Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

Wulf, Kalee, Seith, and Irmond sat outside Dr. Langold's office. They'd run out of things to talk about, or just didn't want to talk, but Wulf didn't really know. He just had nothing to say yet.

Then Langold's office door swung open. "Come in, you four," he said.

Hesitantly, they stood. Wulf led the way into the office and sat down on one of the four chairs set up in front of the desk. Dr. Langold dropped down in his chair behind the desk, and more interestingly, Azanthius stood behind him, stroking his chin curiously.

"It seems I made my journey out here at the right time, Mr. Langold," Azanthius said. "Your school is full to the brim of surprises."

"Apologies, sirs," Wulf interjected. "I convinced them to do it, and I egged them on. If you're going to kick anyone out, kick me out."

For one, he knew he could survive on his own without the Academy. Kalee could probably manage, too, with her knowledge. But Irmond and Seith needed the Academy's resources.

"Hm," was all Azanthius said.

"First, I believe you should know what you have done. The full list." Dr. Langold plucked up a sheet of parchment from a pile and pushed it across the table to them. He tapped the top and said, "Stealing an Oronith, injuring a non-Ascendant dock worker, destroying a swath of the border grove—"

"I didn't even see that…" Wulf muttered.

"Yes, well, now I will have to get Chef Kennet to regrow the border trees where you marched through, and perhaps our Artificers' Faculty Head will be willing to remake the border shield runes on the trunks after a few months."

"Sorry," Wulf whispered.

"It's alright," Irmond said. "I was supposed to be spotting and I wasn't even paying attention to the ground there."

"That is not something you want to admit, Mr. Redleaf," Azanthius said in a warning tone. He crossed his arms in front of him.

"Regardless," Langold continued, "you are also responsible for creating mass fear in Arotelk by walking an Oronith right up to the edge of the city, and for severely damaging Emerald Vanguard, to a point that we will have to raise tuition on all students next year to afford repairs."

Wulf gulped. That wouldn't be popular when the students found out.

"How about property damage?" Seith asked. "I mean, we sort of did tear up a tenth of Arotelk in the process…"

"Do you want a stricter punishment?" Langold demanded. "No, that is the fault of the demons, unless you're somehow responsible for summoning them, which I find unlikely."

Still, at that comment, a pit formed in Wulf's stomach. He did see that it might be suspicious—they'd come to warn the faculty of an impending demon attack, with no reasonable way of knowing, then stole an Oronith to respond, and arrived almost exactly at the perfect time. It could've been the biggest attention-seeking stunt a student had ever pulled.

But word would have to be coming in by now that attacks like this were happening all around the world. A couple messengers had dipped in and out of Langold's office, likely reporting more attacks.

In fact, as they spoke, out the officer windows, Wulf could see Oronith crews scrambling in the dying light of the day, working to activate their enormous statues and march off across the plains. They spread out, turning in different directions, likely to handle threats across the Confederation. Only a few—including the in-repair Emerald Vanguard—stayed behind to keep watch and protect the academy itself.

"No, we do not think you summoned the demons," Azanthius said. "But we don't know how you knew, and we don't believe your story about the Messengers."

Wulf sighed, then glanced over at Seith and Irmond. They'd told the two of them a different story, but he'd also explained while they were waiting that they'd had to tell Langold and Azanthius something different, because they wouldn't believe the story about the oracle. Which was true as well, just not for the reasons Seith and Irmond thought.

"I don't know what else to tell you," Wulf said. "It's true. I can't explain it either."

He could've tried to explain that they were from the future, that they already knew what was going to happen, but that wouldn't go over very well. For one, it would sound even more ridiculous, and for two, he hadn't heard of the Field ever doing that to anyone else. There was no precedent for it either.

Maybe if he'd known that he was going to get sent back in time, he would've taken some notes, or perhaps uncovered some other information that he could've used to back his story up, but there was no time to prepare. And he didn't have enough experience to prove it with simple predictions. He couldn't tell Langold where he was going to put down his cup in two seconds, or if a letter-bearer was going to trip into the office, or anything like that.

Stolen novel; please report.

Besides, with how much of the past they'd already changed, small details weren't likely to be the same.

Azanthius stroked his chin, then stepped forward and leaned on the table. "And you two"—he motioned to Seith and Irmond—"believed him?"

"Them," Irmond corrected. "It was like…both of them. They both had the same story. We had to believe them."

"Or you wanted to," Azanthius snapped.

"And they were right, weren't they?" Seith asked.

"Don't put it up to luck," Wulf added. "There was no way we could've been that lucky."

Langold chuckled. "Considering you managed to destroy two colossal fiends, I think we can call you lucky."

But it wasn't really luck. Wulf just knew how to fight a Fiend.

"Either way," Azanthius continued, "we don't think it's appropriate to punish you for the damages to the city. In fact, your actions are commendable, however you figured it out. And I will admit, you were correct about the date and location."

"But you still must be punished for the other transgressions," Langold said.

"Now, wait a minute," Kalee said. "You said we shouldn't be punished for the damages to the city, because that was the demons' doing. But they were also responsible for damages to Emerald Vanguard."

"The Oronith would not have been damaged if you hadn't stolen it," Azanthius clarified.

"Yeah, but if we hadn't stolen it, the damages to the city would've been worse. And you wouldn't have scrambled the rest of your Oroniths in time," Wulf argued.

"Damages to the city don't come out of the Academy's pocketbook," Azanthius reasoned.

Wulf hung his head. "Fine, then. What's the punishment?"

"Mr. Hrothen and Ms. Chipa must help Chef Kennet replant the outer border grove, and they must help the janitors clean the bathhouse every day for the next month." Langold tapped the bottom of his page. "I'll take your word that it was your encouragement that got the others to join you, Hrothen. Telgrad and Redleaf will only have to serve out two weeks of helping Mr. Thalin."

That wasn't so bad at all. Not as bad as it could've been. He narrowed his eyes. Were they going easy on him?

Wulf glanced at Azanthius. "Dr. Azanthius?"

"Mister. You may address me as Mr. Azanthius."

"Oh." Wulf tilted his head, somewhat intrigued. Maybe Azanthius hadn't been as condescending toward Langold as Wulf had originally thought. "Well…I do think it seems somewhat unfair, given all the good we did with the Oronith. I thought that was supposed to be the Academy's purpose."

"You will find that life is full of unfairness," Azanthius said. "We cannot have your transgressions go unpunished, no matter what. We would look unprofessional, and I have no doubt that the guilds will be nipping at us, demanding retribution. They cannot have two nobodies out-performing their children, and we need to get ahead of any allegations they might throw at us by proving that we have already punished you."

"And know this, both of you." Langold pointed at Kalee and Wulf. "You are on your final warning. One more step out of line, you mess up one more thing, and you're out of the academy for good."

Wulf nodded. "Is that all?"

"Yes." Langold nodded. "You four are dismissed."

~ ~ ~

The next morning, after a quiet run around the edge of the campus with Irmond (passing by the gap in the outer border grove where they'd crushed a few trees, which looked much, much worse from the ground), and after a breakfast in the mess hall (where he kept his head down and stuck to the corner of the hall), he headed to his first class.

It was Thirdday, and that meant he had his Basics of Field-Based Advancement first, where he tried to sit at the back and stay out of everyone's way.

But as soon as he entered the theater, a ripple of murmurs passed through the students. Heads swivelled back to look at him, and for a few seconds, no one said anything. Then, a clump of students—notably with no guild badges—smiled. He smiled back and offered a small wave.

None of his other friends were in this section, so he thought he'd be sitting alone for the whole lecture. But that was far from the case. As soon as he sat down, a slender human boy with dark skin and curly hair pushed up beside Wulf, taking the empty seat right beside him.

"I'm Emmin," the boy said. "Reporter for the Campus Scribe. Would you be able to answer a few questions? Nothing bad, of course."

"Uh…" Wulf glanced around. The row of seats ahead of him had all swivelled around to look back, and even in the second row down, a trio of girls were looking back. They giggled, one of them waved, and Wulf rolled his eyes at them.

But he also couldn't just turn down the reporter now. Not with everyone staring at him. "Sure, sure," Wulf said. "But when class starts…"

"Oh, it'll be quick."

"Sure."

"Thank you, thank you." Emmin tapped his quill on a clipboard and chewed the back of its feather, then said, "Right. So, first thing, what signs did you see that the demon attack was coming, and how did you heroically see it before the rest of the faculty did?"

Wulf blinked slowly, trying to parse the question and come up with a suitable answer. "Well…I, uh, the monsters in the woods were getting riled up, and—"

"Wonderful. Saw signs of monsters getting riled up. Will note that down. What made you pick Emerald Vanguard? Was it because the Oronith had no storied history before you got to it, and you needed to make a legend for the golem yourself?"

Wulf sighed. This was going to be a long few weeks if these were the questions the other students were asking.

But as long as he could steer them away from the truth, all while getting his side of the story out, he might just stand a chance.