Episode 134. Jang Education Committee (3)
Fortunately, we were able to arrive at Capotini in time.
After confirming that Kuze and Enzo were not at the first meeting point, Rubin headed straight to the bookstore.
I had already told them both to go to the bookstore if they felt safe from Rosenthaler.
“You’re here.”
“Nothing happened?”
“There was no problem.”
Rubin went into the hidden room of the bookstore and descended into the underground cavity. He knew Enzo was there.
“… … .”
Enzo was asleep. Well, he had come here injured and without any proper healing magic.
No matter how much Director Hitan gave him convenience, he could not have been at ease in prison.
There was still some time left until the dormitory roll call, so Rubin waited silently.
“Ugh!”
An hour later, Enzo wakes up with a start. He finds Rubin and belatedly seems to accept that the events of the past few days were not a dream.
“It’s time to move. To the Rhapsody Hall.”
A dormitory that incorporates various magical architectural techniques such as ‘space connection’ and ‘space expansion’.
Enzo, as one of the people in charge of construction there, declared that the Rhapsody Building was the safest place to be, and Rubin agreed without question.
‘The imperial order can’t enter the Magic Tower area anyway, and even if they want to do something, they have to go through me.’
It was the best option at the time.
But hiding in the secret space of the Rhapsody Hall is only a temporary measure.
Considering the arduous journey to get revenge on Telmah, a place that could guarantee long-term safety was needed.
‘I’ll have to look into that later. For now, I’ll think about the test that’s going to be held tomorrow morning.’
“First, wear this.”
“A cadet robe. How long has it been since I last wore one?”
Come to think of it, Enzo was also a graduate of Capotini Magic School. It must have been a long time since he visited his alma mater. Although he is currently a fugitive.
‘I must save him and make him my ally.’
Rubin made up his mind once again. Rubin had seen with his own eyes how strong the awakened wizard was. Whether it was Per or Enzo, or both, he didn’t know.
“Pretend to be a magic student. First, cover your face.”
There was no other way to hide inside the tower. Enzo covered his face with a flowing robe, hiding it from view.
“And this too.”
This time, he handed over a black belt. It meant to cover his eyes. Enzo didn’t know that the space where he was sleeping was under the bookstore. He didn’t even know Kuze’s face yet.
Enzo complied without objection, because he knew that these security procedures were the way to protect himself and, by extension, Per.
After completing all preparations, the two left the bookstore and boarded a gondola.
The gondola was moving quickly. As expected on a Sunday evening, Capotini was quiet and peaceful.
“It feels really strange to sneak into my alma mater.”
Enzo said, taking off the bandage that had been covering his eyes. He was once a promising magic architect, but now he was a fugitive. He smiled bitterly, perhaps feeling complicated by this fact.
“Enzo.”
“hmm?”
“Even if you’re hiding in a secret space in the dormitory, from now on, never mention the name Per.”
“Yeah, it can’t hurt to be careful.”
Rubin asked sarcastically.
“… Don’t you want to meet Oscar?”
“That kid, if he knew I was here, he’d be really shaken.”
That was something that Rubin was worried about as well. Through ‘Black Leaf’, we can see that Per’s inner self is deeply engrained with love for his father.
Besides, Per didn’t know that Rubin had met his father over the weekend. Nor that Rubin knew about the ‘Chain of Awakening’.
“So I only promised to rescue you, I didn’t say where I would take you to.”
Rubin simply lied.
“Then… I won’t tell Oscar where I’m going. That would protect both of us.”
“all right.”
“Just, sometimes, bring that guy out to the front gate of the Rhapsody Hall.”
“At the main gate?”
“Yes. I really want to see it, even from far away.”
According to Enzo’s subsequent words, among the secret spaces in the Rhapsody Hall, there is a place that projects the main entrance as it is.
It meant that even though he couldn’t face his son, he wanted to at least see his face there.
Rubin nodded.
“Oscar has been wandering around the public corridors lately, but I’ll try to lure him into walking around the schoolyard.”
“Thank you.”
Soon, the gondola carrying the two people reached the border of Matap District.
I was worried that the barrier might activate and Enzo wouldn’t be able to pass through, but fortunately, nothing happened.
‘Enzo said that Principal Keegan would consider the graduates as part of the school. It was true.’
The gondola crossed Lake Capotin and reached a ferry port. As soon as they got off the gondola, Enzo whispered to Rubin.
“I won’t go in through the main entrance of the Rhapsody Hall.”
“There is another entrance?”
“There is a secret door that only I know.”
A secret door. Well, it wasn’t strange that there was a hidden entrance to the Rhapsody Hall, since Rubin hadn’t explored it yet. Besides, Enzo was the architect in charge of the construction of this building.
“It’s here.”
Enzo stopped at the northern part of the Rhapsody Hall wall. He hid himself in the evening darkness and felt around the wall.
The next moment, the ground beneath his feet made a thud, creating a small doorway in front of Enzo.
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“I have to go in through the main gate.”
“Then go in first. Then you can come to where I am.”
“How do I get there?”
“Just go past the break room on the 5th floor and into the hallway. Then I’ll invite you.”
Although the expression of inviting me felt strange, I decided to follow Enzo’s words without hesitation.
Rubin entered the dormitory through the main gate and headed straight to the fifth floor. He met a few C-class cadets on the stairs along the way, but they only exchanged brief greetings.
At that moment, someone called Rubin from behind.
“Luden?”
It was Dahlia. She was walking upstairs carrying a rather heavy load.
It seemed like he had just returned from a weekend trip to the Delinga mansion.
“Dahlia, how was your weekend?”
“Well, so-so.”
Dahlia’s eyes lingered over Rubin, as if she was interrogating him, trying to find some kind of reaction from him.
“Do you have anything to say?”
“Did you meet Chloe over the weekend?”
“Chloe? No. We haven’t met, why?”
“… Then it’s okay. It’s nothing.”
It was obvious why Dahlia was acting like this. She had probably been to my mansion and heard something shocking. That the Jang Education Committee was going to conduct a surprise test at dawn.
Rubin must have wanted to check if she knew about this fact. She thought that Chloe was the only way Rubin, a third-class noble, could know about the Jang Education Committee, so she asked that question.
“…Luden. It would be better to go to bed early today.”
Dahlia said, seemingly knowing and not knowing.
‘Hoo.’
Is he leaking information? It was unexpected. It wasn’t Rubin’s intention, but it seemed like the emotional distance between him and Dahlia had narrowed considerably over the past two weeks.
Considering Dahlia’s usual pride and sense of privilege, even this riddle could be seen as a sign of great goodwill.
Rubin shrugged, pretending not to know.
“You know, my roommate is Oscar. He’ll be talking a lot all night.”
“Anyway, it would be best for both of you to go to bed as early as possible.”
“But why is that?”
“Well, well… tomorrow is Monday.”
Looking at Dahlia, who was blushing and flustered, I thought that even though she was the daughter of a noble family, she was still a thirteen-year-old girl.
“Yeah, tomorrow is Monday. You too, sleep well, Dahlia.”
“…you also.”
Dahlia frowned for a moment, as if she was feeling frustrated. Leaving her like that, Rubin went up to the 5th floor of the dormitory and headed straight to the lounge.
I walked down the hallway, past the break room where there were several mana-boosting devices.
As soon as he entered the restricted area, just like the first day he entered the dormitory, Rubin’s movements became filled with darkness.
When will Enzo appear?
As I was running through the hallway, avoiding the animals of the Srehim sergeant, the door in the wall that was usually closed opened with a creak.
‘Is this it?’
Just then, the ‘Eye of Sound’ was waiting for him across the hallway. Instead of going any further, Rubin opened the door and went inside.
‘There’s nothing?’
Rubin thinks so, as an empty room appears.
“aha.”
I quickly raised my head as I felt something. As expected, a thick rope came sliding down from above.
Looking closely, there was a pitch-black hole in the ceiling. Was it there from the beginning? Or was it a ‘space connection’ spell? Something felt off. The rope came down from that hole.
‘This is the ‘invitation’ Enzo was talking about.’
Rubin grabbed the rope without hesitation and wrapped it around his arm.
Swish.
Then, with a frightening tug on the rope, Rubin was sucked into the hole.
* * *
Rubin, who was dragged up through a hole in the ceiling, fell into a fireplace.
I was curious as to why it fell when it was clearly pulled up, but I figured it was some kind of design magic, so it made sense.
‘What a room full of clutter.’
Building materials were piled up here and there like mountains, and faded papers were scattered around. Then, a familiar voice was heard.
“You came.”
It was Enzo. Rubin faced him, brushing away the ashes. He was rummaging through his belongings.
“I didn’t know there was a place like this at school.”
“This is the place used by the architect who was in charge of the construction before me. It’s like a warehouse and a trash can.”
“What happened a little while ago?”
“Spatial access. You guys can pass mana balls through the ceiling of your dorm room, right? It’s the same principle. However, the magic designed here is much more complicated because it allows people to enter and exit as well.”
He said that no one could come and go freely without a rope. The rope that Rubin was holding onto was a kind of managu.
“How can I see the dormitory main gate from here?”
“Here, like this.”
A part of one wall was reflecting the main door as if looking through a glass window.
“It was used as a warehouse during construction, but it was the supervisor’s office before that. That’s why you can see the main gate like this.”
“Then I should quickly go to the room and bring Oscar out.”
“No, there’s no need to rush.”
Even as he said that, he couldn’t hide his desire to see his son’s face.
“Roll call will begin soon. I’ll bring Oscar out before then.”
Rubin took a quick look around the inside. It would take some time to clean up, but it was a good hideout for the time being. No one who would target Enzo would find it here.
Relieved, Rubin walked over to the fireplace. The fireplace had a rope sticking out like a long tail.
As I grabbed the rope again, I felt a sudden tug. The next moment, Rubin disappeared into the fireplace again.
A little later, at the main entrance of the dormitory.
Oscar had just come out of the dormitory after falling for Rubin’s trickery.
“…There isn’t any.”
“There’s a fluorescent frog? Did you really see it?”
“Yeah. It was in front of here a little while ago.”
“Hey! I just took a shower so I’m super fluffy!”
Oscar looked around for a while, looking for a fluorescent frog.
Of course, there was no way there could be a fluorescent frog. Capotini was not an environment in which fluorescent frogs could live in the first place.
“Oh, is that it?”
“Where? Where!”
“Ah… no. It’s a light.”
Not even realizing that his father was watching him, Oscar hurled curses at Rubin.
‘Father… … .’
Enzo and Oscar. Thinking about the two people who couldn’t be together and had to live on the run, the concept of a father suddenly came to Rubin’s mind.
To Rubin, his father was a gap in his life.
All he knew was that he was a hunter, that he had black hair and eyes, and that he was the third husband of the head of the household and was referred to as ‘Third’ in the family.
I had never seen him or heard much about him.
In fact, I had never been curious about him. Not only in my previous life, but also in this life. It was natural in the harsh environment of the Assassin Sword School, and with revenge as the sole purpose.
Moreover, even Siren, who often told secrets as the final moments before the return approached, was silent about Rubin’s father.
‘It’s strange. Well, maybe it wasn’t worth it.’
Because First and Second, Dorian and Maphis were just ordinary hunters who looked down on them.
Rubin wanted to take the opportunity to ask him questions about it, but he soon changed his mind.
Because it was a relationship in which I had no memory whatsoever, and it was clear that it would be of no help in seeking revenge.
“I guess I saw something wrong, Oscar.”
“… Luden. Not only did you lie about being a magician, but now you’ve turned into a total liar!”
“Huh…? It’s the principal.”
“Is this really another lie?”
But it wasn’t a lie. In the dark schoolyard, a large figure was walking briskly from the other side.
“Oh… Really?”
A serious expression on his face that I had never seen before. Principal Keegan was about to enter the Rhapsody Hall when he noticed Rubin and Oscar standing outside and stopped dead in his tracks.
“Luden Poinen and Oscar Tunio.”
“Oh, Principal! You remember my name.”
“Of course, Oscar’s name is famous among the professors. All the professors who have been to Class C complain that it hurts their ears.”
In fact, Oscar didn’t know that Principal Keegan had memorized the faces and names of hundreds of new students.
“But why is the principal here in our dormitory at this late hour?”
“Why, does it look like the Uldin bear is going hunting?”
It was a remark that reminded Oscar of when he had said that Keegan, whom he had met on the first day of school, resembled the Uldin bear Lulu, but Oscar was not one to cower.
“Hey, a bear. The principal’s magnificent frame, like a rough and brave giant-blooded warrior? Oh, of course I don’t mean dirty and filthy… …!”
Just as Oscar was cracking jokes, Headmaster Srehim came out of the dormitory. Like the principal, his expression was serious.
‘I just got a notification from the Education Committee.’
Rubin guessed so. He calculated that it was the time when the soldiers of the Jang Educational Committee arrived at Capotini.
The headmaster approached the principal and whispered something. Although they had the same serious expressions, the two men were somewhat different. Keegan seemed displeased with the visit of the Education Committee, but Headmaster Srehim looked visibly excited.
In fact, it was an honorable thing for a magic school to have the Jang Gyo-gyo Committee visit the school. So the headmaster’s reaction was quite normal.
“Director, does it seem like something good is going to happen?”
“Oh, he’s crawling up again? Oscar! Get up there quickly. We’ll be doing roll call soon.”
The warden glared at the two men, thinking as he went up to the dormitory.
‘It’s come.’
