How to Survive at the Academy - Chapter 44

Chapter 44: Anyone Can Be a Professor (2)

Anyone Can Be a Professor (2)

“Oh my! I’m so sorry, Ed.”

The morning of the second day, I went out to the commercial district for the weekend. Cutting through the crowded commercial district to the southwest, I went all the way over to Mexes Bridge. It was one of the two bridges that led outside Acken Island. It felt like I had walked nearly two hours to get there.

When I entered Elte Company’s Silvenia Branch—which could be clearly seen after passing over the bridge—the staff led me to a sitting room, as if they had been waiting for me. It was uncomfortable to see them act so oddly polite towards me.

Lortel, who was sitting quietly in the room waiting for me, apologized and explained that she had forgotten to prepare the contract that she promised.

“Even though I made a promise to you and made you come all the way out here, these days I’ve just been so busy that I didn’t have time to prepare it.”

“… I see.”

“Yes. I’m really sorry. Maybe it would be a better idea to come back sometime next week, instead. Though as an apology, I prepared some tea and other refreshments for you. Also, there were a few magically engineered items that were left off the ledger. On your way out, please pick them up at the counter.”

Lortel was acting very differently from her time at the Teacher District.

Instead of her usual school uniform and robe, she was now wearing a long, flared skirt, a white blouse, and a beret with a fancy golden frame.

When I caught up with her after the last incident, the only looks I’d seen of hers were drenched wet from the rain and her wearing that tattered robe. It was quite a new look from what I’d seen before.

It was too luxurious to be considered a casual outfit, so I asked her if she had some sort of appointment to attend to.

“I have a very important appointment later today, so I dressed up. How do I look?”

She asked this with a bright smile.

“An important appointment?”

“Something like that.”

Perhaps she didn’t want to answer, as she responded with a smile instead. I nodded my head in response.

I sat in the seat across from her in that luxurious room as I brought up my main question. 

“I’d like to ask you about something. Do you also happen to deal with furniture?”

“Of course.”

“I’d like to buy some cheap but decent furniture, but all the products here at the branch are a bit too high class. Could you perhaps prepare something like a simple desk, chair, or cabinet? Something that would be good enough for me?”

“Oh! Since you’re asking for that, you must have finished the cabin.”

“It’s almost done. I just need to finish the details and it will be complete.”

“Hmm… As you know, here there is quite a high demand for products that are of an aristocrat’s level. That’s why products that tend to focus on practicality and a cheap price aren’t ordered. I should be able to arrange it myself, but it might take a bit of time.”

Lortel put her hand on her chin as she fell into a deep thought. Suddenly, she started to grin.

“It would be a bit of an issue if I were to give something away for free. As I told you before, giving away something for free wouldn’t be right, considering the ethics that come with being a merchant. Plus, all the other merchants would end up looking down on me.”

“Well, there’s nothing that can be done about that.”

“Well, there is somewhat of an intuitive method to get around that.”

Lortel stood up from the sofa in the room and walked over to her work desk. Then, as she gathered magic power into her hands…

Crack!

“…….”

“Woodworking is your specialty, right? If you reconnect the leg that broke off, you can use it again. For me, it’s already trash. As such, I have no use for it any longer. Tomorrow, I’ll just have to throw it out.”

It was a chair engraved with a fancy deer pattern and an eye catching, luxurious gold frame.

“How much was that chair?”

“That’s a secret.”

I didn’t know if it could be called passion, or if she just got caught up in the momentum. Either way, she was a girl that was full of spirit, who did what she wanted.

Lortel’s gaze left the chair as it began to move to the cabinets, windows, and so on. I couldn’t even carry it all in the first place, so I tried to stop her.

“Well, I’ll send you these trivial pieces of ‘trash’ later.”

“… Okay.”

“Anyway, there is something that I wanted to say to you.”

Lortel returned to the sofa and sat down, taking a sip of tea from her cup. It looked like she was trying to act elegant, but when compared to the way she had just smashed that chair, the gap was only growing.

“Do you know the assistant professor, Cleoh? Cleoh Elpin?”

“Hm? Yeah.”

“Her behavior is quite unusual… So, I’ve been trying to keep my eye on her recently. Well, she’s still a very childlike person, so it’s probably not particularly dangerous… But still…”

Cleoh Elpin.

She was a young woman appointed as an assistant professor for that very year. She was also one of Professor Glast’s best students, who had been dealing with him for nearly ten years.

From what I recalled, she appeared in the final chapter of Act 2 as the second phase boss in the Glast Subjugation… It was about time for her to start showing up in the storyline.

“Why?”

“It’s just… She’s strangely intuitive and happens to oversee the school’s report on the occupation of Ophelis Hall. Well, I’ll take care of it myself, so you don’t have to worry about it… I just thought I should tell you.”

“Alright. I’ll leave it to you.”

After responding, I took a sip of the tea. Lortel looked at me strangely.

I looked back at her, wondering if she had anything else to say. Lortel cleared her throat, stood up, and then began walking towards me.

Sitting down on the table, she leaned her head towards me.

“How do you manage to never change your expression? That’s quite a winning move on its own.”

Seeing that she clearly looked upset, I immediately realized what it was about.

It was about what had happened when we said goodbye to each other… Right before she took the torch.

“In the first place, Ed… You don’t even see me as a woman, do you?”

Lortel bounced her foot as she twirled her finger on the table.

“Well, what’s the point of me trying to twist my words? Ed, I see you as a man. It’s exactly as you think. Everything that I asked of you was because of my hidden intentions.”

“… I know what you want me to say, but…”

“Oh, I didn’t expect you to answer. As you know, I never take a fight that I don’t have a high chance of winning.”

Lortel let out a deep sigh as she pressed her hand against my chest.

“I know exactly what you would say if you were to give me an answer now. That’s why I’ll only take a bet when my victory is guaranteed.”

“……”

“After all, merchants are people that fight to win. Right now, you may feel lukewarm about it all, but… Who knows what will happen in the future?”

Lortel smiled as she talked in a collected manner.

“I’m not the only one here who’s a bit nervous, am I?”

If you looked closely, you could see Lortel’s fingertips trembling.

Her charming smile was the same as always. Regardless of whether she was guaranteed victory, or instead pushed into a corner.

It was the characteristic of a merchant who would never let their secrets be betrayed by their own body.

* * *

You have acquired the advanced production skill ‘Magic Engineering.’

One Advanced Production Technique Slot has been used.

There was a marble that would fit in the palm of my hand, as well as a stand to hold it up. The structure of these magically engineered items was much simpler than I thought, so I could analyze them quickly.

The strange sense of accomplishment that came from finally learning an advanced skill tickled my heart. 

I thought it would be a good idea to organize the rest of the magically engineered items in the hut, so I walked through the camp full of items.

After the sun went down, a chill started to fill in the air. It was autumn.

When I started living in the forest, it was still only early spring. Because of that, I had put aside taking measures against the cold and instead focused on securing food, clothing, and shelter.

However, with the colors of the leaves beginning to change, the chill in the air was something I couldn’t ignore.

“Hmm…”

The time had come that I really couldn’t sleep outdoors any longer.

In addition to that, when winter came and the snow started to pile up, it would become increasingly more difficult to hunt animals and gather meat in the forest. Plus, the number of edible plants that were available also became a problem, meaning that finding food that I could eat would be a major problem.

I had to prepare for winter.

A cozy atmosphere coming from the falling snow… The warm romance that I usually associated with winter was beautiful only because it took place in a sturdy home, with food in the refrigerator. That wasn’t the case where I was.

Still, my situation wasn’t all that desperate. That was because I had money.

“Eighteen… Nineteen… Twenty.”

I opened the leather bag that Lortel handed me. It was filled with twenty shiny gold coins.

If I were ever pushed to such extremes, I could always spend a bit of money. However, I couldn’t waste it. I needed to set a policy to minimize expenditure on one-time use goods.

For the current semester, I could survive off the scholarship provided by the Glockt Scholarship Foundation. However, from next semester… I didn’t know what would happen. I needed to spend my money effectively to be able to pay the tuition fees each semester.

It was obvious that Lortel liked me. However, relying on her goodwill because of that fact would be too unsafe of a plan. Even if something were to happen between us, it would have to happen after the storyline was complete. It would be impossible for it to happen before then.

It would be a bad idea to try to calculate and take advantage of other people’s goodwill… I wasn’t just saying that because it was the right thing to do, either.

If I got too close to a main character in the storyline, then it would break my policy. But if I was willing to give up on that policy… Well, a human’s mind was like a reed, so you never knew when it would easily change.

Being self-sufficient was the core of survival. It would be an extremely dangerous decision to give up control of my own life to temporarily rely on another’s goodwill. No matter what anyone said, I had to take responsibility for my own life.

Though, I was willing to spend some money on reinforcing the cabin and preparing some decent woodworking tools.

That was because they were items that I needed to keep using in the future and would help me improve my daily life skills immediately.

But I couldn’t spend too much money on food or firewood. Maybe it would be fine to spend some money on spices and oil, but I could never spend any money on items that could be procured from the forest.

“Ignite.”

Casting ‘Ignite’ to light the fireplace had become as easy as breathing.

* * *

* * *

Fwoosh.

The fire burned in the decently made fireplace, and the smoke went up the chimney that took two days to complete.

The fireplace itself was also larger than I thought, as it took up almost two thirds of the wall.

The reason that it ended up bigger than my original design was to make a bigger fire… In other words, it was to increase the firepower. Though it was more like a fire oven rather than a fireplace at that point.

The firewood itself could be procured easily, so I made the choice to focus on firepower first… Thanks to that, the chimney also had to be bigger to release the smoke. It was all a pain in the ass.

Crackle, Crackle.

The sound of burning firewood echoed faintly inside the cabin.

It wasn’t even early evening yet, but the inside of the cabin was already very dark. The warm light from the fire filled the inside. It was quite bright and made me feel good.

I stared blankly at the burning flames for about five minutes, before sitting down and leaning against the cabin wall.

“Phew…”

Sitting down against the wall, I let out a deep sigh before laughing. I felt satisfied.

The idea of ‘warming up’ while doing outdoor camp related activities was nearly impossible.

Warmth wasn’t something that I had particularly sought, but once I laid down it had become something that I had gotten addicted to. It made me move closer to the fire.

I have a roof and a ceiling.

The walls and roof were covered with mud, and the floor was covered in leather.

Both materials retained heat well, so once they started to heat up, they wouldn’t get cold again easily. Once the air was heated, that warm feeling would spread throughout the cabin.

The problem was that the fuel efficiency was not as good as I had thought it would be… There seemed to be no other solution than to spend more time gathering firewood. If I didn’t have enough time, I wouldn’t have any choice but to use magic to cut down the trees. It wasn’t too hard to start a fire since I can just use ‘Ignite’, so I didn’t think it was all that much of a pain.

As expected… I thought there needed to be some way to increase my magic power efficiency.

I still had to prepare more firewood, but I was finally moving into the cabin. Once I got some furniture, my safe living environment would finally be complete.

The warm air pressed against the side of my face.

It felt like heaven. I was so relieved, as if I had lifted a heavy burden off my chest.

“… How long has it been already? I should go and check the traps.”

I had recently begun installing not just traps for small animals, but also ones for larger animals. 

I really hoped there would be a good harvest.

* * *

“If that’s what you think, it may very well be true.”

Assistant Professor Cleoh presented her opinion that there still seemed to be something missing regarding the Occupation of Ophelis Hall incident.

With that said, Professor Glast neither confirmed nor denied the possibility. Though, he didn’t seem to have much interest in the first place.

“Assistant Professor Cleoh, strangely enough you have a really good sense of intuition. Sometimes, you even produce very plausible hypotheses with it. However, you also tend to make poor decisions when it comes to important things. With that said, please refrain from being overconfident in your judgment when time is crucial.”

“The way he said that was too much. Right? Hm?

“……”

Trix Hall Student Counseling Office

With a desk between them, Assistant Professor Cleoh and Ziggs Eiffelstein were facing each other.

“I-I see.”

“Listen to me, Ziggs. You should also know, as you take Professor Glast’s class, but why does he always have to act like that? I’ve been his pupil for nearly ten years already, and I’m struggling with a mountain load of work, but still! Is giving just one or two words of encouragement that difficult?”

Responding carefully to her questions, Ziggs was sweating up a storm.

Cleoh, who was the faculty member in charge of the Occupation of Ophelis Hall investigation, had a strange feeling while reading the files regarding it. Thus, she decided to conduct a further, independent, investigation.

The school’s investigation office had not yet thought to place Ed, Ziggs, and Yennekar under investigation.

The first one up was Ziggs, who was called to Trix Hall. But rather than a hearing or investigation, it ended up becoming more of a lament.

At first, it was a conversation between the two. They spoke with a sense of dignity, but at some point, she started speaking informally and letting out deep sighs.

It was obvious that, if her assistant Anise or the other students responsible for helping her saw that scene, they would only cover their faces in disappointment as they let out a deep sigh.

“Oh geez, this is not the time to be doing this. Ziggs, since you have a reliable image, I just ended up complaining to you without realizing it.”

“I-I’m flattered to hear that.”

“So, I have this strange feeling about everything. Right now, it’s probably just that I’m just misunderstanding it all… But there were a couple of eyewitness testimonies that claimed that they had seen the Golden King Elte at the scene… Plus, the motivation behind Elris’ actions doesn’t seem to hold up. Well, she did admit to everything, so it seems like there isn’t much room for any further investigation…”

Ziggs gulped, his mouth drying out.

Assistant Professor Cleoh was a seemingly childish idiot. He wondered if people like that should really be teachers in the first place.

He realized that the amount of academic knowledge someone had, and their ability to think logically, were completely different things.

The results from her thesis and academic research were certainly amazing, but… She seemed to have a screw loose that made him wonder if it was even okay for her to be like that.

However, there were many times where her strange sense of intuition seemed to see through everything.

“Don’t you think there might be some kind of black curtain that we can’t see behind it all?”

“F-For Example?”

“Hm… Let’s see… Like, you know the Golden King Elte… His daughter lives in Ophelis Hall. I mean Lortel.”

Those words made Ziggs’ breath catch.

“However, I’ve already received testimonies that Lortel was being held captive by Elris when Taylee and his party went to defeat her. At least, I think so? Anyway, after that she supposedly ran from Ophelis Hall, and her whereabouts from there were… Well, nobody knows where she went.”

“Th-That’s…”

“But there’s no way that Lortel would be such a bad girl! Her grades are good, and her personality is so pleasant! Last time, she brought me a whole bunch of tarts to cheer me up since I was working overtime.”

“……”

Assistant Professor Cleoh said all of that while smiling brightly. Then, she quietly lowered her voice as she continued to talk.

“I believe that Ed Rothstaylor is a bit suspicious, though. The one that has been excommunicated.”

It was weird to see her whispering quietly like that, as if anyone would be listening. In the first place, only Ziggs and Cleoh were there.

The name was so unexpected that Ziggs’ expression turned rather stiff.

“My upperclassmen, Ed?”

“Yeah. It may just sound like some conspiracy, but hear me out, Ziggs.”

In the first place, Ziggs was only called over for questioning. Why did he have to listen to such a story?

It was such a strange thing for the assistant professor to do, but Ziggs couldn’t reject her.

“Everyone else at the scene were either students living in Ophelis Hall or people that were involved with it. Basically, people that had no choice but to get caught up in the whole incident. But Taylee and Ed were the only two involved that had no connection with Ophelis Hall. It was clear that Taylee was brought along because of Elvira, and he was also part of the party that helped solve the issue, so he should be excluded from the list of suspects. But the other person is Ed. Just what was Ed doing at Ophelis Hall at that time?”

“……”

“That’s because Ed was the black curtain behind this whole incident! They always say that the criminal goes back to the scene of the crime!”

Seeing her make a ‘Ta-Da’ sound effect with her mouth, acting as if she was proud of her deduction, made it clear that she was just a child-like idiot.

“Th-then wouldn’t there be some sort of reason behind his actions? Wouldn’t there need to be some sort of benefit for Ed for him to do such a thing?”

“I’m going to figure that out! I’m going to go ask Ed himself!”

“Identifying the culprit, then figuring out their motive and method… Isn’t the order usually the opposite?”

“One method to find the answer is to take a look at it in the opposite direction, Ziggs.”

Cleoh’s gut feeling was lasting for more than just a day or two. Thus, Ziggs started to worry that Ed might get caught up in all that trouble soon.

“Well, Ziggs. You don’t look all that suspicious, and you also don’t know much about the situation, so I’ll just let you go.”

“Then are you going to go and call Ed to Trix Hall for further investigation?”

“No. If he has time to prepare a bunch of excuses, he will just slip away like an eel. That’s why I’m going to hit him from the side.”

That meant that Ziggs’ plan to give Ed an early warning went down the drain.

“I don’t know where he’s gone off to live since leaving the dormitory… Though, he’s apparently been seen around the northern forest quite a bit. I’ll head over there and question him myself.”

* * *

If you decided to take action, you needed to do it with momentum. That was Cleoh’s policy.

She was busy writing out research proposals whenever there was time, checking over the next week’s course materials, and reading over student suggestions. Because of that, she was constantly busy out of her mind… But once she was given a job, she wouldn’t allow herself to do it half-heartedly.

She was planning to search through the northern forest before the sun went down, but she ended up having to do more work than expected, so the forest had already become very dark.

‘Hmm… I guess I should have just come tomorrow. But other than the weekend, I don’t have much free time.’

The atmosphere of the forest, which was gradually getting swallowed by the darkness, was as dreary as always. She couldn’t see that far ahead of her, so searching wouldn’t be all that effective.

In the first place, Ed was unlikely to be walking around through the forest in the dark. Unless he was eating and sleeping out in the forest, what would be the point of going out in the middle of the night?

She decided to just return when it was light out. It was at that moment, just as Cleoh made up her mind and started to turn around, that she heard it.

Swish, Swish.

At the sound of the grass moving over by the trail, Cleoh held her breath as she quickly hid behind some nearby trees.

She stuck her head out, wondering if it was perhaps a wild animal that was just walking through the forest, but it ended up being Ed. The fallen aristocrat, surrounded by rumors…

On one side, he was holding the body of a bloody baby deer under his arm.

And on his other shoulder… He was holding an unconscious human body.

‘What…? What is that…?!’

Huffff, Huffff…

Ed breathing made it sound as if he was completely exhausted, resembling that of a wild animal. His eyes also seemed to shine in the dark.

Cleoh gasped in pure astonishment.

She was sure that the person that boy was carrying on his shoulder was… Someone that even Professor Glast praised as a rare genius. Lucy Mayreel.

She seemed to have no intention of resisting while she was carried by that boy. She looked completely defeated.

‘Lucy… That student is definitely Lucy…!’

There was not a single person amongst the school’s faculty that didn’t know her name.

Even the principal of the academy, Obel—who was comparable to the archmage Glockt, who had helped found Silvenia—had to do his best when it came to dealing with Lucy. 

That was Lucy Mayreel. A girl that was born with such an unfathomable amount of talent.

Seeing such a girl subdued, being carried on his shoulder… Cleoh stared blankly at them as they started to disappear into the forest.

Cleoh didn’t even think about jumping out from where she was.

She thought that she needed to dig a bit more into everything first. Also, as expected, her intuition wasn’t wrong.

‘I… I really may have been gifted with the talent of a detective…!’

Even Professor Glast might be completely surprised by the piece of information that she intended to bring back.

Cleoh followed Ed’s footsteps, her eyes shining bright.