Chapter 28
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: 5. The Most Beautiful Thing.
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Beauty
Beauty.
If you asked what beauty is, people would give you countless answers.
A glittering jewel is beauty.
A beauty everyone acknowledges is beauty.
A clean and orderly arrangement is beauty.
Depending on the person, there could be hundreds or thousands of answers.
In other words, beauty isn't something fixed.
It's just a word slapped on as a description.
But right here, right now.
Saella could declare it with certainty.
That 'beauty' was exactly what was before his eyes at this moment.
'Ah, ahh...'
He was watching Edin refine potions using alchemy equipment covered in all sorts of magitech devices.
He had followed him all the way to the basement of the general store in hiding, just to witness the pinnacle of Edin's skill once more.
The way he handled the magitech machines with not a single deviation from the manual's instructions was precise enough to move Saella to awe yet again.
However, that wasn't even Edin's true worth.
Gathering herbs, operating magitech machines.
Those were merely the prologue.
When he removed all the cumbersome magitech devices and began the process by hand.
Saella felt as if he had stepped into another world.
A technique of perfect precision, without the slightest error.
Could anything more precise exist in this world?
To capture even a fraction more of that perfection, Saella poured all his focus and senses into it.
Senses sharpened to the extreme, able to detect even a flea-like insect's tiniest tremor.
With those senses, he observed.
A person's hand tremor feels like a massive earthquake.
Even in his own body, restrained to the utmost limit of concentration, he could feel the vibrations plainly.
No matter how restrained the body, errors from such minute tremors are inevitable.
In fact, this alone showed how extraordinary Saella was.
The tremors in his hands were even less than those in the inanimate desk beside him.
At this level, one could clearly grasp just how precise Edin's technique was.
"Hup...!?"
The moment he captured Edin's hand movements in his eyes, he nearly screamed without realizing it.
He held it back with superhuman patience, fearing it might break Edin's concentration.
None.
No tremors from errors whatsoever.
His senses made even the tiniest tremors look like dancing.
Yet it was utterly still.
The pulsations or tremors that any living being should naturally have were controlled and calculated as if by design.
Everything around him was so profoundly still.
How delicate a control ability was required for that?
Even Saella, with his senses pushed to the limit, couldn't fathom it.
'The greatest beauty I've ever seen...?'
That's what he had thought earlier.
He believed it would remain so in the future.
But he was wrong.
He realized he had held such a mistaken, arrogant thought.
'The pinnacle of beauty. Beauty itself, beyond my judgment...!!'
An elf who pursued beauty more than anyone, who longed to possess it.
Who worshiped it.
In that moment, he knew the beauty he should worship had appeared right before him.
"Phew, it's done. This batch feels good."
And that was it, produced without any special processes.
Using materials worth just a few bronzes each, through simple precision work alone, an A-Rank potion.
The moment he saw Edin produce it.
"Hnggh... I worship you. Beauty itself. Lord Edin."
In the end, tears streaming down his face, he dropped his stealth, prostrated himself on the floor, and bowed to Edin.
"Gyaaah?! You scared me!"
Edin jumped once at the sudden appearance of Saella.
"Wh-where did you come from... Huh? Are you crying...?"
And jumped a second time upon seeing him prostrated and in tears.
While Saella was ambushing Edin with his worship.
Octo, Ens, and Tom.
The trio of male students were diligently spreading bad rumors about Edin.
They started with the intermediate class of first-years.
However, since most of Class 3, like themselves, hadn't returned from external training yet.
They went looking for students from other classes they had joint lessons with before.
Especially targeting those with loose lips who loved stirring up rumors.
Most of the nonsense rumors from first-years originated from them; they loved inflating and spreading them.
"Hey, this stays between us. If you spread it around, I might really get killed by that general store guy."
And at the end, they even added a magical incantation.
"Of course. I won't tell a soul."
On the surface, it seemed like they'd absolutely keep silent.
But translating that into their language: 'The moment you're out of sight, I'll spread it everywhere.'
And they told beastkin who trusted people easily or those from the northern snowfields.
"How dare he! Honorable ronin warriors would never forgive such a vile scum!"
"A wretch like that should be frozen solid!"
As they spread the story to a few and came out.
"Hey, you hear that story?"
"What story?"
"There's a pervert employee targeting first-year girls."
"I heard it's the new owner of the general store."
The Adventurer Academy accepted all ages, genders, and races.
But with adventurers' status rising lately, the average student age was getting much younger.
Mostly mid-to-late teens just leaving home.
Some had just undergone their coming-of-age ceremony, others not even that.
For these young kids, academy life was boredom incarnate.
Class, eat, dorm, class, eat, sleep.
Upperclassmen with proven skills could take adventurer requests in their free time, but.
For first-years just starting external training, it was nothing but a dull routine.
So these groundless rumors became intensely stimulating entertainment for them.
Spreading everywhere in an instant, inflated without basis.
Just before, one such rumor nearly turned two innocent students into a couple.
Of course, the parties involved clarified aggressively, so it didn't blow up too much, but even after that, they craved stimulation.
Especially a rumor about a staff member approaching female students with ill intent.
It was far too tantalizing.
"...I heard that's how it is."
"What are you talking about?"
"Ah! T-Teacher."
This rumor, starting among students, naturally reached the teachers' ears too.
The teachers' reactions split into two camps.
The first was dismissing it as students spreading nonsense again.
"...Here we go again."
"Young first-years are always like this."
"Should we request some recreational facilities for stress relief?"
They weren't nonexistent.
But sports with huge physical disparities or board games where magic tricksters always won.
Anyway, most were graduates of the Adventurer Academy themselves.
Having been first-years, they understood the students' mindset.
And that's why they thought it was a rumor to ignore.
But some teachers were different.
"But what if it's true? If there's a staff member like that..."
Harboring ill intent toward a student, even approaching directly.
Telling academy students he was staff, threatening that if they talked, the academy would kick them out instead.
If such a staff member really existed.
"I think we should at least verify and investigate."
"True or not, if we don't respond, the academy staff's image..."
They said to find the rumor subject and check the truth, since it might be real.
If true, the threatened students could be in danger; ignoring it could tarnish the academy's image for staying silent.
"Since it involves staff, we can't ignore it. We need a thorough response."
Their points were valid.
But there was something oddly off about their words.
"You're not saying it's definitely false."
Someone subtly pointed out the nagging issue.
Then the ones pushing for investigation averted their eyes and muttered.
"He's the one the chairwoman brought, so I thought he was trustworthy... but I hear he was a C-Rank adventurer leeching off the Hero Party."
"If he really has good connections... that threat might be real too..."
BAM!!
At that moment, someone slammed the desk hard and stood up.
The desk shattered completely, and the one who stood—Lunarin Brettis—spoke with an extremely displeased expression.
"Leeching off the Hero Party? I don't know where you heard that nonsense."
Especially glaring at those who had just badmouthed Edin, the rumor protagonist.
"You're saying my recommendation or Chairwoman Mureos's judgment is trash, right? I heard you loud and clear. I'll relay it to the chairwoman nicely."
"Lu-Lunarin Teacher...! Wait...!"
"N-No, that's not what I meant...!"
The flustered teachers tried to make excuses at Lunarin's genuine anger, but she had already stormed out of the staff room.
"...Sigh. With Lunarin Teacher right there."
"Tsk tsk, watch your words."
The other teachers looked at them with pity mixed with disdain.