WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 29

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There were only two university rules.

One was the right to survive. Every student had the right to their own survival. No one else could violate it without consent.

The other was the right to possess. Every student had the right to what they owned. This, too, could not be taken away without consent.

I stared down at the page where those university rules were written. Only after seeing them did I understand why the city managed to function at all.

Honestly, did it make any sense for mages, of all people, to wander around a city like gentle sheep? These were the kind of people who made a habit of killing anyone weaker than them and stealing anything good someone else had. I had never understood how people like that could smile and live alongside each other.

If basic rules like these existed, then it was possible. The moment I saw those words, my Sapling throbbed. I knew instinctively what they were. This was a kind of contract imposed on every student. If someone broke it, the tree that formed their realm would surely rot where it stood. That was why everyone lived so quietly while earning points.

I turned the page.

What was written on the next page was quite useful.

The university was said to be a continent of its own. Just as I had once glimpsed it from high in the sky with Professor Irian’s help, all its land was made of mountains, forming one enormous mountain range.

Its center was said to lie far to the north, on the highest mountain. A place no one dared approach.

The area around it was said to be surrounded by a sea. This thing called a sea apparently had a vivid blue color. Some people even lived on the sea because of the clear, refreshing magical power unique to it.

It sounded incredibly strange. How could a sea be blue? And people could even live there? As someone from an island, it was hard for me to believe.

The next page, then the next. It took less than an hour to finish the thin booklet, which was about a hundred pages long. I closed it in satisfaction. Then the book turned to dust and vanished.

I had paid five hundred points for it. I had known it would disappear, but seeing my points vanish into thin air still left me bitter.

At first, I had not planned to spend so many points.

The first time I heard the name Abyss Secret Association was at a tavern. After that, while asking around for information, that name kept coming up. It was also a name I had seen on the map, a massive organization that owned an entire city.

From what I heard, it was an organization dedicated to handling every piece of information on the continent. They had a base in Stalactite City as well. Since I had some points to spare, I thought it might be worth visiting them once, so I went.

As expected of an intelligence organization, they knew an incredible amount.

Even I was included in their records. They knew I was a new student who had entered this year, that I was staying in Professor Irian’s tower, and even that I had sold two lecture seats.

They did not even ask why I had come. They simply handed me a booklet along with a sheet of paper that had my personal details written on it. That booklet was the one I had just read, “Introductory Guide to the University for New Students.”

When I stood there flustered, they told me that, within the points I had, this was probably the most useful information I could buy. As if bewitched by those words, I bought the booklet.

It really was just as they said.

It was packed with information about the university. For a new student like me, it was priceless. To others, though, it was probably nothing more than common knowledge.

In the end, all information became points. And they were a massive organization that monopolized information. That had to be why the Abyss Secret Association could control one of the university’s only twelve cities.

I felt my desire to earn points growing stronger inside me. I still could not return to the tower. I needed points.

This time, I had managed to get points by selling lecture seats. But lectures lasted five years. They were not regular income. If I relied only on that, I could not even dream of advancing to the next floor.

I thought about course registration. Even five thousand points was only the entrance fee to stand at the starting line.

Just as I had sold my seats, nothing was guaranteed unless I had a connection to that class or paid more points. At least I was fortunate enough to have been told to apply for the lecture because of Professor Irian and Professor Heisen’s promise.

In any case, I needed a clear way to bring in points.

For the past two days, I had stayed in the city gathering information partly to learn about the university, but also to figure out how other people earned points.

Of course, I had enjoyed some food along the way. My mouth, which had started with only ham and beer, gradually began turning toward other dishes as well. Various dishes made with magical beasts and medicinal herbs drew involuntary admiration from me.

Thinking I would study them once I returned, I also spent points on several cookbooks. After all that overspending, I had only three hundred points left.

Most mages carried out requests. The requests varied. Some were posted by the university, others by various organizations. Of course, some came from individuals too. All of those exchanges took place at the request brokerage I had checked before.

But that was too small-scale. And it was not something I could do.

Once I returned, I would be tied to the tower. I had to supervise classes, manage the tower, make puppets, and catch up on all the training I had missed. I could not go outside to handle requests.

Wandering around outside like everyone else was not to my taste, nor was it my specialty. In that case, I had to make use of what I was good at.

I shot up from my seat. Then I threw open the inn door and stepped outside. My goal was the shops where the other puppeteers stayed. The booklet I had just read contained a diagram of the entire city. It also showed where the puppeteers were. It was an area I had passed through before.

I would steal their know-how for selling puppets.

Their shops were located on the outskirts of the city, in a deep place where almost no light reached. When I entered that street, the first thing I saw was puppets hanging in rows along the bridge. The puppeteers were gathered beyond that bridge, clustered in a few small buildings. They, too, had formed a kind of guild.

I went into the largest shop among them. It had a familiar-sounding sign hanging over it: [On’s Puppet Workshop]. When I opened the door and stepped inside, countless puppets hanging on the walls came into view. The owner was nowhere to be seen.

I slowly looked around inside. The first thing that caught my eye was a puppet sweeping the shop with a broom. The structure that formed the puppet was extremely simple. Efficient movement, efficient magic, efficient materials. It was a form that compressed nothing but efficiency to the absolute limit.

That extreme efficiency deeply impressed me. I could not make puppets this way. My puppets pursued visible beauty. But this was a remarkable style, and there was much to learn from it.

As I was admiring the puppet, I heard a rustling sound. Someone walked out from deeper inside the shop, from a place hidden behind the puppets.

“A customer has come.”

It was an old man whose face was full of wrinkles. Wearing a monocle, he approached me. I lowered my head in greeting. I felt almost no pressure from his magical power. It seemed his magical power had nearly drained away because he had grown so old.

I had heard there were quite a few university students who grew old and died like this. I might end up the same way.

“Hello. I came to buy a few puppets.”

He looked me up and down. Then his gaze settled on my fingertips. For no reason, I wiggled my fingers. Why was he looking at my hands so closely?

“You look like a friend who handles puppets. Why not use your own?”

I was so startled that I forgot what to say. How had he known? I looked down at my fingertips. They only had a few calluses, and like a mage’s hands, they were mostly smooth.

“How... did you know that?”

“That is my secret. Do not try to find out.”

The old man smiled slyly and began fiddling with the cleaning puppet I had been examining. The puppet was perfectly dismantled in his hands, exposing its entire interior.

“You were probably going to take one apart, so you can look at it here.”

“No, no. Why would I do that?”

In truth, he had hit the mark. Feeling guilty for no reason, I waved my hands and even put on a stern face. The old man only smiled.

My eyes naturally drifted to the dismantled puppet. I knew I should not look, but the beauty drawn by those circuits stole my gaze, and I could not help it.

“What do you think? Worth looking at?”

The old man spoke. I nodded blankly. Those circuits, that magic circle. From the outside, I had thought it pursued only efficiency, but the structure inside was extremely beautiful. It was beauty completed at the end of pursuing efficiency alone.

I examined it for quite a while. Only when the old man spoke to me did I finally come back to my senses.

“Looks like you have not been at the university for long.”

“Yes. I enrolled this year.”

“I thought you were a face I had never seen before.”

After thinking for a moment, the old man pulled down several small puppets hanging on the wall. Then he held them out to me.

“A gift. Take them.”

“No, I’m fine.”

Feeling uncomfortable with this kindness I could not understand, I quickly stepped back, but the old man was more experienced than I was. He simply tossed the puppets into my arms. I hurriedly caught them.

“What is your name?”

“It’s Evron.”

I answered blankly. I could not quite grasp what was going on. I had simply come to scout out puppeteers who could be called my competitors, but I had not expected to receive gifts.

“I am called Mauro. I am the guild head of this puppet street.”

Was his name not On? I looked outside the door. Since I had seen the sign saying On’s Puppet Workshop, I had thought that was his name. Following my gaze, the old man laughed heartily.

“On is the name of our puppet guild. It was taken from the first guild head’s name. I am the guild head now, so I use that name.”

The old man continued speaking as he reassembled the cleaning puppet.

“This must feel very awkward to you right now. You are wondering why I am showing you this kind of kindness.”

I nodded awkwardly. The old man glanced at me, then focused on the cleaning puppet again.

“It is an old tradition of our guild to gift puppets to newcomers. You are not one of our guild members, but you handle puppets, so I am giving them to you. It has been almost thirty years since a new puppeteer came looking for us.”

I carefully lowered my head and thanked him. Whatever the reason, there was no need to refuse something given to me.

The old man smiled when he saw the completed cleaning puppet receive magical power and begin moving smoothly. Its movements were even cleaner than before. He could squeeze out even more efficiency from there? That was astonishing.

“Go on now. If you come next time, greet me first.”

The old man waved his hand. Then the cleaning puppet guided me away. I was driven outside just like that. Dumbfounded, I stared at the puppets in my arms. As if to prove this was not a dream, they pressed their solid weight against me.

What on earth had just happened? I put the puppets into my spatial pouch. Since I had received them, I would have to analyze them once I returned. The old man had definitely gifted me the puppets for that purpose.

I looked around again. Other puppet workshops came into view. Ahem. I cleared my throat and moved toward them.

The old man had seen through my true intentions, but since I had come all this way, I should see everything I could. So I quietly visited the other puppet shops as well. They were all selling puppets overflowing with personality.

Thankfully, the others did not notice that I knew how to handle puppets the way the old man had. It seemed to be a special skill only he had. Reassured by that, I stuffed my pouch full of puppets. Buying them alone cost me one hundred points.

I headed back to the inn. Since I had spent so many points, I needed to produce results worthy of them. I shut myself in my room and began dismantling the puppets.

Every time I examined a puppet’s circuits, admiration rose in me.

The old man’s puppets contained extreme efficiency, just as I had seen in the shop. That style also made them look like a kind of mass-produced product.

There were signs everywhere that they had been designed to use almost no materials and, with only slight adjustments, be produced in any quantity.

Another puppet embodied lightness. It was like a cloud. Quite unusually, it was a puppet that used ghosts as material.

The circuits that shone whenever it moved beautifully embroidered the air. How could someone make a puppet like this? I was deeply impressed.

Another puppet was extremely small. It was smaller than my fingernail, and several dozen of them gathered to form one huge puppet.

Like liquid, that puppet constantly changed its shape. Those tiny puppets became a single circuit and formed an enormous magic circle. I could not imagine how many materials and how much effort had gone into making it.

Aside from those, the puppets were extremely varied.

Only after staying up all night could I finish dismantling them all. Each puppet contained its own intent. They held techniques I would not dare imitate.

In this way, every puppeteer was developing puppets in a different direction. As I examined that tremendous potential, I realized just how lacking I was.

How many long years would I have to spend before I could make puppets on the same level as them? It would probably only be possible if I poured in as much time as I had already lived.

I sighed at my lack of talent and years.

But apart from all that admiration, there was one very big problem.

I had not examined these puppets to develop my puppetry. I had done it to find a way to sell my own puppets.

But as anyone could tell from how unusual all these puppets were, they did not seem likely to sell well at all.

Now that I thought about it, there had not been many people coming and going on puppet street either. There was a reason they were gathered in the lowest layer, and on the outskirts at that. Why had I not noticed this suspicious detail earlier?

In the end, I had gained nothing after spending points as precious as my own blood. No, of course, I had gained insight into puppetry, so it was not as if I had gained nothing. I meant that I had failed to achieve my original goal.

In the end, I was back where I had started.

Still, while examining these puppets, I did realize one thing.

There was a reason they did not sell. They were too unusual. Since each puppet was packed with the creator’s tastes, there were bound to be very few customers who wanted them.

Of course, they probably earned enough to maintain their shops anyway. Just look at their puppets. Who could see puppets like these and simply pass by? People interested in them were clearly buying their puppets and keeping their shops alive.

But I could not be satisfied with that. I wanted to learn more and earn more. A tiny shop like that was no longer enough to satisfy me.

I had to take their example as a lesson.

I slowly began looking back on how I had sold puppets until now.

The shop. I had sold puppets like these there. There was nothing special about it. I had simply displayed puppets that were convenient for me and puppets I wanted to make. Since that alone had brought in some sales, I had been satisfied.

Thinking about it, I had been the same as them back then. I had thought I was doing it for the customers in my own way, but in truth, I had only been making puppets filled with my own tastes.

I could not do that from now on. Then I had to think about how to sell more puppets and gather more points.

What about before the shop existed?

My memories of puppetry continued flowing back into the past. Before I opened the shop, I had wandered the streets selling puppets. I had used puppets to do odd jobs on the airship.

At the end of that path, I found one memory.

It was a memory from the island.

Back then, what kind of puppet had I made for Father? What kind of request had Father made?

My eyes snapped open.

I had made the puppet Father wanted. I had put an incredible amount of effort into it. Father had been satisfied and had given me the chance to leave the island.

My puppetry had started from there. That was the direction I needed to pursue. Back then, I had instinctively known how to make money.

As time passed, though, the craftsman’s spirit that wanted to make better puppets had completely blocked off all of that commercial sense in me. Until this very moment.

I had to bring back that feeling from then. I just had to tailor each puppet thoroughly to the customer, then add functions suited to them. If I did that, I could clearly set myself apart from the puppeteers on puppet street.

But there was another problem. I looked around. I saw a cramped inn room.

The other puppeteers had shops. I, however, had no proper shop or recognition right now. And it was not as if I could set up a street stall here. Classes would begin soon.

Then where should I sell puppets, and what kind of puppets should I sell?

My eyes flashed sharply.

There was a place that was very advantageous to me.

Professor Irian’s tower. It was also my home base. Two hundred students would come to attend Professor Irian’s lecture. I would try making puppets just for them. Puppets they would not be able to resist buying.

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