I Realized It Was an Academy Game After 10 Years – Chapter 84

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“It’s been a while, my friend! How have you been?”

“I’ve been doing alright.”

I sat across from the Security captain who greeted me warmly and held out my wine glass.

The red liquid with a grape aroma filled half the glass.

Wine, huh.

Come to think of it, I had never drunk wine before.

I couldn’t even remember how to hold a wine glass properly.

…How was I supposed to hold a wine glass again?

I glanced at the Security captain’s hand holding his wine glass and tried my best to imitate it.

The liquid in the somewhat precariously held glass tilted.

I wondered how my awkward hand movements looked to the Security captain.

He clinked his glass with mine in a similar posture, as if being considerate of me.

“With wine, you should drink it slowly, savoring the taste.”

“I see.”

I sipped the wine slowly as he said.

The wine I was tasting for the first time was… bitter.

I could sense a subtle sweetness beneath the bitterness, but that was it.

I had to put down the wine glass after barely emptying it.

I needed some snacks.

I took out a jar of dried caterpillars that I had stashed away as a snack from my chest.

“That’s not… what I think it is, is it?”

“It is indeed caterpillars.”

“…Why are you carrying such a thing around?”

“It’s good for you.”

I proudly picked up a dried caterpillar with my fingers and tossed it into my mouth.

The Security captain watched me with a dubious expression.

It was clearly a “Can you really eat that?” kind of look.

How could he refuse something that tasted good and was healthy?

What a waste.

“You certainly have a unique palate, my friend…”

“When you live in places where food is scarce, you have to eat things far worse than this.”

“You must have been through a lot.”

The middle-aged man’s sympathetic gaze tickled my face.

Receiving such a look made me feel a bit conflicted.

I hadn’t thought much of it when Karina or Renny looked at me pityingly, but receiving this gaze here felt a bit strange.

I wonder why.

“Put that look away. What’s important now is that we met to make a deal.”

“A deal… how direct. Well then, what kind of deal have you come to make?”

At his words, I took a moment to gather my thoughts and assembled the words that came to mind.

To persuade important people, I needed plausible words.

Words that sounded somewhat sophisticated and impressive.

“I want to create emergency passages under the Academy.”

“Create emergency passages, you say?”

“It’s to prepare for attacks. The Academy’s facilities are inadequate.”

“The Academy’s facilities are inadequate? There’s no safer place than here except for the Imperial Palace.”

As expected, the Security captain looked at me with a frown.

It was natural.

I knew to some extent about the future, so I was aware that Kalon Academy would be exposed to all sorts of incidents, but others couldn’t know that.

So I needed to give a reason that couldn’t be refuted, one they could accept.

“Do you really think that when there have been two incidents this semester alone that endangered students?”

“…Ugh.”

The Security captain seemed at a loss for words, gritting his teeth and looking down at his wine glass.

The Hell Hound incident.

The 3rd platoon captain’s student kidnapping incident.

They couldn’t do anything when such incidents had occurred.

The Security captain had probably received a barrage of complaints.

He would likely try to strengthen security by expanding the Security force, but it was uncertain whether gathering a ragtag group would provide meaningful help.

Creating emergency passages as I suggested would be more meaningful.

Having one more escape route in case of emergency could significantly increase survival rates against monsters, if not humans.

“…You’re right. Two incidents have already occurred. And we’ve lost the 3rd platoon. It’s not a good situation. I’ve been under a lot of pressure because of it. Emergency passages in this situation… I don’t think the board will approve.”

“Is the board’s approval needed because of the budget?”

“That’s part of it, but to carry out such a large project, we’d need to recruit a large workforce… and with the current outside situation being unfavorable, there won’t be enough manpower. The construction guild, carpentry guild, all those guilds are currently deployed outside.”

“Ah. That’s not a problem. I have a way.”

The Security captain’s eyes lit up at my words.

Looking at me with eyes full of curiosity, he asked,

“Oh? May I ask what method you have in mind?”

“I’ll do it alone.”

“What?”

“I’ll do the construction alone.”

The Security captain looked at me with an expression that suggested he doubted what he had just heard.

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“…Such a passage existed? There was no such passage on the Security’s maps-”

Security Captain Gilbert couldn’t hide his surprise as he looked at the underground passage whose existence he hadn’t even known about.

A passage wide enough for about three people to walk side by side.

Though it was on the narrow side, the very fact that such a passage existed was even more unbelievable.

In Kalon Academy, where there were numerous magicians capable of surveying, no one had known about the existence of this secret passage until now.

“I dug it alone.”

“Don’t joke. There’s no way one person could dig such a large passage! I don’t know how you found it, but isn’t this a secret passage that’s been here since ancient times?”

‘Is he mocking me now?’

Gilbert glared at him, feeling as if he was being made fun of.

Even if he was drunk, he wasn’t the type of man to fall for such bluster.

To begin with, he had only had two glasses of wine, and his tolerance wasn’t so low as to get drunk on that much.

Johann silently gripped the shovel he had been carrying on his back, as if to say ‘Just watch’.

At this movement that seemed to say ‘Just watch’, Gilbert’s sharp gaze scrutinized his body.

Since he was wearing only a light shirt without armor, the shape of his body was clearly visible.

‘He’s no stranger to digging.’

He himself was quite experienced with digging.

During his days as a low-ranking security officer, he had often been mobilized for minor tasks, and after rising in rank, he was in a position to direct such work.

Even to his eyes, Johann’s posture as he held the shovel was extraordinary.

His movements gave the illusion that he had become one with the shovel.

Feeling as if he was watching a master swordsman draw his sword, Gilbert unconsciously swallowed.

‘Am I getting tense over mere digging?’

Gilbert chuckled incredulously.

What was mere digging to make him-

“Watch carefully.”

Johann’s shovel dug into the earthen wall.

A movement so natural it was hard to tell if he had moved at all.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

‘Is he cheating somehow?’

Johann’s figure disappeared in an instant, with only dirt being thrown out of the hole.

The Security captain unconsciously looked around, but he couldn’t sense any other presence.

‘Can a single human produce such speed?’

It was a sight so unbelievable that if he told his subordinates, he was sure they would joke that he had finally gone senile and it was time to retire.

Johann’s digging was so fast that such thoughts couldn’t help but cross his mind.

In the end, all he could do was deny reality.

“…Haha, I must be drunk. There’s no way such a long passage could be made in less than 10 minutes-”

“What you saw was real, so get a grip.”

“What are you saying? I must have seen an illusion! It’s not earth magic, there’s no way it could be dug purely by shoveling! You! What kind of trick did you use! Have you hidden magicians somewhere around here?”

Gilbert went around searching the passage thoroughly, shouting “Is it here? It must be here!” But there was no way non-existent magicians would appear.

Unable to find any magicians, Gilbert had no choice but to turn his gaze to the shovel Johann was holding.

Gilbert approached him briskly and pointed at the shovel, asking,

“This shovel, it’s actually an incredible item, isn’t it?”

“Try it yourself.”

Johann handed the shovel to Gilbert.

Gilbert glared at the shovel as if he would devour it, checking if any magic had been cast on it.

But it was impossible for magic to be cast on an object that was purely true to its essence.

Unable to find any traces of magic, he gripped the shovel properly.

‘I’ll know if I dig myself.’

Gilbert gripped the shovel and drove the blade into the wall.

“Huh. This can’t be…”

Though it dug a bit better, the impact he felt in his hands forced him to acknowledge that this shovel didn’t have any special magic cast on it.

“I don’t know how to use magic.”

“That makes even less sense. Even a magician specializing in earth magic couldn’t create a passage of that length in an instant!”

It might be possible for a grand magician, but the man before him couldn’t be a grand magician.

If he were a being worthy of being called a grand magician, he would finish the job by using magic with a flick of his finger, not by digging himself.

“I’ve never seen anything more absurd in my life.”

“That’s not really important. What do you think? Isn’t it worth investing in?”

“Ha, investment… Investment. If you could do that just once in front of the board, anyone would agree. This insane digging, that is.”

How many workers would be needed to construct at this speed?

Gilbert did some mental calculations.

100 people?

Even if you gathered that many people, they couldn’t dig a passage at that speed.

100 people couldn’t fit in such a narrow passage.

Considering safety issues and the need to refine the passage, the actual working personnel would be about a dozen per passage.

Since distributed investment was possible, they could dig multiple places at once.

‘But it would cost a lot. Hire magicians? I can’t even estimate how much of the Academy’s budget we’d have to pour in.’

Creating emergency passages throughout the Academy was a major construction project that wouldn’t be strange to consume over 50% of the annual budget.

But what if he could do it alone?

‘It’s insane efficiency.’

Crazy efficiency that would only require 10%, no, 5% of the budget he had estimated.

An ability that would make the Civil Engineering Guild want to recruit him even if they had to offer him the position of guild master.

Gilbert barely came to his senses as the shovel dug into the ground and asked him.

“Listen. Your speed is fast, but can you do it all alone? You’ll need to not just dig the passages but also refine them-”

“Crafting.”

Johann activated his skill as if it was too bothersome to answer.

The passage full of shovel marks instantly transformed into a neat passage.

Gilbert laughed incredulously at this unbelievable sight.

“Well. You seem like a person born to do construction.”

“I often thought that myself.”

He was not even out of breath despite doing manual labor at an insane speed.

Gilbert smiled pleasantly, imagining the shocked faces of the high-ranking members of the board.

“You’ll surely become a great person.”

‘I’ve found something to milk for the rest of my life.’

This thought suddenly crossed his mind.

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[bro is a more efficient construction worker than the Mexicans lol]