WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 51

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Sunlight streamed through the small window in the workshop. The light followed a fixed flow and gathered in one place. It was a spot I sometimes used to draw on the sun’s power when making puppets.

Right now, though, I was only using it to rest. I soaked in the warm sunlight and lifted my teacup.

I carefully savored the tea’s aroma. For today’s leaves, I had tried something fairly expensive. They were dried and roasted leaves from a five-hundred-year-old puppet grass.

As expected, the fragrance was incredibly deep. Even smelling it for only a moment made it feel as if magical power was seeping into my whole body.

There was a reason a few dried leaves cost fifty points.

I carefully brought the teacup to my lips. Warm tea flowed into my mouth. A powerful life force rippled inside it.

The flower steeped within touched my tongue and unfurled. It soaked not only my tongue but my entire mouth, releasing the flavor it held in an interesting way.

At first, it came in bitter. Then it gradually turned refreshing, and finally sweet. By the end, all of those sensations blended together into a mouthfeel I had never experienced before. My head cleared in an instant.

Smiling, I swallowed it. Even the finish was wonderfully smooth. I had designed it myself, but this truly was Perfect Tea.

I had agonized over whether to buy this or not. In the end, I took the plunge and bought only enough for ten uses, but after tasting it, I really could not call it a waste of points. I had lost count of how many times I had improved the Perfect Tea magic to bring out this flavor.

“Leave a post for the person who delivered this. Tell them I was very satisfied with the tea leaves. Say I’ll call them again if I need anything next time.”

The mirror bug flying beside me heard that and began writing on its mirror display. Soon, it shook its body as if to say it was done.

“Then show me what I need to do today too.”

The mirror bug came over and showed me the list.

[Inquiry Board]

-Hongryeong : I was curious about how the magic in the tea my puppet brewed this time was structured, so I checked the information board, but the method has not been posted yet. Please add it.

-Cassian : How about adding pictures next to names too?

-Jun : I request a meeting.

[Special Notes]

-A puppet exploring Room 4 on the fifth floor went missing. Two additional puppets checked afterward, but found nothing abnormal. Presumed to be a temporary spatial fissure.

Mm. Maybe because it was only just past noon, there was not much posted yet.

Still, another disappearance on the fifth floor. I checked the shadow tree. The star of the missing puppet had lost its light and vanished somewhere.

Lately, it did feel like those spatial fissures had been appearing more often. They swallowed the shadow puppets there, then disappeared without a trace.

But no matter how many times I went to check, I could not find anything wrong. I just hoped it was not a sign of something serious.

Other than that, no abnormalities had occurred. From the first floor to the fifth floor, my shadow puppets were now checking every area.

That had become possible because the tree had grown firm and the shadow tree had expanded explosively.

I no longer needed to spend time on it myself. I just had to go and deal with things whenever an abnormality occurred. Of course, dealing with them did take some time.

If anything, handling those abnormalities had even become fun lately.

The fact that an abnormality occurred meant that the components of the magic circle had shown a gap. Instead of simply restoring it to its original state, I thought about why it had happened, and in that process, I could steal and learn a little of what was contained inside.

Having more time to spare made it possible to change my mindset like this.

“Go to the transaction board.”

The mirror bug changed the screen. There, I checked the request I had posted yesterday. Mm, someone had already accepted it.

It was a delivery request for materials to make puppets. The person who accepted the request left a post saying they would bring them tomorrow.

Then what kind of puppet should I make today?

Recently, I had gotten interested in making new puppets. Not ones packed with several functions, but ones specialized in a single function.

The one I made yesterday was a puppet layered with environmental purification magic. I had designed it with the scale to purify an entire floor in mind.

And it failed.

Because the design was wrong, it purified itself and even erased the circuits inside it. Should I try improving that a little?

I saw No. 0 wriggling on the worktable in the center of the workshop. It was making a puppet too.

That had become its hobby as well. Before, it could only maintain and repair the puppets I had made, but these days, it made puppets of its own like that.

It was still inexperienced, so they did not have a form like my puppets, but the puppets it made had a distinct character different from mine.

That probably meant it had grown that much. Compared to the wriggling shadow it had been at first, this was tremendous progress.

“No. 0, do you need anything?”

Since I was already on the transaction board, I asked it. It stopped making its puppet and looked at me. Then it thought for a moment and shook its head.

Thinking about it, rather than asking every day like this, it seemed better to just let it order things on its own. I took a mirror bug from my chest.

“Then if you need anything later, buy it yourself. I’ll give you this.”

The mirror bug flew toward it. It could write too, so it would handle things on its own.

I would only have to recharge it when the points inside the mirror bug ran out.

I skimmed through the board, but nothing caught my eye. I moved straight to the next board.

There were only three boards I had made.

The information board, the transaction board, and the free board.

They were based on the structure of Stalactite City. Including the preexisting inquiry board, there were four boards in total.

The one I used most often among them was the transaction board. Using this board had cut down on my hassle by a lot.

Before, I only stopped by the city when visiting Professor Heisen’s tower, but now all I had to do was order deliveries like this.

I checked my ring through the mirror bug. My points appeared on the screen.

3,172 points.

Considering I had even gone into debt before, this was tremendous progress. And they would keep increasing too, because this board existed.

I checked how many people had joined the board. Forty-two. That was the number gathered over the past month.

It was unexpected that this many people had gathered. There was still the price barrier, after all.

I was charging fifty points a month as the rental fee for a mirror bug. Even so, forty-two people had already joined. That meant two thousand points would roll in every month.

Occasionally, people sent inquiries asking whether I could just open it to others, but I firmly refused.

I had suffered after handing out puppets for free before. That could never happen again.

Of course, for my own convenience, I kept the inquiry board open. If they mentioned anything unusual to the shadow puppets they carried around, that puppet could leave a post on the inquiry board.

Next, I moved to the free board. There was not much written there.

That made sense. Mages had no reason to write posts when there was nothing to gain from it.

Unless it was someone like Cassian, who was posting now. She had filled the board with pictures of her bear puppet.

-Come look at this cute bear puppet.

[A picture of the bear growling]

[A picture of the bear rolling around]

[A picture of the bear pouring tea with both hands]

I smiled bitterly. Was this why she had kept sending inquiries before, asking me to add a function for pictures?

Come to think of it, she had left another inquiry this time too. I checked that inquiry again.

A function to put pictures next to names. Should I just add it? It did not seem like it would take that much work anyway.

I handled that quickly and moved to the next inquiry. It was Hongryeong’s. A new tea magic.

I had no memory of making anything like that. The puppet following Hongryeong had probably researched it on its own to suit him.

I focused on that puppet’s will. Through the shadow tree, it sent me the information I wanted.

I posted it on the information board as it was. The price was around ten points. At this price, people besides Hongryeong might buy it out of curiosity too.

I left replies saying their inquiries had been resolved.

Still, this really was surprising. To lure people to the board, I had posted my magic at low prices, and among them, the most popular ones were these Perfect Tea magic variants.

They were spells basically built into the puppets they carried around, so I thought they would not sell well, but it was quite unexpected.

Maybe they were buying them so they could drink it outside the tower too. Even as I drank it now, I could understand why. The taste really was satisfying.

Others were also gradually posting and selling magic or information on this information board.

Maybe because they could earn points from it, this place was more active than the free board. I smiled as I looked at it. This was exactly what I wanted.

If more people gathered in the future, their information would accumulate here too. I was really looking forward to that.

Let’s see, then the next inquiry was...

“Could you make a board for me?”

Jun said.

I blinked in confusion. I had come because he wanted a meeting, but I had not expected to hear something like this. He continued.

“I think it would be good to have a secret board that only people I designate can enter. I will pay enough points.”

“It is possible.”

It was hard to understand, but I said that for now.

If he was giving me points, there was no need for me to refuse. Opening one more board was not that burdensome. The same went for allowing only certain people to enter, as he had said.

“Then, Jun-ssi, how much are you thinking?”

I asked him. Without hesitation, he answered at once.

“How does one thousand points a month sound?”

I was so startled that my eyes widened. I had not expected him to name such a large amount. I had only been thinking of two hundred points at most.

“That much?”

“Yes. I think it is worth that much.”

He smiled. It was a strange smile full of shrewdness. I wondered for a moment what he was thinking, but I did not dwell on it. It was not really something I had to care about anyway.

“If you are giving me points, of course I should do it.”

“Thank you. Then when will the board be ready?”

“Mm, it is not something that will take much effort, so I think I can make it for you today.”

“Is that so? That is a relief. The list is here.”

He handed me a sheet of paper. It listed most of the people belonging to his organization. There were a little over a hundred names.

Most of them did not have mirror bugs. How were they supposed to use it? I looked at him with that question in my eyes.

“Ah, I forgot to mention that. The others will all rent mirror bugs too.”

He thought for a moment, then spoke again.

“Would you be able to prepare those today as well?”

I was shocked. All of them were joining? On top of the board fee too. It was not my place to say this, but this was practically pouring points onto the floor.

After hearing this incredible news, I could not help being genuinely surprised. I calmed my breathing for a moment and nodded.

I had a fair number of spare mirror bugs made in advance. I would only need to make a few more. At that, Jun smiled and said,

“Could you keep this deal secret from the others?”

“Yes, I should naturally do that much for you.”

I readily nodded. After exchanging farewells with him, I stood up. If I wanted to finish by today, I had to work quickly.

And one week passed.

Jun attacked the rooms on the second floor and seized two of them.

They were areas owned by the great family group.

Because of that, the tower was completely turned upside down.

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