Maydare Volume 1 Chapter 7 - The Search for the Failed Student (Part 3)

 Lore time~~

This is posted on the first day (or second day according to timezones) Kadokawa Light Novel Expo event...this series technically isn't a light novel but it's published by Kadokawa, so I'm kinda hoping for an anime, I think it'll make a good one (depending on the staff of course)

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We went straight back to school and I went to Professor Medite as the team leader to apply for our team.

Professor Medite was marking quizzes in his atelier, but when he saw that I was there, he got all excited and started making me a cup of his special black tea. He also had no teacher’s dignity.

“Well, well, Miss Makia. I was thinking you’d be coming here soon. What’s the matter? Are you feeling homesick? Did you miss your uncle?”

“That’s not the case at all.”

He told me to call him Professor, but he was completely acting like a family member.

“You see, I finally got my team together, so I came to make the application. The members are Lapis Twilight, Nero Pachelbel, Frey Levi, and me.”

“Hoo, you’ve got some very unique members here. I especially didn’t expect Frey Levi to join your team.”

“...Hey, is Frey really just a failed student? He’s blessed by【Earth】, and it somewhat seems to me that he’s pretending to get bad marks, but...do you know anything, sir?”

The professor stopped marking and glanced at me through the gap of his monocle.

“I may not look it, but I do take pride in my job as a teacher as such. I’m not foolish enough to talk about the private affairs of a student. ...But you’re right, Frey Levi is a rare talent. He only failed a grade last year because he didn’t show up to classes midway through and didn’t have enough credits.”

...You told me just now, I thought.

“If he puts his mind to it, he is gifted enough to reach great heights as a magician. Nobody can pull that kid up, but perhaps you, Miss Makia, might be able to do something about that problem child.”

“Me? Do I have that kind of talent, I wonder.”

“You were the one who discovered young Thor and pulled him up into this world. You have the power to discover treasure-like things that no one else can find. ...As well as the courage to extend your hand to things that everyone else has abandoned.”

“...”

I didn’t expect Thor’s name to come up here. 

I put down my teacup, and as I stared at the swaying tea,

“Hey, Professor, how is Thor doing?”

“Hmm? Mmm...yeah. It seems that they’re also having a lot of problems over there.”

“Problems?”

The professor responded with another meaningful “Mmm”, but then started talking as though he thought it was okay.

“Miss Makia, do you know the reason why the existence of the Savior is still not made public yet?”

“You know, I have been wondering about that…”

That was right.

The truth was, from the night the stars fell until today, the existence of the Savior had not been generally revealed.

“The legend was passed down under secrecy, so I wondered if there was a rule like that or something. But this is a magic school, and there are a lot of nobles, so I thought people who knew, knew.”

“That’s right. Almost two years have passed since the night of the meteor shower, and that rumor is spreading no matter how hard they try to hide it. The most frightening thing is that the Savior legend is being distorted and spread to the masses. In fact, what we should have done was to make a formal announcement from the palace and explain about the Savior and the Guardians. There is a little problem though.”

“Problem?”

“...There’s one person missing.”

Professor Medite lined up the sugar cubes on his desk. “This is the Savior,” he indicated a pink sugar cube. He then lined up white sugar cubes around it and said, “And these are the Guardians who protect the Savior.”

One, two, three...but that was it.

“To put it simply, there’s still one Guardian who hasn’t been found. Even though there should be four Guardians.”

“Why? Thor was taken away on the first day.”

And that became my trauma as well. 

“In young Thor’s case, there were many people around him who knew the Savior legend. In fact, the three who were gathered were summoned to the palace in less than a week. That was because they are all people of status. However, they couldn’t find the last person no matter what. It was about a year after the night of the meteor shower that the Savior, the crux of it all, was found, but that was to be expected. ”

“Why is that expected? I’m a bit curious. It wasn’t until well after the night of falling stars that I heard that the Savior appeared.”

“This is because, according to tradition, the Savior will arrive ‘within a year’ from the night of falling stars, when the sound of good tidings resound throughout the world. Sometimes they appear right after the night of falling stars, and sometimes it takes a little while. To put it simply, that meteor shower and sound of good tidings are announcements to ‘prepare.’”

“Who or what are the announcements for?”

“Well, they’re for the people who live in this world. The Guardians who are chosen by the stars, of course, as well as the kings of each nation, and the great magicians...For what is to come, for everyone who will engrave their names into the turning points of history.”

“...”

It was as though the world was taking the initiative in creating the surging and undulation of the times.

However, I swallowed those words and silently continued to listen to Uncle’s words.

“This time, the Savior was apparently found in a village on the outskirts, but luckily they were able to protect her immediately. It seems that there are cases when the Savior is not found right away even when they have descended.”

Uncle said that it could happen that a person from another world who fell into this world as the Savior would get captured by bad people or get involved in an incident and never be found. 

For those reasons, this legend was not widely known to the public. There was the fear of this legend being misused when the Savior arrived in this world.

“However, for that reason, when the Mark of the Guardian appears on someone who doesn’t know that legend, they might think it is just a strange bruise and not come forward. Or even if they do know, the person doesn’t show up for some reason.”

Professor Medite put away the papers on his desk, rested his chin in his hands, blew on his pipe, and continued.

“The palace must quickly assemble all four people and send the Savior to the ‘Holy Land’ in the Vabel State. I heard that the Archbishop over there is angry because the Savior hasn’t come to the Holy Land.”

“I see. According to the legend, once the Savior and the four Guardians are assembled, they’re supposed to head for the Holy Land first…”

The Vabel State was a small country that was the headquarters of Vabelism, Maydare’s largest religion, and it protected the “Holy Land.” It was located in the capital city of Frezier, the large nation in the west. 

Speaking of which, I saw great bishops from Vabel at Diemo Cathedral today. 

Could it be that they were visiting the Kingdom of Ruschia for this matter…?

“The palace will announce the existence of the Savior and Guardians soon, so they must find the last Guardian.”

“This is...just an example, but if someone has the Mark of the Guardian, can they refuse to become a Guardian?”

“They can’t. It’s already an international obligation, and the king will issue a royal command. If you defy it, you will be sentenced to prison. If you’re unlucky, your family will be taken as hostages.”

“...”

I recalled the day Thor was taken away.

Thor was forcibly taken away. What he thought about it, how he decided to accept his destiny and go to the royal capital...I didn’t know any of that. 

But, maybe it was for the sake of me, Father, and everyone else at the O’Drielle house.

“In the first place...why does the Savior come to this world? The legend says they will guide a chaotic Maydare to stability, but is it really that chaotic? It seems peaceful.”

Professor Medite smiled wryly at my words.

“That is because this is the southern Kingdom of Ruschia, the furthest place from the conflict. On an international scale, it is not the case that there are no signs of a major war. They say that the Hermedes Heavenly Empire in the north is an aggressive nation, and they want the ‘Holy Land.’”

“So to sum it up...does that mean that there’s a possibility that Hermedes in the north and Frezier, including the Holy Land, in the west might go to war?”

A war between two great nations vying for the dominance of Maydare.

It would be a chaotic world comparable to the Great War five hundred years ago.

“I don't know how much power or what kind of role the Savior who descended from another world this time has, but there is no doubt that she will be entrusted with the fate of the world just like the ‘Savior of Fraxinus’ five hundred years ago. For this reason, the remaining Guardian must be found quickly. This kind of talk might only make you worried about Thor, though.”

...That was true.

My heart beat wildly when I thought about how Thor might be involved in such a big war. 

I was carefreely enjoying my life at magic school. Even though I was struggling so hard just to gather team members, over there, they were trying to gather comrades to protect the world.

I have a goal to meet Thor, but after I meet him and confirm my feelings, then...Was there anything I can do?

Or maybe Thor already loved the Savior, and was devoted to her…

Even after I left Professor Medite’s atelier and returned to the girls’ dorm, I felt distressed.

I disinfected the apricots I just bought with a piece of gauze I soaked in alcohol-concentrated liquor. 

“Ah, geez. What are you getting so timid about, Makia O’Drielle! Your only redeeming features are your baseless self-confidence, pointless self-important attitude and sharp tongue. Even though your past life is full of regrets because you were thinking too much about weird things.”

“What’s wrong all of a sudden, Makia?”

“N-no...just talking to myself, Lapis.”

I cleared my throat so that I wouldn’t look suspicious to Lapis, who was helping me make umeboshi. 

Ultimately, what the current me was able to do might only be getting good grades in school and producing results with my team members at the field training.

So tonight, I was going to bottle this fruit, add lemon juice for acidity, and use the salt from the Salt Forest to pickle some apricot umeboshi.

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