Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: The Beasts That Scatter Gold ☆ (7)
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Aether is ‘the power to exist.’
An omnipotent energy descending from the heavens.
The force that binds existence in this world.
It has always existed, everywhere, as a matter of course, and it resides in all things.
Living and nonliving, animate and inanimate.
Aether is present in everything, without exception.
Since the world was born from the primordial flame, Aether has been one of the fundamental energies that form the origin of all things.
In terms of yin and yang, it carries the energy of yang. That is why Aether is fundamentally red. As an energy embodying extreme yang, high Aether aptitude manifests only in women, who can accommodate such power.
‘And the place where girls with higher-than-average Aether aptitude gather is Academy City Yggd… or so the setting went.’
Whether one can handle it well is a matter of individual difference, but at the very least, only girls with Aether aptitude can withstand the high atmospheric concentration of Aether in Academy City Yggd.
“…”
To be honest, it was a game setting created to justify beautiful girls using swords and magic. But since it has become reality here, Aether is now a law of nature, a truth.
‘Aether is the flow of fate, life force, energy, an object of faith, an omnipotent power… Isn't that just too convenient a setting? You can create anything and solve any problem just by slapping the word ‘Aether’ on it.’
I gave a wry smile, recalling the blind acceptance of Aether in the Academy City.
Perhaps because I came from a world where an all-powerful substance like Aether didn't exist, I didn't feel my life was in any immediate danger without it. But to them, Aether was a truth connected to life, and even further, to fate and existence itself.
That was why my juniors clung to me and whimpered for a long time after it was determined my Aether was empty. Their eyes were like those of baby birds gazing at their sick mother.
“Senior…?”
“Senior…”
“Comrade Senior…”
Seeing that made my heart sink. It wasn't because of the Aether depletion, for which I already had a plan, but because of my juniors' mournful voices.
‘Ah… why did it have to be a machine that measures the *ratio*… Looks like we’re in for another full-blown tear fest… This is bad.’
Of all things, the machine Maya brought measured the depletion ‘ratio.’ To make an analogy, that machine would treat 1% of the electricity left in an industrial power plant the same as 1% left in a portable battery.
‘She should have brought a machine that measures the absolute value… The girls are going to have another big cry…’
I’d seen the prelude to tears countless times over the past week.
And my ominous premonitions were never wrong.
Alvitt, as if in disbelief, broke out in a cold sweat, her brown eyes darting about restlessly. They were already brimming with moisture.
“Senior is… in a state worse than… a corpse…?”
“Ahaha—☆ That’s so mean♪”
“Th-that can’t be…”
At that, Lotha shouted, the fur on her cat ears standing on end. Her eyes, too, were welling up with tears.
“Alvitt!! Don’t say such awful things!! There’s no way Senior is going to die!!”
“S… Sorry. I wasn’t thinking…”
“H-hey, you two? Let’s not fight—☆”
Before I could intervene, Kara swept me up in a princess carry. I was afraid she might get hurt if I struggled, so I could only protest by timidly tapping her arm.
Tap, tap—☆
“Hey—♪ Kara~ What are you doing, suddenly princess-carrying your senior—☆ No matter how much of a princess I am…”
“We must get you to your room to lie down!! Do not worry, I will carry you there—!!”
“But… my condition has been getting better—☆ It’s a bit troubling to be treated like I’m on death’s door now♪”
“Yep.”
Maya once again held the Aether depletion ratio meter to my face. And that damned machine spat out five loud warning beeps.
Beep beep beep beep beep
“Aargh?! No!!”
“Senior!! You can’t be in pain!!”
“We must get her to her room!!”
“An infirmary… We need an infirmary, damn it!! This blasted school, I knew it!! Senior is this sick, and there isn’t even a proper sick bay for her to rest in!!”
“I’m not dying☆ I said I’m not dying—☆”
In the midst of the chaos, I tried to calm my juniors down, but I was ignored.
The warning beeps from the Aether depletion meter must have sounded like the Grim Reaper’s footsteps to them, as they hurriedly tried to carry me to the dormitory. Maya was suddenly given the cold shoulder; my juniors had completely forgotten her existence.
I desperately tried to turn their attention back to Maya.
“Everyone~☆ Let’s listen to what Maya has to say first! Aren’t you curious why she’s here? Oh! Should I tell you something surprising—☆ Maya and I have actually, since our first year…”
“Senior, we get it, so please just lie down!!”
“You don’t have to say another word!!”
“…”
But Maya, finding their hysterical reaction rather interesting, silently followed us all the way to the dormitory, repeatedly pressing the machine against my head. It had been a while since I’d seen her act in concert with others like this.
“Yep.”
“Maya, what are you doing—☆”
“It could be a misreading.”
Beep beep beep beep beep
“Seriously, stop it—☆ You’re gonna get it~♡”
“Yep.”
“Ahaha—♡ I guess you’re a Thinker, Maya—☆”
Beep beep beep beep beep
“Hmm, let’s try one more time.”
“Yup—☆ I’ve decided♡ Maya, you’re going to get a good scolding♡ later—☆”
“Yep.”
Beep beep beep beep beep
The more the warning beeps echoed, the louder my juniors’ wails became.
“Senior!!!”
“Senior!!!”
“Comrade Senior—!!”
Their sorrowful calls.
But I’m really okay.
No matter how many times I said it, they wouldn’t believe me.
I could go crazy.
It was the plight of Lu Xun, constantly suspected of rebellion by Sun Quan. Was this the kind of frustration you feel when no one believes you, no matter how much you deny it?
‘No… I shouldn’t compare my cute juniors’ concern to that of Sun-jerk…’
In the end, I gave up resisting and was confined to my room, wrapped tightly in a blanket. My juniors had brought over chairs and were watching me like hawks.
“Ahaha… So it comes to this—☆”
“You can’t move until you’re all better, Senior.”
“I’ll bring you your meals… no, I’ll just feed you. You can eat if I go ‘ahh~,’ right? I’ll let you touch my ears, too, so you have to be good, okay?”
Lotha’s kind consideration.
Just hearing it was enough to bring tears to my eyes.
But Kara was watching this with suspicious eyes.
“…Aren’t both of those things just what you want to do?”
“What are you talking about!!”
“Comrade Lotha is… pretending to be considerate, but she’s sneakily projecting her own maternal desires… It’s just so blatant…”
“Hiiiisss—!!”
“Alright, alright, stop fighting—☆”
The atmosphere finally calmed down only after I was lying down.
Maya, who had been observing, remarked that it was an interesting research result and said she would deliver the items she’d brought from Mimir Industrial High School to the dormitory.
Since Kara was once a student at Mimir Industrial High School, she asked if she could help Maya, but was refused. Maya was extremely independent and didn’t care for such things.
Thud—
A large equipment case was placed in the dormitory hallway.
“…”
I watched Maya carrying the luggage back and forth by herself and wondered.
‘But she’s the head of the Facility Engineering Department. It should be a busy time for her, so why did she come all the way here herself?’
Including the time I was unconscious, more than three weeks had passed since Mimir Industrial High School’s welcome party for new students. It was now past mid-April, a time when the major schools were incredibly busy with midterms and event preparations.
‘Even if Mimir Industrial High School doesn’t have the same rigid atmosphere as before, they should still be running their school events meticulously…’
But I couldn’t ask, as Maya was busy bringing the metal equipment case into my room and opening it.
Clank—!
The metal case, large enough for me to curl up inside, opened. Within were pieces of equipment crafted from the Aether-conductive ore I had farmed during my first year.
‘In game terms, these are high-tier crafted items… They won’t need to change weapons for a while. I skipped a lot of the intermediate farming steps, but I’m glad I have an excuse now.’
At the beginning of the semester, it would have been difficult to explain how I obtained the ore, and I had nowhere to commission the crafting, so I expected it would be a long time before I could hand over the finished products. But thanks to the recent tumultuous events, I was able to get them made quickly.
An unexpected equipment unboxing, happening right in my room.
The first thing taken out was…
Alvitt’s straight sword, which was likely the most difficult to craft.
This time, Alvitt spoke in a voice trembling with excitement.
“Oh… my goodness. This… isn’t this a weapon made from incredibly high-purity ore?”
“Yup—♪ I asked Maya to make it using the Aether-conductive ore I got in my first year—☆”
“I didn’t make it. I just paid the kids in the Materials Engineering Department to throw it together. But if you want to thank me, I’ll accept.”
“Huh? Ah… yes. Thank you, Senior Maya…”
“Yeah, sure.”
A nod.
And so, she nonchalantly accepted Alvitt’s thanks.
Maya, with the flask containing her energy drink at her lips.
There was nothing particularly strange about it… yet it was a strangely irritating sight.
“…”
I found the situation so absurd that I had to speak up.
“You, Maya…☆”
“What? It’s true.”
“…”
“I even delivered it for you.”
“Sigh♪”
This was just how Maya was.
‘Then again, for someone this lazy to have delivered it all the way here… is pretty surprising. How on earth I became friends with someone like her… I’m not even sure myself.’
Alvitt, oblivious to Maya, was staring blankly at the elegant longsword in her hands, which emanated a crimson-black light.
It was an incredibly sturdy sword. An Aether conductor, specially processed for use in Aether-based martial arts. Its quality was on a completely different level from the practice weapons from Central Prism Academy that Alvitt had been using until now.
‘To be honest, what we were using… were just clubs made from melted-down scraps of conductive ore…’
The crimson-black blade.
The intricately crafted Aether circuits.
Simple, yet possessing an elegance born from its functional beauty.
Alvitt gazed at the elegant longsword for a long while. Then, she quietly drew upon her Aether to test it.
Fwoosh—!
As expected of a high-quality creation, Aether flowed through the crimson-black blade with perfect stability. Having now stably entered the second stage, [Vibrating Aether], and built up her proficiency, she resonated with the world in an instant. The blade exuded a menacing aura.
Alvitt looked at her sword, her voice rapturous.
“Wow, this is… this is so good… This is… really… Wow… It connects this quickly and smoothly…?”
Muttering distractedly.
Alvitt, trying to explain just how good this weapon was.
Her flushed cheeks and curved eyes were a pleasant sight.
“Hehe…♪”
I felt like I was watching a gamer who’d just been gifted the latest smartphone or graphics card. I’d only seen her burning with responsibility for a while, so seeing Alvitt excited like a child for the first time in ages made me smile.
‘I was already proud of how quickly she’s been growing stronger lately, so I’m glad this turned out to be a good gift.’
And the equipment cases continued to be opened.
Lotha and Kara marveled at the items they each received.
“These are gifts for you two as well—☆”
“This is…!”
“Comrade Senior…!”
“It’s mid-April, so this is a bit late… but congratulations on enrolling in Central Prism Academy—♪ This is my congratulatory gift to you☆ Hehe, it’s okay to throw yourselves into my arms and shed tears of gratitude—☆”
I spoke in a deliberately exaggerated tone, squirming under the blanket.
Lotha, who already had a wand distributed by the prestigious magic school, Public Vana Boarding School, received a specially crafted cape that could link her grimoire and equipment. And in Kara’s hands was a glaive-like spearhead that could be attached to the end of her flag.
A cape and a spearhead.
Both were items that required fewer materials than the longsword Alvitt had received.
‘If I’d had enough materials, I would have liked to make them armor, but… I slacked off on my farming in the first year…’
I was worried my juniors might feel relatively deprived, so I peeked at them from under the blanket.
Peeking…
“…”
“…”
“…?”
For some reason, both Lotha and Kara had their heads bowed low.
Oh no…
I hurriedly tried to come up with some excuse for the two of them.
It was at that moment.
Drip…
Drip…
Lotha’s and Kara’s shoulders were trembling, and one by one, teardrops fell to the floor where their heads were bowed. I could hear their ragged breathing.
They were crying.
“*Hic…*”
“*Ugh…*”
“Uh, oh my—☆ Wh-what’s wrong♪”
Like a bagworm, I crawled awkwardly toward Lotha and Kara, still rolled up in my blanket. The two of them then threw their arms around the giant bagworm and began to wail.
“Senior…!”
Seeing this, Alvitt also joined the bagworm-catching party and began to cry.
“Huh? Oh my—☆ What’s going on?! Is it possible you don’t like them—☆”
A sudden waterworks show.
The three of them cried as if the sky were falling.
I had never seen my juniors cry so sorrowfully before.
All I could do was stare wide-eyed, frozen in place.
“…You all get along well.”
Maya watched them and let out a smirk.
＊
The waterworks show continued for quite some time.
Once it subsided, the juniors said they were going to wash their faces.
The room was left with just me and Maya.
“…”
“…”
Maya was quietly sipping the energy drink from her flask. She didn’t ask a single thing about The Faded Spiral, just lounging around like someone on vacation.
I snuck a glance around.
Peeking…
‘But… it looks like she made more than I gave her ore for.’
Looking at the open cases, I saw that besides the items my juniors had received, various miscellaneous practice weapons had also been made.
‘Knowing Maya’s personality, it’s unlikely she’d take on work she wasn’t asked to do…’
I cautiously opened my mouth.
“S-so, what are all those for—☆”
“What are.”
“Well… I don’t think I gave you that much ore—☆”
“Ah… We had a surplus of Aether-conductive ore, so I just had them made.”
“Huh?”
“The pointy-ears and furries suddenly opened up all their low-grade Aether conductor mines, so we were overflowing with low-quality stock. On top of that, right after we made these, Svart Industrial High School halted their weapon production, so all the miscellaneous requests are flooding Mimir Industrial High School.”
“Oh my…☆”
“The Materials Engineering Department couldn’t handle it, so they told Facility Engineering to start producing weapons too. So I used delivery as an excuse to sneak away from Skadi. Let me crash here for a few days.”
“Oh my my…☆”
Something…
Something was happening.