Vol. 1 - Ch. 325 - School Festival (7)

The obstacle course event by Sail Club had attracted the attention of a substantial crowd. 

Paying no mind to the countless curious gazes, Dan breezed through the "Obstacle Course - Hard", a challenge that had seemed utterly impossible to everyone else.

A plethora of candidates had begun complaining "Is there even someone who can clear this challenge?" after rows of vain attempts. So, Dan put himself up as the example to demonstrate its authenticity.

He was already approaching the treacherous climbing section near the end of the course.

After performing a triangular wall jump, Dan dexterously hooked his fingers onto a slight protrusion in the wall. A sudden gust of wind nearly threw him off balance, but his biceps bulged as he flexed, instantly regaining his composure.

Coiling his body like a spring, he scaled the sheer vertical wall with ease, arriving at the starting point of the final obstacle.

He was easily over thirty meters above the ground. The horizontal distance to the lookout platform atop the mast, where the goal flag fluttered, looked to be about fifteen meters.

No challenger had reached this final obstacle yet, and even from the ground, it was structured in a way that left everyone clueless as to how one was supposed to tackle it. 

The course was installed with squares crate with handles and grappling hook, so perhaps that's what the challenges were supposed to make use of us. Yet, Dan betrayed the expectations of the nervous crowd by miles and cleared the challenge with simple skills.

He stepped onto a boom—a horizontal pole used to adjust sail angles—that jutted out in a direction away from the goal. With no safety line, he casually walked out to the middle of it.

The sound of the crowd gulping in anticipation echoed through the air.

Stopping midway along the boom, Dan narrowed his eyes, glancing at the flag fluttering at the goal to check the wind speed and direction.

Then, he deliberately pulled the line securing the canvas, unfurling the sail attached to the mast and boom. In that instant, the boom Dan was standing on creaked loudly and began to rotate with tremendous force.

Dan sprinted toward the tip of the rapidly spinning, unstable boom.

The boom swung about sixty degrees before hitting its structural limit and slamming to a halt. At that exact moment, Dan used the momentum to launch himself off the beam.

" "Eeeek!!" "

Screams erupted from the onlookers gazing up from below. 

But Dan cleared the nearly ten-meter gap in a single bound, landing effortlessly on the lookout platform of the adjacent mast—the goal.

After a split second of stunned silence, the crowd erupted into thunderous applause and excited chatter.

Dan wrapped a rope attached to the flag around his body and rappelled down, kicking off the mast as he descended smoothly.

"…So, yeah, that’s how you do it. And despite how you saw it, you just need to be good at Body Strengthening magic. The rest can be bridged with skills."

Dan remarked nonchalantly, but the onlookers’ faces were opposite of it. They twitched in collective disbelief.

"He... he made it like it was mere child's play......"

"Indeed he did..."

"*Gulp* Are you telling me that much life-threatening training is a norm for the academy's students?"

Mile, a member of the Sail Club, broke into a bitter smile at the crowd's reaction.

"Rest assured... you can count the number of people even in the Academy who’ve reached the flag through a rotating boom. In other words, that wasn't the only correct route. Like Dan said, if you're creative enough, you absolutely can clear it with enough room left. The key is to use your head and carefully figure out a route you can handle. Go on, give it your best shot."

Despite Dan taking the trouble to perform a demonstration run, not a single onlooker watched it and thought, 'Alright, let me have a go.'

◆◆◆

"Holy damn, why in the world is the stamp rally so difficult to clear..."

"Truly. I didn't think, even with us four, we can only decipher one hint at best."

The senior students of Civil School, to be precise they're the student council's member, one of the four prominent institutes for the advanced studies, remarked as they tackled Geography Club's «Heroes's Youth» event.

While they knew they're unremarkable in their stamina and magical capability, they'd thought themselves to be on par with Royal Academy's students in the academics. And thus, they'd come to challenge the stamp rally organised by Coconial Canardia, one of the known names nowadays in the capital.

There was no disputing that Leo and Bester were the face of academic rankers, however when it comes to anything general knowledge—something that wasn't a part of curriculum, as a fact there was no beating Coconial Canardia, a fact gradually rooting itself in the capital. 

As a fact, the thesis over «King of Flies»—that explained the profound analysis of St. Angol Mountain Range, its geological history, the monster echology, including his incisive remarks—in particular had astounded even the experts of the field, garnering significant acclaim.

Lately, it had reached the point where professional monster researchers were writing to Coco to ask for his opinion on their own work.

Anyway, the gist was the group of four, who had been tackling the stamp rally as soon as they'd step foot into the academy's premise, barely managed to track one of the four stamps in all these hours. 

"...Since the answer to one of the stamps was famed «Festy's Lava», the general pattern to crack the rest of hints perhaps lies in locations associated with famous graduates of the academy."

They'd found it at the melted rock said to have melted on whim by a mage known as «Fire God Festy» roughly 120 years ago. Apparently, the skills of Mage Festy were such that it had casted nightmares even in the hearts of other nations in her time.

Though sometimes legends were exaggerated. In truth, the melted rock was the outcome of mind-bogglingly repetitive self-training. Since photos of the rock circulate alongside records of Festy’s achievements, the difficulty of this particular question was low.

It appeared they were not the only ones to have reached the answer either. However, this was still the start.

"I think this second question is probably related to the 'Martial Saint' Lucius Margot..."

"I concur. This hint, 'Age of Night', is often used as a metaphor for the dark times when this kingdom was rotting under the weight of its own corruption some 450 years ago. It lasted for five decades until Lucius, the master of all weapons, challenged the corrupted army authorities. In the aftermath, they'd called that moment as «The Seven Swings of the Light, Wipes Away the Night», which means this is certainly about him."

One of the group members remarked, the other nodding in affirmation.

"If so, then the question is which part of the academy associate with him. This line about 'chewing on bedding straw to greet the dawn sky' seems connected to the Margot family's horseshoe crest, but there's something I am wondering. Why does the Margot family even use a horseshoe motif in the first place?"

"Beats me... Want to go take another look at that rickety old stable?"

The challengers were given hints pointing to the locations of the four stamps. However, either of the hints were something that couldn't be cracked if they'd only paid attention to their syllabus. 

One must have the 'adventurous' heart, one that sought to learn about the historical trivia and background context surrounding the core events recorded in history books to tap on hints Coco  presented.

When the four of them returned to the old stable, they found a scattering of other challengers who had drawn the same conclusion. They were wandering around the building, clutching their stamp rally cards.

Judging from their expressions, however, things weren't exactly going swimmingly.

"Yo, Cain! Are you here trying your hand at the Geography Research Club's stamp rally? How's it going?"

Just then, a boy, seemingly an academy student pulled up, straddling a two-wheeler mana vehicle. He called out to a young boy who looked barely old enough to have even entered an advanced school.

"Ah, Teacher! Well, I found two of them, but... the rest are pretty tough."

Hearing the boy named Cain smile wryly and say this, the challengers searching around the stable all turned their heads at once.

Looking closely at the card in the boy's hands, they could see two stamps pressed onto it. One was Festy's, and the other was one that nobody else here besides Cain had managed to find.

"Woah, you solved Jacob's question?! That's our Cain for you!"

The boy, referred to as teacher—Allen—said this, giving Cain a hearty pat on the back.

The surrounding challengers, watching the exchange, pricked up their ears.

"...Jacob...? Who's that?"

Praised, Cain smiled bashfully.

"It was just a lucky break. A photo book I own, Bridges of the World, mentioned that Jacob actually left behind various other structures for future generations besides just castles. I found a bridge that was much smaller than Jacob's Arch Bridge but shared similar characteristics, and it just happened to click."

Hearing the keyword "castles," one of the challengers clapped his hands together in realization.

"Besides just castles... could he mean the master castle architect, Jacob Hadida...?"

"I see. Jacob Hadida, the architect behind the Old West Wall Watchtower, which is now a major tourist attraction in the Royal Capital. But… this is a persona from millennia ago. I didn’t know he was also a graduate of this academy."

"A-Anyway, so we're looking for an arch bridge. I'm sure we've passed a few of them. If it's a bridge from a thousand years ago, we should be able to narrow it down just by looking at it. Let's start by hitting up the ones that look old!"

The other challengers, who had been eavesdropping on Allen and Cain's conversation, scrambled off in a flurry of footsteps.

Watching them go, Allen shrugged his shoulders.

".........Sorry about that. You worked so hard to find it, Cain, and I went and spilled the beans. How about I give you a hint for the remaining answers to make up for it?"

Offered the olive branch, Cain paused as if to think for a moment before shaking his head.

"I think I will pass. This academy is fascinating, Teacher. There are incredibly old structures everywhere... Just walking around and letting my imagination run wild makes me feel like I've stepped back in time. I couldn't believe that Jacob's bridge was built as a research project a thousand years ago by a kid not much older than me. ...It might be impossible to get all the answers right, but I'm going to try racking my own brain right up until the time limit."

Hearing Cain's determination, Allen grinned.

"'Kay. But «Attic of the Martial Saint» aside, you're going to jump in shock if you can find the «Secret Hideout». Even the teachers of academy had been shocked to core when Coco opened the «Underground Stairs» which didn't see the light for 800 years. They called it a historical discovery. Anyway, two questions left, huh. They'll be tough, but have fun with them! And hey, you don't have to do it all by yourself. It might be fun to bounce ideas off of someone around her. See ya later, Cain!"

With that, he sped off on his two-wheeler mana vehicle, looking like he was having the absolute time of his life.

"...Even though I told him I didn't need a hint. ...I bet he just really wants me to see it and be amazed, doesn't he?"

Watching Allen ride off, Cain chuckled to himself.

T/N - This is the only update so far now, following the patreon schedule and author update frequency. Hopefully author get back soon as well.

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