Episode 27: Academy of Dreams and Fantasies (1)
A land full of dreams and fantasies, Neverland... it was not.
In any case, the response to Volume 2 of the academy story The Genius Mage of the Slums, which had planted a grand illusion in people’s minds, was truly explosive beyond measure.
“The academy was such a dramatic and thrilling place? Why didn’t I know?”
“It wasn’t just some boring place for bookworms?
If I’d known this, I would’ve gone to the academy too!”
“Damn it! You’re telling me the guys attending the academy were enjoying sights this fun all by themselves?”
Most people, unaware of the red-pill truth that all sorts of events appearing in the story had, in fact, been fabricated,
began to feel longing and curiosity toward this fantastical landmark called the academy, which had appeared like a meteor.
And they began to take interest in it not only as a simple educational institution or place of study, but in other directions as well.
“Hmm. It certainly is interesting, but isn’t this fiction, after all?
Common sense says no educational institution in the world would suddenly tell incoming students who came to study to go fight monsters, would it?
Well, if you call it novelistic exaggeration, I suppose it’s not impossible to understand.”
“This isn’t the academy I know!
Back when I attended the academy, it was just an ordinary place of learning.”
“Are you sure? How many years ago was that?
It might have changed by now.”
“W-well, if you put it that way, I don’t really have anything to say...”
Of course, there were people who knew the truth about the academy, but they were far fewer in number.
And even they either enjoyed it while considering it mere novelistic exaggeration,
or wondered if something had changed without their knowledge and let it pass without nitpicking.
As a result, the rumor that the academy was not some boring place only bookworms attended, but a place far more unconventional, exciting, and fiery than expected,
began to spread almost like established fact, without any major rebuttal or clash.
Naturally, if it could be called natural, this strange heat filled with interest and longing turned entirely toward the academy.
And at the very forefront of that heat were, as expected, young students of an age to consider enrolling in the academy.
“I was planning to just study at home instead of going to an academy far away, but this changes things!”
“If I go to the academy too, I’ll be able to have adventures like Tian and get a beautiful lover!
I can do it. If it’s me...!”
“I’m not a genius like Tian, so I won’t be able to become the protagonist of such incredible incidents.
But wouldn’t even just watching from the side become a boast I could talk about for the rest of my life?”
Unlike other readers, these young students were the very people who could directly enter the academy, so naturally, their interest could not help but be greater than anyone else’s.
And just as they began seriously considering academy admission and gathering information,
—An interview obtained with an anonymous professor working at the academy!
The contents of the novel were true?!—
An article broke, claiming that the academy as it appeared in the novel was real!
‘If we slip in an anonymous interview in the middle, wouldn’t that stimulate people’s interest even more?’
‘Sounds amusing. Proceed.’
Naturally, it was an article Wade had conspired with the academy to publish in order to promote the academy in a natural manner.
And it was an interview that cleverly hid the truth that the academy had only been newly remodeled a few months ago.
But for those who wanted to believe the theory that the academy was insanely fun, that alone was enough grounds for trust.
“You said it was just exaggeration in a novel, but they say it’s real! My friend, did you deceive me?”
“My eyes have finally been opened. I must go to the academy!”
“It is time for students to enroll in the academy!
Bring forth an application form and pen!”
Immediately, public opinion across the nation exploded once again.
And the result was this.
“Hup! I’ll leave the new box here.”
“Again?! No way, right? Tell me it isn’t! Tell me it’s not!
The room is already this full, so it’s not more, right? Right?”
“Um... I’m sorry, but this time, too, they’re all admission applications.”
“Graaagh!”
The academy admissions office became so packed with admission applications that had flown in from all over the nation,
that incoming students began to flood in.
“There are quite a few applicants who have passed the average admission age. Is this all right?”
“But there is no particular clause regarding age in the academy admission regulations.
Of course, once you enroll, you must start from the first year no matter what, and the academy’s rule is that students are equal among themselves.
So until now, once people passed the appropriate age, most of them simply didn’t come at all...”
“You mean they still want to enroll despite that?
Damn it! If that was the case, couldn’t they have come earlier?
Ah, whatever! If there’s no regulation against it, just pass them through!”
As a result, the differences between students—status, region of origin, age, gender, and so on—became far too wide.
Just thinking about sorting it all out and figuring out how to manage it going forward felt like it would make every last hair on their heads fall out.
The problem was that these applications were not only coming from students.
“Huh, another resume applying for a professor position has come in.”
“What level is it this time?”
“A Stage 6 Aura User. Notably, a former Gold-rank adventurer.”
“Then it’ll be put on hold. We’ve already received quite a few applications from Stage 6 people.
Still, since he’s a former adventurer, he could lecture the students on practical experience, so there may be bonus points.”
Until just a few months ago, professors had been leaving the academy one after another.
Now, applicants who wanted to enter were appearing in droves and actively promoting themselves.
“Everything is great, but why now of all times!”
Thanks to that, the amount of hair the already-suffering admissions department staff were losing doubled.
Soon after, in the other departments that received the overflow of work, screams and hairs began flying one after another as well.
In any case, the academy was beginning to enjoy an unprecedented boom.
***
Murmur, murmur—
The entrance ceremony of the Royal Academy, where dozens of times more people had gathered compared to last year.
More than half of the crowd were people who had gathered to see the academy, which had recently been the subject of countless rumors.
But that also meant that about half had actually come to enroll in the academy.
And among those countless hopeful applicants,
Lena, the younger sister of Author Wei, who could be called the very person responsible for creating this scene,
Mueeeh—
was waiting for her turn, blankly half out of her mind.
‘Where am I? Who am I? What on earth is going on...?’
The academy she had been planning to enter had clearly been a place with absolutely nothing to do with this kind of chaos and bustle.
But by the time she came to her senses, it had somehow become something like a dream destination where every young person around Lena’s age wished to enroll.
“Back then... I shouldn’t have brought up the academy to my brother back then...”
The taste of regret that seeped out belatedly stung.
Of course, Lena herself had read Volume 2 of The Genius Mage of the Slums, which had been born as a result, with tremendous enjoyment.
But a brief comment about the academy’s situation, something she had casually mentioned to her brother in passing,
had gone around and around until it created this enormous phenomenon, leaving her so dumbfounded it felt as if her mind might flee right out of her skull.
Because didn’t this somehow seem like her responsibility?
Wade, who could shake the kingdom as he pleased, would not care.
But for Lena, the fact that such a massive change had occurred because of her was truly burdensome.
‘And they’re saying this is after they filtered them once because the academy can’t accept them all due to capacity?’
Lena suddenly realized anew that her older brother Wade was an author with enough influence to shake a nation.
But rather than worship or respect, what Lena felt more strongly was sheer absurdity.
Whether that was because, as family, she knew what he had once been like as an unemployed loafer,
or because she had been born as a younger sister fated to naturally want to rebel against her older brother, she did not know.
“Ooooh! So this is the academy!
Indeed, just as in the novel, there is an intricate magical barrier cast over the walls!”
“L-look at this! At the academy’s main gate, Author Wei personally wrote a welcome message to the incoming students!”
“Damn it! I’ve seen another trace of Author Wei! I have no choice but to worship!”
Unlike Lena,
the incoming students gathered here were practically worshiping Wade at all times.
And it was only natural. Most of the students here were all fans of the books written by her older brother, Wade.
What she had not expected was that among such fanatics, there were also big shots she would normally have found it difficult to even dare look at.
“The person who will seize the position of top incoming student and receive the principal’s treasure is none other than me! Joshua Grandel! Is that not so?”
“That is correct! Who could possibly beat Lord Joshua and take first place?”
“If it is Lord Joshua, hailed as the greatest genius in the history of House Grandel, then naturally he is certain to become the top incoming student, just like Tian!”
That noisy man, with his arrogant and impudent attitude as though the position of top incoming student already belonged to him,
was unmistakably Joshua Grandel, said to be cherished as a swordsmanship genius born only once in hundreds of years even in House Grandel, which stood shoulder to shoulder with House Lucid.
“Ugh. Just being near her feels like I’m being purified!”
“Ahh, just looking at her holiness makes me feel like the sins in my heart are being exposed!”
“So this is sacred beauty...?”
That beautiful girl, who radiated holiness around her even while simply meditating quietly,
was undoubtedly the Saintess, whom Lena had only heard of in rumors.
Two big shots who, under normal circumstances, would not have enrolled in the academy, let alone come outside their families or the church,
were standing in line and waiting for admission as if it were only natural, so Lena could not help but suffer cognitive dissonance.
And that shock did not end there.
“Now then, we will begin the first entrance exam: the measurement of mana!”
When they conducted a mana measurement identical to the one in the novel as an entrance exam that, under normal circumstances, would have been skipped due to a shortage of incoming students,
“Graaaah! Yes! This is it!”
“Damn it! I’ve been waiting for this!
I slept outside for three days to get a prime spot to watch it!”
“Will there be someone who breaks the measuring orb like Tian?!
If there is, we’ll pay back double the amount you wager!
Now, place your bets, place them! A safe, guaranteed betting table with no running off with the money!”
The waiting applicants, spectators, peddlers, and gamblers—everyone except Lena—cheered so loudly it seemed the academy would be blown away.
And when, amid them, she caught sight of even the pure, delicate, holy-looking Saintess enthusiastically waving her arms and shouting,
Lena squeezed her eyes shut and gave up thinking any further.