There Is No World For ■■-Chapter 180: The Road to Sampo (4)

Unlike Corvus, who had passed out as if he'd been knocked unconscious, Neti didn’t fall into a deep sleep.

Thanks to that, she noticed everything—the fact that her sister, in her pajamas, was quietly sneaking out of the room, and that the Saint was trailing closely behind her.

Even the insects were asleep by now, so... were they going to the bathroom or something?

But contrary to her expectations, the two of them didn’t come back for a very long time.

It wasn’t until nearly an hour had passed that Neti finally wondered—did they go to see Brother-in-law?

At this hour, her sister, with the Saint, going to a room where a man was alone...

As suspicion gnawed at her mind, Neti let out a soft laugh. Even she knew how ridiculous that thought was.

If it had been just her sister, maybe. But the Saint had gone too.

The noble Saint... well, not that noble, honestly, but still—there’s no way the Saint would do something like that.

Neti pushed the devilish thought out of her head and waited for her sister and the Saint to return.

But they never came back. Until when? Until the sun rose.

As Corvus snored loudly, Neti stayed wide awake through the night and finally shot up from bed.

She threw on a coat and ran straight to the room where her Brother-in-law was staying, then knocked on the door.

"Um, excuse me? Brother-in-law? Sis?"

She knocked again, but there was no response.

Neti hesitated, hand on the doorknob. Should I even be worried about this? In the end, it was between Sis and Brother-in-law. Was it really her place to interfere...?

Right as that thought crossed her mind, the door creaked open by itself. As if it had never been locked in the first place.

Neti didn’t hesitate and poked her head in, glancing around the room.

Whether it was fortunate or not, the room was empty.

She let out a sigh of relief and went to close the door—until something on the sofa caught her eye.

A coat, draped over the armrest.

The same coat the servant had handed over last night along with the pajamas.

...So she really did come here.

The moment her suspicion turned into certainty, Neti let out a dry laugh.

She remembered teasing her sister the other day, asking how far she’d gone.

Who would've thought that her shy, awkward sister had not only gone all the way but even had a bonus “study session” afterward.

Face flushed, Neti pressed her hands against her cheeks to cool them and was about to head back when she spotted a passing servant and stopped him.

“Excuse me, sir? Do you happen to know where the guests staying in this room went?”

The servant told her that her Brother-in-law and the ladies were having breakfast in the dining hall and kindly offered to escort her there.

Sure enough, the three of them were in the dining hall, eating breakfast. Tearing off bits of bread or sipping tea, they seemed to be in the middle of a serious discussion.

It looked like a normal breakfast at first glance, but Neti didn’t miss the slight dark circles under her Brother-in-law’s eyes. He clearly hadn’t slept a wink.

No, more importantly—is that even physically possible through the night? Then again, there were two women, so maybe...

...What the hell am I thinking?

Neti slapped her reddening cheeks with both palms, then walked up to the trio.

“Neti? You’re up early. Did you sleep well?”

The first to notice her was the Saint.

As the bubbly voice rang out, her sister and Brother-in-law both turned and waved. Neti couldn’t look them in the eye, only giving a small nod.

Seti looked confused at the reaction, but Neti just dragged over a chair and sat down between them. The old chair, ignorant of her inner turmoil, let out a loud creak as if sighing.

“Neti, this is sudden, but... there’s something I need to tell you.”

Yeomyeong spoke as he poured her some tea.

“Oh? Something to tell me?”

Neti, still stiff and nervously glancing between the three, flinched.

Don’t tell me they’re going to explain their relationship right now? As Neti swallowed hard, Yeomyeong spoke in a calm, composed voice.

“It’s nothing huge—just about our upcoming journey.”

“Huh?”

“We’re heading back to Earth soon, right? So I thought I’d talk to you both about where we’re going and how we’ll get there. I’d like to hear your opinions.”

With that opening, Yeomyeong took a sip of tea and began explaining.

The explanation wasn’t long, nor was it complicated. To sum up what Yeomyeong said:

They were planning to leave this city today.

Then stop in another city to obtain forged identities.

Then, using those forged identities, they’d cross a Dimensional Gate and return to Earth.

And then—

“W-Wait, we’re riding a dragon? Seriously?!”

“Yeah. Rather than wait for the railways to be repaired, I thought it’d be faster to ask the dragon. Why, are you scared of dragons?”

“No, no! I’ll ride it! I mean, I really want to ride it!”

The moment she heard that a giant red dragon would give them a lift, all the worries swirling in Neti’s head vanished into thin air.

Who cares if her Brother-in-law lived some wild, scandalous life? She was going to ride a dragon!

First a tank, now a dragon? Neti’s eyes sparkled at the thought of bragging to her sisters. Watching her, Seti gave a bitter smile and muttered:

“...You might not want to get your hopes up that much.”

****

4:30 AM. A boy’s morning always begins with training.

A light warm-up, followed by intense, non-stop drills, and five different personalized martial arts techniques.

Once he completed the routine that had lasted nearly a decade, he could see dawn breaking beyond the horizon.

The boy, drenched in sweat, stepped forward and opened the window in the training hall.

The sound of diligent students moving about, the stirrings of the dorms just beginning to wake, and the ocean breeze blowing in from afar swept across his face.

It was morning at Lord Howe Academy.

The boy quietly took in the scenery, then checked the time and sat in the corner of the training hall, pulling out his smartphone.

Out of habit, he opened a Korean portal site and checked the headline news.

“Terror Attack Shakes South Korea’s Blue House—Was the President Targeted?”

“NIS Reports: Cause of Explosion Was a ‘Corpse Bomb’... Necromancer Suspected.”

“‘Was This a Staged Stunt by the President?’ Rep. Hong Yongwan’s ‘Just Kidding’ Excuse Draws Backlash.”

Fortunately, the headlines were still dominated by the recent bombing at the Blue House.

The boy let out a sigh of relief, but still scanned the news just in case.

And sure enough, he found one article that mentioned him.

“Top Student Is Korean? Lord Howe in Chaos!! Ranked #1 Out of 1,000 in Midterms!

Traitor’s Son Confesses: ‘I Resent My Father Who Betrayed Korea.’ Shocking Reveal!”

Classic nationalist fluff piece.

Normally, he would’ve just ignored it, but the boy couldn’t turn away from a headline that mentioned him and his father.

He cautiously opened the article—and sure enough, it was garbage. A mess of inflated nonsense and stitched-up lies.

Of course, not everything in it was fake. The part about placing first out of over a thousand students in the recent midterm evaluation—that was true.

...Though the thousand or so students currently at the academy aren’t exactly the real ones.

The boy, Jeon Yunseong, read the news and its comment section with a bitter sense of irony.

The real students had vanished—no one knew where they’d gone—but Koreans were still trapped in the delusion that he would one day return to elevate the prestige of the nation.

Well, people tend to see only what they want to see, not what’s real.

Just look at his father...

Creak—

Just then, the door to the training hall opened, and someone stepped inside.

Snapped out of his thoughts, Jeon Yunseong turned his head. He immediately recognized the man who entered.

Close-cropped hair, massive build, and a distinctly American military uniform.

“Captain Patrick?”

Jeon Yunseong stood up instinctively and saluted. The soldier—Patrick—returned the salute and spoke.

“Master Sergeant Jeon, sorry for showing up this early without warning.”

“It’s fine, sir. No problem at all.”

“You say that, but your face says otherwise.”

“...It’s about the rules, sir. This training hall is a student-only facility. Outsiders aren’t allowed to enter so freely.”

It was a fair point—but Captain Patrick didn’t seem to care.

“Don’t worry. I snuck in without getting caught.”

Jeon Yunseong’s brow furrowed slightly, but Patrick just strode forward in his combat boots and cut straight to the point.

“Let’s skip the chatter. I have urgent news for you.”

“Urgent? What kind of news is urgent enough for you to deliver it personally?”

Instead of answering, Captain Patrick pulled a small crystal from his coat.

A Memory Crystal—a magical device designed to deliver memories, built with tech similar to classified relics.

“This is...?”

“I don’t know what’s in it either. The item itself is top secret.”

“...Understood.”

Jeon Yunseong received the crystal with practiced precision. The cold crystal clung to his palm like it was waiting for his mana.

As he prepared to inject mana into the crystal, he looked at Patrick and asked,

“Captain, about the students who went missing in the sewer... have we found any trace of them?”

Patrick’s eyebrows lifted slightly. He looked at Jeon Yunseong like he didn’t understand the question—then gave a light answer.

“That’s classified.”

Not “we didn’t find anything”—just “classified.” A roundabout way of saying they found something.

Jeon Yunseong gave a salute of gratitude, then pushed his mana into the crystal.

In the next moment, his field of vision changed completely.

****

The place Jeon Yunseong opened his eyes to was a familiar city. He’d never been there before, but he’d seen it plenty—on TV, in books.

...The Imperial Capital?

The scenery projected by the memory crystal wasn’t like some cheap 3D rendering or simple imagination.

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There was no smell, no sensation of touch—but what he saw and heard felt real.

The towering imperial palace and mage towers, streets where carriages and cars moved side by side, even the alleys where sewage flowed—it all looked vividly lifelike.

There even seemed to be a festival going on. Street vendors had set up all across the city, and people in various outfits swarmed everywhere.

A massive crowd had gathered near the palace—among them, people Jeon Yunseong recognized as celebrities or well-known figures.

Whose memory is this? It didn’t feel like it was just showing some place beyond a Dimensional Gate.

As he tried to figure it out, Jeon Yunseong found himself looking up at the sky.

And when he saw the sun shining high overhead, he realized—this was the past.

When he had activated the crystal, it was just past dawn.

But here, the sun blazed directly overhead. It was noon.

Of all the possible moments... why this one?

He began to wonder what the military was trying to show him—when suddenly, something entered his field of vision.

Something was falling.

As Jeon Yunseong narrowed his eyes, the people in the vision noticed it too.

“What is that? An attack?”

“An attack? Don’t be ridiculous. You know how many Earthlings are here right now?”

“Probably just some alchemist screwing around again.”

People murmured as the object plummeted toward the city like a comet, burning through the atmosphere.

Then someone shouted—almost screamed.

“Teleport! Somebody use teleportation or a gate, now! Anyone?!”

The man yelling was a superhuman so famous even Jeon Yunseong recognized him.

Takahashi Nase, or something like that.

A mercenary who practically ruled his industry like a king... so why was he panicking?

“Shit! I’ll pay anything! If you can teleport, come up here! NOW!”

Teleportation and gate spells weren’t exactly household skills, and no one responded to his desperate cries.

Someone tried to approach him to ask what was going on, but before they could—

The falling object hit the center of the capital.

No one heard any screams. Not Takahashi’s last curse. Not even the first cry of panic.

The light consumed everything before the sound ever could.

The massive explosion swallowed the imperial palace whole.

And then, everything within the blast radius simply vanished.

Buildings. Cars. Trees. People.

A blinding flash seared Jeon Yunseong’s eyes, and he instinctively turned away.

Peeking back through his fingers, he saw the air itself being sucked into the epicenter.

What the hell is that—

Before he could even finish the thought, the flash turned into a full-blown explosion.

BOOM!!!

Heat and shockwaves engulfed the entire city. Thankfully, the tens or hundreds of thousands who’d been there felt nothing.

The dead don’t feel pain.

In their place, the fire screamed. Dust that had once been people, ash that had once been something, all rose to the sky as if they were souls.

Even though he was only a passive observer, Jeon Yunseong closed his eyes.

For the living, it lasted only a moment.

For the dead, it might as well have been an eternity.

When he finally opened his eyes again...

A massive mushroom cloud had bloomed across the sky.

A cloud of death that had devoured millions.

Jeon Yunseong stared in a daze, mouth slightly open—until someone screamed.

From the outskirts of the capital, beneath the rubble of a collapsed mage tower, from the boiling river—

Survivors—those unfortunate enough to live—howled in agony.

He couldn’t hear any cries for help.

What echoed through the air was primal terror. Overwhelming fear. Unbearable ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) pain.

It was the scream of someone moments from death...

...or maybe the envy of those who had already died.

Even with his ears covered, the sound still reached him—and Jeon Yunseong couldn’t hold back.

He dropped to his knees and vomited bile onto the floor.

And at that exact moment, the vision ended.