Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 111

Chapter 111: Free
‘Click’

The light was switched on by the young man, who entered the room coughing.

“Cough…cough…

Haven’t they ever cleaned this place?”

Henriksson, in the cloud of dust, could barely keep his eyes open.

The whole room was pitch dark, making it impossible to see the corners.

Only one desk was In the middle, and on it, were many blank papers and all kinds of pens and pencils.

“Is this where I’ll pass the next months of my life?”

“It’s not so bad”

‘Clank’ he turned the window’s handle and opened it to change the air.

Finally, with the window opened, a bit of light managed to enter the room while loads of piled-up dust were washed away by the wind.

“Let’s get to work…”

Henriksson sat down on the desk and began playing around with a pencil, unable to think of any option.

The reason Hans had told him that ‘he’ was the problem and not the advancing requirement was really simple.

To advance to the unique class {barrier grandmaster} he was required to create a barrier greater than any he had taken inspiration from.

For a normal person, that would mean improving one of the system’s barriers, still a difficult task, but doable.

However, having learned from Lans, there was no way his knowledge about barriers wouldn’t count as taking inspiration from his master’s special spell: {rainbow barrier}.

Meaning.…

He had to create a barrier stronger than the one made by his master.

Rainbow barrier was the spell that got his master up to the position he attained, and a spell created and modified with the insight and knowledge of a top seventh-tier master.

If he wanted even the smallest chance of being able to make it, then…

“Fuck… it will take so long”

Not indulging in any other useless thoughts, he got to work, beginning to build a barrier from scratch, since he didn’t want it to be based on his master’s.

In the meantime…

“Tomorrow the students will depart, and the exchange period with Japan will begin… well, we don’t have a school for them here so it’s not really an exchange but more of a visit…

Anyway, we need someone to accompany them besides Caleb, and all the other teachers have refused to, would you mind?”

“Why do you need two teachers?”

“Caleb will handle the political part, you just have to guard the students for the travel and a couple of days before returning”

“Well… in that case… sure”

“Thank you”

“No problem”

…

‘That’s what I told her at the moment because she looked desperate, but now I got to do my luggage and accompany the students to Japan.

What a hassle, I won’t be able to meditate at all if I need to take care of them.’

“Ugh! I should’ve just refused”

Hans’s regrets started rising while walking towards his room.

But they were all washed away when crossing paths with a familiar face.

“Brother!”

‘Huh?’

“Aiden! How’s it going?”

Asked Hans to the boy, who, as always, was hanging around with Grant and the group.

“It’s all fine, I came here specifically to say bye.

We will depart tomorrow early in the morning, so I don’t think we’ll see each other.

Also, we will stay in Japan until the end of the school year, so for a whole month.”

As Aiden finished speaking, the others shouted from the distance.

“Bye teacher”

“We’ll miss you, teacher!”

“I’ll take a souvenir for you teach!”

None of the three were Hans’s students but during the few days that they spent at home, he sometimes took a bit of his time to cook some pancakes for Aiden and told him to share them with his friends, so in the end, they all ended up tasting them, creating in their heads a good impression of Hans.

Even the emotionless green-haired girl, Luna, enjoyed the pancakes, and had always wanted to thank Hans since then.

“Well, I thank you for passing by, but you don’t need to”

“Huh? Why?”

“It’s just been decided, I’ll be the one to accompany you for the travel and the first nights”

“Really?!”

“Yes, really”

Before Aiden could even celebrate, he was cut off by the other three guys, who had run there after hearing the news.

The red-haired girl spoke first

“Woah! Teach, are you really coming with us?”

But not even the time to reply, Grant had already caught the chance to make fun of Aiden.

“That’s good, at least Aiden won’t cry in the night without his dear brother”

‘Bang!’

the red-haired girl punched him in the head.

“Don’t make fun of Aiden!”

“Aah! What the hell do you have in place of your hands, it Hurts like hell!!”

And amid all that chaos, Luna sneaked up beside Hans, asking him with a low tone:

“Teach, can you make pancakes tomorrow morning”

“Haha, sure, I’ll make a lot if you like them so much”

This little hurricane of chaos and carefreeness brightened up Hans’s day and made the trip ahead of him look not so bad.

Back in his dorm, he spent the rest of the day resting and meditating to improve his wisdom, whose growth had been slowing down during the last few days because of the recurrent interruptions.

Somewhere…

As the sun melted down the horizon, the chirping birds’ songs began to cease, and the woods became quieter with every passing second.

On a little hill, only a single person remained dazed in nothingness, watching the sun and beyond.

Right beside the laid woman, a grey tombstone bathed in the orange setting light was facing the same direction.

Some little blades of grass stood in between it and the sun, casting little shadows all over its base.

Engraved on the little slab were some dates, and a name, that stood out because of its elegant characters.

Written was:

“Sophia Rivera”

Silence accompanied the warm and pleasant sunlight, while Ava watched saddened the words on the stone.

“It’s free here, isn’t it?”

She whispered to the lifeless memorial, inviting it to witness the beautiful scenery before their eyes.

No reply came back.

And Ava remained with both her hands in the grass behind her back, lost in thoughts once again.

Only when of the sun was left but a thread of light in the distance, did the woman get up, and walk away.

…

‘I wish you were still here, sister’

She thought, looking back at the tombstone one last time before proceeding to get away.

With her head now cooled off a bit, she was almost ready to return to the Academy, but being so far from it, she decided to rest before taking on the journey.

During the cold and dark night, the tombstone remained where it was destined to stay, alone, lifeless… free.

The next morning, she took a train, and then a taxi, before finally managing to reach her destination.

When she walked back into her office,

awaiting her were a couple of piles of paperwork that had to be done, and a sleeping lady with her head laid on the desk.

At the sound of the opening door, the sleepy woman mumbled something.

“Aill finesh et in a sheecon’ (I’ll finish it in a second)

Only when she somehow managed to barely open her eyes, did she realize what she was saying, and who stood in front of her.

With tears forming in the corners of her eyes, she cried to the dean.

“Sniff… sniff… you’ve finally come back, just the thought of having to keep up with these problems for another day makes me faint.”

“Ha… Ha, I-I’m sorry”

“Sniff… sniff…How do you even solve all these and still have time to fool around?”

“Fool around?” asked the other with a double-faced smile.

“I-I-I meant train”

“That better be it”

“Of course”

“So? How’s the situation?”

“Nothing much…

The aerial ventilation in building two needs another check because the dust has been clogging a fan, the fire alarm in building three has been set off by the cafeteria chefs because of the smoke, most of the supplies to the supermarkets are being sent to other stores since there won’t be as many people as there were previously, the students departed this morning at sunrise accompanying them were….

“Alright alright alright! Stop!

I got it.

Thank you for your work, before you go to sleep, could you call me Hans?”

‘That guy, he handed over to me all the information I wanted, but I didn’t even pay him.

I’ll get our record straight this time.

Anyway… is he still planning to tell me he isn’t part of the night market? I mean, that kind of information… And so precisely accurate… it must be the night market.’

“Well, I’m sorry to tell you this, but he isn’t here anymore”

“Huh?! What do you mean?!”

‘Could it be… he has left because I’ve discovered his identity… in that case, how do we complete the raid now?! I’m completely fuc-

“He is accompanying the students to Japan”

“Ah”