episode_0126

000

“Lyla Flamewatch. I have arrived.”

A space all white, the Monad’s Hall.

Beyond the tent-draped wall, the silhouettes of the Elders could be seen.

They had been whispering to each other until Lyla arrived, but they stopped talking all at once at the arrival of the girl who had answered their call, and they turned their gaze to Lyla.

Gazes that felt like an appraisal crawled from the top of her head to her toes, but Lyla stood there with a mechanical attitude, without changing her expression.

“Lyla Flamewatch. Granddaughter of Agni Flamewatch, top of the magic department. And, an existence that once disappointed us.”

The voice of a man who could be called the representative of the Elders rings out.

The others were all silent as if they were his assistants, but Lyla could feel that their gazes contained a mocking attitude towards her.

Ah. It was the same feeling when I came here a year ago.

For them, Lyla is not a genius magician or a talented young person.

An Elder – a crimson magician who took a different path from them and went into hiding in the countryside, in other words, Agni Flamewatch’s half-baked granddaughter, who could be considered a ‘traitor’ to them.

When Lyla first knocked on the door of the Academy, how much would they have ridiculed Agni?

Look. Your granddaughter came to our school, which you pointed your finger at for forgetting its duty, and bowed her head.

“… …”

Without giving any particular answer, Lyla looks at the person beyond the tent.

One year later, nothing had changed. No, it could be said that it had gotten worse.

As the Black Covenant, one of the darknesses that existed deep within the Academy, was completely purged by the previous incident, for the Council of Elders who had been checking each other while using each other.

Now, the reality has arrived that they can solidify their control over the Academy without having to read their faces.

“I heard that you played a significant role in resolving the disaster caused by the Black Covenant. I would like to take this opportunity to commend you. If you wish, you can prepare for the position of the next Elder candidate once again.”

That is the reason why Lyla fundamentally came to the Academy.

Even being obsessed with research to the point where it was difficult to use her time like a human being every day.

In the process, she achieved such remarkable results in flame magic that no one could match.

Even tempting a foolish human named Albein and trying to bring him back to the Academy.

All to become a member of the 12 Elders and make them acknowledge her and her grandfather.

And, to use the power she gained based on that to achieve the Academy that her grandfather wanted.

“However. There is a condition.”

The Elders beyond the tent speak to Lyla, who does not answer.

“Swordmaster Cleon… Somehow, keep him tied to this Academy. We will not ask about the means or methods. There is something different about him than other swordmasters or heroes.”

Cleon, the person who stopped the Black Covenant’s rampage together with Lyla, and the one who contributed the most to the incident.

If it weren’t for him, the Ancient One’s brainwashing might have invaded even the Monad’s Hall by now, and the Elders might also have become puppets of the Black Covenant and Rail.

“If he becomes an existence that works for us. Lyla. We will accept you as a member of the 12 Elders.”

Considering that, the Elders’ demands were an expression of such ungrateful and selfish desires.

The Elders’ gazes were still focused on Lyla, who was standing still without opening her mouth.

From the center of the building with an evil structure that reflects the pure white light falling from the sky and confuses the mind.

Wondering what Lyla is thinking, she suddenly takes something out of her pocket and shows it.

It was an object with a person’s face as the main feature on a small circular plate made of brass.

“…Is that Imperial currency?”

The representative of the Elders recognizes it and opens his mouth.

It is an Imperial currency that is no longer used.

In the past, when the Empire’s power was strong, it was an object that had a value similar to the Kingdom’s silver coins, or perhaps even gold coins.

At the end of the war, the Empire collapsed, and now even its remnants are hiding in places where the sun does not shine.

The number is so large that it is not historically meaningful, and it has fallen to the level of a souvenir.

“I appreciate your kindness, but your offer is the same as this Imperial currency to me.”

“…What?”

The Elders whisper among themselves at Lyla’s words.

Some think there is a hidden meaning, others accept it literally.

And, there were also those who recognized the intention and were angry.

“For the past me, it would have been a definitely attractive offer. I might have accepted it on the spot. With a confident face. Like the me from a while ago.”

But Lyla had changed. She had fallen, failed, despaired, and faced herself in the deepest part of her that had been scraped away.

She thought she had become a slightly better human being by realizing the value of things that were more precious than anything else.

“The Elders’ offer has become worthless to me. The position of Elder? To offer that much for Cleon?”

Lyla, who had been looking at them with a blank expression, frowned.

“The price doesn’t match. Are you stupid?”

And, she threw away even the minimum amount of courtesy she had been trying to maintain and revealed her anger.

“I think I know now why my grandfather left you and went into hiding in Hellis. If I had analyzed it a little more calmly, I would have been able to figure it out. I was stupid too.”

“Bitch… Watch your words. All the rights you are enjoying in the Academy can be taken away with one of our orders.”

The representative of the Elders, looking at Lyla, who is not hiding her animosity towards the Elders, also puts up a fight.

“You don’t seem to be worried about the life of your friend whom you met after a long time… Beatrix?”

“… …”

And as expected, what followed was a threat. It touches the weakest part for Lyla.

They were the most hideous intellectuals who knew the vulnerable parts of the human heart the best.

They are the ones who can cross the established lines of ethics without hesitation for the sake of intellectual desire and power desire.

All the guys here are no different from the Eye Magician of the Execution Department who came to Elesia at that time – Beatrix’s older sister.

Lyla thought that, and they thought she was scared of their threats.

A laughter that seemed to ridicule was heard among the Elders.

“Incompetent. Cowardly. No pride as intellectuals. Cowards. Greedy Elders like you… You can’t do anything to Beatrix, who has the courage to live for someone even if she loses everything.”

The Elders’ laughter stopped abruptly at Lyla’s answer.

“You have a grandiose name called the Monad’s Hall. But in the end, you are afraid of the Black Covenant and hide in this dimension-isolated space where their hands cannot reach. You don’t even show your faces, and you only know how to wield the power you have. I will never kneel before you again.”

Lyla’s voice was clearly mixed with ridicule.

In the next moment, the person who could be called the representative of the Elders opened his mouth and shouted a name filled with rage.

“Sephar!”

Then, something appears from the transfer magic circle engraved on the ceiling of the Monad’s Hall and falls into the space where Lyla is.

It was a similar object to the ‘Guardian Golem’ that blocks people from entering the Monad’s Hall from the outside.

But its output and size were so powerful that they could not be compared to them.

“…I will make you take responsibility for your words. Lyla Flamewatch.”

Lyla looks at the golem, which is several times her size, and waves her hand.

Then, several fireballs appear at the same time and fly towards the golem at a rapid speed.

As soon as the magic touches the surface of Sephar, it can be seen that the magic cannot maintain its shape and disappears.

“Sephar is a golem specialized in anti-magic developed based on the Enkidu that you defeated… I prepared it for ignorant guys like you.”

“Hmph…”

Lyla does not show much reaction to the Elder’s words, who proudly boasts of that fact, and looks at the golem.

In the next moment, the golem’s fist strikes the ground where Lyla is standing, causing a huge impact that cracks the floor.

Lyla stands there without even making a proper evasive movement, and disappears, caught between the golem’s fist and the floor.

“…Hmph… Foolish. A young bitch who mistook herself for something…”

The Elder looked at the scene and seemed to be still angry, but he wore a bitter smile, thinking that Lyla was dead.

But.

The flame that rose from the end of Sephar’s fist. It was right after that that the flame began to spread to the golem’s entire body and burn its surface.

“What…!? Sephar’s magic defense…!”

“I don’t know about fire caused by magic, but it seems to be helpless against fire close to natural phenomena.”

Lyla’s voice was heard next. The girl, who had somehow transformed into a fiery incarnation, was sitting on Sephar’s shoulder.

“Th, that magic is. Agni Flamewatch’s…! How did you reach that level of magic!”

“… … You wouldn’t understand even if I explained it to you.”

As Lyla moves her arm, Sephar, bound in burning flames, swings his fist towards the Elders according to her movement.

The impact that struck Lyla just now is swung towards them this time.

A roar that seemed to accompany an explosion rang out inside the Monad’s Hall, the curtains were burning, and the Elders could be seen turning their backs to escape from Sephar in fear.

“I finally see your faces. It’s an ugly sight as expected.”

The representative of the Elders, who revealed his actual appearance instead of the silhouette of the curtain, was a skinny old man.

As he is from the same generation as Lyla’s dead grandfather, he must be over 80 years old.

However, the state of his aging was not normal.

“…It’s a side effect of failing the secret technique to extend your lifespan, right? That.”

“Keuh…”

“Well. It’s human instinct to be afraid of dying. But if you valued other people’s lives as much as your own, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Sephar’s arm is raised once again. The old man tries to prepare magic, but the opponent is a decisive weapon for anti-magic use created using all of their knowledge.

“W, wait! Are you trying to kill us!?”

“Your existence is not needed in the Academy. The students and teachers who are not under your control will move forward in their own ways. New wine must be put in new wineskins, right?”

“W, we are beings who have made a contract with the guardians of knowledge, ‘Stillness’s Chill’! No one can break our rights!”

Lyla sighs at the shout. In the next moment, another person appears behind Lyla.

Pink hair – with wings, horns, and a tail –

“S, surely-”

In the next moment, Sephar’s fist strikes the old man.

The old man, who closed his eyes and let out a scream-like sound, feels strange that the expected pain does not cover his body.

And when he looks around, he realizes that the surroundings have moved to the inside of a cave covered in frost and cold.

“Did she put transfer magic on the fist and send it flying…? Damn bitch…! But thanks to that, I got a chance to counterattack-”

In the next moment, the old man’s entire body freezes and is trapped inside a thick ice wall.

The old man does not even realize what has happened and freezes as he is. Even his consciousness is stopped as if time has stopped.

“Lutios contacted me after a long time, so I wondered what was going on….”

Walking out of the darkness of the cave is Anathis, a draconian (dragonkin) with sapphire hair, different from Luti and Reti, called the Guardian of Knowledge, Stillness’s Chill.

She looks at the old man, whom she has seen in decades, with a pitiful look for a moment before turning her body.

The contract she made with him under the promise to `create a place for those who pursue knowledge in the purest way` had already been broken a long time ago.

Spending business hours in this crystal ice prison was her punishment for the existence that broke the contract without permission.

001

Without knowing that something that would shake the Academy to its core was happening in the Monad’s Hall, Cleon and Aruru were enjoying the third day of the Academy Festival like any other students.

Cleon had already toured various places at the festival yesterday and the day before, but he could not help but stick out his tongue at the enormity of the Academy’s scale, as there were still places he had not been to.

And above all –

“Cleon! It seems that the Astrology Department over there is giving free fortune-telling to visitors today!”

It was quite enjoyable to watch Aruru, who was walking a few steps ahead of Cleon, looking happy.

Was it a reaction to being busy for about a week until yesterday, without even having time to spend private time, as preparations for the school festival began in earnest?

Today, he is being a little more honest with himself and following her, who is showing the side of a tomboy noble lady, into the giant tent of the Astrology Department.

“Welcome! Oh, Aruru-nim, Cleon-nim!”

At the entrance of the tent, a female student wearing a robe and a mask that covers her eyes recognizes Aruru and Cleon and greets them in a friendly manner.

Cleon could not tell who she was, but he had become famous due to the incident a few days ago, so there were students who greeted him even when he was walking down the street.

“So, you two came here…. Is it a date!? Did you come to see your love fortune today!?”

The female student gets excited on her own at the two people’s visit, and lets out a scream like `Kyaa-!` with a student from the same department next to her.

“I’m still thinking-”

“Yes. That’s right. Can you guide us?”

Cleon tries to say something, but Aruru smiles at the two female students and asks them to guide her, as if blocking it.

“Wait…. Is that okay?”

If the rumor spreads that the duke’s daughter came to see her love fortune with an adventurer-turned-instructor, it could cause problems in many ways.

“What? Hehe. It’s okay, just love fortune. I want to get closer to Cleon, too.”

Aruru enters another small tent inside the giant tent, following the female students, as if she doesn’t care about such things.

Cleon tries to follow her, but –

“Instructor Cleon, this way!”

The female student who was guiding Aruru, who had entered first, guides Cleon to the tent right next to it.

“…Aren’t we going into the same tent?”

“Originally, our love fortune-telling has a rule that men and women see it separately.”

Cleon, who is almost ignorant of such fortune-telling in the first place, thinks it is a little strange, but follows their guidance towards another tent.

Aruru is nervous in the slightly dark tent, and turns her head to the outside where Cleon, who is not coming in from behind, is standing.

“We have guided your partner to the tent next door, so please don’t worry.”

She looks at the voice that stops her.

There sat a female student wearing a robe and mask, just like the ones who guided them from outside.

A woman with red hair swaying through the gap in the robe and a mysterious atmosphere felt from her brown skin.

“Now, please sit here.”

Saying that, the female student and Aruru sit facing each other with a desk in the middle.

“From basic love fortune to consultation on how to improve your relationship with your partner. Ask anything you want.”

When her hand moves, the cards placed on the desk are spread out with a rustling sound. In an instant, it could be seen that they were gathered back into one bundle.

“However. What is important in fortune-telling is to approach it with a sincere heart. If you show a false heart to yourself or others, the results will also be false.”

The red-haired woman explains with a relaxed smile. Aruru feels a little trustworthy in her words and actions, but she seems to be worried about what to ask first.

“Your partner is a man who has relationships with many women…. Are you worried that such a man might leave you?”

“Ugh… Ahaha… That’s true, but I’m not that worried…”

Aruru says with a bitter smile, as if the place she was poked at was hurting, at the female student’s words, which seemed to see through her thoughts.

“Then. How about… how to seduce your partner?”

“…Can you find out such things with fortune-telling?”

As if to answer Aruru’s question clearly, the woman gently grabs her hand and says.

“Of course. You can trust me completely.”

Then, she raises the corners of her mouth and shines her eyes under the mask.