The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 66

Leaves flew up with every step she took.

Partially floating, before she realized it she was already halfway up the mountain.

Sitting on top of a random needleleaf tree, she looked down at the mountain. The forest used to be full of colors, but now it was rather dull.

The late autumn leaves started to disappear, one by one, as the mountain prepared for the next season.

The girl looked up at the sky with a blank expression on her face.

After sniffing through her nose and breathing in deeply, she found that the stickiness of the humidity stuck to her lungs.

“It’s going to rain.”

Quietly, she kept repeating the words to herself. Compared to her normal voice, it felt much younger and clearer.

Since the girl was quick-witted, she recognized it the moment she heard her voice.

Ah, this is just a dream.

Looking down at the clothes she was wearing, it wasn’t the school’s uniform that she would usually wear. Instead, it was an old blouse that she had worn while she would walk through the mountain in the past.

The scenery in front of her wasn’t Acken Island.

Instead, it was the Lamelin Mountain Range, which was located in the northern part of the Empire. The place she had spent her childhood. Looking through the gaps of the tree’s spread branches, she could see an old cabin.

Why was she dreaming of her childhood now, of all times?

She wasn’t a girl that was thoughtful enough to analyze such things. However, while she was dreaming, she wanted to reminisce on her good memories.

What came to mind was the owner of that cabin, right in her field of view.

He had a shaggy beard, his face full of wrinkles. His waist was also slightly bent, but he was an upright person with a strong will.

A self-proclaimed scholar but also a first-rate magician. Normally, he would be chopping firewood, reading books while sitting in his armchair, or playing an instrument while blankly staring at the fireplace.

Everything she remembered about what he did wasn’t all that memorable.

By the time the girl was even born, he was an archmage that had reached the autumn years of his life. Just what kind of life he had lived was completely unknown to the girl.

While I’m dreaming, I should get a look at the old man’s face.

That was what that girl thought as she gently put some strength into her legs, kicking off from the tree.

The sound of the wind cutting through the sky and the edge of her blouse flapping about was ringing in her ears.

The girl, who had quickly flown over to the front of the cabin as if it were second nature to her, stopped and landed.

Seeing that same old cabin from her memory, it felt as if she had just returned to her hometown.

Looking through the window on one side of the cabin, she could see a shadow rocking back and forth. It wasn’t difficult to picture the back of that old man sitting in his chair, waiting for the girl in front of the warm fireplace.

Excited, the girl quickly walked up to the cabin. Unlike her usual self, her heart was beating with excitement.

Drip, Drip Drip.

But there was a fact that the girl had forgotten about. The humid air touched her chest, wetting her heart. As if paying back what had been foreshadowed before, soon the rain started to pour down.

“……”

The rain quickly became worse as the girl got wet. Because she had gotten wet, her clothes began to stick to her skin. Even a few strands of her hair stuck to her cheeks, as if to show its presence.

Looking up at the pouring rain for a moment, the girl turned to the cabin again and swallowed her breath.

Just then, the cozy light of the cabin had shut off. The campfire that she had seen through the window had disappeared in just a few seconds.

The eaves were covered in cobwebs and the once clean doorknob was covered in dust.

Ah, this is a nightmare.

Even though she realized that fact, she couldn’t help but move her body.

Quickly opening the door and looking inside of the cabin… Just like always, there was still someone sitting in the chair.

A dark interior. In the humid air, the old man turned his head, little by little.

It was a skeleton without any flesh. It snapped its teeth at the girl.

As if time had passed, the bones had already crumbled and a centipede crawled through the hole where his eyeball should have been.

It kept snapping its teeth as it whispered to the girl. Why didn’t you save me? Even though you had the opportunity, why did you act like you didn’t know me?

There was no change in the girl’s expression. As usual, she stared back blankly at the skull.

The skeleton cast a curse on the girl.

Don’t think the things around you will last forever. One day, just like me, you will be crushed to death by the waves of time. There will be a day where you will die alone, and that loss will come and find you without any warning. Just as you already know.

After saying that, his teeth stopped chattering and he left a creepy smile, enough to cause goosebumps to raise on one’s skin.

Still, the girl didn’t move one inch. The skeleton gradually turned to powder, disappearing.

The entire skeleton had lost its shape. Only the clothes it wore remained, falling onto the chair.

Flick!

Lucy opened her eyes and sat up.

“……”

She was in room 204 in a previously abandoned building.

The academy was still working hard to restore Ophelis Hall, but it seemed that the soonest the students could live there again would be next semester.

Until then, the abandoned building that was used in the past was decorated as luxuriously as possible and was being used. Still, it couldn’t be as luxurious as Ophelis Hall before it was destroyed.

Since the situation couldn’t be helped, most students didn’t have a choice but to accept that fact.

Still, the amazing skill set of the Ophelis Hall Maid’s stuck with them. So, besides the fact that the building wasn’t all that great, it was generally still tolerable for them.

Lucy wiped her cold sweat as she kicked off the blankets and stood up. Right after she opened up the window, the refreshing early morning air dried her cold sweat.

She could see the outskirts of the commercial district and the entrance to the education district.

The curfew of the dormitory had just passed. It was still late at night, but Lucy quickly put on her witch hat and jumped out of the window without taking off the frilly pajamas that the maids forced her to wear.

There was a massive amount of magic power around her body. In an instant, she cast an advanced Spatial-Type Magic.

She didn’t know why, but she wanted to go straight to the northern forest. In an instant, she reached the northern forest and landed right in front of that old cabin.

“……”

She swallowed her breath as she took a look inside. Right in front of a flickering fireplace, she saw Ed Rothstaylor on a crude bed, covered in a shabby blanket as he slept.

She didn’t know why, but she let out a sigh of relief. Lucy then sat, leaning against the outer wall of the cabin.

Where she was, she was able to see the entirety of the camp. Lucy, who had taken her naps in all sorts of different spots, could immediately see that the camp was slowly losing its life.

The amount of firewood that was being saved wasn’t increasing. The same could be said of the food. One of the workbenches legs was broken, but still hadn’t been repaired. It had been a long time since the smoker had last been used, and all the traps that should have been set up throughout the forest were just being displayed in the camp.

Now, even the owner of this camp… he was preparing to say goodbye to it.

Strictly speaking, it had nothing to do with Lucy. And yet, she still felt a bit empty as she sat alone with her legs crossed, looking up at the sky.

The gloomy sky looked down on Lucy.

“It’s going to rain.”

There was no one around to respond to that relaxed comment of hers.

* * *

[ Magic Skills Details

Grade: Proficient Magician

Specialized Field: Elements

Common Magic:

܀ Fast Casting Lvl 9

܀ Mana Sense Lvl 9

Fire Element Magic:

܀ Ignite Lvl 15

Wind Element Magic:

܀ Wind Blade Lvl 14

Spirit-type Magic:

Spiritual Resonance Lvl 13

Spiritual Understanding Lvl 13

Spirit Manifestation Lvl 3

Sense Sharing Lvl 3

Resonance Level: 3

Spiritual Efficiency: Good

Innate Skills:

܀ Blessing of Fire Fortune (Temporary Immunity to Fire)

܀ Explosion (Low-level Explosion)

܀ Increased Ability of Fire-Type Magic

]

“You’ll soon be able to make a contract with a mid-ranking spirit, Ed. Merilda said she wants to make a contract with you quickly. And at this rate, that could actually happen.”

The days had gotten a lot colder.

The final evaluations for the end of the second semester were about to start, as well. I had already applied for the academy’s scholarship student program, but since I still wanted to receive a scholarship for my grades, I wanted to spend even more time focusing on my studies.

With that being the case, I couldn’t get lazy and not put any effort into studying other fields. In the end, the importance of managing my time had come up once again. Luckily for me, I had a really good teacher that excelled in the area of spiritual studies.

“Ed, your growth is really amazing. Your spiritual resonance level is already above that of an average beginner Elementalist, and your mana resonance level—which is the basis of it all—is also quite high.”

In front of the crackling fireplace, I sat on a tree stump practicing Elementalism.

Being coached properly by Yennekar, I repeatedly practiced manifesting a spirit and sense sharing with Mugg until I had become completely proficient.

A skilled spiritualist could share all five senses with a spirit, but there really wasn’t a practical need to ever go that far… They said that it was more efficient to only train the most important of the senses to share: vision.

Sense Sharing wasn’t very efficient in terms of mana, and if you maintained it past a set amount of time, the efficiency dropped tremendously. Even Yennekar didn’t use it unless it was really necessary… So, it sort of felt like a waste to practice.

Even so, I needed to get used to everything that I could.

[It’s worthwhile to constantly implement spiritual magic into various objects to gain experience, young master Ed.]

Mugg sat on Yennekar’s shoulder, fluttering around. She didn’t look like she was completely happy, though. It seemed as if she was hesitant, as if something was bothering her.

“Uh… Lucy… Did I do something wrong…?”

Yennekar still had her bright smile like always, but… there was no way she wouldn’t be bothered in that situation.

I had no idea just what was wrong with the girl, but Lucy had been sticking next to me and staring daggers at every person who came close since that morning.

Normally, Lucy wouldn’t move unless the sun was high in the sky or if she got hungry. But today, for some reason she came and sat down in a corner of my camp in the early morning.

Normally, the maids of Ophelis Hall clenched their teeth trying to maintain her neat appearance. However, today she was wearing a light frill dress that looked like pajamas. It was as if she had escaped from the dormitory early in the morning.

I guess there were certainly those days in your life where you suddenly became diligent for no particular reason. It seemed like Lucy, who had a good fate, had those types of days once or twice a year.

Not thinking too hard about that, I was planning on doing the work I needed to get done. However, she had suddenly grabbed my collar and started to follow me around.

“…What is it?”

“……”

Looking at me like she had something to say, she maintained that dazed look, as if she had taken a vow of silence. That also meant she wouldn’t let go of my collar.

It would be sort of strange to grit my teeth and try and shake her off, so I just ignored her and went about my morning.

Since it was a long-awaited weekend, I decided to spend it training early in the morning.

Now that the foundations to master intermediate magic had been prepared, I spent the morning carefully reading over books related to intermediate magic and the process of moving magic power around.

Meanwhile, Lucy had laid her stomach on my lap, kicking her feet in the air like she was in the middle of some type of protest. Surprisingly, she didn’t fall over.

When I went to have an early lunch, she climbed on my back. After that, I went to go practice Elementalism by myself, sitting on a tree stump nearby, and she sat right behind me and leaned against my back while looking blankly at the sky.

Even without having to deal with all of that, I was already busy on the weekends.

After all, with my academy schedule, I had more free time on the weekends than the weekdays. All the work that I had put off doing over the week, I had to take care of over the weekend.

She didn’t show up at all when I had time after classes or during my breaks… but all of a sudden, when I had a lot of work to take care of and I was pressed on time, she was sticking right next to me like that. I started to wonder if it was just her own strange way of making fun of me.

Then, when someone else would appear, she would suddenly change her appearance and stand up.

When Ziggs had come by on his jog, she made a strange noise at him so that he wouldn’t come any closer…

Though, when Bell Maya came up holding her neat uniform and accessories to change Lucy’s clothes, she had unexpectedly obediently listened to her.

Thinking that the girl might have eaten something bad, I put my hand to her forehead to check her temperature. It wasn’t hot. Actually, it was rather cold.

“I-If I did something wrong, I apologize… Hm…?”

Being in that strange state even past lunch, when Yennekar had come to visit to help me train in Elementalism, Lucy had been even more on edge.

With a cold sweat, she stood up to block Yennekar from approaching any closer… If you asked her why, she would just shake her head.

She looked at Yennekar as if, should she get within a few meters of me, she would bite her. It was impossible to know just what in the world the girl wanted.

It had already been a few days since Lucy started acting hostile towards Yennekar, which was completely unfair.

Naturally, if you were to be treated like that it would only make sense to get angry, but Yennekar’s nature was kind. Seeing Lucy act so oddly out of the norm, she had no idea what to do.

“She really must have eaten something bad. She’s a fickle kid, so I’m sure she’ll get rid of that hostility soon enough.”

I really had nothing else to say besides that.

Lucy, who had now stuck to my back like a cicada, kept on staring a hole straight through Yennekar.

Seeing her wave her arms in the air as if she was telling her to go away, it was just like a little kid trying to stop someone else from stealing their toys.

Yennekar tilted her head a few times with an uneasy expression and let out a sigh soon after before leaving the camp.

* * *

The intermediate fire magic Point Explosion.

It is an intermediate magic that comes from the spell Ignite, which concentrates and grabs a hold of magic power within your field of view and casts small explosions.

The firepower and scale of it is proportional to the amount of magic power, so there are even occasions where it can burn the user. There are also times where archmages can bring down an entire building with this magic.

Compared to the spell Ignite, it might seem like a much smaller spell. However, it isn’t considered intermediate magic for no reason. The advantage of Point Explosion comes from its overwhelming versatility.

It is easy to deal with Ignite because it takes a long time to cast, and you can clearly see the flames that spread from it.

However, Point Explosion generates a flame at a certain target point in an instant. The level of impact it has is overwhelming, and if you can’t quickly grasp the flow of magic power, you won’t have enough time to defend yourself. You can be hit in an instant with it.

“I guess I can’t acquire the basics in just one day’s time… I can definitely feel the increased difficulty of learning intermediate magic.”

As my body had very little talent in terms of magic, it was going to take quite a while to learn intermediate magic. I prepared for it to some extent during Elemental Studies, but that was all I could do.

For nearly the entire day, I’d been training with optimal efficiency. However, it still wasn’t popping up in the skill window. At that point, I was getting tired.

Before I knew it, the sun had started to set. Since there were no results to show for the day, I started to feel a bit empty inside.

“Haaah… Let’s go eat.”

I closed the elemental studies book and tossed it on the nearby ground.

I then lifted up the luggage that was on my lap.

Lucy didn’t even think about moving, so she sat in my lap the entire day as I kept reading the elemental studies book and researching the flow of magic power.

“…Eughak…!”

Lucy stretched out her petite frame. Soon after, with her usual dazed expression she spoke that classic line of hers.

“…I’m hungry.”

“Just go and eat already. Pretty soon the mealtime for the Ophelis Hall students will be over.”

“Yeah.”

Surprisingly, Lucy stood up from her seat without much resistance. Getting ready to jump in the direction of Ophelis Hall, she suddenly fixed her posture.

Standing on top of the tree stump, she looked back at me and asked.

“You know.”

“What?”

“What are you going to do after I go?”

The fact that Lucy had asked such a strange question was a big deal.

As I was slowly getting ready to eat my meal by gathering some firewood for the campfire, Lucy stared at me.

“I’ll just eat and take care of the work I have to do afterwards?”

“Work?”

I turned my head and looked at the simple wooden table. On top of it was the key to the secret safe that Professor Glast had given to me.

The academy’s investigation was about finished, and the entrance to the secret laboratory that Professor Glast made without permission was now closed.

I was going to go in through the hole that Lucy had made to enter the library.

I was planning to go in there and check the state of the library… and check just what the contents of that safe were.

It was a bit iffy to postpone it any longer, so I was planning on making my move that night.

“Before that, I should check on the campfire and fireplace. Soon, the temperature at night could drop below zero. If I make a mistake, I could really freeze to death.”

It was the season where winter break was right around the corner.

Even though I would be fully layered in clothing, once the sun set you could start to see your breath. For the time being, I intended to use Mugg’s flames and keep it at a level where I would be moderately warm. There was no reason for me to use a large amount of magic power, so it was smarter to do that and save the firewood for now.

If I ended up entering Dex Hall, I wouldn’t have to worry about things like that.

Entering Dex Hall or keep living in the cabin? The arms of the scale swayed back and forth like reeds. At the very least, before the break started I definitely needed to decide on what I would end up doing.

I didn’t know if she knew about my worries, but that was what it seemed, looking at Lucy’s expression…

“Let’s go together.”

She ended up saying such a strange thing.