Alhazard, Are You Mad? (1)
We trudged through the alleyway. It had taken quite a while for a random encounter to trigger, so we'd ended up deeper into the backstreets than expected. Getting back to Alhazard Academy would require more walking. Laysa seemed to have taken a significant mental shock—she couldn't easily lift her feet from the alley where we'd fought the thugs earlier. Elaine and I had to persuade her before she finally started moving again.
As for me, I'd been fighting desperately with my limited mana and felt a bit drained. Among us, I probably had the least mana, so this was inevitable. All I could think about was heading to the holy site soon for a blessing. Elaine, meanwhile, looked the most composed of us all. She showed no signs of fatigue, physically or mentally. Her physical stamina made sense—she was the top student in the third-year graduating class, after all—but even her mental resilience seemed oddly perfect. Was it just my imagination, or had I caught a glimpse of the crown princess who once cut down monsters alongside the hero to defeat the Demon King when she casually slaughtered those fanatics earlier?
Grumble—
Just then, a sound came from her stomach. Huh? Thinking it might be my imagination, I glanced at Elaine's face—
"Ugh..." Her cheeks flushed red. From her expression, it seemed Laysa had heard the grumbling too. The girl who'd been walking in a daze, staring at the ground after the mental shock, now looked embarrassed and glanced around nervously.
I'd prepared for this! I pulled out the jerky I'd been carrying in my uniform's inner pocket since morning. When I rustled around and produced the food, both of them widened their eyes and fixed their gazes on the jerky in my hand. They looked just like the kittens I'd once seen in a video discovering food, and a mischievous urge suddenly struck me.
I slowly moved the hand holding the jerky to the side—their eyes followed. Wow... so cute. Suppressing the laugh that threatened to burst out, I tore open the jerky wrapper.
"Want some? It's from a decent maker, so it's not inedible."
At my words, Elaine charged forward without a hint of shame. "I want some!" Her eyes sparkled with anticipation. Was she always this much of a glutton? "I... I'd like some too..." Laysa added shyly, begging me for the jerky as well.
I handed the opened jerky to Elaine first, then pulled out another from my pocket and gave it to Laysa.
"Munch munch..." Elaine focused silently on eating. She seemed well aware of jerky's advantage in quickly satisfying hunger over taste. The piece in her hand disappeared at an alarming rate.
"Ugh... Senior, sorry, but is this how it's supposed to taste?" Laysa clearly didn't care for jerky's unique flavor. After a few bites, she grimaced and tried to return it, so I reasoned with her.
"I know. Not very tasty, right? Bland. But this is actually pretty decent. Cheap jerky is salty, reeks of gaminess, and is so tough it's a real struggle to eat. There won't be anywhere open to get proper food at this hour, so you should eat this at least."
When I described the taste of cheap jerky that Leon had experienced firsthand, Laysa frowned as if recalling last night's hunger and forced herself to chew the jerky.
"Leon. I've been thinking... this alley hunting seems more dangerous than I thought."
Elaine, who had apparently finished eating and neatly folded the wrapper before tucking it into her wooden sword case, spoke up. Until yesterday, I'd dismissed alley hunting as trivial, but after today's events, I had to agree. Fanatics of the Sun God appearing on just the second day of hunting... If we're unlucky, black mages who worship the Demon King might show up next. That wolfkin with the prosthetic arm, who seemed like the leader of the fanatics, wouldn't have been dealt with so easily without Elaine. If I'd fought him, it would've been a much fiercer battle... She was right. Maybe it was still too early for alley hunting.
"So, how about we try the special training method passed down in the Huxley family starting tomorrow? It should be meaningful for both you and Laysa."
Her confident tone was tempting. In the game, training events always just popped up with a single illustration and a message like "Acquired such-and-such Trait. Stress increased by X," so I'd always been curious about what the training actually entailed.
"Not bad. Sounds good. I agree. Honestly, what's most important right now is Laysa's magic training anyway."
Since she'd finally learned to use magic, we needed to train her to wield it proficiently. Elaine nodded in agreement with my words.
"...Thank you. Senior Leon. Senior Elaine."
Laysa bowed her head to us as she spoke. We were both a bit flustered and speechless when she lifted her head and looked us straight in the eye, one after another.
"If you two hadn't helped me, I still wouldn't know how to use magic. You're my benefactors. I won't forget this kindness and will definitely repay it someday."
So that's what she wanted to say... What a thoughtful thing to say. Of course, Laysa. I wouldn't be pushing you like this for nothing. You'll repay that debt soon enough in Alhazard's dungeon. As I smiled contentedly at the thought, Elaine answered before I could. A gentle smile graced her face as well.
"It's fine, Laysa. Even without us, you have the talent to become an excellent mage."
Elaine's voice was filled with certainty, as if it were inevitable. I silently nodded in agreement. The atmosphere had grown quite warm when the academy's main gate came into view in the distance.
"Ah... By the way, Senior. Do you know anything about Alhazard's dungeon? After all, we're going through all this trouble because of it."
Laysa suddenly asked this question. Elaine chimed in as well.
"I was curious about that dungeon too. Did Count Magnus tell you anything?"
Understandably, they were both worried and curious about Alhazard's dungeon. Still, I couldn't share everything I knew. If I described a dungeon that had never been cleared as if I'd cleared it multiple times, anyone would find it suspicious and start doubting me... So I carefully considered what to say and only shared information that wouldn't cause problems.
"Do you two know that Alhazard went missing for about ten years before founding the academy?"
"Really? I had no idea... Something like that happened?" Elaine's reaction was perfectly normal. Most citizens of the Lu Empire didn't know Alhazard had been missing for ten years. In countless fantasy settings, mages often shut themselves in their rooms for years—or longer—to focus on research; it was practically a cliché. King's Crown was no different with its mad-scientist mages. Thus, his disappearance wasn't a major enough event to be heavily featured in history books.
"I've heard of it. My ancestor, Remiya Lumiere, who was Alhazard's direct disciple, wrote about it in her diary. She said all his disciples were in a huge panic when the archmage vanished."
When even Laysa agreed, Elaine had no choice but to accept it with an "I see~" nod. As she nodded, she seemed to deduce something and asked me, "Then, was that ten-year gap when Alhazard disappeared related to the dungeon somehow?"
I nodded in affirmation. "Those ten years were the decisive catalyst that made Alhazard decide to create the dungeon inside the academy. During his disappearance, he was in the East."
"The East???" Both of them exclaimed in surprise at the unexpected revelation. Then Elaine muttered as if realizing something. "Don't tell me... the Khan Emperor?"
"That's right. Alhazard traveled to the East because of the Khan Emperor."