Chapter 160 : Chapter 160
160
“Understood? Once you deal with the demon in the Kingdom of Triban, you are to return immediately! You do know that Triban and the Kingdom of Belmein are on bad terms, right?!”
“I am aware.”
“And do not, absolutely do not, lose yourself again over some Fantasy or whatever! This time you are going as an instructor, so you must properly supervise the students as well! Do you even realize who you are taking with you? Rozalin, Harty, and even a 6th-circle mage! With that level of force, you could wipe out some small northeastern kingdom in a single day!”
“I am aware.”
“Disappearing is also a problem! You must come back in good health! Otherwise, do you have any idea how many people are ready to come after you right now?!”
“I am aware.”
I simply nodded in a state of empty-minded acceptance.
Everything she said was correct.
I fully understood how much of a privilege it was for her to let me go at a time like this, and how much pressure she must have been under. I was nothing but grateful.
‘And everything she is worried about really is a serious issue.’
The karmic debt I had accumulated in the Kingdom of Namress was enormous.
I had no choice but to accept her concerns humbly.
I did not think it would happen, but what if—what if something like Namress happened again and communication was cut off?
Then the people of the Academy would come swarming out in force…
“I will do my utmost to ensure that nothing you fear comes to pass.”
Only after nearly ten more minutes of relentless scolding did Gwen finally let me go.
When I stepped outside, Rozalin was waiting for me.
“Did you get permission?”
“With how much you must have hounded Director Gwen, it would be stranger if I had not.”
“With your current condition, it would be stranger not to send you to deal with demons!”
“Even so, do not be too hard on her. She is busy adapting to the Academy’s sudden expansion.”
“What does that have to do with you disappearing, Instructor?”
Rozalin looked positively excited.
She seemed less like she was going to subjugate demons and more like she was heading off on a trip.
“We are not leaving immediately. We depart tomorrow morning. You know that, right?”
“Of course! I will have everything perfectly prepared by then!”
She snapped into a playful salute and dashed off.
Somehow…
Ever since I had gone missing once and returned, Rozalin had changed slightly.
Normally, she was the sharp-edged, domineering General Rozalin—but around me, she sometimes felt like a much younger student.
‘By mental age, is she not almost thirty by now?’
She dropped out at fifteen and fought for ten years.
Nearly two years had passed since the regression.
That really did put her close to thirty…
‘For the sake of Rozalin’s dignity, I should forget that.’
With that thought, I headed toward my quarters.
“Good afternoon!”
“Ah. Heading to class?”
“Yes! Administrative Studies!”
Three or four students shouted cheerfully and ran into a building.
Administrative Studies was held in the Humanities and Social Sciences Hall.
The students had entered the Military Strategy Hall; from there, taking something called a “Moving Walkway” allowed them to reach the Humanities and Social Sciences Hall in moments.
“Run with more energy!”
“Yes!”
One student ran atop a moving track in place, while a physical training instructor corrected their running posture.
It was a place where students could defeat monsters conjured through illusion magic to earn points, then drink chilled beverages from a strange device called a vending machine.
The person who had created all of it was here.
“Sihan.”
“Oh, you are here?”
The magitech engineer and 6th-circle alchemist, Sihan.
His research workshop occupied a massive portion of the eastern side of Akarind Academy City.
It was large enough to rival the old Akarind Academy itself, filled with enormous machines of unknown purpose.
There were as many people as there were machines.
All around were people wearing checkered shirts and white lab coats similar to Sihan’s.
They wore peculiar glasses—unlike the decorative monocles favored by nobles, these frames were thick and covered both eyes.
I had heard they corrected poor eyesight.
“It is lively.”
“Coming out from the island makes life feel worth living again.”
These were all people Sihan had brought with him from Lefteria.
People who admired him and gathered to learn magitech.
Their levels ranged from as low as the 3rd-circle to as high as the 5th.
“I am jealous.”
“Of what?”
“That you have so many graduate students. I only have one elderly graduate student and one young one.”
“Labs that bring in money always have lots of people. Heh.”
Sihan seemed pleased by the compliment.
As expected, praise about graduate students was the most effective currency within an academy.
“So, did you come prepared?”
“Yes.”
I had not come today to beg for a new slave—no, graduate student.
What I needed was not the manpower of the people roaming this place, but Sihan’s wisdom itself.
I handed him the manuscript I had written throughout the night.
He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his index and middle fingers and scanned the pages.
A crease formed between his brows.
“Wow. This is practically a philosophy paper. As an engineer, I cannot understand half of this.”
“Is it difficult?”
“Difficult is not the point. This is all abstract, grasping at clouds. If it were cleanly organized like ‘A is B, B is C,’ it would be fine, but this says ‘A is B,’ then turns around and says it might actually be something else.”
Sihan scratched his head, genuinely troubled.
That was precisely what I needed him to fix.
While I was away, students would have to conduct basic classes using this material.
“Please help me.”
“Tch. Only as much as we can do today.”
“If we stay up all night, we should at least finish the first week’s basic textbook, should we not?”
“…At my age, pulling an all-nighter…”
Magitech—science fused with magic—was a fascinating discipline.
Science fundamentally sought reproducible experiments based on logical causality.
Control variables, repeat the same experiment under the same conditions, and achieve the same result.
For people accused of being frauds who claimed to turn iron into gold by mimicking divine miracles, it was a grand theory indeed.
“Is that not basically trying to become a god? Controlling all elements to produce identical results.”
“Science is greater than gods.”
I did not fully understand what science was, but Sihan was a capable partner.
“So sword intent ultimately concerns the will behind why one swings the sword.”
“Can that will exist even before holding a sword?”
“It can, but ideally, one should distinguish the will while holding the sword—”
“What does it mean to hold a sword? The Spear God fights with a spear, does he not? That bald guy with the scorpion tattoo.”
“Harty?”
“Yes! He fights with a morning star. Then does it really have to be a sword?”
“Well, that is true, but—”
“Then instead of calling it a sword, why not just call it holding a weapon? Something used to harm others.”
Sihan went through every vague concept I had glossed over, questioning and refining them one by one.
“But even so, swordsmen use swords—”
“You cannot teach it like that. This is a basic class. Even if it is conceptually imperfect, you must boldly declare what is broadly correct as correct and move on.”
“Then I would be teaching something wrong.”
“You can just say ‘actually, that was wrong’ in the intermediate class.”
We distinguished what had to be abandoned and what had to be firmly defined.
Definitions were simplified, precise, and free of error.
We obsessively examined why and how identical results emerged from identical factors.
Just exchanging questions was enough to make me break out in a cold sweat.
Sometimes I spent ten—no, thirty minutes or more unable to answer a single question, lost deep in thought.
But in the end, he was right about everything.
“It is a textbook. A basic textbook. The kids reading this are children. Children. Do not shove difficult things at fourteen-year-olds.”
It was a criticism I had already heard when dealing with regressors like Rozalin.
“At that level, it revived the beginner’s mindset I had forgotten.”
More importantly, I became able to speak accurately about my own level.
“…This really clears things up.”
“That is why people do joint research.”
“Am I burdening you too much?”
“I am enjoying this too, so it is fine.”
It did not sound like an empty courtesy.
As we talked, Sihan frequently tapped away at something.
He called it a laptop—a magical device.
Each time his fingers moved rapidly, letters appeared on a glowing blue screen.
It looked extremely useful.
“It costs about as much as building an entire academy to make one. Want me to make you one?”
“…I will decline.”
On second thought, learning a new machine would take time, it seemed bothersome, and I already had paper and pen.
Carrying something like that felt wasteful.
Ahem. It was absolutely not because I could not afford it.
In any case, after long preparation—
“Done.”
Just as dawn began to faintly brighten beyond the window, a book-length manuscript was completed.
Cassian-Style Beginner Swordsmanship Manual — Reviewed by Sihan.
“With this, you could teach not just the first lesson, but the entire semester…!”
“Are you trying to torture the kids? At that difficulty, this is a full year’s worth. Teach it slowly.”
Grumbling, Sihan moved to one of the beds.
“Will you sleep? We depart in two hours.”
“This bed has recovery magic. One hour of sleep restores fatigue.”
“…Does this also cost as much as building an academy?”
“Not that much. About the cost of ten carriages?”
“I will take one.”
“You have money, huh?”
Thanks to Avril spreading my textbooks throughout the capital, I had accumulated a decent amount of secret funds.
After ordering a few other necessities, I returned to my quarters.
There were no tools as useful as Sihan’s, so I would have to rely on grit alone.
As I prepared items needed for long-distance travel, a knock came at the door.
It was Rozalin.
“Did you sleep? Or… did you not?”
“Is it that obvious?”
“You are wearing the same clothes as yesterday! You need rest! We are going to deal with demons! Do you even realize that? I have seen countless people die on the battlefield because they trusted their bodies too much when they were young!”
Scolding me, Rozalin took my luggage from my hands.
Together, we packed up and moved toward the Academy’s outer wall.
There, Sihan was already waiting for us, freshly cleaned and wearing a new outfit.
A gray checkered shirt and a white lab coat.
“You are late.”
Behind him stood a sleek-looking carriage.
Its shape was unusual.
It was as long as three carriages put together, with six wheels—two in front, two in the middle, and two in the back.
Most strikingly, despite being a carriage, there were no horses in sight.
“This is the…”
“You said we are going to the Kingdom of Triban, right? Then half a day will be enough. Ready to enjoy some speed?”