Maydare Volume 2 Chapter 6 - School Island Labyrinth I (Part 1)

This came out later than I wanted

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On this day, the special class for Elements Magic Studies was given by the palace magician Eugene Batiste, who was Savior Airi’s personal teacher.

Professor Batiste was also a visiting lecturer at Lune Ruschia Magic School.

Elements Magic Studies was taught by a variety of teachers, and sometimes they brought in outside lecturers like Professor Batiste.

In particular, he was in charge of the special lectures for those who were “blessed by the elements.”

“The Blessed Children are beings who are especially loved by the spirits of that attribute. They have the unconditional protection of the spirits and have a unique constitution. Well, you all are probably much more knowledgeable about this than I am…”

Professor Batiste stood at the lectern and pushed up his glasses.

“Those blessed by【Water】can change parts of their body into water, those blessed by【Fire】have a constitution for generating heat and fire, those blessed by【Earth] can move without regard for gravity, and those are blessed by【Wind】can fly without levitation magic.”

I nodded and made mm-hmm sounds, while Frey yawned disinterestedly next to me.

“These traits are abilities that can be utilized with no incantations or magical power. For you, it is a quirk and physical constitution that you have been able to handle like breathing since birth. It is your most reliable ability. What you need is not magical power, but physical strength, which will come in handy in times of need. It is also natural that you would be good at your attribute’s magic. The Blessed are often experts in their respective element. However…”

Professor Batiste then went on to write the words “side effects” on the blackboard floating behind him.

“The Blessed Children, as a recoil against their abilities, have extreme weaknesses compared to ordinary people. Those blessed by【Water】are prone to have blood rush to their heads, and those blessed by【Fire】can’t swim. Those blessed by【Earth】get terrible motion sickness, and those blessed by【Wind】have extreme hay fever. Are these typical?”

Mmm mmm, yes yes.

I swam like a brick, and Frey seemed to have extreme motion sickness and was bad with transference magic.”

It might seem like a trivial weakness, but it was surprisingly hard to deal with. Before, I almost died because the weakness of my blessing had a harmful result.

“Excuse me, Professor Batiste!”

One serious-looking male student raised his hand and asked the professor a question.

“I’ve heard that the Lady Savior who appeared from another world has the very rare【All】blessing. It is well-known that the【All】blessing is an anti-elemental constitution, but what are its weaknesses?”

The other students were very interested in the male student’s question.

Those blessed by【All】were so rare that he thought that Professor Batiste, the Savior’s personal teacher, would know something about them.

Professor Batiste’s expression didn’t change, and he nodded and said “Mmm” in a calm tone.

“Those blessed by【All】are loved by all spirits. Therefore, it is sometimes said that they are chosen and special. For me, though...I don’t believe that is so.”

Huh? Professor Batiste was surprisingly harsh towards those blessed by【All】.

“Because they are loved by all spirits, no spirits can lay a hand on them. That is the essence of anti-elements. ...They have none of the physical weaknesses we have talked about until now, but since those blessed by【All】are highly sensitive, they might have some mental fragility. They are prone to have very strong assumptions and prone to fall into depression.”

Professor Batiste folded his hands behind his back and walked in front of the blackboard.

“In the first place, why are the ‘Blessed Children’ born?”

He spoke to us.

“In some eras, they are called intermediaries of spirits and have been worshipped, but on the other hand, they have also been discriminated against and oppressed as the cursed children of spirits. There are still some regions that have a custom of persecuting Blessed Children.”

“...”

“However, understanding for the Blessed is gradually growing, and I believe that most people see it as a quirk and treat it as such. That is surely because it is a power that is needed by many. I want you to be proud of yourselves and polish your skills. For the future of the Kingdom of Ruschia…”

The professor’s words were very persuasive, and gave us, the Blessed Children, hope and confidence.

He wasn’t amiable and friendly, but he was a good teacher. Enough that he was chosen to be the personal teacher of the Savior Airi.

Frey, who I had forced to attend the lecture, was dozing off again next to me, so I gave him a quick tug on the ear.

“Ow, that hurt. What are you doing, Leader? I’m against violence.”

Then Frey laid his head down on the desk and went to sleep.

Despite the fact that we have to submit a report for today’s lecture. I must see to it that he writes it.

He really is a difficult delinquent prince.

“Miss Makia O’Drielle. Could you stay for a moment?”

“Oh, yes, Professor Batiste.”

At the end of the lecture, as the students were leaving the lecture hall, I was stopped by Professor Batiste.

“I heard from Thor Bigreitz’s report that you were attacked by ruffians in the capital. Are you all right?”

I didn’t think that Professor Batiste would be worried about me.

“Yes. Thor saved me, so as you can see, I’m fine.”

“...No, I do understand that you’re safe. Since there is not a ghost in front of me. I was asking about mentally.”

“Oh, I see. I’m fine for that as well!”

I reported confidently. The professor laughed slightly as he pushed up his glasses.

“As expected, many of those blessed by【Fire】are tough. I envy you.”

He looked surprisingly innocent when he laughed. Although he was the same age as Professor Ulysses and Professor Medite, he was quite an austere teacher, but that gap also had a charm.

“Airi is also worried about you. Even though it isn’t publicly known that you are a Guardian, I think it would be better for you to have a bodyguard with you at all times…”

“N-No! I’m fine. I’m going to be moving alongside someone from now on. I’ll try not to leave the school. Lune Ruschia is a safe place, after all.”

“...I see.”

And if a Guardian of the Savior was always under guard, then they were unqualified to be a Guardian.

The palace probably thought so too, and probably won’t give me a bodyguard.

Because even if I die, a more suitable “replacement” might appear.

In fact, I would say that there were many people who hoped for that… 

“If there is anything troubling you, you can always come to me. You are blessed by【Fire】. I have seen all kinds of Blessed until now, so I might be able to help you.”

“...Yes! Thank you very much, Professor Batiste!”

All the people in the palace who served the Savior gave me harsh looks, but Professor Batiste was a sober man of character who was concerned about me.

No wonder everyone said they wished Professor Batiste was a Guardian.

It was the day after the lecture on elemental blessings.

“Attention, students. It is time for the long awaited 【Magical Athletics】!”

The Magical Athletics instructor, Professor Lila, gathered us Garnet first-years in front of a cave on the west bank of the school and announced our new assignment with a loudspeaker in hand.

“I didn’t say anything this year because every year there are people who run away from school after I give a preliminary announcement, but the assignment that will be carried out from now is the ‘Labyrinth Game.’”

“Labyrinth Game?”

When the students heard this, some of them, like me, tilted their heads in confusion, some were sort of buzzing amongst themselves, and some were trembling. 

There was one such trembling, pathetic man in our Garnet Team 9.

“I...I remember it now. The worst one…”

He said in a high-pitched voice and paled. He was Frey. He was a prince.

Lapis, who was next to Frey, was somewhat taken aback by his frightened appearance.

“Is this, by any chance, the class that was so bad that it got blasted from your memory?”

“That’s right, Miss Lapis. Wait, what’s with those eyes! You guys think I’m exaggerating, don’t you!”

“...”

Because, if you say it was so bad that you lost your memory, then you’re almost dead, aren’t you?

We had to train hard for every Magical Athletics class, but I guess this time it was different from the usual class.

Professor Lila continued her explanation with the loudspeaker in hand.

“This lesson is based on teamwork, and will take place in the ‘first labyrinth,’ which is located underground below the school island. You know that Lune Ruschia was originally a fortress, right? The underground is called the last stronghold, and the labyrinth stretches over five levels. This time, you will be hunting for countless automatons in the first labyrinth.”

“Au-to-ma-ton?”

We were surprised at the unfamiliar words.

But Nero, who was very good at this sort of thing, seemed to know it. 

“An automaton is a mechanical doll with magical circuits built into it and made from ancient relics. They’re originally developed by the Frezier Empire in the west for military use, and they’ve already become a part of life there. I’m sure they’re still rare in the Kingdom of Ruschia, though.”

I see. So basically, it was some kind of robot.

Professor Lila looked over the restless students in satisfaction.

“I’m going to give you toy dolls that you can smash however much you want. There’s a chance that you’ll get smashed first, though.”

“...”

The students were stunned by her merciless words.

I had a feeling that this was going to be so bad that we wouldn’t be able to make fun of Frey’s fear.

“Got it? If you become a magic soldier or knight, you’ll be sent into enemy territory, you’ll have to defeat rampaging demonic beasts, and you’ll have to destroy all kinds of weapons in war. Of course, you’ll also be required to kill your enemies. Even if you don’t become a magic soldier or knight, if you don’t have actual combat experience, you won’t be able to protect anything when the time comes. There are some teachers that are peaceful idiots who say that students don’t need combat training, but I don’t believe that. At the very least, you should have the power to defend yourselves!”

I have heard that Professor Lila was deployed to our ally, the Frezier Empire, and was an elite soldier who stood on the front lines. She was someone who has seen the realities of the world.

The words of people like her were very convincing, which was why I was becoming more and more interested in the content of the assignment…

“Your assignment is ridiculously simple! Enter from here, encounter automatons in the first labyrinth, and defeat them, defeat them, defeat them! Just collect four eyeballs and try to escape the labyrinth.”

“...”

“It’s important to note that the four eyeballs need to be of different colors. Eyeballs of the same color won’t be counted!”

Professor Lila carefully warned us about that part. There might be something about the different colors of the eyeballs that was related to the evaluation of the assignment.

And behind her, there were several teachers. Including the second prince, Professor Ulysses, and my uncle Professor Medite.

It was a large-scale class, so many teachers were needed to monitor it. This also made the students feel nervous.

“I’ll continue. You may use whatever magic you know. The only tools you can bring in are the ones we’ve prepared for you and the magic activation assistance tools registered with the school.”

The magic activation assistance tools were things like rings and wands. In Nero’s case, they were his contact lenses.

“No assistance from spirits is allowed. The purpose of this task is to test your own physical strength, magical knowledge, and judgment, as well as to improve your teamwork. The time limit is five hours. We’ll be monitoring you with our lacrima, but if you run into any problems, send us a signal immediately. That’s all. Get ready!”

The leaders from each team were gathered and given the necessary supplies.

When I opened the bag that was distributed to me, I found cereal bars that could be eaten quickly, energy drinks to help us restore our magic power and a thin folded-up guide paper sheet.

The guide paper contained the history of the School Island Labyrinth, rules like the ones the professor talked about earlier, and a map so that we wouldn’t get lost in the labyrinth.

Now, it was time to start.

The impregnable final stronghold, the School Island Labyrinth.

It was one of the seven mysteries of the school, where we were not allowed to enter outside of class, and if you wander in, you would never be able to come out again…

“Now it’s Garnet Team 9’s turn. Get moving.”

Professor Lila glared at us, the members of Team 9, and pointed her loudspeaker at us, even though we were at close range.

“You guys made a mess last time with the herb collecting. The school was also at fault, but that doesn’t matter. I don’t know about that. Your evaluation will start from the negative. Do you understand?”

“Y-Yes. We’ll be careful.”

“Alright. Then go!”

With Professor Lila giving us the warning, we entered the cave on the beach. 

“They’re watching us, huh.”

“It can’t be helped, Nero. It’s true that we caused a ruckus last time when we were collecting herbs.”

I shrugged, but Frey, looking unconvinced, said, “Haaa?” 

“No matter how you look at it, that was a problem with the school’s management! I don’t want to get bounced by a transfer device this time. That was the worst. I got so sick that I almost died.”

“Oh, look, Makia, that wall opened.”

In the direction where Lapis, who magnificently ignored Frey’s words, a rock was opening with the ground shaking.

There seemed to be multiple rock doors, and it seemed to have a system of randomly opening, perhaps to scatter the teams.

When we advanced to the other side of the door, we found…

“Uwah…”

It was a white space, as though made of sugar candy. The pit in the atrium was connected by intersecting corridors and staircases.

Where do we go from here?

We couldn’t tell at all just from a first glance. Even our sense of up and down was going crazy.

This really was a labyrinth. A magical maze.

Also, the materials used in this labyrinth…

“Could it be that...it’s made of stone from the Salt Forest?”

The smell was familiar, and I felt a vague chill. It made me feel like I was in the forest.

I opened the guide paper and found out that the first labyrinth was made from the same stones as the ones from the Salt Forest in Deliafield.

The school was established five hundred years ago.

Did they carry stones from such a long distance that long ago?

“Kyaaaah!”

That was when it happened. We immediately heard a scream from somewhere.

We looked around and found that students from another team that went in before us were being chased on the other side of several midair corridors by a mechanical doll that looked twice the size of a human being.

“That’s an...automaton?”

Long limbs with a narrow torso that tapered in the middle. Its small head had a single “blue” eyeball in it that moved incessantly. In addition, it spat out something that looked like foam to attack.

“What the hell, isn’t that basically a monster? It didn’t look that scary last year…”

Frey was being fussy. While he was at it, he grabbed Nero and shook him.

With a calm expression on his face, Nero strained his eyes with his finger on his temple. He looked like he was using his magic contacts to check the automaton. When he tapped his temple, he seemed to be switching the information he was looking at…

“Apparently, it’s been upgraded from last year’s.”

“What else can you learn with those contact lenses?”

“The flow of the magical circuits built into the automaton is simple. It’s just something that’s been given a command and follows it.”

With the members from the other team running around trying to escape, we observed the automaton from a distance to gather information.

“Oh, they fell!”

Someone from the other team tripped and fell from the corridor.

We thought they were going to fall down into the atrium, but a saucer-shaped lifeboat came and picked up the student.

“Well, it looks like we don’t have to worry about falling to our deaths, eh, Miss Lapis?”

“I am not so sure about that. It might be that there are mistakes in the set-up of the magical technique in these sorts of things.” 

“...”

We all gulped and maintained our nervousness.

This was the first first-year assignment that required combat, and it seemed that we needed to tackle it carefully.

“Anyways, we’ll just have to find an automaton and try to fight it. If there’s no restriction on magic, then there’s always something we can do…”

As I said this confidently, I heard a strange clip-clop sound coming from somewhere.

“Nnn…?”

When we turned to our side all together, we saw a small automaton there.

It was different in shape from the one that had been chasing the other team earlier.

Its body and head were round, and it rolled around lightly. It had no limbs, but it had two eyes of different sizes. It looked like a snowman, and I wondered if there were baby toys that made that kind of sound. This automaton itself had a somewhat child-like expression.

“Its eyes are ‘white.’”

“You have time to care about the color of its eyes, huh. Well, it does look weak, but...no, be on guard!”

The dispassionate Nero and Frey, whose energy level was unstable.

“Wait...it’s coming it’s coming it’s coming!”

“Run away!”

Clip-clop clip-clop clip-clop.

The white automaton rolled towards us at great speed, as if to say, “Let’s play!”

To our shock, the more it rotated, the more it unleashed a whirlwind around it. It was small, but its attack range seemed to be wide.

“Oi, we can jump down from there!”

Following Nero’s instructions, we jumped down from the slightly high difference in level and hid in the space under the stairs.

And then the ball automaton stopped chasing us and slowly rolled down the corridor while looking all around.

The clip-clop sound faded away. We breathed sighs of relief and wiped the sweat from our foreheads.

“I see. When we’re out of their sight, they stop chasing us.”

“That’s a nice setting, but we have to defeat them and collect their eyeballs, right? It’s too scary, and we didn’t even have enough time to use magic. It’s impossible.”

Frey was already giving up.

“What, it’s not as difficult as it sounds.”

Nero let out a “pff,” unusual for him, and said something promising.

“What do you mean?” I asked, and Nero pointed to another team that was just starting to fight on the other side.

“From here, we’ll carefully observe the automaton’s attacks on the other team and its eyeballs. It’s more efficient to gather information and formulate countermeasures than to fight unnecessarily.”

The team that was just starting to fight on the other side was Beatrice’s team.

They were fighting against an automaton with “red” eyes. It was big and fat, and it was attacking the team members with fire spewing from its mouth.

Nero’s contact lenses glowed faintly.

“The automaton that attacked us earlier had ‘white’ eyeballs. The white ones probably attack with wind. And the one attacking Team 1 has ‘red’ eyeballs, and it attacks with fire.”

“Could it be that the color of the eyeballs...indicate the element?”

Nero looked at me and nodded. “Probably.”

“Professor Lila told us to collect four eyeballs of different colors. In Elements Magic Studies, that number signifies the four big elements:【Fire】,【Water】, 【Earth】, and 【Wind】. If we don’t defeat one automaton of each element and collect their eyeballs, we won’t be able to complete the assignment.”

Fighting on the other side, Beatrice’s team defeated the red-eyed automaton with【Water】magic.

Indeed. 【Fire】was defeated by 【Water】. This was an assignment where the basics of the basics could be applied well.

This class was probably related to the evaluation of not only【Magical Athletics】, but also【Elements Magic Studies】. It meant that if we studied Elements Magic Studies properly, then we could find clues to defeat the automatons.

“The white-eyed automaton from back then had a【Wind】attribute. What defeats that is…”

“In magic studies, 【Wind】magic has no particular weaknesses. It’s said to be slightly weak against【Ice】magic or to be dominated by【Earth】magic, but depending on the circumstances, that is not definitive. It’s said to have an advantage over 【Fire】magic, but on the contrary, it can make【Fire】more powerful…”

Nero glanced at me.

I see. He was trying to tell me that my fire magic would be dangerous if it’s stirred up…

“Besides, we don’t need to rely on elemental dominance.” 

“What do you mean?”

“The ball automaton from earlier only created wind when it was rolling on the ground. In other words, if you stop it from rolling, it can’t create wind.”

“Oh~. I see~”

We clapped our hands in admiration at Nero’s realization. As expected of the mechanic of our team.

However, even though we had realized its weakness now, we couldn’t find the【Wind】automaton after that, so we had no choice but to put it off and hunt another automaton.

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