Why Did I Have to Enroll

They had fun playing and eating.

When Ban Yu-won and his group returned to the plaza, their designated meeting place, as their time was up, they ended Tike's recording mode and decided to take a break.

While students were chattering energetically everywhere, only Class 1-1 was in a gloomy, depressed mood, probably because their leader Ortima had returned home to receive treatment.

"Ayre, aren't you going?"

"We're returning together with Class 1 anyway."

If anyone could replace Ortima in Class 1 right now, it would be Ayre, who possessed comparable charm and charisma, and even surpassed his abilities, but she was actually with the Rebellion members who had caused Ortima's injury.

Ortima got hurt trying to save Class 11, and now they've even taken Ayre away!

Most of Class 1 students seemed to be seriously thinking such nonsensical thoughts, as their occasional glances were incredibly hostile.

The problem was that mixed among them were the immature glares of an adult.

"I can't stand that man. He's creepy and perverted."

"We hate him too..."

They knew that Cantone had used his power to slow down Ban Yu-won's group's movements, causing them to be pulled into the dungeon without being able to resist...

But because his use of power was so subtle and left no evidence, even Yumina couldn't pursue the matter further.

If it hadn't been about dealing with the Ortima family, the Chancellor might have disciplined Cantone directly, so he could be considered lucky in many ways.

Yet there he was, glaring at them like that, whether or not he knew he had fortunately escaped the accusations.

'Professor Yumina said there won't be incidents like this anymore... but we can't be sure. Who knows when Cantone might snap.'

Though one might question whether a full professor, one of only nine in the best academy across all dimensions, would risk his fate just to get rid of students he found annoying, we must not forget that he had already done something similar.

That's why he needed to become stronger, faster.

So that he could easily leap over any trap that anyone might set...!

"Yu-won, look at this."

Perhaps wanting to escape the gloomy topic, Luciel called out to Ban Yu-won while checking her mirror.

As the most stylishly dressed member of the group, she looked quite natural operating the mirror as if it were a smartphone.

"There really is a separate board just for fan club members who follow academy students."

"Huh?"

"Let's see... ah."

Luciel pulled up the Union Net's integrated community board screen.

As Ban Yu-won approached her, Light also tried to stick close behind but, realizing the distance was too close, jumped back in surprise.

Ban Yu-won said in disbelief:

"You could just look at yours."

"I'm not good at that kind of thing."

"You're sharp about information from other dimensions but weirdly weak in areas like this..."

With no choice, they enlarged the screen display on the mirror so Light could see too, and the three huddled together to check the board.

"Unity, Phoenix, Revival, Survivor... Oh, those weren't fan club names but team names? Then our naming sense is similar to other students."

Since most special activities were conducted in groups, it seemed other students also chose team names to represent themselves, just like Rebellion.

However, this usually happened around second or third year when team compositions became solid (apparently most students changed team compositions after each Tower loss to find the optimal team). RАꞐοꞖƐȿ

But Class 11 members, being special admission students, had no luxury to change teams - they had to stick together through thick and thin!

"What are you talking about, Ban? I think Rebellion is quite an excellent name. Though it's a bit concerning that rebellion inherently implies rejecting the existing system... but still."

"Yu-won, there's a list of promising teams and their fan clubs here."

Ignoring Light's grumbling, Luciel called him over.

Looking at what appeared to be dozens of fan club listings, Ban Yu-won was impressed.

"There really are quite a few fan clubs centered around 4th and 5th-year seniors."

"Well, even if you just group five people into a team, you'd easily get dozens per grade. Looking at it that way, the number might actually seem small."

"Most of them only have dozens to hundreds of members. They're all cute compared to Level Force."

Ban Yu-won found himself nodding at Aneri's words as she showed pride in her fan club membership.

"That's true..."

Their fan clubs all seemed to lack the membership numbers and cohesion compared to Rebellion's fan club, Level Force.

After all, how could those without even a single official introduction video compete with Rebellion, which regularly uploaded various videos including Tower exploration footage and communicated in a modern Earth-style way that viewers could relate to!

...But wait a minute.

"Aneri, haven't you left yet?"

"Your special activity isn't over yet!"

Perhaps due to the firmly established hierarchy, Aneri couldn't approach Ban Yu-won directly and was peering at the mirror from behind Luciel's back.

Ban Yu-won checked his watch and confirmed there was still some time left until the assembly time.

It seemed she really intended to stick with them until the moment they left this dimension.

"How is this supposed to help with climbing the Tower..."

"Mr. Ban Yu-won, you weren't referring to me when you said 'this' just now, were you?"

"Of course not."

"I knew it!"

Actually, it was half true and half false.

Ban Yu-won was talking about recognition from external dimensions itself.

While he would acknowledge benefiting from it in this case, what did that have to do with the Tower?

"Did Professor Yumina really say that?"

"That's what I said."

"Hmm... There are stories that the Tower's power connects countless dimensions and enables communication. If that's true, wouldn't it be natural for events in connected dimensions to affect the Tower?"

Even Dokgo Yeon, who had been pretending to be uninterested, chimed in while looking at Ban Yu-won's mirror.

Ban Yu-won had a realization from her words.

'Connecting countless dimensions to enable communication... It feels similar to my ancestor's ability. So it's inevitable that the Babel Tower has such power.'

Unifying all languages means enabling everyone to communicate.

Couldn't connecting all dimensions be considered an extension of that?

Moreover, the dimension where the Babel Tower currently stands is called Union.

It couldn't be a coincidence that a word meaning integration and unity became the name of the dimension.

'What if the Babel Tower, standing still in that place, is actually the key connecting all dimensions? Then of course the things we do in other dimensions could affect the Tower!'

At last, his complicated thoughts became crystal clear.

Ban Yu-won wanted to hug Dokgo Yeon for giving him the crucial hint, but knowing he would surely get hit if he did, he grabbed Luciel's hand and shook it vigorously up and down instead.

She smiled kindly without surprise and said, "Did something good happen, Yu-won?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Heh, I'm so happy to hear that."

"...You know, as a fan watching this, it feels a bit strange seeing you two being all lovey-dovey. You might as well make it a harem and include me too."

"I think a harem needs at least four people."

To Ban Yu-won's nonsensical response to Aneri's nonsense, surprisingly, Aneri happily clung to him.

"Then we just need to find two more people besides me!"

"No, I was wrong. Please stop. ...But wait."

When Ban Yu-won stopped Aneri from immediately trying to write a post on the fan club's official homepage, he was shocked to see the homepage displayed on her mirror (naturally, since it wasn't bought in Union, the design was quite different, but it seemed that communication devices like this were called mirrors in other dimensions too).

While he had expected there to be not just a bulletin board but also a separate fan cafe unlike other students' fan clubs, what made him shudder was seeing that the fan cafe had over 100,000 members.

At the same time, he had a question.

"Aneri, you mentioned before that access to Union Net was restricted."

"Ah. You're curious about the access requirements for Union Net?"

She was quick on the uptake.

When Ban Yu-won nodded, Aneri kindly explained.

"First, most people like us who are qualified to cross dimensions have access to Union Net. Besides that... as you move from lower dimensions to higher ones, more people tend to have access rights, and it's concentrated among the strong and high-ranking classes."

"That's a very easy-to-understand logic of power."

As discussed earlier, if the Babel Tower controls Union Net, it makes sense that access rights would follow the logic of power.

As Ban Yu-won shook his head, Aneri lowered her voice and whispered.

"While infiltrating here, I found out that only about the top 1% of humanity in this dimension can access Union Net. Still, that's quite a lot for a lower dimension."

"Then what about other..."

—Everyone, assemble.

Just as he was about to ask about other lower dimensions, Xenon's assembly order came down.

By then, Yumina had also appeared beside them.

"Thank you for your hard work, Aneri. I hope we'll have another opportunity to request your services."

"Oh... I'll give you a 20% discount for anything related to Rebellion! If Mr. Ban Yu-won calls directly, 50% off! And..."

Aneri, sighing regretfully until the end, reluctantly backed away... and winked at Dokgo Yeon.

"Keep fighting, Miss Dokgo Yeon! I think you still have plenty of chances!"

"...?"

Her puzzling encouragement made Dokgo Yeon's cross-shaped pupils unusually widen in confusion.

But before she could ask what that meant, Aneri's retreating figure quickly disappeared into the crowd.

Dokgo Yeon was even more surprised.

"She escaped my senses in an instant...?"

"Well, she is a dimensional mercenary after all. Their level is quite high. Though she specializes in infiltration operations and excels more in appearance and stealth abilities than combat power, she's still talented enough to operate easily even in the highest dimensions."

Yumina explained with a bright smile to the astonished Dokgo Yeon.

Luciel, rarely showing such emotion, gritted her teeth in frustration.

"Maybe that woman was watching me too."

"Yeah, I certainly couldn't read all of her capabilities until the end..."

Though there was a lot of suspicion at first, she turned out to be a very good person, if a bit excessive in showing affection.

Even in the midst of all the chaos, she managed to exchange mirror codes with Ban Yu-won without missing a beat, so it was fair to say they'd gained a reliable ally they could count on when needed.

Along with the connection made with Ayre, this could be considered the greatest reward from this special activity.

"A dimensional mercenary..."

"Well, it's our turn to board now. Let's go."

Yumina pushed Ban Yu-won's shoulder as he was lost in thought.

From her informal speech, he had wondered, and sure enough, it seemed all the party members had already gone inside.

"It feels... kind of anticlimactic at the end."

"Anticlimactic? Look behind you."

As he was about to step through the hole in the air with Yumina, he glanced back at her words.

It seemed there was a reason they had chosen the plaza as the assembly point – countless soldiers were gathered just as they had been when they first arrived.

"Thank you!"

"Long live Union Academy!"

"Farewell...!"

"We'll remember our salvation forever!"

The composition of the group must be quite different from a few days ago.

Quite a few soldiers must have been sacrificed along with the monsters in the indiscriminate baptism of power unleashed by the Academy's full professors.

A crisis not overcome by one's own strength might grow back like unrooted weeds and someday strangle their necks.

Nevertheless, they were cheering like this.

Because somehow the dimension had survived, and they were alive.

They were praising not just the professors but also the students – as if they were gods.

'—No wonder everyone becomes arrogant. I need to be careful not to become like them.'

Ban Yu-won boarded the dimensional ship with this bitter realization.

And so ended the special activity that had taught him so much... truly so much about the relationship between Union and other dimensions.

*

―The Empress Declares She Will Lay Down Her Sword!

―What Changed from Last Year When She Strongly Expressed Her Intent to Compete in the Olympics? Empress Ban Yu-mi Suddenly Announces Retirement!

An Olympic gold medalist and rising powerhouse in the fencing world.

A true monster who, in a sport where mastering even one discipline is difficult, competed in both Foil and Sabre events simultaneously and won individual gold medals in both.

The news of Empress Ban Yu-mi's all-too-early retirement has shocked and saddened many domestic fans who had even the slightest interest in fencing...

The Foil and Sabre team members who had hoped to win team gold medals with her at the next Olympics were especially shocked.

That's why she gathered all her close fellow athletes and treated them to Korean beef.

"Are you really quitting? Sure, you've won enough medals, but what about us?"

"I'm sorry, but if I compete now it would be cheating, so I have no choice."

Who could have known that just awakening to magic power would cause her body to keep getting stronger and stronger.

Unable to explain this, Ban Yu-mi just shrugged her shoulders while muttering those words to herself.

Since fencing had only ever been a means to become stronger for her, she didn't hesitate much in deciding to retire.

"Are you really getting married or something? Is that why you're retiring?"

"Come on, marriage at twenty-two? Really?"

"That's right, it can't be that, unnie. This girl still has her little brother as her phone wallpaper."

"That's kind of cringe..."

"Really cringe..."

"Doesn't your brother find it creepy?"

"But why won't you introduce him to us? I definitely asked you to introduce us before."

"Oh, seriously."

As the athletes kept pestering her and now were subtly showing interest in her brother, Ban Yu-mi pushed them away with one arm and said:

"I'm not getting married, and I'm not introducing my brother to anyone. Stop getting ideas."

"Look how firm she is about it."

"Yu-mi, are you planning to keep your brother to yourself forever? Huh? You think it's easy to have an Olympic medalist as a sister-in-law?"

"Whatever, I got a message, all of you go away."

She treated them to Korean beef, they should just eat and accept it.

Ban Yu-mi pushed people aside and checked her phone.

It was an ordinary text message.

But the sender's name was corrupted and unreadable.

She briefly hoped it might be from her brother, but this was probably just spam.

Ban Yu-mi clicked her tongue and read the contents.

"What's this... Earth Dimension Evolution Notice and Union Net Early Access Rights Acquisition Guide?"

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