NOVEL NEXT Chapter 84.2
As I watched her, a growing sense of unease began to form.
‘Mary… her swordsmanship is no joke. This isn’t just the level of a simple magic swordswoman.’
I had thought she primarily trained in magic with swordsmanship as a secondary skill. But now it was clear—it was the opposite.
Earlier, she had deflected Astra’s thrown sword without even summoning her aura.
‘She’s at least on par with a high-ranking knight.’
Her skill level was extraordinary.
‘Come to think of it, her behavior has always felt odd.’
Mary’s mannerisms resembled those of a knight more than a witch or adventurer.
‘What could it be? Either she’s not the Snowfield Grand Witch I know, or I misunderstood the original history.’
‘Hmph… I’ll put that mystery aside for now.’
I turned my focus to the present situation and the invaders before me.
The dark sorcerers, their bodies ravaged by what seemed like acid rain, were dead beyond recognition.
The Sigma agents had either fallen to our knights or taken their own lives.
Except for one.
“Mmmpf! Mmmph!”
One Sigma agent, having failed to kill himself, lay restrained and writhing on the ground.
“He seems to be a mid-to-high-ranking officer from Sigma,” I muttered as I walked toward the middle-aged agent.
‘Hmm?’
My steps halted mid-stride.
‘What’s he doing?’
The restrained agent was clearly preparing something.
“Hnnnnngh… Hnnnnnngh…”
The Sigma officer, his face streaked with drool and tears, glared at me with a defiant expression, as if daring me to come closer.
‘I’m sick of these antics.’
It was clear. The moment I got too close, he planned to detonate whatever he was preparing.
“Everyone, back away! Quickly!”
I aimed the magnum at the agent and shouted.
As the knights released their hold on him, the Sigma agent began crawling toward me with his bound hands and legs.
Shing! Shing!
Something within his coat began to gleam ominously.
‘A magical explosive?!’
It was a bomb-like artifact developed by the Magic Tower—a dangerous device akin to a grenade.
Bang!
I fired the second magic bullet from my magnum.
Crackle!
The shot tore through the air, striking the magical explosive just as it began to activate.
The first magic bullet had been imbued with light energy, while the second carried the power of electricity.
“Grrrraaaagh!”
The middle-aged Sigma officer convulsed violently as the electric bullet coursed through his body, electrocuting him until he was reduced to a charred corpse.
The surge of electricity also disabled the magical bomb he had been preparing, averting disaster.
***
It was finally over.
The dark magic plague that had swept through the North was eradicated.
The Devil’s Den and Sigma’s assault on the High Tower had been thwarted.
And most importantly…
“Huh…? Huhhh??”
“The curse… Haran’s curse… it’s gone!”
The curse that had bound the witches was lifted.
“Yes! Yes! The academy! The academy!”
While the witches were still stunned, I let out a cheer of triumph.
At last, the witches were no longer restricted, which meant I could fully utilize them. With their talents, I could mass-produce magical engineers and expand the boundaries of magical engineering like never before.
“Are you that pleased?”
The question came softly from behind me.
“Ah! Lady Isabelle, are you all right?” I turned to see the Spring Grand Witch herself.
“Thanks to you,” Isabelle replied, still puffing on her beloved smoking pipe. Despite the end of the curse, witches’ love for mana-infused tobacco remained constant.
“What did you do with the remains of the Bell Witch, Haran?”
“I had them cremated to ensure they could never be used again. The ashes were scattered in the soil of the old greenhouse farm,” Isabelle said with a serene smile.
“And… How did you survive?” I asked directly, even if the question was a little forward.
“My mentor told me to stay a while longer. That I still had much to do,” Isabelle said, a single tear tracing down her aged cheek.
“In any case, I’m relieved you’re safe. To think the Spring Grand Witch and the Northern Witches are finally free of curses—what a profound moment. Ha-ha-ha!”
Everything had ended on such a positive note that I was overwhelmed with joy. Even the infuriating restrictions on the witches were gone.
Now, I can fully focus on development and expansion… I mean, business growth.
“Sir Arad, for the record, I’m no longer the Spring Grand Witch.”
Isabelle’s voice carried a newfound seriousness.
“The Northern Witches are no longer witches, either.”
“What do you mean?”
“I am now Isabelle, the Magus of Spring,” she said firmly.
“……?!”
“And the witches are now Northern Mages.
The Witch’s Council has been reborn as the Renslet Magus Society.”
***
A gust of wind swept through the North.
It was the start of a new era of transformation.
The trials were over, winter settled in, and I marked my third year in this world.
A New Season for the North
The continent’s skies moved toward spring, but the weather in the North and the High Tower remained cold. Still, it was more bearable than the bitter chill of midwinter.
The brisk season saw the people of the North busy catching up on tasks that had been delayed by harsher weather.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
At the newly inaugurated Renslet Academy, long-postponed projects finally gained momentum.
“Take care, and see you all the day after tomorrow!”
In one of the classrooms, lessons had just concluded. The chime of the academy bell echoed, signaling the end of the day.
Huff—
Mana-infused smoke swirled lazily through the air from a professor’s smoking pipe, lingering like a cozy woodfire in the classroom.
Forty children, all clad in light blue tops and black pants—the academy uniform—sat huddled together in the room.
“Oh, wait! One more thing!” The teacher, who had just started leaving the podium, turned back as if recalling something.
“For homework, memorize all the rune letters I taught you today by Monday, okay?”
“All of them?!”
The children’s faces turned stiff with dread.
For reference, these students didn’t study only magic. They also learned reading, arithmetic, and history from former bureaucrats. This meant they already had other homework.
“Yep, all of them.”
“But there are 100 of them!”
“Armin’s runic alphabet is relatively simple and short. You shouldn’t find it too hard,” the teacher said, her grin framed by the smoke curling from her pipe.
“And besides, this is quite lenient. When I was your age, I had to memorize all this in half a day.”
Gone were the days of old-fashioned master-apprentice education, where only the brightest minds were accepted as students.
Now, even the former witches of the Renslet Magus Society had to follow the academy’s structured curriculum to become proper mages—or magical engineers.
“Of course, you don’t have to memorize it. Homework isn’t mandatory,” the teacher added with a sly smile.
“Really?!”
“Yay!”
The children’s expressions brightened instantly.
“However…” The teacher continued with a smirk.
“If you don’t, your grades will suffer. And since all classes this semester will be taught in Armin’s runes, bad grades might make your parents a little sad.”
The students’ hope dimmed again.
Naturally, the teacher didn’t expect every student in the class to keep up. If four out of forty managed to do so, it would be a success.
“Also, without good grades, you won’t qualify as a mage, magical engineer, or even a bureaucrat. Although, you might still make it as a knight or priest since they don’t use runes much.”
The goal for this class was clear: produce a handful of advanced mages, a dozen or so magical engineers at a basic 1st or 2nd Circle level, and train the rest as clerks or junior administrators.
This was the vision that Arad and Arina had when they first founded the academy.
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