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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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[Lockstryn Aindarok.
Your courage in running away after stealing the family heirloom as you pleased is commendable. I paid ten times the price to buy back the treasure you sold off for a pittance.
You, who cannot even understand my teachings, what did you hope to learn by suddenly enrolling in Somerbadge? Did you so wish to bring shame to this name of Aindarok?
I will not mince words. If you are not coming back, then show me results befitting your irresponsible decision.
I will come to see you myself as soon as the midterm exams are over.]
“What is this—”
Fwoosh!
I couldn’t believe my eyes, and in the middle of reading it a second time, the letter burst into flames.
“What is this nonsense?”
To think I hadn’t set up the circumstances of Lockstryn’s enrollment in Somerbadge.
What? Stole a family heirloom and ran away?
Sold it for a pittance?
For Coltman’s personality to convey this directly meant he was considerably angry. Even from my perspective, I had done something outrageous.
“Isn’t this guy crazy.”
Unless I was going to point fingers at myself in the mirror, getting angry was useless. What a bolt from the blue.
The last line in particular was the finishing touch.
He’s coming in person? To Somerbadge?
My father, Coltman, is likely the only person who knows about Lockstryn’s pathetic talent.
This was nothing more than a polite declaration that he was going to grab me and drag me back.
“I’m busy enough as it is…”
The problems I faced were mountainous.
First, there was the event following the aftermath of the Night Raid episode. I couldn’t just rest like this.
Starting today, I had to properly look after Hira Yuchsilla, and I had to pore over theory every day to learn 2-star magic.
And in the midst of all that, Coltman is gracing Somerbadge with his presence. Since he specifically mentioned the midterms, it meant I had to get good grades as well.
‘This is not the time for this.’
I pushed my body, which felt heavy enough to melt right into the bed, to get up.
Ainim told me to rest well, but if I did that, everyone would die.
The wound on my arm was fine, moving normally with just a scar remaining. It was the power of healing magic.
The shoulders of this pathetic, fake protagonist are heavy. I grabbed the hood hanging by the window, put it on, and left the tower.
“It’s a mess.”
It seemed they had just begun the cleanup, as the corpses of monsters were still scattered everywhere.
There were more corpses around the Tower of Truth than I had thought.
I had only killed about ten while passing through Central Avenue, but the number of corpses in the area was, at a glance, ten times that.
‘Was it Eruia?’
The air was dry.
I told her to go up and get a good night’s sleep. It seems she went out and cleared the nearby monsters while I was out looking for Kanin.
Since it was after she had encountered a monster, at Eruia’s level, she wouldn’t have been injured.
“How on earth could so many monsters…”
“We have no face to show the students.”
“Hey, it’s dangerous, step back!”
Perhaps because there was still a shortage of manpower, excluding the onlookers who had flocked in, the professors were also seen personally clearing away the monster corpses.
The beautiful spring campus was nowhere to be seen, and only blood and flesh were splattered everywhere, creating a foul stench.
“You there?”
As I walked down Central Avenue, Professor Bertolt, whom I had briefly met last night, acknowledged me.
“You’re working hard.”
“You’re the one who worked hard. Thanks to you, it ended with just this much. You took care of the monsters around the tower, so the students were safe.”
“Ah, yes. Well…”
Most of the credit belonged to Eruia, but it was difficult to deny it outright since I had my share of ten, so I ended up nodding my head in a flurry.
“Is the wound on your arm better?”
“I received healing magic.”
“That’s a relief. About that…”
Professor Bertolt, after a moment of choosing his words, placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t, don’t be too disheartened. They said they had been dead for quite some time. No matter how fast you moved, it would have been difficult.”
“I’m fine.”
“Hmm, right. That’s good then.”
I gave a light bow and left. He’s a young and capable professor, but his meddlesome nature is his flaw.
Despite how it looked, that was a script signifying success.
If I had brought a clumsy professor other than Kanin, or if I hadn’t arrived on time and the monster had escaped the practice room, the player would have died or there would have been many more casualties.
That didn’t mean the job was done, so I headed back towards the northwest of the campus.
“This way, this way!”
“Should we trim all the branches?”
“Move it carefully! It’s expensive!”
As the place where a high-level monster had appeared, the practice room was also where manpower had gathered the fastest.
The work of clearing the fallen trees and debris using external labor was in full swing.
The one in control of the site was Kanin. He looked tired from fighting monsters all night, yet he was holding his ground.
“Hey, this area is dangerous…”
“Let him in.”
“Ah, yes sir.”
I was about to be stopped for a moment by a worker moving a tree, but Kanin let me through.
I crossed the boundary line and strode inside. I’ve never seen such a mess. The completely overturned ground looked as if a typhoon had swept through.
“You must be tired, you should be resting.”
“I came here as soon as I woke up. My wound is completely healed.”
“The cleanup isn’t finished yet.”
“It’s fine.”
Kanin did not stop me.
Seeing me return on my own two feet after experiencing such an ordeal must have meant my will was strong. It would be useless to try and turn me away.
“I didn’t understand.”
Kanin was looking at the floor.
The place where the giant tunnel had been.
He had filled it in immediately for fear that more monsters might rush in, but thinking about it now, it was not without a hint of rashness.
I looked at the same place as Kanin.
“What is it?”
“The raid itself, that can happen. I heard similar incidents have occurred throughout the empire.”
“Yes. That mysterious tunnel.”
Since it had occurred quite recently—just before the episode began—the news had only arrived right after the night raid took place.
The empire’s leadership was just now facing this strange phenomenon and racking their brains over it.
“But this scale is a first for Somerbadge. And anywhere on the continent, for that matter.”
“That is so.”
“It’s also puzzling that three high-level monsters, which you would have to go quite far into the north to see, appeared, but above all.”
Unless you were in a place like the northern Aindarok territory, a high-level monster is a creature you’d be lucky to see once in your life.
Isn’t it too extreme to see it as a simple string of bad luck? Thus, a loose end to cling to emerges.
“They were all starving.”
“They were.”
A high-level monster is certainly a great threat, enough to be called a disaster, but when encountered in the wilderness, there is a surprisingly high chance of not being attacked.
Monsters are not particularly hostile to humans. They just happen to have magic in their bodies; their minds are no different from beasts.
When they are hungry, if what is in front of them is a human, they eat the human.
If it’s an animal, they eat the animal, and if it’s a monster, they eat the monster.
They even eat plants. That’s all there is to it.
“You saw it too.”
Then a question arises.
The season is spring.
It’s not even winter when the activity ranges of many other prey narrows.
High-level monsters that reign in a position to be able to swallow anything they encounter at will.
Why were they so starved?
“This may be an impertinent thing to say.”
“I do not mind.”
“I wonder if my thought, that this might be some sort of attack with a firm will, is going too far.”
The veteran mage closed his eyes.
Lockstryn is looking at the same place as him, thinking the same thing. But it is a word that should not be uttered carelessly.
“An attack on the empire, you say.”
“Of course, it’s still close to speculation. We don’t know what the environment inside that tunnel is like.”
That was why Kanin had been staring at the ground. All the tunnels were narrow and rough, enough for only small monsters to pass through, but only one place.
The tunnel in front of this practice room was large enough for a high-level monster to pass through.
“I was in a hurry.”
“Even if it remained, we wouldn’t have been able to go deep inside anyway. But the traces aren’t only inside the tunnel.”
“…I told you. The cleanup isn’t finished.”
“That’s why it’s meaningful.”
The cleanup isn’t finished.
In other words, they haven’t recovered the students’ bodies yet.
After killing the two high-level monsters, Kanin left the practice room as it was. This is because such incidents usually need to be recorded on video.
“It’s not a pleasant sight to show a student who has just become a freshman. But I was planning to check it again myself.”
Kanin led the way with a grave voice.
The entrance to the practice room was strictly controlled until the video recording device, a magitool, could be brought, but Kanin, as the person in charge, could come and go freely.
Thump, thump.
It was a staircase leading deep underground.
The dawn light vanished in an instant. Normally, the interior lights would have been shining brightly so it could be used day or night, but now many of them were broken and gone.
Soon, as soon as the stairs ended, a leg sticking out from beyond the corner came into view.
“The first student.”
I felt dizzy for a moment but didn’t show it.
Where Kanin referred to as a student.
The protruding leg.
That was all there was.
“Judging by the faint traces of fire magic, it’s Aldin.”
“The name tag… how did you retrieve it?”
“It’s not like I’m hiding it, but it seems no one told you. The name tags on your uniforms are made of a special material.”
This was a detail I hadn’t set. It’s too much.
“There are three holes on the back. It’s where the magic stones are embedded.”
“This is the first I’ve heard of it.”
“Thanks to that, it doesn’t burn in fire or rot in water. Even if a monster eats you and your bones melt, the name tag will be fine.”
“……I see.”
“If this was intended for times like this, it’s quite a bad taste. I pulled them out of the guts of the monsters I killed. There they are.”
Furredleg.
This monster, covered in grayish fur, was a master at stabbing its prey to death by flailing its eight awl-like legs indiscriminately.
Now, on the contrary, it was dead, its whole body pierced by hundreds of sharp earthen spikes that had shot up from the ground. It was Kanin’s work.
“There are three more nearby.”
The situation was the same.
Only an arm was left, or only a leg. Or only a head was left lying there.
“The head belongs to Cromwell, but this arm and leg both feel of earth magic. There’s no way to tell if it’s Zixen or Droian. We’ll have to do an identification.”
If it weren’t for Kanin’s calm tone, I would have thrown up right then and there.
It was also thanks to the fact that I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch yesterday.
“The rest were all inside that thing, so there’s nothing left. I only managed to retrieve the name tags.”
‘A Dirty Job’.
The name wasn’t intended with that meaning.
But this was clearly a ‘dirty job’ in the literal sense. The reason my steps were heavy wasn’t for some grand reason. The blood that hadn’t dried yet stuck to the soles of my shoes.
I leaned on the blood-splattered wall and barely moved forward.
“Be careful. There’s still acid left.”
Drool.
Characterized by a particularly large abdomen and a lumpy body, it has a habit of spraying digestive fluid that melts even steel to incapacitate its prey and swallow it whole.
Since Kanin had completely torn open its belly, the inside was empty. A few pieces of blackened bone that hadn’t completely melted were rolling on the floor.
The clue to the event lies with this one.
If you’re not conscious of it, you’ll inevitably overlook it.
“Look.”
“Is there something?”
“There are marks left on its ankle.”
I lowered my posture flat and pointed to the creature’s ankle, which was as thick as an elephant’s leg. Kanin narrowed his eyes.
The mark of a shackle.
It was clear evidence that the Drool was being controlled by someone.
“Ha, this is ridiculous…”
“But Professor. This could be discovered at any time. Once the video recording device is set up and the investigation proceeds, anyone would find it.”
Since the scene is controlled, entry is impossible for anyone other than Kanin.
Of course, Kanin is not the culprit. Because he is a good man who cherishes this country terribly and devotes his all for the students of Thaumaturgy.
“So if I were the culprit. Before the video recording device arrives—”
I raised my index finger and pointed to the ceiling. It was the perfect timing.
“I would have tried to collapse this entire practice room.”
Rumble!
As I spoke, the ceiling began to collapse.
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