Chapter 2497: Shattering dreams

Stone Tablets Star Academy—Sector 811

"Is this real? Is this actually real?!" The question rang out amid the stunned academy, carrying the same disbelief that had seized nearly everyone who had listened to the broadcast.

"We’re going to enter a war in ten thousand years against several Ancestors of the Space Beasts and their followers? Are we really supposed to prepare for something like that within only ten thousand years?"

"I wasn’t even planning to graduate from here before ten thousand years! I’m still a student! I haven’t even enjoyed life yet, and now I’m supposed to be thrown into the army, for fuck’s sake!!"

The entire academy erupted into shouting the moment Robin and Billy fell silent, as if the silence left behind by their conversation had finally given everyone permission to release the panic and disbelief they had been holding back while listening.

This place wasn’t like the Sacred Covenant Academy, which was populated almost entirely by the children of the Burton family and the children of the Cosmic Elder. Instead, every person here came from a different kingdom and belonged to a different social class, meaning that every student had their own family, background, circumstances, and future to immediately think about after hearing such terrifying information.

Thus, upon hearing what had just been said, panic descended upon everyone almost simultaneously. Each person immediately began thinking about their family and the future that was slipping away before their very eyes, a future that had seemed unimaginably long only moments ago but had suddenly been given a frightening limit. There wasn’t a single person rational or calm enough to settle the others down while remaining unaffected themselves, resulting in an absurd scene of shouting, questions, and confusion completely unbefitting the status of those present.

There was, however, one particular group that still retained its composure, or at least managed to preserve enough of it that they didn’t join the chaos spreading throughout the academy...

The Academy Director and two people beside him were watching the broadcast from the balcony of the director’s office, standing apart from the panic below. All three wore expressions that clearly betrayed their tension and the countless thoughts running through their minds as they processed everything Robin had revealed, but at the very least... they appeared calm on the surface and were still capable of discussing the situation rationally.

"...Director, what do you think about this?" one of the two finally asked, breaking the heavy silence between them.

"...." The Academy Director, a brown-skinned person with smooth, slick skin, knitted his brows slightly as he continued watching the broadcast. "I wouldn’t put anything past the Lord of Thrones Qarun, and likewise, I wouldn’t rule out betrayal from Archon Sevar considering what has been said. But Lord Robin’s words still contain an enormous gap as well, one that can’t simply be ignored because the rest of his story sounds convincing."

"What is it?" the second deputy asked, immediately turning his attention toward him.

"...He has to prove that he truly managed to defeat an Ancestor of the Space Beasts and force it to retreat, that he’s as powerful as those three, or at least close enough to their level for such a claim to be believable, before everyone can begin... before I can begin taking his words seriously." He then shook his head slowly, still unwilling to accept such an enormous claim merely because it had been stated with confidence. "Without that, his words can simply be set aside as slander and an attempt to get himself out of the predicament he put himself in."

"And what do you think would constitute sufficient proof?" the first deputy asked after thinking about his words. "The testimony of Lord Blokan and Lady Morgana, for example? He said they witnessed everything that happened..."

"....." The Academy Director cast him a sideways glance filled with disappointment, holding that gaze briefly before turning his attention forward again without immediately answering.

Only after several seconds of silence did he finally speak. "I can’t think of a way, at least not one that would settle such a matter beyond doubt, but time will prove everything eventually. For now, we have to take his words into consideration when judging what happens from this point onward... but that’s all. Merely take them into consideration and continue as we have been." He then raised his head slightly toward the sky, his expression remaining thoughtful. "I’m certain that’s the opinion of most of the leaders of B-14 as well... Heh~"

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Mid Sector 250—

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

Qarun’s mouth hung completely open, his usual composure nowhere to be seen, while sweat poured from his head so heavily and continuously that his carefully styled hair, which had been arranged perfectly only a short while ago, had become completely disheveled and frizzy.

Everything Robin had said so far could still be dealt with somehow. Qarun could deny all of it, twist the meaning of some parts, challenge others, and find ways to undermine the rest. Even if the other powers began treating them cautiously from now on because of what they had heard and started making preparations of their own instead of blindly continuing as before, they could still somehow complete their missions despite the additional difficulties.

But if Robin was right, and there truly was a promised Executioner Brigade coming for this universe in only ten thousand years... then the matter was no longer something that could simply be handled through words, denial, or manipulation.

"Out..." Qarun muttered through the turmoil filling his mind, his voice initially so low that it was barely audible. "All of you, get out immediately. Watch somewhere else. Why the hell are you bothering me here?!"

"..." Qarun’s disciples exchanged several uncertain glances with one another, clearly affected by everything they had just heard as well, then quietly stood up without arguing with their master and left.

Qarun himself had no patron, and because of that, there were many things concerning those higher matters that he simply didn’t know. As for the things he had managed to learn from the devils or from other sources over the years, such as what he had obtained through his conversations with Sevar, he deliberately kept most of that information to himself rather than sharing it with his disciples.

For example, he had never told his disciples about the inevitable extermination that awaited everyone at the end of the cycle, nor had he told them anything about his grand plans to survive that ending entirely on his own—without a patron to protect him, without armies to accompany him, without followers to support him, just himself.

What his disciples had just heard was naturally a tremendous shock to them, especially after living without knowing about such an ending at all... but there was no need for Qarun to worry about them right now. They would calm themselves down on their own sooner or later.

The real problem, the one that demanded his attention immediately, lay somewhere else—

Whoosh Qarun waved his trembling arm and struggled to open a window that pierced through hundreds of Sectors, forcing the connection across an enormous distance... It wasn’t an ordinary window displaying natural scenery or even the clear image of a person, but rather something resembling a strange white-and-crimson drawing woven from Causality, Identity, and Creation together, its lines and colors gradually forming a drawing that resembled someone.

It resembled Sevar.

He, too, was sitting in complete silence, so still that it was as though a bird were perched atop his head. The arrogant laughter that had filled his surroundings at the beginning of the broadcast, when everything had still seemed amusing to him, was nowhere to be found now.

"Sevar!!" Qarun shouted at the drawing the instant the connection stabilized. "Don’t you dare do it!" Then he shot to his feet with such urgency that there was no trace of his usual restraint in his movements. "Don’t you dare contact your patron and accelerate the dispatch of that brigade!!"

"...?" Sevar finally turned toward him with an ugly expression, already looking as though the events of the day had exhausted whatever patience he possessed. "Yeah, all that was missing from this miserable day was seeing your fucking face."

"Don’t do it, Sevar!" Qarun insisted, ignoring the hostility in his tone. "I can still correct that infant’s nonsense. I have my ways, and I can still deal with what he has said. Don’t bring the early ruin upon us! Ending the cycle prematurely will make you lose your importance, and once that happens, you’ll simply be cast aside!"

"Did I announce that I was going to do anything?!" Sevar shouted so loudly from Mid Sector 750 that his voice crossed the strange window and reached Qarun’s ears with all of its anger, then he turned his attention back toward the broadcast. "...But it doesn’t matter whether I make contact or not. If what he’s saying is true, and he really did sever an Executioner’s arm, and he did it outside the shell where that incident actually occurred... then ten thousand years might actually be a stretch."

He then continued after a brief pause, his expression remaining unpleasant, "...This is no longer under my control or the control of the one who sponsors me. The Executioners, the guardians of the universes, fall under the Court’s administration... Perhaps one of them might accept a bribe, or perform some service for a Transcendent for one reason or another, but if one of them has an arm severed or is killed, then the matter will pass beyond the Transcendent’s hands entirely, and the Court itself will personally take over the investigation."

Then he looked downward with his pitch-black eyes, his gaze becoming heavier as he considered the severed limb Robin had displayed. "If that arm in front of him really is one he severed himself, then the situation is bad... extremely bad."

"....." Qarun weakly sat back down as though some of the strength had suddenly left his body, then barely managed to turn his head and look at Robin on the broadcast, who was casually reading something while Billy cried beside him.

He could see his plans and dreams evaporating one after another within Robin’s faint smile, and he could almost see the guaranteed future he had spent so long preparing for being snapped cleanly in half by a child who had barely been born compared to him, someone whose age was almost insignificant beside his own existence. "....AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"