The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 139

“It’s nice to see you. It’s been a while.”

In the end, I entered Lucy’s room.

Since I was not a student assigned to the hall, if I stayed in Ophelis Hall for a while, Bell wouldn’t be the only one in trouble.

That was why I tried to take care of my business quickly and get her answer next time… But the maids slapped me on the back, saying I should have a cup of tea before leaving.

“Just now… The way I said it was a bit strange, but… If I explain the circumstances in detail, you will know what I mean.”

In the end, I drank the tea the maids gave me as I explained the situation to Lucy.

Honestly, it wasn’t all that complicated of a story. I could tell it to her quickly if I summarized it.

“Anyway, it is a journey in which I need to risk my life. Of course, we will need to go all the way to House Rothstaylor, which will take a lot of time, so I’m not going to ask you to do it for free.”

Even though it was Ophelis Hall, Lucy’s room was particularly grand and large. Looking at it, you could tell that the room was where the top student in the entire school stayed.

No matter how disinterested Lucy was in such things, from the standpoint of the school, they had no choice but to give her the best treatment and take care of her as best as they could.

“If it’s not for free, then…?”

At the table on one side of her personal room, she sat in the seat opposite me.

Lucy sat on a luxuriously decorated wooden chair as she spoke in a dazed voice.

“Well, it depends on what you want.”

I didn’t know what she wanted right now. However, there was something I could at least offer her.

“As I told you, my father had summoned me to bring me back into House Rothstaylor and restore the authority and power I lost. The problem is, I don’t know if those are his true intentions, or he has other ones hidden.”

Lucy listened to my explanation, nodding her head, as she looked at her teacup.

She didn’t seem very interested in my story, but if you looked carefully, you could see how her ears were pricked up and listening carefully to every word I said.

“If you accompany me and my father ends up trying to put his hands on me, creating a complicated situation… Then there will be a high chance that, as a result, I will be able to obtain the authority of House Rothstaylor.”

Even if he didn’t try and lay his hands on me right away, he would surely end up doing it later on. In the end, since his eyes were always going to be on me, there was no reason for me to make him any more suspicious of me.

If the situation went as I believed it would, I would once again become the eldest son of House Rothstaylor. Though, it was hard to say that I’d actually become the heir.

Still, as the eldest son of the continent’s most powerful duke, the scope of what I would be capable of would be large, regardless of my actual position.

“Invest in me.”

“Invest?”

“If I return to my position as the eldest son of House Rothstaylor, then I will do whatever I can for you. Of course… being in such a position, there is only so much I can do.”

After all, the position of heir, who held the true power and authority of the House, would most likely be passed onto Tanya. Also, if Krepin Rothstaylor was determined to destroy me, there was not much I could do with the power of being a noble alone.

However, in the first place, my goal wasn’t to become the eldest son of House Rothstaylor.

“But from this point on… Lucy, I’m only able to tell you this because I truly believe in you.”

“In me?”

“Either way, you’ve suffered a lot because of me.”

As Lucy nodded her head, swallowing her breath, I spoke to her bluntly.

“I’m planning on pulling Krepin Rothstaylor down from his position.”

It was absolutely treason.

If someone else were to hear that, it wouldn’t be strange if I were immediately dragged to the gallows.

Lucy’s brows furrowed slightly, but she didn’t look all that bothered by it. I continued talking.

“I don’t know if the next head of house will end up being me or Tanya, but at the very least, I don’t want it to be my father.”

“And the reason… is it revenge?”

Lucy’s question was short, yet hard.

Was I trying to bring down Krepin as revenge against my father, who threw me out of the House and tried to kill me?

If what I had inside of me was a blade of revenge, then would Lucy be willing to help me?

After thinking deeply, I shook my head.

“I’m just trying to survive.”

“……”

“The reason behind my crisis is usually because of my father.”

In order to perfectly handle the Evil God Mebula, he repeatedly committed all sorts of anti-humanitarian experiments. In the end, he even tried to sacrifice the entire school.

In the process of sacrificing so many people, his true face was revealed: one that mocked the entire Empire by wearing the mask of a benevolent and moral duke.

The most probable reason for him trying to kill me was because it was necessary for the process.

“My father, Krepin Rothstaylor, is not as clean a person as people know him to be. If I can find evidence to reveal that truth, it might be possible to bring him down and reorganize the power structure within House Rothstaylor.”

“……”

“I don’t have any greed for power, but I am confident that during the reorganization process, I will end up with a higher position by simply being the eldest son. I may end up with an authority and power that simply couldn’t be gained through force alone.”

The power of one’s lineage and the blood that ran through a person’s veins was on a completely different level than mere strength.

The story continued on and on before we ended up back at the start.

“So, invest in me.”

I looked directly at Lucy as I spoke.

If I had made a mistake, my neck could have been cut off and thrown into the gallows.

From Lucy’s position, she could avoid it all because she was powerful. But for me, things were completely different.

It seemed like Lucy didn’t understand just how heavy of a conversation we were sharing was.

“I… Don’t do anything like investing. It’s too complicated.”

Shortly after, her small mouth opened as she spoke in a dazed voice like usual.

“You know it as well… I’m not interested in gaining power or anything like that.”

“I suppose so.”

Those were the words that meant I lost. I already knew from the start that Lucy wasn’t the person to be interested in such power.

“So… Just what am I interested in?”

However, what she said afterwards was unexpected.

Lucy picked up her witch hat before she put it back on. She went over the window that had light coming through it, opening it up.

Her white hair, which was loose instead of its usual style, fluttered in the wind.

“You know… Did I really end up completing my promise with that old man?”

Lucy had saved the school from a crisis multiple times.

Every time, she tried to do whatever she could from her position.

However, the danger to the school that the archmage Glockt had foreseen, the one that only Lucy could stop, hadn’t taken place.

Archbishop Verdio went on a rampage, and the apostles of Telos were spread all across the island. It was an ordeal that only Lucy could deal with, and she was willing to bear it all on her own.

However, in the process of it, I interfered. In the end, the conclusion to that ordeal was mostly resolved by my own hands.

In the end, without the last boss of Act 3, Lucy, running around like crazy like she was supposed to, everything was settled peacefully.

So, was it really the same ordeal that the archmage Glockt had foreseen? If it were something that could be solved so easily, why did Glockt hold onto Lucy’s hands and ask so earnestly?

That slight doubt in her heart wouldn’t disappear.

An incomplete combustion.

In the corner of Lucy’s heart, she wouldn’t accept that as the end. The burden she received from Glockt would continue weighing heavily on her shoulders.

This might have been the last chance to shake off that burden. That was all from Lucy’s point of view.

“In the first place, after I keep my promise, how am I supposed to live?”

“That’s a difficult question.”

“Well, I didn’t expect an answer.”

Thunk.

Lucy closed the window as she looked towards me.

Then, as she walked forward, she passed the chair she was just sitting on and climbed on top of the table.

Only when she sat down on the table, looking at me, did our eyes meet.

“Like I told you, I’m not interested in anything like power. If I help you… It’s only because I want to help you. There’s no other reason.”

Lucy lowered her gaze as she slowly continued to speak.

“But still… I can’t do it for free.”

“What do you want?”

“It might not be all that great. Or maybe it will be a really great thing.”

Lucy clenched her tiny hand as she flexed out her pinky.

I looked at her in confusion as she lowered her head and spoke.

“The scariest thing for me… is keeping the promise I made with my old man… The emptiness that will come after I take care of everything.”

The vast Lamelin Mountain Range.

She was a girl that stood at the very top, looking out at the vast world without Glockt.

She no longer had family, relationships, or any goals to achieve… Nothing.

“Help me so that I don’t get eaten by that emptiness.”

“Specifically… What do you want me to do…?”

“Be the reason for me to live.”

What she was saying wasn’t at all specific.

There was a lot of room for interpretation when it came to the meaning of what she implied.

Still, the words she said were heavy and real, so I couldn’t hastily make that promise.

Looking at her expression, Lucy was neither crying nor smiling.

She looked at me with a blank face like usual as she held out her pinky finger.

If I didn’t put out my finger, how would her expression change?

Just imagining that thought made me feel as if I were suffocating.

Of course, it was all my imagination.

My finger was already held out.

Just how much did that mean to Lucy? It might have been bigger than I thought, or not as big as I realized.

However, maybe because she wanted to hide her expression… she slowly crawled into my arms, wearing her witch hat.

She hugged me tightly without saying anything for a while.

And like that… we stayed together for a while.

* * *

Assistant Professor Cleoh had no blood in her face at all.

It was the final day of written exams. From what I heard, she was in charge of the entire written exams on her own.

She supposedly finished all her work in three days, but it was difficult to believe, as it was such an enormous amount of work to go through.

“……”

After finishing my written exam, I went to Assistant Professor Cleoh’s lab to find a corpse laying on the desk.

She always had a corpse-like expression on her face during exams. However, this time, the corpse was of a bigger man.

It was Clevius Nortondale, a scholarship student and a student assistant in Cleoh’s lab.

He always has a depressed expression on his face, making the people around him feel down. However, since he was a scholarship student, he was at least a bit quick-witted.

“Eughk… Why… Why did I get everything from the beginner swordsmanship textbook wrong…? You pathetic bastard… You useless bastard…”

As one could see, he made a lot of mistakes on his written exam.

They were just minor mistakes that could easily be made up for in the practical exam—especially for Clevius, who had that level of skill, but… As I said before, he was someone with a strangely low level of self-esteem

“The practical test is tomorrow! How long are you going to keep acting depressed? Do you really want to give up your seat as the top student?!”

There was a girl sitting next to him, smacking his back. Her orange hair and sharp eyes were unique… But she was someone I was quite familiar with seeing.

Elvira Aniston. The current undisputed top student of the second-year alchemy department.

“Oh, Ed came.”

“What are you doing here, Elvira?”

“I wanted to review the theory of manufacturing an elemental resistance reagent developed. Reagent manufacturing is better suited for the professor of the Alchemy department, but since this deals with elemental resistance, it would be better to ask an elemental science professor in the Magic department instead.”

Elvira had all sorts of papers and flasks piled up on the table in the center of the lab.

“But I think I came at a bad time. Assistant Professor Cleoh is sleeping with her eyes open right now.”

I put my bag down on the table as I looked towards Cleoh.

Seeing her quietly breathing, looking completely exhausted and pale, she looked more like a doll that had been possessed by a ghost than a human.

“I should just die…! If I can’t even remember a single swordsmanship posture that I have repeated hundreds of times, what’s the point in living…?! Even though I memorized each and every movement and its combinations over and over, why do I forget every single thing when the test starts…?! What is wrong with me…?! Why the hell am I even alive…?”

Clevius, who was screaming, suddenly met my eyes.

“Wh-What is it, Ed Rothstaylor?! You got something to say?! Are you laughing at me too?! Ha… Fuck…”

“……”

“Just because people are thinking better of you these days, you think all the people around you are lower than you…?! What is with that gaze?! You are looking at me like I’m some pathetic bastard…! Yeah… That’s right…! You think you’re any different…? We are both pathetic human beings…! So don’t look at me like I’m so pathetic like that!”

Slam!

Elvira wacked Clevius’ head as it slammed into the table.

Anise, who was looking for documents near the bookshelf, and Onyx, who had just arrived, both widened their eyes.

As for me… I wasn’t all that surprised.

“God, Clevius. What do you think you’re saying to your upperclassman?”

“Elvira, what does it matter to you?! You look at me like I’m pathetic as well…!”

“Ugh, you’re so pathetic Clevius.”

“See!”

Elvira grinned as she held Clevius by his neck and spoke to me.

“I’m sorry, Ed~. I think Clevius needs to be educated a bit more. It’ll take a while, since he needs to learn some manners and fix his mentality for the practical exam. Well, Assistant Professor Cleoh seems to be taking a break today, anyway… So, it’ll be fine, right?”

“What’s with you…?! Who are you to tell me to do this and that…! Kyaaaaaghk!”

“Just be quiet for a bit, Clevius.”

As Clevius—who had his head slammed onto the desk—waved his arms and resisted, Elvira took a reagent from her pocket and poured it onto his head.

He wasn’t treated like a person anymore. He was closer to cattle.

“Kyaaaaahk! What is this?! My body… strength… I’m losing my strength…”

Elvira stayed quiet as she forcibly dragged Clevius, who was losing strength in his body, away.

Onyx, who was standing in the way, moved to the side as he opened the door.

Clevius continued to make a fuss, saying that he made a mistake and to stop her, but…

Just like that, he was dragged out of the lab.

“We’ll see you again next time!”

I got chills from hearing her bright farewell.

“Did you do well on your written exam? You look quite happy.”

Anise asked me.

After that chaos, the lab had grown quiet again.

Assistant Professor Cleoh’s lab members were Anise, me, Clevius, and Onyx.

We were considered elite compared to the labs of the other professors. However, among us Anise was the most known for being quick.

True to her evaluation, Anise was the one that was busily going through the paperwork.

“Well, somehow I managed to do well.”

It felt like my written test scores would be at a satisfactory level. After all, I hadn’t made a single mistake in a written test since starting school.

Even as I spent my days in the wild in a single wooden shelter, I never lowered the amount of effort I put into subjects requiring memorization.

Now that my environment had improved in various ways, it was only natural that I would be able to achieve such grades much easier.

The problem was the practical exam.

The goal for the test is simply to be the top student of my grade.

Since my goal was higher than usual, the importance of the practical test had also increased significantly.

“But about the practical exam… Is it really proceeding alright…? Isn’t it already happening tomorrow?”

The thing that worries me the most is the elemental studies test.

Assistant Professor Cleoh, who was in charge of the entire exam, was now half-dead.

The elemental studies practical exam, where you had to fight against a professor.

Even though she was a new assistant professor, Cleoh wasn’t one to be pushed back by a regular student in a duel… But right now, she wasn’t in a state where she could duel anyone.

“Well, I guess another elemental studies professor will have to help… I’m not sure if she has already said something about it yet.”

Slam!

At that moment, the door swung open.

When the innocent Onyx looked towards the door in surprise, a middle-aged man staggered through the door, coming inside.

Aside from his ponytail, he had a beard that hadn’t been properly shaved. It was a mess. He also reeked of tobacco and alcohol.

He drank to the point that he couldn’t even control himself in broad daylight as he staggered across the lab. He hit the desk, hit his head on the bookshelf, tripped on his feet, before finally arriving right in front of Assistant Professor Cleoh.

“Haaaa…! Heek! Professor Kaleid…! Wh-What brings you here…”

Could it be the practical sense of being the youngest professor?

It was a bit sad to see her waking up the moment she felt his presence.

“Yes, Assistant Professor Cleoh. Are you doing a good job… Hiccup.”

“Ah, yes… The written exams have finished well… Now all we have to do is proceed with the practical test, which will be a duel…”

“That freaking Head Dean McDowell is breathing down my back and killing me. Asking how I could have the youngest professor submit the report regarding the details of the written test and take care of all the important duties. What’s so wrong about having you do it instead of me…?”

Did he just say that from his own mouth?

All of the student assistants in the room were in complete shock as their jaws dropped.

“I guess… I need to work since I get paid… But that guy, McDowell, he didn’t dare make eye contact with me when I was working here before… But now that he’s a dean, he’s writing all this bad crap about me, so I feel a bit in danger as well…”

Then you should stop drinking. Anise seemed to be holding back those words from coming out of her mouth.

“Seeing you, you seem quite exhausted after administering the written test…?”

“Ah, yes… That is the case…”

“Alright then… You can leave the practical test to me…”

Just as she was about to respond, he quickly grabbed her head with his hand, lowering it down.

“Go to sleep~!”

Then, laughing as if he were drunk, he staggered back. It brought him closer to the table where all the student assistants were seated.

He then pulled out a chair, sitting across from me.

Anise, who was sitting next to him, and Onyx, who was by the bookshelf, began to sweat profusely.

“Ahhhh~ I’ve got a hangover~”

He moved back and forth for a while making a moaning sound before he shook his head, speaking.

“Alright. So, you are Ed Rothstaylor.”

I couldn’t ask how he knew me. After all, he was the professor in charge of Assistant Professor Cleoh. I suppose that, if he wanted to know my identity, he could have easily found out.

However, I couldn’t figure out why he was talking to me like that.

Professor Kaleid staggered around… but he spoke with fairly clear pronunciation.

“Tomorrow is the practical exam.”

“Yes, that is right…”

“So… shall we play a game?”

“…What?”

* * *

There was a time when the Kroel Empire was in the midst of war with the non-humans.

It was a story from the long past. One that made it into the history books.

Now the non-humans were pushed all the way to the Northern Territory, weakened in power, but back then they were strong enough to threaten the name of the Empire.

The non-human forces were pushed all the way to the Empire’s capital, Kroelon.

However, even in such a desperate situation, there was a hero that led the war and stood at the very forefront of Emperor Kroel’s army.

That was Obel Forsyth. The Guardian Obel.

And the three young magicians that helped him.

The Amputator Zellan, The Inquirer Glast, and The Outlaw Kaleid.

One of them had grown old and disappeared into the shadows. Another was still actively working, training the younger generation. And the last one was a scholar that had tragically met an end to his life.

There was a time when they had all worked together out in the field, but as time passed, they all began to disappear.

Was it fate that Kaleid, who had been wandering the world, escaped from the passage of time and returned to his position as a professor?

He thought he would never agree to becoming a professor again, yet he somehow nodded as if possessed when asked to fill Glast’s vacancy.

At that point, there wasn’t a point in trying to come up with a reason. At least, that’s what Kaleid had thought.

On the other hand, Ed Rothstaylor was completely dazed and confused.

[In a little bit, the practical exam for elemental studies, which will be held in the form of a duel, will take place. Will student Ed Rothstaylor please make their way up to the arena?]

Kaleid, an outlaw that had wandered through the lawless region of Kohelton for many years, hiding.

It was the first time he had appeared in front of the students after returning to work as a professor. It was in that duel.

Ed, who stood in the area, was still confused.

To see Kaleid’s skills, even students from the combat department and alchemy department, who were unrelated to the test, had gathered to see the duel.

The combat training center at Obel Hall.

Professor Kaleid had heavy dark circles around his eyes as he stood there with his hands tucked into the pockets of his white coat.