Could the green mutant, once hidden away in the outskirts, truly become a beacon of hope for the future?
"The amount of magic is acceptable, but honestly, I'm not sure how well a dropout from such a remote area will be able to keep up with higher education."
The bright bubbles rising from the boiling orange Alphaurn signaled the orphan's promised departure, and so he set off on his journey. Having discovered the seed of a new sorcerer, he needed to return to his post and make various preparations in advance. Meanwhile, even at this very moment, the Beta beings were slaughtering their fellow inhabitants of the planet in the middle layer...
***
...Earth is a beautiful planet. It might seem like an abrupt statement, but the Archmage had thought so ever since the moment of his reincarnation. Still, calling Earth a comfortable planet to live on would be a bit of a stretch. Take Venus, for example—its name alone sounds splendid, yet its average surface temperature exceeds 400°C, making it a place where you would die the instant you set foot on it.
What he was about to discuss was not quite as severe as surviving on Venus. However, the Archmage from Alphaurn had certainly been enduring a certain discomfort ever since his reincarnation.
I don't know whether I should say that Earth has no concept of up and down... or simply accept that Alphaurns are a people who don't distinguish between the two...
Up and down.
That's right. For a creature that could freely swim along every coordinate underwater, living as a mammal crawling across land must have felt as though both of its wings had been cut off.
.
.
.
<Academic Hall>
The gaze returns once more to the past of a certain oceanic planet. From the outside, it looked as though a hemispherical structure were bulging out of the ground, its gray buildings standing starkly against their surroundings. But if one entered and made use of the unique echolocation abilities of marine creatures...
======
By interpreting the sound waves reflected back after impact, one could discern that the interior formed a perfect sphere. This place was none other than Alphaurn's first public educational institution, known as the "Academic Hall."
The Academic Hall had been established in the heart of a former superpower's capital. Once, its inhabitants had fought among themselves so fiercely that they had even relocated their capital from this once-thriving ocean to another region. But now, the vitality of the past had returned to this quiet center of a bygone age. After the war with the satellites resulted in the deaths of countless people, the Alphaurns, determined to fundamentally increase their scarce military forces, began gathering talented citizens at the Academic Hall.
Ohhh...
Someone released an ultrasonic wave as though spreading their wings wide. In that instant, the entire internal structure of the Academic Hall was revealed at once.
A massive sculpture bearing the inscription: [Third Academic Hall]. Ceiling, floor, walls—passageways stretched in every direction, unconcerned with any fixed notion of up or down. And through those corridors, groups of young students of the era swam together in schools.
Wow-
A newcomer from the outskirts, covered in a layer of white jelly, let out a sound of admiration. Once, this had been a technology enjoyed only by the elite bloodlines, but now, the thought that he could use it himself made his heart soar.
But the joy was short-lived. The lobby, which had been filled with noise only moments before, suddenly fell silent.
...!
Huh?
Over there...
There he is.
The freshman instinctively knew who had caused this unnatural silence.
...
He looked up and saw the unfamiliar form of a fellow Alphaurn emerging from a distant passage in the ceiling. Slowly descending from above, this Alphaurn had rather slender sub-tentacles and green-colored blood. At first glance, one might have mistaken him for an ordinary Alphaurn who could be encountered anywhere.
But he was different. No, to be more precise, no one present could even be compared to him.
Magic...
Monster.
Long.
What kind of swimmer moves that quietly?
Still, the Academic Hall had gathered only those with the potential to grow into sorcerers. And now, standing before them was a being with such overwhelming power that he could crush every one of those competitors in an instant.
Is that him? The one who might become the first early graduate?
That's right. It was the arrival of the one who would someday earn the title of Archmage. Moreover, this marked the moment when the orphan from the deep sea arrived at the Academic Hall, nearly 2,460 days ago.
***
Ah- This class is ridiculously boring.
Someone grumbled. At the time, on this alien planet, auditory media was still favored over written text. In Alphaurn, a "sound resonator" was used as a means of storing and transmitting information. Made from a special alloy capable of retaining sound and magic, it would evenly spread the contents of a lesson throughout the large room whenever the teacher in the center struck it.
I shouldn't have signed up for this lecture either.
The fact that students didn't have to carry books around and could share learning materials was incredible. What a convenient and efficient teaching method. Compared to Earth, it was like having a television in the Middle Ages.
They just give the metal plate in front of them a few taps and call it a day.
However, only a few years after arriving at the Academic Hall, the marine creature had grown bored with every lecture. In other words, he had already mastered the level of magical theory taught at the institution. He had once been so socially awkward that he could not even properly distinguish between formal and casual speech. Yet the moment this green creature entered the educational institution, he began devouring every piece of information the building had to offer, as though he had been waiting for this opportunity all his life...
Crazy brat.
You crazy deep-sea freak.
Don't say that out loud!
How can he say something like that in that terrifying teacher's class? I should stay away from him.
Graduate already. Please.
Eccentric. Monster. Disaster. There were many words used to describe the deep-sea native, but the one mentioned most often was undoubtedly this:
Genius.
He was an undeniable, unparalleled genius of sorcery. At such a young age, he had already mastered advanced courses that even adults struggled to understand. There was no need for him to prove through brute force that he was a magician of the highest caliber.
I'm hungry. Too lazy to eat- I don't even have time to study...
On top of that, the green genius—quite unfairly—also possessed a genuine love of magical studies.
Should I go to the archives first today too? I really love it here—there are so many stone tablets and books.
A genius who also worked hard—how could ordinary people ever hope to surpass him? The orphan from the deep sea rose to the top of the Third Academic Hall in no time. And yet, no one envied him or tried to stand in his way.
In fact, when this Alphaurn first entered the Academic Hall, he had been harassed by several middle-class commoners. It was hardly unusual for people in the lower classes to divide themselves into hierarchies of their own. He quietly endured their bullying for a while, but then, during a sparring class one day, he seized the opportunity—and sliced every one of his tormentors into thin, circuit-like fillets.
***
Looking back, his school days were a fond memory.
I understood everything!
Even if all he remembered was shutting himself inside a dark cave and studying all day, that did not change anything.
The theory I learned this time was insanely fun too.
At the time, the planet's technology was still underdeveloped. All Alphaurns still required sleep and food. However, claiming that such necessities deprived him of time to study, the young sorcerer had already begun artificially modifying his body during the era of the Great War.
While ensuring that his basic life functions remained unaffected, he voluntarily suppressed most of his desires, including hunger, so that he could study more efficiently.
I can't waste my limited lifespan on things like that.
Thump, thump, thump.
Somewhere nearby came the sound of a ball being tossed around.
Alphaurn's magic hasn't even reached the tip of immortality's fin yet.
The modified student felt no excitement at those insignificant sounds. The only thought that crossed his mind was how pathetic his peers looked, wasting their time playing.
He was a being who controlled himself thoroughly and developed at an unbelievable pace. The Alphaurns had established this educational institution not merely to train specialized knights capable of using a single type of magic, but to cultivate high-level sorcerers who could change the course of the war. Originally, they had expected it to take at least seven years to produce magicians of that caliber.
It was only his second year at the Academic Hall. No one could have predicted that, in just two years, a genius would emerge who surpassed every teacher there. After all, this place had originally been created to gather members of the lower classes who had no connection whatsoever to magical study or research.
By the third year, the genius could no longer acquire any new knowledge from the Academic Hall.
By the fourth year, the still-immature genius had secluded himself in a small room, conducting personal research alongside the faculty.
Wait a minute. At this point, shouldn't I be heading to the battlefield soon?
A thought suddenly occurred to him. He wanted to graduate. More precisely, he genuinely wanted to test the skills he had honed in the real world. Even at this very moment, beyond the walls of the Academic Hall, his people were being slaughtered by the malicious Beta beings. Yet, strangely enough, the institution kept refusing to release the genius.
What the? Why? It's not like I'm asking to go on vacation. I'm saying I want to go defend the nation.
Since properly training a magician required a tremendous amount of resources, the nation's rulers had placed strict barriers around the Academic Hall to prevent students from escaping. As a result, the orphan, like everyone else, could not set a single foot outside the circular building without a graduation certificate.
Ahem. That... so you're from the deep sea, huh? For someone like that, your size doesn't look all that intimidating. In fact, you look rather neat. Your tentacles are long, too. Quite pleasant to look at. Hoho.
Dean, please stop saying strange things and look at my magic circle already.
Oh, yes. All right. Just wait a moment...
The so-called Dean, the Alphaurn who held the highest authority in the Third Academic Hall, had once told him:
If you submit a perfect graduation thesis, I will petition the higher-ups and make you the first person in this institution's history to graduate early. After all, if you want to break an established rule in society, you need a reason worthy of doing so.
The genius wrote the thesis—perfectly. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, despite the brilliant experimental data compiled in his fourth year, the thesis was returned to him in the most humiliating and unequivocal manner imaginable.
Hmm-
As time passed, today marked five years and sixteen days since the genius had first arrived at the Academic Hall.
No. That's not it either. You got it completely wrong. Start over from the beginning!
During the previous thesis review, the teacher had at least vaguely explained what was wrong. Now, however, he merely scolded him outright.
Ahem. And I'm busy preparing for classes, so don't even think about coming back this month. Understand?
The genius quickly understood what the teacher was doing. Naturally, he did not believe for a second that his research was so terrible it could be dismissed without further consideration.
Hoo? Could it be that this teacher...?
Unfortunately for the thief, although the student in question lacked social skills, his innate intelligence allowed his situational awareness to improve rapidly.
《Creative Design of Amplified Magic Circles: Researcher》
Not long afterward, the genius found the evidence he had been looking for using a covert observation spell of his own creation. It was a letter from an institution called the "Academic Hall." Its contents thanked the recipient for presenting an excellent theory at their institution the previous year. A glance at the title of the theory written at the top was enough to confirm that the teacher had stolen his student's research and presented it as his own.
Guilty as charged.
But the genius, in an act of true generosity, decided to give the criminal one chance.
Hello, Dean. Good morning.
Hm? What's this? Didn't I tell you not to come back this month...?
I have something to tell you.
As a boy, he had been relatively easygoing, still untainted by society.
The tall silhouette of the marine creature continued speaking.
To be exact, it's about the research data I submitted last year.
He spoke to the teacher responsible for overseeing him. He promised to overlook the fact that the teacher had stolen his experimental data, asking only one thing in return: that he be allowed to graduate without any trouble that year. It was an extraordinarily polite request, especially from a student who was supposed to skip ahead and whose arrogance had once been sky-high.
Well, I suppose I can just let him write a paper under his own name. It wasn't that important a research topic anyway...
Despite having an entire year's worth of effort stolen from him, he showed no anger. After all, he had often felt happy during his time at the Academic Hall. Although the teacher standing before him was deficient in many respects, he was still someone from whom there were things worth learning. So he thought he might overlook this petty deception as repayment for the lessons he had received.
However, the genius's patience went only that far.
Ah, I understand. I'll make sure you graduate this year. But in return, bring me the materials for submission to the higher-ups. The ones you brought last time—that paper.
A month later. The professor at the Academic Hall broke his promise and stole the completed materials instead.
Look. After thinking it over, I realized that merely designing auxiliary magic circles without any core spells won't be enough to satisfy the higher-ups.
Dean...
Anyway, in your current state, if you encountered a Celestial being, you'd be torn apart and killed in seconds. It's better for you to stay here for another two years, complete the same amount of time as the other students, and then leave.
As an added insult, he even tried to achieve his goal through force. He intended to keep the genius trapped in the educational institution not merely to steal a single experiment from him. And when persuasion failed to make the student back down, the head of the Academic Hall prepared to cast a spell, effectively declaring that if the student insisted on leaving, he could leave as a corpse.
I am a 99-year-old witness to this era, a noble who inherited a powerful unique spell passed down through generations. No matter how much you struggle, you're nothing more than a precarious scholar who happened to learn faster than the others. I graciously allowed your lowly paper to be presented to the world under my esteemed name, and now you dare defy me?!
Hmm.
The student hesitated briefly in front of the shouting teacher.
O The world is currently in the midst of a great war.
O Many fertile sea regions have been seized.
O However, replenishing the military forces cannot be postponed, so the state is pouring enormous resources into this training institution.
O As a result, the lives of the common people outside are steadily becoming more and more like a living hell.
...In a situation like this, is there any reason for a greedy thief who wastes what little food remains to continue existing in this world?
Calculation complete.
He made this decision with the interests of his fellow Alphaurns in mind. This was also because the state had provided basic patriotic education during his stay at the training facility. And, true to his reputation as a once-in-a-generation genius, he immediately acted on the idea that had come to him without the slightest hesitation.
.
.
.
...And so, in the end, this was how someone's school days came to an end.
What is this?
Swoosh.
Something rectangular fluttered ceaselessly in the current. Around it lay the wreckage of a building that had been completely destroyed from the second underground floor to the third floor above ground.
As expected, it wasn't that big a deal after all, was it?
Let me get straight to the point.
He had used all manner of newly developed magic to beat down the teacher who had provoked him and forcibly obtained his graduation certificate [barrier passage ticket].
After cutting off all but one of the Dean's tentacles, he threatened him until he stamped his seal. And once he had obtained what he wanted, he killed him immediately. After all, if he left him alive, there was no telling when that bastard might come back for revenge.
I heard this Dean was of noble birth, but I wonder if I'll be able to explain this properly to my fellow countrymen.
I mean, honestly, wasn't this self-defense? The teacher refused to let me graduate for two whole years, you know?
Thus, the genius of magical studies who had appeared for the first time in several thousand years completed his basic education with the death of his teacher.
According to Earth's reckoning, he was approximately fourteen years old when this happened.
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