The Magic Academy's Physicist -
Chapter 286: Locking The Door After The Horse Is Gone (8)
Chapter 286: Locking The Door After The Horse Is Gone (8)
0% Dozens of steamboats docked on the Thyrims River.
It normally wouldn’t make sense for a river, rather than a sea, to be full of trade ships, but Thyrims was a great river.
The trade ships lined up in a row in the relatively narrow river.
And on the head of the innermost ship was a green-eyed elf.
Looking up, Heerlein’s lips trembled.
It was a familiar face.
“...I-it’s Horde! How did you get here...?”
“It’s a long story! Get on first!!”
Right, it wasn’t the time to ask for an explanation.
It was the first lifeboat in a long time. They first had to catch it and then see.
The Imperial armies boarded again and again until the Demon Army completely closed in on them.
Nearly a million refugees got onto the container ships.
Thudududud!
Before long, the Demon Army pursuers closed enough distance to be visible.
- We must catch them! We won’t be able to face His Majesty if we don’t!!
The ones chasing and the ones being chased...
Were desperate all the same.
“The 50 000 Air Mages will quickly take a civilian each and move first. Watch the situation and attempt to land in the middle of the river!”
“Yes, sir!”
At Renawill’s orders, 100 000 people escaped first.
Afterwards, he rounded up the remaining refugees and put them on the trade ships.
About 20 000 per boat.
It was a boarding capacity that would go down in history.
“Huu.”
It was a close call.
They really just managed to board everyone.
Some let out sighs of relief, and others were still shaking in fear.
And so the suffocating voyage began.
“My gosh, I love you, my pupil! Half a year of teaching and you’ve grown so admirably!”
“I-I can’t breathe, Miss......!”
Heerlein began hugging him like crazy in a place where they could hardly move.
With his face buried in large chests, Vermel nearly suffocated to death.
“S-sorry. Did I hug you too hard...?”
“I-it’s okay. Cough.”
Watching them from nearby, Klais felt rueful.
She wished she also could approach her students freely like Meriga.
At the time, she had been so obsessed with Flare that she hadn’t thought about taking care of them or nurture younger scholars.
Do all students like it if they’re hugged like that...?
It seemed so.
If she could see Aether once more on equal standing, then she’d give her a hug of apology, thought Klais.
“So will you tell us now? How did this happen?”
“Ah, that’s....”
Just then.
“I can explain.”
A strained voice came from right next to them.
It was an elf who was sandwiched between other people, her eyes shining in various shades like an opal or tourmaline.
And on top of that, her hair was a rare silver.
She possessed a bubbly, sparkling water-like appearance.
“You are....”
“Cecil Renay, the president of Iliad Magic Academy. Are you Professor Meriga Heerlein?”
“Um, how did you...?”
“You came as an exchange student years ago, no? And now you’re a professor. You may be from a different school, but I, Renay, am happy for you.”
Heerlein was taken aback..
“You remember me? Wait, but I haven’t even seen you before.......”
“A true educator should know the faces and names of all students.”
President Cecil had a habit of remembering every outstanding student.
And Heerlein was also one of them by her standards.
Chuckling huhu, Cecil continued.
“I told them that the Empire is falling and we need to go help them, and managed to convince the country’s authorities in the end. Which is also how I was able to borrow sturdy ships from the shipping company like this.”
“Thank you so much. You’re our savior. How can we ever repay you....”
“Thank your student over there, not me. If it weren’t for him, I would have had no idea that something like this would happen.”
That’s right.
The Imperial army was able to survive because Vermel, who knew the Demon Army’s behavioral patterns, had advised Cecil.
“Is that true? Thank you, Horde.”
“If it weren’t for you, we would have been in great trouble.”
Vermel was thanked by Heerlein and those around him.
But he couldn’t stay comfortable.
Because right now, Vermel’s head was filled with a mix of guilt and anxiety towards someone rather than joy or embarrassment from the praises.
I’m sorry, Aether.
He wasn’t able to help her immediately with this being the more pressing matter, because he didn’t know how long it would take to convince the government.
They could have lost every key figure of the Empire including Heerlein, Hasfeldt, and Saliere.
I’ll get you out as soon as I’m back in the capital.
So hold on a bit until then.
[.......]
It seemed only yesterday that I’d heard a nuke had been dropped onto the capital.
To think that the Empire was completely defeated in just over a fortnight.
I heard that Rosemary was at the capital, and was concerned as to where she was now.
As I was slowly reading through the article, Akasha suddenly scowled.
“Fuckers.”
Seeing as she was swearing, I guess they were at it again.
“Hey, did you see this? Apparently it’s your fault that the capital was nuked.”
“I saw. It’s from the last survey.”
Ever since the Imperial capital was wiped out by my atomic bomb, people’s opinion of me in Kaurelia had grown worse.
Nearly 80% of the people had petitioned for me to be immediately put to death, apparently.
In addition, there was an increase in crimes against Golden-Eyeds as well.
“What a bunch of crazy assholes!”
“Watch your mouth, Kasha.”
“...What’s wrong with you? You were saying how you were going to kill all the elves not too long ago. Now you’re defending them?”
Smirking, I crooked my finger, a signal to lend me her ear.
“......You really think I’d do that?”
“......?”
“It’s all an act, an act.”
Akasha looked like she still didn’t understand.
Although she was the same person as me, there were differences in details.
For example, ‘I’ was someone with knowledge from Earth, but Akasha was the pure fantasy version of me.
As someone who had been born in the country of Korea and seen all sorts of shit, I knew how to handle this kind of situation.
“Things will turn around eventually so just wait and see.”
“What’s going to turn around? How?”
“Look at this article here.”
Then I showed her the headline of the article I was reading.
“Escape via the Thyrims River.... What about it?”
“You really don’t get it?”
“I understand that the humans got their asses handed to them....... Wait.”
Seeming to have realized something, Akasha’s mouth went ‘oh’.
“I see, that’s what it was.”
We looked at each other, grinning.
“This is when you use the idiom ‘locking the door after the horse is gone’.”
“There’s an idiom like that?”
“...I just came up with it.”
“What the heck.”
Akasha and I rolled around on the bed giggling.
As we ate and folded paper cranes, another day passed.
It was boring as hell.
“...Ugh!”
My chest started throbbing all of a sudden.
It was happening again.
I felt something nasty coming up my throat and quickly ran to the sink.
“Kh–hurgh...! Huurghh......!”
Blood came pouring out.
Although it was still mostly black, the redness was also clearer than before.
“Heuup...!”
As I kept vomiting blood, it felt like my lifespan was being cut down in real time.
Whip.
I wiped my mouth and turned around. Akasha was sleeping soundly, dead to the world.
Thank goodness.
If Akasha even noticed, then things would get annoying.
With a sigh of relief, I cleaned the sink and laid on the bed.
I pulled the thin covers over me and looked up at the ceiling.
“.......”
I suddenly missed Vermel.
“Bastard.”
As a fellow transmigrator, he should have come to save me, but I didn’t know where he was, doing what.
We were even bound by the promise to work closely together until we defeated the Demon King, and he hadn’t even shown his face once.
Just where the hell was he?
After a five-day voyage, about a million Imperial people arrived here.
Having set foot on land after a hundred or so hours, the people were busy kissing the ground.
“We’re alive. We’re alive. We’re alive...!”
Although their country had been taken, they kept their lives.
This fact ignited the hearts of the people with burning emotions.
One was relief, another was despair, and the final was vengeance.
Including Renawill, the command gritted their teeth with the resolve to restore their lost land.
“Gather all the troops. We will leave for Märcherm right after we eat.”
Kaurelia’s capital, Märcherm.
Now that they were refugees, they had to go to the capital and meet with the president.
Since the Emperor and the actual administration were gone, the Empire was actually a nomadic state led by Renawill.
“How did this happen....”
There was also a middle-aged man with red hair amongst them.
“Aren’t you eating, Father?”
“Lorewell. I will at the very end.”
The man’s name was ‘Cromwell Saliere’.
The head of the Saliere family, and the father of the Lotte and Lorewell siblings.
He had retreated here after defending the western borders as usual.
He somehow managed to survive, but he could still see the faces of his people who had been slaughtered at the hands of the Beasts.
“...Father, don’t take what happened to heart so much. You did your best.”
Lorewell patted his back and told him that.
Still, he couldn’t bring everyone on his estate, and the pain of that tore his heart.
“I should help with the rations at least.”
“There you go again. You didn’t even eat much on the way here.”
Cromwell ignored the advice of his son to please eat first.
A noble had to take as much responsibility as they had power.
Even now there must be many lesser people who were starving, and it felt like he at least had to give out barley porridge to them to feel better.
As he wandered in search of a food station to serve, an elf approached Cromwell.
He was a tall and handsome youth.
Suddenly appearing, he held out a bowl of porridge.
“It isn’t much, Count, but please eat.”
“I’m fine. Please give it to someone else first.”
Cromwell pushed the bowl back. The youth’s mouth parted, and he nodded.
“...Indeed, you are as virtuous as they say.”
“I’m not worthy to be called that. Do you know me, by the way?”
Then Cromwell raised his head slightly as he said that.
There wasn’t any purpose to the glance.
“......!”
An Elemental.
Above the elf youth’s head, a white-haired Wind Elemental was hovering.
It wasn’t a normal one.
At least an Elite.
The only flaw was that she looked like a promiscuous woman. Cromwell reflexively bowed his head in respect.
[...?]
The Elemental quirked her head and hovered around the young man’s head.
It didn’t seem like they were in a contract, because he couldn’t feel the ‘mana wave synchronization’ that came when one was formed.
It just seemed that she was following him around out of interest.
And this elf youth didn’t seem aware of this.
Then the Wind Elemental giggled and disappeared.
“Um, my lord?”
“Ah, hm. Where were we?”
“I said that I know who you are.”
The young man held out the bowl of porridge again.
“Please eat. Your daughter will be sad if you go to the capital hungry.”
Cromwell’s eyes widened into saucers.
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