nk! nk!


    If you lean your head against the window, the gentle sound of the train rolling along vibrates through your mind.


    Train travel was so romantic that as Baek Yu-Seol watched the fantastic scenery whiz by outside, he found himself getting lost in thought.


    Unlike Earth, Aether World had a wide variety of mysteriousndscapes and nts, making it impossible to get bored while traveling.


    As he nkly stared out the window, he pulled a letter envelope from his backpack. When he flipped it over, he saw the simple, handwritten words [Manwol Tower].


    The Manwol Tower.


    Even when Baek Yu-Seol ventured into the world of ice to meet the Twelfth New Moon Bronze, the Manwol Tower had shown a persistent interest in him, which felt quite burdensome.


    If the Manwol Tower became his ally, it would be reassuring, but if they became enemies, he might never be able to set foot on thisnd again.


    Still, he could be somewhat reassured. At least the leader of the 13th Shadowde Division, Kaen, appeared to have a positive view of Baek Yu-Seol.


    This ''invitation'' was proof of that. The Manwol Tower was hidden in the shadows of the world. It wasn’t not a ce just anyone could go.


    Even in the original game, Aether World Online, the Invitation to the Great Manwol Tower was one of the most difficult items to obtain.


    Being invited to their headquarters was a sign that they trusted him to some extent.


    Baek Yu-Seol thought he could start to rx a little on this front.


    <em>‘Next, let''s look at the rewards I received for finishing this episode.’</em>


    <strong>[Blessing of Twelfth New Moon Bronze Lv.1]</strong>


    <strong>[Strength increased by 49%]</strong>


    <strong>[Stamina increased by 21%]</strong>


    <strong>[Senses increased by 19%]</strong>


    <strong>[Cold-Blooded Limbs: All stats increase by 9% below -17°C, and you do not feel cold even in extreme cold. You can also move freely in blizzards.]</strong>


    <strong>[Cold Aura: Allows mana to contain very pure and cold energy.]</strong>


    <strong>[Footprints on Snow: You can choose to leave no footprints when walking on snow, or to leave clear footprints.]</strong>


    <strong>[Memory of Snowkes: Allows you to recall traces left in the snow.]</strong>


    <strong>[Ice Consumption: Consuming ice restores stamina but it results in suffering from hypothermia after recovery.]</strong>


    ‘A single snowflower that blooms on the cier of extinction will never wither.’


    Baek Yu-Seol uttered a short exmation. Even though it was only at level 1, the attributes were quite useful.


    Just obtaining one blessing from the Twelve New Moons, which provided the best attributes in the world, was amazing. But now he’d obtained two.


    "I''m still quite weak. In the yermunity, there are a lot of tough individuals, and if they get something special, they often push it to the extreme to gain an advantage."


    Among them was a yer who had achieved the highest level of the Blessing of Twelfth New Moon Bronze, and he was astonished when he checked it out at the time.


    There were bizarre abilities like transforming everything into a snowball when rolled in the snow, creating blizzards under certain conditions, and freezing entire small territories.


    When he faced them in the PVP arena, he often lost because of their special ability to freeze his legs.


    Well, eventually, he figured out how to counter it and ended up winning more often. But the rewards weren’t limited to just this.


    <strong>[Constetion Project presents you with two special rewards.]</strong>


    Even though this wasn''t a main episode, solving a story nearly equivalent to a main one perfectly granted him two promised rewards from the Constetion Project.


    Including the one he hadn’t chosenst time, he could select three rewards in session.


    So he started thinking strategically.


    "What if I exchange the three rewards for one better reward? What do you think?"


    Due to the Narrative Power constraints, the rewards he could receive were limited. Even if he received items he had used before, they might be heavily downgraded and not function properly....


    So what if hebined the three rewards into one?


    <strong>[...... We will consider it.]</strong>


    "Yes, yes. Review it positively."


    If Baek Yu-Seol couldbine the three rewards into one, what would be the best thing to receive?


    This was something he would need to consider.


    "I''m exhausted."


    After sorting out the reward issue, he stared out the window nkly again.


    Perhaps because the previous incident was so intense and significant, the aftereffects hadn’t faded easily.


    Or.... It might also be due to Hong Bi-Yeon’s strangely changed behaviortely.


    "...... Why is she acting like that these days?"


    When he yed Aether World Online, the impression he had of Hong Hong Bi-Yeon was this:


    <ol>


    <li>A high schooler with a bad attitude.</li>


    <li>Severely narcissistic princess syndrome.</li>


    <li>A viiness with a nasty personality.</li>


    <li>A face that''s unnecessarily annoyingly beautiful.</li>


    </ol>


    Honestly, the traits 1, 2, and 3 alone made her extremely unlikable, but since trait 4 was overwhelmingly strong, many male yers, including Baek Yu-Seol, liked Hong Bi-Yeon.


    She was so popr based solely on her appearance that she rivaled other female characters who had it all: narrative, personality, and looks... And now, it seemed even her personality and narrative were catching up.


    Though she still had a sharp tongue, her softened demeanor and her naturally steeled resolve from enduring trials and tribtions...


    <em>''This is driving me crazy.''</em>


    Baek Yu-Seol didn’t know why, but he felt uneasy.


    Even though Hong Bi-Yeon overcame the most dangerous death g, it felt like an even bigger hurdle persisted...


    <em>''It must be just my imagination.''</em>


    Determined to shake off those unnecessary thoughts, Baek Yu-Seol rummaged through his pocket, pulled out a sleep mask, put it on, and closed his eyes.


    Baek Yu-Seol needed to head to the cradle of the Heavenly Spirit Tree to lift Florin’s curse, and he didn''t want to jeopardize his mental health with trivial matters.


    <hr>


    The summer vacation at Ste Academy was incredibly boring.


    At least, that was what Poong Ha-rang thought.


    He was spending every day in sses. It was no different from the regr semester.


    The summer lecture halls were like empty tin cans. With the end of the vacation approaching, there were fewer than 20 students in a ssroom with the capacity to amodate 100.


    "Hey, Poong Ha-rang. Aren''t you going back to your hometown for vacation?"


    Mack, who had been ring intensely at the back of the professor''s head as he wrote on the chalkboard, asked Poong Ha-rang.


    "I don''t know. I don''t think anything good woulde of it."


    "Geez. Is that so? I wouldn''t know since I''m amoner. When my brother took my new shoes and got them covered in mud, I wanted to kill him, but I didn''t actually do it."


    "Everyone has their own struggles."


    First-year ss S, Poong Ha-rang.


    He was the youngest direct descendant of the Poong Family, who ruled the entire Pungwol ins in the south, and he grew up facing excessive scrutiny from his older siblings due to his outstanding talent.


    Usually, growing up in such an environment would cause one to be withdrawn, but instead, he grew stronger and straightforward, with many people around him.


    Frommoners to Ste''s professors and even the mages of the magic tower, they respected his opinions due to his distinct perspective.


    Even someone like him had recently been troubled by something.


    "… Mack. What do you think?"


    "Huh? About what?"


    "Edna."


    "... Uh, what?"


    Given Poong Ha-rang''s usually serious demeanor, when he was deep in thought, the girls would often gush, ‘He must be contemting the safety and development of his family!’


    Of course, no matter how serious Poong Ha-rang was, he didn''t spend every moment pondering such weighty matters.


    Sometimes he worried about what to have for dinner, and other times he stressed over too much homework—he was an ordinary student in many ways.


    But even so...


    "I never thought… You would think about a girl."


    It was a shocking statement for Mack, considering how Poong Ha-rang had always treated girls like stones and rejected countless confessions.


    "... Don''t get the wrong idea. I''m asking purely out of curiosity."


    "No. I mean, curiosity implies that you''re interested in that girl, right?"


    "... Is that so?"


    "Yes, that''s exactly it."


    "Then, do you have no curiosity about Hazel, who you hang out with every day?"


    "Curiosity, my foot. I wouldn''t care if that crazy girl dropped dead on the street."


    Poong Ha-rang fell silent at Mack''s words.


    "Wow. The day you have girl troubles has finallye... Well, Edna has been popr since the beginning of the semester."


    As they whispered about Edna, suddenly, the back door of the ssroom was torn off with a horrendous noise.


    Everyone in the ssroom turned their gaze to the back door. There stood Edna, holding the torn-off door in one hand. She appeared bewildered.


    "... What''s it this time, Edna?"


    Since it wasn''t the first time she had caused trouble, the professor sighed and asked, to which Edna responded with an awkward smile.


    "I thought it was a hinged door, but it wouldn''t open, so…"


    "Ah."


    The professor nodded as if he understood.


    "So you forced open the sliding door?"


    "Uh, yeah… Yes."


    Could there be a more ridiculous exnation?


    Forcing open a sliding door with such strength that she tore it off—there wasn''t another girl like her in this academy or anywhere else in the world.


    "... Sorry... I''ll fix it."


    Even Edna seemed a bit embarrassed by this foolish act. She bowed her head in an awkward apology before carrying the torn-off door and leaving.


    "Ha-ha. Why’s she so funny?"


    "Isn''t she?"


    Poong Ha-rang didn''t respond to Mack''s question. He just quietly watched Edna’s retreating figure.


    <em>''... The more I see her, the more unique she seems.''</em>


    That was all he thought.


    "Ugh, I''m so embarrassed..."


    The door waspletely smashed, so when Edna took it to Ste''s repair center, they said it would be better to rece it with a new one.


    "Did I really push it that hard…"


    Lately, she had been somewhat dazed. She often didn’t pay attention to the route. It had never been this bad. She couldn''t understand why this was happening.


    As she trudged down the hallway, her gaze naturally fell on arge newspaper pinned to the ss bulletin board.


    <strong>[Crisis Strikes the Coast of Levian]</strong>


    <strong>[Disaster of Fire and Ice]</strong>


    <strong>[The Great Feat of Princess Hong Bi-Yeon!]</strong>


    <strong>[The First One to Control of the Hwaryeong Flower in a Thousand Years....]</strong>


    The stories were all about Princess Hong Bi-Yeon. Edna could easily guess who was behind this.


    "Baek Yu-Seol. You''ve done something again."


    Thest time she saw Hong Bi-Yeon, it appeared like she was being taken back to the royal family, never to return. But Baek Yu-Seol managed to chase after her, resolve the disaster safely, and then quietly disappear.


    She looked at the gigantic disaster depicted in the newspaper... namely, the ''Pirate King ck Belize.''


    The public was calling him the Ice Spirit, but Edna knew well where it originated from.


    The Ice Spirit was from Twelfth New Moon Bronze.


    The Fire Incarnation was from Scarlet Summer.


    These were merely fragments of the Twelve New Moons. Even so, they created disasters that were hard for humans to confront, reminding her of how extraordinary those beings were.


    "Is it the Twelve New Moons again this time?"


    Come to think of it, Baek Yu-Seol had always seemed particrly obsessed with the Twelve New Moons.


    Even during their fake rtionship days in the library, he spent all day clinging to books rted to the Twelve New Moons and even took the rather unpopr subject of New Moon Studies.


    "Speaking of which…"


    While she was lost in thought, she realized she had arrived at the library. She hade to return a book, but it seemed almost closing time as students were leaving one by one.


    Edna slid the book into the return slot and entered the library.


    Upon seeing her, the librarian immediately said, "No more checkouts for today." But that didn’t matter.


    That wasn’t her goal in the first ce.


    Edna walked slowly to the deeper sections of the library. Since it waste and there were few students left, she didn''t have to worry about prying eyes.


    A little further.


    A little further inside.


    <strong>[Ancient History A1~A12]</strong>


    Ste''s library held many secrets. It was vast, boundless, and infinite.


    This space was designed to make you think it was just a small ce…


    But there were hidden locations.


    <strong>[Magical Studies C36~48]</strong>


    A ce cleverly concealed in the shadows by the yful magic of Ste''s principal, Eltman Eltwin.


    <strong>[Alchemy B12~24]</strong>


    Walking along this path, she eventually came across such a space.


    <strong>[Myths]</strong>


    A suspicious little bookstore with no markings or signs. Edna knew this ce well. She had read about it multiple times in the original romance fantasy.


    Yes.


    That’s right. ''It was the episode where Eisel searched for the truth about her father.''


    Edna turned her head swiftly. ".... Who are you?"


    There stood Eisel Morph. She held a book tightly to her chest and pointed a wand while appearing very tense.


    She looked like a cat caught sneaking in an alley, which was quite cute, but Edna didn''t smile.


    "Phew... I was startled by who might havee. I didn''t expect it to be you. How did you find this ce?"


    "Just... wandering around."


    Edna lowered her gaze to the book held tightly by Eisel.


    <strong>[Walking Beyond Time....]</strong>


    Thest letters of the title were obscured, but it was easy to identify the book''s nature.


    ''Eleventh New Moon Silver.''


    It might very well be the starting point of a tragic story that would drive the girl named Eisel into abyss.