CH 18

In a room of a certain building in the Weichsel Empire, a constant temperature is maintained as if disconnected from the heat of early summer. Countless books are stored in bookcases, filling the air with the unique scent of old books. In this room, a voice echoes.

“Evil god… god… people…”

The source of the voice is a girl of about 12-13, reading a thick book with intense concentration. She is well-dressed and appears to be a young lady of a noble family. The book is written in a language that is no longer used in the present day, and even putting the entirety of her knowledge to use, the girl can only decipher a few words.

“Vessel… soul… evil god… sealed… god… It’s no use. I can’t read any more than this.”

Sighing as she combs her fingers through her purple pigtails, she closes the book and returns it to the bookshelf.

“…It’s almost time, huh?”

Thinking about what she has to do after this, she sighs deeper than before and for a brief moment, her expression grows despondent. However, she puts an end to these thoughts and leaves the room.

“So this is where you were, Lady Alexia,” a young woman with short red hair of even length wearing a chamberlain’s outfit says just as she’s exiting the room. Her lean body and distinguished outfit would normally give a strong impression of beauty and dignity. However, right now, her expression is sullen.

“I’m sorry, Irene. I was a bit immersed in a book. It’s almost time for class, so I was on my way just now, but did something happen?” the girl, Alexia, asks the red-haired woman, Irene.

“…It’s, well… I’ve been told that, since you have been so outstanding in your studies, you are to study separately from the other students to allow their lessons to catch up,” Irene answers nervously.

After a pause, Alexia says, “Is that so?”

Since both of them know that these words have a different meaning, it doesn’t need to be said. Alexia looks somewhat discouraged, but this isn’t the first time she was made to study independently like this.

“Oh, Lady Alexia, is something the matter?” some noble girls around the same age as Alexia call out to her, giggling.

“No, nothing at all,” Alexia responds emotionlessly. For a moment, the laughter stops, as if they’re dissatisfied with this reaction, but their grins soon return.

“Lady Alexia, classes should be starting soon, wherever are you going?”

‘You already know, and yet you’re blatantly…!’ Irene, standing by her side, thinks resentfully, not letting her hatred for the girls show on her face.

“The professor ordered me to self-study, so I plan to return to my room to study.”

“Oh my! Just as one would expect from Lady Alexia, whose grades in classroom lectures are the best in our school! You must have no need for things like school and lessons!” one of the noble girls says while making grandiose hand gestures, and the others follow, showering her with flattery.

“You are truly incredible! You’re the pride of our school!”

“No, I am lacking in my studies. I have a lot to learn.”

“So humble. Modesty is important, but too much of it will sound like sarcasm.”

“Ahh, I’m so jealous of you, Lady Alexia. It would be rather difficult for those like us who are lacking in ability to learn without taking classes.”

‘Isn’t that just because you don’t study enough?’ Irene retorts in her mind.

“Oh my, if we don’t make our way to the classroom soon, we’re going to be late.”

“Oh, you’re right. Well, Lady Alexia, if you’ll excuse us.”

The girls bow elegantly and briskly walk towards the classroom. Although they’re steadily moving farther away from Alexia and Irene, they can still hear the girls’ laughter and their conversation.

“Even so, it seems there are students at this ancient and honorable Weichsel Imperial Magic Academy who still cannot use magic properly.”

“Oh dear, how dreadful! Surely it’s unthinkable that such a student would be at our school which prides itself on being the longest-established school in the world.”

“Why would such a person even come to a magic academy, I wonder? Are they not embarrassed to bring shame to their family?”

“Students like us simply cannot understand the mindset of a ‘talentless’ student, although I wouldn’t want to. I would never want to become unable to use proper magic, even if I was more intelligent as well.”

There’s the sound of conspicuously loud laugher, and Irene endures by biting her lip so hard that it starts bleeding. If she insulted the daughters of nobles as a mere chamberlain, it would cause trouble for her master. All she can do is glare at them as they walk away.

Alexia, on the other hand, ignores them and continues walking to her room. Once Irene notices, she hurriedly follows behind her.

“…Do I have no talent in magic after all?” Alexia mumbles as she walks. She isn’t saying it to anyone in particular; she probably didn’t even mean to say it out loud.

There’s nothing Irene can say. When it comes to magic, Irene is an outsider. But she knows better than anyone how much effort Alexia has put into it, having been by her side since she was a young girl. She’s seen her reread spellbooks over and over until she’s able to memorize them. She’s watched her wave her staff until she gets blisters and chant incantations until her throat goes dry. She saw her finally succeed in casting a basic spell, saw her inform her parents with tears streaming down her face. However, her parents’ faces were full of clear disappointment. And then, when she shut herself in her room in despair, Irene could only listen to her heartbroken cries.

Alexia hasn’t cried since that day. She enrolled in the Weichsel Imperial Magic Academy, studied diligently, and consulted her teachers who were experts in magic, but couldn’t get any clear advice. On the contrary, with her lack of magical talent and her knowledge of magic which surpassed her teachers, she was only seen as a nuisance by students and teachers alike and they began making excuses to avoid her. Nevertheless, Alexia didn’t give up and spent all her time in the library searching through old books for a way to improve her magic skills. No matter what adversity befell her, she always continued her efforts. And because she’s been watching her all this time, Irene knows that she won’t heal her master’s heart by comforting her carelessly.

A fixation on magic has run rampant within the Weichsel Empire’s aristocracy. This is because the first emperor of Weichsel was a powerful mage and the majority of aristocrats connected to him were also mages, so the notion that superior mages would have superior bloodlines became commonly accepted.

Magical talent is genetically inherited. It’s not uncommon for the parents of a brilliant mage to be brilliant as well and for their children to also grow up to be brilliant mages. For this reason, more importance is placed on a noble’s lineage and talent as a mage than in other countries.

In an aristocratic society with this mindset, what if a child with no talent as a mage is born to a family of mages? Some have been disowned due to their lack of magical talent and disguise themselves as commoners. Others are confined for their entire lives. This hasn’t happened in recent years, but there have even been cases where they were poisoned to death and treated as if they had died from an illness. That is the extent to which the inability to use magic is treated as a fatal flaw by the aristocratic society.

Naturally, the family that Alexia, full name Marie Alexia von Zavarish, is from, the House of Count Zavarish, also has this fixation on magic. Alexia was able to attend Weichsel Imperial Magic Academy because she could just barely manage to use magic, but if she couldn’t, then one of the aforementioned tragedies would have occurred. However, her parents did not enroll her in a magic academy to develop her magical talent. They had already given up on her as having no talent in magic, so their goal was to build her up as a graduate of a magic academy in order to marry her off to another noble. She’s from a Count family, so she would have marriage candidates in families of slightly lower status. They wanted her to obtain the title of a graduate of the prestigious Weichsel Imperial Magic Academy in order to build a good relationship with a promising lower-class noble. Although, they did also secretly hope that they would be lucky enough that one of the higher-class noble boys who attend the academy would be smitten with her.

Actually, the intelligent Alexia isn’t unattractive for her age and is a charmingly beautiful girl, so there are quite a few boys who are secretly in love with her. This has, in turn, contributed to the animosity from the other female students and become one of the reasons for them badmouthing her like they did just now, but this has gone unnoticed by both master and servant, as they know little of romance.

“Oh yes, Irene,” Alexia suddenly stops and calls out to her servant, “what will become of tomorrow’s extracurricular training?”

At Weichsel Imperial Magic Academy, students must not only excel in the classroom, but also partake in extracurricular training hunting monsters off-campus.

Of course, they can’t allow noble children to become involved in accidents or incidents, so students hunt weak, low-level monsters, are required to add adventurers to their party, and are allowed to hire guards in advance.

“I have not been informed of any changes to the schedule. This may be presumptuous of me, but I have requested adventurers in advance. I shall also accompany you.”

As Alexia’s chamberlain, Irene has experience in swordsmanship to act as her guard and has enough skill that she could handle a novice knight. Although, since she has prioritized her role as a chamberlain, she has no experience fighting monsters. That’s why she hired experienced adventurers.

“No, I don’t mind. I’ll be counting on you, Irene,” Alexia says with a smile.

The next morning, the students participating in extracurricular training gather in the classroom and the teachers give them a detailed explanation of extracurricular training along with some suggestions and warnings. Extracurricular training is done in cooperation with the Adventurer’s Guild, all future training will be carried out through the Adventurer’s Guild directly, and the contents of the training are quests that students will accept through the Adventurer’s Guild and complete. The grading system is based on the completion rate and the quests’ difficulty level. Each student can hire up to five adventurers and they will not be permitted to train unless they hire at least one. In addition, advance preparation is also part of the lessons, so each student must prepare individually. The explanation ends after about an hour, and once everyone disperses, extracurricular training finally starts.

Alexia and Irene immediately head to the Adventurer’s Guild to hire adventurers. They’re supposed to meet up with the adventurers they hired in advance through the receptionist.

“What is the meaning of this?! This is not what I was told!” Irene shouts. Rather than her usual chamberlain outfit, she is dressed in leather armor and looks just like a female knight. Her statuesque beauty is distorted by anger and transformed into a ghastly expression, and the Adventurer’s Guild employee across from her is shrinking back.

“I sincerely apologize. The adventurers you hired beforehand informed us that they had urgent business to take care of, paid the fine, and cancelled.”

“Even so, how is it possible that all three of the adventurers I requested coincidentally declined the request at the same time?!”

All of the adventurers Irene requested through the Adventurer’s Guild quit just before the job itself. And at the same time, at that. Normally, situations like this where the adventurer quits just before the job rarely happen since it only lowers their reputation as an adventurer. And since it happened with multiple people, there is a high possibility that somebody intervened.

‘Damn, harassment from the school again? How long must they wound Lady Alexia’s heart until they are satisfied…?!’

She’s seething with anger, but right now, they have to successfully complete the extracurricular training. Training is not permitted unless there is an adventurer in the party. Irene, who hasn’t fought monsters yet, is still somewhat nervous, but she considers registering herself as an adventurer as she thinks of a better plan.

“…Isn’t there anyone else?” Irene asks as calmly as possible, but her voice trembles in anger.

“I’m sure you’re aware of this, but there have been many requests from other students.”

“Isn’t there someone who can join our party? I’ll take anyone!”

“Anyone?”

It wasn’t the guild employee who answered her cry. It was a weak-looking boy with black hair and black and blue eyes wearing a worn-out shirt and pants, a far cry from the image of the experienced adventurer she desired.

After I logged in and entered the game world, I found myself surrounded by stone pillars. The place looked like small-scale ruins, like Stonehenge but sturdier. Apparently, this was the Portal, which is where the transfer skill Warp Portal teleports you and where you respawn when you die. Since it’s a designated “no combat zone”, monsters can’t approach it.

Warp Portal teleportation aside, I don’t want to die. There’s a risk of death penalties such as losing experience points, money, or items. If you die, you could lose 5% of the experience points required to reach the next level, lose a random percentage of the money you own, and randomly drop an item from your inventory excluding your equipment. You’ll always lose experience points, but you may or may not lose money or items. Early levels aside, you’ll want to avoid it especially at high levels where you own expensive items and, like in other MMORPGs, it takes an hour of hunting to gain even 1% of the experience points needed to reach the next level. Although, nobody’s crazy enough to have reached that point yet, and it’s pretty easy to level up in this game, so the penalty might be a relatively easy one.

That aside, it seemed like the data had been reset after all, so I was back to level 1 and the only items I had were the Book of Blessings and the starting equipment. It’s a bit of a shame that I lost the wand I obtained from that event that left such a strong impression on me, but the wand itself isn’t that rare, and even if I lost the item, I won’t forget the event.

I immediately looked at the map and teleported to Stolbrussen. Fortunately, the Portal is on the outskirts of the city and can be reached quickly. Anyway, are there fewer testers than I thought there’d be even though this is the open beta? There were fewer people around the monument area than I expected.

I finished registering at the Adventurer’s Guild and completed a quest immediately. Thanks to my experience from the closed beta and the hunting zone info on the wiki, it went smoothly. As usual, the travel time was still a pain, but I went up to level 5 on the first day. Mhmhm, it may not take long for me to make it to Rank 2.

And today as well, I went to the Adventurer’s Guild to accept a quest before eagerly going to hunt. There were a lot of items I needed, after all. I had to save up as much as I could.

It looked like someone was shouting in front of the Adventurer’s Guild reception desk. The people nearby were distancing themselves as if they didn’t want to get involved in the disturbance. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I wondered what it was about. Oh well, I thought. There was more than one reception desk, so I went to accept a quest from one of the open ones.

“Isn’t there someone who can join our party? I’ll take anyone!” the shouting woman declared.

The heck is this? Is this a prank? Is this convenient of a development even allowed?

It seemed to be a team of two girls, since there was a girl next to the shouting woman. Normally, it seemed like it would be easy to get to another party, but maybe because of the mood, nobody was inviting them.

Hmm, it does seem a bit intimidating, so I can understand how they feel. What should I do?

No, wait, what am I hesitating for? I’m a solitary player. I consider solitary players to be different from solo players. If a solo player is a player that doesn’t join parties, a solitary player is a player that doesn’t get invited to parties. If a solo player is independent, a solitary player is lonely. This whole time, I’ve been thinking that I don’t want to play all by myself and wanting to join a party and now I’m being picky? What kind of joke is this?!

This is a sign from the heavens…! I can’t miss this chance!

Thinking all of this within a short amount of time, I made up my mind and called out to them.

“Anyone?”

The woman noticed me and looked over to me. She was amazingly beautiful, but looked incredibly angry, so it was a bit intimidating, but I said it!

“Could I join your party?”