While leisurely strolling towards the forest, where the royal dormitory was located, I started to reminisce about my abrupt entrance into this world.
It wasn't that bad, was it?
From going to nightclubs to doing presentations in class, I had basically been a normal student, aside from the few times I presumably saved the world.
As a high schooler back on Earth, my life was pretty much the same, but instead of nightclubs, I went out with friends.
In this world, I didn't even have to worry about going to college! ...Well, I did have to worry about saving the world instead, but that was out of my own volition.
If I wanted to, I could stop at any time and let Lily do her thing with the plot, whereas with college, I had no choice; it was a requirement set by my parents for me.
My parents, huh... it's been a long time, hasn't it?
I'd love to say that I got along with my parents... but that was far from the truth. Constant fights about my future, and my parents getting angry at me, telling me to do more extracurriculars and get better grades.
Well... it was because they cared. They just wanted me to have a good future where money wasn't a problem and I could honestly enjoy life.
Would they be happy seeing me right now..?
With business doing well on Raven's side and the number of artifacts I had gotten from the cruise ship, money absolutely wasn't a worry for me right now.
...my grades weren't the best, though.
Putting my hood over my face, forcing the black cat to cling onto my shirt to stay afloat, I stared at the half-collapsed royal dormitory building in front of me.
Inside, it was eerily silent, and there were no more flashing lights, but just one glance through a window, and I could tell that the fight wasn't even close to being over.
...In fact, it was only beginning.
Glancing up at the sky, I saw small particles of mana gathering and spreading out to create a cage that completely surrounded the entire mansion.
In the next few seconds, the mana gathered and gathered until the entire mansion was covered by it.
Unlike my shadow cage, you could still see outside the mana cage as the stars shining in the night sky were visible; however, as I put my hand on the mana barrier surrounding the mansion, I was immediately propelled back.
I couldn't leave...
Well, there was one way: Ruby's teleportation magic.
I had considered the possibility that Ruby would just teleport at the first sign of danger, leaving everyone behind, but like me; I believed that she had undergone some transformation from her original villain identity, not to say she'd risk her life, though.
If that weren't the case, I would have to stall until Irene's reinforcements arrived and broke down the cage.
Manifesting a dagger with my corruption, I touched the tip of it to the mana cage and watched as the corruption spread for a second before being immediately halted and then overtaken by the original mana.
Sighing as I realized that my corruption wasn't yet strong enough to take control of the mana cage that the teacher cast, I found a broken window on the ground floor of the mansion before immediately heading in.
Walking through the empty hallways of the dormitory, I realized that after talking to Irene. Astrid must have gathered all the students together to fight against the teacher.
As my eyes led me to feel a sense of familiarity with this area, I recalled that this was the exact hallway where Ruby and I had been when I had been showing her around on the day she transferred.
Would Ruby still be in her room, or had she gathered with the others?
Turning back around, I headed towards the area where Ruby had rushed to when she said she was going back to her room and left me behind.
Finding a single door, I prepared to break it down, but to my surprise, it was left open as a simple push opened it.
Looking inside the extravagant room that even had its own personal sauna and training room, I looked inside for a moment before realizing that Ruby wasn't there.
As I turned around to head back toward the dormitory's common area, I recognized something that stopped me dead in my tracks.
In the corner of the room, there was a painting of an apple. It had been the only painting I could look at without immediately getting a headache.
Wasn't it in the hallway last time? Did she really just steal it and bring it here...?
Looking at the painting, I further recalled that Ruby had mentioned that despite the painting being simple and boring, it was expensive solely because of the name.
Feeling my hood lift up, I glanced upwards and realized that the black cat had climbed onto my head and was now staring at the painting as well.
How did this damn painting of all things catch this cat's goddamn attention?
When time had turned back, it had been indifferent. When I was fighting the original owner of the blood-red sword, it had been asleep.
Even when the coliseum originally exploded and caught on fire, it simply did not care, but this painting of an apple on a blank canvas had captured its interest..?
Who made this painting? Well... I haven't heard any fighting yet, so maybe I have some time!
Letting my curiosity take over, I strolled into Ruby's room, heading closer and closer to the painting until, finally, I was right in front of it.
Looking at the bottom of the canvas, where the painter's name is usually mentioned, I was surprised to see no mention of the author's name, just the title of the painting.
"The Dragon's Forbidden Fruit."
As I stared at the painting, I was just about to turn around when I felt a sudden pressure exerted on my head.
Looking upwards, I saw the black cat jump off my head and right into the painting. Before I could even react, the cat's body disappeared as it went straight through the painting.
"... a subspace?"
Is that why Ruby said the painting was so valuable and why she stole it from the hallway and brought it into her room?
Hesitating outside the painting moment, I decided that I would spend only 5 minutes inside it before heading back out and continuing my search for the teacher.
Anyway, it wouldn't really matter if I found the scene of the battle right now, as my plan was to intervene after everyone besides me was taken out, as the teacher wouldn't kill anyone until he got information on the blood-red sword he was after.
Then, right as the teacher realized that none of them knew about the sword, I would intervene, making the teacher waste as much as possible.
Standing in front of the painting, I carefully placed my dagger into it, watching it disappear before jumping in after it.
Feeling my surroundings distort, I shut my eyes and, for some reason, felt dizzier than usual as I waited for the area around me to stabilize.
When I opened my eyes, all I could see was the darkness... but then I quickly realized I was lying face down.
Dusting myself off, I got up and immediately looked at the area in front of me.
"w-what t-the hell???..."
In front of me stood the same circle when I had fought the djinns, and even the pedestals from the museum were there. Remanant of our battle could be seen as I recognized countless burn marks.
Looking downwards, I immediately recognized that Zeng's scratch marks from when he was in here were also there.
This was my subspace... there was no doubt about it.
The only problem was the painting entrance to my subspace was currently in my headquarters...