Chapter 243
Chapter 243
Break had begun, but the majority of students remained at Akarind Academy.
"Shouldn't you be heading home?"
"I don't have a home."
"My parents passed away recently."
"I ran away from home."
"......Seems I asked a very thoughtless question. I'm sorry. Will you accept my apology?"
"Then invest five hours today and make me a Sword Runner!"
It took three hours.
"Yes! Mother! Father! Thank you for watching over me even from beyond!"
"I-I think the one who helped you was me?"
"You brought up my dead parents, didn't you?"
"......My mistake."
"It wasn't an insult, so I'll forgive you!"
"Thanks?"
In any case, the vast majority of students had lost their homes or families.
The people of Akarind Academy and Academy City were their parents, family, and community.
The students stayed all summer, devoting themselves to training.
"Let's open a seasonal semester."
"A seasonal semester—you mean adding another term between first and second semester?"
"The instructors have nothing to do during break anyway."
Chairman Gwen's reasoning was airtight.
Normally, instructors would spend breaks repairing the Academy and refining their curricula.
But ever since Akarind Academy had transformed into Academy City, the instructors had nothing left to repair.
"See here? This is where the latest technologia was implemented."
"Oh, ohhh!"
"And this is the theoretical manual for that technologia process."
"Ooooh!"
"So have it all repaired by next week."
"Oh......oh?"
"You can do it, right?"
As the name Academy City spread, so did the fame of Sihan, the 6th-circle Alchemist who resided there.
Multiple alchemists arrived daily hoping to become his disciples, and the graduate students worked them mercilessly.
He'd wondered whether that teaching style was acceptable, but—
"W-we're only 2nd-circle, how are we supposed to......"
"I, um, I used to do plastering, so I tried applying it like this?"
"?!"
"I gave it a shot too, but mine's a bit worse."
"?!"
The world was full of hidden talents.
Akarind Academy was transforming day by day into a city vaster and more powerful than its original form.
It felt as though the entire city were alive.
Thanks to this, the instructors had nothing to do.
"If you're getting paid, you're a professional!"
"Excuse me?"
"You're professional instructors, so stop freeloading and work!"
"Chairman? We're not freeloading—we're recharging for next semester......"
"Doesn't matter! If the person paying you thinks you're slacking, it's over!"
So Gwen opened the seasonal semester.
It was unconventional in every way.
"For the seasonal semester, civilians can register as students and attend classes."
"Oh?"
"At double the standard tuition!"
"I'll pay!"
Classes were broken into smaller units and multiplied, then opened to outsiders.
This wasn't limited to the swordsmanship academy.
Beyond the Auditors who'd already enrolled, any resident of Academy City could apply.
"I'm opening a shop, so I'd like to take public administration."
"You reach a point in life where you need some culture. I'm thinking history."
"I like this club. The 'Frail Middle-Aged Men Are The Pinnacle Of Beauty And Shall Set The Standard—Sign Here' club. Reminds me of someone. Can civilians join clubs during the seasonal semester?"
Countless courses opened, and remaining students and civilians alike flooded in.
Some students who'd been about to leave even stayed for the seasonal semester.
Of course, some students still departed.
"I'm going to the Empire to drag my little brother here by the scruff of his neck."
"Is he even smart enough to get into the Academy?"
"Who cares about smart? If he can't get in, I'll tell him to set up a shop in town. What matters is staying alive."
"I'm bringing my older sister."
"You said she's been out of the Academy for ages. Twenty-seven, was it?"
"She's still single, so maybe I could set her up with our teacher......"
"Yikes, there's Senior Rozalin! Run!"
......Some had questionable motives for leaving.
"I'm going to Namress."
"You said your whole family's dead. You have someone to bring back? A childhood sweetheart? Oh man...... going on a love trip?"
"No. Just—anyone still alive. That's how I contribute to the Kingdom of Namress."
"......Sorry. I'll come with you."
"You really don't have to."
"Look, if you reject me here and now, I become a third-rate piece of trash from this moment on!"
Most, however, wanted to venture across the crumbling continent—to Belmein, Namress, even Aislard and the Empire—to take on the role of local security and fight monsters.
Akarind prepared packages for those students too.
"We'll call it a break field study."
Gwen said this while hiring the Firestorm Mercenary Guild.
"Thunderbolt, Pegasus, Magmawave. I'll hire all of them."
"Those guilds are among the continent's ten greatest. The cost will be enormous."
"Have Hati relay this to them. Forget money—we'll guarantee their families' safety and retirement in the world's safest place. We'll also provide professional training so our security and field mentors don't get called amateurs. Our student capacity is limited, and the mercenary slots won't be many."
Gwen pushed back hard against the mercenaries.
Years of running the Academy had sharpened her business acumen considerably.
"That's right. That's exactly how you say it!"
"You realize the Queen will have to back all of this...... this is insane."
Of course, this was less Gwen's own genius and more likely a scheme from Queen Charlotte, who'd studied business management in the Empire.
In any case, Gwen's boldness struck precisely at the mercenaries' pride and desire for security.
All three guilds accepted long-term contracts, and every one of them was deployed for Academy security and student supervision.
Meanwhile, I entrusted my sword to Sihan.
"It pulls Fantasies toward it and then eats them on its own."
At my words, Sihan and the researchers' eyes lit up.
"It must have developed a will."
"We already knew it was an Ego Sword. But you're saying that will is now manifesting as external physical force?"
"Yes. So I need a full assessment—how it works, how far it can go."
"Can we experiment freely?"
At Sihan's question, the sword trembled violently.
It clearly didn't like the idea.
"Do as much as you want. I don't want to wield a sword I can't trust."
I meant it.
If it came to it, I was considering removing the Doppelgänger Fantasy entirely and building a new swordsmanship style around the World Eater Fantasy's original form.
At my words, Sihan and the graduate students exchanged a loaded glance.
"Leave it to us. We'll give it our best!"
While I was sorting out the students and fine-tuning our internal systems.
People from the first Academy began to arrive.
***
"Hmph. How crude."
The woman wore a purple pointed hat and a purple cloak.
Both were studded with white star-like ornaments, making them flamboyantly gaudy.
The look alone was classically, comically wizardly.
But when five hundred students behind her were all dressed the same, the effect was different.
In the Empire, only one institution wore such outlandish uniforms.
Antarea Academy—the world's premier magic academy.
"Isn't it impressive?"
"What good is impressive? Look at those mana conduits. Everything a spell could do, buried under structural scaffolding...... vulgar."
"Tch tch, you mana-supremacist. Coming all the way to another Academy's Exchange Conference just to critique—fix that habit."
"Ha, don't make me laugh. Why should I?"
The woman with orange hair and bronze skin wore a smile dripping with contempt.
"We're Antarea. Since when did we care about some third-rate academy?"
"It's still the birthplace of Aura. The new breed that can cut through magic itself."
"So what."
She meant it.
"Is it magic? If not, we have no reason to bow."
It wasn't that she disrespected Cassian.
Her evaluation criteria simply began and ended with magic.
She'd never bowed to the instructors of the Imperial Royal Academy either.
Not even the Emperor could make her compromise on magic.
That was the pride and conviction of Antarea Academy's young genius—Merlin, the 5th-circle mage.
Dean Settlai, who knew her convictions well, sighed.
"Don't make a scene. There's reportedly a 5th-circle Necromancer here."
"Still just 5th-circle. Same as me. All life is equal before magic. Isn't that Antarea's motto?"
Which was also why twenty-something Merlin could be impertinent to fifty-something Settlai.
"The Exchange Conference's theme is 'Possibilities of Human Survival After Demon Emergence.' I'll see if they've earned the right to make such a bold claim."
"And if they haven't?"
"Then we walk out."
"Merlin."
Settlai sighed.
This reckless mage.
Brilliant at magic, but utterly disinterested in everything else.
Today was a prime example.
"How many times have I explained? This Exchange Conference means more than just an exchange! Can you not see the people following behind us?"
Five hundred students.
And behind them, roughly a thousand family members who'd used the conference as a pretext to relocate to Akarind Academy.
People who'd come looking for siblings and relatives at the Academy.
They marveled at the scenery around them.
But the admiration was fleeting.
Beneath it, an anxiety they couldn't hide lingered in their faces.
Understandably.
The entire journey here, they'd encountered monsters and demons.
The Antarea mages had done their best, but some monsters had slipped through.
Faces that clutched bandaged wounds, worried they'd be turned away—those faces were there.
Merlin glanced at them and frowned in displeasure.
"We would've been fine on our own. We didn't have to come to this backwater......"
"Ah, you must be from Antarea."
Just then.
People from Akarind Academy began approaching.
"Welcome. I'm Cassian, the coordinator for Akarind Academy. This is Samuel, my assistant coordinator. And beside me is Pan, the student representative. Welcome."
Cassian and Pan walked toward them.
For a moment, the Antarea students felt as though the male leads from a romance novel's illustrations were striding their way.
Broad shoulders.
Hair tousled by the increasingly warm summer breeze.
An expression that managed to look both aloof and capable.
Every detail was as perfect as an Imperial capital sculpture.
"......Wow."
These were physiques of a violent caliber entirely foreign to the rail-thin mages who'd spent their lives buried in study.
And Merlin, seeing them—
"H-h-hello."
—flushed crimson, her tongue tying itself in knots.
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