30 Years Have Passed Since the Prologue - Chapter 30

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Chapter 30: A Night of Counting Stars (4)

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* * *

Oswald was a first-year student in the Magic Department, like most elves.

Looking at Saint Yansk University's racial makeup, most elves were concentrated in the Magic Department and the music department. It was probably due to their species' lazy tendency to avoid physical labor in the first place.

One morning, while classes were in full swing, Ivan and Eugene headed for the Magic Department.

“Big bro, I've been thinking.”

“Mm.”

“Isn't it strange that this world has no paladins?”

This brat no longer seemed to have any intention of hiding the fact that he was a transmigrator.

“I mean, big bro, this world is already different from the original story. There are gods, holy spells, and knights. Wouldn't it be common sense for there to be holy knights too?”

“Why would a priest need to take up a weapon?”

Ivan knew that the very concept of a paladin was close to fantasy.

On Earth, paladins had been knights who took up arms for their religious beliefs during the Crusades, so strictly speaking, they had not been priests. They had never been ordained. And they had been extremely worldly besides.

That did not mean ordained priests had never acted as knights. But they could not really be called knights in that case. They were simply armed warrior monks.

This world was no different. Priests in this premodern society were, by default, an immensely elite class. They had to accumulate a broad range of knowledge comparable to that expected of modern legal professionals.

Once they had taken vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and received holy spells from a god, there was even less reason to use their bodies.

When a single strike from where they sat could hit harder than most knights, why would they bother...?

Ordained priests had no reason to go to the front lines in the first place, so why would they...?

There was one more, and greater, reason.

In a world where personal gods truly existed, the authority held by priests was beyond imagination. Anyone lacking in character could not use holy spells.

In other words, every priest in this world was fundamentally good. Surprisingly, that was genuinely true. With that belief so widespread, priests received enormous social respect.

As a result, the only time they ever wore swords and personally went to war had been during the war against the demonfolk. Even then, they had never actually been deployed to the very front.

A knight who used holy spells could only be a fantasy.

After receiving the kind explanation of a principal with thirty years of experience in another world, Eugene clapped his hands.

“Then I'm the first?”

“...What?”

“Once I applied to the Theology Department, I got a divine spell slot! I don't have many spells I can use yet, but it's possible, right?”

Eugene also had a specialized passive called [Sword Mastery]. In other words, his skill with a sword was greater than other people's.

“A priest who can use holy spells and is good with a sword... Isn't that a paladin? Wow, big bro. I think I'm the founder of the paladin build.”

He was not wrong. Ivan nodded and fell into thought for a moment.

Divine spell slot...?

“Can you learn other spells too?”

“I can, but the experience cost is so high that I haven't tried. Isn't life all about choices and focus?”

Holy spells, magic, and swordsmanship. He could learn all three?

Ivan narrowed his eyes at Eugene. An old conversation passed through his mind.

-It's good to learn anything you can! Except magic. That was seriously too hard.

-It's a little troublesome if a Hero can't use magic.

-Hahaha, I told you I'm in the Knight Department!

It had been a passing exchange with Isabelle.

A Hero's daughter was not necessarily destined to become a Hero, but what if he considered Maximilian's case?

‘He can use holy spells, magic, and swordsmanship, and he's a transmigrator too.’

Could this guy be a Hero?

Ivan looked down at Eugene with a complicated expression. Eugene walked along with a sycophantic grin on his face.

“If I become a paladin, I've always wanted to say this. You know, ‘Deus Vult, God wills it!’ Ah, that's good.”

Ivan, who had been thinking of Maximilian, shook his head. The world did not need this brat to be the Hero.

Soon, Ivan and Eugene arrived at the Magic Department lecture building.

* * *

Oswald, who had been listening to class, suddenly shuddered as a chill ran down the back of his neck.

An intense gaze. It held almost murderous intent, no, something denser and more covetous than that...

It was Evelyn Rustpitz. The beloved daughter of the Privy Council Chairman and young lady of the Duke Rustpitz family was glaring at him.

Oswald gritted his teeth.

‘What am I supposed to do about that...?!’

He was a normal man in his twenties. That meant he had never read the so-called female-oriented romance fantasies grouped under the label of villainess novels.

So he had absolutely no information about this novel.

Setting aside why he had suddenly transmigrated into a novel he had not even read thirty chapters of, he had to survive in a world he knew nothing about without even the usual transmigration perks.

‘Should've at least read some regret, misery, obsession novels!’

He wanted to pound the ground and weep. It was not as though he had never encountered novels grouped into that genre, but those clichés could only be enjoyed when they were fiction.

When a heroine regretted, suffered over, and became obsessed with the protagonist, twenty-first-century South Korea's harsh reality called it this.

Stalking. The kind of serious dating violence that made cops say, “What the hell is wrong with this guy?”

Anyway, the reason Evelyn was glaring at him now was simple.

Oswald had smiled and said it was fine after accidentally bumping into a female student in the hallway...!

‘What the fuck, was I supposed to slap her instead?’

Unless someone was a complete psychopath, they would not do that. Elves might be a species covered head to toe in arrogance, but they did not have that kind of culture.

They believed arrogance was another aspect of nobility. In other words, they did not do such vulgar things. Oswald had responded sensibly, even by elven standards...!

But Miss Evelyn, whose personality had surpassed the limits of what even elves could tolerate, did not seem to see it that way.

“Now, that was a little boring, wasn't it? It can't be helped, everyone. Wake up the student dozing off over there, then let's take ten minutes and continue afterward.”

As the professor spoke with a warm smile, students throughout the lecture hall stood and stretched.

Oswald rose naturally as well, then headed for the hallway to avoid Evelyn, who was still glaring at him as if she wanted to kill him.

This time, he was extremely careful not to bump into any female students.

“Get him.”

“Yes, big bro!”

Walking down the hallway, Oswald ended up bumping into a group of transmigrators instead of a female student.

* * *

Oswald's impression of them was simple.

A pair of lunatics, one old and one young.

The younger lunatic, a black-haired human youth who kept rubbing his hands together with a sycophantic expression, said this the moment he saw him.

“Ah, nice to meet you, Mr. Eastvelpen! I'm Yevgeny, though I was called Kim Yujin in Korea. This is Ivan. I don't know his Korean name, but he's Korean too!”

“...?”

“We came because we know you're a transmigrator. Don't you need help?”

“...???”

What chapter did this event happen in? At least, no other transmigrators had appeared in the chapters he had read...

[The Genius Mage Obsessed Over by the Villainess], which Oswald had read, was not this kind of story. Of course, it had not been set in this bizarre Russia-like world either.

While he was briefly overwhelmed with confusion, the old man introduced as Ivan spoke.

“I know you're surprised. But you, and we, need each other's help. Can you spare us some time?”

“Ah, yes... But how did you know about me...?”

What was a transmigrator's defining trait? Naturally, hiding the fact that they had transmigrated.

To put it simply, transmigration meant taking over the body of someone who had already lived there. What would happen if someone entered a body whose family and relatives were still alive and well?

At best, they would be treated as a human experiment. At worst, someone would call them the enemy who had stolen their son or daughter and chop off their head.

This had already been proven by countless Korean transmigration-story clichés. To the family and relatives, a transmigrator would be nothing but an enemy.

After realizing he had transmigrated, Oswald had spent plenty of time in despair before thoroughly concealing his identity.

So it should have been perfect...?

“You weren't acting like an elf.”

“Pardon...?”

“Elves almost never speak politely.”

Except to someone like the Saintess, the king of a country, or someone of comparable status. Elves did not use honorific language even in official letters. That was simply how long-lived races tended to be.

Yet this brat had requested his admission papers from the enrollment office using honorific language. The instant Ivan heard that, the word that came to mind before “polite and kind elf” was “transmigrator.”

Because polite and kind elves could not exist in this world.

Ivan had underlined Oswald's name and kept an eye on him after identifying him as a transmigrator with complete ease.

An elf who bumped into a human classmate while chatting with friends at a hallway corner, then smiled and said it was fine...?

That could not exist.

-Monkeys have eyes on the front of their heads too, don't they? Are you some kind of herbivore? Can't you see what's in front of you? Don't misunderstand, vegetarians deserve respect too.

Wasn't that the sort of thing ordinary elves would say to a rude human...?

As Oswald listened to Ivan's explanation, his expression gradually stiffened.

What the hell was this old man talking about...?

Was this racism? It was complicated, feeling something he had never felt on Earth, in another world, as an elf....

“So, what story did you read?”

“Ah, for reference, I was in [The Genius Swordsman Scoundrel of the Northern Duke's House]!”

“...I was in [The Genius Mage Obsessed Over by the Villainess]....”

“Oh, a regret, misery, obsession novel. You must've transmigrated after 2021, at least?”

“May 2023.”

“Oh...!”

Ignoring Eugene, who chattered on about his own circumstances, Oswald turned to Ivan.

“Are there more transmigrators?”

“Probably.”

Eugene gave a heavy nod.

“Let's go to the Knight Department.”

* * *

Yuri went pale as she looked at the three men blocking her path.

There was a suspicious gardener with a towel around his neck, a pretty-boy playboy beside him rubbing his hands together with a sycophantic smile, and...

“Hello? I'm Oswald from the Magic Department. I'm also a first-year student. My major is Mind Sorcery, um, the mental magic field.”

Now there was a narrow-eyed character openly admitting that he used hypnosis magic.

“You're a transmigrator, right? I heard you're Korean. Ah, this makes me feel like we should form a Seoul hometown association or something.”

The pretty-boy playboy grinned and held out his hand.

“Eeeek!!”

Yuri's vision went dark!

* * *

Yuri Frank, top student of the Knight Department.

Yevgeny Novikov Karamzin, who had learned swordsmanship while studying in the Theology Department.

Oswald Eastvelpen, a Mind Sorcery major in the Magic Department.

And Ivan Petrovich, a former scout from the Annihilation Unit.

Ivan looked over the transmigrators gathered in the small clubroom and thought.