Chapter 118: Side Effects (2)
“Hey, Vise.”
“Yes, Archis.”
“I heard from Lord Etar that you’re disguising yourself as a commoner and operating in the Underworld?”
“Yes. I have a tavern in the Underworld. It’s right on the boundary between the Mage’s District and the Swordsman’s District. If you ever find the ti, please stop by. But why do you ask all of a sudden?”
“When I was in 1st Class, there was a ti I went down to the Underworld because of a special class cancellation. But mages can’t enter the Swordsman’s District, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“You’re disguised as a commoner, so you can enter the Swordsman’s District, right?”
“Yes, I can. And my tavern is on the boundary between the Mage’s District and the Swordsman’s District anyway. Whether mage or swordsman, anyone can co. Because of that, surveillance is the loosest there, strangely enough.”
Oh?
That was a welco thing to hear.
I hadn’t known Vise’s tavern was on the boundary between the two districts, and the timing seed to line up perfectly.
Feeling pleased, I asked,
“Really? Then don’t you have any swordsn you’ve gotten close to while running the tavern?”
“Is this about thods of physical training, by any chance?”
“Yeah. Even if I’m a forr Archmage, do you think I’d know how to train the body?”
I needed the way swordsn trained.
Making this frail body able to withstand Vision Power was the top priority.
If I couldn’t do that, I wouldn’t be able to go to the main school.
No matter that I was Flewd, I might not be able to suppress a Tyrant who had amplified his mana for 300 years using pure-mana-based Flewd magic.
Flewd 9th Circle magic, Orbification.
In theory, if Flewd Orbification was floating, no elental magic could be manifested, but if it was the current Tyrant, he might even break that theory.
“Unfortunately, there isn’t a single custor at my tavern. Perhaps because it’s the only boundary, neither mages nor swordsn have wanted to set foot there.”
“……”
But my hope was crushed all too easily.
It wasn’t hard to understand why such a phenonon occurred.
Since ancient tis, swordsn and mages hadn’t gotten along, and in this era Tyrant was stepping in to intensify the conflict—so even if there was a place where they could et, wouldn’t they have no desire to do so?
“Still, commoners can enter the Swordsman’s District, right? Isn’t that so?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Then wouldn’t it be possible for you, disguised as a commoner, to slip in and befriend an appropriate swordsman…… or would that be difficult?”
“Hmm…….”
Vise fell into thought.
It was my order, but it was obvious he was calculating whether he could really pull it off alone.
“Wouldn’t it be better if you disguised yourself as a commoner and tried it directly, Archis?”
But his suggestion was sothing I hadn’t anticipated either.
“……?”
“Yes. I think it would be much easier for you than for .”
“On what basis do you think that?”
“It’s simple. Among mages, you’re the only one who’s ever directly conversed with swordsn, aren’t you? Excluding Tyrant.”
“……?”
“The top of the main school. But there’s a top at the swordsman school too, isn’t there? Through Sealing Stones, Grand Swordsn and Archmages can contact each other there. Didn’t you spend quite a long ti at that top?”
Only then did I understand Vise’s intention.
I was soone who had directly spoken with swordsn.
In other words, since I was the mage who best knew what kind of disposition swordsn had and what topics made it easier to approach them, he was suggesting I try it myself.
Certainly, Vise had lived long in Magical Society, but since he’d never faced swordsn directly, he probably wouldn’t even know what topics to talk about.
“Besides, since you look like a young student now, if you disguise yourself well as a commoner, wouldn’t you be able to talk with swordsn?”
An anecdote from when I went to the Underworld during 1st Class ca to mind.
The two swordsn who had blocked us when we tried to enter the Swordsman’s District to stay at an orphanage.
One had pointed his sword at us even though we were young students, just because we were mages, but the other had at least a trace of warmth.
In other words, if I approached that kind of swordsman, it ant I could obtain what I wanted relatively easily.
“You definitely have a point, but…….”
I looked at Forr.
“Yes, what is it?”
“If I wanted to, could I go to the Underworld at any ti?”
This school was the Ed Branch School.
Since it wasn’t a place I managed or created, I didn’t know the structure of the Waypoints.
If I knew that structure, I could use them freely, but right now, passage was only possible if the Waypoint administrator personally opened the gate.
“Haha, aren’t you being too serious asking sothing so obvious? As it happens, Lord Etar told to deliver this to you when you woke up.”
Forr pulled out a red potion from inside his clothes.
“What is this?”
“Waypoint managent authority. For security reasons, it was made in potion form. You said you heard that the Royal Guard ca to this school before, right?”
“That’s right.”
“The reason they couldn’t freely move between classes even though they ca here is because they didn’t have this managent authority. Who would’ve imagined it? That soone would turn managent authority into a potion.”
The world had really changed in strange ways.
To make sothing like this into a potion.
Normally, Waypoint managent authority allowed you to open and close portals when you possessed an item called a Charm.
There were all kinds of Charms.
Rings, bracelets, necklaces, and so on.
Mages of the past often chose such accessories.
But a potion…….
This was sothing I had never expected at all.
“Especially this one—it’s A-rank managent authority. It’s authority only the Headmaster and Vice Headmaster can use.”
“So that ans?”
“You can use every class, all passages between the Underworld and this school. Whenever you want.”
“How do I use it? Do I drink it?”
“No! That would be disastrous!”
Forr panicked and stopped as I tried to drink the potion, then explained the proper thod of use.
“Activate the Mob and pour it over the Mob. The potion will seep into the Mob. Then the registration is complete. Simple, right?”
“So in the end, the Charm isn’t this potion, but the Mob?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
As Forr instructed, I activated the Mob and poured the potion.
Strangely, instead of dripping down, the potion imdiately soaked into the Mob.
There was no visible change right away.
“Registration seems to have gone through normally. Would you like to try it once? Since it’s you, Archis, you should know how to use teleportation.”
“Easy.”
I imagined the Waypoint in the Underworld.
While imagining wanting to go there, I cast teleportation.
Then, a red portal opened beside my bed.
“Yes, that’s how you use it.”
“Thanks.”
“Then is that your decision?”
Vise asked.
“That I disguise myself as a commoner and make contact with swordsn?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah. I’ll try once my body recovers. You said it would take two weeks, right, until full recovery?”
Vise nodded.
Forr added an explanation.
“If you need it, you can go down anyti, even during the sester rather than only during vacation. Would we dare to control sothing like that? You, Archis.”
“Thanks for saying that, at least.”
“I an it sincerely…….”
“Recovery cos first for now.”
By the ti he had finished all the treatnt, Vise placed quite a lot of potions beside my bed.
Counting with my eyes, there were no fewer than fourteen bottles.
They were all the sa color.
“There are no serious injuries left, so I’ll leave these here. I won’t be able to co often, after all. One bottle per day—just spray it over your body. It’s a wound potion, so you must not drink it.”
As expected of a master of pharmacology, the explanation was detailed.
“Then I’ll take my leave now, Archis.”
“Already?”
It had been such a long ti since I’d seen him, so when he tried to leave in such a hurry, a sense of regret ca first.
“Yes. I’d like to stay longer too, but there are other students, aren’t there? And I also have things to do in the Underworld.”
“Alright. I’ll stop by once when I go down next ti.”
“Yes, I’ll be waiting. Forr, open the portal.”
“Yes, sir.”
Forr opened a portal on the spot.
It looked exactly like the one I had manifested for practice.
Vise pushed one foot into the portal, then turned back to and bowed his head deeply.
“It was an honor, Archis.”
“Yeah, get back safely. Thanks for the treatnt.”
Showing a smiling face at the end, he disappeared.
Watching the portal close, I turned to Forr.
“Forr, there’s sothing I want to ask you.”
“Yes, please speak, Archis.”
“You said there’s no assigned teacher for 6th Class right now. Because there isn’t a single student.”
“That’s right.”
“But when the sester starts, how were you planning to run the classes?”
“Hmm…… that part is troubleso. I only just ca up two weeks ago myself.”
Forr paused for a mont.
It also ant nothing had been firmly decided yet.
“Before that, there’s one thing I’d like to ask.”
“Ask.”
“By chance, Hei is a fire-and-darkness Double Caster. And Kiena summons Sylarid’s monsters as well, right? She doesn’t know it herself, but still. Anyway, it’s your inference, Archis, that it’s connected to Sylarid.”
“That’s right. Especially Kiena—she seems enough like Sylarid’s daughter that I think she might be.”
At my words, Forr neither looked surprised nor asked back.
Since I was the only mage still alive who had directly seen and dealt with Sylarid, he considered my intuition absolutely correct.
“If that’s the case, then could Kiena also beco a Double Caster like Sylarid—an Elentalist and a Summoner? If that really happens, it would all but confirm she’s Sylarid’s daughter. Things like that are usually hereditary, aren’t they? I want to test that. Of course, how Sylarid’s daughter ended up drifting into that orphanage is sothing to look into later.”
I agreed with the experint Forr wanted to conduct as well.
The talent of being a Double Caster.
This had the highest probability of being inherited.
If the hide color of the relic Kiena summoned hadn’t been black, I wouldn’t have had such suspicions.
But since even I had said the Lycan she summoned was dangerous, there was plenty of evidence.
“So what are you planning to do?”
“I’m thinking of personally conducting darkness-elent classes with Hei and Kiena. There isn’t even a single Summoner teacher suitable for 6th Class, and as for the fire elent…… there isn’t a mage I can bring in right now. Ah! By the ti vacation ends, there should be one. I’ll leave the fire elent in that guy’s charge.”
“Who is it? A mage from the Ed Family?”
“Yes. Her na is Sparkle.”
“……Is she the only option? Isn’t there so other sharp kid?”
Before I realized it, those words slipped out of my mouth first.
“You know Sparkle? She used to be a 2nd Class professor—how do you know her? You’ve never even t her. No, more importantly, ‘sowhat lacking’? You already know that Sparkle is a bit unimpressive?”
“…….”
Only then did I confess that in 5th Class I’d gone to 2nd Class through the secret room, and there I’d watched Banshi and Sparkle’s interviews from the side.
Throughout the explanation, Forr’s face twisted strangely as he struggled to suppress his laughter.
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