Maydare Volume 2 Chapter 4 - The New Semester and the Potato Report (Part 1)

 Class is back in session for Lune Ruschia~

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The last day of summer vacation.

I was standing by the window of the “glass-bottle atelier” which served as Garnet Team 9’s base, sipping a warm cup of sunflower tea while gazing absentmindedly at the sea in the late afternoon.

The tea was made by picking sunflowers that bloomed during the summer and drying the petals. When brewed in a glass pot and lemon peels are added, you could enjoy the beautiful yellow color and refreshing aroma.

Despite the scent of the tea, I was a little lost in thought.

Airi’s life was threatened in the corridors of the palace.

I got injured protecting Airi at that time. Afterward, I was called to the palace several times and the knights questioned me about the situation at that time, but the truth was, I had never been allowed to see Airi herself.

I was told that a curfew had been imposed upon her due to the attempted assassination of the Savior in the palace, but maybe Airi didn’t want to see me.

I had upset her, and maybe she hated me now…

I was told that Thor was now guarding her at all times.

I haven’t seen Thor for a long time. The maids and servants who served Airi were gossiping that it was a self-made performance that I did in order to stand out, and their gazes were always cold.

Because I was the only one who noticed the mist blade at that time, and it didn’t contain any poison. And because Airi had been so angry.

They were talking about how the O’Drielle girl was foolish, trying to cozy up to the Lady Savior by putting on a performance.

It was ridiculous. Oh, it was so ridiculous.

If it was all orchestrated by me, then who would fire a mist blade at themselves? In the first place, I was terrible at water magic!

Frey was about the only person who had been worried about my injury at that time.

“Depressed, poyo…”

Popotarou was sitting in the middle of a large playground I had built for my ham-chans during summer vacation, staring at a point in the air without blinking.

“If only Popotaro had found the criminal at that time, Milady would have never been suspected, poyo. It’s all Popotaro’s fault, poyo...Disqualified as a spirit...Uuuuuh~, depressed, poyo~. Popopopopo.”

“Popotarooooo. Don't be like that, dechi~”

Donsuke was comforting Popotarou by patting his curled up back.

So even hamsters can get depressed…

“Don’t worry about it, Popotarou. It’s just that there’s people who want to make me the villain. Those people will talk bad about me no matter what I do.”

“Milady~”

The ham-chans looked despondent, but I smiled and tickled the two of them with my fingertips. The little furballs were adorable as they rolled around. They were so lovable.

Now. School started tomorrow, and I had to get myself together.

So, I did some light push-ups. That bishop told me that strength training was important.

“...What are you doing, Makia?”

“Ah, Nero!”

Nero showed up at the door before I knew it!

He looked at me strangely, but I didn’t care. I ran up to him excitedly.

“Welcome back! I wanted to see you~”

“What’s with this? You’re acting way too familiar.”

Nero Pachelbel, with his platinum blond hair, indifferent and cold expression, and large suit jacket. 

He was a member of Garnet Team 9, and an excellent student who passed the entrance exam at the top of our class.

But sometimes he skipped class to do his own research or to make advanced magic tools, so you could say that he was a delinquent.

“Did you have a good time back home?”

“...I guess.”

“What do your parents do for a living? By the way, I don’t think you’ve ever told me about your family, Nero.”

I asked as I took the initiative to prepare sunflower tea and sweets for Nero.”

“I don’t have parents.”

But then again, maybe I asked something I shouldn’t have.

“Oh, is that so...I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, it’s not a sad story to be asked about. I have an older brother.”

Still his usual self, Nero took the tea cup and then stood by the window, staring out across the sea as he quietly sipped his sunflower tea.

Nero’s brother, huh. I wondered what kind of person he was.

“If you’re going back home for summer vacation, then your older brother is the place where you should be, right?”

I stood next to Nero and glanced at him. Nero looked a little thoughtful in response to my words.

“...Is that so. You might be right.”

For some reason, Nero’s mutter sounded like he just realized such a thing.

For once, his expression was a bit innocent. I felt like I had seen something rare.

“Oh, I have a lot of sweets too. Like prune jam pie, dark cherry tarts, apples boiled in black tea, lemon butter cookies…”

“...Did you get into making sweets?”

“I had a lot of free time on my hands during summer vacation. I couldn’t go back home. I’m not as good as Mother, but I followed the recipes exactly, so I’m sure I didn’t make any mistakes.”

I had just followed the recipes and was proudly talking about it, and then it happened right then.

I heard a thumping noise near the doorway of the atelier.

“Hello, I’m back. Are you here, Makia?”

A tall, slender, beautiful girl with long black hair tied back in a braid appeared.

It was Lapis Twilight, my roommate.

“Lapis! Lapis Lapis Lapis! Welcome back! Welcome welcome welcome!”

“Ah, yes. I’m back…”

Lapis was a bit taken aback by my persistent way of missing her.

Not minding that, I quickly led her to the table and prepared sunflower tea. I had a mountain of things to talk about with her, too.

“Where did you go during summer vacation?”

“Well...I went to visit the family grave.” 

“Oh, that’s right. It’s that season.”

There was no such thing as a “Japanese Obon” in the Kingdom of Ruschia, but I suddenly said that aloud for some reason.

Nero and Lapis seemed to think it’s just “Makia saying weird things again.”

“Haa, I wanted to go back home too...to Deliafield.”

I put my chin in my hands and thought about my distant hometown.

There was nothing in Deliafield, but I missed my parents, the Salt Forest, and my grandmother. That’s why I kept eating and eating sweets that had a countryside taste to them.

Since the ball, I’ve been getting hungry easily, and I felt like I was eating more…

“By the way, why did you stay at school, Makia?”

“Huh? Um, that’s…”

Nero’s question was reasonable. I didn’t tell them the reason why I couldn’t go back home.

But there was no way to explain it. I couldn’t tell them about being a Guardian yet.

“Yo. Did you forget about someone?”

“Oh, it’s Frey.”

With perfect timing, that man arrived.

The one who was posing a bit coolly near the door was the fifth prince of our country. That was all.

“I’ve run into you so many times at the palace, so I don’t really feel anything special about seeing you again, Frey.”

“Huh. What a coincidence, I feel the same way, Leader.”

Then, with his hands in his pockets, he came down the stairs and plopped down next to Nero.

“By the way, where are the souvenirs?”

What’s more, he demanded souvenirs from the group that returned home.

“Hey, look. The prince of our country is extorting souvenirs from his people.”

“How shameful…”

As Lapis and I were whispering, only Nero started in surprise, and I thought I saw a shadow fall across his face.

“I, I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about souvenirs…”

“Ah. I wasn’t really...I was joking! Don’t actually feel bad about it. Okay?”

Frey hurriedly patched things up with Nero, who had gotten into low spirits.

The two of them were starting to make a nice pair.

Once again, I was happy to see the four of us in Garnet Team 9 safely together.

“All right. Now that all the members are here, let’s work hard for the second semester. I’m looking forward to class.”

“Keh. You’re the only one who’s eager, Leader.”

“Mr. Frey is a habitual skipper and snoozer, huh.”

Although Lapis quipped that, Frey laughed proudly.

“You guys don’t know how scary the second semester is, so you can’t say anything. Once you hit the second semester, the professors won’t have any mercy. All the classes and assignments you had up to now will seem soft.”

“You...remember what assignments you had in the second semester?”

“Huh?” For some reason, Frey sounded confused at Nero’s nonchalant question.

“Uh. What was it? There must have been one that was really bad...It was so bad that I lost all memory of it…”

“Pardon? What are you talking about?”

Even though he was redoing his first year all over again, apparently Frey couldn’t quite recall that bad assignment. It made me strangely uneasy…

Oh well. I didn’t think Lune Ruschia’s professors would give lenient assignments that you could prepare for in advance anyways.

So, the four of us sat down to sunflower tea and sweets and chatted about all sorts of unimportant things. As expected, after not seeing each other for over a month, we had a lot to talk about.

Now, the second semester of classes at Lune Ruschia Magic School begins.

I had to become a witch strong enough to survive without being protected by Thor.

If I continued to work hard with the members of Garnet Team 9 and get good marks, I might be one step closer to becoming the person I wanted to be.

My goal of becoming an honor student remained unchanged.

“I can tell by the look on your faces and the shape of your bodies how pampered and slacking you’ve been during summer vacation.”

The first 【Magical Athletics】class of the second semester began with Professor Francesca Lila’s stern words.

Professor Lila was a former magic soldier of the royal palace. She was a showy female teacher who wore a yellow jersey.

The professor, with a megaphone in hand, told us our first task.”

“So now, harvest the lemons in school and take them to the collection point on the island. No magic allowed. You will receive points in the order of the total weight of the lemons.”

“Whaaaaaaat?”

Wasn’t that just making the students harvest the lemons!?

That was what we all thought, but we wouldn’t say that aloud no matter what, so we did as we were told, running around the island with baskets on our backs and carrying them to the collection point.

The next day, our muscles were aching so badly that everyone was dragging their bodies and wandering aimlessly around school. It was a suspicious sight.

”Now, it’s time for everyone’s long-awaited 【Potions】class. For the first lesson of the semester, let’s learn about ‘Hyp Sleeping Potion.’ A magic sleeping potion is an excellent thing that allows you to set your sleeping hours and even the contents of your dreams if it is prepared by a skilled magician. There are many kinds, but let us start with the simplest kind, the Hyp. It is a difficult potion, but let us try the one that is the easiest and has the shortest sleep time settings.” 

In the second semester of Professor Medite’s 【Potions】class, we were able to practice mixing slightly more difficult potions.

There were many different types and schools of magic “sleeping potions,” but the Hyp was the most common and used in a variety of situations.

For example, it could be used to give a person who was having trouble sleeping the right amount of time to sleep, to force them to go to sleep, to continue a pleasant dream, or to bring back memories from the distant past. The Hyp Sleeping Potion, if made by a master magician, could even be used to extract information from other people’s dreams.

“So, what are the main ingredients in the Hyp Sleeping Potion? Yes, Mr. Thomas Cleib.”

“Um, the Hyp uses the nectar and essential oils from a flower called a hypnolia. The scent of a hypnolia has the magical ability to put people to sleep, and Melirimont Medite, who discovered that—”

“Yes, that’s enough. Thank you very much for telling us while glancing at your textbook.”

Professor Medite raised a hand and cut off the male student’s explanation.

And then, with a bit of a smug look on his face, he said,

“Yes. This magic sleeping potion was said to have been discovered by an ancestor of the Medite family, and is a big hit. But potions always have side effects. So, Miss Makia O’Drielle, what are the side effects of the Hyp Sleeping Potion?”

Professor Medite had a nasty habit of calling on me when there was a slightly difficult question.

But I had no chinks in my armor.

“Yes. If you take too much of the Hyp without following the dosage directions, you may experience mental regression. In short, you’ll end up talking like a baby. I once saw an old pirate who took too much of the Hyp crawling around while going googoo gaagaa. It was very embarrassing!”

“Yes, perfect answer.”

Professor Medite clapped for my enthusiastic response.

“Everyone. If you don’t want to look so unseemly, follow your professor’s instructions. Follow the directions and dosage. Do you understand?”

The students in the lecture hall shivered. They must have been imagining what it would be like if they themselves acted like that in front of everyone.

“Good day, everyone. In last semester’s 【Magical World History】class, we learned about Maydare’s mythology. The ten gods finally caused the great war, the ‘Gigante Magilliva’*, which brought about the twilight of the age of myths. This was exactly the question where only fifty percent of the answers were correct in the first surprise test of the second semester. Ahem...only fifty percent of you answered it correctly!”

After emphasizing that point once more, Professor Mary Erlich, the witch in charge of 【Magical World History】, looked over the students with a sharp eye.

For this question, people got the technical term Gigante Magilliva wrong little by little, dropping the percentage of correct answers. But I got it right, of course.

“In the second semester, we will finally learn about the age of man. How was the age of man colored by ‘magic,’ the only hope left behind by the gods?”

In Magical World History, we were moving from the age of myths to the age of man.

Humans had lost the guidance of the gods, but they were given magic, and great magicians emerged from among the humans and etched their names into history.

“There are three main eras you will be learning in your first year. The ‘Dawning of Magic Era’ from one thousand years ago, the ‘Magical War Era’ from five hundred years ago, and the ‘Magical Revolution Era’ from three hundred years ago.”

Yes. In terms of Magical World History, it was important to start from the 【Dawning of Magic Era—The Gold and Silver Kings】.

Before that time, the belief in spirits was mainstream, and most magicians were priests who served kings, and very few of their names remained.

But a thousand years ago, two great magicians became kings, and that was the first era where magic and magical techniques became clear factors in the struggle for world dominance.

It was said that the 〈Gold King〉and 〈Silver King〉used magic in their wars and fought over the “Holy Land,” but after a long battle, the 〈Silver King〉was defeated by the 〈Gold King〉, and the magic that the〈Silver King〉had been enthusiastically working on was suppressed as taboo, and most of the books were destroyed in a fire. What exactly was the magic that the 〈Gold King〉had covered up was the biggest mystery in the magical world.

And then, the【Magical War Era—The Three Great Magicians】five hundred years ago.

This era was the flower of magical world history. This was because three genius magicians appeared at the same time.

The 〈Black Demon King〉created the “spatial magic” that became the forerunner of modern advanced magic.

The 〈White Sage〉had “spirit magic” categorized as an academic discipline. 

The 〈Scarlet Witch〉was able to handle the heretical “command magic,” a type of alchemy.

As three of them quarreled, magic developed rapidly, entering a new stage and branching out into various fields.

If there was one more important era in magical world history, it would be three hundred years ago.

The 【Magical Revolution Era—The Two Saints】.

This era saw the emergence of the 【Wisteria Princess】, who led the people suffering from oppression in Frezier in the west, and the 【Archbishop of Holy Ash】who established the Vabel State as the headquarters of Vabelism.

The “two saints,” who saved the suffering people, brought about ripples in the era and caused a revolution, were very different from the “three great magicians,” who were selfish and violent. 

In particular, the famous saint〈Wisteria Princess〉, whose beauty had been recounted in many anecdotes, was so popular that she ranked number one in the popularity rankings for the greatest magicians in history every year.

I suppose you could call her the Joan of Arc of Maydare.

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