Forty-Fourth Chapter
Campus Festival
The campus festivals that took place at the various magical institutes in the seven nations were very different from those at regular schools.
The Institute’s annual campus festival was, in a sense, a huge campaign event. It also had the goal of showcasing the Institute’s appeal, and there was another reason behind the scenes.
The state was the Institute’s governing body. The Institute was also a subordinate organization under the military. Meaning that it was built on taxpayer money and the citizens’ approval. That was why all official information on the Institute was available to the public.
Also, even though humanity’s survival might be at stake, the training of Magicmasters wouldn’t work as a national policy if the people were opposed to it. If they got a bad reputation, parents wouldn’t let their precious offspring enroll at the Institute no matter how much talent they might have. And considering that scouts from other nations might pilfer their students, the military put even more effort into the festival.
Nevertheless, novice Magicmasters were considered students, and so the festival would be open to criticism if it was too militaristic. In that sense, the Second Magical Institute had successfully pulled off their first extracurricular lesson and improved their image.
Even though it was an established tradition, there was likely going to be even more effort put into the festival this year. In the city of Beliza, where the Institute was located, the local stores in the school’s vicinity were allowed to set up stalls on the campus grounds. There were a lot of students at the Institute, but the grounds were still larger than what all the students could use, making it a good way to boost the local economy.
Aside from the stalls, and formal invitations sent to people outside of the Institute, managing the festival was left up to the students. For this event, there was a rule that each practical skills class had to come up with at least one stall or exhibition.
It sounded a bit frivolous, but the idea was justified by saying that a break every now and then was necessary to foster a sense of cooperation in the Outer World. All kinds of events would be held during the festival.
All of the above was a summary of the campus festival that Sisty explained to Alus. And, he hadn’t gone to the principal’s office of his own accord, but instead Sisty had called for him over the Institute’s broadcast system.
It started off with the usual praise for his recent accomplishments, and then moved on to how credits and lectures had been handled while he was away. Alus had ultimately been exempt, but even the principal had needed each teacher’s permission.
He had told her to fire anyone that wouldn’t accept an exception, but the grown-up world wasn’t that simple. After bargaining with some of the teachers, they submitted a report to convince them. Alus disapproved, but that was pretty much expected.
The Governor-General would have to be asked again, but the credit exemption would probably be used again in the next term. As long as Alus did the bare minimum, he would receive extra credits. Of course, it wouldn’t affect the overall grade that would be announced at the end of the term, but that was trivial to Alus.
That’s why there was a different reason for Alus’ reluctant—or rather, critical—stare directed at Sisty.
“There are always a certain number of guards hired for the campus festival,” Sisty explained.
“I bet. Even travel over the borders is free during the festival, right?”
“That’s right. There aren’t many restrictions to begin with, but at this time of year, the Institute is able to designate a Circle Port for direct access. Because of that, they’re always on high alert, keeping a look out for any movements from terrorists or anti-Magicmaster organizations, though the festival is already busy and full of trouble without them. We can also call in additional military personnel for security...” Sisty trailed off.
At this point, Alus was more or less able to guess what the principal was getting at. Or rather, he’d been made to realize it. Either way, he got right to the point. “And by that, you mean me.”
Sisty clapped her hands together in front of her face, smiling brightly at how smart her pupil was. She even gave him a charming, upturned look, as expected from such a devilish woman, but it was only a superficial gesture. Her age was a secret, but Alus wasn’t blunt enough to call her too old for that kind of thing.
He had a bitter taste in his mouth and put on a stiff expression. Still, just how effortlessly had Sisty made her way through the world by making those kinds of gestures? He couldn’t help but think how beneficial it was to be a beautiful woman.
Realizing that this was another such trick, Alus put up a token resistance by anticipating her next words.
“Please. Can you join the student-organized campus security?”
“...” It was obvious what she’d ask. The moment of silence wasn’t so he could think about it, he was simply speculating whether the students’ lack of spirit was a result of the quality of their principal.
In the end, being as powerful as Alus came with a fair amount of responsibility. Though he might have a thing or two to say about getting the short end of the stick.
“I’ll exempt you from having to put anything out for the campus festival... please?”
Alus still kept his stiff expression, but it wasn’t a bad deal if he could avoid all of those troublesome things. It felt like he was falling into the principal’s trap, but he decided to ignore that thought.
The other day, Alus’ class had held a meeting on what to do, and the most prominent idea had been to do a coffee shop. They had top-class beauties among them, so there was no reason to avoid service-based stalls. Despite that, the idea ended up getting shot down.
“So what’s going on with the deployment of the most reliable security personnel that can be requested from the military?”
His words caused Sisty’s expression to brighten up. “... Does that mean you’ll do it?! Thank you!”
Next, he heard her mumble, “This cologne had a suspicious name, but I’m glad I bought it,” and things started making sense. When he’d stepped into the office, he noticed a strange smell. It had a floral and oddly sweet scent. He’d furrowed his brows, but decided not to question it any further... but he had to deny this.
“I heard that... By the way, the smell had nothing to do with it.”
“Wait, really?! But this cologne is called Bewitching Garden...”
“You’re a teacher, don’t go buying suspicious products like that! And don’t try them on me!”
Sisty tilted her head in confusion, as she sniffed at her wrist. “When I tried it on another boy, it was very effective, you know.”
Hearing this just exhausted Alus more. “Did you lose your sense of judgment after getting too worked up? Who tests these things on their own students?”
“I just asked them to do some things for me,” Sisty giggled, leaving Alus completely speechless, only able to shrug his shoulders. “Right, we were talking about the deployment of the military personnel. This is a problem every year, but we don’t want the campus festival to feel overly strict. So we avoid deploying them in places that will stand out, or that see a lot of traffic. They tend to end up patrolling the outer perimeter, things like that.”
“Meaning, I’ll be working inside the campus grounds and the corridors in the main building, then.”
“Yes, there will be a cluster of stalls and other things around the main building. Well, I’ll be expecting you to cover the places with a lot of people.”
Alus interpreted this to mean a simple security job. On the one in a million chance that a terrorist incident occurred on campus grounds, it wouldn’t be the students who dealt with it. In other words, the plan was to eliminate all risks beforehand by leaving the pre-entry inspections to the experts.
According to Sisty’s explanation, bringing in dangerous goods for no apparent reason would be restricted. However, the event would see enough visitors to fill a city, so it was impossible to closely inspect everyone. There’d be simple mana detectors at the entrances, but they only reacted to mana, so they weren’t perfect.
So, on top of that, several dozen people would be inspecting the visitors’ belongings. But there were loopholes in that, as AWRs were allowed in if they had special permission. The reason for that was because the campus festival had a certain main event, and AWRs were essential for that. That made security more of a pain.
Not to mention that the Institute had close ties to the military, so they couldn’t afford not to hold that event since it was so well received by the military personnel, making it an unavoidable part of the festival. So far there had been some squabbles, but nothing major had happened.
But this year they’d won the Friendship Magical Tournament, so the Second Magical Institute’s name caused ripples inside and outside of Alpha. There would probably be a record number of visitors this year because of that. So the military was being more cautious than usual, even supplying some of their valuable spotters.
After giving her explanation, Sisty added one last thing. “Well, consult with Ms. Felinella on the details.”
“Excuse me?”
“She’s the management committee chair this time around. I’m sure she’ll find your help reassuring, so my request is that you go and assist her.”
Alus rubbed the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. He did have some lingering guilt for retiring partway through the tournament and causing Felinella some troubles. He also knew how hard she’d worked in the tournament.
In the end, the principal’s strange cologne or long history of manipulation had no impact on his decision.
Besides... Sisty would never say it out loud, but she was working quite a bit behind the scenes to manage Alus’ grades and class skipping. If they followed the usual rules, Alus would have already had to repeat a year, but he’d gotten away with just a report because she’d personally lowered her head to the stubborn veteran teachers. It wasn’t possible to refuse the military’s orders in the first place, whereas Sisty was responsible for all the problems in the Institute, so she probably had a hard time with it.
Feeling like she might not have been convincing enough, Sisty went on, “Campus security detail does benefit the military’s opinion of you after graduation...”
“I’d rather pass on that.”
“Thought so. T-Then, what about the restricted area of the Institute’s library? And an indefinite loan period... would that work?” She was practically pleading with Alus. The scent of Bewitching Garden wafted through the air...
... But Alus, annoyed, tried to bat it away. Thinking about it, what was one of the Three Pillars doing working as a principal when she had nothing to gain from it? He wondered about this, but then recalled his first meeting with her.
And that was why... he convinced himself. That must have been the deciding factor. “I understand. If I recall, the libraries of the various institutes cooperate and lend rare books between them. You don’t mind me making full use of that for personal reasons, then? Also, please add new research books to the library.”
“Yes, of course. Don’t worry about it!” With a bright smile on her lips, Sisty flashed a V sign. She swung her fingers back and forth like a metronome, and after Alus sighed for the umpteenth time, their discussion came to an end.
The next day, there was an official announcement over the broadcasting system that it was time to prepare for the campus festival.
The class held a meeting to discuss the event. The first step was selecting a representative, which Alice unanimously won.
Loki hadn’t been chosen because of her image. She gave off a stiff and hard to approach impression, after all. Even if she wasn’t always with Alus, she didn’t present the atmosphere of someone who was easy to casually ask for things.
Tesfia had been a candidate too, but she had surprisingly little support among the boys. In short, it would be inconvenient for many of them if she was the representative. After all, most of the prime candidates for a stall were service focused. The design of the female students’ uniform was important, but it was concluded that Tesfia would likely reject any of the design proposals based on male desires.
So their focus ended up on Alice, who was popular with both the boys and the girls. Not to mention how she’d earned the trust of the students after proving herself at the tournament. She was rather uncomfortable standing in front of people, but she had no choice but to accept when she was asked.
However, right after she’d been chosen, the way she timidly and fearfully appeared in front of everyone made even Alus mutter, “Get used to it.”
***
Still... three days is just too much, Alus thought to himself, as the sun started to set on the classroom.
Three days had passed since Alice was chosen as a representative. That was how long it took for the class to decide what to do. Alus was free from doing preparations in exchange for working security detail, but he had to attend all the discussions anyway.
Ultimately, the boys’ suggestion of the coffee shop received vehement opposition from the girls and was struck from the suggestions list. That was in part because they couldn’t make full use of the class’ three beauties, Tesfia, Alice, and Loki.
In the middle of the discussion, someone brought up that the three had performed so remarkably in the tournament that they would be taking part in the highlight of the campus festival, the mock battles.
The mock battles were the reason people were permitted to bring in AWRs. They were originally meant to show off the results of the Institute’s training, using the Institute’s arena so they could freely battle against the Friendship Magical Tournament participants.
That was more or less the duty of everyone who’d had a reasonable record in the tournament, and Alus shouldn’t have been an exception. But fortunately for Alus, he would be wrapped up doing security work, so he would be exempt from it.
Felinella and the principal were probably being considerate of him, but he was just glad that accepting the security job had gotten him out of it.
Alus’ class ended up choosing to do a shooting gallery. The girls had protested against all of the boys’ ideas and ultimately settled for that. They’d arrived at it by process of elimination. It didn’t really have the support of the full class, but not much could stand in the way of adolescent zeal.
That said, as their stall wouldn’t require a lot of personnel, the class would be able to enjoy the rest of the festival, so they convinced themselves that it wasn’t all that bad. It went against the point of the festival and was very unambitious, but... maybe that was fine. It wasn’t like youth to try to take everything adults wanted into account.
On a side note, the stalls would be ranked by the total amount of sales, the percentage of visitors to the stall, and by a questionnaire given to them. The number one class would be given the benefit of occupying a section of the training grounds for half a term. Moreover, the sales would be distributed to the class.
Tesfia had a glint in her eye, as did the other self-supporting students. That’s why, even though it was only a shooting gallery, they were going to spice things up to entice more visitors. And they would do that by utilizing the tools for the stall.
As a benefit from having won the tournament, more goods were flowing into Alpha. Among them was a certain unusual toy that was gaining popularity. It was a relic of the past called a gun. The gun hadn’t been modified to make it usable in this day and age as a weapon, but rather it had been turned into a toy-like object known as a spell gun.
The toy originated in Clevideet, and when children took to it, its sales exploded. It was a toy that allowed anyone to fire out their mana as bullets.
Of course, the bullets were modified so that they wouldn’t be any more dangerous than a peashooter. Alus’ class had zeroed in on these toys, deciding to use them for their shooting gallery.
Even after this was decided, there was more to discuss. The mana bullets showed a slight difference in power depending on the amount of mana that was used, but the question was whether it was all right to ask customers to use up their mana.
That really started the debate, and arguments had been flying back and forth for three hours. It began right after class and by now it was already dark outside.
Alus was so frustrated that he blurted out that he knew someone who could improve the guns. This wasn’t like him, but he couldn’t stand wasting any more time.
Next to him was Loki, who kept her eyes closed, but she was obviously getting irritated herself. All Tesfia did was let out an exhausted sigh, having given up on coming up with ideas or suggestions.
From Alus’ point of view, he couldn’t even stand to watch Alice on the stage anymore. She was already shy as it was, but now she was frantically collecting all of the suggestions being thrown at her, as well as the criticism. The sight was beyond pitiful and well into the territory of shedding tears.
But it wasn’t as though Alus stated his idea irresponsibly. He didn’t dislike coming up with ideas to modify items that used mana. He even found this popular toy somewhat interesting... of course, the person he knew that could improve them was himself. As the gun was empty inside, it wouldn’t be too hard or take too long to figure out its structure.
If the problem was that customers would use their own mana, then he could just ask Sisty or someone in the military to borrow an artificial mana generator. And if that didn’t work, there was one in the corner of the Institute that Loki used for her training.
Thankfully, Alus’ declaration brought an end to the fruitless discussion. It was decided that everyone would bring in items of their choosing for prizes. Each class had funds allotted to it, so as long as they bought the spell guns and shelves to line the prizes up on, they were as good as done.
It felt like they were cutting corners, but Alus had no objections. He’d never had any intention of manning the stall in the first place, and it wouldn’t require a lot of people anyway. So no matter what happened, none of the troubles would come back to him as he worked security. Moreover, this way the preparations wouldn’t have an impact on Tesfia’s and Alice’s training.
However, one week later... Alus realized he should have thrown that carefree idea into the trash bin.
The kind of prizes that students living in dorms could get wouldn’t be anything useful. Incidentally, even if they wanted to use the budget to buy prizes, it had already dried up for some reason.
First off, it took more money to decorate the classroom and set up the stall than expected. On top of the decorations and materials, the male students had carelessly bought seven spell guns that were of a popular limited edition.
They couldn’t push all the responsibility onto Alice, but it was sad to see her dispirited over everything because of her straight-laced personality. At the same time, she had to keep up her training as well. Even now, she and Tesfia were in the middle of studying like mad, as Alus improved all seven spell guns sitting next to them.
He’d volunteered to do the modifications himself, but once he actually got to work, he found the guns to be poorly designed with no real novel ideas to them. It should’ve been obvious to him when he’d been told they were just toys, but he couldn’t help but feel disappointed, and now it was only a rush job to him.
Alus took the toy apart and fiddled with it, as he glanced at the two girls. They were busier with preparations for the campus festival than they’d expected, and it was getting in the way of their progress in studying.
Alice in particular was on pins and needles because of all the responsibility she’d taken on and wasn’t into the studying at all.
Tesfia was also having trouble concentrating, perhaps out of concern for Alice, or maybe because she’d always been bad at studying.
Alus sighed and noticed Loki was passionately making something. “Hm? What are you doing, Loki?”
“W-Well. Uhm... I’m making a simple scrunchie. They need as many prizes as they can get, so I figured this would do.”
“A scrunchie?”
“Uhm, it’s to put up your hair. It’s a hair tie.”
“So it’s handmade, huh? Should work.” Even an amateur in fashion like Alus could tell the scrunchie was pretty stylish.
Prizes were provided by the students themselves, but Loki had little in the way of personal belongings, which was why she’d turned to making them.
As for the two who should have been doing the same thing as her, they were as distracted as ever.
Of course, Loki wasn’t an expert when it came to sewing and the like, so she was doing her best with a manual at hand.
“Aww, that’s nice. Can you make one for me too, Loki dear?”
“But your hair’s not long enough to need one.”
“Yeah, that’s why I’ll keep it stored away for safekeeping,” Alice said enthusiastically, but only received a quick “No, thank you” in return.
Every student only needed to provide one prize each, but it appeared that this was oddly challenging.
“So what are you two going to do?” Alus asked the two girls, having given up on making them focus on their studies.
“Yeah, what are we going to do about that? Alice, don’t you know how to knit or something?”
“You can’t knit either! Don’t make it sound like I’m the only one who can’t do anything...”
“A-Anyways, maybe someone who knows how can do it for us, too...”
What a pointless conversation, Alus thought. It was an emergency situation, but that didn’t mean they could rely on others.
That’s when Tesfia took a stab at Alus, perhaps catching on to what he was thinking. “You don’t know how to knit either, Al.”
“Like hell I would! The only thing I’ve ever stitched was my own wounds. Not that I was any good at it.”
“Aaaaaaaaahhh, I can’t hear you,” Tesfia said, covering her ears and shouting so she couldn’t imagine the sight.
“I didn’t really think about prizes, but something just lying around here should do,” Alus said.
“That’s not going to work,” Tesfia protested. “We can’t give out anything that would give the Institute a bad image.”
“...!!” Loki reacted to what Tesfia said by looking down at the scrunchie she was making. She wasn’t very confident, and suddenly stopped working.
“T-That’s not what she meant, Loki dear! She’s saying that giving out used things would be bad...” Alice was so flustered that she was practically in tears, but Loki nonchalantly replied that she didn’t mind.
Tesfia put in her two cents, agreeing with Alice. “I’m sure yours will be the most popular... it’s handmade after all. As long as they say who made it, it should be fine. Probably.”
Leaving Loki to herself, Tesfia started to worry over her own situation. It seemed the majority of the class had the same issue with producing prizes.
“But wouldn’t it go against the point of the festival if you just bought it? Why not follow Loki’s example and make them yourselves?” Alus’ point was spot on. Vague as his understanding was, even he understood that Tesfia and Alice were popular with the male students. If Loki’s handmade scrunchie was worth something, then the same should be true for them.
“Huh? But, uhm...”
Seeing Tesfia’s eyes drift off to the side, he could more or less guess what her problem was. “You really are awkward...” At this rate, she wouldn’t be able to focus on studying until after the campus festival was over, which was a big problem for him.
“You haven’t thought of anything either!” Tesfia said accusingly.
“Like I said, I’ll just pick something lying around over there.”
“Didn’t you hear what Alice said?”
“Hmph, don’t think this is the same as the trash lying around in your room. For example,” Alus said, pointing at a certain piece of research equipment in the corner of the room that had a strange oblong bundle propped up against it.
Before long, everyone was staring at it. Back when they’d cleaned up this room, they’d all noticed it but hadn’t given it a second thought. The only thing they thought about it was how it got in the way because of how big it was.
“What is that thing, anyway?”
As if to answer her question, Alus had Tesfia go over and hold the oblong bundle. “This is a prototype for an AWR I made before enrolling at the Institute. It may be just a prototype, but it’s still the real thing. Its performance is more than good enough.”
“—!!” “—!!” Both Tesfia and Alice reacted.
“But I haven’t had the time to unpack it since I came here. I don’t need it anymore, but I’m glad I didn’t throw it out when you told me to,” Alus said with a grin. “And just so you know, it’s brand new. It’s a bit advanced, but to be able to get a gem like this at a shooting gallery is a pretty good deal.”
As he removed the cover, an AWR appeared that nobody aside from himself had ever seen. It was a silvery-white rod without any scratches, with blades stuck in sheaths on either side. At first glance, it looked like a spear that had a sharpened point on the handle as well. Moreover, there was a ring in the center of the handle, with the handle itself piercing through it.
“Hey, what’s so advanced about it?” Tesfia asked, though she looked intrigued.
“This spear looks pretty... amazing,” Alice said, enraptured by its appearance.
“This is pretty much the prototype for Alice’s AWR. I took it in a different direction, and in terms of simple craftsmanship, the gold spear is superior. This one is still state of the art, but it’s got its quirks... this silver one is more the type that relies on the skills of the Magicmaster to make the best of it. I made it with Double Digit Magicmasters in mind, after all.”
“So there’s something more to it then, Sir Alus?” Loki asked, not missing the details. Her question either came from her complete trust in Alus or from her own intuition and experience.
Either way, Alus nodded and began explaining as he removed the sheaths. “The blades on either side are engraved with magic formulas of different attributes.”
He raised a finger, a sign that he’d entered his usual lecture mode. “To sum it up, it combines the strengths of two attributes. Most Double Digits have learned how to handle two attributes. Sisty can use at least two herself, maybe even three. Anyways, both ends are engraved with different attributes. Normally, having two different ones engraved on an AWR will cause them to interfere with one another... but not with this one. This special ring in the center of the rod prevents that. In addition to that, there are two separate channels for mana in its internal structure, so it can handle two types at the same time without them canceling each other out.”
Like he said, the rod could contain two types of mana without trouble, and its blades were also exceptionally sturdy. However, as the central ring was made from a special material and in a very precise manner, it wasn’t suited for mass production.
Incidentally, the material was made from the tissue of a certain Fiend, with special chemicals used to keep it from dissipating.
From what they heard, this wasn’t just some hand-me-down that should be used as a prize. Tesfia and Alice were so aghast, they even forgot to ask how much it cost to make.
“T-That’s just cheating!!” Having come back to her senses, Tesfia shouted this with jealousy.
And Alice followed up with a question. “Are you sure it’s all right to make this a prize in a shooting gallery, Al?”
“Like I said, this was just a prototype for your AWR. Since the completed version exists, I don’t need this anymore. It’s only going to get in the way here... but do you get it now? My laboratory is a veritable mountain of treasures!” Alus tended to let his fortune and talents do the talking for him, but it should be fine.
Seeing the two girls fall silent, Alus looked with satisfaction at Loki. She was seemingly convinced by his explanation and began focusing on making her scrunchie again.
“I think that scrunchie is fine. Expensive things aren’t everything... in fact, even I’d want one of those.” Alus put a hand on Loki’s head, feeling like kicking himself. He might have meant it, but it did feel a bit clumsy. I’m pretty awkward myself.
That said, his attempt at smoothing things over was super effective. “Really?! T-Then I’ll make a muffler for you for winter, will you accept that?”
“Y-Yeah... gladly.”
The weather in the human domain was artificial, so while there was a winter, people rarely wore mufflers for it. But Alus decided to shake off that minor concern.
***
Three days now remained until the campus festival.
At first, the students figured they could slowly work on preparations until the day before, while planning how they’d enjoy the festival. So the fact that that blew up in their faces was entirely their own fault.
But unexpectedly, Alus got caught up in it as well. His laboratory had been scoured in the process of hunting for prizes a while ago. Fortunately, some supplies from the military—though who knew if it was all right to use those as prizes—had been dug up and submitted.
There were smokescreens and flash grenades, and supplies or not, they’d been given to the current ranked No. 1, meaning they were all top-of-the-line stuff. But he himself had no use for those kinds of accessories, so they just piled up. Since he hadn’t used them so far, he likely wouldn’t in the future either.
The students actually had no need for them right now either, but depending on the Institute’s policies from here on out, they might see more time out in the Outer World. So there should be nothing wrong with students taking these with them.
After half a day spent treasure hunting, with scores big and small, they’d collected over 100 items. Of course, it was unlikely that all of them would be suitable for use as prizes, so whatever was left over would be returned.
Alus himself wondered where all of that stuff had been hiding. After coming to the Institute, he’d been playing around with a lot of things for some reason.
Tesfia and Alice, on the other hand, were more concerned with the monetary side of it. The AWR he’d given up for a prize was, without a doubt, as expensive as things could get. He’d called it advanced, but anyone with an affinity for it would be able to use it, so it would be helpful for students too. It came with a manual, as well as Budna’s stamp of approval.
It would probably fetch 9,000,000 Deld, ten times the cost of regular AWRs sold on the market. Having been made with Double Digits in mind, price wasn’t a consideration when it was being developed. For a Double Digit Magicmaster, however, it was the equivalent of three months’ pay.
Incidentally, the cost of Alice’s golden spear was 34,000,000 Deld. The price skyrocketed from its use of meteor metal.
The next most expensive item was an all-interference protective cloak made from anti-magic fibers. This wasn’t something Alus made any adjustments to; the military had just sent a sample to him as thanks for benefiting from his research. It was a high-performance cloak compared to what was supplied to the common Magicmaster but was still a step down from what top-ranking Magicmasters received. However, those who could tell the quality from the limited-edition emblem of its makers would understand its worth.
Alus didn’t like that it was white in color, and he’d never worn it even once for that reason. Its cost was 6,500,000 Deld, far higher than most of the military’s protective gear. The reason was mainly the color. It wasn’t dyed but instead used a special fiber that was naturally white.
The next excavation revealed a myriad of small anti-personnel AWRs. The majority of them were knife types with blades shorter than 30 centimeters. They’d been haphazardly stacked together, wrapped in a bundle of cloth, and shoved into the back of a cupboard.
When Tesfia and the others found them and unwrapped the cloth, their jaws dropped. The blades fell onto the desk and floor, making a lot of noise.
Like the rest, they were useless to Alus. They were the results of him trying different things to engrave more elaborate magic formulas. However, these weren’t made for Double Digits. They only handled a single spell. Not a certain affinity, but a single spell. Of course, they weren’t novice spells. The spells ranged from intermediate to advanced and even some expert level spells.
That said, they couldn’t let magic formulas containing expert level spells be made public, so they’d been properly excluded from the prizes.
“Al, is this...?” Tesfia asked for an explanation. Among the small AWRs were, of course, spells that used the ice attribute. So it wasn’t hard to tell what she wanted, as her trembling finger pointed at something. She was pointing at a knife that had a small plate on it that explained the knife had the magic formula for Niflheim. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything with light element spells that Alice could use.
“Give it up. You have that fine gem passed down in your family. Besides, you’ll learn that spell without having to rely on a thing like that. Single spell formulas can sometimes be more of a pain than attribute formulas. You’re far better off not relying on that thing. Okay?” Alus said, making his point. And he had a good reason for it.
An AWR that was only able to handle a single spell was certainly inconvenient, but that made its activation simpler. However, there was still a downside to oversimplifying things. If the caster got too comfortable with the simple method, their construction of the spell would rely too much on imagery rather than the proper process and detailed logic of the magic formula. As the performance of AWRs improved and the study of magic advanced, it had become an increasingly easy trap for Magicmasters to fall into.
And there was no way Alus would approve of something that pretty much denied everything Tesfia had learned in training so far. Though using images alone wouldn’t be enough to cast expert level spells, even if they were fully engraved on a magic formula.
“Yeah, I’m sure I’ll be able to do it soon.”
Alus hadn’t said anything about soon, but since Tesfia had calmed down, he decided not to correct her. “Well, there’s plenty of cases of an AWR breaking and becoming unusable in the Outer World. It would be useful as a backup for times like that. An AWR’s meant to assist a Magicmaster, though, so it would be strange to have a backup for your assistant... anyways, there’s nothing better than being able to use magic without an AWR at all.”
“But would only Singles like you be able to do that, Sir Alus?”
He shrugged at Loki’s question. “No, I don’t think even Singles would find it easy to use spells over the intermediate level without any incantation. Actually, I barely remember any incantations.”
Nobody here was particularly surprised by Alus’ confession. Because Alus had a perfect grasp of the components in various types of magic in his head, he could perform magic without incantations to different degrees depending on the spells.
“So, are you guys sure you can afford to go scavenger hunting in someone else’s room?”
“...” “...”
The room fell into an inexplicable silence.
“Ah! Noooo... How could this happen?” Tesfia screamed in an obvious fashion, earning her stares from Alus and Loki.
“Fia, let’s give up...” Alice jumped on the bandwagon and consoled her.
It was obvious they’d hoped to get something in return for their scavenging in order to achieve their own quota.
The general principle was at least one prize per person, but anything that came out of Alus’ room would be considered submitted by him. Be it 10 or 100, it didn’t mean that Tesfia and Alice would be able to escape their own duty.
“Alright, you two, sit down right there!” Alus scolded the two for a little while. In short, he preached about how pathetic it was to always rely on others for everything.
While they appeared meek during his lecture, the moment it was over they hurriedly ran for the door, finally realizing they were pressed for time. Being at the top of their class, they couldn’t afford to not submit anything.
Alus had to hope there was no one in the class who would defend that. After wordlessly watching them run out, he let out a heavy sigh and massaged the bridge of his nose again.
Unable to bear the sight, Loki stopped her sewing and stood up with an exasperated, “What hopeless people.”
“Sorry about this.”
“Not at all, this is part of my duty.”
Alus gave her a questioning look. Loki was a hard worker, but he often felt she exceeded the scope of a partner. Well, it really was too late for that.
About an hour later, she returned with Tesfia and Alice in tow, surprising even Alus.
But when he saw the sewing kits and manuals in their hands, he realized he had nothing more to say.
***
The next day, Alus went to one of the rooms at the Institute to take part in a security committee meeting.
The security council, also known as the security team, was composed of students. Their role was primarily to prevent trouble from happening, making them temporary disciplinary officers for the duration of the festival. They would also work together with the management committee if necessary. With there being only two days left, the security team gathered for a briefing.
In reality, the organization had already been up and running for a few weeks, and the rules and case examples had been hammered into its members.
The person in charge was Illumina Solsoleek. She would be head of security for the campus festival. She was not only skilled but was also a good friend of Felinella’s. Felinella was the management committee chairperson, making them the optimal combination.
Since Illumina was always by Felinella’s side, the impression she made was vague, but most knew how skilled she was. She was nobility but wasn’t boastful about it. If anything, she was always calm, cool, and collected. For better or worse, she was known for not letting her feelings show.
Because of that, Alus’ first impression of her was that she was competent. In fact, the patrol routes she created were well done.
The areas would be full of people, but he recognized that the plan ensured that the burden would be evenly distributed among the security team so they wouldn’t overlap in areas of responsibility.
That said, the work itself was simple. If a dispute happened that was nothing more than an argument, the parties would get off with a warning. But if a violent conflict occurred that even involved magic, then the security team was allowed to use force.
So they would be permitted to carry their AWRs with them, but they had strict restrictions on the use of magic, with some exceptions. The use of magic was to be a last resort, and even if it was to hold back a mob, they’d need to submit a report on the incident.
It was also important to confirm all matters first so that no blame could be placed on security. Not to mention, they would have to refrain from using AWRs as much as possible.
With this in mind, Alus looked over the patrol routes and reconfirmed his own job.
After finishing the briefing, Illumina readjusted her black-rimmed glasses, and spoke in a cool voice, “Alus, do you have any questions?”
Perhaps he’d had a sour expression on his face... Alus reluctantly opened his mouth. “Well, my patrol area is mostly in front of the main building and the training grounds...”
The Institute was divided into eight sections centered around the main building, and the patrol areas were split up among the security team members. One area was too big for a single person to patrol alone, so there would typically be five people for each area.
Alus’ area was no exception. But the problem was that it was the area expected to see the most traffic. The food stalls would be set up in front of the main building, and the training grounds would be packed during the mock battles. That being the case, selecting the most skilled for it was common sense.
So why was a first-year like Alus being put there? It was a question rather than a complaint. It didn’t add up to him.
“I see, that’s a good point. It was actually at the management committee chair’s request.”
The room was abuzz for a moment, while Alus’ expression soured even more. The male students, hearing that this was under the direct instructions of Felinella, gave Alus jealous stares, but he couldn’t give up his line of questioning here.
“But I’m still just a first-year. Wouldn’t there be some unease in leaving it to me? The area seems to be short on hands, too.”
“It should be fine, considering the show you put on at the tournament. It should be clear to anyone who watched it, Feli and me included. I’m sure the burden on you will be considerable, going out there both in the morning and afternoon, but there will always be five people on the security team, with more off-duty people tending to their own class’ stalls nearby. I believe there will be at least five in front of the main building, and four by the training grounds. Security will be wearing armbands even when off duty, so I hope you’ll be fine with that.”
In that case, even Alus had to accept it. Thinking about it, there would probably be a lot of off-duty security around, and he wouldn’t be the only one covering both morning and afternoon shifts. “... I understand.”
“Thank you for your understanding. Are there any other questions?” Illumina looked around with an expressionless face. It seemed nobody else had any objections. “Then, that’s all for today. Remember to rely on the Consensors on the day of the festival. I’m sure there will be some unforeseen circumstances, but I’ll be at headquarters ready to reassign you as quickly as possible if you need it.”
With those as her closing remarks, Illumina handed out Consensors and armbands to the security team. It probably hadn’t been intentional, but the armband had a very ostentatious design. As he gazed at it, Alus had the feeling that he’d be busier than expected.
As the meeting ended, he realized that there was a lot to do, but focusing on the campus festival for the moment would be best.
The students were leaving the room one after another, but a certain person approached him. “Thanks for today, Alus. Like I said before, I’m sure that it will be a burden on you, but I thank you for your patience,” Illumina said, stone-faced. Depending on who you asked, she might have even looked pompous.
But having gotten an understanding of what kind of a person she was at the tournament, Alus didn’t particularly mind. She might give off the look of an elite, but he knew she had a mild-mannered personality.
Everything she did was rational and logical. She tended not to be noticed because of Felinella’s dazzling appearance, but she was quite the looker herself. She was just a bit unfortunate in that she lost out being in Felinella’s shadow.
That was the frank, somewhat rude, opinion Alus had of her, but he wasn’t going to say it out loud.
“Still, I can’t tell why Feli is pushing such a heavy responsibility on you... Is that just how much she trusts you?” The way she spun around and sat down on the table edge was somewhat enchanting.
“Your guess is as good as mine. By the way, I heard that you two were childhood friends.”
“Yes, we’re kind of stuck together. But Feli’s finally getting motivated as the management committee chair, and coming off of a win at the tournament, we can’t let this year’s campus festival end in failure,” Illumina said with a smile. Her usual cool demeanor disappeared, making her look her age and even lovely. One couldn’t just tell a book from its cover.
Having heard that much, Alus couldn’t slack off anymore. “Right. In that case, I’ll pitch in and help out too.”
Illumina gave him a simple, “I look forward to it,” in return.
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