novelraw Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
A Changed World
I walked straight out of the dining hall and headed for the library.
The more I walked down the corridor, the more out of place everything felt.
It was only natural—this wasn’t the school I knew.
‘Right. This Magic Academy wasn’t the one where I served as the headmaster. And since it was called the Ed Branch, it meant Etar had built a separate school of his own.’
From the bricks on the corridor walls to the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling—
Everything was tinted red, as if reflecting the temperament of Ed Etar, the head of the representative Fire Element family.
The Magic Academy I had been in looked like a several-story building from the outside, but once you stepped inside, a different world unfolded.
Each floor contained another building, and even its weather and time differed.
In other words, each floor was its own world.
The Magic Academy was originally a special space created by magic.
Its area and size had no limitations and could be expanded or reduced at any time.
Thus, the Ed Branch where I currently stood was a school Ed Etar had created—and an entirely new world.
Following Mob’s guidance, I searched for the library.
I arrived without trouble and immediately began looking for related books.
《Admission Requirements of the Main School》
As I scanned the titles lined across the vast library, one ordinarily thick book caught my eye.
I quickly grabbed it and opened it.
Only graduates of each branch school could take a special exam to enter the Main School.
The book included photographs of the Main School, along with a picture of its headmaster, Draco Tylant.
This book was also created with magic.
Books created through magic were classified as “Magic Tomes,” and only extremely special books for mages were made that way.
The photo of the Main School shifted in real time as if the weather were changing—when the sun set, the moon rose, and at times rainstorms and blizzards swept through.
Tylant in the picture seemed to be speaking right in front of my eyes; no sound came out, but his lips moved.
I stared blankly at him for a moment, then turned my gaze back to the photo of the Main School.
And I realized it.
The place they now called the Main School was the very Magic Academy where I had been headmaster.
Only special and talented students could enter the Main School. Its doors would open only for such students.
It was the introduction of the Main School.
But something felt strange.
It seemed to be warning: ‘Students without talent shouldn’t even dream of it.’
Neither when I had been headmaster nor when my master had been headmaster did we discriminate among mages based on talent or special traits.
For a mage, “talent” and “specialness” referred only to the strength of their magic.
It seemed obvious that Tylant, who had gone mad with power and killed me, intended to gather only such students.
“You fell so far that you killed your own master. And yet you still haven’t hit the bottom, Tylant…….”
And the final part of the introduction was decorated with an interview from Tylant.
*On the topmost floor of the Main School, the place called the summit, lies everything a mage desires. The method to wield powerful magic, authority, wealth—everything. This headmaster merely hopes that many students will climb to the summit and enjoy the privileges prepared for special mages.*
What on earth was he thinking?
At that so-called summit existed only the iron gate and the sealing stone where Sylarid was confined.
Nothing else existed there.
So why advertise such a place to innocent students and inspire them with false hopes?
“No way…….”
A chill ran down my spine.
From the line stating that only special and talented students could enter the Main School he presided over, I had found a clue.
Tylant had killed me on the day he tried to absorb Sylarid’s power and make it his own, to seize the sealing stone that protected it.
That meant he knew a method to absorb the power of another mage.
Such magic had existed since ancient times, but the Magical Society considered it a sin and had strictly forbidden it.
Yet a man overflowing with desire like Tylant must have inevitably reached for that magic.
Wasn’t that why he had boasted that he would absorb Sylarid even as he killed me?
By promoting the so-called summit to students and planting fantasies in them, he likely planned to absorb the power of talented students to forge the mental strength necessary to later absorb Sylarid’s power.
Magic was entirely a power born of mental strength.
Sylarid’s power was so overwhelmingly massive that if one tried to absorb it recklessly, their very identity could collapse. So he intended to use students to temper himself.
“This is far worse than I thought…….”
Tylant’s words when he killed me—
His claim that he would lead the remaining mages and the Magical Society. Was *this* all he meant?
You’re no different from Sylarid.
You treat a mage’s life as if it were nothing.
I continued examining the book.
Turning the page, I found information on the branch schools.
‘Light Branch of Rus, Headmaster Rus Alfric.’
‘Earth Branch of Ramus, Headmaster Ramus Tresha.’
‘Wind Branch of Mirne, Headmaster Mirne Kabir.’
‘Fire Branch of Ed, Headmaster Ed Etar.’
‘Water Branch of Lamik, Headmaster Lamik Livia.’
They were all mages who had once been my Disciples.
Now, they lived in an era where they served as the five branch headmasters.
At the end of the book, the background of the branches’ founding was explained.
*Three hundred years ago, Archmage Arkis Aimer attempted to resurrect the worst mage, Sylarid, who had inflicted extreme damage on both the Magical Society and the Sword Society. The Archmage who should have protected the Magical Society instead sought to destroy everything, driven purely by a twisted desire to make the world his own.*
Me……? When?
The very first sentence made my brow sharply furrow.
And why was my name mentioned while explaining the background of the branches’ founding?
What did any of that have to do with me?
I continued reading.
*But Draco Tylant (current Archmage), who was his Disciple at the time, realized Arkis Aimer’s plan and, together with Aimer’s other five Disciples (the current branch headmasters), combined their strength to defeat him. Wise Disciples stopped a master walking the wrong path. Of course, the damage was severe. In particular, Ed Etar, who received the most brutal attack, nearly lost his life but barely survived.*
The entire time I read, I wanted to rip the pages apart.
He had pinned on me everything he had done to Etar.
Truly a man whose cunning was disgustingly sharp.
*Realizing that too great a sacrifice was needed to stop even one Archmage gone mad, Tylant concluded that many powerful mages were necessary. Thus, fifty years later, he founded the branch schools and began cultivating elite mages through more specialized and systematic education. It was his wise decision to minimize the damage should another Arkis Incident occur.*
The passage ended, followed by seven photographs.
The first was my appearance from my previous life.
Long white hair down to my waist, white irises, and a long-sleeved white robe.
The remaining six were photographs of my Disciples.
What the book claimed was all false.
And he had even turned it into a Magic Tome, completely distorting the truth.
Tylant had, in fact, killed me on the day he claimed he would absorb Sylarid’s power and attempted to seize the sealing stone.
However, in this Magic Tome there was only one reason all truths were distorted.
The very culprit who had killed me, Tylant, had fabricated everything.
He hadn’t become an Archmage by any legitimate means, so of course he needed to hide his ambitions and corruption.
And soon enough, I was able to learn about this era as well.
“……The era I was reincarnated into is…… three hundred years later…….”
Because this book was a Magic Tome, the three hundred years written in it were automatically calculated and displayed.
In other words, if another year passed, it would automatically correct itself to three hundred and one years.
So this time could be considered accurate.
And the branch schools had been founded fifty years after my death.
Three hundred years.
Even for a mage, that was quite a long time.
Still, why had I been reincarnated into an era three hundred years later?
I tore my eyes away from the book for a moment and looked out the window.
“Master…….”
When I was killed by my own Disciple back then, were you watching from somewhere?
Is that why you saved me……?
I wanted to believe that.
Being killed by the Disciple I had raised was a lingering regret, but more than that, my greatest regret was failing to uphold my master’s dying wish.
My master had given his life to seal Sylarid and had departed after asking me to guard what followed.
I closed the book.
I had obtained all the basic information I had wanted to know from this one book.
I sank into thought.
‘Tylant is the current Archmage. And the place where I had been headmaster became the Main School, while the rest of my Disciples each created a branch school and became branch headmasters.’
What exactly did that imply?
Especially Etar—he had been the only Disciple who had witnessed my death that day.
Yet he had joined the other Disciples, founded the branch schools, and lived as a branch headmaster for two hundred and fifty years.
‘Etar…… did you ultimately side with Tylant as well?’
I didn’t want to believe it, but no other thought came to mind.
My gaze soon fell to the flame-shaped badge on the left side of my chest.
I didn’t know what kind of coincidence this was, but I had been reincarnated into the body of a student at this school where Etar served as headmaster.
And I already knew the plan of Tylant, the current Archmage.
It was certain that, in the end, he would absorb Sylarid’s power, subjugate mages with overwhelming magic, and rise to the very top.
I would stop his plan and destroy Sylarid’s sealing stone at the summit of the Main School.
To do that, entering the Main School came first.
‘They said admission to the Main School was limited to graduates of the branch schools.’
Graduating from the branch school would have to come first.
The Main School was the only place where I could meet Tylant.
And there was another piece of information I had obtained from the book.
That Arkis Aimer, the former Archmage of this era, was treated the same as Sylarid, the worst of all mages.
It meant I had to hide the fact that I was Arkis Aimer.
Still, reincarnation was a chance I had gained by coincidence.
Even if it made moving difficult, I would never let that opportunity slip away.
“Now then, what I have to do is…….”
Meet Etar, the headmaster of this branch school.
That would be the first gate.
---
I left the library and walked down the corridor, lost in thought.
First of all, how was I supposed to meet Etar?
Conveniently, the Magic Academy was currently on summer vacation.
For the next two months, it would be a period when I wouldn’t see any other students or teachers.
And for a student to meet the headmaster was an exceptionally special matter.
In my previous life, I, as headmaster only met students who had been recognized as 6th Circle.
From the 6th Circle onward, mages were classified as high-ranking mages, and their potential to grow into Archmages or other upper-circle mages opened wide.
It had been set up almost like a class—an occasion where the Archmage and headmaster personally met the novice mages, chatted with them, and praised them.
I wondered if the branch schools followed that operating method as it was.
Kiena and Hei would know this.
‘Are they still in the dining hall?’
On my way to the dining hall, I had run into the two of them in the corridor.
Kiena, in particular, had been holding a plate piled with food she seemed to have brought from the dining hall.
“Artel~! You’ve gone all day without eating anything! You need to eat even if I have to force you!”
Kiena apparently doted on Artel like an older sister or a mother, even in everyday life.
‘Perfect timing.’
At least since she had come all the way here herself, I was spared the trouble of going to find her.
“Kiena.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“To meet the headmaster, I still need to be 6th Circle, right?”
If I sounded too clueless, it might raise suspicion.
So I asked as naturally as possible.
“That’s why I keep telling you not to sleep through class! They put an epaulette on our uniform every time our Circle goes up. The Class 6 epaulette is attached personally by the headmaster.”
A student who always slept in class.
That was who Artel was.
And that lazy nature was, for once, working in my favor.
“An epaulette, huh…….”
After hearing Kiena’s answer, I glanced at our shoulders.
Mine, Hei’s, and Kiena’s shoulders were all completely bare.
Since we were in Class 0, it was only natural that we had no epaulettes.
“Artel, are you trying to become a 6th Circle mage?”
Hei asked in a voice full of doubt.
“I was just curious, that’s all.”
So reaching 6th Circle was my first step to meeting Etar.
Fortunately, at least that part of the operating system was no different from the Magic Academy I had known.
“I’m not even hoping for 6th Circle. I just want to be 1st Circle already. If we don’t reach 1st Circle before this winter vacation, we’ll be expelled.”
Hei’s voice had now turned gloomy.
“Expelled?”
The school would cast students out?
Neither I nor my master had ever expelled a student.
Clearly, this also had some sort of reason behind it, just like that book which had distorted the truth.
I asked Hei to explain it to me in detail.