WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 96

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I believed in mages. I believed their unreliability, their selfishness and desire, would eventually end up hurting others.

In a similar way, I believed in treasures. I believed they would act for the sake of their own desires. Yes, I had always thought the treasures would cause an incident someday. This was almost a certainty.

That was why I had made quite a few preparations. First, I scattered shadow puppets and mirror bugs throughout the entire tower, creating a security system with no gaps. It was not just the ones I had handed out to the students. Far more were hidden inside the tower.

The spaces where the students stayed had become packed with my puppets, and they kept watch over their surroundings from every corner of the tower.

They thoroughly checked for anything strange, any problems that might have appeared, and sent that information to me. It was thanks to them that I had found Hao when he was bewitched by the tooth last time.

The Score Sheet through the mirror bugs had also been one of my measures for that. The same went for decorating the first floor with all those statues. All of it was a countermeasure against the treasures.

Then what about the treasures? Did they really not know I was preparing like this? Of course they did. I glanced at Mira beside me. She was quietly staring at a mirror bug.

Mira had strong desires, but she was not stupid. If anything, she had enough insight and intelligence to guide me into moving in the direction she wanted.

The other treasures were probably the same. They also knew I was preparing for them to cause trouble. Even so, they would definitely make a move. I knew that too.

Yes, this was like a board game where both sides could see everything clearly. They would try to pull something, and I would block it. A simple game like that.

Then who were the pieces in this board game? The students. And those students had now created a religion. It had to be a move made by Ring of the Sky.

But what was its purpose? My eyes narrowed slightly. Over the past while, I had met it and spoken with it several times. Through that process, I had come to understand its thoughts a little.

It had no intention at all of leaving the storehouse where it resided. That storehouse itself was like a world it had created. Everything inside it was happy.

If it left the storehouse, they would fall back into pain again. That was why Ring of the Sky did not try to go outside. It was simply deeply satisfied inside that completed world.

I stroked my chin with a finger. Even if I did not know its purpose, I needed to act for now. If I left that alone, it would definitely keep spreading.

“Mira-ssi, did you notice anything suspicious?”

Mira nodded with a small yawn. She held out the mirror bug she had been looking at to me. Inside it, a video was playing of the Ring of the Sky Church proselytizing.

“As you can see, it’s the same as yesterday. They’re saying the exact same things too. There’s just one more of them now.”

“I see.”

I watched the video with Mira. The new person who had joined them was the student who had entered the tower the previous day to avoid them. I remembered that student leaving with an utterly disgusted expression.

And today, that student had joined them. Now, their face looked extremely happy.

I did not know what process they used to make it happen, but they were drawing others into their religion one by one like that. Starting with the ones who had shown the clearest rejection, no less.

The mirror bug in my arms vibrated slightly. After checking its contents, I nodded. They were the posts I had been waiting for. Enough of them had accumulated now.

The alarm had rung because of the inquiries left by the students. They were protesting against those people. They felt disgusted by how they blocked the entrance to the tower, and by the way they seemed contaminated by that power.

That was right. The other students had noticed how strange they were too. Especially those who had received Ring of the Sky’s power. Because of that, they tended to avoid them, just like the person who joined today.

But the Ring of the Sky Church clung to people without caring that they were being avoided. That made people even more disgusted. And so they had sent these inquiries.

“Then let’s move. First, I’ll have to stop that proselytizing.”

I could not suppress them on my own. No matter how they used the tower, that was their freedom. But if other students had filed complaints like this, I had enough justification to act. With that, I went down the tower with Mira.

The entrance to the tower was quite noisy. Thirteen people were scattering leaflets while casting magic along the path leading into the tower. The magical beasts they controlled were doing the same.

They were openly proselytizing now. Of course complaints had started pouring in.

I approached Hao, who stood at the center of them. He had rolled up both sleeves and was preaching Ring of the Sky’s words to those entering the tower.

I lightly tapped his shoulder. Once he noticed me, he stopped speaking for a moment. Then he looked around and scratched his head slightly. I gave him a small bow and spoke.

“I received complaints that this is too noisy. From now on, I think I’ll have to prohibit proselytizing at the entrance like this. No, from now on, I will prohibit proselytizing around the tower altogether.”

This proselytizing was the most suspicious thing for now. After they started doing it, their numbers had kept increasing one by one. So I needed to stop it first. At my words, Hao’s eyes went round.

“This comes only from a pure heart. From our wish to give happiness to others. Are you saying you don’t understand our feelings?”

Hao spoke with tears welling in his eyes. The refreshing scent coming from him began to grow stronger through those tears. At that, Mira began drooling heavily.

The stream of drool from Mira’s mouth showed no sign of stopping. A lady puppet started gently wiping around her mouth with a handkerchief.

Hao, who had been shedding tears, glanced at that puppet. The puppet’s beautiful appearance seemed to draw his gaze naturally. His eyes would not leave the puppet.

During that time, his tears had already dried and vanished. After standing there blankly for a moment, he cleared his throat and came back to his senses. I shook my head at him.

“All the students are uncomfortable. This behavior is only increasing their hostility toward you. So I have no choice but to ban it.”

At those words, Hao quietly fell into thought. Soon, he obediently nodded. Then he clapped his hands and began gathering everyone who had been scattering leaflets nearby.

“Now that I hear you say that, I have a lot to think about as well. I hadn’t considered that our pure intentions might cause discomfort to others. You’re right.”

Hao clasped both hands together and drew a circle over his chest toward the people who had gathered. The others lightly responded in the same way. They looked at one another, nodded, and began cleaning up the area.

“We cannot cause discomfort to others for the sake of our own satisfaction. As Evron-ssi said, we will end the proselytizing here. Many people must already have learned of our faith by now.”

Like that, they quietly headed into the tower. The students passing by gave me light applause. Their faces looked very satisfied. I gave them a small bow.

Then I narrowed my eyes and watched Hao’s back as he entered the tower. He was obeying without any resistance just because I said a few words? That was unexpected.

If this proselytizing was truly important, he would have tried to continue it somehow. But they gave up so easily. As if they had already achieved their goal.

Mira came closer and wrapped her arms around mine. She was also staring at Hao’s back. Clear traces of drool remained around her mouth.

“That makes me want to eat him in one bite. Amazing. I almost melted from that scent.”

“I agree.”

I nodded lightly. I had been able to smell his scent before too, but not to this extent. That change was the result of faith.

Hao’s mental score had risen further within that faith. The more it did, the stronger that scent became. Others probably could not sense it. This was not a scent humans could smell. I quietly rubbed my nose.

After that day, they truly stopped proselytizing. The entrance to the tower became quiet, and the students were very satisfied.

Instead, the Ring of the Sky Church began holding gatherings with even greater passion. They gathered almost once every three hours and offered a simple mass to Ring of the Sky.

The number of times they offered tribute increased too. Their worship time, originally once a day, had become twice, once in the morning and once in the evening. In that way, they started making their religion more systematic.

-I keep telling you this, but your happiness is my happiness. Just do what you want to do.

“Ring of the Sky-nim has spoken. ‘You already know what happiness is. When you move toward that happiness, I too feel happiness as I watch you. So simply do what you wish to do. At the end of it, happiness will be waiting.’ Today, Ring of the Sky-nim has left us another message. Let us engrave it deep in our hearts and pray together.”

Hao drew a circle in front of his chest. The believers before him did the same. Mira watched them through the mirror bug and smiled slightly.

“Aha, there’s one more now?”

I quietly nodded. That was right. The thirteen had become fourteen before I knew it. That student had naturally joined their gathering at some point, and was now participating in the worship too.

“It seems their proselytizing wasn’t the cause. I don’t know where they’re gathering people like that.”

“Maybe it’s happening outside the tower? They could be attacking people at night and brainwashing them with that power.”

Mira said that. She had a point. I had not found any traces inside the tower. If so, that meant something was happening outside the tower.

But if they were brainwashing people by force like she guessed, there had to be aftereffects left behind. Thinking the same thing, I had analyzed their scores one by one through the mirror bugs, but I could not find any contamination in them.

For that purpose, I attached plenty of puppets to them. I could check their actions simply through mirror bugs, but what if they left those behind? Mira herself also went out personally to check on them.

Like that, all the students left the tower. I sat in the workshop and brought up a map. Red dots were marked on it. They were the members of the Ring of the Sky Church. All of them were gathered in one place.

The place where they were located was the magical beast zone. I already knew they stayed there. I had long since figured out where all the students stayed through the mirror bugs.

There was only one unusual point. The student who had joined them today had left the place where they originally stayed and entered the magical beast zone. Other than that, I did not notice any major difference.

There, they managed the magical beasts, chatted, and offered mass to Ring of the Sky. The sound of them crying out with one heart and one mind kept echoing around the area.

Mira’s guess was wrong. They did not attack other students in particular. They simply gathered in one place like that and offered mass to Ring of the Sky.

“I remember the first words Ring of the Sky-nim spoke to me. ‘I know your sin, so you should simply dream of happiness.’ For me, happiness is this very moment. We...”

At the center, I could see Hao passionately pouring out his words. The ring fragment floating above his head was giving off a vivid light.

Several days passed like that. Their number had become twenty before I knew it. Half of the people who had received power from Ring of the Sky had joined them.

During that process, I learned their method of conversion. It was magical beasts. In the magical beast zone, there were many magical beasts left there by other students. Those magical beasts had been listening to their prayers.

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