[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-strongest-student-of-the-weakest-academy":3,"chapter-the-strongest-student-of-the-weakest-academy-the-strongest-student-of-the-weakest-academy-chapter-236":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","The Strongest Student of the Weakest Academy",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},1027199,1339,"Chapter 236: Aestrea Against The World (XIII)","the-strongest-student-of-the-weakest-academy-chapter-236",236,"\u003Cp>Chapter 236: Aestrea Against The World (XIII)\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They didn’t answer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not a single one of them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The woman lowered her head, her fingers curling into the snow, but she said nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The others just stared at the ground, not even daring to look at me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tsk…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Figures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Hah,” I sighed deeply, my breath steaming in the cold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, without warning, I moved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thud!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A swift enough strike that made the woman collapse instantly into the snow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rest followed before they even realized I had moved. I didn’t kill them, but that was the least I could do for them kidnapping my friends.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Talk or don’t, but don’t waste my time,” I muttered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I knelt down beside Derek first. He had a scratch on his cheek, and his armor looked scuffed, but nothing serious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>James, of course, had lost a shoe somehow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fucking idiot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Always the loud one,” I muttered under my breath, picking them both up and slinging one over each shoulder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their mana was still stable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still breathing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was just about to leap back toward camp, compressing the mana inside my legs, when a soundless pulse hit the air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>KRHHH—!!!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The world twisted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The snow trembled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A beam of white light tore through the ground just a few meters in front of me, erupting like a geyser from the frozen earth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It didn’t burn, didn’t make a sound; instead, it just shimmered like pure starlight, and I froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My instincts screamed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Something was wrong, very wrong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My eyes flicked back, and surprisingly… the dark elf woman I had knocked unconscious was… standing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not standing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Floating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her eyes had turned completely black.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like ink spilled across her soul.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And when she opened her mouth, the voice that came out wasn’t hers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was something too smooth, too soft, too sweet… like a drink made out of sweet syrup and poison.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Luntheris…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Not that fucking name again…” I muttered, and surprisingly, I couldn’t move as soon as I heard her words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mana in my body coiled, reacting like it had touched fire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…You really are as I expected you to be.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The voice spoke again, and as I tried to speak anything… I realized that I simply couldn’t, as if my vocal cords were blocked by an invisible pressure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My hands tightened slightly on Derek and James’ bodies, preparing to move, but the beam in front of me shifted, humming lightly, forming a circle of glowing earth symbols, floating like petals in the air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You speak of reward,” the voice said again, as the woman’s head tilted unnaturally, her black eyes never blinking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I can give you that.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I gritted my teeth as I finally realized who I was talking to.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re that fucking bit—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes.” The voice smiled through her lips, ignoring my ending comment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I am Gaia.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The snow beneath my feet bloomed with green vines, despite the snow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tiny glowing buds rose from the ice, and the air filled with a strange scent, earth after rain, sweetness, old stone, and something… maternal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I know what you’re thinking, Aestrea.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gaia’s voice came again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My eye twitched at her word as I replied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Doubt it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re wondering why a Goddess of Earth would stoop so low, speaking through the body of a forsaken dark elf…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her head tilted again, and her voice grew colder, more ancient.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…But that’s where you’re wrong. This isn’t stooping.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This is reclaiming.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I said nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She waited.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When I didn’t speak, she did.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You want power, don’t you? Clarity? Answers to all the things they’re hiding from you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I want a lot of things,” I said flatly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“None of which involve dancing around like a puppet for someone who let their people rot underground for centuries.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The air tightened for a moment, and even the vines stilled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Gaia didn’t react with anger, instead… she laughed softly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re sharp. That’s why I chose you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I didn’t ask to be chosen.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And yet, here you are. Still listening.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tsk… this bitch…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She took that silence as permission to continue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m not like the others. I don’t need temples or worship. I don’t care if mortals bow or curse my name. I care about balance. About roots. About what holds this world together.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her eyes, or the woman’s, narrowed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The other gods corrupted this land with ambition and war. I watched it crumble, slowly. I stayed quiet… because the earth forgets, Aestrea. And the earth forgives.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But even I… can’t forgive what’s been done to them.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She motioned her hand, and I saw visions flash through the white light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dark elves hiding in caverns with no light…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Children born with cracked horns…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bodies marked by magic scars…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chained to myths they didn’t ask for.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A cursed race… completely abandoned by their kind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And now, I ask again,” she whispered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Help them.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She paused slighly, her dark eyes looking straight at my soul.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…And what’s in it for me?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her smile didn’t change. But the vines behind her began to twist together, rising like a stem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Slowly… they shaped into something tall… yet familiar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A tree.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No… the Tree.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’ve been looking, haven’t you?” she whispered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Something ancient… something tied to your real nature… You should’ve gotten some idea of your origin after seeing the papers from the Dark Order, didn’t you?” she smiled maternally.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘…She even knows that?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was annoying that she knew everything about me, but when I saw that tree… my heart slowed, and my throat dried slighly, making me swallow hard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yggdrasil.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She smiled, this time with pride.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The real one. Not the fake shrines the elves show off to tourists. The one buried in the core of the world. Where all threads of fate meet.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her eyes glowed darker.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You help them… and I will give you the path.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The real Yggdrasil…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The origin of mana.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The meeting point of realms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The root of all life… healing, rebirth, evolution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I stared into those black, bottomless eyes for a long time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, finally…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Where is it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her voice was quite soft, but it still shook the bones of the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“North of the Abyss.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Where light never reaches.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Where even gods forgot to look.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And when you’re ready…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her hand extended.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I will open the door for you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The vines wilted again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The air calmed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The dark elf woman collapsed once more, unconscious this time for real.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I exhaled slowly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Fucking gods,” I muttered, flexing my fingers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Always so dramatic.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yggdrasil, huh?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So that’s where I need to go next.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if I had to dig through snow, blood, and madness to reach it… I would definitely reach it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because what lay at the roots of that tree… might finally give me the truth about my origin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, what kind of child can make a Dragon dot on him?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ahh…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The silence left in Gaia’s wake felt heavy, like mist curling between my ribs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The vines had receded, the snow had returned, and the strange glow that clung to the world was gone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only she remained.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The dark elf.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She stirred, letting out a soft, dazed breath as her eyelids fluttered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And then… she gasped, sitting up fast, her hair falling over her shoulders in tangled waves. Her black eyes, now back to normal, landed on me immediately.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn’t say anything at first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just looked at her, arms folded, James and Derek both lying unconscious behind me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A sigh escaped my lips.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Your goddess made me accept your proposal,” I said flatly, rubbing the bridge of my nose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You should be grateful to her.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a moment, her face was unreadable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, it lit up like someone had turned the moon into a sun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Y-You really accepted!?” she gasped, her voice trembling slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before I could even blink, she lunged forward, gripping both of my hands with trembling fingers, shaking them up and down so hard my arms jolted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you thank y—!!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Stop,” I muttered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I swear to the gods… stop shaking me or I’ll bury you headfirst in this damn snow—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She didn’t stop.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her whole body wiggled with pure joy, like a puppy who just got adopted. My left eye twitched… this was too much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And suddenly, behind me, there was a groan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Ugh… why’s my neck so stiff…” Derek muttered, eyes half-closed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>James sat up more dramatically, blinking as he rubbed the side of his head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wh-Why do I feel like I was used as a pillow by a mountain goat—wait.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He turned his head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saw the dark elf woman gripping my hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saw her shaking them like they were maracas.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saw me, staring into the void with dead eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His entire body froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“………”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His face turned pale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then crimson.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His hands immediately flew up to his chest, clutching his shirt like a damsel in distress.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“DID YOU SELL MY MAJESTIC BODY WHILE I WAS SLEEPING?!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I blinked slowly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The woman paused too, clearly as confused as me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And suddenly…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I KNEW IT!” James cried, pointing a dramatic finger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I KNEW MY VALUE AS AN ART PIECE WOULD CATCH UP TO ME ONE DAY—AESTREA YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT ME—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Shut up, idiot,” I muttered, finally yanking my hand free from the elf’s.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I don’t even think they find you attractive.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“EXCUSE ME?!” he gasped, clutching his heart. “Derek! Say something! He just insulted my soul!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Derek groaned and sat up, glancing at the scene with heavy-lidded eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…You were shirtless and unconscious, bro. I’m surprised he didn’t sell you twice.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>James shrieked in betrayal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile, the elf girl looked between us with a look of awe, confusion, and the tiniest giggle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You… all really care about each other, don’t you?” she asked softly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Unfortunately,” I muttered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So, uh. Mind telling us what the hell happened while we were taking a nap?” Derek stretched his arms, asking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I turned to him, replying with the same tone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Apparently, I just agreed to help save an entire forsaken race of exiled dark elves who are worshipping a goddess that controls the planet’s roots…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…After punching two of them in the ribs.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Derek blinked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>James dropped his arms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The elf girl just smiled innocently, her cheeks were slighly flushed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Huh,” James said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I miss the days when we just fought monsters and complained about cafeteria food.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn’t laugh.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maybe my lips twitched a little.\u003C\u002Fp>",1743,"2026-06-03T09:18:17.304Z","2026-06-03T09:18:22.612Z",1,"novelbin.me","a0befe2726f1140a1e666f957199ac5d63d9852af4169ff2d91d961c97580ec0","the-strongest-student-of-the-weakest-academy-chapter-158","the-strongest-student-of-the-weakest-academy-chapter-235",547,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-strongest-student-of-the-weakest-academy-cover.jpg"]