A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special - Chapter 16

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 16. The Returner’s Advancement Exam (2)

Once, there were those who had raised their banners against the empire under the name of the Republican Faction.
They had chanted their slogan thus:
The empire is a crumbling sandcastle.
The nobility are the sandcastle’s inhabitants.
Doneta closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again.
“So you want to say you’ll establish the Republican Faction? Something like that?”
“Not unless you’ve made your peace with losing your head.”
Romantica lifted her shoulders in a shrug.
“I was merely describing your hearts’ contempt for the common folk. For more than ten years now, and still you noble-born fear the commoners.”
“Don’t pretend to understand. If you truly knew what happened that day, you couldn’t speak so lightly.”
Doneta’s gaze fixed on Romantica—or rather, through her, to some distant point beyond.
“Twelve years ago, a student of Hebrion Academy raised the banner of a revolutionary army and founded a rebel faction. They called themselves the Republican Faction.”
Their momentum was unstoppable.
“Under the clash between Republicans and Royalists, the nation was divided in two and descended into ruin. The nobility were no exception. Entire families were extinguished in that time—too many to count.”
In the end, they came to occupy the Capital with its great imperial palace, but they were all purged by the Royalists.
“The Hadun Family—my parents—they both died on the day the Republicans occupied the Capital. Executed at the guillotine. Even now, I cannot forget the look in my parents’ eyes as they gazed upon me before the end.”
The survivors of the Hadun Family could be counted on one’s fingers: himself as a child, the ancient family patriarch of generations past, his grandfather who now held the position of head, and a handful of aged, sickly retainers.
What trials and tribulations had the family endured to rise to such eminence?
“It’s not just me. Among the nobility, there are many who have not forgotten that day. Remnants of the Republican Faction still linger, and so the vast majority of nobles cannot bring themselves to trust commoners.”
“To judge all by the actions of some is hardly a logical conclusion.”
Doneta’s eyes narrowed at her words.
“It’s true not all commoners were revolutionaries. But all the revolutionaries were commoners.”
Romantica exhaled slowly.
There was no need for further words.
They were enemies now, and whatever petty reasoning accompanied that mattered not at all.
“Fine. We have reason enough to be enemies. The nobility despise the common folk, and the commoners despise being scorned. That’s all. We will advance to Alpha Class, and you will be forced to stand against us.”
Alpha Class.
For twelve years, not a single commoner had ever risen to it—a rank that had been the exclusive symbol of nobility.
Romantica rose from her seat.
“I look forward to seeing you in the Shadow World.”
“You won’t make it there.”
Doneta’s eyes glinted with an unsettling gleam.
“How many of you commoners do you think will pass the tournament? Not a single member of your party will make it through.”
The tournament.
Romantica let out a soft laugh.
“We’ll see.”

* * *

Crack!
A transparent shard of glass scattered across the floor.
Azest watched unmoved as a pool of black ink spread wide like spilled blood.
Fuhrugman made no effort to conceal his displeasure.
He seized a bundle of newspapers and hurled them before the students with visible irritation. Azest, who stood foremost, caught it.

[Beta Class: For the First Time in 17 Years, a Student Breaks into the Top 30! These individuals are scheduled to participate in the 5-Grade Shadow World on May 1st, where they will compete in the final ranking assessment.]

[Amid questions over whether the distinction between Beta and Alpha Classes is truly fair, the academy board has expressed its concerns…….]

[Considering the growing opinion that class divisions represent an antiquated boundary in our current system, the academy admissions committee—which evaluated the 46th cohort—has stated that hasty judgments must be avoided…….]

“How dare Beta Class presume……!”
The air that permeated the Bluedale Party office convulsed violently.
Nine students standing before Fuhrugman, the directing instructor of the Bluedale Party, went rigid with cold dread.
Letting his irritation show was never wise during academy life. And the worse his mood grew, the worse it became.
Nine students gathered in the office, with Azest at their head.
There should have been twelve. Exactly twelve first-years had joined the Bluedale Party.
If it hadn’t been for that nameless Beta Class party, all twelve would have been here.
“To think they’d reach for the sacred Alpha Class!”
Bang!
The desk shook as though it might shatter.
The rage of Fuhrugman, the faculty advisor leading Hebrion Academy’s largest party—the Bluedale Party—had only one target.
The reason one member of the Bluedale Party had fallen. The leader of a Beta Class party that dared to eye Alpha Class. A student who’d rubbed him the wrong way from the entrance exam itself.
“Dezir Armang!”
The shout echoed through the room.
His voice boomed.
Fuhrugman was consumed with rage. His eyes were bloodshot, angry veins bulging at his neck.
“Because of that bastard, we had to suffer such humiliation at her hands.”
There was only one person in the academy Fuhrugman called a bastard.
His oldest and deepest rival—Professor Bridgett Fahelipos.
……
Azest watched the enraged Fuhrugman with detached indifference, as though watching a fire burn across a distant river.
Her faculty advisor’s anger held no value to her whatsoever.
The circumstances mattered little. Her attention was fixed entirely on what the letter said.
Shutting out Fuhrugman’s fury completely, she whispered quietly.
“Dezir Armang……”
A swell crashed through her chest, and her heart thrashed like it might burst. Azest barely managed to steady her trembling hands.
She had never forgotten.
How could she have?
Azest could not forget the bitter taste of her first defeat. Dezir had beaten her, and that memory had taken root deep in her mind.
At some point, the sting of that loss had transformed into burning desire to win.
But Dezir had been assigned to Beta Class, and the chance to face him again seemed to slip further away. She’d resigned herself to never crossing paths with him again—then came this.
‘Dezir has come.’
Her once-blank eyes now gleamed with life.
He had returned. He would overcome those impossible odds and face her in battle.
‘I can fight him again.’
Through all this, Fuhrugman continued speaking.
“Regardless, it’s good. What’s done is done. Now we must ensure those insects never become Single Rankers. From this moment on, the Bluedale Party will do whatever it takes to eliminate Dezir Armang’s party. Rankings are irrelevant.”
Had Fuhrugman merely issued threats, he would not be Fuhrugman.
“Right then. Our party—now that I think of it, we haven’t appointed a leader yet.”
Fuhrugman’s gaze swept across the assembled members, then fixed on Azest.
“You’ve fought Dezir Armang before, haven’t you?”
“I have.”
“Then you should have some grasp of how to handle him.”
“I’ve given some thought to several methods.”
Azest excelled in every conceivable field. That she claimed to have strategies for facing Dezir Armang made Fuhrugman’s eyes widen with interest.
“Excellent. That’s all I need. I hereby appoint Azest Kingscrown as first-year leader of the Bluedale Party.”
An unusual appointment, yet not a single objection rose from the assembly.
Azest Kingscrown.
Archmage Swordmaster. A Pawn-Grade Swordsman and a three-Circle Ice Attribute Mage.
Her prowess extended beyond combat to fields like political science and history—her abilities commanded reverence, never suspicion or doubt.
“Do your utmost to eliminate Dezir Armang’s party.”
Beneath those words lay a transparent secondary agenda, though Azest cared little. This time, she would simply ensure Dezir’s defeat.
The situation echoed Elheim, yet her mindset had shifted entirely. She no longer regarded Dezir as an underdog.
He was now someone she had to defeat.
Her rival.

* * *

“First, I want to say you did well getting through the tournament so cleanly.”
Thud.
Dust billowed up from the impact.
There were three books.
A chronology of incidents, the structure of Previus Clock Tower, and lastly, a study of historical events from the year 1218.
The books all boasted considerable thickness.
“What is all this?”
Making noise in the library was hardly proper etiquette. Fram brought his index finger to his lips, signaling a quiet warning to Romantica.
Romantica nearly flinched, but being someone who would never compromise her pride, she simply snorted and smiled with disdain.
“Starting today, we won’t be training.”
At Dezir’s words, both Romantica’s and Fram’s eyes widened.
Since the day their party was founded, they hadn’t skipped a single day of training—and this was the first time. Of course, that didn’t mean Dezir intended to let them rest.
“Today we’re going to study history.”
“What? History?”
Romantica’s brow furrowed.
She wasn’t pleased. Not pleased at all. Suddenly demanding they study history—what kind of absurd nonsense was this?
“It’s simple. The 5-Grade Shadow World we’ll be facing typically covers historical matters.”
That was always the case with 5-Grade Shadow Worlds.
7-Grade ones dealt with simpler scenarios—footraces, object gathering, that sort of thing.
From 6-Grade onward, they began to incorporate historical and temporal settings.
Things like traveling as a knight-errant, or escorting merchants in the days before spatial-transit devices were invented, when trade had to be conducted by hand.
Understanding the historical context well was one of the most crucial elements for Clearing a Shadow World.
And from 5-Grade Shadow Worlds onward, it was history itself.
Moreover, most of it was significant enough to be recorded in actual historical texts.
“When you Clear a Shadow World, you obtain a Mana Stone. This stone contains all the information about that Shadow World intact. When that information is interpreted and recreated, the result is the Shadow World you’ll face in the Advancement Exam.”
Dezir ran his palm across the cover of a history book.
“‘Recreated’ means, in other words, that the conditions can be controlled. Safety measures are included as part of this.”
“You’re referring to the Shadow World we faced during the entrance examination, then.”
Fram nodded slowly.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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