I took her gaze and let out a sigh inwardly.As expected, Elena was keeping an eye on this incident too.In truth, I had already guessed as much when I saw that today’s club academic meeting topic was dire wolves.As the princess of the Holy Kingdom and a Saintess candidate at the forefront of eradicating Demons, there was no way she would let this anomaly slide.From the way she spoke, Elena seemed to think there was a possibility the culprit behind this incident was Gilean, one of the Twelve Venerables.To others, the Twelve Venerables are specters of the past, a forgotten legend, but to Elena and the Holy Kingdom, they are still an unresolved, painful wound.I thought for a moment and shook my head.“Sorry, but I don’t particularly know anything.”“Even something trivial is fine.”Elena pressed on tenaciously.Thinking she might find it strange if I kept dodging, I mixed a proper fabrication with the truth and answered.“…Come to think of it, the mist was thicker than usual. The mana density was high, so it was hard to breathe, and higher-tier monsters like dire wolves showed up. Ah, and now that I think of it, we also found a goblin settlement, which is rare.”I did not bother to mention that I had found a fine shard of a Dark Magic Stone in that settlement.“A goblin settlement… It shouldn’t be able to form in that region.”“Dire wolves, too, originally shouldn’t be able to appear.”“……”To her, who seemed to be mulling it over, I offered my view.“I presume this incident happened because of an anomaly in the ley lines.”“Ley line anomaly, huh. Not entirely unreasonable. Anything can happen in an uncharted zone.”An uncharted zone is, literally, an unknown world untouched by human hands.It is a domain closer to chaos than order, where the ley lines—the channels through which the land’s mana flows—are unstable, and primordial mana lies scattered here and there.Because of that, it is also a place highly prone to all sorts of mana disasters.If one adds a few assumptions to such ley line anomalies, most of the problems that occurred in this practical exam can be explained.The mist thicker than usual, the abnormal appearance of high-tier monsters, even the barrier-like thing that cut us off from the outside.Strictly speaking, rather than naming Gilean of the Twelve Venerables—who vanished centuries ago—as the culprit, approaching the current situation with the hypothesis of a ley line anomaly is the more logical approach.Barring only the fact that Professor Verdandi was attacked by an unknown assailant.'That’s confidential anyway.'Professor Verdandi himself has no memory of the time, and publicly it’s known he was injured in battle against monsters, so no one will nitpick me using that as a basis.Elena would know the details since she treated Professor Verdandi herself, but I’m operating under the premise that I am inferring the current situation without knowing that.At any rate, I had stated my opinion, so she wouldn’t dig further, and Elena’s investigation, which had been leaning toward Gilean, would now be angled slightly elsewhere—good enough.I concluded with this.“Let’s stop the heavy talk. We’ll get indigestion.”Just then, the prepared dishes began to come out one after another.Watching the waiter approach the table with trays in both hands, I quietly smiled.“I’ll eat well, Elena.”***During the meal, instead of the earlier heavy topics, we chatted about light, trivial things.Things like the upcoming sports festival, or Adler’s request that she wanted to spar with me once.Ever since I took a win from Chepesh, Jerome’s president, in the territorial war, quite a few people like Adler had sprung up who wanted to face me.Of course, most figured I’d won using despicable tricks, but apparently not everyone thought so.Accordingly, the number of people naturally doubtful of my actual skill increased, and conspiracy theories were even circulating that I’d been hiding my power all along—enough said.I grimaced, letting those conspiracy theories slide past.'…Hiding my power, my ass.'That was me dragging together every shred of strength I had and didn’t have to fight.In that battle, I even broke a magic crystal orb worth hundreds of millions.In any case, I denied those conspiracy theories and also turned down Adler’s request for a bout.As one of Elena’s close aides, she was quite the expert.If I went all out to win, I could win, but even if I did, there was nothing in particular to be gained.After finishing dinner with Elena and stepping outside, it was already full night.Late at night, I returned to the Student Council President’s office and began the work I had put off.Reprocessing Bell’s mana orb and infusing it with my mana.It was still far from ready to ingest, but the process was proceeding smoothly.I put the mana orb, its infusion complete, back into its case and took a deep breath.“Hoo.”'Busy, busy.'Wiping the sweat from my brow, I moved on to the next task.I’d been too busy to pay attention, but there were several things I had to learn besides magic.Spirit arts were one of them.Slice-I lightly nicked my fingertip, let blood fall into the air, and recited the spell.[Spirit Summon.]Whooosh-At the same time, mana roared through the air, and soon, with a puff of black smoke, an egg appeared from the summoning magic circle.[Darkness Spirit Kavelthar - Egg]Category: SpiritGrade: UniqueAn egg prior to hatching. Until it cracks its shell and is born, what will emerge is unknown.Last time, pressed for time, I only summoned it briefly, but today I carefully set the egg on the table and observed it at leisure.At a glance, Kavelthar’s egg looked less like an egg and more like a solid ore.Tap tap-Even when I knocked it with the back of my hand, all I felt was the sensation of rapping on a hunk of metal.Staring at the egg, I sank into thought.'Generally, to hatch the egg of a divine beast or pet, the owner’s mana is required.'Just like processing Bell’s mana orb, you carefully infuse mana into it every day to slowly hatch it—that’s the standard method.But after trying it several times, this thing didn’t even pretend to absorb mana when I infused it.Just no response.It really felt like infusing mana into a rock.As it was, I already had to pour mana into processing Bell’s mana orb; I didn’t have the leeway to fuss over this thing as well.There is a limit to pouring water into a bottomless jar.So this time, I decided to use a different method.Click-I took out the Dark Magic Stone crystals I had kept carefully stored and laid them on the table.Hisss-Black heat-haze wafted up from the Dark Magic Stones.Overlaying the demonic energy dispersing in the air and Kavelthar’s egg, I thought quietly.'Darkness Kavelthar is the only spirit that Loen, a Half-Demon whose constitution is the polar opposite of spirits, can command.'Given that, its nature would differ from ordinary spirits, so to hatch it, magi might be necessary instead of mana.I slid two small pieces of Dark Magic Stone—collected from the goblin settlement and the Dark Rat habitat—toward the egg.'All right, try eating these.'If my guess was right, it would happily consume these stones.And as if answering my expectation—Slide-Sticky black tendrils suddenly extended from the egg and snatched the stones nearby.Kavelthar swallowed the seized stones whole.Sluuuurp-The stones melted into the surface of the egg like a swamp, then were sucked inside and vanished.With the egg looking slightly larger than before its meal, a log notification popped up before my eyes.Ting-[Kavelthar is satisfied with your offering. Hatching progress increases. Current 7%.]“……”Offering, huh. The wording was a bit odd.I had thought it closer to feeding or giving food, but judging from the phrasing, this egg might be of higher station than I expected.'Lower spirits like Salamanders or Undines are familiar with humans, so you can order them around and handle them easily.'But the closer a spirit is to a Spirit King, the stronger the tendency to be haughty and arrogant.Seeing it put on airs made me more curious about its true nature.'I need to hatch it quickly.'Of course, it’s not as if it will hatch quickly just because I want it to.Dark Magic Stones aren’t exactly something you can acquire easily.'Two pieces no bigger than a fingernail, and it’s seven percent.'Judging by the increase, even if I recovered every Dark Magic Stone spread throughout the Union, it might still be slightly short of reaching one hundred percent hatching progress.If it came to that, the only way would be to take down a high-difficulty dungeon boss, or a high-ranking demon deeper in the uncharted zone.'It won’t be easy, but…'I could take it to mean the reward would be that much greater.I looked again at the now-quiet Kavelthar egg, then promptly dismissed it.***The next day.After finishing my scheduled lectures, I visited Izelin Academy with Ciel.I needed to verify the information I had learned in my conversation with Elena yesterday, and just then Demian contacted me, saying he had completed the framework of the dormitory design.He said the chairman’s seal had been obtained, so there were no legal issues, and the land survey was already finished—but to think he would wrap up the design this quickly.Truly outstanding talent.“Ah, you’ve arrived.”When Ciel and I reached the reception room, «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» Illeina, Philip, and Josefin greeted us.Illeina offered us seats and served tea and refreshments.“Thank you for coming all this way. Please, sit.”Once we sat, Illeina asked me with a slightly expectant look.“Sir Loen, did you receive the gift I sent?”“Yeah. I received the gift. I’ll make… good use of it.”“Yes! If you need more, please tell me anytime.”I nodded, feeling slightly complicated.Not long ago, I received a notification that a large sum had been deposited into my account.A full 2.5 billion Krone.Although the depositor’s name was not revealed, I could tell at once whose favor it was.Illeina had wired me 2.5 billion Krone—half of the compensation she had immediately extracted from Jerome.Even if my role in the territorial war was significant, I couldn’t just snatch such money.'This compensation is the price of someone’s pain and endurance.'This money had a clear purpose: reconstructing the Academy and providing relief to the victims.I could not easily accept such blood-and-sweat money.Even after I explained as much, Illeina insisted firmly that it was only right to repay a benefactor.Her resolve was so strong that, after discussion, I finally agreed to accept 1 billion Krone for now.In the first place, I was going to make her spend a considerable amount on this dormitory reconstruction project anyway.At any rate—1 billion Krone received from Illeina.I planned to use these funds neither frivolously nor wastefully, but as seed money to turn safely and quickly.'They say there’s no way to grow money safely and quickly in the world, but…'For me, a veteran of Mirellin Saga, it wasn’t so difficult.After earning sufficient profit, I would return it to Izelin.The reward for saving Izelin was already more than enough with just the Cognition Acceleration Stone.After a brief exchange of pleasantries, we got to the point.“Demian, I heard you finished the design.”“Yeah, that’s why I called you.”Demian had been wearing a bored expression while listening to our conversation.He pulled the blueprints from his inner pocket and spoke.“Obviously, this isn’t the finalized design drawings. We need to reflect your opinions at the design stage. If I do it my way, you’ll throw a fit, right?”“Of course. Your skill is acknowledged, but that perverse aesthetic sense is unacceptable.”“…Tsk.”This was a clause specified in the contract when we hired Demian.No matter how self-willed he was, he could not complete the drawings without the client’s approval.“Suit yourselves and look. If you can even tell what’s what… that is.”Clicking his tongue, Demian reluctantly spread out Izelin Academy’s new dormitory design before us.

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