Chapter 4: The Road to Ceylon

To get straight to the point, I decided to enroll in Ceylon Academy.

There were two reasons.

Satisfying my curiosity, and safety.

Honestly, I wanted to leave my hometown as soon as possible.

It wasn’t that I particularly disliked this place.

The atmosphere here is nice.

Leisurely and relaxed.

And the air is good too.

Lying in the grassy field near the forge with a gentle breeze blowing, listening to my father’s hammering sounds clanging in the distance, my mind would naturally find peace.

But the boredom was much greater than that.

As I said before, life at the forge was enjoyable, but in my current environment, there was nothing new left to do.

Now I wanted to try hammering something other than iron.

As for safety, there was nothing more to say.

Living within the confines of an academy was far safer than living alone in a city after moving out.

Above all, since it was a school for young masters and ladies, they would have certainly paid attention to security.

So, I accepted the offer to enroll in the academy right on the spot.

William said he would admit me as a special student under his authority and left, saying he would return in a few days to pick me up after reporting to the academy administration.

And today was that day.

“Have a good trip, Tarsha.”

“You can always come back if things get tough.”

My parents were worried at first, but after hearing William’s explanation, they quickly came to understand.

In fact, they had both been contemplating my future career path.

My father, especially, had always wanted me to go to a bigger pond and broaden my horizons, but he couldn’t just grant me independence because of my magiclessness, which had been a real headache for him.

I thought their overprotection was severe, but then I thought about how I was able to safely reach adulthood thanks to their efforts, and I was nothing but grateful.

“If you have any questions about sword-making, send a letter right away. I’ll reply immediately.”

“Alright. You too, if you have anything you’re curious about, be sure to contact this old dad of yours.”

“I wonder if I’ll have anything to ask you, Dad.”

“Haha! In this dad’s eyes, you’re still a child. Your hammering is still not quite up to par.”

“I’ve still built up quite a bit of lean muscle while working, you know?”

When I rolled up my sleeves, small, fine muscles were revealed.

Although it took a lot of time, I was now able to make a sword by myself.

It was all thanks to my father personally teaching me how to hammer and work the bellows.

“Ah. I think the carriage is here. I should get going then.”

When I opened the front door, a carriage and the red-haired Kyla were standing there.

She was staring this way with a blank expression, her arms crossed.

“William is busy with your admission procedures, so I came instead.”

When Kyla waved her staff, the straps of the luggage on my back came undone and flew into the carriage.

…What on earth just happened?

Even after performing something like magic right before my eyes, Kyla had an indifferent expression as if it were nothing.

“Are you done with your goodbyes? Don’t regret it later, do it now.”

“No. I’ve already done them. We can leave now.”

“Alright. Then get in. We have a long way to go.”

As the carriage began to move smoothly, my parents came out to the yard and waved.

I waved back with all my might until they grew smaller and smaller, eventually looking like a dot.

I answered so and looked out the window with my chin cupped in my hand.

In the distance, the receding forge still had black smoke billowing from it.

‘Did Dad go straight to the forge?’

Just then, a finger touched my cheek, and I felt a rough texture.

The calluses that had formed over the past year were already deeply rooted in my hands and fingers.

The events of the past year at the forge came flooding back to me.

When teaching me how to hammer, my father was stricter and more ferocious than a drill sergeant at a military training camp.

My father always said that this was all he had to pass down to me.

He probably wished I would gain something more from the forge.

Right.

When I first fell into this world, I thought of myself as a teacher.

But I wasn’t.

At the same time, I was also a student.

Here, in the village of Carnen, I learned so many things.

And with what I learned here cherished in my heart, I will go to a wider place and learn even more.

As I watched the village entrance we had passed, I made such a resolution in my heart.

---

The journey to Ceylon Academy was quite long.

Kyla and I hurried on towards the academy, staying at inns in the villages along the way.

As befitting a medieval-style fantasy world, there were also bandits on the road who preyed on passing merchants and residents.

We also encountered bandits on our way.

But when Kyla silently took out her staff from the window and created a gust of wind, they immediately cleared the way without attacking us.

“The idiots who would mess with a mage’s carriage are all dead already.”

Kyla said so and glared at me.

‘Is she still holding a grudge about what happened before?’

Honestly, I felt a bit wronged.

I hadn’t held a knife to her skin, I just took a look, yet she reacted so sensitively.

She was truly a mage whose capacity as a human being was as small as her height.

But I didn’t touch Kyla’s body anymore, because I had seen with my own two eyes how she turned the monsters that occasionally appeared during our journey into charcoal with a single swing of her staff.

Anyway.

After running nonstop like that, finally.

“Alright. You should be able to see it soon.”

Kyla pointed to a place far away outside the carriage.

“That’s Ceylon Academy.”

At the tip of her finger, I saw a building soaring high into the sky.

“That’s Ceylon Academy?”

“Huh? No. That’s where the academy’s administration is.”

“What? Then where do we take classes?”

Kyla made a face as if she couldn’t believe it.

“This is why you’re from the boondocks. Haven’t you heard? Everything you see over there is Ceylon Academy. That island itself is Ceylon Academy.”

A sanctuary for those who love learning and research.

Ceylon Academy is formed by numerous educational buildings centered around the towering main building, and the outskirts are lined with shopping districts and convenience facilities for students and teachers.

That was Kyla’s explanation.

“Well. Since I have nothing better to do, I’ll explain the history of Ceylon Academy. Ceylon Academy was the first academy to be established on the continent…”

I sat quietly and tried to listen to Kyla’s words.

But the closer we got to the island.

To be precise, the closer we got to the bridge to cross to the island, the more I found I couldn’t concentrate on her words.

By the time the structure of the bridge became visible to the naked eye, I had already leaned halfway out of the carriage without realizing it.

I muttered in a daze.

“Good heavens of statics.”

What unfolded before my eyes was a structure that was embarrassing to even call a ‘bridge’.

An absurdly thin deck compared to its massive width.

The supports, which should have efficiently distributed the bridge’s load, were far from a beautiful arch shape; they were just a few thick pillars stuck vertically.

‘With such a simple support structure, it shouldn’t be able to handle the immense bending moment.’

“What is that? That, that bridge!”

At my urgent voice, Kyla glanced out the window with an annoyed look.

“What’s the matter? First time seeing a bridge? That’s the Ceylon Grand Bridge. It’s almost a mile long and 60 feet wide, the only way into the academy.”

A mile?

Roughly 1.6 kilometers.

And 60 feet wide… about 18 meters?

Converting it to the SI system made it even more real.

The person who designed this was insane.

If it’s built like that, it’s not strange for cracks to start forming from the center due to its own weight, and for it to collapse not in a week, but tomorrow!

No, forget about mechanics knowledge, it just looks unstable at a glance!

“Are you crazy? We can’t cross that bridge! It’s going to collapse! Turn the carriage around right nooow!!!!!”

I screamed almost hysterically and threw myself towards the driver’s seat.

The driver was flustered and the carriage shook violently, but I didn’t care.

It was better for the carriage to overturn here than to cross over a structure that was no different from a suicide mission.

But I was quickly restrained by an invisible force.

It was Kyla’s magic.

“Calm down, kid. Don’t act like such a country bumpkin.”

Kyla looked at me as if I were pathetic and said.

“Do you know how sturdy that bridge is? It’s been standing in that spot for hundreds of years, and it can last for another few hundred. You don’t need to worry about it collapsing.”

“No way! That’s structurally impossible! If you calculate the load and moment right now. No, I mean, what a moment is… Ugh, I’m really going crazy.”

As I tried to argue, spouting engineering terms, Kyla pointed to the underside of the bridge with her finger.

“See that?”

At the tip of her finger, pale blue magic circles were engraved on the bridge’s deck and pillars, glowing faintly.

It was a pattern that seemed to connect the entire bridge like a spider’s web.

“They’re levitation and structural reinforcement magic circles. They distribute the bridge’s weight and strengthen the structure itself. So the things you’re worried about won’t happen.”

“Magic circles?”

Only then did I recall the scene I saw at my father’s forge.

The image of my father, who knew that a merely quenched sword was weak, trying to solve the problem with ‘magic enchantment’ instead of heat treatment.

This massive bridge was the same.

The structural instability, the absence of basic engineering principles, were all being patched up with the convenient tool called ‘magic’.

“Are those magic circles permanent?”

I asked in a slightly calmer voice.

Though I was ignorant about magic and mana, I could intuitively guess that supporting a structure of that scale would require immense magical power.

“How could they be permanent? The magic circles themselves have to be periodically re-engraved.”

Kyla added, looking slightly proud.

“In the past, the technology was lacking, so they had to be repaired once a month, and overly heavy cargo was restricted from passing. But it’s different now. The efficiency of the magic circles has improved tremendously, so now they only need to be checked about once every six months, and they can easily withstand the weight of most siege weapons.”

Then, as if exhilarated, she clenched her fist and trembled.

“Magic evolves! The academy is at the forefront of magical development, and this Ceylon Grand Bridge is a historic structure that symbolizes that magical development!”

Finally, she triumphantly puffed out a chest that wasn’t there.

But inside, I was thinking this.

‘Instead of advancing engineering technology, they poured all their efforts into improving magic efficiency.’

In a way, it might have been a rational choice.

Since they already had a powerful tool called magic, there would have been no need to explore other paths.

Just as horse-drawn carriages didn’t disappear for a while even after the steam engine was invented.

The direction of technological development is always determined amidst complex interests and inertia.

But still, isn’t this too inefficient?

Isn’t it more efficient to reinforce a stable building with magic than to reinforce an unstable one with magic?

Besides, what if, for some reason, those magic circles suddenly lost their effect?

Just imagining it was terrifying.

I leaned back in the carriage and muttered.

“I roughly understand. The common sense of this world.”

And what I could do.

As if my worries were wrong, the carriage proceeded smoothly over the bridge.

Far away.

The image of the great hall of learning that encompassed the entire island, Ceylon Academy, came into sharper focus.

My mind, which had just been in an uproar, was already spinning with various thoughts.

---

Early in the morning, in the Tactical Training Hall of Ceylon Academy.

In a place empty because it was too early, a woman was fiercely throwing punches.

The woman with straight black hair had a thick, black-scaled tail attached above her buttocks.

This was a symbol of the ‘Dragonkin’, who inherited the blood of earth dragons among the beastmen races.

Pow-! Pow-!

Every time she hit the wooden dummy, a sound of something exploding was heard.

How long did that sound last?

“Ugh…!”

The woman knelt down as if in pain.

‘My body is too hot…’

Is this the limit, no matter how hard I try?

With that thought, she attached a piece of paper with a magic circle drawn on it to her body.

When she infused it with mana, a chill flowed out from within and cooled her skin.

But even so, her heated body did not cool down easily.

The moment the exhausted woman lay flat on her back on the floor.

“Ah. There you are, Zelia.”

The person who came to find her was a staff member from the academy’s female dormitory.

The dragonkin woman.

As Zelia tried to get up, the staff member stopped her.

“Ah, it’s fine. You can listen while lying down.”

“…Yes. What is it?”

“Yes. Actually. Starting today, you’re getting a roommate.”

“What?”

Zelia frowned.

Basically, the academy’s female dormitory rooms are for two people.

But the new students who enrolled this term were an odd number, so Zelia was using a two-person room by herself.

“I can’t help it. I’ll clean up the room.”

“Yes, please do. Ah. And there was something Head Sword Instructor William asked me to tell you.”

Zelia raised her head.

Head Sword Instructor William himself?

“Your roommate. She’s magicless, so he asked you to be careful not to let her get hurt.”

“Please take good care of her!” the staff member said with a cheerful greeting before disappearing out the door.

Left alone, Zelia sat quietly and thought about who her future roommate might be.

“Magicless, huh…”

Within the academy, discrimination is forbidden by the rules.

Nevertheless, Zelia already disliked her roommate, whom she hadn’t even seen.