Chapter 63
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: Growth and Loss
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“Hee hee heung! Chayuri! What the hell is that loser up to? What did you two do all night anyway?”
Elrim, blissfully unaware of everything, kept chattering nonstop as she dragged Chayuri along.
Meanwhile, Chayuri glanced back at where Ian had been left behind, letting herself be pulled away.
Deep down, Chayuri wanted nothing more than to turn back right then and help Ian.
But she couldn't. She knew all too well that she wouldn't be of any help.
The enemies were the taboo mages who had seized control of the academy for a long time.
At minimum, they were on the level of professors.
On top of that, Chayuri was the reason Hisenna had been captured.
Her own mother had fallen to the taboo mages, and she herself had become their vessel because of it.
And because she had escaped unscathed while inflicting such harm, Hisenna had ended up in danger instead.
“Elrim... I...”
Tears of anguish streamed down her face.
Chayuri felt like she was the root cause of it all. The weight of responsibility crushed her.
It tormented her that she bore this responsibility yet could do nothing about it.
“What? Why are you crying, Chayuri? Did hanging out with that loser turn your tear ducts into loser ducts too?”
“I'm sorry. I just feel like such a pathetic person who can't take responsibility for anything...”
“What kind of loser nonsense is that?!”
Elrim, who had been dragging Chayuri along willy-nilly, suddenly stopped.
She stared at the unexpectedly crying Chayuri with utter bewilderment.
“What even is 'taking responsibility'? Isn't that boring? No one notices or cares if you just slave away in the shadows with all that responsibility talk! You gotta step up front, shine bright, and soak up all the attention! That's what fun!”
“But pleasure without responsibility is wrong.”
“Sure, but getting forgotten in the process would hurt even more, right?”
“That's...”
Getting forgotten would hurt more.
For some reason, those words tore at Chayuri's heart.
She was right. Chayuri was afraid of being forgotten.
Forgetting her mother, who had been erased by the family, and losing even her identity as a woman in the process.
On top of that, she had foolishly shouldered responsibility for her mother and herself ending up like this, simply because she wasn't born a son.
But truthfully, she hated it.
She hated being powerless under her mother.
She hated blindly following her mother's words out of some vague sense of duty.
She hated dressing as a boy out of fear from her mother's rage-filled warnings that the family head would forget her one day.
Chayuri wanted to break free from all of it.
But she still didn't want to abandon her responsibility.
She wanted to reclaim herself by taking responsibility and breaking free.
Thinking that far made Chayuri's mind suddenly clear.
“...Thank you, Elrim.”
“Uh, huh? For what? Don't say that loser crap all of a sudden; it's embarrassing.”
“Let's go. To wake the cadets. Everyone will surely focus on Ian and us!”
“O, oh! That's the spirit! Waking everyone at this hour will get us tons of attention!”
The enemies needed to offer a mage in perfect condition as a sacrifice first.
They wouldn't kill anyone in a place swarming with cadets.
So if they woke all the cadets and caused a commotion, it would thoroughly disrupt the enemies.
It would help Ian's efforts, even if just a little.
Chayuri now knew what she could do.
It was the best course, the best way to take responsibility.
“Where are you two coming from?”
As they neared the dormitory, a professor spotted them and approached.
The professor's face was flushed, as if he had been rushing somewhere.
It wasn't certain, but the odds were high he was with the taboo mages.
“We woke up early for a walk! Heading back to the dorm now!”
“I distinctly said not to come out... Just go back and sleep quietly!”
“Yes, sir!”
Elrim lied effortlessly and dashed into the dorm.
Chayuri had been nervous about getting caught, but thanks to Elrim, they slipped by safely.
The professor hurried off somewhere else in a flurry.
Had Professor Jooeri and Nayu done well?
The commotion at that secret base must have gotten the professors moving.
“I'll go that way, so you go the other way and knock on the doors!”
“Got it!”
Elrim and Chayuri split up by floor, pounding on doors in opposite wings.
The noise drew a professor who chased after Elrim and Chayuri.
Chayuri worried what would happen if he tried to subdue them by force, but it didn't come to that.
Before the professor could cast any spells, doors began opening one by one as cadets emerged.
“Yawn... What is it? What's going on?”
“I was sleeping fine... What the heck?”
“Some kind of test? Surprise evaluation?”
“Kyahaha! Something huge is about to happen, everyone! You'll regret sleeping through it!”
Elrim darted around the dorm like a fish in water.
As cadets poured out, the professor could only stamp his feet helplessly.
He made contact somewhere, then started yelling like a normal professor.
“G-Get back to your rooms, all of you! Hurry!”
“Everyone up! You'll regret sleeping now!”
How could she shout like that even with a professor barking orders?
Chayuri watched Elrim in awe and admiration.
And Chayuri herself began shouting defiance against the professor's commands.
“E-Everyone, wake up!”
It was a small cry, but it was enough to fill Chayuri with a sense of liberation.
For some reason, this first act of rebellion brought a smile to her face.
“Everyone, wake up!”
“Get up, you losers!”
They roamed the entire dorm for a few minutes, waking cadets.
Suddenly, unlike the other professors, one approached with forceful steps, blocking their path.
“You little...”
He looked furious. The awakened cadets sensed the tension.
And that professor began calculating a spell.
No way. Here? In front of all these cadets? Harm them anyway?
The liberation she had felt slowly ebbed away.
The moment dread took its place...
———!
Sudden mana surged, and overwhelming drowsiness hit.
“Huh? Suddenly I fe—”
“Why am I so sleepy all of a sudden?”
“You kids...! Get back in—”
It affected cadets and professors alike.
As if everyone had been dosed with sleeping pills, they all nodded off at once.
‘No... If I fall asleep...’
The taboo mages might have pulled some trick.
If causing a group ruckus led them to put everyone to sleep...
Then waking up, they might all be sacrifices—
Just as Chayuri barely clung to consciousness,
A faint voice that soothed all her fears reached her.
“You did well, Chayuri. Rest now.”
Through her blurring vision, she vaguely saw a man.
Realizing it was the one she knew well, Chayuri finally let sleep take her peacefully.
“Is this okay?”
“Better than letting humans spot us. We still have to handle what needs handling.”
“But seriously, if you can put taboo mages to sleep this easily, why were you sealed away?”
“I told you... circumstances.”
“Circumstances? Boohoo?”
“...”
I fed the chancellor some candy and descended to the surface with Lia.
Lia had knocked out all the cadets and professors on the surface.
I wondered why she had been sealed if she could do this, but she still wouldn't explain.
Thinking of her with Galum made the words slip out.
“Now, I'm going to erase the massive magic circle drawn across the grounds. You go fetch Mamma Tong in the meantime. Everyone's asleep anyway, so you can go alone.”
“I don't know where.”
“Of course I've located it.”
Lia told me where Hisenna was sleeping.
Living up to her GOAT status, I found the underground secret space she indicated, and there was Hisenna lying on the altar.
The surrounding taboo mages were all asleep, and so was Hisenna.
But whether because her vesselization had progressed far, she was covered in taboos.
“What do we do? Hisenna's already...”
“Mamma Tong's real name is Hisenna? Wow... Mamma Tong's Mamma Tong is impressive... She might even push the top cadet aside...”
“Cut the nonsense! We need to purify her fast, right?”
“Tch. Fine.”
Lia swept over Hisenna's body a few times—swish, swish—and completed the purification.
It was far faster and more stable than [Lake Water's Self-Purification].
There seemed to be some backlash on Lia, but she shook it off lightly like shedding water.
“Can't you teach me that purification magic?”
“No way. It's 10th-circle magic. Like I always say, build from the basics.”
10th-circle magic. Unimaginably distant.
Of course, my level was still low. I'd been caught up in events, but I needed to keep growing.
Facing such strong foes as a mere freshman.
I hadn't had time to think about growth amid the chaos.
“Don't make that face. These guys were too strong for you. Doing this much as a muggle is impressive.”
“But I feel like I could've done something sooner. Being dragged along the whole time pisses me off.”
“Hey, these guys took over the academy before you even enrolled. It's natural, so don't get down. Feel pissed if you want.”
True. Thinking back, the entrails were rotten from the moment I enrolled.
I'd stumbled into the final stages of their long plan.
Wait, does that make me kinda amazing?
The academy was rotting in secret, and then a storm freshman appears out of nowhere and resolves it all?
“And surely you've grown somewhere in this mess. Think about it. Sometimes there are things more important than raising your circle.”
Hearing Lia's words, I blankly opened my mouth.
Was it because it felt like encouragement?
For the first time, after all my self-recrimination, someone acknowledged me.
As she said, it wasn't that I hadn't grown just because the enemies were strong.
I'd been properly crushed by the chancellor early on, fought at the intestine house, then trained like mad.
Thanks to that, my magic skills grew faster than other freshmen.
And the broom flight I'd started romantically, I ultimately succeeded dramatically.
If I hadn't tried broom riding, I couldn't have flown.
I flew on a broom everyone said was impossible.
Above all, from escaping the underground to awakening Lia, I hadn't relied on the gallery.
The gallery was still hugely important to me.
But cowering in the gallery and healthily galling were different.
Now, even in crises, I wouldn't hesitate and endanger myself.
I could make precise judgments based on gallery info.
More than circles, this hardened resolve felt good.
“You're right. Let's gall healthily!”
“Stop posting crap on the gal.”
“But I can't help it! I don't understand a thing those archmage bros talk about!”
“Just look. You'll pick up something eventually.”
“That's by your standards...”
I couldn't help posting crap.
Archmages babbling about insane 10th- and 11th-circle magic—what was I supposed to do?
And they love my academy scoops, rolling out bait.
Can't they tolerate a little crap too?
“A shock's coming soon.”
Rumble—
The ground shook massively right after Lia spoke.
Caught off guard, I stumbled and fell, while sleeping cadets and professors rolled across the floor.
“Wh-What was that?”
“Erased the massive magic circle. Been there a while; kinda annoying to remove.”
Lia casually shattered the taboo mages' long-term project with a “kinda annoying~”.
I truly felt the heights of the gal's Goatness.
“Do all Goats handle stuff like this?”
“Nah. Everyone has specialties. Ask when you've grown more.”
Knowing would hurt me, huh.
More importantly, another issue I had to resolve belatedly came to mind.
“Ah...!”
“What?”
“Professor Jooeri and Nayu-senior... I mean, Professor Jewel!”
“Professor Jewel?”
I quickly explained what happened during our escape from the underground prison.
What happened in the fight with Nayu, Professor Jooeri, Neyk, and Professor Plma?
“Gotta go check!”
“Yeah. Honestly, I liked Professor Jewel too. Gotta have at least one professor heroine...”
“Not the time for that!”
I dragged the nonsense-spouting Lia to the underground prison site.
Whether some magic had isolated the space, it wasn't visible from afar, but up close, Professor Jooeri's collapsed underground area appeared.
Entering, the first thing I saw was Nayu collapsed some distance away.
“Nayu-senior!”
Where was Professor Jooeri? Nayu was alone, unconscious far from the battlefield.
Lia and I urgently checked Nayu's condition.
“She's alive. Looks like she used a spell to abnormally ramp up her circuits and brain usage. Exhausted, but she'll live. Hmm... Interesting magic.”
Thank goodness she wasn't dead.
Whatever spell it was, she'd drawn power in a runaway burst.
Lia examined the lingering magic traces on Nayu with interest.
I left Nayu to Lia and ran to the crumbled ground.
There, amid the shattered earth, glittering powder reflected the sunlight brilliantly.
Definitely Professor Jooeri's magic stones.
“...Skilled magic stone artisan. She's buried under there.”
Lia, carrying Nayu, cleared the collapsed ground.
And a tragic sight revealed itself below.
“...This.”
“Professor...”
There were three corpses.
Whatever attack had hit them, all three bodies were torn to shreds.
Amid the carnage, a handful of golden hair on one identified it as Professor Jooeri.
“...Used a massive amount of crafted magic stones. Probably Professor Jewel's attack.”
Lia sprinkled her mana over the gruesome scene and read the battle that unfolded.
Then, in a very matter-of-fact tone, with a dragon's voice, she delivered the brutal truth.
“Mutual destruction.”
Mutual destruction. She killed them, but Professor Jooeri died too.
To send me away, she sacrificed her life.
“Professor...”
My legs gave out.
I dropped to my knees before Professor Jooeri's remains.
Something welled up behind my eyes, breath came short.
The top of my head throbbed. A strange sensation—no, emotion.
“She's dead?”
Dead? An unreal word.
We had run together through all this to resolve it.
Maybe the only one I could share this joy with.
And Professor Jooeri was dead.
Plop...
A few tears fell onto the dust-covered floor.
The dust and Professor Jooeri's magic stone powder clumped around the droplets.
No life flashing before my eyes, yet memories of Professor Jooeri flickered past.
Our first meeting was disastrous. The second too.
Despite absurd misunderstandings, we quickly became comrades.
Still, I wasn't free of resentment over her initial suspicions.
But now, I barely remembered her doubting me back then.
Because Professor Jooeri was there, I had someone to confide in about the chancellor beating me.
Because Professor Jooeri was there, I secured a safe zone in an academy fully gripped by taboo mages.
Because Professor Jooeri relentlessly pursued the taboo mages, we could stop them.
Because Professor Jooeri sacrificed herself, I awakened Lia and saved the academy.
And above all. She was my professor.
Excluding the gallery I relied on most, the first in reality to take the role of my ‘master’.
If I hadn't learned precision from Jooeri, I couldn't have flown the broom.
Without Jooeri, none of this succeeds.
I recalled first meeting Jooeri.
I recalled fighting alongside Jooeri for the first time.
Lewd acts of casting Orgasm magic on Professor Jooeri came to mind.
Professor Jooeri's reliable smile promising never to sacrifice cadets surfaced.
Maybe more than anyone, the one I wanted to share this joy with.
The one who helped more than anyone on this path.
Professor Jooeri saved us to the end. And died.
So this pain meant. Professor Jooeri had become precious to me, a true master.
Even though our time together was short,
“Uh... ugh... uheuh...”
The sense of loss, which had grown unbeknownst to me, tormented me deeply.