The smiling god did not consider Shade's curiosity an offense. He still stood beside the telescope beneath the Star Chart:
"Even without the chaos of epochs changing, this place would have disappeared sooner or later. Where there is a beginning, there is an end. That is true for humanity, for this Academy, and for the world.
"The reason you know is the true reason. This Academy was founded in the First Epoch and endured countless springs, summers, autumns, and winters. It listened to snow melt and rain fall an unknown number of times. To have lasted until the end of the Fourth Epoch before vanishing, it was already luckier than those things long forgotten."
"But hadn't you once taught mortals here as well? Why didn't you—"
Shade felt the Green Dragon behind him tug at him again, while the god merely shook his head slightly:
"Why should I stop it? No one destroyed this place out of malice, nor did anyone use tricks born of Blasphemy. The sun rises and sets; if old things do not leave, new things can never be born."
He even smiled and made a joke:
"They might even be called 'old things.'"
Shade felt as though he understood something:
"If this Academy was merely abandoned, then how did it become what it is today?"
"Do you wish to investigate the reasons behind the existence of such special spacetime phenomena? I'm sorry. Though I am willing to impart knowledge, this is the one thing you must uncover yourself."
He had originally been standing with his hands behind his back. Now he extended his left hand toward Shade, and the two floating stone slabs flew together before the god. The god raised his hand and stroked them in turn, leaving his holy emblem on the backs of