Became the Academy Romantic Phantom Thief

315 – Against Fate

I slowly wake up from my sleep.

I looked around her blankly and felt deeply relieved.

This is the world I chose. My true reality, where I will live without leaving a single regret.

“Raven! Are you okay!?”

Eldina running urgently shouting my name.

Wearing a black dress, not the academy uniform.

An ordinary way of speaking without any trace of dignity.

They even call him Raven instead of Cro.

All of those minor elements were like evidence that showed me what kind of world I had chosen.

Yes. I chose the original life.

Instead of a perfect utopian world where there is nothing more to be desired, I chose this world, which is full of existing flaws and where even the immediate future is unclear.

I did my best until the very end.

Even 10 seconds before the moment of choice arrived, the two possibilities were fiercely competing in my mind.

In particular, the fact that Julia recalled her memories from her art studio had a big impact.

The two worlds appear independent on the outside, but in fact, they are one connected world that influences each other.

It may be difficult to remember consciously, but in a corner of our hearts, we all clearly retain our memories from the original world.

From the moment I realized that fact, the utopian world did not feel unfamiliar at all.

Rather, it was a life so cozy and happy that it was beautiful enough to make me wish I could stay here for the rest of my life.

But after much thought, I abandoned that world and chose this place.

Ironically, the reason was the same.

Yulia recalled memories from this world.

In other words, the two worlds are connected to each other.

So, the ideal world I saw can be fully recreated here.

Directly with my own hands.

A future that we will create together with everyone.

The world on the other side is so beautiful, but it was a beauty that was completed from the beginning.

Even though this place may not be very beautiful right now, it has the beauty of infinite possibilities that we can create in the future with our efforts.

There is no ‘right answer’ as to which of the two is better.

You just have to think about it and make a choice.

“Oh, what happened!? While talking to that woman, she suddenly collapsed… Within a few seconds, he stood up again. …Did anything happen in the meantime?”

Eldina seemed to intuitively realize that there had been some change in me.

More than that, I was relieved that my time here had not passed while I was staying in the other world.

The Goddess of Fate, who was standing across from me, said with an alluring smile.

“How was my test?”

“Ah. It was the hardest exam I’ve ever taken in my life. “I am so grateful.”

“hehehe. It was nothing. “You don’t have to be grateful.”

I laughed out loud at her shameless attitude and asked quietly.

“···After I made my choice, what happened to the world on the other side?”

After a deliberate pause, the goddess responded with a question.

“Do you want to know? Are you confident that you will not regret hearing this body’s answer?”

“I don’t regret it. Even if I answered with confidence, I honestly don’t know. “You might regret it later after hearing the answer.”

If that’s the case, it would be much cleaner to just brush it off without listening.

No matter how I feel, it is a world I can never return to.

Even if Crow suddenly disappears from that world and everyone is in sorrow, there is no way for me to know that.

I have no choice but to believe what the goddess of fate tells me, which may or may not be true.

I won’t regret it.

Regret means that you did not make the best choice.

But at the same time, I will not ignore the world on the other side.

That world, like this one, is a real world where everyone lives and breathes and builds memories.

That’s why I asked the goddess of fate.

“Tell me. “What happened to that world?”

She carefully looked into my eyes and answered with a grin.

“The world you experienced was nothing more than a sweet dream created by this body. So, of course, the moment I woke up from the dream, everything disappeared.”

“···Really?”

I smiled bitterly and nodded.

I don’t know whether that statement is true or not.

Nevertheless, I was convinced that it was a lie.

There is no objective basis, but the world I was living and breathing vividly until just a moment ago was absolutely not a fake that could be made up.

I have already had the experience of living on a fake Earth created by Eldina.

So you can be sure. The utopian world I lived in for two days was a true life that really existed.

But unless we can go back as the goddess said, it is nothing but a momentary dream.

You may one day have a dream with similar content, but it is impossible to have the same dream in succession.

“Do you regret it now that you heard the answer? Do you regret your choice to live in this world? Or do you regret asking me about the other side of the world?”

The goddess asked me, folding the corners of her eyes as if she was having fun.

Surprisingly, my answer to him came out immediately and without any hesitation.

“No. “I don’t regret it.”

“Hoo. Really? “Aren’t you trying so hard to deceive yourself about your true feelings?”

Once again, this time I answered clearly, even shaking my head.

“You can’t regret it. “It is the result of a choice that I did my best to consider.”

What I need to worry about from now on is not the world on the other side, which I have already given up on, but about the life I will live in this world from now on.

If the world on the other side is so precious, we must cherish the life we have chosen to abandon that world even more.

“···As expected. You are amazing! “I never imagined that I would make a ‘choice’ that exceeded my expectations!”

She forgot her dignity and opened her mouth wide, bursting into laughter.

She spreads her arms wide and shouts, expressing her joy with her whole body.

“A boy with great power to defy fate! “You successfully passed this body’s final ordeal!!”

What is the significance of the ability of uncertainty?

I have been thinking deeply about this question for a long time.

It was only now that I finally felt like I could vaguely know the answer.

Every being in this world is afraid to be confident in the choices they have made and hesitates as they look back on the path they have walked.

That is no exception, even if he is a great god.

I wonder what will be at the end of the path I walk. Beings who cannot look ahead naturally look behind them.

Since you are not sure if the path you are walking on is the right one, you think it is better to safely follow the path that others have taken before you.

It may seem like a reasonable choice at first glance, but in the end, following that path is nothing more than repeating the same results that others have reached before.

That is destiny. The existence of laws that have governed this world since the beginning.

The ending has already been decided. Planned destination.

The heavy wheel of fate that no one can escape from comes from regret about one’s choices.

Uncertainty is the power of not regretting.

The ability to accept and acknowledge the path one has taken.

The ‘possibility’ of defying fate may exist for everyone.

However, everyone does not resist fate until the end, but accepts it with resignation.

Standing in front of a path where one can destroy one’s fate, he hesitates as to whether it is really worth going in this direction, and in the end, he chooses to walk down the safe path paved by the person in front of him.

How many people can comfortably point out such behavior as wrong?

Even I have endlessly hesitated and regretted the path I have taken.

He regretted making everyone, including Juliet, suffer.

I tried to deny the path I had walked and start again from the beginning.

But now that I think about it, I can’t be sure if that was really the right choice.

The reason she left Juliet in her suffering was because her future self accepted the plan herself.

That’s right. I am not the only one walking down the street.

Juliet was also walking together. Even if the process involved pain, she was prepared and said it would be okay.

I didn’t realize that fact and went back down the road, regretting and reflecting on my own.

All the people who were walking with me were forced to circle the street due to my own arbitrariness.

Actually, even now, I have no idea what the right decision was or what I should have done at that time.

Because no one can know the future.

There is a predetermined destiny, but it is a destination that can only be reached by following the path paved by others.

No one can know what it takes to reach a path no one has walked, a place no one has arrived at.

The important thing is to always think hard and make the best choice.

Only when you don’t regret the life you’ve led.

Fate will be shattered and we will reach a ‘utopia’ that no one has ever been to.

“I hope you have a pleasant last trip.”

The Goddess of Fate said goodbye gracefully and slowly disappeared.

A door suddenly appeared in the air behind her fading body.

I held Eldina’s hand as she stood blankly and said,

“Let’s go. “To meet Eterna.”