Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Rural Development Magic Club
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Delaiten had a club system in place to promote student exchange and competition.
For quick understanding, here are three examples of such clubs.
1. Combat Magic Club.
2. Fire-Attribute Magic Club.
3. Festival Magic Club.
Clubs formed when students with shared goals and motivations gathered together. Once they secured approval from an advisor professor or instructor, they were recognized as official clubs and even received activity funding.
“Ooh, there are more decent ones here than I thought.”
In front of the school’s main building, at the club fair stalls.
Stroking his chin as he scanned the posters decorating the stalls, quite a few interesting clubs caught his eye.
▶Adventure Magic Club:
1. In partnership with the Adventurers’ Alliance Southern District, once basic training is complete, members can actually team up with real adventurers for missions.
2. Get advice straight from alumni who’ve become actual adventurers!
3. Better to live free than cooped up in a magic tower your whole life!
Oh, adventurers?
It looked fun at first glance, and sure enough, it was one of the most popular clubs with overflowing applicants every year, making competition fierce.
“Didn’t Ludwig tell you anything? Heirs of the great magic houses have to join this one.”
Of course, he didn’t have the leisure to quietly browse the clubs, thanks to Christa Warden stuck to him like gum.
“That’s not an issue.”
“Why not?”
“My father won’t care where I join.”
“No way.”
He replied offhandedly and turned back to the posters, but Gertrude Fenton, standing beside Christa, spoke up.
“The Magic Volleyball Club is a royal club. It’s a must for upholding the glory of the great magic houses. You could even call it an obligation.”
“Obligation?”
“When Kevn Ludwig and Chancellor Madelia Page were members of the Magic Volleyball Club, that era was called Delaiten’s golden age. They won championship after championship as super aces.”
While most topics had only one club, Magic Volleyball—the one called a royal club—was the exception.
This game of volleyball played with a magic ball was a pastime only those with overwhelming magical talent could enjoy.
To set, spike, or receive the ball, players had to fling themselves around like in regular volleyball—and on top of that, perform magic calculations mentally.
Traditionally, there was one club from the great magic houses, one from the Eight Great Academies, and two from mid-tier and minor academies.
‘Obligation, huh...’
Being born into nobility didn’t seem all good. Duties chained you down at every turn.
“But the Sculpture Magic Club looks more fun. And this one—Rural Development Magic Club? Oh, what’s this?”
He suddenly recalled something Rista had said long ago, back in some desert chilled by night’s cold, when she sat beside him as he stood watch with a book in hand.
- Once the world knows peace, people will be able to pursue what they want, even if just a little. Right now, so many are just focused on survival...
Back then, magic was almost entirely focused on combat, so academic diversity was hard to come by.
Even in his childhood, before that long summer began, an odd tension hung over the world because of the Black Church.
He’d flipped the page without much reaction, but then Rista had placed a hand on his head and said:
- When Lin grows up, the world will have rich varieties of life. I’d love for Lin to protect those ways of living.
Protect what? The world had rolled on fine for 300 years without him...
He touched the crown of his head where Rista’s hand had rested back then, but that unknown warmth she’d carried was gone forever.
With a wry smile, he turned away from those desert memories and the stall—only for a bewildered voice to call from behind.
“...You heard me, right, Young Master? Where are you going?”
“Checking out the Rural Development Magic Club.”
Gertrude glared at the boy’s retreating back as he waved and walked off, so dumbfounded she let out a hollow breath.
‘He can’t not know Magic Volleyball is an essential virtue even in social gatherings of highborn mages.’
Was he just lacking confidence?
Magic Volleyball did demand overwhelming talent... but that didn’t mean an heir to a great house could skip it.
‘The glory of the Ludwig family—which has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Page family as a leading magic house for a century—might end with Rain’s generation.’
Realization dawning there, a triumphant smile curled Gertrude’s lips.
‘The Page eldest daughter vanished after some incident. And now the Ludwigs’ fall... Lady Christa will usher in the Warden era.’
She turned proudly to her beloved mistress, Christa—and blinked.
“...?!”
She was gone.
Where had Christa Warden disappeared to? No way she followed Rain...?
* * *
“I was just curious about the Rural Development Magic Club, that’s all.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s absolutely not because I’m following you. Got it?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
It was the fifth time he’d heard it. Rain sighed.
The Rural Development Magic Club was located on the third floor of the Dragon-Scale Hall, the western annex. Christa had said it wasn’t a great spot.
The door was half-open, but just as he raised a hand to knock out of courtesy, a sharp yell made him flinch.
“You can’t take this club! How can you expect us to accept such absurd terms!”
It was a thin, reedy male voice.
Heavily agitated and laced with fear, it was answered by a man’s voice so relaxed it bordered on arrogance.
“Might makes right. That’s the Delaiten club rule, isn’t it? What can I do about it? You’d know better than me, senpai.”
This voice...
Christa’s eyebrows twitched warily, and Rain shot her a look demanding an explanation.
“Don’t know? It’s Logan. Chaihak Academy’s junior ace.”
“Chaihak Academy...”
“What’s to know. They specialize in churning out Wing Type mages.”
“Who doesn’t?”
In magic usage, there were three mainstream schools.
One was Remidier.
The “Readers.”
They prepared magic circles on paper talismans, inscribed runes, and calculated formulas in advance, then used the talisman as a catalyst to cast.
Most southern mages belonged here. Easy entry was the pro, but the low ceiling—unable to reach higher stages—was the con.
Another was Wing.
“From the body.”
Less magic, more martial arts-focused.
They drew magic circles on their bodies and activated them as needed to enhance the physique.
Naturally geared for close combat, they were once branded heretics among mages.
The Slade family and Chaihak Academy were prime examples of Wing Type mages.
The last was Bargante.
“Fingers.”
They formed hand seals mimicking runes to simplify magic circle construction and rune inscription, gaining overwhelming casting speed.
Of course, the simplified runes and circles sacrificed raw power.
While southern mages (northerners called everyone south of Eleanor the Great “southerners”) pursued technique and artistry in magic, northern mages chased practicality—and all used Bargante.
For reference, the northern Osarius Academy—famed for producing Great Mage Lin—was the flagship for Bargante mages.
Yet all three schools aimed for the same pinnacle: Yorhen Type. Yorhen meant “Thinkers.”
Those who cast all magic via mental calculation alone were Yorhen. You couldn’t even qualify as a Great Mage, let alone a Sage, without it.
But Yorhen was reserved for the rarest geniuses.
So southern mages stuck to Remidier, northern to Bargante.
Ambitious types studied all three, cherry-picking advantages for quicker, easier strength.
“So let’s settle it with a magic duel and pick a clear winner? I’m offering the best terms since you don’t have the guts, senpai.”
“...!”
“Why even need a Rural Development club? Who cares?”
Something was going down. Rain shot Christa a questioning look.
“Not unusual. Clubs are limited in number—by the number of rooms.”
“?”
“So if you want to start your own but there’s no vacancy, you overpower an existing one with raw magic skill.”
Delaiten’s cutthroat competition philosophy applied to clubs too, Christa added matter-of-factly.
“Solve everything with magic?”
“Sounds good, right?”
“Can’t argue there.”
It wasn’t a bad system.
If survival hinged on contests of strength, no one could slack on studies or club activities. They’d have to work several times harder.
‘So this Chaihak punk’s trying to snatch this club to make room for his own...’
Whatever. Rain wanted no part in the hassle. Let them sort it.
‘Wasn’t even here to join—just curious...’
He turned to leave without regret, but the man yelled, barely suppressing fear.
“You Eight Great Academy snobs will never get it—math research and academic advancement aren’t all there is to magic!”
“Hmm, then what is?”
“Farming, civil engineering, disaster relief—magic hasn’t been properly integrated there yet!”
“So?”
“If we build systems where ordinary folk get magic’s help, poverty could vanish! This club was founded by seniors to research exactly that! We won’t hand it over!”
That cry, that echo—like a voice from the past—grabbed Rain’s foot for a moment.
“Ha, damn it...”
Rain scowled, ruffled his hair, and let out a deep sigh. Nagging him even after death...
“Rain? Hey.”
He turned toward the club room. The argument continued inside.
“Hahaha! You serious? If that were possible, Great Mages and Sages would’ve done it ages ago!”
“...!”
“What right do you first-years have to yap when you can’t even defend one club?”
“I-I mean, magic isn’t just about that approach!”
“Then win the duel. That simple. No talent, huh? Figures, with a pathetic president like—”
“—Fine. Let’s duel. Magic battle.”
It wasn’t the club president who cut Logan off sharply.
The president—pinned against the wall, glasses half-shattered—went wide-eyed. Logan turned, frowning.
“You...”
Rain wasn’t here to help some stranger. That wasn’t his style.
“Me?”
Then why?
Honestly, even he couldn’t explain his own actions right then. Or rather, he knew but didn’t want to admit it.
- Magic really can do anything, huh.
One day on the journey, when he’d used water magic to create an oasis in the desert to beat the heat and refill supplies.
Before the fireside talk about protecting life’s rich varieties, Rista had opened with exactly that.
He’d shrugged it off, of course.
- Not anything. Plenty it can’t do.
- Imagine a humble fisherman getting that kind of benefit. He’d say the same thing.
It was a question he’d harbored since first learning magic.
Magic was so incredible—why was he born in the slums? With such power existing, why were there still beggars and thieves?
- Lin, one favor?
- What?
- After the expedition, can you make some spells? Simple ones ordinary people could learn and use with basic mana.
Spells that let a farmer shed a small sigh of relief someday, or a fisherman a quiet cry of joy.
- Make them with your own hands, Lin.
What had flashed through his mind as he’d nearly left the room was that day’s smile from Rista. And...
“A newbie who just joined.”
The boy didn’t know it then.
What truth really was...
The intellect of the Great Mage who’d once wandered in search of it was, bit by bit, steadily drawing closer to truth.
Socrafres.
- Inherit progress of ‘unique magic’ research from surrounding environment.
- Progress 37.1% => 37.9%.