The Trash Author Cleans his Novel

When the clock struck 0700 hours, the portals leading to Shyveon's main campus vanished without a trace.

Looking at the mix of relief and terror in the expressions of the students who barely made it, Arcine chuckled.

In a way, it was exactly as he had written it. The only difference was that the whole process had many more subtleties.

"Hmmm,"

Feeling the residual disturbances in space scattering about, he thought about the nature of such magic. It was a mysterious feeling as if a human could suddenly perceive waves of gravitation — a rippling of space-time itself.

'However, I can only recognize it through the fluctuation in mana.'

Noticing that small difference, Arcine turned around to face the main event. Given that the crowd had obscured it at first, he hadn't noticed its grand presence.

Now, however, the ambient lights had dimmed. A subtle glow illuminated the raised stage in the distance and the faces he had once seen only through words were now standing before him.

It was like an artistic hand had molded their forms and given them life.

The dull labels he had once handed out haphazardly to each character were now given much, much more. While he had crafted the skeleton, this unknown artist gave it flesh and covered it with skin.

What a surreal experience this was...

A smile slowly crept up Arcine's lips. His dark grey eyes shimmered as it met the gaze of one of those characters on the stage.

—Hm?

***

The moment I locked eyes with the lady at the center of the stage, the world blinked out of existence. Isolated from the world, the people, and my supposed batchmates, a chuckle escaped my lips.

"Ho? For a demon to laugh at this situation... A weak one such as yourself — I'd have assumed your kind to cower."

I smiled, looking at the white-haired woman whose eyes were as bright as stars. Standing before me now, with not even an inch of deathly pressure, was the headmaster of Shyveon.

A character I had written based on the concept of light. A figure whose existence itself manifested in different states.

Sometimes, she was there.

Sometimes she wasn't.

Defying time. Bending along with the curvature of space. Moving at impossible speeds.

To her, Avida Lux, the Madame of Lumination, a single lie would render me dead. How amusing was this event, where I dodged all those high-ranking mages to walk into the domain of one of the strongest humans in existence?

However, unlike those unnamed mages... This character of my own creation was one I knew very well.

What others deemed a field of landmines, was a straight path laid before me.

"Because I used to be human," I said simply, bowing my head in true humility.

I was in awe of the living character looking straight through me.

She was as beautiful as I had made her.

"So, you're a traitor..." A scoff came in reply to my words. "Amusing. Did you sacrifice the dirt at your feet? Your weakness is worse than even the lowest of imps."

She continued, seemingly talking to herself at this point.

"I would've incinerated you at first glance. However, there's something about your state that intrigues me."

I stayed silent and stared at the infinite golden floor, allowing Lux to examine the state of my body. Guessing that her eyes had narrowew in intrigue, my amusement grew. Her earlier threats meant nothing to me.

After all...

I knew her.

"You..."

Stepping forward to close the distance between us, her hand lifted my chin. My previous subservient posture had been shifted. The large distance had been crossed faster than the electricity that coursed through my nerves.

Our eyes met once more.

"...I see,"

Acquiring the realization she now held in the palm of her hands, a smirk wormed its way into her previously indifferent expression.

"You've gambled your entire life on this."

Looking at me as if I was insane, Lux cackled, shattering the beautiful image I had crafted for her. It seemed like my initial descriptions were insufficient for the world.

A crazed light shimmered in her eyes, blinding like that of the sun.

"How amusing! To think that I'll be accepting a demon into my realm today."

Lux flung her head back in a boisterous laughter. Her hair cascaded like a beautiful golden waterfall, taking on the same golden tinge as the world around me.

Hearing her laugh, I chuckled as well.

"Thank you for your understanding, Headmaster."

Hearing my words, Lux stopped laughing. Her previous amusement dissipated as swiftly as it came, and her hair no longer reflected the golden pallette of the empty space. Her white hair returned, and so did her indifference.

"I'll be watching you, child." With ever-changing multi-colored eyes.

A searing pain erupted from the back of my left hand. A mark was burning its way into my flesh. A simple, golden eye.

It was the Headmaster's insignia.

Looking at it take form, resonating with my body due to my affinity to Angelic Light, I nodded in satisfaction. I've received my first life-saving item in this world.

"Thank y—"

But, it seemed like the headmaster still loathed my existence to certain degree. Her two-sided view of me was just like her.

—Snap.

She kicked me out of her domain without letting me speak another word.

***

Outside the realm of golden light, the introduction ceremony went on. No one realized that the headmaster had accepted a Shadow Demon into the Hero Academy.

Avida Lux, who had been standing with Shyveon's professors, had merely gazed in a certain direction for a few minutes before looking away.

Trying to find the source of her interest would have been difficult given the darkness of the crowd and the ambient light of the stage.

"—May the coming years be your stage. Humanity has high hopes for you all."

And with the compelling speech of Shyveon's High Professor, drawing people in with the ambient mana, no one would've noticed a single distracted student in the crowd.

"I hope everyone will keep my words close to their hearts."

The man, Varric Irrescent, made his last invocation. His Command Magic and regal stature fell upon the crowd like a blacksmith quenching their blade.

Watching the first years all break out of their trance, Arcine calmed his swirling mana. Lux's insignia had allowed him to glimpse the flow of light itself.

[ > Angelic Light (Elemental Affinity): F-Rank (0/3) -> F-Rank (1/3) ]