Chapter 7
This morning, there was History of the Empire, and in the afternoon, Advanced Understanding of Magic, taught by my father.
…No, wait. Why is it an advanced course?
The number (3) next to ‘Advanced Understanding of Magic’ on the timetable was surely not written there for no reason.
Doesn't this mean it's for third-years? No matter how high his expectations for his son were, isn't this too much?
“Hoo….”
The timetable my father had put together was filled only with subjects that one would want to pick if they were aiming to be a mage. However, this one subject, ‘Advanced Understanding of Magic,’ was the single flaw in an otherwise balanced timetable.
I stared at the timetable once more with blurry eyes before grabbing hold of my fading consciousness.
“Right, I might as well give it a try.”
I didn't want to disappoint my father. Shouldn't I at least try to tackle it properly once before I start whining about it?
“Our classes don’t overlap today.”
“Hkkyaaaak!!!!!”
A scream burst out of me at the voice from behind.
My face flushed at my own strange scream. No, why the hell did this bastard Lucian have to pop out of nowhere?
“Are you done with training?”
“Yeah, I saw you looking at your timetable.”
I quickly handed him the timetable.
It was definitely not a plea of─Please accept this tribute, just don’t eat me─, but just because he seemed curious.
That's why I gave it to him. It's definitely not because I was scared.
“If you want to check, look at it yourself. And don’t just appear behind me all of a sudden.”
Please consider the anxiety of a human with such weak durability that a mere graze could be a critical hit.
Lucian looked abashed as he meekly accepted the timetable. He quickly scanned the timetable with his eyes and spoke as if disappointed.
“The only one we have together is ‘Mana Usage and Understanding.’”
“Ah, really?”
I praise you, Father!!! I believed in you!!
My resentment for him putting in a third-year class completely vanished.
“But we still share a dormitory.”
“Right, we can see each other often in the dorms.”
Alright, this summer break, I'm going to somehow convince them to let me have a room to myself.
“See you at the cafeteria later.”
“O-oh, okay.”
No, wait. I answered too naturally, but why do we have to see each other at lunch?!
Before I could question him, Lucian was gone in a flash.
That bastard, he didn't disappear so quickly on purpose, did he?
If I dawdled any longer, I would be late for class.
…I already graduated from university, so why the hell do I have to attend school again?
Depressed, I forced my heavy feet to move and headed to the ‘History of the Empire’ lecture hall.
“Oh, junior! Here! Sit next to me!!”
“Senior Laurel.”
There was a welcome face in the lecture hall.
My joy at seeing a face I knew was brief, as I remembered that this magical girl (physical) was a ticking time bomb that could go off at any moment.
No, more importantly, I thought this was a first-year class, so why is Laurel, a fourth-year, taking it?
For now… I was a little afraid to sit too close, so I sat in a seat a little ways away from Laurel.
But Laurel promptly came over to my side.
“Wasn't History of the Empire a first-year class?”
“Ah~ I got on the history professor's bad side, so I've been taking this boring class for four years now. The professor is so petty, you know?”
“…How did you get on his bad side?”
“I was tired, so I dozed off. They said I snored. After about ten times, he called my name and failed me on the spot~”
Laurel… you've grown into a true disciple who brings great pain to her master.
I'm sure Laurel's base stat was Intelligence. Or maybe she's so strong she doesn't bother using her head.
Seeing Laurel burst into a hearty laugh, oblivious to my inner thoughts, I couldn't help but let out a groan.
“He’s just being grumpy, anyway. He doesn’t hate me.”
To describe getting on a professor's bad side like that… Laurel was probably the only one in the Academy who would, wasn't she?
The lecture hall right before class was reasonably noisy. After all, no one would point out the trivial chatter exchanged right before a headache-inducing class that would last for hours.
The chatter died down as soon as the firmly shut front door opened.
However, the person who entered was not the professor, but an assistant with dark circles etched under his eyes. He stood before the podium and spoke with a hollow face.
“All Academy classes are canceled. The cancellation will continue indefinitely until a separate notice is given.”
All classes canceled? An event like this never happened in the game.
Whether it's possession, reincarnation, or regression─the future ultimately changes. Because if the present changes, the future changes too.
But for such a major event to happen already, all I've done is become the protagonist's first friend.
And it's an indefinite cancellation, too? Is this the butterfly effect, or what?
“Well then, I should just move up my dungeon crawling plans~”
“Dungeons?”
“Yep. The byproducts you can get if you're lucky are pretty lucrative, and the Academy gives out hefty subsidies. There are surprisingly a lot of students who run dungeons like me.”
Usually, such students were called subsistence students.
My first meeting with Lucian also happened when I stopped by the faculty office to get a subsidy.
Since it had been four years since the main story of Part 1 ended, my memory of the early-game story, in particular, was a bit hazy.
“Dungeons….”
In the game, too, you could get all sorts of things by entering dungeons.
From junk items that piled up by the tens of thousands to the experience points needed for growth, people would even post guides for dungeons that yielded good resources.
Though I wouldn't go anywhere near a dungeon right now. Entering a dungeon with a body that had 3 Strength and 0 Resistance was insane.
It was then.
Tiring!
An overly refreshing alarm sound rang out as a window appeared before my eyes.
+++
<Sudden Quest>
A fun dungeon outing with Laurel!
Laurel is an excellent hero.
With her, the dungeon is nothing more than an outing.
-Reward : EXP 500
-Failure : Game Reset
+++
“Keol-leok.”
This crazy system…?!
Of course, I have no objection to Laurel being an excellent magical girl (physical). But to force me into a dungeon by making the failure penalty a game reset is just not right!!
‘Shiiiiiiibaaaaaaal.’
This damn system…!! Forcibly swallowing the curse I wanted to shout out, I struggled to speak.
“…Senior, I would also like to follow you to the dungeon.”
“Huh? To a dungeon? I think it’s still a bit dangerous for you to go.”
Exactly.
But I had no choice. If I couldn't convince Laurel, the rain of meteors would fall again, and I would have to repeat everything from the beginning. That’s just… too much.
“I’m a student who entered the Academy, too. I want to try going to a dungeon at least once.”
I fucking hate the idea of going, but well… as the system’s description says, I should be able to make it back safely with Laurel. Above all, she’s a favorite character I raised with my wallet.
Laurel, who seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, snapped her fingers with a ttak sound.
“You, can you use magic?”
“If it’s the basics, I can.”
For now, I could use the ‘I Am the Writer’ skill like magic. I have to write it within thirteen characters, but it wouldn't be bad to use it as a supporter.
“Right, it’s not that difficult a place anyway, so it should be fine. Great, you can follow me.”
In this moment, I was grateful for Laurel's reckless, headstrong nature.
“I hope I don’t get scolded by the professor.”
I decided to ignore Laurel's quiet mumble. After all, she's the one who'll get scolded, not me, and with a game reset on the line, I absolutely had to go on this ‘dungeon outing’.
Alright, if we can just proceed without any problems─
“While we’re at it, let’s take the other transfer student too!”
“What??”
The only transfer student I know is Lucian. Could she be talking about taking Lucian?
My pupils trembled as I stared at the cheerfully laughing Laurel.
“I mean the Hero Candidate, the kid who pulled the Holy Sword.”
Hweh?
In that moment, the future changed.
This was no longer an outing.
It's a one-way trip to dungeon hell. Damn it.
* * *
I failed to persuade Laurel not to take Lucian. When she told me that if that was the case, I couldn't go either, I had no choice but to raise the white flag.
“Hey, let’s just go to the dungeon.”
We stopped by the dormitory room to pick up Lucian and headed to Diamond Hall.
“Oh, so the rumors were true.”
Laurel said in admiration as she looked at Lucian.
“Feel free to call me Senior Laurel. Or just Senior is fine too.”
“My name is Lucian.”
At the simple name that came without any modifiers, Laurel muttered in a small voice.
“Looks like the Emperor didn’t adopt the Hero of a Thousand Years.”
Come to think of it, she said something like that when they first met in the original storyline, too.
Setting that aside, her voice was too loud for a mumble. If I could hear Laurel's mumbling, there was no way Lucian couldn't have heard it.
“…Me?”
At Lucian's question, Laurel, though abashed, shared her honest thoughts.
“Since you pulled the Holy Sword, I thought they would have made you a person connected to the Imperial Family somehow.”
No one was unaware of the fact that the First Emperor who founded the Empire was the first and last Hero to wield the Hero's Sword. It was common knowledge that was impossible not to know.
And the First Emperor didn't become a Hero because he was an emperor; rather, because he was the Hero who possessed the Holy Sword, he founded the Empire and became the first emperor.
If Lucian was called the ‘Descendant of the Hero’ because he was the successor to the Hero who pulled the Holy Sword, the Imperial Family of the Empire was called the ‘Descendant of the Hero’ because they inherited the Hero’s blood.
It was only natural that the Imperial Family would want to hold onto Lucian by any means necessary.
“The most certain ways to secure a person are marriage and adoption, but it’s a lost cause since they can’t do either. There are no women our age in the Imperial Family, and His Majesty’s age is a bit ambiguous for adopting you as a son.”
Laurel, the protagonist is so openly uncomfortable, and she doesn't notice. Is she dense, or is she doing it on purpose?
Lucian, who didn't protest openly, was also being a true stick-in-the-mud. If this conversation continued any longer, it would be hard to bear.
“Senior, so did you get permission to go to the dungeon?”
Because that's what's important right now.
When I cut off Laurel's words and reminded her of today's purpose, Laurel clapped her hands together with a jjak! sound.
“Ah, right. The other staff members were away from their desks, so I just roughly submitted the documents and came out. Let’s hurry and run away before they find them and come out to catch us.”
“Is that really okay?”
Lucian was horrified by her unexpected words. Laurel, on the other hand, winked playfully and gave a thumbs-up with an incredibly lighthearted attitude.
“It’s faster to just get scolded a bit when we get back, Lucian. The most stubborn people in the world are the Empire’s bureaucrats and the Academy’s staff, you see~”
It wouldn't be strange if the Academy staff placed bets on ‘Just how reckless can Laurel be’. I didn't want to become an accomplice, but with a game reset on the line, I had no choice either.
“Or do you just want to go back?”
Truthfully, if Lucian didn't come along, I wouldn't mind that either.
“…I’ll just go with you.”
Tsk, too bad.
Swallowing my inner thoughts, I clutched the hem of the Academy cloak I was wearing.
Nothing bad will really happen… right…?