Preparing for the Experiential Learning Field Trip
The morning was just 7 o'clock, and the air still carried a chill from the new dawn. I was walking toward the academy.
After the events on the Sky Island, classes had been suspended under the excuse of ensuring student safety and conducting an academy investigation. Today marked the third day back, and school officially resumed.
Of course, since I had left Isolde with Mu, I was not alone. Morgan walked beside me as well.
“Hmmm… It truly is a pleasant morning on the streets.”
I took a deep breath of the cold air that chilled my lungs, speaking as I walked.
It was still early, so as I strolled the empty streets, I caught glimpses of a woman hurrying out with her luggage, a laborer pulling a cart to the market, and shops slowly opening their doors.
Unlike the bustling energy of afternoons, the morning streets held only quiet, scattered chatter. It felt like wandering a dawn beach on a distant shore.
I closed my eyes to savor the calm after finishing temple meals and washing away the exhaustion, but apparently that sentiment was absent in the demon general walking with me.
Morgan wandered her eyes across the peaceful street scene before letting out a small laugh and opening her mouth.
“Who would have thought that even a high-ranking demon executive like me could openly stroll the streets of this bustling human kingdom. It seems the saying that one cannot understand the world was true after all.”
“That said, the moment you reveal you’re a demon, your head will roll. Keep that in mind well.”
“Oh my, how scary.”
Her casual remark about the danger made me immediately cut off her dangerous thoughts.
Because if she continued speaking such things, they would become real.
Only I and the temple’s inner circle knew that Morgan and Isolde were demons. No one in the Fhara Kingdom suspected them of being demons.
In fact, I had never shown the process of subduing them and transporting them to the temple to anyone. The kingdom itself did not even know that two demon executives were in my hands.
What if one of them revealed their true nature? The kingdom would be thrown into chaos in an instant, as clear as the fire ahead.
Fortunately, neither had any intention of speaking, and their words were mere playful teasing. So I merely gave a light warning and moved on. Still, thinking of the potential situation made my stomach twist.
That was why, even knowing it was a joke, I immediately interrupted her. Soon, the sound of a bell echoed as the academy’s gate came into view.
“It’s almost there. That’s the academy’s main gate. Did you memorize the way well?”
“Of course. Forgetting such a simple path would be impossible.”
“Good. When the time comes for you to trust me and I release you, you’ll have to find your way back on your own. Remember that.”
Morgan nodded as if it were obvious when I asked if she had memorized the path from the temple to the academy.
I nodded in response and headed toward the academy gate with her.
“Haa… Haaam…”
As I approached the gate, I saw a guard yawning widely, clearly exhausted from standing watch since the early morning.
But I had no reason to pay him any mind, so I simply greeted him with a nod and led Morgan inside the academy.
The moment I entered, the grandeur of the main building greeted me. Morgan let out a small exclamation of admiration.
“Oh…”
Unfortunately, I did not have the leisure to let Morgan admire the academy right now.
My destination was my private office. I had to sort the incomplete information there first, then wait for Mu to bring Isolde. So I grabbed Morgan’s tail and turned her around.
“I’ll show you the academy tour later. Right now, there’s something more urgent. Come follow me. We’re going to my office.”
“I wanted to tour more slowly, but if that’s the case, then I suppose it can’t be helped.”
With a reluctant step, Morgan followed as I led her up the main building.
We headed to Aria’s office on the third floor.
My office was located only fifty meters away from Class 1-A, where I taught.
Since students had not yet arrived, the quiet third-floor hallway was empty. I walked slowly until I stopped in front of the grand wooden door.
“Here we are.”
“Here?”
When I stopped, Morgan also halted and asked me, and instead of answering, I opened the door with my key and turned on the light inside.
Pop──
“Cough, cough! Damn, I must not have cleaned for too long.”
“Indeed… Crap! It’s so dusty.”
And the moment I turned on the light, dust floated in the air and entered my nostrils, prompting me to cough.
I hadn’t cleaned…
As I glanced around, I saw the office was quite dusty. Morgan looked at it, furrowed her brows, and cautiously stepped inside.
The two days of suspension had included academy cleaning, which we had refused, so nearly five days had passed without cleaning. It made sense for the dust to accumulate to this level. Yet the feeling remained unpleasant.
My lungs, which had refreshed from breathing morning air, felt soiled again, so I cursed and opened the windows. I considered light cleaning, but then gave up the idea.
The dust was there, but it wasn’t at a level that prevented me from sitting. After today’s tasks, I could simply leave it to the cleaning staff.
Thinking this, I brushed off only the dust on my chair and desk and sat down.
Naturally, since Morgan had no seat, she stood beside me.
I glanced at her and picked up the materials I had last seen five days ago on the desk.
“It’s still as is.”
After dusting the papers, the last page from five days ago remained exactly as I had written it.
The page contained the original story of the Human-Demon War and the projected changes. As I read my own writing slowly, Morgan leaned in to look with me.
“What language is this? Humans don’t use a common language?”
“Hm? Ah, right, you really can’t read this.”
Hearing my words, Morgan tilted her head, then after a few seconds nodded in understanding.
This material was not about anything else but the quests that would come next. It summarized the story I remembered and how it would change because I had intervened.
Naturally, it was something no one else should see, so every word was written in Korean.
It was a domestic game, but the characters used inside differed completely from this world’s language.
Therefore, this material written in Korean was something only I could read, and Morgan would never be able to.
I hesitated on how to answer before giving a suitable reply.
“This is our homeland’s traditional script. Since it differs from the common language, it’s natural that you don’t know it.”
“Hmmm… I see.”
Actually, it was the language of another world, but I had no need to explain that, and I certainly couldn’t.
I vaguely dismissed the matter, and Morgan, no longer interested, leaned against the window with a snort. I turned the page from five days ago and picked up my pen.
Because the events on the Sky Island had gone wrong, I needed to transfer the related information into this notebook.
Since I had only captured two demon executives, I also had to prepare countermeasures against the large-scale magic circle Ideia would set up. At the same time, with the Demon King’s sudden appearance, I had to consider the probability of his arrival in future events.
Scratch, scratch────
The sound of the quill moving across the quality parchment echoed pleasantly through the room.
I slowly filled the empty pages with black ink and, whenever a section looked confusing, added footnotes or illustrations.
Once I started concentrating, the dust in the air no longer bothered me, and my hand kept moving.
Morgan, though bored, walked quietly around the office so as not to disturb my focus. I did not stop her.
All material I did not want her to see was in Korean, and the rest was nothing more than this world’s books and random junk.
After a few hours passed, I stretched and stood up, having finished the rough sort.
Only then did Morgan realize the task was complete and walked over.
“You’re finally done? You were really focused.”
“Yeah, it’s mostly finished.”
“Hmmm… If you’re not too tired, could I ask what kind of content you just sorted? If it’s too hard to explain, don’t bother.”
When I said the sorting was complete, Morgan leaned against the window as before and asked.
It seemed she hadn’t been able to draw her interest out inside the office. Or perhaps she simply wanted to know what I had sorted. Either way, the content I had just organized was difficult to explain to her, so I stuck the pen back in its holder and answered.
“Sorry, but I can’t tell you about this. However, I can explain other things. For example, important events that will happen soon.”
“Hmm? That sounds interesting. Can I hear about it?”
“Of course. You both need to know these things, so there’s no problem.”
I couldn’t tell her about the content I had just organized, but I could explain the major story quests that would occur next.
Morgan asked again, still feeling uneasy about what she might learn in the future, and I nodded.
From the beginning, Morgan and Isolde had been intended to join this quest, so they needed to know the essentials.
Hearing my words, Morgan’s eyes sparkled with renewed interest, and I opened the notebook to the page containing the information I would share.
“First, the next important event will take place at the location where our academy is sending its field trip.”
“Field trip? Where are we going?”
“The Undersea Kingdom.”
“The Undersea Kingdom… You mean that kingdom called the history of magic?”
When I mentioned the Undersea Kingdom, Morgan tilted her head slightly, as if she had some knowledge.
The quest name for the next event was simply “Flip the Deep Sea.” It was a quest that would occur in the Undersea Kingdom, where Lua Academy would conduct its field trip.
In my view, the Undersea Kingdom was the only one capable of matching, and perhaps even surpassing, Meiel’s magic power, gathering a civilization of magic that could not be rivaled.
It was the place where the origins of magic had been recorded, just as Morgan had said.
And the story that would unfold in this Undersea Kingdom began with Ideia infiltrating it while leading a small force of demon soldiers.
“Ideia? She’s at the center of this matter?”
“Yes. She is the center of this operation.”
“What exactly is she after that she would go through the trouble of infiltration? She’s not the kind of person who would infiltrate when she could just destroy what she needs.”
Morgan spat out her questions at the news that Ideia was at the center of this.
As she said, Ideia was not the type suited for patient infiltration, and she was also a mischievous, self-willed woman.
Yet there was a reason she had to act this way, and it was because of a single library located in the Undersea Kingdom.
A library that existed long before the kingdom was founded, storing a single book containing every piece of information about everything in the world.
Precisely, it was a library whose sole purpose was to house that one book.
I showed Morgan the drawing of the building in my notebook and spoke.
“The Record Library. That is the location Ideia will infiltrate.”