Extra Chapter

# Epilogue I – Dream or Reality

Zareen jerked awake at the library table, breath coming in short, ragged gasps. His forehead was damp with sweat, his heart hammering as if he had just run for miles. The rows of books loomed quietly around him, and the warm glow of the setting sun streamed through the tall windows, painting everything in gold.

He blinked, disoriented. Stacks of notebooks lay scattered across the desk where he had been studying earlier. Everything looked exactly the same as it had before he had dozed off.

“…A dream?” he whispered, almost afraid of the answer.

Something slipped from between the pages of his notebook and fell onto the table with a soft *clink.*

A pendant—gleaming faintly, glowing as if holding a heartbeat of its own.

Zareen froze. His hand trembled as he reached out and picked it up. The metal felt warm in his palm, too real to be just an illusion.

“This… this is the pendant from Sensei…”

Memories flooded back. The Ice Dragon. The fallen hero. Yuna’s cold, determined gaze. Sari’s laughter. Doni’s ridiculous jokes. Gino’s quiet smile.

*It wasn’t just a dream.*

Zareen closed his eyes, and the images came rushing back like a wave—the giant sealing circle, the deafening roar of the dragon, the light that had engulfed the world as the ritual completed.

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### Meeting Nomy

“Zareen?”

The voice startled him.

He looked up to see a girl standing by his table—white school uniform, dark hair tied back simply, a curious expression on her face.

“…Nomy,” he murmured without thinking.

The girl frowned. “Why are you staring at me like that? Did something happen?”

Zareen let out a slow, shaky breath. “I just came back… from a long journey. I fought a dragon, met a mysterious sorcerer, had comrades at my side. And there was someone there… who looked just like you.”

Nomy blinked at him, then sighed and smiled faintly. “You’re hopeless. Sounds like a full-blown case of puberty-induced delusions. Chuunibyou much?”

Zareen’s face flushed. “N-no! I’m serious! It was real! I really—”

“Careful, Zareen,” she interrupted, already walking away. “Keep talking like that and people are going to think you’ve completely lost it.”

He sat there in silence, staring at her retreating figure.

Slowly, he closed his hand around the pendant until it pressed into his palm.

*Maybe no one will believe me… but I know the truth. Sensei knows. That world was real.*

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# Epilogue II – Blood on the Street

The shriek of sirens, the crack of gunfire, and the choking sting of tear gas pulled Zareen back to consciousness. His body lay sprawled on the pavement, soaked in his own blood. Around him, people screamed and scattered, their voices drowned by the chaos of the street.

He coughed, tasting iron. His breath came in wet, ragged gasps.

“So… this is it,” he whispered, his voice weak. “I guess… it’s my turn to leave this world.”

His hand trembled as he raised it toward the sky, clutching the pendant that had never left his side since that day.

“Now I remember…” His lips curved in a faint, pained smile. “Who gave this to me…”

For a fleeting moment, his eyes softened, and he murmured almost fondly, “…Sensei Gifa… that little loli…”

Around him, the sounds of riot and gunfire intensified, the crowd shouting, the world shaking. But Zareen’s gaze stayed calm now, as if he had accepted everything.

“So this… is all I can do,” he whispered, blood running down his chin. “I couldn’t change the world. But maybe… my sacrifice, and the efforts of my friends… will mean something. For justice. For truth.”

His breathing slowed. The world dimmed.

Then, just as his final breath escaped his lips, the pendant in his hand flared.

A soft white glow enveloped his fingers, rising like a small flame. The light pulsed once, then drifted upward into the night sky before vanishing beyond the clouds.

No one knew where the pendant went. No one would ever know what it meant.

All that remained was the still body of a boy who had once been lazy, aimless, then became a hero of another world—and finally, an activist who gave everything he had for what he believed was right.

But the story of the pendant, of Sensei Gifa, and of that strange, otherworldly place… was far from over.

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✨ **End of Zareen’s Tale – For Now** ✨