The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 289

“You look like you’ve just seen hell. Since you’re still a kid, I better give you a lot.”

On the night Lucy returned, Zellan’s assistant Wilhelm filled the table in the rundown cabin with a feast. While Zellan and I were busy researching magic engineering, Wilhelm must have been running all over outside gathering ingredients. I could not help thinking he must have gone through quite a bit to prepare that dinner, much like I once had while attending Silvenia Academy.

Regardless, he made sure to fill the table with a feast to celebrate Lucy’s return without making any complaints. I wondered who the man was, exactly, but it wasn’t the time to have such thoughts.

Lucy, who had been cast out of our timeline, had finally returned. She clung to me so tightly that I could not push her away. For the entire day, she cried in my arms, hugging me as if trying to make sure we would never be separated again, rubbing her face against me.

She was usually a detached girl, always stretching and yawning as though nothing could bother her. Seeing her act so differently was a shock. I could not even begin to imagine what she had witnessed in the other timeline she had fallen into.

“Let’s eat, Lucy,” I said.

“…Okay,” she replied.

After Lucy had calmed down to some extent, her eyes red from her tears, she reached out to grab some of the meat Wilhelm had prepared. She would take a bite, swallow, and then bury her face back into my chest. Then she would take another bite, swallow, and bury her face back into my chest.

She no longer looked like the calm and quiet stray cat she once was. However, I couldn’t bring myself to ask her about what she had experienced. Regardless, Lucy has safely returned. That was the most important thing.

I smiled as I gently patted Lucy on her head. As Lucy felt my touch, she lowered her head slightly, as if she were feeling a sense of comfort.

* * *

“Where did you leave your hat?” I asked.

“I gave it back,” Lucy replied.

“Gave it back…to whom?”

“Grandpa Glockt.”

After she said that, everyone’s expression hardened.

“You met Glockt?” Zellan asked.

“Yes. It seemed that he knew I would fall away from our original timeline while observing others,” Lucy replied.

Zellan couldn’t help but tremble. She tried to bring her fork with a piece of vegetable attached to it to her mouth, but before she could fully lift it, she dropped it down again with a hardened expression.

Lucy continued, “The reason he committed a taboo and studied Celestial Magic before he died was to bring me back to this point in time.”

The reason he broke one of the three taboos of a magician—traveling through time—wasn’t for himself. Rather, it was for Lucy’s sake.

That old archmage only thought of Lucy until the moment he died. In the basement of a cabin located in the middle of the Lamelin Mountain Range, all of the pieces of research on Celestial Magic that were left behind were proof of his efforts for Lucy’s sake.

Lucy Mayreel, the rare genius magician who grew up favored by the Archmage. At that point, everyone was well aware of the fact that the Archmage cared for Lucy more than we had imagined. The cabin was full of evidence of that fact.

The evidence lay not only in the traces of Celestial Magic research, but also in the rocking chair that was too small for him to use, the blanket clearly made for a young girl, and the shelves that seemed built for someone much smaller… the entire cabin had been a cradle for Lucy before she stepped out into the wider world.

“I see,” Zellan said.

Amputator Zellan may have the body of a young girl with a smaller stature, but on the inside, she was an elder who lived for a long time. What did she feel when she looked at the evidence of Glockt caring and thinking about Lucy until his very end?

Zellan closed her eyes slowly, becoming lost in her thoughts. After a while, she despondently sighed.

She said, “Even the Archmage who lived his entire life filled with pride, never thinking about committing a taboo… For him to throw it all away for a disciple that was like his own daughter…”

“…There are people like that,” Wilhelm said quietly as he cleared some plates.

She imagined that old Archmage, secretly studying Celestial Magic down in his cold basement. Perhaps he smiled as he did so. She didn’t know what kind of personality he had, but she could at least tell that he didn’t feel any remorse. It was the heart of a parent that let you commit a taboo for your beloved child.

“Perhaps so…” Zellan mused.

Zellan, who had lived her life as if she were chasing a butterfly that was always just out of her reach, sat quietly as she stared out the window at the starry sky. She sat there looking out of the window, remembering her old comrade Glast, who had died a tragic death while being tied to the past.

Zellan then let out a small smile as she said, her head down, “Yes. I guess that’s how people are.”

Zellan quietly pushed the vegetables on her fork into her mouth as she watched Lucy. She had to fill her stomach. After all, she needed to survive another day.

* * *

Another morning arrived at the Lamelin Mountain Range. It was as if a river of clouds that gently flowed down the mountain range were gently falling onto the world. It was difficult to experience the pleasantries of such fresh morning air unless you were deep in the mountain range.

Upon taking a deep breath, it was as if the pleasant fog that covered the world would briefly fade away. Pretty soon, the sun would stick out its head. Mornings in the mountain range passed by quickly.

As I stood up to smoke, Lucy quickly grabbed ahold of my arms while still wearing her pajamas and said, “Let’s go together.”

“…Alright,” I replied.

I walked out of the cabin with Lucy as I looked down at the mountain range, enjoying the early morning air. Instead of standing on the grass in a daze, we decided to climb up to the roof of the cabin together.

Sitting at the top of the cabin together while looking down at the scenery…even if I were to spend the rest of my life comfortably like that, I wouldn’t mind. For a while, we sat there not saying a word. We simply sat there enjoying each other’s warmth.

Then Lucy suddenly whispered, without any warning, “The world I went to was one where you died.”

That’s how Lucy ended up calmly telling me about the world she had witnessed.

“I thought so,” I admitted.

To be honest, I thought to myself that my comment was a little self-centric. However, it was true. After all, for Lucy to be in a situation where she was so terrified and lost…

Even when an Evil God tried to burn this world down, she was someone who calmly maintained her composure. The only time she ever lost control of her emotions was when she had lost someone. With that in mind, Lucy must have gone to a world where she had lost me.

Lucy scrunched her nose as she took in the early morning air. Then she approached, sitting down on my lap, and began to tell me about everything she had seen.

The story of how Yennekar had become an undertaker, protecting the island.

The story of Lortel protected the survivors.

And her own story of losing me.

She told me quite a few different stories that were both terribly sad and sometimes even frightening. It was rare to hear Lucy talking so much, as she normally spent her time quietly. I quietly listened to her in the early dawn’s air in the mountains, as I occasionally nodded my head or scratched my chin.

“That’s how I managed to come back. Seeing myself wander into eternity to find a way to save you… It was just…an unbearable sadness,” Lucy concluded, finishing by saying, “That’s everything. That’s the reason why I cried.”

Lucy occasionally sniffed and shook her head, She stood up to look at the vast mountain range from the roof of the cabin.

Then she said, “But that was another world. A world that doesn’t mean anything anymore. Yeah.”

Lucy’s hair began to flutter in the passing wind. I looked at Lucy’s back as she spoke. I then leaned back against the roof of the cabin.

I said, “There’s something you haven’t told me yet, Lucy.”

“Hm?” Lucy asked.

“Yennekar’s story, Lortel’s story, even your own. They were all shocking to hear, but…you haven’t told me about what the me of that world must have thought.”

“What do you mean by that?”

A world where the Holy Blue Dragon Velbrok couldn’t be killed. A world where I ended up being executed by Prince Lindon’s faction. When I closed my eyes and thought about it, it was not difficult to imagine how hellish it must have been.

However, I wondered what the me of the world Lucy spoke of was thinking. In a situation where it was almost certain that I would be executed by Lindon’s faction, what measures did I try and come up with?

If death was inevitable, one just had to find a way to overcome it.

In a situation where I couldn’t even leave a will behind, there was definitely no way for me to research Celestial Magic and find a way to come back from the dead. So, I must have left everything behind to someone who could accomplish it for me.

In a situation where I couldn’t explain anything, a situation where I could no longer stay alive…I still needed to survive. No matter how the world was, one needed to endure it and survive. As long as a person never gave up and endured to the end, there would surely come a moment when they felt lucky to be alive.

“The Lucy of that world survived. She never gave up and continued to study Celestial Magic despite the world turning into a living hell,” I said.

I closed my eyes and began to remember the distant past. I thought back to when I was working my hardest every day to survive at Silvenia Academy. Avoiding the countless bad endings in Silvenia’s Failed Swordmaster, I managed to survive and make it to that very roof. I clearly remembered one of those bad endings.

The route where Lucy ended up joining Glast.

Lucy Mayreel, a rare genius magician, fell for Professor Glast’s words that claimed that she could bring back the archmage Glockt. In the end, she defeated the protagonist, Taylee, and accepted the Celestial Magic. After that…the Resurrection of the Dead magic that Professor Glast spent his life researching—she was able to reach it after only a few months of independent research.

Knowing that fact, I know just how incredible Lucy’s knowledge and growth in Celestial Magic was. The me of that world would have also been well aware of Lucy’s capabilities from that bad ending. No matter how poor her environment was, and no matter how desperate her situation was, Lucy Mayreel would surely continue to study Celestial Magic and eventually reach a level similar to Professor Glast’s.

With a proper environment, it would only take her a few months… But in a place that was no different than hell, it might end up taking a few years. Still…within three years at the most, she would have certainly saved me.

Of course, it wouldn’t all end up a happy ending.

She would most likely be on the run for the rest of her life after breaking one of the taboos of a magician. She would also have to go out on another adventure to kill Velbrok. She would have to deal with the Lindon faction and would always be known as a dangerous fugitive of the empire.

It was impossible to predict all the details, though…

“Let’s say two years…no, maybe three at most. I am sure that you would have saved me,” I stated.

“…What? Really?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

Lucy, who had no knowledge of Silvenia’s Failed Swordmaster, would naturally never have been able to guess that she could do it. However, I was certain of it. Lucy would definitely endure it all until she could save me. Once I was able to faintly open my eyes once more, she would be there holding onto me.

Three years after Ed Rothstaylor’s death.

The people left in that world would have surely gone through a hard time, but they would have all somehow survived. There might have been a few who became twisted, and others still who gave up all hope for their lives.

However, as long as I was able to open my eyes once more, I would surely run all over the world doing whatever I could. Even Yennekar, who had become deranged, or Lortel, who was trapped… I would still somehow save them all.

That was why Lucy didn’t have to worry. I was stronger than she thought. The people she saw might have been struggling in pain at the moment, but they wouldn’t be in tears, trapped in the dark for the rest of their lives.

Just like the way the sun felt brighter after a long and dark night, there would surely be many days of laughter and smiles to come. They just had to endure. That was just the way the world worked.

Of course, things might feel unfair and miserable in the moment. However, in the end, things would surely be better. They just had to remember that what they had in their hands was a blessing.

They couldn’t take for granted the happiness that they had in the present. They had to live a fruitful life while always thinking positively.

“…Yeah,” Lucy said.

Lucy looked out at the vast view of the world. It was time for the girl to leave her cradle and depart into that vast landscape.

It was unsure whether her journey in Silvenia was over, but her journey as an Archmage who commanded the world had just begun. It was time for her to put down the witch’s hat that was larger than she was and escape from the cradle that had always comforted her warmly…and depart into this vast world.

As the refreshing wind swept past the mountain range, the girl thought to herself, Why am I no longer afraid of that journey?

The answer to that was that she was not alone.