novelraw Chapter 29
Chapter 29
Chapter 29
The Secret Room
Kiena had gone to the world below with Banshi last night.
Today was Saturday morning.
Since there were no official classes scheduled, the students were leisurely enjoying their rest when Hei came looking for me in my dorm.
“Let’s go to the library together! Artel!”
“The library?”
Maybe because that unexpected word came out of Hei’s mouth, I asked with a puzzled expression.
I suddenly wondered why Hei—who would choose the dining hall over the library without hesitation if only one were available—was voluntarily suggesting we go to the library today.
“Yeah! I suddenly want to study hard too!”
“You always hated studying. Why all of a sudden?”
“This.”
Hei materialized his Mob and showed me the remaining points.
[Hei]
Remaining Points: 165,400
[Received]
Admission Commemoration: 5,000 (Nide)
Weekly Sparring Class 1st Place: 162,000
[Used]
Dining Hall: 1,600
As expected, the points he earned from placing first in yesterday’s sparring class were substantial.
“I realized a lot when I watched your sparring yesterday.”
“Realized what?”
“The fact that I got this many points was all thanks to you, Artel. I just watched. And then…….”
“And then?”
“I suddenly thought this too. ‘If you sit at the darkness elemental seat later instead of the fire elemental seat, I won’t be able to get points like this anymore, right?’”
I could tell what had been worrying him so much.
There were many subjects that laughed because of yesterday’s results, but only one that cried.
And, inconveniently, that had been the summoning class where Kiena belonged, so it must have hit him harder.
But why did he think I might sit at the darkness elemental seat?
“That’ll never happen. I don’t really like darkness elements. The classes aren’t fun and I don’t think the teacher suits me either.”
I made sure to firmly clarify that part on purpose.
It wasn’t just to reassure him—it was a resolute decision.
“Well, you never know. Anyway! Since I earned a lot of points thanks to you and have some extra, let’s just go to the library together.”
“With me?”
“Yeah, I’m curious how you study. Honestly, back in Class 0, you were like a kid who slept all day, and now you’re not only a double caster but the top student in Class 1!”
Because of yesterday’s sparring results, Ever, the fire-element instructor, had called me “top student.”
At this school, “top student” didn’t mean best in just one subject—it meant the single best student across the entire class.
They believed I was a double caster, and since my contribution had secured fire element’s early 18-win streak and 1st place, no one disputed it.
“So what, you want me to teach you some kind of study secret?”
“Yeah, maybe if I follow it, I’ll quickly get used to classes too?”
Hei was the only fire-element student who couldn’t keep up with the lessons.
Whether learning new spells or trying to implement them, he rarely succeeded on the first try—even with spells he had already learned.
Every time that happened, I had to discreetly guide him from the side so he could barely manage a minimal implementation.
He seemed determined to cast off that incompetence once and for all today.
“Alright, let’s go together.”
But did I even have something like a study secret?
I had simply been the Archmage in my previous life and a Flewd elementalist, so I knew every elemental spell.
Imagine that learning a spell for the first time was like walking a dark path.
No one knew whether that dark path had stones, whether it was smooth, bumpy, short, or wide.
So, naturally, people walked hesitantly, and their pace slowed drastically.
But I had already walked that path before, so I knew its terrain well enough to run through it without even looking ahead.
In other words, the reason people now called me the top student was thanks to the experiences I had earned in my previous life.
So I had no secret method to pass down.
“Hmm, I don’t really know any study secrets. But let’s go to the library anyway. Once we look at books, I might figure out what could help.”
Still, he was a friend who had decided to come with me, so I didn’t want to ignore him.
A book Hei could easily understand.
I believed I could find something like that.
There were no books left by my master in the Class 1 library, but as long as the book didn’t feel difficult to Hei, it was fine.
So after arriving at the library with Hei, I paid the 100-point library fee and went inside.
Thankfully, no other students were there.
“Hei, just pick books whose titles look fun or easy to you.”
Right now, finding books that suited Hei was what mattered.
Since Hei was the one who would read them, even if the content seemed lacking to me, they would be effective if they kept him interested.
So while I couldn’t pass down any study secrets, I could at least help him find the right books.
Or maybe this itself could be considered a study secret?
“Mm……! If you say it, it must mean something important, right?”
Hei seemed to think every trivial thing I said was some kind of secret method and immediately went searching for books.
After quite a long time, he chose only five books and stacked them on the desk.
《Is My Fire a Matchstick or a Campfire?》
《How to Easily Implement Advanced Spells (Fire Element)》
《Curious About Powerful Fire Elements!》
《Spell Implementation Isn’t Hard!》
《Just Do It Like This. Fire Element Edition》
Every single title made me frown just by looking at it.
So these were books of the current era?
They lacked any seriousness and felt full of mischief.
Just from the titles, I could easily tell what kind of mage had written them.
A common trait in books like these was that they were usually written by mages whose growth had stopped around the 6th Circle at best.
Since they lacked magical talent, they would write books to spread their names among lower-circle mages, building recognition in hopes that it might somehow help them advance to higher circles.
Every one of these books had been written with that kind of expectation.
So naturally, their content was tailored to young students—filled with exaggerated claims and lacking professional depth.
Upper-circle mages would never find such books pleasant.
‘But these are the books Hei showed interest in. I’m not the one reading them.’
With that in mind, I inspected their contents as well.
If one of them turned out surprisingly useful, I could tell him to just focus on that one.
But…… as expected, they were filled with explanations lacking even a hint of professionalism.
‘To effectively implement higher-tier spells, it’s best to see them with your own eyes. Depending on the situation, letting yourself get hit by one can also help.’
This was one of the lines written in the book.
I held back a hollow laugh the moment I saw that line.
‘How is a lower-class mage supposed to witness higher-circle magic, you idiot?’
Unless one belonged to a mage family, everything written here was impossible for a mage of common birth.
‘Will this really help Hei?’
As I skimmed through the book, I only grew more concerned.
For fire elementals, what spells were famous at each circle, what effects they had, and in what situations they were used—
There wasn’t a single professional explanation like that, only rambling entries that felt more like a personal diary.
‘No choice, then.’
I decided it would be better if I found an appropriate book for him.
I walked around various parts of the library searching for one.
Then, in a deep corner, I spotted something sitting there—something I had never seen before.
“……Strange. I’m sure there wasn’t a fireplace here before.”
I remembered clearly because I had once searched every part of the library in hopes of finding my master’s books.
There were even a few small logs inside, burnt down to charcoal.
The moment I saw those logs, I understood immediately.
This fireplace had been created with magic, and it was a teleportation waypoint for a fire elementalist.
Fire elementalists had one restriction on teleport magic that fit the nature of their element.
In magical terminology, it was called a “Waypoint.”
Literally, a path of passage.
And the reason it hadn’t been visible before but appeared now could only be one of two things:
Someone had recently passed through, or it had recently been created.
Why would there be a waypoint in the Class 1 library?
Teleportation magic was a 4th Circle movement spell.
But not every 4th Circle mage could freely access all waypoints.
The usable distance between waypoints increased based on one’s circle.
A newly awakened 4th Circle mage could only travel from the 1st Circle library to the 2nd Circle library.
So this wasn’t the work of a 4th Circle mage.
A 4th Circle mage should be in Class 4, and this was Class 1.
Therefore, I could conclude that the one who used it was at least a 6th Circle mage.
‘But the fact that there’s a waypoint here…….’
Though it appeared to be a trivial Class 1 library, this meant there was something special about it.
I placed a hand near the fireplace and lightly cast a detection spell, sweeping along the wall.
Rrrrk.
A portion of the wall reacted to my spell and slid aside, revealing a staircase leading downward.
‘A secret room……?’
The entire passage was dark, and I could barely make out the stairs.
I had no idea how deep the staircase went.
But why would there be a secret place in the Class 1 library?
Thinking it must be something very closely related to Etar, the owner of this school, I decided to descend. At that moment—
Rrrk.
The moment I stepped onto the stairs, the door closed automatically, and torches ignited along the walls in sync with my footsteps, illuminating my path.
“Oh-ho.”
When I spoke aloud on purpose, my voice echoed back at me. It truly was a basement.
The staircase was circular, and the basement wasn’t as deep as I expected.
And when I arrived at the secret place beneath the Ed Branch School’s Class 1 library, I was greeted by an unexpected sight.
“What is all this……?”
Kiena greeted the morning of the world below with Banshi.
“Wow…….”
It had been a full five years since she last descended to the world below.
In that time, much of the city she remembered had changed, and she looked around with fascination.
When she came down last night, the city had been dark, so she couldn’t have imagined it would look this different.
But now, under the bright morning sun, the world below looked so unlike the place where she had spent her childhood that she wondered if her memories were even real.
“I heard a bit from Artel. You really didn’t come down to the lower world even once in the last five years?”
“Yeah……. Even if we came down, we didn’t have anywhere to go.”
“I’m an orphan too, but that’s kind of sad. I at least came down because I had a place to go.”
At Banshi’s blunt words, Kiena stared at her with a flustered expression.
“R-right. You’re an orphan too…….”
“It’s not important. Let’s go. It’s better if we get there quickly.”
“Okay.”
Kiena followed closely behind Banshi as they made their way out of the city.
But then Kiena saw a certain building and stopped walking instinctively.
“What’s wrong?”
“……Seeing it like this, it feels nostalgic.”
The building was the orphanage in the world below where she, Artel, and Hei had lived until they entered the Magic Academy.
Banshi recognized the orphanage and, reading the mood, asked what Kiena was feeling.
“Want to stop by?”
“……Yeah. All the teachers there were really kind. I’m curious how they’re doing.”
“Then let’s visit later. For now, we need to move quickly. We have to avoid people’s eyes.”
Banshi hurriedly grabbed Kiena’s wrist and pulled her along.
“Why…… why do we need to avoid people’s eyes? Where are we going?”
‘Ah……’
Banshi had spoken thoughtlessly, thinking only about avoiding the eyes of the Ed Family’s main household, which also had influence in the world below.
But since Kiena had no way of knowing what Banshi had gone through in the past, she simply stared at her with eyes full of confusion.