The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 247

No matter what the people off the stage were doing, the story on the main stage had to go on.The moment Ed Rothstaylor and Silvenia disappeared into the Spatial Curtain, the battlefield quickly fell into a lull.

Yennekar, completely exhausted, collapsed onto the floor as the spirits she had manifested in the sky slowly disappeared one by one.Lucy was the same. The ring on her hand shattered, unable to withstand the astronomical amount of magic power she had gathered. She staggered toward the direction Ed Rothstaylor had disappeared in before collapsing.

Now, there was no one left to stop the monsters filling the sky.

Velbrok’s monsters quickly covered the skies of Acken Island once more. There seemed to be no end to them. Even after countless numbers were slain, they continued to pour forth.

However, the humans never gave up fighting back.

The knights of the cathedral, led by Saint Clarice, and the mercenaries under Elte Company’s deputy director, Lortel…The blood-crazed Blade Demon Clevius, the combat department students following Daike’s lead, and the student council members led by Tanya Rothstaylor…

They all arrived one after another, joining the battle.

Cutting down the monsters as they advanced, they made their way toward the center of the square. Enduring Velbrok’s magic-laden roar and fending off the monsters’ spells, they pressed onward toward the heart of the battlefield.

The first to arrive was Elte Company’s deputy director, Lortel Kehelland.

Lortel quickly noticed the pool of blood surrounding the collapsed spire. She could sense the lingering form of Ed’s magic from when he had used Elementalism, and then she spotted the unconscious Yennekar and Lucy.

She quickly gathered her thoughts and issued orders to the mercenaries to tend to the two of them.

The countless spirits she had witnessed earlier and the residual traces of Celestial Magic made it clear that a fierce battle had just taken place.

Right there, Yennekar and Lucy must have fought to the brink of death to support Ed.

But it was not a battle fought on the stage, beneath the spotlight.

It was a battle beneath the stage, known only to those involved. Nevertheless, it was an intensity that could not be compared to anything else.

Lortel belonged to the generation of the shining protagonist.

Therefore, this was not her stage.

She silently lifted her gaze to the sky.

Velbrok was still bound in chains, struggling to break free. That massive Holy Blue Dragon was undoubtedly the final enemy the long-awaited hero was meant to defeat.

Walking the hero’s path was the correct choice. Steadily advancing along that open road, a bright and beautiful ending awaited her.

However, those who stood beside Ed Rothstaylor were all people who belonged beneath the stage.

She looked down at Yennekar and Lucy, both in terrible condition.

Despite fighting a desperate and grueling battle, they had remained by that man’s side until the very end.

That was the decisive difference between Lortel and the two of them.

Standing on a different stage created a strange disconnect at the most important point.

She was not used to feeling so disconnected from him. A faint sense of loneliness welled up in her heart, but…

Then she slowly smiled.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve never once lived by the right answer.”

She thought of Ed Rothstaylor, who was obsessed with gradation, focusing solely on survival until he reached that point. Wasn’t it Lortel herself who had once shown him an alluring smile, declaring that she would take him before that time came?

Her dream of wealth had begun when the poor told her she would never succeed. And yet, she had become one of the wealthiest people in the Empire. Lortel Kehelland was accustomed to defying what others called fate and destiny.

The final stage was just around the corner. After coming this far, was she really going to end things in a way that disappointed herself?

Lortel lowered her head beneath her hood, a smile on her lips, and continued helping Yennekar and Lucy recover.

The Holy Blue Dragon Velbrok.

It was the enormous obstacle standing between her stage and the one Ed Rothstaylor stood upon. All she needed to do was remove it.

A stage ended when the curtain fell.

When the stage was over, the brilliant main characters stepped down as well.

Looking toward the stairs leading off the stage, Lortel smiled alluringly.

The stage Ed Rothstaylor had set was nearing its conclusion.

Once it was over, she only needed to descend those steps and slowly enter the world that man lived in.

Shortly after, the Velbrok Subjugation Squad led by Taylee reached the square. Everyone had gathered in one place.

Taylee McLaure, Ayla Triss, Penia Elias Kroel, Lortel Kehelland, Ziggs Eiffelstein, Clevius Nortondale, Elvira Aniston.

The protagonist generation. Characters burdened with their own circumstances stood together, gazing up at Velbrok as it roared.

The final curtain was slowly rising.

Taylee McLaure would win.

He was the protagonist.

***

When I opened my eyes and my blurred vision cleared, I found myself in a pure white space.

I had completely lost consciousness. Looking around, I felt momentarily disoriented. As pain surged through my body, I frowned but endured it.

There was nothing in sight.

I was sitting on a small wooden chair in an entirely white void.

Seated across from me was a girl I recognized.

Like me, she was covered in blood. Even her luxurious magician’s robes were stained red.

The white-haired girl, her hair falling neatly down her back, was none other than the Great Sage Silvenia Robester.

When she realized I had woken up, she closed her eyes as if pondering what to say.

I spoke first.

“When did you get it together?”

Facing the unknown horrors of the abyss for what must have felt like eternity could not have been easy. That was why I had never criticized her.

“From around the time I saw Glasskan.”

Silvenia’s voice was softer than I had expected.

It was nothing like when madness had consumed her. She kept her gaze lowered, her expression dark, lacking any sense of imposing authority.

“But even before that, I felt something was wrong. After being slowly devoured in the abyss, I must have started thinking my life was nothing more than a series of useless struggles.”

“That’s understandable.”

I sympathized with her, but I did not try to comfort her.

After all, the only one who could comfort her was herself.

Completely drained, I leaned back against the chair.

“This is…”

“We’re in a gap in space. By hiding within the Spatial Curtain, we’re completely isolated from the outside world—free from all damage and influence.”

“This is quite the experience.”

I leaned forward, bracing my back as pain flared again. Resting my elbows on my thighs, I buried my face in my hands.

“Your life wasn’t meaningless. Because I’m here.”

I wasn’t trying to console her. I was simply stating a fact.

“I am proof of that.”

I felt no loyalty toward her, yet the words still came.

Even as the Great Sage, she was human in the end.

All she wanted was to see it with her own eyes. That was all.

Silvenia lowered her wand and slowly nodded. She seemed to be holding it together, but tears eventually fell onto her hands.

She had lived her entire life trying to save the world—failing, losing herself to madness, and making countless mistakes.

Yet she had finally reached the end. She had found a future that extended beyond the Cliff Point.

The one who reached the end of the journey wasn’t me. It was her—Silvenia Robester.

Thinking that, I nodded.

“Now it’s time to finish things. Actually… I think it’s about time for my end as well. I’m glad you came to this world.”

“What do you mean, your end?”

“The provinces of the world aren’t something that can be tampered with freely. The total number of souls permitted in a world is fixed. If a soul from another world enters, an equivalent weight of souls must disappear. There’s a limit to how much humanity can twist the provinces.”

Permanent extinction through Celestial Magic. By altering the provinces themselves, she could erase something from existence entirely.

Silvenia spoke while gathering Celestial Magic Power.

“Many people died because of my mistakes.”

She had lived her entire life for the sake of saving the world. Yet that noble goal could not justify her own sacrifice. She was too great a person for that.

“I’ll eliminate Velbrok and leave this world. The space I leave behind will be yours.”

Silvenia stood as she spoke to me.

“Thank you for coming here. And for surviving.”

“……”

“I’ll take care of the rest. I just wanted to say thank you for surviving. You clenched your teeth until the very end and endured everything… That’s why… I’m grateful to you…”

After saying that, she slowly turned away.

Perhaps she intended to end the calamity herself—to defeat Velbrok and entrust the world with the hope of overcoming the Cliff Point.

There was no place left for Silvenia. All that remained was to save the world.

Just knowing her life hadn’t been meaningless was enough to bring a smile to her face.

“Hey.”

Of course, I wasn’t okay with ending things like that.

Barely able to stand, I called out to her with what little strength I could muster.

“……?”

“I understand how you feel. To save your world, you summoned me and forced me to endure countless hardships. I get that.”

She had done everything for the sake of survival. Summoning me was just one part of that desperation.

I understood her position and her reasons.

But there were still things I couldn’t accept.

“What about the world I came from?”

“Huh?”

“You said the provinces would be twisted if the balance of souls was broken. Who’s maintaining the balance of the world I left behind? How are you planning to fill the space I left?”

I closed my eyes.

The friends I had left behind still lingered vividly in my mind.

“I didn’t have many friends, and it was a hard world to live in… but it was still my home. A place I can’t help but feel attached to. That’s why… since I protected your world, you need to protect mine.”

“Th-That…”

“If I need to exist here as a variable to save this world, then isn’t it only fair that you ensure the world I came from doesn’t collapse?”

I knew how many spirits had been sacrificed for me to arrive here.

But none of that mattered to me.

Which was why there was only one thing I could ask.

“I’ll take responsibility for your world. So you take responsibility for mine. Don’t try to run away by dying.”

“You want me to go to your world? In your place?”

“You summoned me here. That means going there shouldn’t be impossible.”

“But… I’ve never tried before…”

“Then try.”

My reaction clearly caught her off guard. Silvenia stared at me with wide eyes.

Still, my reasoning was sound.

Since arriving here, I had endured countless hardships. Yet there had been moments worth cherishing. Even so, that didn’t mean I had stopped loving my own world.

I didn’t want anything bad to happen to it.

“But… Velbrok…”

“You need to trust your world. The Taylee I know will defeat Velbrok, even with its seal fully undone. We have more allies now than ever. We won’t lose.”

The stage was already set.

Everything I had endured had led to this point. As long as the result was good, nothing else mattered.

“Don’t waste your Celestial Magic Power saving this world. I’ll save it for you.”

It was a simple deal.

There was nothing more to think about. I had no intention of backing down.

Silvenia stared at me in silence, then smiled. Closing her eyes, she laughed softly for a while before finally responding.

“Yeah. You’re right.”

She nodded, gathering Celestial Magic Power throughout her body.

Dark red magic flooded the space. The once pure-white void became saturated with Celestial Magic, as though we were deep underground.

She had gathered far more power than when she used Ultimate Celestial Magic. Just witnessing it was enough to make my head ache.

It was power sufficient to reach beyond the furthest stars—to another world.

She had used this magic many times before to summon Ed Rothstaylor.

But now, it was meant to send herself elsewhere.

Something resembling a massive iron gate formed from the magic.

“Honestly, I don’t know what will happen. It’s been a long time since I first summoned you, and things have become unstable. I might have to drift through time and space for a long while. I could end up far in the future… or even deep in the past.”

“Still better than you dying here.”

“That’s true. And like you said, I need to take responsibility—just like you.”

Silvenia looked back at me with a faint smile.

Her lips moved as if she were saying something, but the swirling magic drowned out her voice. It looked like a final thank-you.

So I waved back, letting her know it would be fine.

All I had ever done was struggle to survive each moment. I never had some grand ambition to save the world.

In our own ways, we had both survived to the end.

And that was enough.

Silvenia’s Celestial Magic Spatial Curtain closed.

I watched as she passed through the open gate, then closed my eyes.

I never got the chance to say goodbye.

But as long as we both survived, I believed we might meet again someday.

***

No matter how long the night, morning eventually came.

Even that night in the forest, when I pressed a gun to my head, the sun eventually rose after the darkness passed.

The same was true on Acken Island, where Velbrok and countless monsters had rampaged.

As the Velbrok Subjugation Squad regrouped and Taylee soared through the sky with his sword, the morning sun rose.

The monsters threatening to overrun the continent were eventually halted by the arriving Imperial Army.

Led by Princess Persica, the army spread along the coastline, blocking the hordes and preventing them from reaching the mainland.

Princess Penia escorted Taylee and led the group. Ziggs cleared a path to Velbrok’s heart. Clevius deflected its attacks with all his might. Elvira minimized the damage from its magic. Lortel calculated the optimal approach without pause. And at the center of it all stood Taylee and Ayla, never losing heart.

Everyone fought to survive.

On that rainy battlefield day in the forest, I remembered leaning against a tree stump and lowering the gun.

I remembered the squirrels fleeing, ants crawling through the soil, and birds perched in the trees.

Each of them lived their own lives. All of them were alive.

That truth was etched into my heart. I knew I would never forget it.

When I opened my eyes, I was lying amid the rubble of a collapsed building.

Yennekar and Lucy, battered and exhausted, lay beside me. They clung to me tightly, arms wrapped around me like kittens. Seeing them, I almost laughed.

Neither was awake. They must have stayed with me until they passed out.

The sky was clear. At some point, it had become morning.

Sunlight poured over the ruins.

Velbrok no longer filled the sky.

I tried to stand, but pain surged through my body.

“Did you have a good dream?”

Lortel looked down at me.

She sat atop the rubble beside us, just as bloodied as we were.

It was proof of a fierce battle—but now, everything was over. She simply smiled.

“The final stage has ended.”

She didn’t speak much about that long night.

But around us, survivors rested amid the rubble—members of the subjugation squad and others caught in the aftermath. All were injured, catching their breath while awaiting rescue.

No one feared the Holy Blue Dragon anymore.

Only a warm breeze passed through our hair.

Lortel had stepped off the stage at last. Despite her injuries, she smiled and closed her eyes.

“Good work.”

Those two words pierced straight through my chest.

I lay there, staring up at the sky.

Just like when I paused reading a book to glance out an open window…

It was a bright, blue morning sky.

***

Drip. Drip.

The sound of water dripping from a sink woke the girl.

A dark room. A messy blanket. Clothes strewn about. A computer screen glowing softly.

A train rumbled past outside. Cicadas cried. A gentle breeze from the open window flipped the pages of a notebook on the desk.

The girl opened her eyes and sat up abruptly.

She looked around in confusion. Cutlery lay scattered across the floor, as if she had been overwhelmed and tried to end her life—just like Ed Rothstaylor once had.

Her gaze landed on a small mirror near the desk. The sight of a small girl with dark hair and glasses staring back startled her.

She ran a hand through her tangled hair and flipped through the open notebook. It was filled with drawings.

Character illustrations—likely her own work. They were detailed, like game concept art. Perhaps that was her dream. Books on art, scenario writing, and game programming filled the shelves.

There was no magic in this world. No matter how she tried to gather power, nothing responded.

Fragmented memories throbbed in her head. She recalled frustration, despair, and the vague sense of having nearly ended her life—but nothing more.

The world was full of unknowns.

Still, the girl stood up.

She stared blankly at the monitor, listening to the computer’s cooling fan hum.

She was starving. It felt as if she hadn’t eaten in days. If she didn’t want to die, she needed food—now.

She staggered toward the kitchen.

The computer screen went dark. Just before it shut off, a username briefly appeared.

‘PepperoPepe’.

The name of the chocolate cookie she often bought.

The screen turned off completely. Only the sound of the refrigerator opening echoed through the room.

She had to eat to survive.

As long as she was alive, she had to keep living.

Just like always.