Field Trip(2)

“Ah, you’ve arrived.”

As we landed with our clothes fluttering beside Mira, among the professors opening the huge gate, Mira turned to look at us while lowering her staff.

It seemed Mira was also contributing to opening the huge gate, but fortunately, what the professors opening the gate were doing was only infusing magic power into the gate whose coordinates had already been calculated.

To put it simply, it was just filling a pre-made water tank with water, so there would be no problem even if one person like Mira took her hands off.

“Yes, you said to bring all my siblings today, so I brought them… but why did you call us?”

“Ah, you all came as I asked. Thank you.”

Mira looked us over once, confirmed that everyone was indeed here, and then thanked us.

And before answering my question, Mira first handed each of us a piece of paper.

Flutter──

“This is…?”

“It’s the schedule for the field trip. First of all, all the students are planning to carry backpacks. Since there’s no need to stop at places like accommodations, we’re thinking of efficiently dividing into groups of ten and assigning six professors to each group to move around separately.”

“Separately, you say?”

The paper Mira handed over was none other than a paper with places to visit during the field trip and a simple map of those places drawn on it.

When I lightly touched the paper, it seemed there was something written on the back as well, so I turned it over to find a list of students that my avatars, Isolde, and Morgan – a total of six professors – would be in charge of.

“Hm?”

And as I read the list of students I would be in charge of, I suddenly felt something strange and blinked.

Wondering if I had seen wrong, I closed my eyes tightly once and opened them again, but the content written on the paper didn’t change.

Therefore, I turned my gaze from the paper and looked at Mira with suspicious eyes.

“Is this… really the correct list?”

“Yes, of course.”

Mira answered without a moment’s hesitation.

I looked down at the names written on the list again.

The list of students I would be in charge of included Arin, Kana, Riana, Shati, Pina, and five other extra students.

Excluding the five extra students, only students who were connected to me, let alone having a relationship with me, were on my list.

Looking at this list that didn’t seem to be normally arranged no matter how I looked at it, I asked Mira with a face that seemed to say ‘perhaps’:

“I’m asking just in case, but can I know who made this list?”

“Of course, I made it all from start to finish?”

“…This is an abuse of power.”

“It’s power I only use at times like this~”

Mira answered, playfully dragging out the end of her words.

A laugh that naturally drained my strength burst out at those words boldly admitting that she had manipulated it to her liking to arrange the groups.

But of course, from my standpoint, this group arrangement was very good, and since Mira was also a mage and the dean of the academy, I didn’t think she had arranged it like this without any thought, so I fluttered the paper I was holding in front of Mira’s eyes.

“It’s more than fine for me to be in charge of such a group, but may I ask why you arranged the groups like this?”

“Yes, of course I can answer if it’s you, Aria. The reason I put those students in the group with you and your siblings is simple.”

Mira nodded at my question and then pointed with her eyes to the students not far away.

Students about 50m away. Those children were none other than Arin, Kana, Riana, and Shati who were on my list.

Mira pointed at them once and then continued her briefly interrupted words:

“Regardless of talent or study, a field trip is essentially a kind of play where you walk around directly on your own feet, see with your own eyes, and learn. But such play can’t remain a good memory if done with a teacher who doesn’t get along well.”

“So these students…?”

“Yes, I put all those students who have a connection with you, Yujia, Kama, and Meiyel.”

I see, it made sense.

For students, to be honest, a field trip felt more like going on a trip than learning.

If we were to move separately by groups, wouldn’t it be better to be with teachers they’re close to normally?

I was like that too in my original world.

Of course, since it was my avatars who had deep connections with these five, it was natural to put them in my group for that reason.

Right away, Arin, Kana, Riana, and Shati were students in my class, and Pina was the Pope’s daughter who always ran into me at the temple.

Honestly, I couldn’t remember the names of the other five extras well, but I think I had encountered them quite often.

They seemed to be students who asked a lot of questions in various ways, but since my memory was vague, it should be fine to just gloss over it.

Having finished understanding, I nodded at Mira’s words and then put the paper away in my chest before asking Mira:

“Is that all you called us for?”

“Ah, yes. We’ll be opening the gate soon, so you can rest comfortably until then.”

“Then we’ll…”

I wanted to rest as much as possible now, since we would have to keep moving without rest once we went on the field trip.

Just thinking about everything from finding Idea to monitoring the Library of Records once the field trip started gave me a headache.

We would probably be busy without a moment to breathe once the field trip began.

Therefore, after receiving permission from Mira to leave, I was thinking of taking everyone to rest in some corner, but unfortunately, Mira’s voice held us back before I could take a step.

Or… more precisely:

“Ah! Meiyel, please stay! If Meiyel is here, we can fill the remaining gate magic within 1 minute!”

“Just me…?”

“Yes, only Meiyel needs to stay.”

Mira’s voice held back only Meiyel among us.

Mu looked up at me with her eyes trembling, as Mira held back only her.

Seeing that gaze that seemed to desperately request help, I closed my mouth and gently patted Mu’s shoulder.

“Work hard, Meiyel.”

“…Sister.”

The more capable you are, the harder you have to work in life.

---

Woooong───

It had been about 3 minutes since we threw Meiyel to Mira and left. The magic wave of the huge gate resonated through the noisy main sports field.

A vibration that swept through the whole body as if an earthquake had occurred. Eventually, I muttered as I watched the even purple cracks appearing in the air:

“It seems they finished already after taking Mu.”

“That’s right. It’s quite fast for opening a large gate of that distance. Of course, it’s quite late considering they said 1 minute, but still.”

“Do you really need to add that last remark?”

It seemed they had opened the gate in an instant as they said, after desperately taking only Mu.

A gate completed in such a short time that one could boil a stew, as they told us.

Isolde, who was watching the scene together beside me, also nodded in agreement, though she added an unnecessary remark.

And as if speaking of the devil, just as Isolde finished speaking, Mu flew towards us from far away and landed.

“Sorry, sister… We finished infusing magic 2 minutes ago, but… we were late because of verification work to check…”

“It’s fine. There wasn’t any particular problem. By the way, how much magic did you use to take 1 minute?”

Mu landed with her robe fluttering in the wind and apologized for being late.

I waved my hand at Mu who was unnecessarily apologizing and asked what I had been curious about since earlier.

The appearance Mu is taking now is none other than Meiyel’s. A mage avatar that, although weaker than Aria or Yujia, at least in terms of magic quantity and long-range firepower, no one could match.

If it took 1 minute even with Mu in Meiyel’s form charging magic at full power, one could tell that the amount of magic this gate consumed was considerable.

And to this question of mine, Mu answered while twirling her side hair with her finger:

“About… one-hundredth of my magic…? I think I used about that much… The reason it took so long is because if I put it in too quickly, it wouldn’t balance with the other professors and would overload… Then we’d have to recalculate the coordinates…”

To summarize Mu’s words roughly, it meant that she could have finished quickly, but the magic infusion amount of the surrounding professors was so pathetic that she couldn’t finish quickly.

If Mu had the infusion amount of a large waterfall, the other professors had the infusion amount of a valley stream, so she must have had a hard time reducing her large waterfall to about a valley stream.

Actually, the fuel efficiency of a gate consuming about 1/100 of Meiyel’s magic was amazing, but considering the distance from the academy to the underwater kingdom, it wasn’t that much.

The distance from the academy to the gate zone of the underwater kingdom was about 300km, so if Mu filled about half of the magic, it could be said to be rather appropriate.

Anyway, it meant that she had somehow properly finished the job despite the extremely poor equipment, so I lightly hugged and patted Mu’s head, who had finished her work diligently while we rested.

“Good job, Meiyel. You worked hard.”

“Mm… sister…”

Praise that I don’t usually give easily.

As it was praise not easily received, Mu enjoyed this praise of mine with her whole body and smiled, and as that time passed, the expressions of Morgan and Isolde standing behind gradually frowned.

It seemed they were quite displeased, as they sent sharp glances, but I ignored them and continued patting Mu.

This was like filling up fuel to use Mu more efficiently, so it was necessary. Especially on a day like today when I needed to use 100% of Mu.

And just as this praise of mine was gradually withering, Mira’s voice filled the main sports field.

《Please pay attention, everyone. Today is the field trip day for you first-years, so wouldn’t it be good to concentrate quickly and finish quickly?》

Mira’s voice resonated, buzzing as if she had amplified it with sound amplification magic.

Naturally, the heads of most students turned towards Mira where the voice was coming from, and Mira continued speaking, making the students who weren’t concentrating focus with her characteristically cool and quick progression.

《I don’t like dragging things out, so let’s finish quickly. After all, I’m not going on the field trip today, so there’s no need for a dean you won’t even see to speak at length, right?》

Laughter burst out here and there at Mira’s humorous words. Actually, from my standpoint of seeing Mira often beside her, there wasn’t much excitement, no different from the game.

But it seemed to be a joke that worked for the students and other professors, as Mira moved on to the main point right away as the laughter gradually subsided.

《Some of you may have heard, but today’s field trip will be conducted in groups. From now on, we’ll display the professors of the group you’ll belong to on the back of your hands. You should all be gathered together, so find them on your own, okay?》

An explanation that was truly unkind, throwing away and cutting down unnecessary content. But since it contained all the essentials, the students had no difficulty understanding.

As soon as Mira’s words ended, photos of professors floated up on the backs of the students’ hands.

The students began to look around in all directions to find the professors displayed on the backs of their hands.

Although the main sports field was large, most of the professors including myself were located on the outskirts, so it didn’t take long for the students to find their groups.

Most began to gather around their assigned professors within about a minute, and soon familiar faces of students walked towards where we were.

“Ah, there they are!”

“That’s right. There they were.”

Arin discovered us first, and then Riana standing beside her confirmed us before calling the other students in the same group around her.

And other students stretched out behind Arin, gathering at Riana’s call.

Watching the students walking towards us with confident steps, I lightly raised my hand and greeted them.

“Welcome, everyone. Well, there’s no need for introductions. We’ll be in charge of you for today’s field trip.”

“Nice to meet you…”

“It’s fortunate that we have to take care of you.”

“Really. It would have been troublesome if it were other kids.”

Mu, Isolde, and Morgan also greeted after me.

In the case of Isolde and Morgan, their words sounded more like picking a fight than greetings, but since they were half words of praise, I just let it pass.

And the first student to react to our greetings was surprisingly Pina.

“Trave-, I mean… Professors, please take care of us today.”

“…Sure.”

Pina, who approached with a slightly reddened face as if extremely excited despite being at the academy, shouted like that. I can roughly guess the reason.

Since Pina liked us, she probably couldn’t contain the wave of emotion in her heart at seeing us all gathered like this.

She was so excited that the word ‘traveler’ almost slipped out of Pina’s mouth by mistake.

While sweating at that, I accepted Pina’s greeting, and I also accepted the greetings that the other students offered in turn.

The representative characters like Arin and the others greeted saying they were really glad to be going on the field trip together, and the extra students greeted normally with looks of amazement at seeing us gathered, like the students outside the main sports field earlier.

But although the atmosphere of the greetings was all different, it was certain that they all welcomed us, so I moved the students standing messily in front of me back.

“First, since there are 10 of you, stand in two rows. It’s better to line up in advance rather than after we get there.”

“””Yes!!!”””

The first thing to do on a field trip is to maintain order. Since the underwater kingdom was a large kingdom similar in size to the Phara Kingdom, maintaining order was basic to walk around such crowded streets.

The students quickly moved according to my words and lined up in two rows.

And with good timing, as the students lined up, Mira, who had paused briefly, raised her voice again using sound amplification magic.

《You’ve all found the group you belong to, right? Then shall we start having the groups closest to the gate enter slowly from now on?》

As soon as Mira’s words ended, one group close to the gate side began to enter the gate under the guidance of Mira and other guiding professors.

Our current location was in a corner of the main sports field a little far from the gate. Therefore, I led the students slowly, walking in front with Mu.

“Let’s go quickly too. We can’t be later than the other groups.”

“Yes, Professor!”

“Isolde, you come beside me and Meiyel. And Morgan, Yujia, Kama, you protect the children from behind.”

“Got it.”

“That’s easy.”

At my words, Isolde gently floated up and landed beside me and Mu, and Morgan moved behind the students with the duplicates.

One demon in front and back. It was a formation to monitor Idea who might pop out from anywhere.

In reality, arranging the groups to go separately like this made it largely meaningless, but I hoped that at least the discovery wouldn’t be late.

And before preparing for Idea, having professors in front and back like this was a natural arrangement for field trips, so I began to lead the students, looking at the neatly arranged lines.

“Alright, then let’s depart!”

“Yes!”

“Understood.”

“Let’s go quickly, Professor!”

Leading the excited students, I slowly pushed my body into the gate.

---

In the air above the blue sea.

In a place that could be called the open sea since only the sea could be seen no matter where one looked around, small dots were floating in the air.

No, not small dots. Looking more closely, what seemed like small dots took the form of about a dozen men and women with pale skin.

And among such people, the woman with purple hair and glacier-blue eyes floating in the center, named Idea, tapped the staff she was riding on and opened her mouth.

“Haphras, Teardrop. Have you finished all the preparations?”

“Yes, Lady Idea.”

“All preparations are complete.”

Two men and women bowed deeply at Idea’s question.

They were demon great generals Idea had brought, and had the highest combat power in the demon army excluding the executives.

The two maintained their deeply bowed postures and added:

“We’ve already finished occupying the location of the Library of Records and surrounding buildings by sending assassins from within our demon army.”

“And we’re currently waiting at the gate zone to monitor the movements of the academy coming to the underwater kingdom.”

“Is that so? Well done. Your work is quite neat?”

There was no playful tone mixed in as usual, like dragging out the end of words or frivolous joking.

On that day, more precisely, on the day when her only remaining family and most precious younger sister was kidnapped by humans, the usual playful atmosphere disappeared from Idea.

After that day when she lost Isolde, what remained in Idea’s eyes was vicious anger and sadness sunk beneath it.

Idea nodded as she listened to Haphras and Teardrop’s words with eyes shining with such emotions.

The assassin-type demon soldiers she had sent in advance had succeeded in the missions they were entrusted with.

Seizing the buildings around the Library of Records and monitoring the academy’s movements.

The seized buildings would probably be discovered in a few days, but it wasn’t a problem. Originally, the time Idea would be in the underwater kingdom was just today.

It was enough to have hideouts to briefly stay and conceal themselves, and strongholds to block the academy personnel.

“The order received from the Demon King is to prevent anyone from entering the Library of Records and to seize the book located in the Library of Records.”

The order the Demon King gave to Idea.

It was to prevent anyone from entering the Library of Records and at the same time seize one book that the Library of Records was keeping.

And what Idea had to do for this was clear.

“Listen, everyone. From now on, we’re going to kill all the human scum who came from the academy.”

Idea said, looking at the dozen men and women flying behind her.

The 10 elite demons and 2 demon great generals Idea brought. They were truly a powerful force that could be called an elite few.

Of course, even if all of them were combined, they weren’t as strong as Idea alone, but there would be no difficulty in dealing with the dregs from the academy. Perhaps it was even too much.

Therefore, Idea shouted to them with clear eyes as she pulled up the killing intent that had sunk beneath her eyes:

“Our goal is only one. To capture the Library of Records to fulfill the Demon King’s order, and to gather at the library we capture…”

To annihilate all the damn humans who kidnapped my sister.

After those words dripping with killing intent ended, Idea and the demons slowly sank into the deep sea.

Towards the underwater kingdom deep in this sea.

---

The underwater kingdom was literally a kingdom located deep under the sea.

For ordinary humans, the underwater kingdom would be a place they could never visit in their lifetime, but if you ask how so many tourists can visit it in modern times, it was because the underwater kingdom side was very open.

The residents of the underwater kingdom were fish people. More precisely, they were fish people who were born as their bodies changed due to primordial magic deep in the sea.

These fish people had fins on their ears, arms, and legs, and scales on their skin, but other than that, they were not much different from humans.

And while fish people could breathe in the sea, they could also breathe normally on land, so they, who had grown up as mages with magic from the beginning, opened the doors of their kingdom with curiosity towards other races on land.

Following the nature of mages, they wanted to fill their desire for more knowledge by interacting with the kingdoms of other races on land.

Of course, since the underwater kingdom, the only kingdom in the deep sea, proposed to interact first, there were no countries that would refuse this.s, fairies, elves, all connected paths to the underwater kingdom along with the fish people who approached warmly, and as a result of continuing such exchanges, the underwater kingdom became a prosperous country where numerous races gathered, even more so than the Phara Kingdom.

Of course, while the Phara Kingdom gathered various races as adventurers or academy students, most in the underwater kingdom were for tourism or commercial purposes, but anyway, this is how the modern underwater kingdom was created.

A kingdom of growth, developing while accepting the cultures of other races along with the history of magic.

Thanks to this, the underwater kingdom was able to grow to a size similar to the Phara Kingdom in a short time.

The Phara Kingdom was so huge that it took a full day to walk from one side of the city wall to the opposite side.

Because it was this wide, the Phara Kingdom was distinguished by several areas as the east, west, south, and north of the kingdom.

A kingdom of similar size to this Phara Kingdom had its doors wide open in the deep sea, so it couldn’t help but become famous as a tourist destination.

And at the same time, since it was a kingdom that had been with the beginning of magic, that is, primordial magic, the academy often visited this underwater kingdom for learning purposes.

Since the underwater kingdom was not connected to land by road, there was only one way to enter the underwater kingdom.

To open a door using gate magic.

And in the gate zone of the underwater kingdom where gates are created and disappear every day, I took one step out of the huge gate created there.

Wooong──

I came out of the gate with a sensation sticking to my body as if passing through a huge pudding.

“Sniff… Haa…”

The first thing to react when passing through the gate was my nose.

The scent of salty seawater filled my nose, which had been breathing inland air mixed with the scent of grass just moments ago.

At the same time, the moisture mixed in the air moistened my nose, and then the cold air cooled my lungs, but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. Rather, it felt like my body was being washed by the refreshing sensation.

It seemed no different for Mu beside me, Arin’s group behind, or students from other groups, as sounds of inhaling like mine could be heard here and there.

And after taking one big breath in and out, I gently lifted my eyelids that I had closed to pass through the gate.

Was it because I couldn’t accept the new scenery unfolded before my eyes for a very brief moment? It feels like my eyelids were opened very leisurely, taking their time.

The scenery slowly, slowly coming into view from small slits until my eyes were fully open.

And the next moment when I fully opened my eyes, I inadvertently let out an exclamation at the blue and bright scenery filling my vision.

“Ooh…”

“Wooow…”

“What a beautiful scenery.”

The first thing that caught my eye was the endless huge road stretching out in front and the buildings erected around it.

Perhaps because it was truly a city under the sea, those buildings built with materials that could only be obtained in the deep sea contained a unique beauty that I couldn’t take my eyes off.

But if I barely managed to take my eyes off the endlessly stretching buildings and looked around, I could see an enormous air bubble enclosing from the ground all the way up to the sky high above.

A truly enormous air bubble surrounding the entire underwater kingdom. This air bubble was probably blocking the pressure and invasion of the sea while creating oxygen.

And the magic circle visible above it was not dazzling, but emitted a strong light as powerful as sunlight, making it no less than a small sun for the underwater kingdom.

A small sun illuminating the underwater kingdom, which should normally be dark since not a single ray of light would enter the deep sea.

The students who had been thinking such thoughts about the magical sunlight opened their mouths, unable to contain their surprise.

Students gaping their mouths so wide that they wouldn’t notice even if a bug flew in.

But it wasn’t that I couldn’t understand that feeling, so I looked around the underwater kingdom with a calm face while inwardly suppressing the still boiling emotion of admiration.

“I never thought it would be this beautiful. Mm, it certainly was.”

Although it was a scenery I had seen countless times to the point of boredom in the game, seeing it directly with my own eyes, smelling it with my nose, hearing it with my ears, and feeling it with my skin was truly on a different dimension.

The difference in how it felt was so great that I wondered if the scenery I saw through the flat monitor was really the same as this.

“It must be the same, but… it’s certainly on a different level.”

That emotion I just felt is truly an emotion I’ve never experienced in the game.

I honestly acknowledged that while nodding my head, and when I was about to organize my churning emotions as well, suddenly someone behind me tugged on my sleeve.

“Professor! Then where are we going first?”

“Hm?”

Wondering who it was, I turned around to find it was none other than Shati who pulled my arm.

Was it because we came to the underwater kingdom where the history of magic is alive and breathing? Shati asked me that with an even more excited face than usual.

Of course, the faces of the other students were also full of expectation, though not as much as Shati.

I tilted my head wondering what she was talking about since there hadn’t even been an order to depart yet, but only after looking at the other groups excluding ours could I understand why Shati had said such a thing.

“Alright, kids, let’s depart!”

“Yes, Professor!”

“Then shall we depart too?”

“Where are we going first?”

“Let’s go too~”

“Yes!”

The professors of other groups already starting to take care of their students and move.

Of course, I thought there would be a superior to tell us separately when to depart, but it seemed that since Dean Mira wasn’t here, they were moving on their own as soon as they arrived here.

And having confirmed this, I let out a short sound and took out the paper I had neatly folded and put away in my chest earlier.

“Then let’s go too. Wait a moment.”

I told the students to wait and unfolded the paper to look at the tourist attractions within the underwater kingdom that Mira had written down.

Numerous places written on the paper. Among them, I first pushed the Library of Records to the very back.

It would be best not to go there, as we really don’t know what might happen.

Therefore, after excluding the Library of Records from the places to visit, I widened my eyes as I looked at one of the most eye-catching places among the others.

“This place isn’t bad.”

“Where…?”

Mu asking after hearing my muttering.

I pointed out the place I had found to Mu. And seeing that, Mu stroked her chin and let out a pondering sound.

Eventually, Mu opened her eyes and nodded to me, saying:

“I think it’s fine…”

“Is that so. Then let’s go here.”

The destination was naturally decided when Mu agreed as well.

After deciding on the destination, I folded the paper I had unfolded and put it back in my chest, then turned to look at the children who were still looking at me with expectant eyes and said:

Honestly, I don’t think it will please everyone, but things in this underwater kingdom were on a different level, so it was a place we absolutely had to visit.

“From now on, we’re going to the weapon shop.”

A large weapon shop that adventurers are said to always visit even within the underwater kingdom.

I smiled slightly as I announced the name of the place we would depart for now.

Since we have money anyway, it should be fine to get the kids fitted for a weapon each.