WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 151

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151.

I looked quietly at Mauro. He was only stroking his beard with a troubled look on his face. I calmly went back over what he had said.

I might die, huh. There had to be a clear reason he had brought that up. It probably meant something had gone wrong with the competition.

I tilted my head slightly. All the previous competitions had been recorded. Since Mauro had given me the materials he personally held, their reliability was certain too.

I had gone through all those records, but there were almost no cases of people dying in them. Of course, an accident like that happened at least once during every general assembly. But those were all nothing more than accidents.

That was why Mauro had not said anything special on the way here. I had not expected him to give such a clear warning only now. What kind of problem had come up?

When I looked at Mauro with that question in my eyes, he scratched his head slightly. Then he met my gaze and gave me an awkward smile.

“While we were talking inside, the mood got a little heated. When I predicted you would win, the others started shouting that someone from their own association would win too. As we kept arguing, all of us ended up making a bet.”

“A bet, you say.”

Mauro nodded. Then he took out a small fragment from his chest. Its shape felt somehow familiar. It gave off a feeling similar to the thing called a coin that I had seen earlier.

Of course, the magical power flowing inside it was a little stronger. He held it out to me. I carefully accepted it and examined it. This was definitely part of a small coin. I could faintly see the shape of Professor On’s face inside it.

“It is an object Professor On scattered as the token of our bet. Each of us chooses one person and hands this over. The one who completes this coin first will be the winner of the bet.”

This fragment was the token of the bet? I quietly fiddled with the piece. I felt a slightly cold magical power from it. The method for completing it was very clear. I had to defeat the people who held the other tokens and gather them.

“Mm, that is why this competition will be dangerous. Everyone has staked quite a lot on this bet, you see. So the mood inside will be quite a bit more vicious than before. The university’s restrictions will weaken inside too, which makes it even worse.”

Putting that together, it meant the danger had been created because of the association heads’ bet. I narrowed my eyes and looked at Mauro. In the end, this had gotten out of hand because of him.

Still, I had no intention of blaming him. Thinking about it, whether this bet existed or not, I would have been targeted either way. Unlike the other associations, where several people were participating together, I was the only one entering the competition from our association.

I was in a position where I would be targeted first no matter what. I quietly placed the fragment in my chest. This bet ultimately only required me to eliminate the people chosen by the other association heads.

In other words, it was separate from winning the competition. As long as I gathered those fragments, I could win the bet. Of course, all of them would have entrusted this to people with a high chance of winning.

So in the end, I needed to advance toward victory. If I kept moving forward, I would meet all of them. And I would win.

Mauro quietly stroked his beard. Then he took out a sheet of paper from his chest and held it out to me. A few short lines were written on it.

“This is something I wrote about this competition. Take a look.”

I accepted the paper and slowly read it. Since it was only a few short lines, I understood all of it quickly. Then I lightly stroked my chin. This was quite an interesting method.

In the case of the basic competition held at the previous general assembly, I knew it had been carried out as a contest between puppets only. It had been structured as a tournament where puppets clashed and seized victory.

Compared to that, the structure of this competition was very simple. All participants, meaning the puppets and their masters, would be gathered in one area. And within that area, how they moved was up to them.

Unless the puppet was broken or the puppeteer surrendered directly, they would not be eliminated. So a more desperate fight was bound to unfold. It suited this bet too.

That must have been why they had adopted this method. More than a hundred puppeteers fighting to the death in a limited area, huh. This could be called a kind of grand melee.

I quietly fell into thought. A simple head-on fight was not everything. Traps and ambushes would be allowed too. In that sense, this grand melee needed caution, just as Mauro had said.

If I let my guard down even slightly, danger could arrive immediately. I clicked my tongue lightly while fiddling with the paper. Just then, Mauro quietly let his magical power flow and drew my attention.

When I looked at Mauro, he stroked his beard and lightly patted my shoulder. Then he gave a small cough and opened his mouth.

“Ahem. The situation has become a little dangerous, so even if things do not go well, I will make sure to pay you properly. And I have one thing to ask of you.”

Mauro glanced at the other groups. When I followed his gaze, I saw the association heads of each group, Aronia and Gaon. He continued while watching those two.

“Please beat the people those two choose, whatever it takes. I heard all sorts of nasty things from them in there, you see. I would like it if you avenged that for me. I will prepare a separate reward for this bet too, so do not worry.”

Mauro patted my shoulder and burst into hearty laughter. I nodded slightly at that. I had some idea who they would choose. It would be the people who had placed high in the last general assembly.

If I wanted to advance toward victory anyway, I needed to defeat all of them. Thinking that, I crossed my arms.

“Of course, as long as you surrender, there should be no danger. Everyone will be watching the screen, after all. I doubt anyone would intentionally kill a fellow association member in a place Professor On is watching. Still, I brought this up to tell you to be careful just in case. Even if it is not intentional, an unexpected ‘accident’ may happen.”

Mauro’s eyes sank as he stared toward Gaon. Gaon met Mauro’s gaze and burst into loud laughter. It felt as if a thick smell of blood was coming from him.

An accident, huh. There must have been several incidents before that could not be known from the records alone. That was why Mauro had warned me that I might die. Thinking that, I rubbed my chin.

“Hm, does that mean everything only needs to be handled as an accidental death inside? That sounds fun. I want to go in too.”

Mira leaned slightly against me and smiled brightly. Her eyes sparkled as she licked her lips. I glanced down at her and shook my head.

This matter was certain to involve quite a lot of danger, just as Mauro had said. So if Mira was there, I would be absolutely safe. It would not be easy to see through her fog.

But if she went in now, a large number of “accidents” would definitely happen. Of course, I had not planned on taking her with me anyway. Since she knew that, Mira must have been letting her desires show like that.

I fiddled with my spatial pouch. The purpose of this competition was to find the most outstanding talent. Because of that, each person could only bring a single puppet inside.

If I went with Mira, I would ultimately end up relying only on her. There was no value in a victory like that. Hearing that I might die only strengthened my resolve. It was through a powerful crisis that I could build myself higher.

More than that, the structure of this competition was quite unusual. There was a second stage besides the grand melee. The first stage, the grand melee, was no different from a kind of filter.

It was a method to reduce the number of over a hundred participants as much as possible. Only the ten people who survived that fight would move on to the second stage. This competition was organized that way.

As I was looking through the paper, Mauro burst into hearty laughter. When I looked at him, he stroked his beard with a pleased smile.

“I was the one who requested that second stage. If it is only fighting, it would be hard to call it a festival. There, you will make a new puppet and have it judged.”

“A new puppet, you say.”

When I asked that, Mauro nodded. Then he glanced at the groups from the other associations.

“During the last few general assemblies, the people who received support from their association kept winning. These days, that has gone much too far. So I thought we needed to understand their talent in puppetry more fully.”

“Since you came, my voice has some weight again, so I took the chance to push it through!” Mauro added, then burst into hearty laughter. Soon after, he continued.

“Existing puppets will be excluded from evaluation, and you will make a new puppet from the materials gathered in the first stage. Then Professor will choose the best puppet among them. That is why I have high expectations for you.”

He said it with a bright smile. His attitude was very light, but somehow, I could sense a little of what he was leaving unsaid. I read the paper once more.

It said the new puppet had to be made with materials gathered in the first stage. Looking at that, I quietly rubbed my chin. This was probably what Mauro wanted to say. Of course, there would be various materials in the space that served as the setting.

But those were certain to be of little use. Far more valuable things would be scattered everywhere. The puppets made by other people.

The meaning hidden in these words was that using everything from a defeated opponent was acceptable. It would be fine to seize the opponent’s puppet and modify it, or to take out its parts.

I thought of Ugo and the corpse puppet he controlled. Perhaps there could also be cases where not only puppets, but the corpses created in the process of “accidents” had to be used. There was no material better than a mage’s corpse.

I clicked my tongue softly. Originally, I had planned to simply hide for a long time. There was no need to move from the start. But with rules like this, that was impossible.

Even if I survived that way, I would surely be eliminated in the end because I could not make a puppet. So I needed to move a little more seriously. For that, I needed to know more about my opponents.

I glanced at Mauro. He was engaged in a kind of war of nerves with Gaon. A slight hostility flowed between them as they smiled at each other. I saw Ugo, standing behind Gaon, lightly wave at me.

He looked at me with a bright smile, then dragged his thumb across his throat. It was obvious he was aiming for me. Mm, it seemed I needed to avoid that guy too. I smacked my lips and sent magical power toward Mauro.

“More importantly, the other associations were quite unusual. Should I say they feel completely different from our association? The person you’re looking at right now openly declared that he would smash my puppet.”

I lightly shrugged. At my words, Mauro quietly frowned and clicked his tongue toward Gaon. After rolling his tongue for a moment, he looked at me.

“I did not know he had already said something like that. That friend Gaon still seems to have not let go of his anger. It has already been a hundred years too...”

He lightly tapped the ground with the staff in his hand. His eyes drifted through empty air for a moment. He seemed to be remembering the past.

But he did not continue the story and stopped there. After keeping his mouth shut for a moment, he shook his head and came back to himself. He looked at me, scratched his head, and opened his mouth.

“Well, it cannot be helped that the atmosphere of each association is different. Everyone has different thoughts about puppetry, you see. How could everyone move forward in the same way? If someone likes that method, they go there. If someone likes our method, they come to us. That is how it is.”

“And that is how many people from our association ended up leaking out.” Mauro scratched his head as he said that. At that, I turned slightly behind me. Then I saw that our association had less than half as many people as the others.

No wonder there were so few people in our association. If many had been taken by other associations, that made sense. Only the ones who had not been drawn in by that temptation... no, the ones who were not interested had remained.

“So that is why they freely use corpse puppets like that? From what I roughly checked, it seems all of them use corpses they hunted themselves.”

I glanced toward Gaon. It felt as if that smell of blood reached all the way here. At my words, Mauro lightly shrugged.

“Well, that too can be called one possibility in Professor On’s eyes. Killing a target and forcibly making their soul and body obey, that direction they pursue could be called an interesting attempt from Professor’s perspective.”

“Of course, Madam does not like it much,” he added. Professor On knew nothing but puppets. So the method of forming them itself did not concern Professor On much. Professor On only pursued better puppets.

That was the way of thinking I had observed so far. Was that why Professor On kept them nearby and studied them, even though their puppetry differed from Professor On’s own method? It was truly a puppeteer-like attitude.

A new possibility, huh. That was an interesting phrase.

I quietly fiddled with my spatial pouch. Then could this also be called a new possibility? The presence of countless things wriggling inside it reached me. I would know once I checked Professor On’s reaction.

At that moment, Mira, who had only been listening quietly, leaned her head against me. She studied my face, then gave a soft laugh.

“Judging by that face, I suppose I will be left here. What a shame. I wanted to look around inside too.”

Mira poked my chest. I felt strong pressure from the tip of her finger. Then she puffed out her cheeks slightly and snorted playfully.

She was deliberately showing that she was sulking. At that, I smiled a little bitterly and nodded.

“Instead, I will make sure to win. And I will buy you all the things you want.”

Mira let out a light laugh at my words. Then she tapped my chest again with her finger. It softly brushed over the place where my heart was.

“Hehe, watching Evron struggle sounds fun too, so shall I stop playing around here? You do not need to buy me things. Just make one promise with me.”

When I looked down at Mira at the word promise, she met my gaze and shook her head slightly. Then she continued slowly.

“It is a promise that you will not die here. Otherwise, when Evron comes back without winning, I will not be able to punish you.”

She licked her lips. Seeing the mischievous light in her eyes, I scratched my head. She looked at me like that and laughed lightly.

“Hehe, and if there is a punishment, there should be a reward too. If you return after winning, I will give Evron a reward.”

A reward, what did she mean? When I looked at Mira, she made her mischievous smile even wider. Then she tapped her own lips and smiled with her eyes.

“A woman’s kiss should accompany the victor. I heard that is a human tradition.”

Mira lightly poked my chest. At her teasing, I smiled bitterly. Then I gave a light cough and pulled myself slightly away from her.

“I am grateful just for the words. Thanks to you, Mira, I feel even more energized.”

“Hm, there you go, saying it with words again. Well, I thought you would.”

Mira clicked her tongue while leaning against me. Then she turned her gaze and slowly looked around. The many buildings floating in the sky, and beyond them, the many platforms embedded in the ground.

There was a hint of interest in her eyes as she took all of them in. She looked up at me and opened her mouth.

“Then while Evron is inside, I will look around this place a little more. There will be a few events besides the competition too.”

I nodded. Then I lightly stroked the turtle hanging from my chest. The one who had been half asleep with a blank face slowly opened its eyes when it felt my touch.

I placed the one bleating, “Meeh,” on my hand and handed it to Mira. Mira accepted it and naturally placed it on her shoulder.

After confirming that, I lightly tapped the ground. Then No. 0, who had been soaked into my shadow, slowly emerged from it. No. 0 got up while rubbing their eyes, looked around, then widened both eyes.

It was No. 0’s first time seeing a scene packed with puppeteers, so that was understandable. I patted No. 0’s shoulder as their eyes shone like that, then looked at Mira.

“Then please take good care of them as well.”

“Hehe, you do not need to worry. I will play with them well.”

Mira flipped the turtle on her shoulder over and tickled its belly. Its plastron blocked her touch, but it could not block the fog flowing from her fingertips.

The turtle sent me a will asking me to take it with me. It seemed being with Mira was burdensome. Mm, endure it just a little longer. Thinking that, I quietly turned my gaze away. The turtle, which had begun being tormented like that, bleated mournfully.

Since this was a competition where I could only take one puppet, I could not bring the turtle. Of course, the turtle was one of the puppets I had confidence in. Its strong defense could block all sorts of attacks.

But it was unsuitable for facing people. If it only defended, it would become nothing more than everyone else’s target. That was why I had made this too. When I touched the spatial pouch, I felt the wriggling inside grow stronger.

It would definitely wake soon. This puppet would accompany me on this journey. Mm, I was not sure if it was right to call this a single thing, though.

I had entrusted them to Mira because it was almost time to move. I glanced ahead. I felt an intense magical power gradually approaching. The owners of that magical power, Professor On and Tiena, were walking out of the castle.

The two, who had been chatting with each other, soon stood before us. Tiena lightly tapped Professor On’s arm and stepped forward with a smile. She looked around at us and smiled warmly.

“Rather than dressing this up with fancy words, it should be better to speak plainly. The events of the general assembly will begin now. The first event will be the basic competition, so those participating, please come forward.”

At those words, a slight murmur rose among the puppeteers. Then many people headed forward. I needed to move as well.

“Then I will be going now.”

I slightly bowed my head toward Mira and Mauro, then slowly moved my feet. Leaving them behind as they lightly waved, I stood in front of Tiena.

Tiena looked at me and softly smiled with her eyes. I lowered my head to her and looked around. Some people had taken out their puppets, while others were hiding them.

More people were gathered here than had gathered in the park earlier. Still, most of them were people I had met in the park. I closed my eyes while searching through the information I had gained from them one by one in my head.

Of course, it was not certain whether all this information was true. Someone must have lied about the details, just as I had. But even those lies had value. At least they would let me seize a chance to talk with them.

“As all of you know, this time the competition will be held in an open space. Then everyone, please compete joyfully and harmoniously. Do not do anything too excessive to your fellow puppeteers. We will be watching from outside.”

I nodded while listening to Tiena’s request. The others standing around me did the same. I could feel that they respected her words.

Of course, I had no idea what they truly felt inside. Someone would surely die here. Somehow, I had that sort of premonition.

“Now then, shall we go to the platform?”

Tiena lightly gestured. Then the magical power surrounding the platform in front of us slowly began to twist. Following her guidance, it widened the gap and soon formed a door.

Black light was surging beyond that door. It was a door leading to the otherworld where this competition would be held. Tiena looked at us and gestured beyond the door. It probably meant we should enter.

The people in front moved without hesitation and headed inside. Following behind them, I carefully stepped into it as well. Strange magical power surrounded me, and my body slowly sank into that magical power.

Then when I opened my eyes, I felt clear sunlight. I quietly clenched and unclenched my hand. The foreign sensation that had stayed around my wrist had faded a little. As Mauro had said, the restrictions binding me from the university had loosened slightly.

To think Professor On could even create an otherworld like this. Just how great was that power? Perhaps it might even surpass Professor Irian’s power.

I remembered Professor sometimes cursing that there were too many old people at the university. Perhaps Professor On was one of those old people she talked about. An elder of the university, that is.

I lightly shrugged. I did not know yet. More than that, I needed to focus on the situation right now. I narrowed my eyes and let magical power flow around me.

Along with the presence of thick, heavy magical power, I felt air full of moisture. This place was a kind of jungle. It could be called an extremely suitable place to hide and wait for a chance.

It must have been made into this environment on purpose. The others were certainly grasping their surroundings too. Then they would hide according to their habits. As time passed, finding those who had hidden would become harder and harder.

So I had to move quickly before that. There were a few people I needed to meet. I turned my spatial pouch upside down and took out what was inside. It, no, they, clumped together like liquid and formed a single shape.

The shape holding a long sword looked very much like Cassian. I quietly nodded. Mm, it was a very satisfying result. Protected by the one that began moving naturally like that, I slowly headed into the jungle.

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