novelraw Chapter 112
Chapter 112
Chapter 112: Past Events (2)
“Arkis-nim was…….”
Etar looked as though he was judging what he should say for a moment.
“You got younger, didn’t you?”
“Ha ha…….”
When I spoke lightly, almost as a joke, only then did he show a smile.
Yet he was still sprawled face-down on the floor.
“I told you to get up.”
“Arkis-nim.”
“Why.”
“I can’t use my legs.”
“…….”
I examined Etar’s legs again.
‘Come to think of it, he was in a wheelchair…….’
Three hundred years ago, while fighting to protect me from the Tyrant, he had suffered concentrated attacks on his legs.
That had been the last image of Etar I saw before I died.
“Don’t tell me those legs have been like that since 300 years ago?”
“Yes.”
The pitiful sight of him sprawled on the floor resembled a fish washed ashore by the waves, flailing desperately to live.
It was far too miserable and powerless a sight for the headmaster of a branch school, and the head of a representative Fire Element family.
I quietly supported his body and settled him into the wheelchair.
“There are truly many things I wish to talk about with you, Arkis-nim. However, now is not the time. I will begin with the formalities.”
The moment he sat in the wheelchair, Etar became a different person.
The listless 모습 disappeared without a trace, and he returned to the dignified appearance of a headmaster.
Etar placed a hand on my shoulder, burned away the 5th Class insignia, and then attached the 6th Class insignia.
“If you enter that portal, it will lead to the 6th Class auditorium. And starting tomorrow, vacation begins. When tomorrow comes, I will contact you separately through Arkis-nim’s mob. If you come to the place I tell you then, we will be able to speak at length and at ease.”
My first objective, ‘meeting Etar’.
Only now had I finally achieved it.
It was an accomplishment earned after a full three years.
And fortunately enough, Etar had not changed, and he had been longing for me.
In that case, how could I fail to endure even one more day?
I nodded with a light smile.
“To meet you again like this… it truly feels like a dream.”
Every word he spoke was filled with sincerity.
“But…… what should we do about wrecking the auditorium like this?”
“Ah, please don’t worry. Nylon will take care of restoring everything.”
“Nylon, is he your direct line?”
“Yes.”
“All the mages of the Ed Family in this school?”
“That’s correct. I do not keep collateral lines or adopted children. The world is far too dangerous.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
To think that the kid who had once followed behind me like a puppy, learning magic, had grown into such a proper family head and the father of many children.
It felt like watching a child transform overnight into a leader who commanded an entire group.
“Alright, see you tomorrow, Etar.”
“I will be greatly looking forward to it as well, Arkis-nim.”
With that, I pulled my carrier and entered the portal, and it was time for me to part with Etar for a while.
When I arrived at the 6th Class auditorium, Hei and Kiena were waiting for me.
“Artel!”
The moment I appeared in the auditorium, the two greeted me happily.
“As expected! We passed too—Artel, you got through easily as well, right?”
“You took so long that I was a little worried!”
Hei took my passing lightly, while Kiena seemed concerned.
“Let’s go to the dormitory first.”
I led the two toward the dormitory indicated by the mob.
Stepping out into the corridor, the interior was clearly different from the 5th Class.
Carpets, chandeliers on the ceiling.
It resembled a banquet hall.
It was far more luxurious than the 5th Class, to the point where it made me think I would like to settle down and live here.
Yet even so, there was something it shared with the 5th Class.
Loneliness.
The corridors of the 6th Class felt especially lonelier than those of the 5th Class.
Moreover, as we headed toward the dormitory, not a single student came into view.
The time when the student ability evaluation began in the 5th Class had been the morning.
It had ended before passing into the afternoon.
Therefore, even if it was the last day of the semester, there should still have been afternoon remaining, a time when students would be active.
Yet not seeing even a single student felt strange.
Despite the stylish and luxurious interior, the corridor gave off a strong sense of having been abandoned.
‘I’ll probably find out about this tomorrow, the day I meet Etar anyway.’
This was the moment I had come to perfectly understand what kind of mage Etar was.
Thus, I entered the assigned dormitory and unpacked my belongings.
Today, I deliberately did not go to the library.
It was also the day Banshi was taking the student ability evaluation in the 4th Class.
She would surely pass and move up to the 5th Class sometime in the afternoon.
If I were to tell her that I had already come to the 6th Class and met Etar first, it might dampen her resolve a little, so I intentionally did not go.
After finishing organizing all my luggage, I took Hei and Kiena to the cafeteria.
The 6th Class was the final class of this school.
Therefore, it was the highest floor students could reach.
As befitted its reputation, the food prepared was also clearly different from that of the 5th Class.
But at the same time, there was a sense of discomfort—namely, that there was not a single student in the cafeteria.
For the cafeteria to be completely empty even though it was lunchtime meant only one thing.
That the entire population of the 6th Class consisted of just the three of us.
‘It feels like this was made intentionally…… I should ask tomorrow, after all.’
Tomorrow, I would know all the truth.
For now, at least for today, for the first time since coming to this school, I waited for time to pass quickly without worrying about anything at all.
In the 4th Class auditorium, the graduation ceremony was in full swing.
At this graduation ceremony, there was only one student leaving the 4th Class.
That student was Banshi.
Banshi graduated the student ability evaluation as the top of the class, received a new insignia, and was sent to the 5th Class.
And thus, she arrived at the 5th Class.
The one waiting for Banshi was none other than Nylon.
“Ha ha, we’ve met before, right? Not even a year since entering the 4th Class and you’re already in the 5th Class……. You’re quite a talented student too, aren’t you?”
Nylon greeted Banshi warmly, extending his hand for a handshake.
“Hello.”
“I introduced myself back in the 2nd Class, so you remember, right?”
“Yes, you’re Teacher Nylon, the Fire Element teacher of the 5th Class.”
“You’ve got a good memory. Ah, but something got added in the meantime.”
“What is it?”
“I’m also serving as a 5th Class professor. That’s why I came to welcome you like this.”
“Ah…….”
However, Banshi’s gaze kept drifting as she looked around her.
“Are you looking for something?”
“It’s not an object I’m looking for, but a person…….”
“A person? Who?”
“Artel. Where is he?”
At Banshi’s question, Nylon scratched his cheek with an awkward expression.
“……Why are you making that face?”
“Ah, well, you see.”
At Nylon’s subsequent answer, Banshi let out a sigh without realizing it.
“I see…… when did he go up to the 6th Class?”
“In the morning.”
It was already well past 6 p.m.
Honestly, I felt disappointed.
I had once casually left a note saying I hoped he would wait in the 5th Class.
It wasn’t like Artel had any intention of honoring that request, but now that things had turned out this way, I couldn’t hide my sense of regret and disappointment.
“I can just look at the mob and go to my dormitory, right?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Have a good vacation. Teach— no, Professor.”
“Yeah…… thank you.”
Banshi brushed past Nylon as if turning her back on him and left the auditorium.
“That’s strange, when I saw her in the 2nd Class, she wasn’t like that.”
Nylon simply couldn’t understand Banshi’s behavior.
‘That’s too much, Arkis-nim.’
Banshi swallowed her resentful voice inwardly.
After unpacking her luggage in the dormitory, the place she headed to right away was the library.
It was to check the note in the secret room connected to the library.
But…….
Yeah, hurry up and come up.
This was the reply I had already checked yesterday.
After that, Artel hadn’t left a single response.
Slightly brimming with spite, Banshi added one more note.
Is the air in the 6th Class sweet?
For some reason, Banshi felt especially irritable today.
Winter vacation began in the 6th Class.
Morning passed, I took care of lunch in the cafeteria, and it was around 2 p.m.
-Arkis-nim, it’s me. If you come to the location below, there is a waypoint leading to the headmaster’s office. If you stand in front of it, it will react automatically.
It was a message from Etar.
Receiving a direct message from the headmaster through a student mob felt unfamiliar, yet strangely moving.
At least back when I had been an Archmage, there hadn’t been any such function.
The place Etar told me about was none other than the 6th Class library.
As far as I could tell, the 6th Class library was as vast as if all the libraries of every class in this school had been combined.
While looking at the coordinates Etar gave me, I searched for the waypoint, and only after quite some time did I finally arrive in front of it.
Just finding it by following the coordinates had taken a full thirty minutes, showing just how enormous the library was.
Its sheer size played a part, but the biggest reason time was eaten up was the arrangement of bookshelves laid out like a maze.
The moment I saw the waypoint, I nodded, thinking, ‘Of course.’
“Mm, as expected, it’s this.”
From the 1st Class, to the 3rd Class, to the 5th Class.
It was the fireplace waypoint I passed through whenever I headed to the secret room.
When I stood in front of the fireplace, it lit itself and created a portal.
I stepped into it.
“Welcome, Arkis-nim.”
“Etar, did you sleep well last night?”
“Of course. How was it for you, Arkis-nim? Your first night in the 6th Class.”
“It wasn’t bad. By the way, where is this?”
“This is my headmaster’s office. It’s the first time since the school’s founding that a guest has come to the headmaster’s office like this.”
I quietly examined Etar’s headmaster’s office.
Aside from being large, there wasn’t anything particularly special about it.
As I swept my gaze around, one thing caught my eye. There were three more fireplaces in the corner.
Each one contained an unlit bulb, black firewood, or a rough chunk of stone.
“What’s that? Those look like waypoints too.”
“As expected, you have a keen eye. But I’ll explain everything step by step. It’s vacation anyway, so we have plenty of time.”
Etar guided me to the table meant for receiving guests.
“You said no guest has ever come, so why keep a table like this?”
“Well, I need to talk with the vice headmaster often.”
At the word vice headmaster, my nerves sharpened.
“Vice headmaster……? That’s a mage from the Draco Family.”
“That’s something I’ll explain as well.”
Yet Etar answered lightly, as if there were no issue at all.
He immediately began preparing tea.
As the tea flowed from the kettle into the cup, its fragrance gently spread throughout the headmaster’s office.
“…….”
The moment I caught the scent, I was seized by an emotion I couldn’t quite put into words.
“This fragrance is…….”
“Would it be disrespectful to serve this tea to you, Arkis-nim? It was the tea you liked the most, so I prepared it……. Perhaps I was short-sighted.”
It was the tea I had drunk on the day I died at the very top, three hundred years ago.
Etar hurriedly tried to throw the tea away.
“No. It’s fine. It’s just that smelling that fragrance again after so long made me a little dazed.”
“Then…… that’s a relief.”
After pouring all the tea, Etar set the teacup in front of me.
After lightly wetting my throat with the tea, I spoke to Etar.
“There’s so much I want to ask.”
“Please ask one by one. I will answer everything.”
His eyes shone.