But it was all slowly coming to an end.

“Then tell me everything you know. Let’s finish it now.”