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Chapter 22: Group Project (1)
For Stella Academy’s high school students, completing several hours of voluntary service was mandatory.
There were some typical ways to fill this volunteer time such as helping daily at the Magic Post Office or street cleaning, but many students hated that kind of work.
That was mostly because joining a ‘club’ was much more comfortable and helpful to their career.
As a result, clubs for nobles primarily served as social gatherings, while for commoners, they were mainly for accumulating volunteer hours.
The Skalven Club, where the nobles of the Skalven Empire gathered, could be considered to be focused on social gatherings.
This club, one of Stella’s most elite, was customarily headed by the highest-ranking student regardless of age, so it was no suspense that the club leadership was handed over to Crown Prince Jeremy Skalven even though he was a freshman.
Verazen Aizel, a second-year girl who once served as the club’s head, stood politely while bowing down to Crown Prince Jeremy.
Behind her were fifty students in the same stance.
In the middle of the 3500 square foot hall, a boy was sitting on an expensive sofa worth tens of millions of credits. Anyone would wonder if it was just a student club room.
Jeremy Skalven.
He stared blankly at the five-coloured chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
Jeremy’s soft smile had a calming, peaceful effect just from a fleeting glance.
“It’s cheap.”
But the words that came out of his mouth did not allow for any warmth.
"I apologize. I'll have it replaced immediately."
“Sure. Thank you. Please do.”
Jeremy’s smile turned the girls’ cheeks bright red, but Verazen was sweating profusely.
'...This isn’t good.’
Trembling, Verazen kneeled before Jeremy and stared at the boy kneeling beside her.
The boy, Morso Dorden, was the heir to the well-known Dorden family, but in this place, he was a nobody.
If anything, he was like dust gathering in the corner.“Morso. Lift your head. Why are you so scared?”
Morso slowly raised his head in response to the Crown Prince’s words, while Jeremy maintained his cheerful demeanor.
“Yes, yes…”
"Yeah. I want to hear your excuses straight from your mouth. Care to explain?"
In response, Verazen hurriedly said, “That’s actually—”
“Verazen?”
“Yes?”
“I don’t recall asking you to explain. You thought you could?”
“S-Sorry!”
Verazen gritted her teeth and stepped back.
‘Please don’t let that stupid Morso talk nonsense!’ she prayed.
Whether or not he was aware of Verazen’s inner feelings, what came out of Morso’s mouth was gibberish.
The story was short—not much of a story—but it was enough to chill the hall.
'Honestly, I wasn't feeling well. If I try again, I can do it properly. I let my guard down.'
Excuses upon excuses upon excuses.
Smiling with his chin resting on his hand, Jeremy opened his mouth. “So in conclusion, you were defeated in a match by a mage who can’t even use defensive skills? And to make it worse, he’s a student who uses a frivolous weapon called a ‘sword’ as a shield.”
“It was not a match. It was a mock battle…”
The moment another excuse came out of Morso’s mouth, Verazen closed her eyes tightly.
Crack!
Immediately after, a sound similar to something breaking rang out in the middle of the club room.
‘Ugh…?’
For a brief moment, Morso felt that the world had become a pure white canvas. He could not understand the situation for a long time. Soon he realized that all the other students appeared upside down.
'Did I fall down?'
As Morso looked around in disbelief, Jeremy, now standing right next to him, ground his head against the floor.
“Why?” Jeremy asked, but Morso could not understand the meaning of those words.
Drrrrrrrrrrr!
The sound of something breaking echoed in his ears. Terrible pain came crashing down in the next second.
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
Only then did Morso realize that his cheek was being ground against the wall.
“Why?”
Boom!
Jeremy grabbed Morso by the hair and smashed his head into an iron locker.
“Why?”
Once, twice… Three times, five times, ten times. The disturbing sounds echoed continuously for the next few moments. Fresh blood trickled down his head, but Morso did not faint.
“Why did you lose?”
He wanted to say that he was wrong and apologize, but he was not granted the opportunity.
Jeremy opened the locker door, stuffed his head inside, and slammed the door shut.
“Why did you do that? Why do you embarrass me by using the name Skalven? Do you hate me?”
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Blood splattered everywhere, and his eyes quickly became swollen. However, his mage constitution guaranteed he would live through it.
“I’ve been so nice to you. You’re my loyal servant, right?”
“Ghg… Ugh…”
"Hmm? What did you say?"
As Morso struggled to open his mouth, Jeremy brought his ear closer.
“Sor… Sorr…”
“Yes. Keep talking.”
"P-please... spare... my life..."
“No. That’s not it.”
Jeremy gave him a look of incomprehension.
"You're my loyal servant. A true servant should ask to repay their master's shame with their own death, right? That's what I was taught. So why aren't you doing that?"
Suddenly, he stopped.
Jeremy stopped the horrifying punishment. Then, he suddenly knelt down and hugged Morso.
“Sorry. I was too harsh. It’s my fault.”
“Ah… Uh…”
“I’m sorry I hurt you. That wasn’t supposed to happen. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
Morso’s tears, runny nose, and blood-soaked Jeremy's clothes, but he did not seem to care and patted Morso on the back.
"You weren't just a servant. You were my 'friend.' I shouldn't have done that to you."
At those words, Morso shook his head even amid terrible pain.
Friend.
It was a word that should never come out of Prince Jeremy’s mouth. That fact was known to everyone present, so he had no choice but to lower his gaze with a complex expression.
Not a loyal servant, but a friend.
That meant that the Dorden family was expelled from the politics of Skalven for good.
‘Over something so trivial?’
Unfortunately, that question was meaningless.
The Skalven royal family had been known to exile entire families of chefs into slavery just because the breakfast menu wasn't to their liking.
“Ah, ah, ah...!”
“It must hurt a lot. How about this? Verazen, you’re sweet. Take good care of my friend. If anything goes wrong, my heart will ache.”
"... Yes. Understood."
“He’s all yours.”
Jeremy carefully laid Morso down on the floor. Some were creeped out to see how the Prince delicately touched him as if he were handling a jewel, but they did not show it.
Verazen supported Morso and helped him stand upright. If a healing mage’s skill were used, he would recover quickly, but…
‘The Dorden family is done for.’
That realization left her with a heavy heart.
Verazen glanced at Prince Jeremy.
What could he be thinking right now?
Is he furious with Morso? No, he must have already forgotten that.
Rather, he must be thinking of the particularly prominent commoner called Baek Yu-Seol.
Verazen felt sorry for that guy. Despite hearing rumors about this commoner’s talent, it was safe to say that the life of the mage who piqued Jeremy’s interest was over.
Two rumors spread throughout the academy after the demonstration of Baek Yu-Seol’s defense technique.
The first, of course, was a rumor about Baek Yu-Seol’s chivalry.
“What kind of chivalry is he pursuing in a magic academy? Isn’t he just an attention seeker?”
“It’s not bad, is it? Oh, to be young.”
“You’re 17.”
"Honestly, at our age, aren't we already mature enough?"
“That’s true.”
“Anyway, he’s really unique.”
And the second was a rumor about Flame’s Light attribute.
“Did you hear? She uses the Light attribute that only the mages of the Holy Kingdom—or in other words, someone chosen by the angels—can use.”
"And she wasn’t taught it; she was born with it?"
“Then you’re saying she’s an angel?”
“I don’t know. She doesn’t have wings.”
Flame was born with attributes normal humans could not use, so she attracted much attention within the magic academy.
As she received the attention, she neither liked nor disliked it. But the rumor about Baek Yu-Seol bothered her.
‘Oh, what the hell is he?’
The matter made her restless. However, there was no way to figure out his identity.
‘Anyway, I’m sure he’s someone who knows the original plot.’
'If so, what's his purpose?'
“Come on, focus!”
Flame raised her head. Alchemy Professor Maizen Tyren had just clapped to gather the students’ attention.
“Alchemy originally developed from combining various elements to create gold. Of course, synthetic gold is obvious, so no one attempts it nowadays.”
Flame had only enrolled in the subjects most of the main characters were taking. Since alchemy was a subject that only Eisel took, she was not too interested in it.
However, Professor Maizen was destined to become a dark mage later. As such, she had no choice but to take the Alchemy class to prevent it or to stop her.
“The great inventions of alchemy are aishranium, the lightest and hardest element in the world, and similer elixir, the substance that heals any wounds. You must make one potion each in training class from today. That way, in the future, you’ll be able to make something like a similer elixir, right?”
Alchemy was notorious for its complexity. It required accurate measurement that could not be wrong even by 1 cubic centimeter and extreme time management that did not allow for even a second of error. Moreover, there was also temperature control that should not vary even by a degree.
Although the difficulty level wasn’t extreme in the first year, alchemy was notorious for being unpopular due to its intricate experiments.
“Well, today, let’s take the time to make the Tyren Fatigue Recovery Potion that I developed. First, add a spoonful of airel fairy’s honey to powdered green tea leaves…”
The much-awaited practical session.
Honestly, Flame didn't find it too difficult. She was always good at whatever she was instructed to do.
‘Ugh… This is so annoying.’
Flame frowned and took off her protective specs.
As she had good dexterity and concentration, she quickly made the Tyren Fatigue Recovery Potion as instructed by Professor Maizen.
“Oh, impressive. Well done.”
“Thank you.”
At Maizen’s praise, Flame forced a smile on her face.
Alterisha, an assistant following Maizen, became curious and brought her face close to Flame’s potion. As she was trying to sneak a peek at the potion, Maizen yelled at her.
“Alterisha! What are you doing, endangering yourself like that! Can you even call yourself an alchemist acting like this?”
"I-I'm sorry!"
The other students were startled and widened their eyes. One student, distracted by the commotion, accidentally made their potion overflow, causing steam to rise from the table.
‘I think it’s you who’s dangerous.’
Since she could not say it aloud, Flame swallowed her words and looked around.
‘By the way, what about Baek Yu-Seol?’
Baek Yu-Seol was a unique guy. Eisel was the only main character in this class, so Flame had been closely watching to see if he was trying to approach her with impure intentions, but that was not the case.
“Ohoho.”
As if he had forgotten Eisel’s presence, he was completely engrossed in alchemy. Flame started suspecting he was a pervert after noticing how much he enjoyed it.
“Hehee."
'Is... is he a maniac...?'
Every time he added one medicinal herb and stirred, he would laugh insidiously, and her fear soared proportionally with his growing madness.
‘Isn’t he just a pervert…?’
Flame turned her gaze away from him and looked at Eisel. She was doing just fine, and everything looked normal.
Then, a question suddenly arose.
'Normal?’
The potion Eisel was making was a Tyren Fatigue Recovery Potion similar to Flame’s own.
'That shouldn’t be possible...'
In the original storyline, Eisel accidentally obtained Maela’s Magic Engineering Notes at an old bookstore.
Strangely, there were detailed alchemy formulas in the notes and Eisel, who followed the notes by accident, had made an anti-fatigue agent that was superior to Professor Maizen’s Tyren Fatigue Recovery Potion.
However, the professor’s reaction was not good.
Maizen was jealous of Eisel’s abilities, and remembering that her family had been destroyed, she tormented her, lowered her grades, and hurt her throughout the academy year.
Because of it, Eisel suffered a lot. Thankfully, she had male leads who looked after her. Otherwise, she would not have been able to survive.
'But why? Why did she make a normal potion...?'
Although Flame felt it was fortunate since Eisel would no longer be bullied, she knew there had to be a reason behind the anomaly.
A sudden realization struck Flame, and she quickly turned her gaze to Baek Yu-Seol’s work bench.
‘What…?’
The high-grade anti-fatigue agent that should have been developed by Eisel was on his table.
And then, the exact situation she had read about in the novel unfolded.
“Baek Yu-Seol, it seems your Class S status has made you arrogant. Who said you could change the materials as you wish?”
“Huh? But doing it this way yields better results.”
“What does it have to do with good results? What if something goes wrong because you used the wrong materials? What would happen if there’s an explosion and the students get involved?!”
“There’s no explosive substance here. Professor, do you know how to make explosive substances with green tea leaves? That’s awesome.”
“You even dare to reply so flippantly! Outrageous! That’s why commoners are…! Tsk…”
As Flame remembered, the original last line was, ‘That’s why your family was wiped out.’
In the novel, Eisel’s heart began pounding harshly after hearing those cruel words. Her trauma resurfaced and ended up having long lasting effects on her.
That whole matter, in a moment, completely disappeared from history.
'Could it be...?'
'Is it possible that Baek Yu-Seol knew what would happen and chose to take her place in the plot to prevent her trauma from resurfacing?'
‘Nonsense. His future academy life will be terribly difficult.’
It would be so painful and difficult that she could not imagine it. Professor Maizen had many connections within Stella, so it would certainly impact other subjects as well.
‘He must have known but did not care.’
‘What the hell is that guy?’
Flame bowed her head with a conflicted expression.
Memories of the Dungeon Practicum suddenly filled her mind, and highlighted among those memories was when she asked about his identity and he joked, “I want to help you.”
Realizing he might have been honest, Flame stood there, stunned.
Meanwhile…
‘Oh, I forgot.’
Baek Yu-Seol was sighing inwardly.
"Why did you do it? Answer me!"
“I already did.”
“How dare you speak to me that way? I’ll call your parents right away!”
“I don’t have any parents.”
He had been so absorbed in alchemy and enjoyed it so much that he had completely forgotten about this annoying turn of events.
While acknowledging his own stupidity, the instructor’s nagging went in one ear and out the other as he continued reading the handwritten notes on the desk.
“You… You… If you keep that attitude…”
‘Oh, shall I make a Coca-Cola and Kimchi potion for lunch tomorrow?’
In fact, no matter what Maizen said, it had nothing to do with Baek Yu-Seol.