I got into school for nothing - Chapter 320
I got into school for nothing (320)
Lesson 62. Change - 5
Even though S-rank dimensions had already experienced the Prominence Family, Melodia contained wonders that surpassed even the Prominence Family.
According to dimension rank, the S-7 Dimension Prominence Family should have surpassed the S-9 Dimension Melodia. Ban Yuwon couldn't understand why Melodia could surpass the Prominence Family in mana density, but—.
Misty, sensing Ban Yuwon's thoughts, gave him a hint by silently glancing at Aire.
"No, really?"
"At least the timing is the same."
If that was truly the case, it was no wonder that not only the Melodia Family but even individuals from families not directly related to dragons, like Misty and Leixu, held Aire in such awe.
But perhaps their conversation, with many parts omitted, seemed too intimate; Aire made a displeased expression and pushed her away.
"Oh, of course, Aire!"
"Good, you know."
"Um, then Aire, ahem, I..."
Aire didn't listen further to Misty's words.
Misty, who likely wanted to ask if she, too, was Aire's friend, sent another resentful glare at Ban Yuwon, but this time, he couldn't acknowledge Misty either.
This was because a space fleet, launched from the planet, was already approaching them.
Ban Yuwon knew well what the musical note emblem, emblazoned on the sides of the colossal battleships, symbolized.
"Did they come out to greet us?"
"Because it's Aire."
For some reason, Misty acted smug.
On the other hand, Aire maintained a calm expression; her unique personality, maintaining detachment in situations where any ordinary human would feel superiority or pride, conversely made her seem even more special.
Leixu was trembling, perhaps due to her timid nature, and Ban Yuwon....
["The killing intent is palpable, Master."]
'Indeed.'
Feeling the Melodia Family's aggressive momentum, which certainly didn't seem welcoming, he gave a wry smile.
No, if Aire, whom the Melodia Family was wholeheartedly supporting, was clinging to Ban Yuwon and seemed utterly lost without him, even he, as a family member, wouldn't have been pleased.
Still, the killing intent was far too dense to be solely for that reason... he instinctively felt that it might be related to how Aire had acted when confronting Zenon previously.
["How does that immediately connect?"]
'When someone does something out of character, a clue to understand why will soon appear. The Russian playwright Anton Chekhov said that if a gun is described hanging on the fireplace in Act 1, it must be fired by Act 3.'
The day Dokgo Yeon died.
Ban Yuwon hadn't forgotten that day, when Aire had made unusually violent remarks and unleashed mana brimming with killing intent.
He didn't know exactly who that reaction was aimed at... but now, he intended to mobilize all his abilities to read and remember every single concept he could decipher.
To ensure he never lost anything again due to his own inadequacy.
["So, if things go awry, does that mean Master will shoot the Melodia Family Head with a gun?"]
'You understood perfectly.'
["I get Mr. Chekhov's gun now. But there's also the word 'MacGuffin,' isn't there?"]
'It's a wonderful word, but I'll explain it in detail next time.'
["So you mean you won't explain it."]
'You've already grasped the essence of a MacGuffin.'
Soon, as the battleship neared the spaceship carrying their group, a communication came from it.
"—Welcome, Aire-nim. Would you like to meet the Family Head?"
"No, Yuwon and I will rest. Prepare a large room at the mansion."
"—The Family Head wishes to have an audience with student Ban Yuwon."
"He can talk with me tomorrow."
"—He says he needs to speak with him alone. And right now."
Aire made an incredulous expression and raised her voice towards the messenger, who was presumably inside the battleship, beyond the communication network.
"Why? Are you going to take Yuwon away?"
"—He says he will return him immediately. The Family Head has personally arranged a time and place for an audience with Ban Yuwon."
Ban Yuwon didn't know since when the Melodia Family had been negotiating ownership of him, but he knew well that the messenger's words weren't actually aimed at Aire.
It was a clear message: he should step forward himself before Aire went further overboard.
Ban Yuwon calmed Aire, who looked ready to turn the spaceship around and ram the battleship, and then he opened his mouth to reply to the communication.
"Give me the coordinates; I'll move there."
"—Understood, student Ban Yuwon."
The messenger replied as if they had been waiting for Ban Yuwon to intervene, then sent the coordinates.
Aire also felt something strange about that exchange; her eyes narrowed as she quickly surveyed the fleet that had already surrounded their spaceship as if escorting it.
In a way, it looked like an encirclement.
"Yuwon, wait."
"I'll be right back."
Ban Yuwon said, mentally preparing the "gun" to shoot the Family Head.
"I don't like their methods. They're violent and arbitrary."
"They're one of the Ten Great Families, what did you expect? It'll be fine, just wait."
Ban Yuwon calmed the furious Aire, whose draconic eyes were now visible, with a few appropriate words, then waved his hand in greeting to Misty and Leixu, who were staring at him with wide eyes, and manifested his Giwon Sword.
Having absorbed the concept of 'Space Control', the Giwon Sword, which previously only possessed an incomplete movement ability, had now evolved more completely after successive battles: first against the Constellation, then against Zenon, who dominated all of space.
Now, it could stably move even over considerably long distances, provided it wasn't crossing dimensions.
"Ah."
Thus, the next moment, Ban Yuwon teleported to the received coordinates, finding himself in a corner of an office that somewhat resembled the Union Academy Chancellor's Office, where a middle-aged man was leisurely holding a teacup, leaning back on a sofa.
"You didn't even touch the barrier."
The man, tilting his teacup and taking a sip of tea, glared at Ban Yuwon with a sharp expression as he spoke.
Feeling a slight pride in his refined technique, Ban Yuwon shrugged.
"Ah, yes. My martial art is inherently the ability to read gaps."
"Gaps, you say..."
The man drank his tea again.
"With magic directly passed down from True Dragons, I took pride in having cast a barrier more perfect than anyone else among those not of dragonkind... and you say you found a gap in it."
Perhaps he was quite thirsty; seeing him continue to drink tea without speaking, Ban Yuwon also sat down on the opposite seat by himself.
The plush cushioning, something he had never felt on Earth or even in Union, made him marvel at how different a wealthy household truly was. As he pressed down on the sofa, the man, Rasteil Pendragon Melodia, the Family Head of the Melodia Family, snorted.
"I can't tell who's the guest and who's the host."
"If you called me here to treat me as a guest, you would have told me to sit comfortably long ago, wouldn't you?"
The Family Head couldn't retort to Ban Yuwon's words.
In fact, from forcibly summoning Ban Yuwon while he was with Aire to making him stand idly while he himself drank tea, the Family Head knew that these actions were far too rude to be considered treating him as a guest.
Of course, all of it had been calculated and executed, a mixture of dissatisfaction with Ban Yuwon and an intent to test him.
Ban Yuwon was not the type to pander to or fear someone just because they were the Family Head of one of the Ten Great Families.
If he were, he wouldn't be climbing the Tower of Babel.
"Still, I should first offer my thanks. Thanks to your support last time, it helped us fend off the Prominence Family's invasion."
"Do you intend to end it with just a single word?"
"After all, I still have much to receive from the Melodia Family, don't I?"
"When Aire-nim was watching, you certainly said that."
Seeing the Family Head's brow furrow and his nose wrinkle, Ban Yuwon couldn't help but laugh.
"I plan to help with the improvement of the Dragon Fang Soldiers. Aire and I have decided on that as next year's research topic."
"That's a repayment that feels excessive... The next owner of the Tower of Babel, offering to lend a hand in artifact creation."
Facing the Family Head who spoke so slowly, Ban Yuwon thought, 'Well, that's about right.'
If he said this, it might sound boastful, but Ban Yuwon's abilities were too high-grade for his young age, and even from the mere fragments of power he revealed outwardly, one could glimpse commonalities with the countless miracles occurring within the Tower of Babel.
Moreover, the Melodia Family Head had seemed to have a rough grasp of his identity since first seeing Ban Yuwon, so there was no need for surprise.
"The hostility I felt when I first entered this dimension, is it because I am a being connected to the Tower of Babel?"
"That's right. Ban Yuwon, you must have encountered and heard things here and there, but to state it clearly here—the Tower Lord is an enemy of the True Dragons."
"The Tower Lord sought to unify all dimensions based on the Tower, and the True Dragons erected dimensional walls to stop that, is that why?"
"Hah."
The Melodia Family Head truly seemed astonished by Ban Yuwon's words.
"Where did you get such accurate information? A trans-dimensional locking magic has been placed on it, so it shouldn't be found anywhere. ...Is it that traitor's tomb after all?"
"That's right."
In fact, he hadn't found any writings in that ruin that explicitly stated True Dragons had erected dimensional walls, but the Family Head was thoroughly taken in by Ban Yuwon's bluff.
The moment it became clear that the True Dragons and Ban Yuwon's ancestor were enemies.
Ban Yuwon sighed, "Haaah—" and raised a hand to press his temples.
"Just because our ancestors fought, I don't need to be at odds with Aire, do I?"
"I gained a long life through the wisdom obtained from dragons. Looking back at the history I've personally experienced, it has always repeated itself with foolish consistency."
"To be frank," the Family Head began, setting down his teacup.
The cup was neatly empty.
"I'm thinking... wouldn't killing you here and now be the easiest path?"
"That's why you specifically separated me from Aire and called only me, isn't it?"
"That's right, but..."
The Family Head remained in his seat.
To be precise, he *had* to remain there.
This was because, if he were to start a battle with Ban Yuwon, there was not the slightest possibility of completely subduing or killing him before Ban Yuwon either called Aire or escaped alone.
Having trained his martial arts, he maintained a flawless posture, ready to respond at any moment against the Family Head, and his refined, top-tier mana was also ready to manifest the moment he desired.
"To kill you secretly, you are... too strong."
"I appreciate the compliment."
But was it just strength? The way Ban Yuwon had found his way here was also astonishing.
When he asked for a single coordinate, the Family Head, wondering if this brat was looking down on them, told him the location, wanting to see what he would do. Yet, he truly arrived using an advanced space-movement ability that no one could imitate.
Space-movement magic was the magic that symbolized the Melodia Family, one of the Ten Great Families.
Since he used a technique superior to that of the Melodia Family, it meant that Ban Yuwon was already at a level where he could be considered the best in the universe when it came to space movement and control.
But if they tried to kill him, would he just calmly face the Family Head?
He could simply vanish in a flash.
"Is this... possible? When I saw him before, he was certainly not this strong. Not even half a year has passed since then."
"Because I've experienced a lot in that time."
Ban Yuwon replied, making a mischievous face.
The way he wrinkled his nose, mimicking the expression the Family Head had just made, was quite annoying. Nevertheless, the Family Head felt his hatred for a man who might potentially become an enemy suppressed by reverence for the young, latent dragon, and he sighed.
Ban Yuwon's Level had already surpassed 2,000.
"If your calculations are done, now tell me about Aire. No need to beat around the bush, just tell me what you need to say."
"If you wish, I will."
The Family Head clicked his tongue and spoke directly.
"Aire-nim is not a Dragonoid."
"No, wait a moment."
"She is a True Dragon."
It felt like being shot by a gun.
Resenting Mr. Anton Chekhov, Ban Yuwon tightly closed his eyes.
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