Maydare Volume 1 Chapter 7 - The Search for the Failed Student (Part 1)

 I just learned that the actual English title for this series is Tales of Reincarnations in Maydare, which makes sense when you think about it. I wonder how we all overlooked the plural?

---

Previous | TOC | Next

Three weeks have passed since I started school. The first year students are mainly taking classes in the following subjects.

“Spirit Magic Studies” …. Instructor: Yuri Ulysses Le Ruschia

“Elements Magic Studies” …. Multiple instructors.

“Potions” …. Instructor: Urbanus Medite

“History of the Magical World” …. Instructor: Mary Erlich

“Magical Athletics” …. Instructor: Francesca Lila

These foundational magical studies were included in the curriculum, and students could then take general education courses they were interested in to earn credits for advancement. 

First, about “Spirit Magic Studies.”

“Spirit Magic Studies is an important class to learn about ‘spirit magic,’ which originated in the Kingdom of Ruschia. It consisted of spirit biology, summoning, the art of magic circle creation, and so on. It is a specialized magic that is needed to develop and protect our country to the end.”

The instructor was His Highness, Yuri Ulysses Le Ruschia, who also helped us with the spirit summoning ceremony.

He was the second prince of Ruschia, renowned for being the strongest spirit magician in the kingdom, and was said to have more than ten Great Spirits in his service. He had a boyish face and looked young, but he had a composed demeanour and his love for spirits came through in every class, so I respected him greatly.

Next, “Elements Magic Studies,” which is the foundation of all magic.

The main elements were【Fire】, 【Water】, 【Ice】, 【Earth】, 【Flora】, 【Wind】, 【Thunder】, 【Sound】, 【Light】, and【Darkness】. This was a class where you learned more about these kinds of magic and use them for the applications of offensive and defensive magic by learning how to use them correctly. Each element had its own teacher, and this was the class with the most number of time blocks in the first-year curriculum. It was important to first know which elements you were strong and weak at. By the way, for me, I was of course good at【Fire】and extremely weak with【Water】.

Next was “Potions,” which was inseparable from the development of Ruschia.

The instructor was my uncle, Professor Urbanus Medite.

“The development of our nation is based on poison and medicine. To put it simply, Potions is a class that trains the bearers of Ruschia’s main industry. There are lots of field trips to gather medicinal herbs, so it takes a lot of physical strength~.”

This was a class where you collected magical materials in the natural world and combined them with your own magic to create magical medicines that had various effects on the human body. In my first class, I learned that it was something developed from【Flora】, 【Earth】, 【Water】, and 【Light】of Elemental Magic Studies. 

The beauty of magic potions was that even if you weren’t a magician, you could still benefit from them as long as you have access to them. Therefore, potions developed as an industry of this nation and have great value in each nation in Maydare. By the way, I’ve been studying potions for all my life in the O’Drielle house, so I could say that I was very good at it.

Next was “History of the Magical World.” This was a class where we learned the history of Maydare and about magic and great magicians through the ages.

The instructor was Professor Mary Erlich. She was an orthodox and stern witch in the prime of her life with shoulder-length hair, dressed in her characteristic wide-brimmed three-cornered hat and black robe dress. However, she also had the characteristic of not being able to stop talking about her husband, who was a royal magician, once she got going.

“Maydare is a world of ‘salvation,’ created by the ten gods. These gods are also called the ‘primeval magicians.’”

The beginning of history class meant that everything began with a myth. This class also included Maydare’s creation mythology and Vabelist religious studies. 

It was a class where we mainly sat at our desks indoors and listened to the professor’s lecture, and devoted ourselves to memorizing the names of people and historical events, so there were many sleepy students.

Finally, for “Magical Athletics,” we mainly did physical exercise to gain basic physical strength, and we learned martial arts, swordsmanship, transference magic, levitation magic, and flight magic.

We also learned how to use major magical tools in this class, and apparently we would also soon be doing field training, mock battles, and dueling sessions using magic and magical tools. I heard that the grades for this class were important for those who were aiming to be magic soldiers or magic knights in the future.

“Magicians tended to be thought of as a reclusive and shady profession, but we now live in an age where there is a great demand for magicians who can move. Physical strength is a must! Any student who fails to get an A or higher in this ‘Magical Athletics’ class will not get a referral for becoming a magic soldier or magic knight!”

The instructor was Professor Francesca Lila. While there were many orthodox magic teachers, this female teacher stood out with her yellow jersey and sunglasses. Her speech was rough and she was just plain spartan. Although she and Professor Erlich were often at odds over the direction of teaching, her new appointment to this school had resulted in more graduates who were physically fit.

In this way, under the watchful eye of these idiosyncratic teachers, we continued to work hard at our studies today.

“First-years, have you all gotten used to your school classes by now? Ah, the last class was Magical Athletics? No wonder you’re all croaking~”

One day in Potions class, Professor Medite was grinning at the slumped over students. We had just been made to run all over the island for basic physical training. 

The students who didn’t do a lot of fitness training seemed to have had a hard time. I ran everyday and worked out before I enrolled here, so this much was nothing. 

“Well, while you rest, I’ll explain the field training to pick medicinal herbs that will be happening next month~. It’s fine to be exhausted, but turn your ears to me, at least.”

“Field training…?”

Though the students were listless, they seemed curious about the lesson the professor had mentioned. Professor Medite pushed up his monocle.

“Everyone has already decided their teams, right?”

“...”

Everyone gulped.

The people who had already formed their teams looked relaxed, but the people who didn’t looked pale...and so I was.

“The field training to pick medicinal herbs next month is the first team activity for the first-years. It will affect your marks greatly, so be sure to work hard. Ah, those who haven’t applied to a team should hurry, as there’s only one week left. If you can’t gather team members, I’ll be the one deciding for you. ...Now, let’s start class. Open your textbooks to page 24. Hey, you over there, don’t sleep!”

Uncle was a surprisingly diligent and serious teacher. The chalk he threw hit the sleeping boy right in the middle of his forehead, earning him a round of applause.

When class was over and left the classroom with Lapis, Beatrice ambushed me in the hallway.

“How do you do, Makia O’Drielle? I heard you still haven’t gathered enough team members yet? That cannot be~.”

She said snidely as she lightly tossed her hair.

The people who seemed to be her team members were assembled around her.

They were all people who came from beautifully prestigious families and displayed their excellence in class.

Um, let me see, there were two of her noble girl followers, a boy who was also from the Asta family, and a boy who was a butler who served the Asta family. I still didn’t remember any of their names.

“Go ahead and talk all you want. We’re just keeping our members secret until the last minute. I have no interest in showing off my team members like a strap.”*

(TN: The word used here is used to refer to key holders or phone straps that usually have cute mascot animals or anime characters attached to them. Now I'm pretty sure they don't have phones in this world and since the people here seem to know what she's talking about it must be the key holder then? Anyways I decided to keep it as it is)

“Wha…!?”

Her followers said things like “Strap!? How rude!” and “Act tough while you still can!”, but I tossed my head and left. 

“Makia, was it okay to say that? We still haven’t gathered all our team members yet.”

“It was a bluff, a bluff. It’s annoying how she keeps pestering me. Ah, but…”

Just as Lapis said, we couldn’t find the last team member no matter how hard we tried.

Probably because I had been at odds with Beatrice, but most of the girls were on her side.

There were many boys who put a lot of importance on the summoned spirit, so I, who summoned hamsters, was out of the question.

“We need to have a strategy meeting.”

“Shall we go to the atelier then? I believe Mr. Nero is there.”

“Okay, but can we stop by the herb garden on the way there?”

“Of course. What do you need?”

“Elderflowers. I have a small order.”

“An...order?”

The school’s herb garden was located high up on the island. Students at the school were free to pick about a hundred types of plants, some grown outdoors, some grown in greenhouses. 

We searched for elderflowers here, picking beautiful ones with many small cream-colored flowers. Elderflowers were an all-purpose herb in the Sambucus genus that were popular with magicians since ancient times. 

When Lapis and I came in carrying a large amount of elderflowers, Nero, who was being unusually absentminded by the glass wall of the atelier, blatantly wrinkled his brow and asked, “What’s going on?”

“I’m making herb cordials with elderflowers. It’s very witchy, isn’t it?”

“Herb cordials?”

“Oh, you don’t know them? It’s herbal syrup. There are a lot of ways to use them when you make them in advance, such as diluting it in hot water and baking soda and drinking it, pouring it over yogurt or ice cream.”

There was a simple kitchen room in the basement of the glass bottle atelier.

The basement was a cool and closed-off room, suitable for the preparation and storage of potions and magical substances. 

There, you could use the kitchen to boil water, simmer something or melt something.

I found a large bowl, washed it carefully, and soaked hot water, sugar and a bunch of elderflowers in it. I squeezed the lemons I picked at school thoroughly, along with some sliced lemons.

The elderflower was an herb that was typical of herb cordials.

Why was I making them? Yesterday, the head of the girls’ dorm, Cousin Nagie, asked me to make the O’Drielle family’s special herb cordial.

Cousin Nagie had always loved our family’s herb cordials. 

Also, elderflowers were a good guard against colds. It would soon be the season of the summer flu.

“Alright. I’ll leave this in a cool place and soak it for three days. I’m so lucky that you can pick as many lemons as you want in Lune Ruschia.”

I put it away in a cooler box in the basement and finished the preparation.

When it was done, I would filter it through a cloth and store it in jars that had been disinfected with boiling water.

Lapis, who helped me, had arranged the leftover elderflowers in a vase and displayed them by the wall on the first floor. There were plenty of potted sunflowers blooming next to the wall with the big glass arch. They were grown by me, and I planned on turning the sunflower seeds into snacks for my ham-chans someday. 

The blue sky that could be seen from the glass wall, the white columns of clouds along the horizon, and the sunflowers blooming in brilliant yellow in front of me gave me a premonition of this year’s summer.

“Hey, have you found the last team member?”

Nero asked in his unfriendly voice when he saw that we had finished our work.

“No, I invited a bunch of people, but they’re all assembling their own teams, so there’s not much hope. ...Well, I’m mainly the reason why, though.”

Upon that, Nero, with some hesitation, said,

“There’s one person...I don’t know he’ll be a member of our team, but I know a guy who hasn’t been approached by anyone yet.”

“What, who?”

“My roommate, Frey Levi. He’s originally a year above us, but he failed a year, so he’s in the same year as us. He didn’t show up to the entrance ceremony and skipped all the classes, so there are a lot of people who don’t know him.”

“Oh~, I see.”

A senior who’s originally a year above us. And, he failed a year so now he’s in our year…

“Um, if he’s a failed student, then he must be quite a problem child, isn’t he?”

Towards Lapis’ worries, Nero said, “I understand your worries, but I don’t think he’s just a dropout.”

“Why?”

“Well...you’ll understand when you see him. The two of you, come with me.”

He exited the atelier. Lapis and I followed him, not knowing what was going on.

In the pleasant sea breeze, we passed through the glass bottle ateliers and came out to an open area on the cliffs. 

Nero raised his arm and whistled, and then a female hawk flying in the sky descended. As she did, the bells on her tail feathers tinkled.

“Wow, she’s so lovely up close. What’s her name?”

“Her name is...Fugue. Her element is【Sound】.”

“Oh, that’s rare.”

Nero stroked the feathers of Fugue, who was nipping at his hair and playing with it, and then released her into the sky again.

He seemed to have already developed a relationship of mutual trust with his spirit.

“Apparently, Frey Levi will be in this area soon.”

Was that information from Fugue?

We stayed there for a while, and then a male student appeared at the quiet beach right below us.

It was that aforementioned Frey Levi. He was humming with his hands in his pockets.

He had slender and long legs, a slight hunchback, ash-green hair with the ends flipped up, pierced ears, and a casually worn uniform. His drooping eyes, arched eyebrows, and narrow-jawed face seemed like they would be popular with girls around his age.

“I see, he looks like a delinquent or a playboy.”

If he was actually serious on the inside, then he would be the type to get a high rating for gap moe.

“Oh, Makia, a female student arrived.”

“She’s a third-year. Her ribbon’s green.”

“Oh, Makia, they’re flirting on the beach.”

“Oh no, I can’t watch anymore…”

I, being pure, was about to cover my eyes with my hand, when…

“Hmm?”

Another girl arrived at the beach. She had a demonic expression on her face, leaning forward and walking fast. She had a yellow ribbon, so she was a fourth-year.

“Oh, looks like relationship trouble.”

It seemed that Frey Levi was two-timing those seniors.

The two female seniors began to get into a catfight concerning that man.

By the way, what do you think happened to the person concerned, Frey Levi?

That rascal lightly ran up the cliff with his hands still in his pockets and ran away.

“I see. He’s blessed by【Earth】. A special constitution where he’s loved by the earth...he’s scum, though.”

“He is the enemy of women.”

Lapis and I said this and that, and Nero seemed like he wanted to run away.

“What should we do? He’s probably the type women hate.”

“No, I’m rather glad that I got to see how fast he can run away. Let’s scout Frey Levi. That agility can be made use of for field training especially.”

So, we decided to look for Frey Levi.

We had Fugue the hawk search in the sky, and apparently he escaped to outside the school. We also ended up having to go outside school to search for the failed student.

---

Previous | TOC | Next