Published at 5th of September 2021 8:42 pm

Volume 3, Prologue: The reason I accepted a transfer student

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“I’m so sorry! Please forgive me! Headmaster Rick! Serika-sama!”

The headmaster’s room at Alzano Imperial Magic Academy.

Glen, who had been called to the headmaster’s room, suddenly performed an impressive somersault, landing elegantly, prostrated on the floor.

There was naught for Serika and Headmaster Rick to do but take in the sight.

“Oi Glen, what the heck are you doing?”

“It was just a slip of the hand… Just an honest mistake, I swear-! Of course, it would only be natural for esteemed figures such as yourselves to be angry! This young one hereby expresses his humble and earnest apologies~!”

Serika and Rick exchange a short glance as Glen solemnly continued.

“I mixed up the types of fertilizers, so the Kharlet plants in the medicinal garden have all withered. I am very, very sorry—!”

Rick calmly replied to the terrified Glen.

“Hahaha, Glen-kun, raise your head. It certainly troubles me that you mistake this meeting as a punishment hearing. Anyway, I did not summon you here for that. There’s something we need of you.”

“Ah, what the heck? So it’s like that? A-Aha-ha-ha! Geez, don’t scare me man!”

Glen relaxedly rose to his feet.

“I knew it! I totally destroyed all the evidence of it, so how could anyone have possibly found out! A-ha-ha-ha!”

Glen laughed cheerfully.

“Fufufu, you are too careless, Glen-kun.” The headmaster said with a cheerful laugh.

“A-ha-ha-“

“Fufufu”

The two laughed in unison…

“That being said Glen-kun, a wage deduction is due.”

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!? I knew ittttt—!”

The headmaster lay down his judgment with a cheerful laugh as Glen clasped his head with his hand and cried out in agony.

“Ugh, damnit all… If my wages get cut any further, I’ll practically be paying the school…”

Faced with a just yet uncompassionate reality, tears fell from Glen’s eyes.

“Ah… Thank god I won that bet with Ha… something-senpai during the Magic Games Festival… Wait a second, didn’t I get all pretentious and stuff and treat the students to that meal…! Why!? Why am I so stupid!?”

“Shameless as you are, do you not think what you’re doing is a bit too disgraceful…? Do you not feel any regret?”

Serika turned her eyes in disbelief towards Glen, who had crawled and curled into a ball in a dark corner of the room.

“To start with, if you’re going to complain about your wages being cut, why don’t you change your work attitude a little? You’re fairly serious when it comes to your lectures, but other than that you’re much too carefree. Would it kill you to have a bit of self-awareness as a magician…”

“Tch… Shush shush. Yeah yeah yeah yeah, I didn’t hear any—thing.”

“Well, whatever you’re guilty of, just remember to keep yourself clean and stay quiet… like I do. Though, you have always been rather sloppy when it came to ‘wrapping things up’.”

“Thank you for your sage advice! As expected of my great master! Truly deserving of my eternal respect!”

Glen brought Serika’s hands into his own, and looked towards her with admiration and respect—

“Oh, why did I ever hire these people…”

Bearing witness to the grandeur occasion of the bonding between master and student, Rick cast a distant gaze through the window of his office.

There, was the usual sight of the academy grounds that were brimming with nature, enclosed by a metal fence which isolated the academy from the wide expanse of Fejiti. Distant and above was the grandiose mirage castle — Melgarius’ Sky Castle.

“Back on topic, Glen-kun, the matter I wanted to discuss with you is regarding a transfer student.”

“…A transfer student?”

“Mhm. As of tomorrow, the academy will admit a new student who will be enrolled in Glen-kun’s class.”

“Tomorrow? This seems a bit urgent doesn’t it…? Not to mention that admitting someone in the middle of the term is a bit strange in and of itself.”

“…Regardless, you have no say in the matter.”

The headmaster pushed the object in his hands across the table.

It was scroll-envelope, the cover to which had already been opened. Upon closer inspection, the envelope did not have any address printed on it. Furthermore, the casing for the envelope was made of high-quality leather. On second thought, it was likely that the envelope had not been sent through any government agency, but rather, had been delivered directly to the academy via a liaison.

Also this traces of the seal… Isn’t this the seal used by the imperial army?

Glen opened the cover to the envelope, retrieved the fine goatskin paper, and unrolled it. The contents of the letter had been written in compact, small, and precise script. At the end of the letter was a gold-engraved emblem of a hawk.

“A hawk? That means… that this is a document that’s been authorized by the Empress herself… and the contents are treated as highly confidential…. Hey wait a second! Isn’t this a top-secret document regarding the transfer of military personnel!?”

Glen eyes widened in awe as he stared at the goatskin letter.

“Mhm. In more common terms, this is a document decreeing that you must accept whatever transfer student is coming tomorrow into your class; an imperial missive chartered by Her Majesty the Empress.”

“…-, could it be that…”

The unusual time, the sudden transfer student, and the specification that it must be in his class…

“Headmaster, this transfer student is…”

“Yes, it’s as you suspect. This transfer student is a member of the Imperial Court Magicians sent here to act as Lumia-kun’s bodyguard. If she is in the same class as Lumia, it would be easier for her to perform her duties — That was the judgment agreed upon by the government and the army.

“…-!”

Lumia Tinzel.

A female student in Glen’s class. Although her grades in theory classes were excellent, she wasn’t good at putting magic outside the realm of white magic into practice. Thus, her overall grades were about average. Aside from her excellent looks, she was a normal young girl and student who was nothing to write home about.

However, she was the central figure of a complex web of secrets.

First of all, she bore the lineage of the Alzano Empire’s royal family and was a full-fledged princess.

Secondly, while being a princess, she was also a ‘supernatural’, who were widely believe to be demonspawn by the general populace. As a result of various political circumstances, she was stripped of her place as second-in-line for the throne, and was exiled from the royal family.

Thirdly, for reasons unbeknownst, the ‘Wisdom of the Heaven’s Research Society’ – a terrorist organization which cast a dark shadow across history in various bloody struggles against the government – were after her.

Lumia’s so-called ‘supernatural ability’ was called ‘Emotion Amplifier’, which bolstered one’s magical abilities and powers through physical contact.

While certainly a rare and perhaps rule-breaking ability, it shouldn’t be enough to cause such great movements from an infamous organization such as the ‘Wisdom of the Heaven’s Research Society’, nor was it powerful enough for them to desire it. If all they wanted was simply the enhancement of magical abilities and powers, then there were various methods and techniques that were easily accessible to them using today’s methods.

The only reason I can think of would be that they want to use Lumia’s standing as a former princess to drive some political movement, but twice now they’ve said that her life wasn’t of particular importance. So it’s unlikely that they want her for political reasons.

So just what is so special about Lumia? Why do the Wisdom of the Heaven’s Research Society want her? I just don’t get it.

Well, even if we don’t know what they’re planning, the government have more or less decided it wouldn’t be good to let Lumia be taken by them. If Lumia is taken by them, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine that something bad will happen.

That being said though, if they gave special treatment to a former princess like Lumia, she will definitely become the center of people’s attention, and that would be an unnecessary risk to the peace of the Empire as a whole. If word goes out that the holiest of holy royal family has a ‘supernatural’ in their ranks, the foundations of this nation would be crumble in an instant. In a certain sense of words, she’s a bomb to this nation’s security.

So their last resort is to send an elite from the Imperial Court Magicians to this academy to guard Lumia in secret… At least, that’s probably the gist of it.

“Well… That’s pretty reassuring.”

That was what Glen honestly believed.

Glen was once a member of that group, so he had a very clear understanding of what it meant for one to be sent here. The Imperial Court Magicians were the undisputedly the strongest group of magicians of the Empire, the elites amongst elites. It would be fitting to say that each member could fight an army on their own. Their strength was so great, that even Glen himself wondered why a third-rate magician had been allowed to join their ranks. A gathering of monsters in a different dimension of its own.

Ever since Lumia had become the clear target of the Wisdom of the Heaven’s Research Society, Glen couldn’t help but be worried about her safety every day. However, now that there was to be an Imperial Court Magician by her side at all times, he couldn’t help but feel that a great burden had been taken from his shoulders.

“Glen-kun’s class is soon scheduled to go on a mandatory outing as part of the academy’s curriculum, that being, the ‘Field Study’. Would it not be very reassuring to have this transfer student there for that?”

What Rick said was correct, so Glen had no reason to object.

“I got it. I will happily accept this transfer student.”

“Oh? Is that so? Very well then.”

Hearing Glen’s reply, Rick satisfiedly nodded.

“Right right, this document contains the details of the transfer student. Please read through it for reference.”

“Gotcha’. Eh wait…?”

Glen picked up the document and glanced over it.

Sent from the Imperial Court Magicians… Regardless, this is considered a special mission, so the person sent here is probably from the special operations sect.

The role that the Imperial Court Magicians played in the army was that of a symbol of magical might. Amongst them, there was a special group that specialized in dealing with cases and incidents related to magic – the ‘special operations sect’.

With that in mind, someone whose magic is suited to bodyguard missions and wouldn’t feel out of place as a transfer student would be… Christoph of ‘The Hierophant’? If that guy comes, I’ll feel a bit…

With due certainty as to the identity of the transfer student, Glen read through the document—

Riel Rayford.

He thought he had seen this name… in the name column of the document regarding the transfer student…

“…My my.”

Glen exaggeratedly turned his head away from the document and rubbed his eyes.

“Haha… I guess I’ve been a bit burnt out recently… For a moment there I thought that I saw a name that shouldn’t be there…”

Glen took another look.

Riel Rayford.

He hadn’t been wrong in the slightest. The name was printed in fine script in the corresponding column.

“Oh shit… I think I’m starting to see things. I might have some serious visual impairment… or maybe I’m going crazy?”

Glen took another look.

Riel Rayford.

“…Oi oi, Glen, calm down, keep yourself together. Riel? That Riel of ‘The Chariot’? …No way in hell right? That brute of a musclebrained boar-of-a-girl? That natural-born god of destruction? That ever-dejected angel of reaping? The girl whose eternally number one in the ‘people I don’t want to be on a mission with’ ranking? The foremost authority in ‘coordinated efforts are useless’? The same Riel to which several branches of the army have said that ‘strategy is pointless when Riel’s here’? That Riel?”

Glen rubbed his shoulders as sweat drenched his visage.

“HAHA- NAI-SU JYO-KU. Isn’t bodyguard-ing a pretty delicate mission? And they would leave a special mission that requires a good ability to assess the situation to Riel? Pfft, nice one! A-ha-ha! The special operations sect aren’t that stupid, and it’s not like they’re lacking the personnel…”

Glen cast another fleeting glance at the document. With half-opened eyes filled with unadulterated fear, he carefully read the name letter-by-letter.

Riel Rayford.

No matter how he looked, no matter how he read it, he could only see the words ‘Riel Rayford’.

Suspecting that this was an anagram of some sort, Glen broke down the spelling and restructured it, but not matter how hard he tried it didn’t seem to work. Then perhaps the paper might respond to heat? Glen tried to toast the paper in the fire of an oil-light, but the surface of the paper didn’t seem to change.

“…”

Glen fell silent for several seconds as his gaze once again fell on the name inscribed on the goatskin paper…

Faced with an unchanging, uncompassionate, and mercilessly cruel reality—

“Hey wait a seconooonnnnddddddddddd—!?”

Glen’s cry echoed through the headmaster’s room…

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