Rye slammed open the door and tumbled in. He sighed from the depth of his heart and slumped in front of the closing door.

No way. He didn't want to leave the academy. He didn't want to be alone, especially facing Ludric. He wanted his life to stay as it is, to keep teaching here with Godford.

He took off his glasses and wiped his eyes with his sleeves. The chapel echoed his sniffles.

Why did Ludric come back? Why did Elliot got possessed? Why did he accept to be their tour guide around the academy?

But…if he didn't, Elliot would be decapitated by them without him knowing anything.

He got up and went to sit on the bench. With his gaze empty and lowered, intermittent tears dropped into the palm of his hands. It was pathetic for him to cry as a man at his age because of something like this, but he couldn't care less. If he didn't cry now, he would definitely explode and go crazy later.

Let him empty out himself first before facing the next phase of his life.

A gentle breeze swept by him and swirled in the chapel. Rye was too occupied with his thoughts and heavy heart that he didn't realize. It was until he felt something fall down on his head.

He slowly raised his face to check what it was. Once he saw the scene around him, his wet eyes widened in astonishment.

Delicate sunflowers were gently raining down from above. The breeze danced them around playfully, filling the chapel with the scent of warm sunlight and calming earthy fragrance.

The sunflowers spun around until they dropped around Rye one by one. Once they all dropped, they emitted small golden orbs which slowly floated up and surrounded him at the center. They circled him as they lightly moved up and down like a wave.

Rye reached out his hand and carefully touched the orbs. They were warm. The warmth immediately spread into his restless heart.

As if wanting to give him more of their warmth, the orbs enveloped him and steadily entered his body. Rye's whole body was comforted by the warmth. He felt like he was being consoled by a warm hug even though nobody was there.

He wiped the last of his tears and caught the flowers around him one by one. Playing with the petals with the tip of his fingers, he couldn't register what just happened, but he felt completely relieved.

His heart lightened significantly and a small smile appeared on his face.

When Godford heard about Rye being fired by the principal he immediately rushed to the chapel. He didn't think things would be this bad when Rye got called.

Once he opened the door, he was stunned by the scene inside. The chapel was blanketed with sunflowers from corner to corner, transforming it into a sunflower garden. The sunlight coming from the ceiling above and the windows at the side shone inside without touching the man sleeping at his seat, not wanting to disturb his rest.

Godford hesitated to step in.

These sunflowers…it was impossible for Rye to bring them all in himself. Moreover, there were no sunflowers growing within the academy.

Yesterday's sunflower and now this…

Was there really a ghost in the chapel???

After considering things for a long while, Godford finally closed the door back and sat down at the stairway to wait for Rye to wake up. He didn't want to anger the owner of the sunflowers by stepping on them.

What if he got struck by lightning?

An hour later, Rye woke up groggily. His eyes were red, but fortunately, it wasn't all that puffy. He wore his glasses back to see that the sunflowers were still there. It wasn't a dream.

There really was a ghost in this chapel…

"I don't know who you are and I also can't see you, but if you hear me, I just want to say thank you," Rye talked to empty air, "I'm leaving the academy today, so you won't be able to see me again, but I'm glad to know you before I go. Thanks to you, I feel much better now. I'll do my best to hang on."

Rye stretched his neck and limbs and got up from his seat. He touched his teaching robe thoughtfully and took it off before folding it to be placed on the bench.

"A parting gift. If someday I can come visit, I hope you don't forget about me."

He was about to turn around and leave when the sunlight showered down his body. The lights weaved themselves into a white and gold robe with a sunflower pin to secure the chain on the chest. The material was as light as air, as warm as the sun, and as cool as a dawn breeze at the same time.

"For…me?" Rye caressed the soft fabric in awe.

The ghost must be a powerful mage when they were alive.

"Thank you. I'll definitely treasure it." Rye couldn't stop himself from smiling.

Somehow…he felt like he could face Ludric or anything else thrown at him in the future.

He moved the flowers aside with care as he advanced to the door. He took a look at the chapel full of sunflowers one last time.

"Until we meet again." Rye opened the door and left.

The door creaked as it slowly shut. Once it completely closed, the sunflowers vanished into the sunlight along with Rye's teaching robe.

The next day, Godford helped Rye pack the last of his stuff. They were mostly books aside from his clothes. After they were all packed, Rye put them into his spatial storage that has been long abandoned.

Godford took out a slip of paper and handed it to Rye, "The principal told me to give you this check. He said that you could at least save it for emergency."

"…" Rye accepted it, "It is my canceled salary and termination penalty. Only if it didn't come from him…"

"Yeah…I also won't use it if I am you."

Rye gave Godford an envelope in return, "Can you give this to the students of my class? They would be pretty confused with their class teacher's sudden leave. I also wrote my curriculum schedule in here to help the replacement teacher."

"I'll definitely read it to them word by word." Godford put it into his pocket.

"It's nothing emotional. Don't make it embarrassing," Rye got up from the floor and looked around his empty room. He nodded, "Everything's in."

"You sure you'll be alright? Send me letters every week to let me know you're still alive, okay? Even if it's empty letters." Godford squeezed Rye's shoulders.

"I can only promise twice a month at most, but I'll update you as much as possible."

Godford looked at the robe again in worry, "This robe…is not cursed, right? You won't get struck by lightning from wearing it, right?"

"On the contrary, I feel safe wearing it. Even if lightning strikes me, I think I'll be fine." Rye assured Godford doubtlessly.

Godford patted Rye's arms, "Be safe, Rye."

Rye nodded, "You too."

Godford walked him out to the carriage which was arranged to pick him up and bring him to the palace.

"Godford…" Rye stopped when he opened the door and looked back with determined eyes, "I…will try to stand for myself."

Godford was surprised, but he quickly nodded his head in support, "If it's you, you definitely can."

Rye smiled and entered the carriage. He pulled the curtain aside, "By the way, I left you lunch money on your desk in your bedroom. Don't use it for gambling or I'll curse you ten times over."

"Seriously!? You're a saint!! I swear I won't!" Godford waved at Rye happily as Rye's carriage left.

Rye leaned back to his seat and shook his head. He was sure that Godford would use at least a third of it to gamble.

He arrived at the palace an hour later. The knight waiting for his arrival seems to know he was Ludric's brother and bowed at him respectfully. He led Rye inside to the audience hall where everyone was waiting.

There were Ludric, his party, the ministers, the queen, and also the king. This wasn't the first time for him to meet the king and queen, so he wasn't nervous or anything.

Rye knelt down to the king and queen. Without any pleasantries, the king signaled a minister to step forward, bringing a box in his hands. The minister opened the box to show a large clear crystal inside.

Rye stood up and wordlessly took the crystal into his hand. The crystal glowed white and dimmed without anything happening. He made sure everyone saw it and placed it back to the box.

"May I return now, Your Majesty? As all of you witnessed, I am not qualified to enter the hero's party."