novelraw Chapter 112 : Chapter 112
Chapter 112 : Chapter 112
112
“The students and all other personnel may use these accommodations.”
The Imperial Royal Academy offered one of the academy's old buildings as accommodation.
Since there were about 230 rooms located there, it seemed there would be ample sleeping space if students were put in two per room.
“Wow…….”
The students burst into exclamations as soon as they opened the doors and checked inside the rooms.
I slipped behind the students and looked inside the room.
It was about one and a half times the size of a normal room, equipped with beds, desks, and wardrobes on both sides.
It was a scale on a different level from our academy's dormitory, which simply had two bunk beds and a wardrobe placed there.
“This is just a house. We could live here.”
“There's a desk! Does that mean we can study?”
“Whoa! There's a shower facility attached! This is a bathroom, right! There's a bathroom in every room? How was this made? How do they handle the waste?”
The students looked dumbfounded at the dormitory building made with the essence of magic engineering.
They seem even more surprised than when they saw the Lionheart Knights, the Imperial Knights.
“The instructors are this way!”
The place we went to, guided by Sephiroth, was a place that seemed like a remodeled classroom.
It was a very spacious area, as if they had remodeled a place originally used as a lecture hall.
At this rate, it looked wider than my dormitory home without the bookshelves.
“It is a private room.”
On top of that, they said I could use this spacious accommodation alone.
I understood the students' feelings.
“A private room?”
Jessie opened her eyes wide in surprise.
Sephiroth seemed rather surprised by Jessie's reaction.
“Isn't it natural since you are instructors? There should be a difference between students and instructors.”
“That is natural, but to think it would be to this extent…… It's not just on the level of being slightly better.”
It was something that happened because the common sense Jessie and Sephiroth held was different.
The subject of the Imperial Royal Academy was the Imperial Family.
Countless noble children, and even imperial grandchildren, entered the academy operated directly by the Imperial Family.
Naturally, the authority of the instructors had to be high even just to control such students.
Selecting the student council president by the instructors' vote was also for the same reason.
“Then please rest well, and we will begin the Academic Exchange Conference in earnest starting tomorrow. The schedule for the exchange conference is posted in each room.”
Sure enough, when I entered the room, the schedule for the exchange conference was written in stylish handwriting on the table.
It seemed like a handwritten schedule, not something engraved by magic.
‘All schedules for over 400 people.’
In a way, it was a very crude method, and in another way, it was a method possible because they had that much manpower and resources to spare.
The schedule for the Academic Exchange Conference is three days.
On the first day, a simple face-to-face ceremony takes place.
A place where instructors exchange greetings with instructors, and students exchange greetings with students.
And on the second day, the full-scale Academic Exchange Conference, an open seminar session, takes place.
Instructors gather students from both schools and conduct lessons.
The third day is the performance exchange conference.
Sparring takes place based on the education from the second day.
But no matter how excellent the education, there was no way it would have an effect in just one day.
This tight schedule showed the characteristics of the Imperial Academic Exchange Conference well.
After putting down the schedule, I checked the bathroom attached to the accommodation first.
‘It is definitely different.’
The Empire constructed various convenience facilities using magic engineering developed in workshops.
One of them was the underground waterway located 20m beneath the Imperial Capital.
It was a place where all of The Empire's waste flowed, and they placed demonic beasts including slimes there to eliminate various wastes.
From the shower room to the laundry room outside the building.
The Academic Exchange Conference takes place for three days.
I lay on the bed and quietly closed my eyes.
The bed of The Empire, which I hadn't visited in a long time, was, how should I say it.
It was a bit stiff.
* * *
Knock knock.
I woke up at the sound of knocking.
I went outside and opened the door to find Rozalin.
“Teacher! Morning has broken, aren't you getting up?”
“Morning?”
Only then did I look out the window.
Like Rozalin said, the sun was quite high up.
“Is it already this time?”
“Isn't it because you relaxed after returning to The Empire? Normally, it's a time you would have been up already!”
Is that really so.
I felt like I dreamed something during the night, but I couldn't remember it well.
Like Rozalin said, the fact that I returned to The Empire after a long time seemed to have made me a bit dull.
“Anyway, you really have a weak body, Teacher! You are tired even from this kind of long-distance travel, right? The other instructors and students have roughly finished preparing! Please come out as soon as you are ready!”
Rozalin left the room with a chuckle.
Wondering why she was laughing like that as she left, I went into the bathroom and saw that I looked a mess.
I was still wearing the clothes full of dirt and dust from the streets.
I must have slept very deeply as there were drool marks near my mouth, and my face was full of marks pressed by the pillow and blanket.
My hair was messy, making it obvious that I had fallen into a deep sleep as soon as I arrived here yesterday.
‘I slept this deeply?’
It was a deep sleep to the extent I had never experienced at Akarind.
It was also strange that only I, and not others, took such a deep sleep.
I was worried, but I washed up and got dressed for now.
In the meantime, I relieved the pressure marks on my skin through a light massage and then packed my arms.
When I went outside, sure enough, the students and instructors were waiting for me, fully prepared.
“You're late? Unlike you, Bro.”
“Indeed. It seems I relaxed after coming to a place like my hometown after a long time.”
“Don't get too loose. We will protect you, but the Imperial Knights and everyone else are no different from goblins.”
“I know. I probably know best out of anyone.”
Taking the top spot here meant I was that knowledgeable about the physiology of this place.
“So don't worry too much and let's all depart.”
I slowly moved my steps.
When we came out of the building, an employee who seemed to work here was waiting for us.
The employee who confirmed me made contact with a small magic tool, and soon students including Sephiroth came out to greet us.
“The Academic Exchange Conference will take place at the 30th Anniversary Memorial Hall, the pride of the Imperial Royal Academy.”
Pride, indeed, if it's that building, it's worth saying that.
After walking for about 20 minutes like that, the 30th Anniversary Memorial Hall Sephiroth mentioned came into view.
“Wow, woaaah…….”
Weak exclamations flowed from the students' mouths.
It must be because they were dumbfounded.
‘I haven't seen it in a while, but it's still the same.’
The 30th Anniversary Memorial Hall was a building that looked like a giant concert hall.
Above the hall, which was the size of a castle in a small territory, claw-shaped roofs decorated like dragon scales were piled up in layers.
If you looked closely, windows facing the outside were placed throughout those roofs, so professors' research labs of this Imperial Academy were located in all those spaces.
“This way.”
As we approached the entrance, the huge door automatically opened silently as if it sensed us.
No people were seen around at all.
They maximized detailed convenience using magic engineering.
“If you come this way and wait, I will bring the professors.”
Sephiroth guided us to a wide auditorium.
It was a place that looked twice as wide as the auditorium of the old building, and the outer walls of the building were all set with luxurious marble.
“Seriously, they have money to burn.”
Rozalin grumbled as if she didn't like it.
However, a faint jealousy was underlying in that voice.
The students were worse.
The students looked around with intimidated expressions as if they had committed a crime.
Only students like Pan looked around with arms crossed and a composed expression.
However, that was a special case to the end.
Especially the expressions of students from The Empire were very complex; while satisfied with our Akarind Academy classes, they seemed to have many thoughts looking at the path they didn't take.
We can't show an intimidated appearance before even fighting properly.
“Soothe the students a bit. Especially the students from The Empire.”
At my instruction, the instructors moved here and there and started soothing the students' minds.
Just as I was about to move as well.
“Is that Cassian?”
A voice buried deep in my memories from a long time ago stopped me.
I turned my head to find an old man with a slightly stooped back standing there.
His eyebrows, faded to pure white and bushy, were completely covering his eyes, and his beard also hung down long to his collarbone as if it hadn't been shaved for a long time.
He was leaning on a cane, perhaps because walking was difficult, but despite his old age, his neatly worn uniform gave a luxurious feeling.
Although he had a small frame that looked less than 150cm…….
“Master.”
I quickly ran there and bowed my head in front of my teacher.
“You haven't d…… retired yet.”
“You were about to ask if I haven't kicked the bucket yet, weren't you? Tsk tsk, you devilish fellow. You haven't changed a bit.”
“No, sir. I didn't mean the barbaric word 'kick the bucket', but was asking if you haven't passed away yet.”
“Right. You've become a polite devil.”
Professor Hollians.
He was the oldest professor at the Imperial Royal Academy and a professor who had even served as the dean in the past.
Was he 87 years old this year?
However, Professor Hollians' greatness did not lie merely in his age.
He was a person existing at the center of all knowledge in the current Empire, enough to be called the Intellect of The Empire, and was like the embodiment of the Imperial Royal Academy itself.
“Right, rumors say you've taken some riffraff and become a swordsman. Tsk tsk. Did I teach you just so you could do such trivial things?”
He scolded me with a piercing voice, as if he didn't get tired even at this age.
His pronunciation was slurred because his teeth weren't good, but the content pierced right into my ears.
That crotchetiness.
Isn't that truly the nature representing the Imperial Royal Academy?
“What brings you here? It doesn't seem like you came to see your disciple's face.”
“Correct!”
Huh?
“You were so incredibly arrogant that although all the professors of the Imperial Academy recommended graduate school, didn't you run around saying you'd get commissioned! And on top of that, you suddenly disappeared and are working as an instructor at a third-rate academy? So I came out prepared with all my might to show you reality!”
With all his might, he says.
I felt a strange intuition at Professor Hollians' words.
Don't tell me.
“Are you personally presiding over this Academic Exchange Conference, Professor?”
“That's right! What was the condition you put forward! Didn't you wish for someone who understands Mana Road well to come out! So I swept through all the Mana Road theories in the entire Imperial Academy library, so you better be prepared!”
The reason Professor Hollians is called the Intellect of The Empire.
It was because he memorized almost every book in the Imperial Royal Academy's internal library.
The main conditions I put forward for this exchange conference were two.
The other condition, besides the one Professor Hollians mentioned, was to allow free use of the library's archives.
But for Professor Hollians, of all people, to personally come out and lead the exchange conference?
Perhaps in this exchange conference, I might be able to gain even more than I thought.