Chapter 81 – Maia
After returning to the academy after a few days, Almark and Morgen had to spend the rest of the holiday in the sparsely populated dormitory.
The first day back was a busy one, with them replying to letters from Nelson and Lilty, and visiting the principal with gifts (though he was out), but the next day, a monotonous life awaited them, making them wonder what those days at the winter mansion had been all about.
However, even though their lives were the same, their feelings had changed.
Almark had originally spent his holidays centering around meditation and reading, but after he returned, he began to read various books even more enthusiastically.
In preparation for learning magic after the holidays, he also focused more on meditation training than ever before.
What was surprising was that even Morgen had begun to practice magic enthusiastically.
“This time, I realized that my magic won’t be of any use if something happens.”
Morgen said, and silently practiced magic.
Even to Almark’s untrained eye, it was clear that Morgen’s magic had improved since that trip.
One day, after finishing their breakfast as usual and leaving the dining hall, the two were suddenly stopped by Maia, the dormitory manager.
“You guys! It’s you, the skinny one over there and the fat one. Yes, you chubby ones pointing at your faces. Come over here for a second.”
The two of them lined up in front of Maia timidly.
Maia was two heads smaller than the two of them.
Because of her bent back, her chin was about to touch the floor.
“…What is it…?”
“Cassis has caught a summer cold.”
Suddenly, Maia said.
“…?”
“Answer me!!”
Maia yelled.
“Yes!”
The two of them hurriedly replied.
“You guys are third-years, right?”
“…”
“Answer me!!”
“Yes!”
“That’s right!”
Maia sighs.
“You guys don’t know what to do unless you tell them. You’re all third-years, the most senior students in this dorm, so you should know without me telling you. What should we do if Cassis catches a summer cold?”
Having heard that, Morgen finally realizes that Cassis is the name of an old man who manages the shared equipment and does simple repairs around the dorm.
“If Cassis catches a cold, well…”
Morgen starts to speak, but Almark still doesn’t get it.
“Morgen, who is Cassis?”
His words anger Maia.
“You take care of me every day, and you don’t even know my name! You’ve been living here for two and a half years! You ungrateful bastard!”
Maia yells at Almark,
“No, I’m not here yet,”
but Morgen stops him with his hand.
Morgen’s eyes tell Almark that Maia doesn’t listen to reason, and it’s not like it’s magic or anything, but it’s clear to Almark.
“I don’t know if you guys think of Cassis as just a handy maid, but he’s a fine man in his own right. He works hard without complaining. This dorm wouldn’t run if he was gone.”
Maia continues talking without paying any attention to the two of them.
“We all need to take good care of Cassis so he doesn’t disappear. Can we make him work when he has a cold? Luckily, we’re on vacation right now, so there are only nine students, including you. It will only take a tenth of the effort Cassis normally puts in, so you two can do it. It’s the responsibility of the top students. You’re usually ungrateful, so you should repay him here.”
It seems like a logical argument, but it’s not the right way to say it.
When Almark tried to argue,
“I’ll do it.”
Mogen immediately replied.
“Almark, let’s do it.”
“I don’t mind if you do it, but the way you say it is too much, Maia.”
“I’ll do it, Maia!!”
Almark’s complaints were drowned out by Mogen’s loud voice.
“Is that so? Then I’ll leave it to you. From tomorrow until Cassis gets better, come to me after breakfast to ask for work.”
Maia said with satisfaction and left.
Even though her back was bent like that, she was walking incredibly fast.
Then she suddenly stopped in her tracks and turned to look at the two of them.
“Oh, the handrail on the stairs on the third floor is broken today, so please fix it. You know that the tools are in the equipment room Cassis always uses, right?”
“I know!”
When Morgen answered, Maia nodded and walked away.
“Morgen, that way of speaking is a bit much, Maia. Why are you so silent and listening to what you’re told?”
Almark confronted Morgen, and Morgen shook his head.
“I’m indebted to Maia……When I was in first grade, I really didn’t understand anything and I caused her a lot of trouble. And…”
“And?”
“It’s just a rumor,” Morgen said to Almark in a low voice.
“If you go against Maia, you’ll suffer a terrible experience. Apparently, you’ll be locked up in the basem*nt of this dormitory.”
Chapter 82 – Daily Work
“…”
Morgen hurriedly added to Almark’s silence.
“You’re probably thinking that this is another stupid rumor I brought up!”
“But there’s no basem*nt in this dorm.”
“I heard about it from one of the other groups before! It might be hidden somewhere.”
“You mean a secret basem*nt?”
“Yes, a secret place! She’ll lock up the kids who disobey her in that secret place that only Maia knows.”
“You lock up, huh… has there ever been a student who went missing from this academy?”
“Well, there hasn’t been one since I enrolled…”
As Morgen became flustered, Almark sighed and said.
“That’s fine. We’re definitely top-year students. Let’s do our best until Cassis… was it? is better.”
“Yeah.”
However, Almark had some doubts.
“…But were we the only third-years left? I feel like there were others too.”
“Half of the remaining students are third-years. …We were unlucky.”
Mogen shook his head.
“That was just our luck that we happened to be in Maia’s field of vision.”
“Hmm…”
Almark was not satisfied.
“Somehow…I’m not convinced…”
“So, do you want to do it? Should I go and tell Maia to refuse and ask someone else to do it? Or should I tell Maia, who is that age, to do it by herself?”
“…Okay, okay. I won’t say it again. I’ll do it, Morgen.”
Giving up, Almark and Morgen went to the equipment room, took out their tools, and headed for the stairs to the third floor.
Seeing Morgen skillfully repair the broken wooden handrail with tools, Almark exclaimed in admiration.
“That’s impressive, Morgen.”
“Well, you’re the son of a lumberjack. It’s not your real job, but you can handle wood to this extent.”
Morgen replied, not completely opposed.
“It’s the same as being good at fighting because you’re the son of a mercenary.”
“…I see, that’s how it is.”
Almark was strangely convinced, and watched the movements of the tools Morgen was using without getting bored.
The next day, after breakfast, he would show up at the caretaker’s office and be told what to do for the day.
Maia was waiting for the two of them in the caretaker’s office, and as soon as she saw them,
“Here you go. This is what you’ll be doing today.”
She would give them errands to do.
Most of the time, it was simple repairs or small errands like picking up daily necessities from the school building, and they were done in no time, but sometimes things didn’t go well and it would take half a day to complete.
At first, Almark reluctantly accepted the job to accompany Morgen, but it unexpectedly became a part of his daily life, and he gradually began to like it.
The daily work didn’t take much time in most cases, and didn’t get in the way of his meditation or reading. It was also fun to watch Morgen’s lively work and try to imitate it.
It’s true that Maia said whatever she wanted, and she had never once said a single thank you to the two of them, but Almark had gotten used to the way she spoke, and like Morgen, he had come to think, “Ah, that’s what she’s like.”
According to Morgen, the other third-year students who had been at the academy since their first year had already reached that level.
If someone has to do it, then why not just do it?
Almark now works with that feeling.
“If we can’t become magicians, it might be nice for us to do something like this, where we do all kinds of things,” Morgen says.
“That’s fine for you, but I can’t do anything.”
Almark answered with a shrug.
Almark thought he was good at using tools, but he admitted that when it came to working with tools, Morgen was better than him.
“So you’re my bodyguard then.”
Morgen said with a smile.
“Protect me.”
“Why does a jack-of-all-trades need a bodyguard?”
Almark replied with a wry smile.
After finishing their breakfast, the two headed to the manager’s office again.
“I wonder what kind of work we’ll have today.”
“It doesn’t really matter, but I wonder if Cassis’s cold is still not over.”
As they were talking like that, they arrived in front of the manager’s office and Almark knocked on the door.
Maia didn’t respond to knocks, but they would get scolded if they entered without knocking, so the two decided to enter without waiting for a response after knocking.
“Let’s go in.”
They both said in unison, opened the door and went inside.
“Ah, here they are.”
Maia glared at them from an easy chair at the back of the room.
“That’s today’s job.”
An old key was placed on the table where she pointed.
Almark picked it up. It was a little big for a child’s hands, and it was heavy.
“What is this…?”
“It’s the key to the basem*nt.”
Maia said casually.
Morgen let out a gasp.
“Finally there! It’s the basem*nt.”
“What are you talking about?”
Maia glared at Morgen.
“Your vacation is almost over, right? Then we’ll have to get the sign from the basem*nt.”
“Sign?”
Mogen asked again.
“There’s a martial arts tournament right after the holidays, right? Lots of people will come for that, so we have to put up all kinds of signs around the dorms so no one gets lost. It’s stored in the basem*nt.”
Hearing this, Morgen timidly checks.
“There’s no basem*nt in this dorm, is there?”
“There is a lock because there is.”
Maia snorts in exasperation.
“What have you been talking about?”
“Where’s the basem*nt?”
Almark asks.
At the very least, there’s no staircase leading down from the first floor inside the dorm.
“What? You don’t know? You kids aren’t going outside, are you? You know that little door on the wall behind the shrubbery at the back. That’s the entrance to the storeroom.”
“The storeroom?”
Morgen asks again.
“Isn’t it the basem*nt?”
“It doesn’t matter which. It’s just a storeroom in the basem*nt.”
“Is it a storeroom? Is the secret basem*nt a storeroom?”
“Who said it was a secret?”
“No, no one said that.”
“The signs are in a wooden box at the back of the storeroom. Look, bring them all. There’s no extra wood in there. If there’s even one missing piece of wood, we won’t be able to put the sign together, so don’t forget it.”
After Maia made sure with a frightening look on her face,
“Now, if you understand, hurry up and go. I’m busy here.”
She started knitting as usual.
No matter how you look at it, she doesn’t look busy.
“Let’s go, Morgen.”
Almark urged Morgen out of the room.
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