Chapter 100
Chapter 100
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: A Midsummer Night's Nightmare (1)
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It was deep into the night.
Yet no one was asleep. The instructors patrolled the forest with torches in hand. The apprentice knights gripped their weapons, ready for combat at a moment's notice.
The chirping of insects.
The cries of crows.
A tense air hung between the knights.
The apprentices kept swallowing dryly, their throats parched, readjusting their grips on their weapons over and over.
A few minutes ago, there had been an enemy raid.
The attackers were Demon King's Army soldiers fleeing defeat from a nearby battlefield, and the apprentice knight training grounds happened to lie along their retreat path.
However, the raid had failed.
The soldiers who planned the ambush lay dead, buried in the darkness. Squinting into the forest, severed limbs caught the edge of their vision.
Skulls shattered to pieces.
Limbs rolling on the ground.
Bodies dangling from tree branches.
It looked as if a ferocious beast had rampaged through.
The knights swallowed dryly for no reason, turning their heads away. Their gazes drifted toward the barracks. They sidelong glanced at the tent a certain boy had entered just moments ago.
Yes. The raid had failed.
By the hand of just one boy.
The knights recalled the image of the boy drenched in blood, slaughtering the Demon King's Army soldiers.
Snow-white hair matted with gore, chunks of flesh and blood clots caught in the axe blade. Those blood-red eyes gleaming ferociously even in the darkness were unforgettable.
'Rak van Grace.'
The knights kept repeating the boy's name to themselves.
*
Called to the barracks, Rak gave the instructors a brief rundown of the situation.
At first, they looked incredulous, but when an instructor returned from patrol and his report matched Rak's account perfectly, they set aside their doubts.
'This can't be real...'
They had dismissed their suspicions, but they still seemed uneasy. A mere student had accomplished what even the instructors would struggle with.
And without a single scratch.
It was hard to believe even seeing it with their own eyes.
Even the instructor who had witnessed Rak's fight firsthand looked dazed.
"...Rest for now, Young Master Rak."
The instructors left those words and exited the barracks. Alone now, Rak let out a short breath.
"Hoo..."
He had released Heating a little while ago, but his body still felt hot. His heartbeat refused to calm.
"Strange sensation."
Rak muttered to himself.
Enlightenment had come suddenly. When death loomed right before him, it struck like lightning. He recalled the chill creeping up his spine at that moment.
A shiver.
The moment he thought of it, that prickling sensation returned along with the chill. His confused mind cleared in an instant.
"Hm."
Rak nodded curtly.
He didn't know what it was yet. But he was certain it would help in battle.
What he'd longed for so desperately.
Grasping reason amid instinct.
With this, I can beat Belnoa.
Pride swelling, Rak grinned, his teeth glinting.
"...Hm?"
Fiddling idly with the axe at his waist in his excitement, Rak blinked. Something felt off in his field of vision.
...Why no wound?
Rak examined his forearm.
It had definitely grazed the spear shaft, yet there wasn't even a scratch. Rak narrowed his eyes.
...Ashen?
A gray shimmer rippled over his forearm.
Incredibly intricate mana was shielding his body. And it wasn't his mana.
I can't weave mana this finely.
He had a guess.
Rak recalled the conversation with Professor Lania just before departing for field training.
-Rak, let me see that axe?
-Pardon?
-You need to come back in one piece. It's relatively safe there, but you never know on a battlefield.
Saying that, the professor had inscribed something on the axe. From the circumstances, it seemed to be this mana shield. Rak nodded vigorously at the gray mana shimmering over his body.
"She thought of everything."
Rak scolded himself for briefly doubting the professor.
I just followed her words, and I really got the knack. I figured it out.
An astonishing result. Thinking back, nothing the professor said had been wrong. The degree was extreme, but... it had undeniably brought real growth.
Hm, Rak nodded once more.
"Professor Lania after all."
Rak's faith in Lania was growing.
2.
The top floor of the Ashen Mage Tower.
The Next Mage Tower Lord's office.
"......"
There, Zilleon heard the Next Mage Tower Lord's plans. The elderly elder listened intently to Resti's every word. They were worth it.
"...That's all."
When Resti finished.
Zilleon closed his eyes. Eyes shut, he stroked the staff in his hand.
The rough texture caught his fingers.
Stroking the recently cracked section, Zilleon exhaled. It was a sigh, but not mockery of the girl before him.
"I see."
Zilleon opened his eyes.
"You've changed, Resti Eleanor."
Not as an elder, but as an old man who had watched her for years, he said.
"Changed beyond recognition."
The girl's words were sharp.
Not the words of the timid, hiding girl she once was. Nor plans she would have conceived.
Ripping, carving, crumbling.
Uttering those, Resti resembled the previous Ashen Mage from before her. Zilleon saw fragments of that mage in the girl before him.
The second time.
He felt it again now, the same sensation from the professor he met at Aphria.
"...Share your opinion, Elder Zilleon."
"What more is there to say? I'll cooperate fully. If I don't, I risk purgation myself. Do I have a choice?"
Zilleon raised both arms above his head as if surrendering. It was the truth. Cooperate or be purged. Those were the only options.
Not a pipe dream.
A plan ready for immediate execution. It needed resolve, but the girl before him didn't lack it.
Where did she get those documents?
Not something that appears suddenly.
Things discoverable only after long scrutiny of the tower and digging into the elders' backs.
What if, just what if...
Zilleon swallowed dryly.
All this time has been an act.
Feigning frailty, head bowed low...
That would be absurd.
Zilleon shook off the speculation.
He simply harbored the possibility and gazed at the girl. Meeting her unwavering eyes brought one question to mind.
"...May I ask one question."
Resti nodded silently.
Zilleon paused briefly before speaking.
"Your attitude has changed greatly, but is there a reason for this sudden decision?"
"......"
Resti didn't answer right away.
She rolled a cubic magic tool in her palm, then spoke.
"Because I realized it's not so different."
Her gaze fixed on one corner of the office. The wall emblazoned with emblems of past and next Mage Tower Lords.
Many emblems adorned the wall.
At the end was the emblem symbolizing Raniel van Trias. Resti hadn't decided on her own yet.
That day approached.
Resti sensed it wasn't far off. Her three-year stay had ended. Now it was her turn to move forward.
3.
Aphria Academy's barrier repairs were nearing completion. Students bustled through the last weekend before normal operations resumed.
Even late at night, dormitory lights stayed on.
Deep into the night, students couldn't sleep. Bloodshot eyes wrestled with assignments. Most were done.
Just one subject left.
Mana Trading.
Two classes attached to it. The nightmare called Rosel Professor's class for graduates... and...
The deep, terrifying nightmare.
The newly born nightmare: Professor Lania's class.
Filthy difficult subject.
Mana Trading was tough in itself.
Class difficulty went without saying. But up to there. Students didn't complain up to there.
Hard classes just meant more effort.
The problem was the professors directly forcing that effort. As with all things, forced effort bred annoyance.
Assignments.
Students shed bloody tears.
Assignments beyond the pale.
Piles on tables formed mountains and seas. Mountains of circuit solutions, shores of circuit analyses. Students ground their teeth.
Even after exams ended, assignments dragged on.
One alone was gut-wrenching; master-apprentice pair doubled the hell. Students inwardly repeated the professors' names countless times.
...Every night, nightmares visited Aphria.
Nightmares named assignments.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Spring passed, summer arrived.
Aphria under the scorching sun buzzed more than usual.
-Ughhhh...
-Done with assignments...?
-You?
Calling it lively seeing the wrecked students might be off, but...
Anyway, the short but long construction ended.
With a sturdier barrier, Aphria returned to normal. Backlogs from incidents twisted the curriculum. Denser schedules than usual greeted students.
-We'll speed through today's class...
-Tight pace, so stay sharp...
Delayed professors pushed ahead. Per the packed schedule, students attended makeups, crammed spell experiments.
Spell labs bustled daily with students.
The central library overflowed too.
In the dense time, students unwittingly realized.
Finals approaching.
Midterms felt like yesterday, now finals neared. Students sighed.
"Hmph, humph."
Unlike sighs everywhere, a woman strolled the hall humming. Her ash-gray hair swayed in the breeze.
Click-clack.
Heels echoed on the floor.
Heading briskly to the academic bulletin board.
"Huh? Professor Lania?"
Lania van Trias.
"Why here...?"
"Why else? To post a notice."
She slipped through the gathered students, pinned the notice to the board.
"Everyone, check it out."
With that, she turned away.
Students crowded the spot she left, eyeing the notice.
『Mana Trading Basics Group Assignment Guide.』
『Reference Book Code: E8ER-1N0LOQ7』
The academy's flower, group assignments.
It welcomed the assignment-weary students.