WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 8

──────

Thud- thud-

The turtle advanced, crushing the surrounding buildings beneath its overwhelming mass. The drug-soaked bastards startled and scattered like a flock of sheep.

With every building knocked down, the area around me looked wonderfully clean. Ah, now this was a view fit for a refreshing morning.

A puppet poured tea and offered it to me. I accepted it, took a sip, and savored the aroma.

Should I make it roll this time? Sensing my will, the turtle flipped itself over. One turn, two turns. Buildings crumbled like crackers.

All the stress that had built up in me seemed to melt away at once. I was so happy. This was the life.

And so, the turtle rolled around and neatly cleared about a kilometer around us. My shop stood alone in the middle of that barren plain. Watching the sight from the rooftop made me feel refreshed to my core.

I had been thinking about this ever since I set up my shop here.

Flattening everything nearby.

I had lacked the mana and strength to actually do it, but my pretty turtle understood my heart and destroyed it all for me. This Father was deeply moved.

Of course, I was the one controlling it.

The turtle roared. By the time I finished making that turtle and came out, nearly two months had passed. The sense of unity I had felt while making it had only been a very brief moment of enlightenment. Afterward, my connection with the turtle gradually weakened, and now only a faint trace remained. Still, that alone was enough to move it.

The sapling in my chest especially liked the turtle. Whenever I controlled the turtle, it would seep into that connection as well and act like a kind of controller. Thanks to that, I only had to control the turtle with the same feeling I had when flying drones in my previous life.

As this whole process went on, I could feel the sapling forming new magic. I did not know when it would ripen, but once I gained enough mana and enlightenment, it would bloom into a new innate magic.

I happily controlled the turtle. My existing puppets had their own mana heart, so I did not need to control them. That was the result of pursuing extreme convenience.

Since I had always made puppets in that direction, I had thought controlling one like this would be terribly inefficient, but it felt different when I actually tried it. It had a pretty satisfying feel to it. On top of that, as I controlled it, the memories of my previous life that had stopped awakening seemed to grow clearer little by little. Was it because I was doing something similar?

Once the turtle finished its work, I called it over and stuffed it into my spatial pouch. Even the pouch that had felt endlessly wide was cramped for the turtle. After sucking the creature in to its limit, the spatial pouch became incredibly heavy.

I drank tea while looking out at the open scenery. Mm, this leisure was exactly the happiness I pursued.

"Hey there!"

A voice suddenly came from the sky.

At the same time, something dropped down beside me. The smell of iron rushed over me. I grimaced and covered my nose. It was that sword-wielding bastard.

"I came by about a month ago, but you were gone. Then I heard you were doing something fun, so I came back!"

He was a muscular middle-aged man with five swords hanging at his waist. He was the leader of the sword-wielders gathered at the center of the slums.

"Why are you here, sword bastard?"

"Come on, why sword bastard? I told you to call me Evan. Ahaha!"

The bastard tried to slap me on the back. The puppet pouring tea beside me reached out to block him. The puppet's hand shattered on the spot. His hand struck my back as if there had been no resistance at all. My body lurched. This muscle pig.

I scattered the flying insects. They shot straight toward his chest. But before they could even explode, they were caught in his grip and crushed with a dry crunch. He laughed loudly and tossed the insects back.

I stopped the insects from shooting out again and called them back to me.

Damn it, there was no opening to win at all.

This was why fighting was not my specialty. What was the point of learning some amazing attack magic? Bastards like that only had to swing a sword around and everything disappeared. Damn sword-wielding bastards. I hated swords most of all.

"So why did you come?"

"Here. The puppet I bought last time broke again."

Evan set down the huge puppet he had been carrying on his back. It was a four-legged porter puppet made purely for transport. When had that bastard bought it? About a year ago? He had also taken a few mana stones containing my mana, so it should not have been time for it to break yet.

But he said it broke? I glanced at it. Then I saw several clean cut marks.

My eyes narrowed. This bastard had obviously slashed it.

"You bastard, how many times did you scrape this?"

"What are you talking about? It just collapsed on its own!"

I lifted the puppet into the air with mana. I shoved it right in front of his nose and showed him the cut marks.

"Do you not see this? No matter how I look at it, these are traces from your sword."

"Are they? I cannot really see them..."

"Huh?"

"Ahem. Well, I was fighting monsters, so I might have gotten carried away and cut it a few times."

I frowned. That could not be true. I had set it to run far away if a battle broke out nearby. When I kept pressing him, he finally confessed what he had been hiding.

"Well, you see. Riding on this thing's back was incredibly comfortable. I ended up using it often even while fighting, and then this happened. Ahaha!"

Agh, this beast of a man. I was about to lose my temper, but held it in. He clearly would not understand no matter what I said. I stimulated my mana and woke several puppets inside the shop. The puppets came up to the rooftop and carried away the porter puppet. They would take it to the workshop on their own.

"Ten mana stones."

"Oh dear, is that not too expensive?"

"Fifteen mana stones."

"How can you suddenly raise the price like that?"

"Twenty mana sto..."

"Fine, fifteen mana stones! Fifteen should be more than enough. Here they are!"

The bastard tossed me a pouch. I opened it and checked inside. Mm, this scent of condensed mana. They were not fake.

"Come tomorrow."

In truth, repairing it was not a big problem. The mana heart had not been cut, so I only needed to make it a new body. Still, that sword-wielding bastard annoyed me, so I named a high price.

"Understood. By the way, I heard an interesting bit of news."

Evan smiled wickedly. This felt ominous.

"I hear you met our daughter during the last exam?"

Pffft. I spat out the tea I was drinking. The bastard chuckled.

Daughter? Did that bastard have a daughter? No, he probably meant one of his organization members. Like Father back on the island, that bastard treated everyone under him as his sons and daughters.

"Our daughter passed the university exam this time. It has been almost thirty years since someone from our sword family got into the university. All our brothers gathered and celebrated. Mm, and your name came up."

The ominous feeling grew stronger. If I listened any longer, I might make myself sick with anger. I tried to block my ears with mana, but I was too late. His words had already dug into them.

"She said she passed thanks to you! Apparently, you blew up a whole pile of puppets, and she gained enlightenment while cutting them down. She said the exam became very easy after that. Ahaha!"

Shit, it was that sword-wielding bitch!

My blood boiled, and I hurled my teacup. The bastard dodged it easily.

The world was this unfair. Some people failed even after pouring out everything they had, while others passed because they swung a sword a few times. Damn it, to think I had become someone else's offering for admission.

"I knew it was you as soon as I heard about the puppets. Before she left for the university, she came with me to thank you, but she was disappointed you were gone. Haha, seducing a friend more than twenty years younger than you already. You are quite skilled."

That mouth was the problem. I glared at the mouth that kept spouting nonsense. But there was no way to shut it. No matter what I did, he would just let it roll off him. He had clearly come here determined to tease me.

I used mana to plug my ears. Yet I did not know what trick he used, because his voice kept piercing through my barrier. Damn it.

"But you see. I thought about it a little, and you have now failed ten times, have you not? I wanted to offer some more words of comfort in honor of you reaching double digits. Of course, our daughter got in on her first try. Hm? The moment I saw that girl, I realized it at once. Ah, this is a talent that should not be here."

My mind started to go hazy. Was this bastard getting revenge because I had raised the mana stone price?

"Of course, I am not saying you are someone who belongs here. I was only talking about our daughter. Wahaha!"

That booming laughter rang in my ears.

"Just get lost already!"

I shouted and tried to jump straight off the rooftop. But the bastard came over in an instant and grabbed me. He moved so fast the puppet could not even react. Startled, I twisted wildly, but I could not escape his grip.

"You should hear the whole story before you go, my friend. Of course, I also got into the university on my third try, but in truth, many mages on this street are rolling around trying to get into the university, are they not? Among them, you are fairly outstanding. But I suppose it is a little disappointing. Your magic feels somehow damp, you see."

Dangling from the bastard's hand, I had no choice but to keep listening to his endless story. I could not even pass out. The mana he emitted kept jolting my head awake.

I was forced to listen to him for more than thirty minutes without moving.

My ears were really bleeding, and my eyes were bloodshot red. Shit, shit, shit.

This damned sword-wielding bastard. I hated sword-wielders. All sword-wielders had to die.

After talking for ages, the bastard finally seemed satisfied and stopped.

I collapsed on the spot. I did not even have the strength to protest. This was why strength mattered to a mage. If you had strength, it did not matter if you treated those below you roughly. Who would say anything just because you tormented ants beneath your feet? Damn it, even if only because this was so unfair, I would definitely become stronger than you.

I glared at the bastard as he smiled in satisfaction. Maybe he noticed my gaze, because he laughed even louder.

After laughing like that for a while, the bastard looked around and quietly lowered his voice.

"That was all just a joke. More importantly, I have news for you."

A joke? Did people call it a joke after half killing someone? But the words he spoke next forced even me to hold my breath.

"The Explorer has returned."

That terrifying person was here? My body naturally trembled.

Originally, this slum had been divided between two organizations. The sword-wielding bastard in front of me, and the druggie bastards who turned people into drugs and consumed them.

The people rolling around on the ground had originally been the druggie bastards' slaves. I heard that rule had gone on for nearly fifty years.

Then three years ago, the druggie bastards suddenly all disappeared. There was no news at all. They simply evaporated overnight. Everyone was terrified and ran around trying to find out what had happened.

I was the first to learn the truth. The person who had done it came to my shop and told me directly.

They had attacked her out of nowhere, so she killed them all. I still could not forget the way she grumbled that her puppet had broken in the chaos.

She was someone who occasionally came to my shop to buy puppets. I knew she was a strong mage, but I had not known she was that strong.

According to the news those bastards later gathered here and there, the druggies had coveted the treasure the Explorer possessed. They attacked her, and they disappeared. That was all.

It was common enough in the world of magic. One organization, one village, or one castle could disappear overnight. But when it happened near me, that was a different story. After that, everyone in the slum kept a close eye on the Explorer's movements.

Thankfully, she left again as if nothing had happened, and everyone let out a sigh of relief.

And now she was returning.

"Ahem. It seems that person is rather fond of your puppets. I came to tell you in case you make another mistake. She will arrive soon."

I realized why this bastard was telling me.

They were too scared to host her themselves, so they wanted me to take care of her. I had nothing to say to that. Evan's words were true. Every time she came to the slum once every two or three years, she bought a huge number of my puppets.

Huh?

Now that I thought about it, was there any reason for me to feel burdened? There was not. She was simply someone I should be grateful to. She always bought a lot of puppets, and she had even gotten rid of the druggie bastards who sometimes collected protection fees from me.

"Fine. If she comes looking for you, send her to me. I will treat her well."

I said it as if I were doing him a favor. All my tension drained away. Instead, a loose smile spread across my face.

Evan looked at me as if I was strange, but I did not care. I had to go down right away and clean the shop properly. I had to leave a very good impression on an honored guest! I launched myself straight into the shop. Evan said something behind me, but I ignored him.

Mm, what would she buy this time? I should wipe down all the puppets before she arrived. Clean things were nicer to look at, were they not? I had to earn a lot this time. This was a chance to make money!

---

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried