Academy’s New Guard is Unusual - Chapter 48

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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 48
Evangeline had a severe case of persecution complex.
If someone gave her even a glance, she assumed they liked her. It was a kind of self-defense mechanism born from misfortune due to her appearance.
In reality, Evangeline’s beauty was such that merely seeing her could make others feel love, so it wasn’t entirely unfounded speculation.
In any case, Evangeline’s persecution complex was serious.
It needed to be nipped in the bud early.
“Don’t like me.”
I spoke to Evangeline firmly.
“……What?”
Evangeline blinked stupidly in confusion.
“Don’t like me.”
“W-who likes whom!! I don’t like you!”
“Good to hear. Keep it that way going forward.”
“For heaven’s sake, what are you talking about!”
“I see you didn’t understand. Don’t like me.”
“I said I don’t!!”
“Then we’re done here.”
I nodded with satisfaction and stepped back.
“Unbelievable!”
Evangeline pouted her lips and glared at me.
I ignored her lightly and spoke on.
“Remember the breathing technique you just performed and repeat it as much as possible. You need to become familiar with it.”
“……The b-breathing just now? What breathing! I don’t know what you mean—”
She’d just done it and now claimed ignorance. Truly a remarkable blockhead.
However, since my counterpart was Evangeline, I explained patiently once more.
“I meant Aura Breathing.”
“……That’s what I thought too!”
“Then didn’t you just say you didn’t know?”
“What!!”
Evangeline suddenly let out a sharp cry. I desperately suppressed the urge to punch something and continued.
“You must repeat Aura Breathing until it becomes your natural breathing without conscious effort. Keep going.”
“I’ll do it myself!”
Evangeline stomped noisily, turned around, and slammed the door with a bang as she left.
Her attitude showed little promise, but she would work hard on her own.
‘Evangeline is desperate, after all.’
She wouldn’t let go of the lifeline she’d been given.
“Andy!!”
“Eek! Boss! We’ll see you next time!”
Startled by Evangeline’s cry, Andy hurried after her and vanished. I muttered to myself as I stared at the closed classroom door.
‘Evangeline manifested her Aura at the first swordplay lesson.’
In the playthrough where I’d cleared the game, Evangeline didn’t manifest her Aura until near the end of the semester.
Compared to that, this was truly astounding progress.
There was only one reason this was possible.
‘She went through a Rift.’
Evangeline’s greatest ability was that when she passed through a Rift, she absorbed Stats according to that Rift’s attribute.
It was more efficient than directly inserting a Fragment of Foreign Deity into her body, and there were no side effects.
It was why Evangeline was the protagonist.
The surest way to strengthen Evangeline quickly was also through Rifts. Put her in a Rift and take her out—her Stats would always rise.
Even without me taking special measures, more Rifts would open. The next one would be—
‘Ah, the New Student Welcome Event.’
It would be soon.
“……Is that really the star of the next generation?”
Hans’s unenthusiastic voice broke my train of thought.
I turned to see Hans staring at the front door with a grave expression, clearly shocked by the sight of Evangeline.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“But among the new students, there’s the Crown Prince…….”
“The choice of stars is heaven’s will. It cannot be defied or changed.”
“Why, oh why…….”
Hans wore an expression of despair as if the world had ended.
I understood perfectly.
Just then, the front door swung open roughly. It was Evangeline, her face flushed as if it might burst.
“The n-next lecture is Basic Magical Theory! Step aside!”
Evangeline declared sharply.
‘Basic Magical Theory, then.’
The instructor for Basic Magical Theory was the Twin Mage Tower’s sisters.
‘I was about to seek them out anyway—this works perfectly.’
There was no need to go looking.
The Twin Mage Tower’s sisters trusted no one but each other. Even the teaching assistant provided by the Academy was the same. They prepared their own lessons.
They would surely appear soon.
Hans gave me a respectful bow, saying he’d return the Desant Sword, and disappeared backward.
I went to the front door and called out.
“Kooka.”
“Kooka!!”
“Pull out the stack of papers.”
“Kooooka!”
Kooka pressed his belly firmly with his paws, then pushed something upward as if he’d found it.
Soon his round mouth opened wide and a large bundle of documents came out.
“Thank you.”
“Kooka!”
Kooka beat his chest with his small fist as if to say only he could be trusted. A truly reliable quokka.
I rummaged through the bundle he’d given me.
Military discharge application, nobility certificate……. Ah, here it is.
I took the one paper I needed and offered the rest back to Kooka. Kooka swallowed the bundle again.
Kooka-kooka. He consumed it very neatly indeed.
How long did I wait after that—
Two women appeared from the far end of the corridor.
One had black hair, one had white hair. They were identical in height and appearance, yet their expressions differed.
One was smiling, one had her face completely scrunched up.
‘Black hair is the younger sister, Bella. White hair is Lira.’
Bella had a worse personality, and Lira was gentler.
Of course, those were only surface personalities. In reality, it was the opposite.
I stepped forward slightly.
“What?”
Bella, noticing me, furrowed her brows sharply.
An ornate Staff suddenly pointed at me. It was like a knight drawing her sword upon meeting an enemy.
The Staff was even charged with Mana, ready to unleash magic at any moment.
‘An aggressive reaction.’
I knew Bella, the Twin Mage Tower’s younger sister, was difficult, but this extreme sensitivity seemed odd.
Then Lira grabbed Bella.
‘Lira can be reasoned with, at least.’
However, the atmosphere around Lira wasn’t pleasant either. She wrinkled her nose as if detecting a foul stench.
“Why does there smell like filthy sewage?”
From Lira’s question, I understood the situation.
Filthy sewage was slang for those marked by witches.
‘She sensed the Witch Scent.’
Witches mark their counterparts with a seal.
In witch parlance, it’s a proposal, but in reality, it’s forcing one’s blood into another. If the recipient survives, the witch considers it destiny.
In truth it’s a matter of blood type, but primitive witches wouldn’t know such things.
In any case, I had been proposed to by a witch. That is, witch blood flowed through my veins. Because of it, a witch’s distinctive scent emanated from me.
However, it was so faint that only those connected to witches could detect it.
The Twin Mage Tower’s sisters were called witches, but that was a derogatory term from their aggressive expansion of their Mage Tower—or so it was said.
‘So the Twin Mage Tower really does have a connection to an actual witch.’
This wasn’t information that appeared in the game. I regarded the Twin Mage Tower with fresh interest.
Two exceptionally ornate Staffs pointed directly at my head.
It was quite threatening.
Since they’d already detected the witch’s scent, fumbling wouldn’t work.
In such cases, the best move was to redirect with an even bigger shock.
I held out the paper I’d prepared beforehand from Kooka.
“An Investment Contract? What, what are you—. Wait? Why is our Mage Tower’s name here—. Sister?”
“May I take a look?”
Lira politely took the Investment Contract and examined it, while Bella, unlike my calm demeanor, nervously picked at her nails.
I had possessed this body twelve years before the game’s timeline due to a Stat error.
The problem was that this game’s setting was the Academy. Even with twelve years of early possession, I had little useful information.
Still, there were things worth using.
The Twin Mage Tower was one of them.
In the game, the Twin Mage Tower were sisters who elevated their Mage Tower to corporate-level status.
To put it in modern terms, it was like two women starting a company and growing it into a global conglomerate.
The Mage Towers among recent graduates were extremely business-minded. How business-minded? They even sold equity separately.
In fact, it was common for new Mage Towers to sell equity to raise funds for procuring Mana Stones.
I purchased equity in the Twin Mage Tower during its early establishment phase.
Quite… no, considerably large stakes.
“Thank you for investing in us. Thanks to your support, our Mage Tower was able to grow.”
Lira bowed respectfully, hands pressed together.
“As the principal shareholder, I’m requesting a meeting with the Mage Tower Master.”
Neither Bella nor Lira could do anything but nod.
* * *
Lira and Bella were from Velogieum, a Mage Tower corporation.
Velogieum was considered a promising Mage Tower among tower corporations. It consistently ranked first on the list of Mage Towers young mages wanted to join.
When they first entered Velogieum, Lira and Bella were delighted. It was a place they’d dreamed of for a long time.
However, Velogieum’s reality was different from their expectations.
Senior mages claimed their research as their own, peers jealous of them testified they’d gone mad, and those above scolded them not to make a scene.
Before they knew it, Lira and Bella had become islands unto themselves within Velogieum.
If the Velogieum Mage Tower was in such a state, what of other towers?
So Lira and Bella decided to establish their own Mage Tower.
However, the Mage Tower market was already saturated. There were countless stories of new towers failing within three years.
Still, Lira and Bella were confident. They knew each other’s abilities.
But reality was harsh. Talent alone wasn’t enough to penetrate the rigid walls of the Mage Tower industry.
Like other towers, they sold equity in the Twin Mage Tower, but no one would buy while Velogieum openly interfered.
While they were discouraged, someone appeared willing to purchase the equity.
The person revealed no identity and cheerfully offered a substantial sum.
Once they obtained the necessary funds, the Twin Mage Tower could grow at remarkable speed.
It was why Bella and Lira called their anonymous benefactor their “savior.”
They had speculated about their savior’s identity.
The candidates included royal blood needing discretionary funds, high nobility avoiding taxation, or perhaps an executive from the Mage Tower Association who’d recognized their talent.
There was no other reason someone would invest such a fortune in a nascent tower.
But then—
‘……The savior is a security guard?’
Bella internally let out a silent groan upon seeing the man’s blue shirt.
An unremarkable, slightly dull shade of blue, the long rod at his waist—it was clearly security uniform.
Lira couldn’t have misread the contract. This man was definitely their savior. But none of it made sense.
In the end, Bella couldn’t help herself and asked.
“With just the dividends you’re receiving from us, you could live more lavishly than most nobility. Why do you work as a security guard?”
Then the man looked at Bella.
His dark eyes were unfathomably deep. Like an abyss.
“It’s a hobby.”
“A… hobby?”
“A very constructive one.”
Then he chuckled. Bella was utterly confused by the situation.
The man suddenly stopped laughing and asked.
“Your quarterly performance was pathetic.”
At that dry question, Bella understood.
The witch’s scent was no longer the issue.
“I’ll file a report.”
The principal shareholder had given an order.

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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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