Chapter 49
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: A Priceless Favor
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Arion's grand blunder was neatly wrapped up at an appropriate point.
He gave off the vibe of someone tempered by life’s hardships, but I hadn’t expected him to bring up tuition fees in a situation like this.
“Enough. Just learn.”
“But without proper precedent...”
“Then do you think you can live your life repaying every single favor in full? If I set a tuition fee, you’d be able to pay that?”
As his response faltered, Arion began to stammer.
With a sigh, I rubbed my dry face.
“I’m the same way. I don’t do much expecting real compensation. It’s just a whim—I feel like raising you up a bit.”
I looked at Arion with a listless expression.
Those twitching antennae of his... He seemed genuinely uncomfortable.
“Still...!”
“Still, if it really bothers you, I’ll ask just one thing.”
Anticipating Arion’s refusal, I cut him off.
“If there are people around you in danger... save them without expecting anything in return, as long as it’s not too risky. Consider that prepayment for my favor.”
“...How many?”
I gave a chuckle at the question, as if asking how to put a number on it.
“As much as you value my favor.”
I didn’t specify how many to save.
Setting a fixed number and forcing actions would mean it truly ends there.
That wasn’t what I wanted, nor was it desirable.
So...
‘You decide the value yourself.’
Pay it back on your own terms.
Without pressure, able to stop anytime or act anytime.
Until the moment Arion thinks he’s fully repaid my favor—until saving others becomes ingrained in his core.
Hoping for the day a single drop of water from above splits a boulder.
Even a mere droplet, accumulated bits by bits, becomes the key force that changes oneself.
The boulder splitting—that would signify him.
I closed my eyes and savored the tea’s bitter aftertaste.
After the lukewarm warmth of the first sip, a refreshing sensation spread through my mouth.
I took a slow, thick gulp and set the teacup down.
“Come to my lab anytime you like. I’ll welcome you.”
With that, I brushed off my seat and stood.
“I’m off to see Professor Prezel for a bit.”
“Uh, Professor Prezel? I didn’t know you were acquainted with her...”
Elin picked up on the subtle nuance in my words and fell silent like she’d swallowed honey.
“Since she’s more senior than me in the department, I often get her help with lesson prep. I’ll be right back.”
“Yes, have a safe trip.”
I slipped my arms into my coat sleeves, straightened my attire.
Before leaving, I shot them a look to behave quietly, then stepped out of the lab.
Who knows what those two, who hit it off so well, might get up to in my lab.
Among them, I gave Elin a stern warning with my eyes.
Arion aside, Elin was the real wildcard—impossible to predict how she’d bolt.
‘That scatterbrained, honey-drenched chatterbox.’
“I’m not going to do anything.”
“...Right, I trust you.”
“That’s a look that doesn’t trust me at all?”
“......”
Pretending ignorance, I stepped into the hallway.
A prickling gaze stabbed at my back, but as always, I ignored it.
Lesson prep.
No, Professor Prezel.
I’d said it was for lesson prep, but that wasn’t the real goal.
‘Precisely, I need to confirm the tunnel route.’
The tunnel was about to begin, so time was of the essence.
I recalled the setup for the beast tamer—that cunning old mage.
The tunnel and the beast tamer were practically synonymous.
Only a beast tamer could trigger a tunnel, and without one, no tunnel occurs.
Its precise name was large-scale transfer.
‘That’s why it’s called a tunnel.’
During the transfer, a massive earth dragon bursts up from underground, and countless monsters pour out from it.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the moniker “tunnel” came from the burrow dug by the earth dragon under the beast tamer’s command.
‘The other monsters transferring in give the illusion of burrowing up too.’
Fail to prepare, and you’ll witness your main base fall in one fell swoop.
Around the midpoint of the original story, major strongholds are reduced to rubble by the beast tamer’s large-scale transfer.
The tunnel hitting the academy is preparation for the offensives to come.
You could call it a mere appetizer...
‘Depending on the difficulty, it might as well be the real assault.’
The beast tamer was an elder-level figure in the heretic mages’ core.
From my days as director, that old man’s obsession with purity went beyond madness.
The beast tamer truly believed discovering purity was the only way to save declining humanity.
Land purely purified, humans purely purified, the Edenic earth, humanity before the fruit of good and evil.
That’s why he was perfectly sane.
He played the pious shepherd, living a pristine, austere life—but peek inside, and it’s crawling with depravity.
Stitching creatures together to make chimeras, conducting grotesque experiments no one could understand or forgive.
In his own twisted beliefs, he saw himself as savior and pioneer.
With such bizarre convictions, he wasn’t outright insane, making his actions impossible to predict.
‘That’s why I must confirm the route.’
And for that, I needed to see Professor Prezel.
My steps quickened.
Aiden had vanished from the spot, leaving Elin and Arion in the lab.
Arion spoke first.
“Is he always like that?”
“Huh?”
“Impossible to pin down.”
Elin smirked, as if to say she got it now.
“You’ll get used to it.”
“But he doesn’t demand anything...”
Telling him to handle it himself implicitly meant he didn’t have to do anything at all.
From Arion’s perspective, that was no different from demanding nothing.
Elin sprawled out sullenly, saying he’d get used to it soon.
“That’s just how he is.”
She unfolded a folding bed in the lab like it was her own room and lay down.
What should have felt alien blended naturally, like part of the scenery.
From that alone, one could infer Professor Aiden’s disposition.
Elin added,
“He skips the process and always jumps to conclusions, but that means he never makes anyone miserable or leaves them that way.”
“Then you wouldn’t be by his side.”
Arion was older, but both were first-years.
Arion had entered late by a few years, but as fellow first-years, he knew a fair bit about Elin.
She kept to herself, was a lone wolf, stubborn.
Among the rumors, unlike her reputation as a brilliant mage, her true identity as a spiritist was subtly buried.
Elin was in the Magic Department, not Spirit Studies.
No need for the Magic Department to highlight spiritist talent over her magic aptitude.
Perhaps they worried the top overall enrollee might switch to Spirit Studies and steal their glory.
But Arion’s impression from the entrance ceremony podium was different.
She’d chosen Magic because her magic lagged behind her spirit arts.
The aura from the spirits around Elin confirmed it.
‘Above all...’
Spirits shared their contractor’s temperament.
Or perhaps they contracted because their temperaments matched.
Setting aside which came first, Elin fell on the upright side.
She wouldn’t suddenly befriend someone of a different disposition.
Elin tossed out a question about what he was mulling over.
“Didn’t you feel any pressure talking to Professor Aiden?”
“Now that you mention it...”
Arion realized with a start.
It had been so natural he’d forgotten, but so-called elite talents usually exuded a distinct aura.
A master at the pinnacle wouldn’t seem out of place with an overbearing presence.
Yet Professor Aiden looked like any ordinary layabout.
Arion let out an admiring exclamation at the late realization.
“He lowers himself to blend in with others...”
Seeing Elin primly turn her head, Arion smiled faintly.
“You seem pretty taken with him? Even defending him.”
“What? It’s not like that.”
Yet Elin’s earlobes were a bit red.
* * *
On the way, lost in thought.
Professor Prezel.
Professor of Natural Elements and Elemental Magic Utilization for second-year Magic Department courses.
And for some reason, a heretic mage...
An insider.
I swallowed briefly.
‘Besides Professor Prezel, there’s one more collaborator.’
Normally, turning a person into a demon requires not another person, but something else.
Even heretic mages with their outlandish methods can’t mimic corruption—it’s a unique authority.
So, just as with the botany professor turning into a demon, there had to be someone—or something—able to seduce and corrupt humans.
That’s why the Holy See risks backlash to intervene in the original plot.
Even the Imperial Family, wary of divine authority, treats it as a major incident demanding cover-up and caution.
I swallowed a groan and entered the Magic Department building with familiar steps.
Some glances came my way, but classes were in session.
The stares were fewer than before.
Or perhaps because I’d boldly dumped Lianel, the Magic Department’s flower.
‘Such a shame.’
How was I supposed to know the girl I bumped into in the elevator was the department’s flower?
She already looked buggy with all that chitin vibe.
Truly a shame... I wanted to at least see her face.
I sighed inwardly and pressed the elevator button.
‘Yellow chitin, was it?’
Sorry I can’t remember more than that despite the regret!
Sorry for remembering a college girl as a cockroach! I swear, I’m innocent!
“Uh... Professor Aiden, right?”
A slender, refined voice hesitantly addressed me from a woman.
She looked slightly gaunt, perhaps from recent worries.
‘Yellow?’
I snapped out of it.
Walking campus, I’d brushed past countless with yellow chitin.
Yellow... it’s a common hair color.
“Um... that is.”
“What?”
“No, nothing. If you don’t remember, it’s fine.”
Why the long face over whatever I did?
Wondering if I’d saved her unbeknownst like Arion, I pondered deeply.
The female student’s grip tightened faintly on her textbook.
Unconsciously, but far too strong for just holding a book.
As she turned to leave, I called her name with a hint of maybe.
“Lianel. Lianel Roosevelt, right?”
At that, Lianel froze in place.
She turned back with an incredulous expression.
Her eyes brimmed with countless tangled emotions.
Disbelief and joy mixed into an emotional deluge impossible to untangle.
It just felt complicated, but I couldn’t grasp Lianel’s feelings.
‘I can memorize them, though.’
Just like I’d memorized Isel’s nonverbal cues, I could accept it in the same vein.
“You... remembered. I didn’t even tell you my name then.”
“...Yeah.”
Isel hadn’t spilled, I’d never have known.
“Taking the elevator...?”
Her hesitant voice grew shy.
Huh, why?
“Not turning back because you had somewhere to go?”
“Huh? Oh, no. I just remembered I left something in the classroom.”
“I see. Can’t be helped, then.”
Up to here, no big thoughts.
I was mulling what to do when seeing Professor Prezel.
In the spacious yet cramped elevator.
Just the two of us, riding in silence.
She fidgeted closer bit by bit.
At first, I ignored it, but gradually she drew near, and by the time I finished my thought, she was right beside me.
‘Huh? Isn’t this close?’
Lianel had no sense of personal space.
Plenty of room, yet she stuck right up against me...
“You look uncomfortable. You okay?”
Lianel startled and met my eyes.
“Ah... Y-Yes! I mean, uh.”
She bit her tongue.
It was so cute a warm smile tugged at my lips.
That made Lianel forget her words and freeze.
Her face flushed beet red from embarrassment, so I reassured her it was fine and turned away.
“I’m getting off here. You going higher?”
“Me, a bit higher...”
“Make sure to retrieve what you left. Study hard.”
Clunk clunk, as I walked off, a young voice leaked from the closing elevator.
“...Haah, good excuse you made.”
Excuse? What excuse?
‘No way the “left something” was an excuse?’
I shook my head in denial while turning.
An early-morning student heading to the lecture hall.
Her attire was impeccable, radiating diligence.
Misjudging a student like that didn’t sit right.
On the way, it struck me as so absurd I smirked.
“Axe murderess. Who’d make excuses just to see me?”
Isel or Elin sometimes said “with that face?”, but without comparisons, I wouldn’t know.
‘Illustrators only make pretty boys and girls, huh.’
Beauty standards were a level or two higher than before.
So these days’ kids really butter up their elders.
That it was a massive misunderstanding—I still didn’t know.