──[ Purpose of the Dark Mountain Practicum ]──
The Dark Mountain Practicum exists to cultivate a wizard’s practical combat ability.
Today’s mana concentration is not especially dense, so the probability of powerful magical beasts appearing is extremely low. However, for safety, entry above an altitude of 500 meters is restricted.
The total “Dark Mountain Practicum Score” that a Debutant must obtain is 10 points. There are only 6 practicum opportunities per semester, so please work hard.
１. Discovery of Magical Materials
：Analysis report on 3 or more pharmacological or magical materials (1 point per 3)
２. Witnessing a Magical Phenomenon
：Record of experiencing a space-time, conceptual, or abstract phenomenon (2 points each)
３. Combat with Magical Beasts
：Corpse of a magical beast, or a record proving its slaying (2 points each)
４. Magical Realization
：Submit a report describing your own growth achieved on Dark Mountain (Maximum 1 time, 1 point)
※ If you happen to encounter any “outsiders,” be sure to report it to your supervising professor!
────────
“Dark Mountain Practicum……”
The nameless man picked up the paper scattered across the ground of Dark Mountain. The corners of his mouth, hidden beneath his beard, twisted with a quiet snort.
“A practicum, is it…… Takes me back.”
The paper in his hand soon caught fire, and the flames spread to the corpses strewn around the man. They were agents of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau who had been pursuing him until now.
The paper and corpses dwindled into ash without a trace.
“Sorry ’bout that. But what can I do? I’ve got to live too.”
The man trudged onward. The 「Barrier of Chaos」 he had created remained intact.
“……?”
Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly sensed a certain current of mana. It was mana so pure it seemed to stab into his mind.
“Hmm……”
He blinked and looked in that direction. The spirit of the wind carried the scent of the mana to him.
It was fragrant.
“……Seems I’ve grown old too. Now even trifles make me curious.”
Unable to suppress his curiosity, the man muttered as though lamenting and changed his route.
* * *
Dark Mountain. The outskirts of the Imperial University grounds, and a dangerous region isolated from the capital like an uninhabited island.
Since demonic energy occasionally arose on this mountain, and magical phenomena were not uncommon, it contained exceedingly dense mana.
Because of that environment, the fish that grew in the mountain were extraordinary not only in taste, but also in nutrition and calories.
“Ah…… So this is life……”
The taste of fish lingering in her mouth, and the full, languid aftertaste. Epherene rubbed her smooth stomach, then looked at Sylvia.
“By the way, what happened?”
“……!”
Sylvia, who had been nodding off, belatedly took up a guarded posture.
“Time got tangled. You wouldn’t have known.”
“Tangled?”
“I wandered the mountain for 20 hours.”
“What? 20 hours? No way. The sun hasn’t even set yet.”
At that, Sylvia “drew” a metronome with magic. The metronome realized by her three primary colors went tick— tock— every second, marking the flow of time.
“That’s how long it felt to me. This metronome moved exactly 72,653 times. 20 hours, 10 minutes, and 53 seconds.”
“……I see. Looking at your clothes, I get it.”
Epherene, who had been thinking it over, soon nodded as well. Sylvia’s attire was far too much evidence.
After all, that lofty and noble aristocrat from another world was not the sort of person who would get dirty in a mere three or four hours.
“I didn’t notice. Was it a magical phenomenon?”
“You’re stupid.”
“……I did feel something, you know? Anyway, let’s go to the Steel. Deculein’s Steel.”
At that, Sylvia’s face turned somewhat displeased. Her eyes narrowed into straight lines as she glared at Epherene.
“Insolent Epherene.”
“Haa…… Why this time?”
“Professor Deculein is not your friend.”
At those words, Epherene let out a hollow laugh. It was absurd.
“……Fine. Professor Deculein, ‘sir,’ the Head Professor, ‘sir,’ told us to report to the Steel if anything happened. It was nearby, right? Let’s go.”
Epherene walked along the stream. Sylvia followed after her.
Before long, they discovered a single woodsteel shuriken fixed in midair.
“So this is Professor Deculein’s favorite item……”
“Insolent Epherene.”
“……Professor ‘sir’s’ favorite item?”
Looking at it up close, it was quite a strange shape.
Like sharp icicles on both sides, or perhaps a straight crystal.
At any rate, Epherene tapped the woodsteel and spoke.
“Ahh. Ahh. Can you hear me?”
Epherene waited for a moment.
Soon, with a woooong…… of resonance, a reply came back.
─What is it?
“Phew.”
Epherene let out a sigh of relief. Then she said to Sylvia,
“You say it.”
“……”
Sylvia shook her head. She did not want him to know that she had gotten lost.
“What is it now……”
Left with no choice, Epherene spoke herself.
“It seems a magical phenomenon has occurred. I think time has gotten tangled.”
─I see.
“Yes.”
─……
Click—
The communication cut off. Flustered, Epherene sent another signal.
“Um, um, Professor? It’s a magical phenomenon!”
─And what do you expect me to do?
“Pardon?”
─This is a practicum. Resolve it yourself. If it is a magical phenomenon, be sure to write a proper report.
The communication ended just like that. Epherene stood there blankly, while Sylvia shrugged for no reason. Somehow, the gesture looked rather smug.
“Maybe it didn’t work because it was you.”
“……Agh, seriously.”
Epherene grimaced.
“Whatever. If this can communicate, doesn’t that mean time is fine?”
“The area around the stream seems all right.”
─That’s not it, child.
Suddenly, a voice rang out. The two of them were greatly startled and turned that way.
Rustle── Pushing through the undergrowth, a middle-aged man in a robe appeared.
“Blond child. This time-chaos phenomenon is my barrier. Seems you got caught up in it too, unlucky as you were. My apologies.”
“……”
Several fireballs gathered behind Epherene, while Sylvia memorized Barrier in an instant.
“……Hohoho~ What fierce children~ Even though I’m explaining, you’re still so aggressive?”
But there was no hostility in him. Rather, he only seemed intrigued.
“Who are you?”
Epherene asked, still wary. Then the middle-aged man leapt lightly and closed the distance in a single bound. He was as tall as Deculein, and his body was solid.
He gave them an amiable smile.
“Nice to meet you. I am ‘Murkan.’ The proof is this staff. You are wizards too, so you should know when you see it, yes? It is a 「Fragment of the World Tree」.”
“……!”
Both their eyes widened.
Those who live in the “Gahala Desert” on the southeastern frontier of the continent bear somewhat foreign names. Among the most famous wizards from that desert are Demakan, Murkan, Rohakan, and others.
Among them, the name Murkan was also famous as the son of Demakan’s younger brother.
In other words───
He was a relative of the Archmage!
* * *
The entrance to Dark Mountain.
The practicum had begun at noon, and now that it was three in the afternoon, the Debutants returned one by one. They reported the results of their practicum to the supervising professors.
“Herbs confirmed.”
“Yes~”
There were six supervising professors today, and aside from Deculein, the person in charge, all of them were newly appointed professors. They held the rosters and scribbled down the Debutants’ practicum scores.
“Professors!”
Just then, a young knight came running in a fluster from the Magic Tower side. He was with a group of police.
“This is bad! This is bad!”
“What’s the matter?”
The professor who asked back was Kelodan. Because of his thick lenses and folksy way of speaking, he was famous by the nickname “Four-Eyes.”
“An urgent report came down from the Intelligence Bureau. They say Rohakan has entered Dark Mountain!”
“What, Rohaka, Rohakan─?!”
“Yes. Apparently he was discovered by the Intelligence Bureau while posing as Murkan.”
The professors’ eyes went wide.
“The Intelligence Bureau agents and police have also begun pursuit, and we have requested support from the knights as well……”
Before he could finish speaking, they climbed the mountain.
Rumble rumble rumble──
They soon entered the mountain and reached the middle slope. By then, the number of knights and police had doubled.
“Head Professor! This is terrible!”
Deculein, who had been sitting in a chair halfway up the mountain reading a book, raised his head. They immediately ran to Deculein and explained.
“……Rohakan is currently on Dark Mountain!”
Deculein’s reaction was strange. Even after hearing the tremendous name Rohakan, he was extremely calm; in fact, he seemed more bothered by the smell of sweat coming from them.
“Um, perhaps. Do you not know Rohakan?”
“I know him. How could I not?”
“Ah, my apologies, apologies.”
He knew who Rohakan was. He also knew of his current infamy.
The worst criminal of the current age, and one of only ten wanted men on the continent with the rank of “Black Beast.”
─[ Main Quest: Rohakan’s Story ]─
◆Overview
：Rohakan’s Story
◆Objective
：Encounter Rohakan.
◆Reward
：One Item Catalogue Page
：Shop Currency +1
─────
At the same time, he was a major Named character occupying one place in the main quest.
Rohakan was not an evil man. Rather, he was one of the central figures who would lead this main quest to the end, someone who “must absolutely not die” before the final boss.
“We will proceed with the search. Will you accompany us, Professor?”
The knight “Rawein” said.
Deculein gazed at him for a moment, then snapped his book shut.
“Very well. However, I will move alone.”
“That will not do. Do you truly know who Rohakan is?”
“That’s right. The infamy of the man who murdered dozens of imperial wizards—”
The gathered professors, police, and knights were horrified and tried to stop Deculein, but.
“You will only be dead weight. I am telling you to get lost on your own.”
He merely cut them all off with contempt.
……As Deculein, he had no choice. He had to drive them away.
However, everyone who had no way of knowing those circumstances was left speechless by his overflowing confidence—or rather, his utterly arrogant attitude.
“……Yes. As you wish.”
Soon, the knights led by Rawein gritted their teeth and passed him by. The professors and police bowed their heads with somewhat uncomfortable expressions.
“……”
When the area had settled into silence.
Deculein moved alone.
His search efficiency was far superior to anyone else’s.
“Move.”
In the mountain, the woodsteel he had swiftly scattered.
He resonated with all of it and sought Rohakan’s location.
His highest priority was to discover Rohakan before those knights did.
* * *
“That good-for-nothing became Head Professor? Just what sort of trick did he pull?”
Crackle, crackle— Murkan spoke amid the warmth of the burning campfire. Epherene nodded, and Sylvia bit her lower lip slightly.
Epherene asked,
“By the way, do you know Professor Deculein well?”
“Of course I do. I taught that fellow.”
“Whaaat?!”
“……!”
Epherene and Sylvia’s eyes widened. Murkan chuckled.
“……Why? Is that so surprising? You should be able to tell from my name.”
“Wh-when, when did you teach him?”
Epherene kept asking, and Sylvia stayed still. It was a common way for nobles to make use of commoners.
“Was that twenty years ago? That scoundrel was very young back then. I was his tutor in magic. I was short on money, you see.”
“What was he like back then?”
Deculein’s childhood, which no one knew.
An untold history that could never be heard anywhere else.
At Epherene’s urging, Murkan stroked his beard and continued.
“He was a prodigy. The young lad learned even university-level material with ease. But his nature was not gentle. It may have been due to the pressure from his parents, but he had no emotions such as empathy or compassion.”
Murkan, recalling the distant past, furrowed his brow.
“Most wizards are like that, but he was especially severe. You might have called him living proof of the doctrine that human nature is evil.”
“……”
At that cold appraisal, Epherene’s mouth fell open blankly. Sylvia spoke as though indignant.
“He is one of the most skilled and famous professors in the current magic world.”
“Eh? That fellow?”
“Yes.”
“How did that happen? Though I did cut ties with the secular world for five years.”
Sylvia took out Wizard Journal from within her clothes. It was an article containing the Chairwoman’s interview about Deculein, anecdotes about his breaking the demon’s barrier, and more.
Murkan accepted the article and read it.
“······Huh? The level right below Adrienne?”
[ Chairwoman Adrienne said this of Deculein’s exploits: “I believe Professor Deculein’s combat power is at the level right below mine. That is how practical a person Professor Deculein is, whether politically or magically.” ]
Murkan let out a hollow laugh.
“Has that young thing gone senile already, now that she’s become chairwoman? That can’t be right at all. That wastrel’s talent was nothing more or less than ordinary.”
“Contradiction.”
Sylvia cut in. Murkan tilted his head.
“Contradiction?”
“How can he have no talent if he was a prodigy? That’s nonsense.”
“······Hahaha.”
Murkan laughed. Then he looked at Sylvia. The vitality in his eyes flashed vividly.
“Blondie, you are both a prodigy and a genius. But Deculein was a prodigy whose limits were clear. I knew it at a glance.”
“Right, right.”
Epherene nodded repeatedly. Only now was he saying the things she had read in her father’s letter.
Sylvia did not like that Epherene.
“However, think about it. If a child praised as a prodigy when he was young grew up and eventually felt himself becoming ordinary? If he saw children who had once been beneath him suddenly moving ahead? If he imagined that those he had disparaged as worthless trash would one day laugh at him?”
Murkan recalled the old days.
A young fellow he had found rather pitiful. And yet, when he saw the things that fellow did, instead of feeling pity, he would find himself thinking, ‘I hope he ends up even more ruined—’
“I thought Deculein would not be able to endure any more than that. No, it was a fate no one could easily endure.”
Deculein had begun to slowly break down from that point on.
“But looking at these articles······ two possibilities come to mind.”
“Possibilities?”
“Yes. Either all of this is fraud, or a play he staged himself, or else······.”
Murkan thought for a moment, then smiled faintly.
“······He worked endlessly hard.”
“Worked hard?”
Epherene’s eyebrows twitched. Sylvia also looked doubtful.
No matter how they looked at him, Deculein’s image had nothing to do with effort.
“Yes. He is not a genius. That I can guarantee with certainty. However, he was diligent. Though that diligence, and that effort, can also be called talent in the broader sense.”
The Deculein Murkan remembered had been diligent, ‘at least’ when he was young. He had spared no effort in trying to improve himself.
“Of course, I do not know whether this very thought means I am being deceived by him······.”
Murkan tapped the article Sylvia had handed him.
“If that fellow truly has grown this much, then he must have worked like a madman. He must have driven himself to the brink of death. I do not know just how great that effort was, but perhaps······ it was an effort that ‘only he could have endured’ in this world.”
For Epherene, who had been listening in silence, those words were difficult to agree with.
Had Deculein stolen her father’s theory as part of his effort?
Had he committed such shameless acts as part of his effort?
“If that effort was enough to overcome his own talent······ well, I suppose a fellow who looks like a jewel rolled around like a rock on a construction site.”
However, it was not long before Epherene realized.
No matter how much she wanted to deny it, Deculein had clearly achieved theoretical advancement.
Then had he······ perhaps worked tirelessly to absorb her father’s theory?
During those three years, had he learned and embodied every legacy her father had left behind?
Had he acknowledged her father with a humbler attitude than anyone and devoted himself to progress?
“Even so, do not trust that fellow too much. Diligence does not necessarily mean character.”
“······.”
On the other hand, Sylvia lowered her head. From the beginning, she had thought Deculein was a ‘sculpture made of talent.’
Vaguely, she had thought he was someone similar to herself.
That was why she felt a slightly strange emotion. Those subtle feelings tickled at her heart.
If, as Murkan said, he was someone who had worked madly, desperately.
If the man he was now was made of effort. If he had reached his current realm through effort alone······.
Sylvia placed both hands over her chest. Her heartbeat was pounding especially loudly.
“Now. Enough of the old stories. What do you say? Would you two like to receive my teaching as well?”
“Your teaching?”
The two, each lost in their own thoughts, flinched at the same time.
“Yes. My teaching is a little special. Are you not curious how I grasped Deculein’s talent?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!”
“Yes.”
They nodded at once.
The teaching of a relative who was an archmage? This was impossible to pass up. Even if their arms and legs were broken, they had to receive it.
“Instead, there is a condition. I, too, have a wife and child in the secular world. Deliver this letter to them.”
Murkan took a letter from within his clothes. Epherene hurriedly accepted it.
“Yes! I’ve got it! Now please teach us!”
“Hohoho. You greedy little thing. Very well. My teaching is······ now, watch.”
Murkan opened his palm. A spirit appeared above it. Though it was small, Epherene and Sylvia were shocked.
Kiiiiiiing······.
A spirit combining all the attributes of water, wind, earth, and fire—the ‘Spiel of Light.’
There were even two small orb-sized Spiels, and after each circled the air, they seeped into Sylvia’s and Epherene’s bodies.
“Ugh!”
“······.”
Epherene clutched her chest, and Sylvia quietly took a deep breath.
Murkan said,
“Accept it carefully. Do not make a fuss. Quietly, like that blondie.”
“I’m not blondie, I’m Sylvia.”
“Quiet. You must not speak, blondie.”
Sylvia was dissatisfied, but soon closed her eyes.
Before long, she felt as though a hot ball of fire had coiled itself in her dantian. They breathed deeply and connected that ball of fire to their bodies.
“Hoo······ hoo······. I think it’s done?”
“······.”
“Ahahaha.”
Murkan laughed in admiration.
“As expected, you two are just as I thought. What remarkable talent.”
Deculein had received this Spiel and suffered for three days and nights, yet the two children had embodied it in only fifteen minutes.
“From now on, the Spiel will help you grow within your bodies. This is the kind of teaching I give. To those with outstanding talent, it becomes fuel, but to those without talent, it becomes a fever instead.”
Epherene and Sylvia opened their eyes wide and nodded.
Suddenly, Epherene looked at the letter in her hand and asked,
“But why don’t you deliver this letter yourself?”
“Old people always have circumstances of their own.”
“Mm.”
At that moment, Sylvia, sitting neatly on the stone floor, said,
“Please tell us more about Professor Deculein’s childhood.”
“Hm? You are curious about that?”
“Yes.”
“Hmmm······. I do not have much time, but······.”
Seeing a child overflowing with talent after so long had put him in high spirits.
Most of all, it seemed no one had yet broken through his ‘barrier.’
“Very well. I have quite a few amusing anecdotes from when I taught that fellow, so I shall tell you.”
Sylvia silently clenched her fist, and Epherene smiled sinisterly.
“Something embarrassing first!”
“I was going to do that anyway. Deculein, that fellow, keeps etiquette to a ridiculous degree, does he not? I once tested whether he would keep it even while I was taking a dump······.”
Murkan knew he should not, yet he continued to chatter away. The two children’s reactions were too fervent. Epherene’s expression was full of excitement, and Sylvia had even started taking notes.
──However.
“So this is where you were.”
A voice flowed in from not far away.
That tone, raised coldly like a blade, cut through the atmosphere in an instant.
“······!”
Epherene and Sylvia felt goosebumps rise along their backs and turned toward it.
The dark shade of the forest.
Within that dense shadow stood a man. His face was endlessly cold, and steel rippled behind his back.
Step— Step—
Deculein walked slowly. That elegant movement was more frightening to the two than any calamity.
Soon, he stopped at an appropriate distance. Sylvia and Epherene stood frozen, cold sweat running down them. More than anything, they were afraid of ‘how much he had heard.’
“······Indeed. It has been a long time, my disciple.”
As Murkan spoke, his complexion had, at some point, sunk into darkness.
“Yes. It has been a long time.”
Deculein answered, meeting his gaze.
“Rohakan.”
The name known to the entire world.
The worst criminal of the present age, and a wanted man with the Empire as his enemy.
Rohakan, the Empress’s assassin.
“······?”
When that name left Deculein’s mouth, Sylvia and Epherene innocently tilted their heads.