I Picked up the Demon King - Chapter 70

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 70

 

“The first two weeks are an adjustment period. It’s time to get familiar with the Magic Tower atmosphere and facilities, and decide which research to participate in. We usually don’t make you run errands much, so don’t worry.”

 

The next day.

 

Shtidy, who had knocked on his door early in the morning, said this while dragging Jude along.

 

Jude, who had been sleeping properly in a decent room for the first time in ages, wanted to say that he should be left alone to adapt better. But what actually came out of his mouth was completely different.

 

“That’s a relief.”

“Of course, don’t forget to stick close to me. You need to watch what I do carefully so you won’t be lost after two weeks.”

 

Pleased with his response, Shtidy didn’t stop her excited steps.

 

“And prevent you from getting distracted by other guys’ research…”

“Excuse me?”

“No, no. Since we’re talking about it, shall we go tour my research room?”

 

Shtidy’s research room was on the Magic Tower 7th Floor.

 

It wasn’t a bad location. It wasn’t too far from the lodging, so accessibility was good. From what he’d heard, it seemed she practically spent nights in the research room when research was in full swing…

 

Despite only climbing four floors, Shtidy couldn’t hide her exhaustion and caught her breath for a while.

 

‘With that kind of stamina, she managed to give me a tour of the Magic Tower yesterday…’

 

Unaware of Jude’s thoughts, Shtidy spread her arms and said proudly.

 

“This is my research room. I’m not at the stage to have a personal research room yet, but, well. Recently there have been plenty of research rooms available. Pretty nice, right?”

“Yes. It’s spacious and nice. But did you deliberately leave it empty?”

 

Jude looked around with considerable interest.

 

The research room was quite spacious for one person to use, and it had a window so light came in well.

 

But inside the room were only three desks and two chairs. And heavily stacked books and theses. It felt quite empty for a space meant for researching magic. At best, you could say the floor was spacious and looked good for drawing magic circles.

 

“No way. I’m in the process of filling it up.”

“This…?”

“The person who used it before took all the equipment when they left. They’re apparently busy with this and that because of it, and there are quite a few people like that.”

 

Shtidy sighed and pulled over a chair to sit down.

 

“The seniors barely managed to talk our Tower Master out of having a showdown with the other Tower Masters.”

“Oh…”

 

Jude’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.

 

No matter what anyone said, Tower Master was a position that only mages who had reached the pinnacle of humanity could attain. To think there had almost been a fight between such Archmages.

 

How could anyone not be interested in such a thing?

 

“If the Tower Masters fought, who would win? Our Tower Master is…”

“Hey, hey. Newcomer. He’s asking something obvious. What do you think of our Tower Master?”

 

At the urging voice, Shtidy let out a chuckle and then hardened her expression. Words filled with tremendous confidence burst from her mouth.

 

“No one could beat him.”

“Our Tower Master?”

“Our Tower Master.”

 

For a moment, Jude’s face stiffened awkwardly as he wondered if he had misheard.

 

Finding Jude’s reaction amusing, Shtidy burst into giggles, but eventually couldn’t withstand Jude’s gaze and opened her mouth.

 

“Our Tower Master can’t withstand the Red Tower Master’s attacks, and can’t break through the Blue Tower Master’s defenses either. To put it nicely, he’s well-balanced, but… if we’re only talking about combat ability, our Green Tower Master is the weakest. Even though he’s lived decades longer than the other Tower Masters, it can’t be helped.”

 

Her voice was calm, as if she was just stating facts. There wasn’t a trace of shame about the explanation she had just given.

 

Jude couldn’t understand it.

 

“Why are you saying that so confidently?”

 

Wouldn’t that make it seem like she had no sense of belonging to her Magic Tower? But if that were the case, he couldn’t understand why she remained in a Magic Tower that was falling apart.

 

Perhaps this self-proclaimed senior mage’s skills were so poor that she couldn’t enter other Magic Towers.

 

Thinking of how she had been sprawled over the reception desk sleeping, it wasn’t an entirely implausible hypothesis.

 

“Of course. Because magic isn’t for fighting.”

 

However, Shtidy looked puzzled instead, as if wondering why he would ask such a thing.

 

“Magic isn’t a weapon. It’s technology, it’s knowledge. It changes people’s lives and has infinite value in itself.”

“I agree that magic is valuable, but saying it’s not for fighting.”

“Ah, right. You said you’re fifteen now. Then it might be a bit hard to understand. You look so mature that I keep forgetting. What did you do when you traveled without affiliation? Something like a mercenary?”

 

At Shtidy’s sparkling-eyed question, Jude nodded reluctantly.

 

“Something like that. I also worked briefly at a trading company…”

“A trading company? Ah… there were kids who got jobs in that field too. I wonder how they’re doing.”

 

Before he knew it, the research room introduction had been pushed to the back burner.

 

Jude, who had been watching Shtidy sitting in her chair lost in memories for a moment, sat in the chair across from her and asked.

 

“Are you from the Academy, Senior?”

“That’s right. It’s been about three years since I graduated. Being only inside the tower, I’ve lost track of time.”

 

Academy.

 

It was an unknown space to Jude, but he knew several people who were Academy graduates.

 

Golden Star Trading Company Owner Dahan was one, and Simone, who was the Black Moon Trading Company owner and the Demon Lord’s subordinate, was another. Lastly….

 

“Do you know someone named Albeng?”

“Albeng? Albeng…. Ah, Alben Mahir? You mean that theology department guy?”

 

I had asked without much expectation, but an unexpected answer came back.

 

“I remember him. We were in different departments, but he was quite the talk of the school. Handsome face, top grades, so he was very popular.”

 

On Shtidy’s face was a small smile so subtle you might not notice it at first glance.

 

“So much so that several girls from our department would even attend weekend services just to see him. Those mages…. Tsk. But why do you ask? Do you know each other?”

 

It seemed the story about him being popular at the Academy was true.

 

“No, we’re not exactly acquainted.”

 

It was a vague answer, but Shtidy didn’t seem to care much.

 

Jude changed the subject, pushing aside his intuition that Shtidy was probably one of those mages who had attended weekend services.

 

“What’s your research topic, Senior?”

“My topic?”

 

Shtidy leaned in close with a delighted expression.

 

“My research topic is ‘The Correlation Between Air Resistance and Mana Consumption.’ It was inspired by ‘Development and Application of Power Devices Through Heat Generation Magic’ which became a hot topic a few years ago….”

“Uh….”

“When a power device operates, mana consumption can be divided into two major stages. First is when mana is converted to thermal energy through Heat Generation Magic, and second is when that energy is transferred to kinetic energy. At this point, external environmental factors like air resistance significantly….”

 

Jude couldn’t understand even half of what Shtidy was saying.

 

Unfortunately, this was natural. Regardless of his innate intelligence, Jude had never once learned magic professionally.

 

What he learned from Sevian was only the most basic of basics, and even most of that was self-taught. It was closer to watching over someone’s shoulder and copying. To begin with, aside from magic, the only proper education he had received was Spear Technique from the Belive Territory Guard Unit.

 

The Demon Lord wasn’t exactly a kind teacher either. At first, it seemed like he would teach necessary magic as needed, but now all he did was make sarcastic remarks from the sidelines. When did he say he would make me the greatest mage, yet here he was doing this….

 

‘Because I can’t trust him.’

 

Ever since he noticed the tricks in the first Soul Magic he taught. No, the Demon Lord had been an untrustworthy existence from much earlier than that.

 

The Soul Contract prevented him from lying, but weren’t demons the type who could deceive people without telling lies? And now, even that couldn’t be certain.

 

“…So the hypothesis I’ve established is this: ‘If we add Support Magic that reduces air resistance, even though the process becomes longer, the total mana consumption could actually decrease.’ It might seem like a loss at first glance, but….”

 

While Jude was lost in thought, Shtidy, who had given a long explanation about his research, grabbed his hand and asked.

 

“So, what do you think? My research. Seems interesting, right? Fascinating?”

“It’s a wonderful… research.”

 

Facing those sparkling eyes, Jude could only avert his gaze slightly and mutter. But that was the worst choice.

 

“I knew it, right? The research funding ran out so I’m temporarily stuck, but if you participate in this research, wouldn’t the Tower Master pay attention again? Wait a moment. I’ll go talk to the Tower Master. Sit here and wait. Even if it’s still the adaptation period, they wouldn’t stop someone who voluntarily wants to do research….”

 

What saved Jude from the crisis of being caught off guard was a male mage who burst into the Research Room without even knocking.

 

“Hey, Style! It’s work hours. Aren’t you coming quickly?”

 

The man blocked the space between Shtidy and Jude, cutting off their line of sight, and sighed.

 

Jude recognized him as one of those who had gathered when he expressed his intention to enter the Tower yesterday.

 

“…It’s Shtidy, not Style. Besides, I worked yesterday, didn’t I?”

“Work?”

“Greeting customers at the Reception Desk. You saw it too, right? So I’m in charge of him! Quickly go tell that senior.”

 

Shtidy kicked his chair and stood up indignantly, trying to push the mage called senior aside. But with stamina that got tired just climbing four floors, he seemed unable to do anything about his opponent.

 

The man sighed and gritted his teeth.

 

“You skipped work in the middle saying you were guiding the newcomer. I covered your empty time. So you have to work again from this afternoon…. Didn’t you hear?”

“Ah. I think that might have been the case. …Senior, couldn’t you cover for me again? This is a really important time right now.”

“Would that work?”

 

Shtidy hung his head low. It looked pitiful at first glance, but the man didn’t care at all and waved his hand dismissively.

 

“Go downstairs quickly.”

“But there aren’t any customers anyway!”

“You haven’t forgotten how our newcomer got in, have you? What if another newcomer comes in?”

“…!”

 

Shtidy had a realization and rushed out of the Research Room.

 

“You’re called Jude, right?”

“Uh, yes.”

“You’d better be careful. Right now the Magic Tower is suffering from a record level of manpower shortage. If you’re not careful, you’ll be dragged into research you don’t even want.”

“Thank you…?”

 

Jude answered reluctantly, thinking that he’d probably have to participate in some research anyway once the adaptation period ended.

 

The best option would be to get the information he wanted and leave before then, and even if that didn’t work out well, he could just pick something suitable.

 

“I’m Telon. Just call me brother comfortably.”

“Yes, then…. Brother Telon.”

 

It had been a long time since someone approached him so casually and without reserve, so Jude responded with an awkward smile.

 

Telon laughed heartily, then spoke as if he had just thought of something.

 

“Come to think of it, it’s not proper to stay in someone else’s Research Room like this when the owner isn’t here. Is there somewhere you could go…? Ah, would you like to stop by my Research Room for a bit?”

“….”

-Kugh, humans really are something.

 

The Demon Lord let out a hollow laugh.

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