Chapter 49

EP.49 Enlightenment, and Growth (5)

The Dean's Office of Aphria Academy.

In the spacious office, one wall is completely bare of any decorations. On that stark white wall, a lecture is being projected.

“...”

Two middle-aged men are watching the lecture.

They stand at the threshold between middle age and old age. There is hardly any age difference between them, but their appearances differ greatly.

It’s not that one looks older.

It’s the issue of their hair.

-That’s it for now.

The lecture, which lasted about an hour and a half, comes to an end. Roselle took off his glasses and pressed his fingers around his eyes for a moment. Aaron rested his hand on his completely bald forehead.

After a moment.

Roselle, who had put his glasses back on, spoke.

“What do you think, Aaron?”

“...”

“Although it caused other professors to cancel their classes... didn’t it still produce results worthy of the disruption? I think it was fine.”

Aaron looked at Roselle without saying a word.

‘Fine? That?’

He couldn’t think of a way to express his current feelings. Aaron let out a long sigh.

“Huh...”

A hollow laugh escaped from between his parted lips.

‘Is this class worth making six professors cancel their lectures?’

Aaron asks himself.

...Originally, Aaron doesn’t particularly like comparing professors. Each has different subjects and teaching styles.

Therefore, comparing them is a foolish act.

‘But...’

Lania von Trias.

Aaron recalled the content of the lecture given by that bold girl. He organized what he had just seen with his own eyes.

‘Rune letters.’

The girl had definitely covered them.

And, as Aaron remembered, rune letters are not an easy concept. They are included in the curriculum for third-year and senior students, but only the basic letters are taught.

‘Too difficult. Too advanced.’

Despite being the foundation of everything, there are good reasons why rune letters are not taught. The process of transitioning from incantation language to rune letters, and then to circuits, is incredibly complex.

There are very few people who can teach them, and the content is far beyond what young mages, who have just started learning magic, can understand.

‘If taught half-heartedly, it would only cause confusion. That’s why they are not taught at all.’

Understanding rune letters.

Being able to handle them.

Only seasoned magic scholars like Aaron and Roselle, who have dedicated decades to the study of magic, can do it. The difficulty is one factor, but it also requires an enormous amount of time.

That’s why he has doubts.

‘But, that girl covered them.’

A girl barely in her twenties had broken down advanced circuits into rune letters, explained their composition, and demonstrated the process to the students.

‘She said she had been immersed in magic for ten years, right?’

According to Roselle, the girl named Lania had spent ten years in the laboratory, studying magic. Aaron didn’t know what she had researched, but...

‘At least, it wasn’t a conventional method.’

He could only speculate.

“...”

Aaron closed his eyes. With his eyes shut, he tried to imagine how the girl’s lecture would have sounded from the students’ perspective.

-Rustle.

Dozens of circuits would have been deconstructed in mid-air. The students would have witnessed the process of breaking down circuits into rune letters, and then rune letters into language.

‘What impact would this have on the students?’

The answer came quickly.

‘...Having encountered a fragment of truth, they would be even more motivated to study. They would be able to approach magic from a completely new perspective.’

This would lead to growth.

The students saw.

The foundational concept underlying everything.

The students realized.

What they had been using all along.

The enlightenment gained this way is not one-sided.

It’s not abrupt. It ties together everything they have learned so far.

‘Stimulation.’

This flow would provide new stimulation to the students. And that...

‘Was the reason I insisted on including the course on mana trade in the curriculum.’

Aaron opened his eyes.

“Hmm.”

A smile formed at the corners of his mouth.

“Was it worth it, Lania...?”

It was a mischievous question. Aaron looked at Roselle and spoke.

“Yes.”

At this moment, Aaron could only answer this way.

“It was worth it.”

2.

Mid-April, the weather is starting to get warmer.

Aphria, which should have been busy preparing for midterms, is unexpectedly on a break.

A break of about ten days.

The students cheered, but the administrative staff were in tears.

This is the third short break in just a month. The first was due to a public lecture, the second to a terrorist incident, and now a collective leave of absence by the professors.

The curriculum is in disarray, and the exam schedule is also messed up. With all the events being postponed, the administrative staff are having extremely busy days.

-Work, documents, deadlines...

-Meetings... Oh? Another one?

The assistant professors are the ones pulling all-nighters to cover for the professors who suddenly took leave. Unlike the excited students, most assistant professors are leading lives not much different from the undead.

Of course, not everyone is like that.

There is an assistant professor who, for some reason, finished all her work on the first day of the break and is enjoying the holiday with the students.

No one is unfamiliar with her name.

Lania von Trias.

The girl at the center of the professors' collective leave of absence.

The assistant professors, who were already in tears, muttered her name again.

*

A café in the capital.

A seat by the window where sunlight streams in.

“Hmm...”

Roselle looked at the food in front of him with a somewhat dubious expression. There was nothing strange about the menu; it was rather ordinary.

‘Soup, bread... that’s all, isn’t it?’

There was a bit of cake on the side, but...

It was an extremely ordinary brunch café.

More of a place to have a light breakfast and chat than to have a proper meal.

“...Is this really okay?”

“What? I came here because I wanted to eat this. Is it okay for you, Master?”

“No, it’s not that it’s not okay...”

It’s a rare outing, after all.

As far as Roselle remembers, five years ago, Lania would always insist on going to expensive restaurants whenever they went out to eat.

-You’re paying, right?

He can clearly remember the mischievous smile on his disciple’s face. Although she looked different back then, he distinctly remembers her pointing to restaurants that nobles only visited during special events.

‘...But, why suddenly this?’

Roselle stroked his chin and asked.

“Didn’t you always insist on going to expensive places when I offered to pay? Like, why not the Infront Steak...”

Lania smiled bitterly in response.

“I guess I just miss this.”

“Miss it?”

“Back then, after staying up all night at the magic tower, we would sometimes come to these brunch cafés with you, Master.”

“...That’s right.”

“I often think about those times.”

Roselle looked at his disciple.

She seemed a bit tired.

“You were on the battlefield for five years, right?”

“...Yes.”

“On the front lines, you would draw circuits non-stop and fight demons until dawn. Pulling all-nighters was the norm.”

Lania tore a corner of the bread.

She dipped it into the slightly cooled soup.

“Fighting like that, you realize it’s already morning. When the sun starts to rise, the demons retreat.”

“...”

“The horizon is bright, but there’s a lot of mess to clean up. The annoying ritualists can’t leave the bodies, and the chaotic barriers need to be fixed. The knights do help, but it’s a bit awkward to just play around, you know.”

She put the moist bread into her mouth.

“Helping the knights clean up, time passes... and you have to prepare for the next battle. There’s no time to enjoy soup. You just stuff yourself with preserved food and get back to the battlefield. Our party was quite busy.”

Because of those two.

She muttered.

“So...”

Lania smiled as she mumbled with her small mouth.

“I often thought, ‘Ah, I wish I could dip some soft bread into lukewarm soup.’”

“...”

“And it would be even better with a cup of coffee like this.”

Roselle smiled bitterly at the exaggerated gesture of his disciple lifting the coffee cup.

“Is that so?”

“Yes, well. I just thought about it when we came to the capital.”

The leisure of a cup of coffee.

Roselle thought he understood why his disciple was so attached to it and why she wanted to visit the café.

‘It’s fine, nothing happened... that’s what she says.’

Five years on the battlefield would make even such trivial things feel nostalgic.

“...Let’s come here more often.”

“Oh, really?”

“Since the professors can afford to be a bit late, and both you and I wake up early, it wouldn’t be bad to come once or twice a week.”

“That sounds good.”

Lania smiled happily.

“Mmm.”

After watching his disciple, who was enthusiastically munching on the bread, for a while, Roselle suddenly spoke.

“Oh, by the way, you didn’t give any assignments this time. Was there a reason?”

“Huh? Oh, when I observed the class last time, I went to Professor Charlotte’s lecture.”

“I know. She’s a popular professor among students.”

“Yes, she said that professors who give a lot of assignments are bad professors. Assignments should be kept to a minimum.”

“Hmm.”

Roselle stroked his chin and then gave a short answer.

“It’s all nonsense.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s fine to give some assignments.”

Lania tilted her head.

“...Students don’t like assignments, though?”

“Even if they dislike it, isn’t it a professor’s duty to teach the students as much as possible?”

“Uh... I guess so?”

“Assignments keep students appropriately tense. Besides, they will naturally review the material while doing the assignments, which is good for the students.”

“Uh, um...”

Roselle cut straight to the point at Lania’s puzzled expression.

“Assignments are necessary.”

And he added.

“The more, the better.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

‘If Master says so, then it must be true.’

Lania nodded.

Author's Note (Afterword)

Before the new episode, this is a short interlude. I tried to release it yesterday, but...

Maybe because the previous episode was too intense.

No matter what I wrote, the sentences lacked flow...

So, I ended up taking a break for the whole day.

I’m sorry!

But I will keep to the five-day-a-week release schedule...!