Chapter 29
Inside the carriage heading from the Imperial Palace to Blackmore.
“……”
Selena Lugrite sighed repeatedly, her face etched with worry.
She bit her lip, holding back tears that threatened to spill.
It was an Imperial Order directly from the Emperor, so she couldn’t refuse it for any reason.
‘Why me…!’
There was no way she didn’t know Luke Richter.
She had seen him for five years while she was headmaster at the Academy.
Five years. Not a long time, but not short either.
It was certainly long enough for her to be certain of what kind of person he was.
And to her, Luke Richter was…
‘A crazy bastard…!’
He turned the Academy upside down for five years, then became an official as if nothing had happened, saying he was going to relax, and crawled into the Empire's most notorious Magical Boundary.
Selena had a vague hunch.
What was he planning to do now, crawling all the way to that dreadful Blackmore?
Perhaps he became an official from the start to cause some trouble in the Magical Boundary.
At least, the Luke Richter she knew was a mutant eccentric who acted like everything was fine while committing all sorts of crazy acts.
“Are you alright, Headmaster?”
“Would *you* be alright?”
“Well, he’s just a low-ranking official, isn’t he? The investigation didn’t turn up anything.”
“This is frustrating. Why do you think the notoriously vicious Ministry of Internal Affairs is so insistent on bringing just one official?”
“Maybe they’re just trying to slack off?”
“No, that can’t be it. They know. That getting involved with that lunatic, Luke Richter, will make their lives a living hell.”
She was surprised when Derek Baldwin, the Special Forces Commander, came to see her, but now even the Emperor himself was stepping in to have him brought back.
Selena shook her head in disbelief.
What on earth had he been doing to get to this point?
She sighed and recalled the events of five years ago.
It was a memory she didn't want to revisit, but she would have to face him soon.
She had no choice but to retrace her past with him, step by step.
****
The Academy’s departments were largely divided into the Swordsmanship Department and the Magic Department.
Of course, other subjects like social studies, liberal arts, and languages existed.
However, the fundamental departments were only magic and swordsmanship, and other subjects were taken as electives to earn credits.
In this world, filled with Monstrous Beasts and all sorts of threats, where a single superhuman could rival an entire nation, what was the fastest and most efficient form of power?
Naturally, it was military force.
The foundation of the noble families, the center of power, was the same.
What was a Noble?
There were countless answers to that common question, but their essence was that of a warrior.
Those who shed blood at the edge of their swords to protect the nation.
Legendary heroes who beheaded countless enemies. T
hose monsters were the ancestors of today's noble families.
The center of power had always been strength.
That's why the Academy was a hall of learning and a place of opportunity.
A place where even commoners could seize power.
That was the product of the law of strength.
Talk of academics and research was merely superficial.
The true core of the Academy was only one thing: wielding mana, the source of power.
That's why innate mana capacity determined the students' hierarchy.
What could someone with meager mana accomplish even if they entered the Academy?
They would be lucky to avoid expulsion for failing grades.
Of course, such cases were rare since most students who entered the Academy possessed exceptional talent. But if such a thing happened, it was obvious that the family would become a laughingstock for generations.
That's why it was an unspoken rule to acquire at least enough mana not to be looked down upon before entering the Academy.
However.
“Luke Richter?”
Selena read the document with a slightly bewildered expression.
“The Richter family…”
The Richter family.
A long-standing family, a house of magic.
Those from that family were generally envied.
But…
“A Bastard?”
He was a Bastard.
And a Bastard born from a commoner mother, at that.
Although his birth was flawed, it didn't necessarily mean his abilities were flawed as well.
If he had inherited his father’s blood strongly, there had to be something hidden within him…
“Let’s see, his rank is… Neophyte…?”
There were three criteria for evaluating magic: casting speed, accuracy, and power.
But in reality, these were just formal criteria, and the absolute standard that encompassed all of them was mana capacity.
The more mana one had, the stronger the power, the higher the accuracy, and the faster the casting speed.
And there were five ranks for Magicians, the lowest of which was Neophyte.
“What? He’s a dud?”
Selena said with a disappointed look.
The reason was simple.
She had high hopes for him since he was from the Richter family, but it turned out he was a good-for-nothing.
“Tsk.”
So, Selena erased him from her memory.
To Selena, who thoroughly judged people by their abilities, Luke Richter wasn't worth remembering.
Time passed, and the day of the entrance exam arrived.
“Selena! This way!”
Guided by the vice-headmaster, Selena headed towards the entrance exam hall.
“Have you seen it, Selena? The list of this year’s applicants.”
“Of course. It’s a golden generation.”
From the princess of the Duchy to the princess of the Empire, and even the children of prominent families.
It was a lineup worthy of being called a golden generation.
“Here you go. These are the entrance exam papers submitted until yesterday.”
“Why are there so many?”
“Of course there are. You should’ve made the exam easier. Solve the drought? Even we can’t do that, how can the students?”
“That wasn’t a question meant to be solved.”
The Academy was an educational institution under the Imperial Family.
Naturally, the Imperial Family’s influence was present in matters big and small, and this year’s absurd entrance exam was no exception.
Telling students to solve the continent’s drought, which even she, having achieved the third rank, couldn’t solve… did that even make sense?
Therefore, the key to this entrance exam was the idea itself.
Wasn't there a saying that the greatest intellect was collective intellect?
The ideas from the best talents gathered at the Academy would be quite helpful to the Imperial Family.
Selena slowly skimmed through the documents.
“There are quite a few useful ideas.”
“It’s a golden generation for a reason.”
“Select the useful ones and send them to the Imperial Palace. Ah! Send a copy to the Red Magic Tower before sending them there.”
“Ugh, so troublesome.”
Indeed, the children of educated families were different.
Unlike her, whose mind had grown stiff with age, there were quite a few unique ideas.
Of course, they were insufficient to solve the continent's drought, but it was the accumulation of these small ideas that led to new discoveries.
“…Luke Richter?”
While skimming through the documents, Selena paused at a familiar name.
It was a name she remembered.
There was only one person from the Richter family among this year’s freshmen.
“Is that the Bastard?”
“Bastard?”
“There’s one. A Neophyte.”
“Oh my, what has he been doing to still be a Neophyte?”
“How would I know?”
…But why was his paper so thick?
There was always this type.
Those who tried to cover up their lack of ability with theory.
“…What is this?”
Selena stopped skimming through the paper and chuckled.
“An artificial sun 3 kilometers above the ground… raising the temperature of the Allad Sea behind the academy to 27 degrees… updraft… using a magic circle to operate a low-pressure amplification device to create a pressure difference… supplying water vapor to create cumulonimbus clouds…?”
As Selena's face hardened, the vice-headmaster peeked at the paper.
“What is this… thermodynamic entropy…? moist adiabatic lapse rate…?”
Of course, she didn’t understand it either.
“Controlling plasma energy using Guimaseok… creating an ultra-high temperature and ultra-high pressure environment with a Magic Crystal as the core…?”
“Ha, we’ve got a real nutcase here.”
“Reproducing a Tokamak with magnetic field magic? What’s a Tokamak? He says he can create a sun with this?”
“Why are you taking that seriously?”
Clack!
Selena clicked her tongue and slammed the paper shut.
“Was the top prize for the entrance exam a guaranteed promotion?”
“Yes, regardless of practical or written scores, they’re automatically promoted to the next grade as the top student.”
“Ha, this bastard is resorting to all sorts of tricks because he’s not confident in the practical exam. If he spouts nonsense during the demonstration, just fail him. I already have a headache.”
“Is that okay? He’s a student, too.”
“Then you can listen to his nonsense.”
“I don’t want to do that!”
It was a harsh measure, but it wouldn't be a problem.
There was no way such an absurd paper could be realized, and it was her prerogative as headmaster to fail him for spouting nonsense.
However.
Selena soon had to abandon that thought.
“…Huh?”
A massive sphere of mana, emitting heat that seemed to melt even metal, rose into the air.
Luke Richter’s artificial sun—or something vaguely resembling it—created for the entrance exam using a high-purity Magic Crystal for nuclear fusion, five Guimaseok stones, an Artifact for wind control, and Resonance Stones for Spellcasting.
It began to rise higher into the air, its heat causing the air to ripple.
It shimmered in the space like a summer haze.
Then, he used the prepared Artifact to generate wind, the air currents began to change, and an updraft formed like a vortex.
Selena and the other professors looked up at the sky, speechless.
Clouds were slowly gathering overhead.
After a while.
It rained.
No, really, it rained.
But.
“…”
Selena felt uneasy at the surging wind pressure.
The clouds were gathering too quickly, and their scale was growing larger and larger.
“Wait, this is…”
Whoosh!
As soon as she finished speaking, a sudden gust of wind swept through, engulfing everything around.
A giant whirlwind formed in an instant.
A powerful wind, like a small typhoon, swept through the exam hall.
Trees were uprooted and flung into the air, roofs were torn off buildings near the exam hall, and windows shattered.
“Holy… shit…”
That was her first encounter with him.