Academy Retirement Diary of the Student Council President

'...............What an unfamiliar ceiling.'

I thought this kind of development only happened in novels, but here I am experiencing something new again.

'My body is....... well, just as I expected.'

My whole body won't move.

'Is this the backlash?'

Well, I did use it excessively, enough to think it might have easily surpassed 20 seconds. Isn't it a miracle I didn't die?

Like a puppet with its strings cut, my whole body refuses to move according to my will. When did I last feel like this......

'Ah, I felt like this the day after skiing for 12 hours straight at the ski resort.'

At that moment when my body wouldn't move as I willed, thankfully, the friend I went skiing with was a total gym rat, so he didn't ditch the car and make us take the train. That was a relief.

Thanks to this familiar past memory resurfacing, I feel like death.

"Why didn't you show up when I contacted you!"

"Ha? Where's your gratitude for me rushing over the moment I saw the text! As soon as I saw that message in Gangneung, I used the fastest Void Step of my life..."

"Gratitude, my ass! How many times did I save you when you and Kang Jinmyeong were running wild together during your cadet days..."

"Th-that's in the past. Didn't we call it even after I handled the Jeju Island Gate that one time?"

"Bullshit, if you hadn't brought a healer, I would've roasted you crisp and hung you from the Guild rooftop long ago."

"Kkeung..... Oh, just now. The girl's o... no, her Mana Core has activated."

"..........!!"

'-Swish!'

Instantly, Eve's gaze turned towards me.

'......So this is the Golden Guild's Guild Leader's office.'

Wouldn't it normally make sense to move someone who collapsed to a hospital room or some kind of treatment room?

"Sea, are you alright?!"

"Ah, besides my fingers feeling a little stiff, I'm fine."

'Is it because my Mana hasn't fully returned yet? My fingers feel really stiff.'

It was a bit regrettable, like receiving karmic retribution for trying to deploy the Constellation Magic too stylishly, but an injury of this level should heal completely in about a day.

'Well, if I'm lucky, it might heal within an hour.'

Seeing how my whole body felt creaky from lying down for too long, it seemed more likely to be the latter. I thought it would probably loosen up in about 10 minutes...

Somehow, Eve's expression started to become quite serious.

".........Damn it, it's my fau...."

'...?'

Why are you suddenly blaming yourself?

'If anything, without Eve, I would have been toyed with by Shena and died.'

"Um... Chairman? I'm alright, so..."

"I'm sorry. I was too late... your fingers..."

Don't tell me, is she thinking about how Shena sliced my fingers?

'Does she think my fingers are stiff because of that?'

This is a major emergency.

'An important figure like Eve shouldn't be paying attention to someone like me.....'

"Th-that's not why I said my fingers are stiff. My whole body is stiff, so my fingers probably feel that way too! If there was a problem with my fingers, I would have noticed something back when I entered... inside that Gate!"

"......Young lady, such lies are not good."

".......?"

'No, it's true.'

It's really because I was stuck in bed for so long that my hands feel stiff, I tell you!

If I wanted to, I could show them right here and now that I'm fine by demonstrating perfect control over my Psychokinesis.

'-Zzzzing...!'

'Ah, damn it.'

No, what am I supposed to do if the aftereffects last this long...

'"Cough!"'

As I unconsciously brought my hand to my mouth, it wasn't dark red blood. Just something black started pouring out.

"....!"

And upon seeing this spectacle, Eve and Lee Cheon-ma caused all sorts of commotion trying to heal my condition somehow... but unfortunately, neither their elixirs nor all the purification magic of an A-Rank healer showed any sign of improving my body.

'No, it's just because I'm only vomiting...!'

It felt like spitting out the waste products from inside my body.

The fact was that my body was actually getting healthier, but unfortunately, I couldn't tell Eve this.

'"Ugh, Uuugh....!"'

Well, it's because there were quite a lot of waste products inside my body...

'No, it's really nothing serious....'

"Sea, stay with us!"

"Damn it, what is the healer doing?!"

Instantly, High-grade Potions and the heals of an A-Rank healer started pouring into my mouth.

'No, my body is already at full health....'

"No matter how much I heal, there's no sign of the body accepting the healing magic! According to the healing magic's judgment, she's already fully healed..."

"She's spitting out black clumps like that, there's no way she's normal!"

'No, it's really nothing, I tell you!'

I need to clear up this misunderstanding quickly...

'-Retch-'

"Ah, reall... Uweegh....."

Who would have known it would take a whole 15 long minutes to sort out this mess and explain the truth of the matter.

...

...

...

Thanks to the Sword Demon, Lee Cheon-ma, who figured out the situation midway, after placing the bowl full of black clumps down beside the sickbed, I looked at the two of them with a relaxed gaze.

'I never thought just explaining would be this draining.'

When I moved my fingers and told them it was okay about Shena chopping them off, Eve's expression filled with guilt for not being able to protect me.

Lee Cheon-ma looked at me, standing there nonchalantly despite going through such an ordeal, with an indescribable feeling.

Ah, and they already knew that I had transplanted a part of Mephisto into one eye.

According to Mr. Sword Demon, the moment he caught me as I collapsed after dealing with Shena, one of my eyes had turned completely black, like a Demon's eye.

Fortunately, looking in the mirror now, my purple eye was shining perfectly fine.

The next thought was, naturally, the explanation.

I wondered if the excuse that it was a desperate situation and unavoidable would work, but surprisingly, neither of them interrogated me at all.

Instead, they seemed to be blaming themselves for making me choose this path...

'They should be cursing the situation where a Gate suddenly appeared and Shena suddenly showed up. Telling them I survived thanks to them... probably won't be much comfort.'

It would be quite troublesome if this caused the two of them mental shock and made things awkward in the future story...

"If it weren't for the two of you, I wouldn't be here, so please don't blame yourselves too much."

After I assured them it was really no big deal and I was fine, their faces seemed to relax, at least superficially.

Following that was an interrogation to investigate the incident scene.

Staff from the Hero Association who had been waiting outside the hospital room slowly entered carrying detector-like devices, and the questioning began after I was instructed to just honestly tell them what I saw.

Since I was a victim caught up in the Gate, the interrogation proceeded quite gently.

I was well aware of the loopholes in lie detectors that only detect the truth/falsity of the answer, so I managed to conclude the questioning smoothly by appropriately deflecting questions and changing the subject.

"Thank you for your hard work."

"Not at all. After something like that happened... we're sorry for making you go through this unnecessarily."

'Hmm..... Who knew that after I told them what Shena did to me, the interrogation questions would become simpler.'

Roughly: fingers sliced off by Shena, a hole pierced through my stomach, choked, blood sucked, and then dropped into an unknown Gate filled with demonic energy.

Just these facts seemed enough for the Association staff to consider me a victim.

"It's a relief they didn't ask about what happened after that."

"Tell me about it."

"Well, you and I went in. Who would think Sea dealt with that humanoid monster?"

'If they had asked about what happened after coming out of the Gate... it might have been a bit troublesome.'

If it were revealed that I was the one who defeated Shena, it would become quite complicated.

For starters, my name would spread worldwide, and worse, I could become a prime target for the Seven Demons, unable to intervene in the story and end up dying.

"By the way, that magic you used to defeat an enemy strong enough to trouble Teacher Eve... can you explain what it was?"

'.....As expected, they saw.'

No, if they had enough time to watch me deploy Constellation Magic, wouldn't attacking Shena themselves have been a better choice?

"As for why I didn't handle it for you, naturally, it was to get Teacher Eve out of the range of that unidentified attack."

".....I see."

'I really went overboard.'

Maybe I should have just deployed the Big Dipper to imbue the attack with stellar power, instead of deploying Sagittarius.

"Mana Potion, do you happen to have one?"

"Yes, the one placed beside you is a Highest-grade Mana Potion. I was going to give it to you right when you woke up..."

'Highest-grade Mana Potion, that's enough.'

I thought of a constellation I could deploy appropriately.

A useful one, at that, capable of exponentially raising the Sword Demon's Affinity.

'-Gulp, gulp!'

Right after opening the lid of the Highest-grade Mana Potion, I looked at Eve.

"Chairwomen, could I possibly borrow some Mana?"

".........Sure, that much is fine."

"O shining stars, paint your form upon the heavens."

As soon as I chanted that, a dark sky unfolded around me.

Using the white lines originating from me as a map, I carefully plotted the points of the constellation one by one.

'If my Mana level had only returned to A+-Rank, I would have had to fudge it from here, but thanks to Eve's support, it's manageable.'

As expected, using the Mana of someone with genuine S+-Rank Mana, not just temporarily created S+-Rank Mana, makes it this easy.

The constellation of Sagittarius was purple, but this time, navy blue stars began to blink.

"O great Water Bearer of the heavens (Aquarius), who bestows the blessing of life upon the parched and cracked earth, bring forth a fragment of your immortality here."

Before long, the formed constellation transformed into the shape of a giant water jar. I quickly grabbed a nearby tumbler from the hospital room and swiftly collected the liquid pouring from the water jar.

Nectar.

The drink from legends possessing the efficacy of immortality.

In , it's treated as a Potion with performance similar to the 'Elixir', known as the legendary potion.

Unfortunately, while Elixirs have various uses like weapon enhancement, healing, and ability awakening, Nectar can only be used for healing purposes, which is a painful drawback...

Well, what Lee Cheon-ma's daughter needs isn't awakening or weapon enhancement, but curse removal... so it shouldn't matter.

'If I give too much, there's a risk of misuse.'

I knew that the Sword Demon and Eve were characters who appeared as good guys in the story, which is why I was showing the Constellation Magic in front of them, but if other people were to realize the value of the Nectar I'm creating now, the world could become too chaotic, so let's just collect enough to be used only for Lee Cheon-ma's daughter.

"I heard you have a disciple you think of like a daughter. Giving her this should improve her condition quite a bit."

Aquarius.

Its effect is generating Nectar capable of perfectly healing all disabilities, diseases, status ailments, and curses.

'Aquarius only took a lot of time and didn't consume much Mana, but... the consumption is still severe enough to require Eve's assistance, huh.'

As befitting the 10th largest constellation, drawing it consumes an awful lot of time and Mana.

Imagining deploying powerful constellations later, like the largest ones such as Hydra, Virgo, Ursa Major, or Hercules...

'Ugh. Feels like I might just die doing that.'

I can instantly picture myself dying right then and there from Mana exhaustion.

'I really need to hurry up and go to Europe to properly learn Constellation Magic.'

".........."

'-Grab!'

"Hey! Where are you going..."

'-Crash!'

The moment he took the thermos I handed him, the Sword Demon Lee Cheon-ma immediately broke the window and flew away using Void Step.

With this, haven't I perfectly completed the Affinity event?

"Ah seriously, this is the 63rd floor-!"

"......I suddenly feel sleepy after using quite a bit of Mana."

"Wait?! I haven't heard about that magic yet..."

"......zzZ"

For now, I could fall into a pleasant sleep, using the sight of Eve fussing over repairing the broken window as a lullaby.

Whatever happens next, the future me who wakes up will figure it out.