How to Survive at the Academy

Chapter 53

Glast Subjugation (2)

This concludes my magic notes, regarding my experiences while visiting the southern continent.

After looking around the world, there were many truths about magic that I had yet to realize. My title of ‘archmage’ is nothing but an embarrassment.

As expected, the study of magic is as wide and deep as the ocean. It’s also become difficult for me to draw an outline of it all with these blurry old eyes of mine.

I’m reminded of Silvenia’s belief, to not hastily infer the depths of learning.

It seems that this book will most likely be the last one that I write. It’s a shame that time keeps passing by.

Back in the day, my hands were strong enough to break even steel, but now there are wrinkles between each of these fingers of mine.

I’m sure that if the Great Sage Silvenia, who was the greatest teacher and an idol to all scholars, saw me now… She would burst out laughing.

Silvenia, who died at a young age, is still a beautiful woman in my memory.

Because of her death, I decided to dedicate my life towards academics. Looking back on my life, it seemed to pass by in an instant.

It did not seem all that great at the time, but now that I am in my final years, I see that my life was actually quite eventful.

The sadness that ate at my heart the day my teacher died has now become nothing more than an old memory.

Still, when living a long life, it’s inevitable that you must occasionally face a sense of longing.

As I watch over the starlight at dawn, or the slowly setting sun on the horizon, such emotions suddenly fill me without any warning.

Longing is ultimately accompanied by a bitter loneliness.

Sadness that comes from losing someone will sometimes even hinder your reason.

There are certainly times when suddenly I am faced with the desire to break the providence and twist the truth of this world just to see Silvenia’s face once more.

However, those who are lost are lost.

And those who have lost must become stronger. Sadly, that is the case in life.

And that is why you must be strong.

I dedicate the last sentence of this book to you, who has been the period to the end of my life.

Lucy.

- 『Closing Text』, Magic notes about his experiences when visiting the southern continent (Written by Glockt) Excerpt.

* * *

… There are times when a bad hunch occurs to you for no reason at all. When that happens, you need to organize your thoughts carefully.

When your gut feeling starts to cry out, there is always a good reason for it.

And my present situation was a perfect example of it.

“W-Why are you here…?”

The girl who entered the empty laboratory, with its door open, was someone I was very familiar with.

Her short, wavy brown hair that fell into that innocent face of hers was one that I was extremely familiar with. In the first place, if you played Silvenia's Failed Swordmaster she was someone that you could never forget.

The girl who always remained by the protagonist Taylee’s side, supporting him as they grew together. One of the most important main characters in the storyline. No matter what you did or what route you took, she was a character whose presence could never be lost. The main heroine.

The moment I ended up confronting Ayla Triss in the teacher district’s conference room, all sorts of thoughts flooded my mind.

“Why were you waiting here for me…? D-Don’t come any closer to me…! Heeek…!”

As for me, since I had been called upon by Professor Glast, I went to his personal research lab. However, since there wasn’t a single seat, I decided to sit on the sofa in the waiting room instead. Ayla thinking that I was waiting for her was just a misunderstanding.

I just sat completely still on the sofa as I turned my eyes towards Ayla, who shuddered and ran away towards a wall in a corner of the laboratory by herself.

“……”

She reacted like she had come across a suspicious person. I wasn’t really doing anything, so wasn’t the way she was treating me a bit much?

Well… Even though I felt that my reputation amongst the students had gotten better recently, there was no way Ayla was ever going to show a favorable attitude towards me.

The most fundamental reason that she despised me so much was because of the incident at the entrance examination. As it happened over ten months ago, she might have lessened her anger to some extent, but… Well, it wasn’t like I hadn’t run into her in the meantime.

Above all else, I was the one who kept persistently attacking Ayla, who was weak in terms of practical fighting power, back during the occupation of Ophelis Hall. Even though it was terrible of me, I had used her as their weakness, shooting her with my arrow.

I couldn’t really tell her that I had made it weaker by wrapping the arrow beforehand… Either way, from Ayla’s point of view, there was no way she would ever look at me favorably.

Well, her attitude wasn’t the reason that my mind filled with such thoughts.

It was because of the timing.

The Resonance Transferal of the seal was just around the corner. It was likely an event to signal the start of Act 2’s final chapter.

By the time the resonance transfer took place, Ayla would already be subdued by Glast.

I searched through my memories. Before and after the event, just what was Ayla up to?

Of course, it was extremely difficult to try and search back for such a specific moment… But I was able to clearly recall a scene of her, right around the resonance transfer.

In the main lobby of Trix Hall, the center of the school's administration, the Resonance Transferal of the Sage’s Seal was taking place.

While representatives of both the school and the company sat down together, the seal was to be removed by Professor Glast.

The current resonance owner, Headmaster Obel, would release his authority over it, then leave the stage to allow Lortel to take ownership.

Shortly after, an explosion would go off. All of the pre-engraved Magic Circles around Trix Hall and the Seal’s display shelf would activate after being triggered by magic power, throwing the lobby into chaos.

In the meantime, Glast would steal the seal that no one currently had authority over as he ran to Ayla, who he had subdued with his ‘Time Prison’ magic, back in his Trix Hall personal laboratory. He would then escape into the underground waterways.

“Hey.”

After thinking back on it, I had a minor question regarding Ayla and her actions.

By the time the Seal’s resonance transferal took place, Ayla was already supposed to be subdued by Professor Glast and trapped in his personal laboratory back at Trix Hall.

“Why are you here?”

“I… Just… Professor Glast called on me… Never mind, it’s none of your business.”

I started to think that my ominous gut feeling was starting to become a reality, little by little.

My brain started spiraling.

It was almost time for the meeting. That means that Professor Glast would soon return to his personal laboratory.

As I strained on my ears, I could hear weak footsteps coming from the end of the hallway. It was highly likely that they were coming from Professor Glast, who had completed his work at school. It wouldn’t be a good idea to run down that hallway, as there was a high chance I would run into him one-on-one. Down the hallway of the secluded laboratory, there wouldn’t be any witnesses, either.

I quickly stood up from my seat as I strode up to Ayla, who was by the entrance. I pulled out the dagger wrapped around my thigh as Ayla flinched in surprise.

“Kyaaaaaghk! Wh-What are you doing?!”

I didn’t care about her reaction. I stuck the knife into the edge of the entrance’s wall and turned around, looking at the empty laboratory.

Professor Glast’s private laboratory, which was more than 142 square feet, was full of piles of books and documents.

All sorts of school administrative documents, academic books, personal research journals, entry-level magic books, and more were piled up, filling the entirety of the spacious lab.

I quickly glanced over each cabinet, one by one, as well as the documents that piled up on his desk.

I quickly flipped through the pages of the personal journal that I found in one of the drawers, quickly reading the notes and memos he’d written down.

Most of the content was things I had already known about, so I could read through it quickly. I had already figured out about 90% of the situation already. It was no more than a habit of mine to check if there was even a chance that the future I knew of could have possibly changed.

Nevertheless, there seemed to be no significant variables that would have changed anything.

Just why in the world did Professor Glast call me personally to his personal laboratory? I decided that figuring out the reason was urgent, but no matter how much I looked, it seemed as if the storyline was still following the original timeline properly.

At that rate of progression, without any changes, it wasn’t hard to picture the final scene, where Glast was defeated by Taylee.

However, if there was a small mix-up in the timeline, I would definitely need to check and fix it.

Considering the circumstances, after quickly spinning the gears in my head to figure out what was going on, it seemed that Professor Glast had called Ayla to his personal laboratory to kidnap her.

That wasn’t all that difficult to predict. Because there wasn’t much time left before the Seal’s Resonance Transferal, he would need to start taking action soon.

The question was, why did he also call me there?

Very dimly, my gut feeling started speaking to me. I wasn’t particularly safe, either.

Thump, Thump, Thump

The sound of Professor Glast’s footsteps started to creep closer as he approached the laboratory across the hallway.

“Heeeeeghk…! Heeeeghk… Help me…”

‘All I did was pull out a dagger and approach her. Was it really all that scary…?’

But as I thought about it, I had to change my mind as I realized that it must have been plenty scary for her.

I was sorry for that, but I was in quite a hurry, too.

I poked around Professor Glast’s desk quickly, opening all the drawers. I unfolded all the documents that I could find, reading through them quickly before throwing them down. Then I opened all the magic books, trying to determine what each of them was about.

Opening the cabinets as the contents fell out, I went through all the folders that were finished being handled, all while quickly going through all the official documents he had stored.

Most of the information I found were things I already knew, unimportant, or not related to the incident at all. As I searched through the papers like a thief looking for valuables, I found a file in the corner of a filing cabinet.

‘Record of investigation into the Occupation of Ophelis Hall and the current status of investigation.’

Unfolding the documents, underneath there was a large crystal ball. Among them, there were traces of their investigation into what I had done at Ophelis Hall.

None of this was Professor Glast’s work. Looking at who from the school was in charge of handling this document, there was a name that I recognized.

“I heard that the assistant professor Cleoh entered the northern forest yesterday. Did you see her, Ed?”

Suddenly, the piece of information that Yennekar had given me popped into my memory, its importance suddenly clear.

Looking at the crystal ball laying among the documents, it was definitely the thoughtography crystal ball that the school used. Even though the magic power that was infused into it didn’t reveal anything, it wasn’t difficult for me to infer just what scene the crystal ball had captured.

At that moment, I realized I had to figure out just how things were turning out quickly.

Thud!

Professor Glast opened the door, entering the room.

He was dressed in a neat faculty uniform, wearing a white magician's robe. His skinny body and hair, which stuck out and looked rather fussy, were the same as usual.

“P-Professor Glast!”

Ayla, who was startled, quickly got up.

She quickly hid behind Professor Glast as her body trembled in fear.

“H-Help me, please! That guy is holding a dagger…!”

Heeeeeeeeeeghk!

Hwaaaghk!

Magic power began to fill the entire laboratory. Professor Glast’s collar began to float as if he were in outer space, and for a brief instant my body was hit with an immense pressure.

“Kyaaaghk!”

Professor Glast had reached his hand out to Ayla, who had fallen.

Unlike ordinary mana, which was a clear color by nature, the magic power that Celestial Magic used had more of a reddish color to it.

A sense of magic power, as thick as mud, began to envelop Ayla. Shortly after, the Celestial magic power began to restrain the unconscious girl.

The Celestial Magic ‘Time Prison’.

Once she was subdued by ‘Time Prison’, she hardened like stone—completely stuck in place.

Interestingly, until the magic ended, she would not be able to be affected from the outside in any way.

Pushing, scratching, hitting her with a stone, or cutting her with a knife. It wouldn’t have any effect on Ayla.

“……”

Professor Glast’s expression didn’t change in the slightest.

As if he was just taking care of his business as usual, he reached out towards me without even declaring that I was next. Dark red magic power began to rise from Professor Glast’s body, heading in my direction immediately.

“Mugg!”

It took less than a second to make a decision.

The elemental magic ‘Explosion’ that was imprinted in the dagger that I had stuck into the wall by the entrance activated itself.

By nature, Explosion was also accompanied by quite a long casting time. By imbuing it with the elemental spell beforehand, I was able to omit the entire process producing only the result.

* * *

Translator - Plumper

Proofreader - Harley

* * *

Boom!

“Keughh!”

Caught up in the unexpected explosion, Professor Glast disappeared into the smoke.

I confirmed that he was taking a defensive stance just before he disappeared. He wouldn’t have been defeated just by that one attack.

In the first place, right at the start of the explosion he had instantly cast noise suppression magic to keep the disruption from getting any bigger. It was an incredible show of reflexes and agility, to the point it gave me goosebumps.

Either way, the entrance near that side was blocked, so I couldn’t move hastily. I quickly jumped over to the side, pushing myself underneath Professor Glast’s desk.

‘Time Prison’ didn’t work unless you directly touched the Celestial magic power.

Basically, that dark red mana was really difficult to handle, so if you lost focus even a little it would fade away. As long as I was able to avoid it, I shouldn’t get hurt by it.

“You’re rather quick at figuring out the situation, Ed Rothstaylor. Your actions are extremely smooth.”

In the rising smoke, the light in his eyes started to shine.

“In that short period of time… Did you really manage to go through all my research papers and academic paperwork?”

He seemed to think that I had found out about his true intentions after reading through all of his documents.

There wasn’t any reason for me to do that in the first place. I already knew from the very beginning just what course of action Professor Glast was planning to take.

However, I didn’t expect to get caught up in it.

“I can tell that you were anticipating and preparing for my attack just from your movements and the way you are currently handling the situation. But it’s strange. There’s no way you should have been able to figure out my true intentions just by going through all these documents.”

“Professor Glast, is there really a need for you to subdue me?”

With the desk between us, I started to cast ‘Ignite’ on the tip of my finger.

Before Professor Glast arrived in the laboratory, I gathered all the papers together and piled them up near his desk.

At that point, there was no way to determine what was important and what was not.

But if I were to burn the entire stack of papers, it would certainly cause a problem.

Actually, losing just a few of those papers wasn’t that big a deal.

If I burned a few of his papers, it wasn’t like the entire plan would fall apart immediately. However, I was almost certain that it would set things back.

The Resonance Transferal was that day and the next, so it would be a disaster if things were to go wrong.

Because of that, I could use those documents as a hostage—to some extent, anyway.

Of course, it was a very weak attempt.

If I were to make a mistake, I would just end up sacrificing all of those documents and he would subdue me. However, Professor Glast would want to subdue me quietly using Celestial Magic, trying to avoid as much damage to the documents as possible.

Taking advantage of any cracks in his thought process, if there was even the slightest bit of hesitation an opportunity for negotiations would present itself.

“Professor Glast. This is just a groundless guess, but the reason you need Ayla… Is it because she has an unusual resonance with Celestial Magic? If that’s the case, you have already subdued her, so you’ve achieved your goal. There should be no reason for you to subdue me as well. My lips are sealed, so you won’t have to worry about that.”

“If that were the case, I wouldn’t have called you to my laboratory, would I?”

As long as he had Ayla, wouldn’t everything go according to plan?

I couldn’t understand why he would want to go as far as to call me out and subdue me.

“There’s a reason to have you here. Because of that reason, I hope you don’t think too badly of me.”

Making such vague statements… Wasn’t that too much? Couldn’t he just explain?

Well, to be fair, he didn’t even say a single word when he had subdued Ayla. Maybe it was obvious that he would treat me the same way.

At the rate things were going, if I were subdued, I’d be dragged to Professor Glast’s secret laboratory with Ayla.

A laboratory that was located in the middle of Trix Hall. It wouldn’t be good if things got any bigger, so he was going to try and subdue me with as little magic as possible to avoid attention.

With that being the case, I tried to think of a way to beat Professor Glast and escape from Trix Hall. Though, while thinking of just breaking through the wall altogether, a new possibility suddenly came to my mind.

‘… Wouldn’t it just be okay to get kidnapped?’

That was the sort of reverse-thinking I came up with.

Because ‘Time Prison’ ate up a lot of magic power, there was clearly a time limit. If he were to subdue the two of us, then he would run out of magic power within just a few days.

Just like the original timeline, he’d steal the Sage’s Seal and lock me and Ayla down in his secret laboratory. Then, he would eventually release us from the Time Prison.

Even if things didn’t work out, Taylee’s party would eventually storm down into his secret laboratory and make a scene. At that time, wouldn’t it be best to just grab the things I needed and run away?

The secret laboratory’s layout was something I knew so well, I was completely sick of it. I didn’t have to get a headache dealing with the waterways and secretly following the subjugation team or making Yennekar go through a hard time unnecessarily.

Taylee’s specs were also more than high enough. Plus, the other members of the subjugation team were not weak by any means.

Then… Should I just get kidnapped?

“Hmm…”

My mind started to spin again.

Even if I succeeded in escaping, Professor Glast wouldn’t just stand still and do nothing about it. Rather, it was more likely that the schedule for the Resonance Transferal would be disrupted because Professor Glast would be trying to subdue me after I saw his true colors.

On the other hand, deliberately getting kidnapped was also risky. If things started to go wrong and the storyline went awry during my absence, there would be no one who could take measures against it.

I’d been thoroughly checking the flow of the story, to the point that I wondered if I really needed to go that far, but it was impossible to really know when or how something else would get tangled up.

I had no choice but to weigh each option, determining which one has the bigger risk, eventually choosing what I will do.

“It would be great if you didn’t resist futilely. Since I don’t have time to give a long explanation, I'll have to skip over it. Trust me, it won’t be all that bad a story for you either, Ed Rothstaylor.”

I carefully came out of hiding, stepping away from the desk and looking directly at Professor Glast.

“Oh, did you want to stand against me? Or did you come up with some sort of plan?”

Facing Professor Glast, I stood still with my eyes wide.

The magic power began to rise as he fired it towards me.

* * *

Whoooooooooosh!

With Professor Glast’s Telekinesis Magic, he returned all sorts of documents and magic books back to their original spots.

In his personal laboratory, which had been cleaned up to some extent, there were two people who had been completely hardened.

One was the form of Ayla, who was rolling on the floor with a face of terror.

The other was the form of Ed, who was standing up straight and taking Professor Glast’s magic head-on, not avoiding it.

Professor Glast sat down at his work desk, opening Ed’s investigation report once again.

Bit by bit, he started to remember the conversation he had with Assistant Professor Cleoh, who was in charge of making the report.

“Magic history, Introduction to Spiritual Studies, Elemental Studies Writing, Monster Ecology, Common Magic Power Studies, Principles of Resonance Analysis, Magic Studies, Introduction to Magic Engineering, Herbology, Introduction to Magic Circles, Separate Elemental Studies… He got nearly perfect scores in all of his writing subjects.”

“That’s right! As soon as he entered his second year, his grades all jumped up! His practical classes are still a bit uncertain, but they are still slowly on the rise. His overall magic power is still a bit below average compared to the other second years, but his pace of growth is just ridiculous. Apparently, he even made a contract with a spirit, so it makes sense that he collapsed from overworking.”

Assistant Professor Cleoh spoke excitedly as she tapped the papers.

“When I first saw the change in his grades, I was quite suspicious. I couldn’t believe that he achieved so much in his studies, all while living in the wilds. It’s like he’s living every day by himself for forty-eight hours! Really!”

Assistant Professor Cleoh was looking over Ed’s transcript, which she had received from the school’s headquarters.

In the first place, she wasn’t in charge of his grades, and the number of students she dealt with daily wasn’t small. Because of that, it wasn’t possible for her to know of all the developments in his grades.

However, after her attention started to focus on Ed, she checked over his personal information. Seeing it, she couldn’t help but be completely dumbfounded.

Assistant Professor Cleoh had a pretty good sense of self-management.

She looked like someone with a screw loose, but there was a reason she was a professor even at her young age.

Since she was like that, she could clearly see just how ridiculous the amount of effort Ed had been putting into his daily work and lifestyle was.

“This is… This is the result of really putting in effort, with his life on the line. You should also know this Professor Glast, but Ed’s talent isn’t at a level that could be considered outstanding by any means.”

Before she knew it, Cleoh’s tone of voice was starting to quiet.

“Just how much effort did he put in? To the point he was coughing up blood… I can’t even guess the amount.”

“Whether or not he’s the black curtain and the reason you’re getting this excited over him are completely different matters, Assistant Professor Cleoh.”

“Y-Yes, that’s true. But…! I just didn’t expect his record to be like this…!”

Professor Glast closed the folder and tossed it aside.

Laying back in his chair, he quietly stared at Ed, who had been completely frozen by ‘Time Prison’.

Even at the moment the ominous magic power hit him, he didn’t blink once. His expression also showed no signs of anxiety. It was the moment that he had been hit by Glast’s magic that Professor Glast felt a certain confidence instilled in him, rendering him speechless.

Until he was excommunicated from the Rothstaylor Family, where he had been treated with all sorts of nobility, he lived a life that even a King would even be jealous of.

But less than a year after that fact, his hands were now full of calluses and his body was covered in all sorts of scratches.

His body, which used to look rather slender and weak, was now already full of fine muscles. Even from his collar, you could just start to see his muscles taking shape.

Also, the sense for combat he had seen through the crystal ball was something that couldn’t be easily overlooked.

Controlling the battlefield, thoroughly analyzing his opponents, and taking advantage of all available means to win was an ability that one who was born with natural talent and could defeat everyone could never have.

It was the way the weak fought.

Even if one humbly admitted that they were weaker than their opponent, it was a peak that could only be reached if, and only if, they didn’t give up on winning. The mind had to be stronger than the body.

What came to mind was someone he had ‘lost.’

It was a wound that he thought had healed.

The memory of seeing his only daughter’s back as she went out on her way to assist in the monster subjugation, all to improve her father’s name.

“……”

Glast, who was sitting completely still and organizing his thoughts, ultimately never noticed what was happening.

A small figure, shaped like a bat, popped out from underneath Ed’s collar and quickly flew out the door.

For Professor Glast, who only had the fundamentals of spiritual resonance, didn’t catch that brief moment. There was too much for him to think about.

In the first place, the plan was to only kidnap Ayla. However, he ended up having to subdue Ed as well.

Still, Ed’s social circle wasn’t very large, and he had a mixed reputation, so there wouldn't be a big fuss if he were to disappear. At least for a few days, there wouldn’t be a problem.

It wasn’t an issue to the point that it would cause a major setback in his plans.

Thinking that, Professor Glast quietly started to relax, ridding himself of his nervousness.

***

Smoke rose from the campfire.

The camp was in the northern forest. Over the campfire was a well-made chicken soup, boiling and waiting for someone to taste it.

An elementalist girl continued to hum as she stirred the soup. Meanwhile, another magician with a small frame slept, snoring away on the roof of the cabin.

The two of them looked natural, as if they were living their daily lives… Though the actual owner of the camp was nowhere to be seen.

As the examination period approached, there were many things to take care of coming up to the end of the semester. It was only natural that his return home would be delayed.

Since he was a person that was always busy, it couldn't be helped. With such thoughts in mind, the elementalist girl stared blankly up at the night sky.

As she did so, a burning bat urgently flew through the grass, coming to sit on the girl's shoulder.

As it whispered something into her ear in a desperate manner, little by little the girl stopped moving.

The wind blew by as the trees in the forest began to shake.

The autumn night kept on going on.