I looked at the professors who had unilaterally concluded the conversation and asked back with a baffled expression.
“..Are you telling us to resolve that mystery disaster right now?”
“That is correct.”
“Us? We’re students, though?”
I pointed at myself with a finger and opened my eyes wide.
Really? You’re telling us to resolve something that dangerous with just students?
Isn’t this a school? No matter how much a mystery disaster isn’t a threat like ordinary robbers or wild animals, we still came here to receive an education. You’re telling us to clean up something that happened at school?
What kind of absurd situation is this?
“..Had you been ordinary students, Professor Ran would not have made this kind of decision, Student Jin Prah.”
Lacking the nerve to actually ask if they’d lost their minds out loud, I was staring at the professors ahead with the most dumbfounded expression I could muster when Professor Osil, standing beside the table, blocked my view and slowly spat out words.
“Student Jin Prah, and Student Isil, are you not students belonging to the Department of Mysteries?”
“That is correct.”
“I understand that in the Department of Mysteries students’ curriculum, making contact with as many mysteries as possible is of the utmost importance. Is that not so?”
“Professor Osil is right.”
Professor Jan alternated his gaze between me and Isil, who were staring at him with dumbfounded expressions, and spoke calmly.
“Student Jin Prah and Student Isil are important talents who possess the seeds of a mage, and the Department of Mysteries is a department for nurturing mages, is it not? And for one who possesses the seed of a mage to sprout and grow into a giant tree, they must undoubtedly face various mysterious phenomena composed of ether.”
Professor Ran let out a small sigh, as if to say she hadn’t intended to give a lecture here and now, and continued her explanation.
“The mystery disaster you have just experienced is among the very safe ones, and I do not wish to block your growth by resolving this good opportunity myself.”
“..Just a moment ago, Professor Jian said that if we die inside a mystery disaster, we die for real. Is my memory distorted?”
“No! Student Jin Prah’s memory is perfect! I definitely said that!”
Whether he was happy that his words were remembered, or simply manic as usual and speaking brightly, Professor Jian smiled brightly as he affirmed my question.
I smiled back at his bright smile and thought inwardly.
Ha ha ha. What a load of cheerful bullshit.
“..That seems like far too dangerous a judgment, Professor Ran.”
Fortunately, Professor Jan, who had viewed us unfavorably since our very first meeting, opened his mouth with an expression mixed with worry.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one harboring such thoughts, thankfully.
So there was at least one sane person among the professors.
“Asking freshmen who haven’t yet learned anything to bear such danger does not seem like a good decision.”
“Professor Jan, you have been a professor at the Academia for quite some time, so you must have seen plenty of them—good-for-nothings who ultimately fail to become mages and leave the Academia.”
“...”
“The Academia is, strictly speaking, an educational institution of the Empire, and the role of a professor in the Department of Mysteries that I undertake is to nurture as many mages as possible and protect against the various mystery disasters that threaten the Empire.”
Professor Ran pulled her gaze away from Professor Jan and looked at us.
To be exact, at me and Isil.
“Student Jin Prah, and Student Isil. You were both assigned mage seniors as guides, were you not?”
“...Yes.”
“That is correct.”
“Then you must have seen the ‘magic’ they use, directly or indirectly. What did you think?”
What did I think after seeing magic?
“Uh… that it must be convenient having a mystical animal with you?”
“...That you’d be warm even when it’s cold.”
“Hmm, I’m surprised your answers are so lighthearted compared to what I expected, but regardless. Your guides are all mages who have already manifested magic. How many such individuals do you think appear in a year?”
“..Inferring from the professor’s tone, it seems only a very small number of people become mages.”
“We do not even reach ten. The rest graduate from the Academia merely as experts possessing knowledge of the mystical.”
She continued speaking, furrowing her brow slightly as if displeased by that situation.
“There are currently twenty freshmen enrolled in the Department of Mysteries. Of them, at most ten, and on average only about six or seven, become ‘mages.’”
“..Isn’t that quite a lot? That means nearly half become mages.”
“It is an absurdly high probability, had they been ordinary people. But you are seeds that have been filtered and selected by the Empire, with an extremely high possibility of resonating with ether.”
Seeds.
Professor Ran now, and the guide who brought me to the Academia, Belssi, had all called me that.
Why on earth do they use the expression “seed”?
“From the moment you were selected for the Department of Mysteries at the Academia, it means you were chosen as a talent with a probability of roughly one in ten thousand. And yet even such talents—more than half of the students fail to become mages.”
Even though we provide the best education available at this point in time—she said this with eyes brimming with pride.
“..So what is the point you’re ultimately trying to make?”
“From a professor’s standpoint, I have a duty to nurture as many mages as possible. And students who graduate from the Academia as mages have, without exception, had frequent contact with mystery disasters or mystical creatures.”
So in the end, since the seniors who became mages met with many mystery disasters and creatures, we should take this opportunity to meet them too.
Is that what she’s saying?
No, I understand what she’s saying, but.
“What about our safety…?”
“To learn one’s own magic, one must intentionally place oneself in danger. Magic comes in the most desperate of moments.”
“Ah, yes?”
Professor Ran looked at us with the gaze of a master artisan who had long crafted works, looking upon her apprentice.
As if to say, you too must suffer hardship to become a master like me. Or, to use a past-life analogy, it was the gaze of a senior soldier about to be discharged looking at fresh recruits.
Distant and pitying, yet containing within it the intention that you must suffer as much as I have—such was the gaze.
“And please do not worry too much. Until you resolve the mystery disaster, we are not telling you to handle it with empty words and no support whatsoever—Professor Jian?”
“Yes! Everyone, look over here!”
Professor Jian stepped onto a chair and climbed up until his upper body rose above the table.
And he produced a luxurious pouch from his bosom and plunged his hand into its opening.
Rummage, rummage.
“Hmm… it should be somewhere in here… Ah, found it!”
Having searched the inside of the pouch by plunging his arm in up to the shoulder, Professor Jian soon withdrew his hand clutching three rings.
And immediately placed the crude silver rings on the table.
“These relics are specialized in protecting the body! I excavated them from Celestial ruins about twenty years ago! It’s perfect that there happen to be exactly three!”
Professor Jian would have liked to share information about the relics’ origins, styles, and original owners, but skipped them for the sake of time and quickly explained only their effects.
“If you wear that ring on any finger, an ordinary blade cannot even scratch your skin! It is as if you are wearing thin plate armor!”
“..A single ring can produce such an effect?”
“It is no mere ring! Originally, they are rings primarily found in the tombs of high-ranking nobles among the Celestials, with roughly three to six discovered per tomb! The reason being that beyond merely protecting one’s own body, they served as gifts bestowed upon closest subordinates—”
“Professor Jian.”
“Ah! My apologies! I spoke without thinking.”
Professor Jian tapped his own mouth and cut off his explanation mid-sentence with an expression that said, ‘I shouldn’t do this.’
And then he simply shouted.
“The ring is called the Distortion Field Ring! If you wear it, the attacks of ghosts with weak physical force will not even tickle! The hand wearing the ring can strike spirits as well, so it is the perfect fit for the current situation!”
It was quite a long explanation for something shouted simply, but anyway, so this ring lets us strike ghosts?
As we touched the crude silver-colored rings here and there with eyes sparkling with wonder, Professor Jian spoke.
“I shall lend these rings to you! Therefore, use them to resolve the mystery disaster, students!”
His appearance brought to mind a game, as if question marks or exclamation points would be floating above Professor Jian’s head. He looked exactly like an NPC who had handed over the items needed to clear a quest and was saying, ‘Hurry up and complete the quest!’
What are you, a game NPC?