Ch.6666. The Academy of the Rom Empire

The Holy City, capital of the Rom Empire.

This city, the capital of the world’s most powerful nation, was as always teeming with people burning with academic fervor.

However, this phenomenon was, in a way, strange.

No matter how many fantasy elements were involved, it was fundamentally an ancient state.

How could educational enthusiasm burn so brightly in the capital of the Rom Empire, which was, after all, just an ancient state?

Of course, there were various reasons for this, the most representative being the bureaucratic system of the Rom Empire.

*Anat, goddess of wisdom, strategy, knowledge, and invention.

According to the wisdom goddess Anat’s guidance, this Holy City conducts what amounts to modern civil service examinations.

Of course, there are ways to advance through connections or various gift-giving techniques.

In fact, this route is faster and more effective than becoming a high-ranking official solely through passing the civil service exam.

However, for those from poor families without such connections or money, the only way to rise in society is by studying and passing the exam.

Naturally, various educational facilities began sprouting up throughout the Holy City.

And beyond just civil service exam preparation, facilities with diverse purposes began to appear one by one.

Among these educational facilities, there was one place that was both the most popular and unique in the Holy City.

That place was the Magic Academy.

Due to the nature of magic studies in the Holy City being under the direct intervention of Anat, the goddess of wisdom, private magic schools were legally prohibited.

While the dangerous nature of magic was one reason for this, an even bigger reason was the issue of monopoly.

This Magic Academy, established under adults’ unsavory circumstances… well, what more needs to be said?

It was a space exclusively for magical families to educate their children, where external students didn’t even exist.

Of course, the concept of “magical families” was itself ambiguous… the main reason being that magical talent couldn’t be passed down through bloodlines.

Compared to normal cases, while the probability might be higher, it wasn’t guaranteed that a child would inherit magical talent.

Except for the lucky few who inherited talent, most families ended up adopting talented children.

Perhaps because this world was based on a game, or because it was a world that wouldn’t feel out of place as a game,

magic that could only be learned by specific bloodlines didn’t exist, at least not among humans.

Anyway, the Magic Academy was where these adopted children were gathered and educated.

And recently at this Magic Academy…

“Hey, do you have ‘that’?”

“All gone. You know how popular it is, right?”

One of the forbidden texts known as ‘that’ among them—

The scripture of the Vengeance Cult was being circulated very secretly, just as in other academies.

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In fact, looking at it one way, such occurrences were inevitable.

The scripture of the Vengeance Cult, while bearing religious colors, was also a terrible hybrid that cherry-picked the best ideas from philosophical texts throughout humanity’s 6,000-year history.

To draw an analogy, it was like communism designating an absolute ruler who controls all government groups as a god.

Though somewhat more complex, this simple action compensated for various weaknesses of communism.

Especially since this ideology—a kind of original hypnotic application that had dyed countless intellectuals red for hundreds of years since its first appearance—was actively reflected in the scripture.

It was obvious how this book, which could be seen as a philosophical text depending on one’s perspective despite being called scripture, would appear to young people full of vigor and energy.

Cases of approaching it academically only to end up dyed red.

Cases of reading it for criticism but being persuaded and becoming supporters.

Cases of reading it because “I can’t resist forbidden books” and falling right in.

Though the circumstances varied, the vigorous young people who fell victim to the world’s first hypnotic application showed several distinct reactions.

First, there were those who accepted it as an ideology and continued their research.

These moderates treated the Vengeance Cult’s scripture purely as an academic subject, merely offering a brief prayer before research as praise for the wisdom of the god who put forth such ideas.

But where there are moderates, there are also hardliners.

Those who couldn’t control their vigor and ended up completely dyed r—ahem.

Anyway, these hardliners worked more actively to realize the society described in the scripture.

To some eyes they might appear as dreamers, to others as delusional madmen, and to yet others as potentially dangerous terrorists.

But despite being treated as madmen even by their academy peers,

they went beyond not turning away from this and actively began working in various ways.

Inciting the poor in back alleys, persuading friends to join the cause.

Or hiding their intentions while striving for high positions in magic towers, or even secretly organizing societies—

《Find those who seek vengeance.》

“I-is that you, God of Vengeance? Y-you?”

Some even joined the Vengeance Cult after meeting a certain figure in their dreams and following divine guidance.

These passionate hardliners were each finding their own paths.

And though their voices might be quieter than the hardliners and moderates, there were also neutrals whose numbers exceeded the other two combined.

They read the Vengeance Cult’s scripture and treated it beyond academics as faith, but didn’t actively participate.

They prayed daily to the God of Vengeance, but this didn’t lead to active involvement.

They secretly worshipped only as a form of personal faith…

Yet they too were deeply captivated by the ideology.

If a rebellion were to break out in the Holy City, these neutrals would be the ones willing to participate.

Anyway, while the academy students were broadly divided into these three categories,

there were exceptions who didn’t fit these classifications, notably non-students who had fallen for the ideology.

And there existed someone who embodied the word “exception” perfectly.

“…I see, yes. This is—love!”

He was a professor known as an eccentric genius within the Magic Academy.

The so-called love-sick Lunifer Paicentrius.

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Lunifer Paicentrius.

As an adopted son of the Paicentrius family, one of the five prestigious magical houses in the Rom Empire with a long history, he was an incredible genius.

Born with magical sight that could see the mana permeating nature, he also possessed innate magical affinity counted among the best in history, and was highly intelligent.

Thanks to this, he became the first person in history to master 3LV magic while still a student.

With his talent and passion for magic, after graduation he became an assistant professor, aiming to become a full professor at the academy, but now…

“Everyone! Let’s have another day filled with love!!!”

“(Is he like that again? What’s going on?)”

“(I heard the academy rejected his resignation.)”

“(……..Oh.)”

Formally speaking, he had become an eccentric; speaking directly and primitively, he had become what people commonly called a madman.

The cause that transformed him from a mere genius to this state was none other than the harsh life of an assistant professor at the academy.

The life of an assistant professor at the academy was so severe that one couldn’t endure it without something breaking in their mind.

Therefore, to survive there, he eventually lost his sanity and became a madman who accepted everything as love.

Professors exploiting him was because they loved him; attempts to steal his papers were out of love for their positions.

And his “accidentally” putting such a professor in harm’s way was also because he loved them—

He did it because he didn’t want to see the professor’s ugly side anymore.

Though Lunifer had developed an almost cognitive dissonance level of thinking, having gone mad, he feared nothing.

“Now then, assistant professors, let’s have another time overflowing with love—!!! Ah, Randel. That theory, this formula is wrong.”

“…Professor, haven’t you been watching from the beginning?”

“Yes! That’s right.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me…”

“Because watching you work so hard, that too is—love!!!”

This madman obsessed with love one day came across the scripture of the Vengeance Cult.

“Ohhh, ohhhh, ohhhhhhhhhh—!!!!”

Who could have known this would become the turning point in his life?