WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 47

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I quietly tapped the table, lost in thought. I had drawn a rough map, so there was no need to go outside anymore. I could not search that entire vast area on my own, after all.

Magical beasts kept rushing toward the circle around us. But nothing could cross that strange circle floating in the air. Without a sound, they simply split apart and collapsed.

Inside the circle, everything was utterly still. Only the sound of my fingers tapping the table rang out. Cassian took a sip of tea. Her eyes were closed as she savored the aroma.

Watching her, my eyebrows twitched slightly. Something about it bothered me. I hid it and spoke.

“Have many people come here while I was gone?”

She set down her teacup and crossed her arms. After thinking for a moment, she snapped her fingers.

“About thirty people during the two hours you were gone, mister. The number suddenly jumped. They said they followed some path.”

I let out a sigh of relief. Only a few people had come by the time I left for the last time, so I had thought it had failed, but thankfully, it seemed to have worked. The long hours of effort were finally showing results.

The fog devoured everything within it. Once it had sucked out all the contents, the shells left behind chased after other things and helped feed the fog.

If someone used up their strength dealing with those shells and lost track of the fog even for a moment, a handful of their memories would be eaten before they knew it. I had lost about three years of memories that way myself. After that, I stayed on guard and never let my defensive magic drop.

Anyway, as I dealt with those shells, I realized something. They did not pay much attention to things that did not move. Even less so if the things were not alive.

So during the last ten round trips, I had left traces along the path the turtle had taken. I ground up part of its shell with various materials and formed a sort of road.

I paid particular attention to its hardness so it would not break under the feet of magical beasts. I could not be sure the road would function properly, but I went ahead because the odds seemed fairly good.

If people had followed that road here, it meant success. That made things a little easier.

“Where did they go?”

“Mm, they saw me and just left.”

“I see.”

I clicked my tongue in disappointment. She stared at me. A casual thought suddenly came to mind.

“Cassian-ssi, do you intend to obtain the treasure?”

I asked her. With that uniquely blank face of hers that gave nothing away, she tilted her head.

“If it’s there, I’ll take it. If not, then whatever. That’s about it. What about you, mister?”

“I feel the same.”

My fingers tapped the table a little faster. If our intentions were the same, this would be simple. I set aside my brief thought and continued.

“Then how about opening this place to people?”

“Mister, are you trying to gather people?”

She crossed her arms as she spoke. Her black eyes, which looked uninterested in everything, gave off a dull light. I took a sip of tea and nodded.

“Yes. Based on the lectures so far, I think obtaining the treasure through one person’s strength alone is impossible. We need to gather people first. Only then will we have any chance of claiming it.”

She nodded quietly. I frowned slightly and examined the bear puppet. It was hugging the turtle’s leg with a bewildered expression.

Its face looked utterly free of worries. Its will was the same. Looking at it, I spoke.

“The reason people are wary of one another is because they cannot be guaranteed even the bare minimum of safety. Having their memories stolen and feeling their minds melt away has driven them into crisis. The university’s right to survival is not being properly upheld at this moment. So instead of the university’s law, the logic of the outside world has come to rule this space.”

It was a very familiar air. It was soaked with unpleasantness. It was also a smell I had been able to breathe in constantly until just three years ago. The distinct bloody stench of betrayal, deception, and violence.

In this kind of situation, I could not earn points at all. Most of the students had returned to the wild and were snarling while relying only on their own strength. My strengths could not be put to proper use like this, so I had to lead them back into the university’s civilization.

“Professor really does know how to arrange these shady little things.”

I said it with a faint smile. The corner of her mouth twitched slightly. She did not answer and emptied her cup of tea. I glanced at her.

“Anyway, that is why I thought it might not be a bad idea to provide this place as a base camp for others. What do you think, Cassian-ssi?”

“Will they stay here? Like I said earlier, everyone who came here left.”

“I thought we could give them a minimal justification. Something that lets them see this place as safe.”

I wet my lips with tea, then continued.

“Since I at least have some trust from everyone, I will tell them that I made this place. They can enter if they pay a certain fee.”

I touched my index finger and thumb together into a circle and showed it to her.

“How about around two hundred points? If I ask for a large amount of points like that, they will actually feel more at ease. They will see this place as an extension of the university.”

A hint of interest began to settle in her eyes.

“Points.”

“Yes. You can take all of those entry points, Cassian-ssi. You are the one maintaining this place, after all.”

I swept my gaze over the surrounding circle as I spoke. The circle had a diameter of roughly one hundred meters. It was incredibly wide. Even the turtle could not fill half of this enormous circle.

It was hard to believe she could maintain this. Of course, she must have that much talent if she reached the second floor in just one year.

I had heard a rumor that she was already preparing to head to the third floor. For someone like me, who had not even escaped the first floor yet, that was unthinkable.

“That works for me, then. What about you, mister?”

“As always, I will sell puppets to them. That is the only thing I can do.”

She nodded leisurely. I smiled and rose from my seat.

“Then I will decorate the area around here a little. So we can receive visitors.”

“Okay.”

She emptied her tea and clung to the bear puppet again. The bear puppet, which had been fiddling with the turtle, sensed her presence and curled its body into a ball. It was the posture that let Cassian sit most comfortably when riding on its back.

I watched for a moment, then left. There was a lot to do. Starting from this circle, I needed to divide the interior neatly.

Turning this place into a small stronghold operated with points meant that the groups formed in the tower would gather again.

If I divided the area at random, disputes would definitely break out between them. Even if I could not satisfy everyone, I had to make careful adjustments so they at least would not feel dissatisfied.

Should I split it into three zones first?

There were no longer any independent mages in the tower. They all had their own groups and opposed the others. Many groups had formed and disappeared, but after ten lectures, only three had survived.

First, the people from the great families. I would have to assign them the largest zone. I did not know about the others, but the five people including Hongryeong would definitely reach this place.

Next were... the sword-wielders. This was a space maintained by Cassian’s magic. Though I was not sure if I could call that magic.

Anyway, since they were fellow sword-wielders, they should also take up a large space. Besides, their strength could not be ignored. They occupied a great deal of the second floor, no less than the great family group did. Since those two groups had nearly taken over the entire second floor of the tower, I assigned the sizes with that in mind.

The remaining group would be the first-floor mages. Jun’s group. Surprisingly, he had grown his influence enough to absorb the independent mage groups and even occupy part of the second floor.

There was no need to give someone with that kind of skill too small a zone. I needed to expand it a little.

With that, I divided the zones for each faction and began drawing the design. It was only a place they would stay in for half a day at most, but should it not look as neat as possible? It had to be enough for everyone staying here to be satisfied.

Then what kind of appearance would be best? First, I should build a wall that could be recognized from far away.

A wall that would not be easily broken through by magical beasts or magic. I needed the turtle. At some point, it had gone near the thin line forming the circle and was watching the magical beasts.

It lightly touched the line, and only after part of its foreleg was sliced off did it flounder backward in a panic. I resonated with its will. It received my signal and came closer.

I raised my magical power, floated into the air, and slowly stroked its shell. There was no better material than this. The tree noticed what I was thinking and trembled mournfully.

It felt a little familiar. Somehow, I seemed to use this shell as material quite often. But what could I do? It was just that excellent.

I let my magical power flow into its shell. Then the shell began to transform. It flowed like liquid and flew toward the surrounding circle.

Then it began forming a wall inside that circle. Would about five meters in height be enough? That much should work as a fence to protect this clearing. If it got any taller, it would become too thin, so this was just right.

And so, the wall was roughly complete. Now I only needed to make an entrance and some stairs.

I clenched my hand hard. I had not used any magic at all. In the past, I would have had to spend a great deal of time and magic to carry out a construction project on this scale. But now, magical power moved by such a light will was enough.

The turtle had lost almost all of its shell and cried sadly with its plump body exposed. I shrank it, hung it on my chest, and patted it a few times. Now it was time to decorate the inside.

I spent some time decorating each zone. I freely used the materials I had brought to make puppets. Simple things like these were bound to be meaningless here anyway.

Temporary lodgings where they could rest for a while, rest areas where they could stroll around a little, watchtowers where they could look outside the fence, and so on. I also laid paths to match the buildings.

This desolate plain started to take on the appearance of a decent stronghold. I left a single huge clearing at the center. If there was something to discuss, they would gather there.

Then people began arriving one by one along the road. I took points from them and let them inside. Some left in suspicion, but I did not stop them. They would clearly return once some time passed anyway.

I prepared several customer-service puppets and used them to entertain the people visiting the stronghold. Their faces gradually relaxed as they enjoyed refreshments and were served dishes. Of course, I charged the appropriate points for that.

Like that, the number of people joining us increased one by one. Some did not enter and instead stayed nearby, creating territories of their own.

I did not particularly mind. Even if they did not enter, their old wildness had effectively been removed. The chance to extract points had arrived. Perhaps because the people who joined us had relaxed, they also spent more freely than usual.

My eyes flashed as I welcomed them.

Ten hours passed like that. The treasure was nowhere to be found.

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