Chapter 39: Dupe Bug (2)
hZsscsThe Iron Lady, the old veteran who had been serving the Merkarva Academy for 80 years, Lady Josephine, was racking her brain due to the constant complaints.9WczS4
75L『Our Order cannot permit the admission of demons into the Academy! This is a serious criminal conduct against humanity!』woiB
JiuBs『There have been many concerns in the royal family about the Chairman’s continuous acceptance of demons.』4OAZv
6TSt『The Tower of Mages requests your cooperation for research into a living vampire.』SaYal4G
OR3『Accepting demons as students? You guys are playing with fire right now.』n8AsNJ
KX4ZcThose were the stances of the Old Faith, the royal family, the Tower of Mages and the Alliance, but it wasn’t as if they were too much to handle.Kvl
9hhfp2UExcept for the Old Faith which was a group of fundamentalists, Chairman Eriu had a good hold of the royal family and the Alliance and as for the greedy mages of the Tower, it was possible to negotiate with them.8UmmHUx
W9XThe Old Faith was the only one with a strong resistance, but their forces were nothing compared to what they were like in the past.l1bpeT
f2r『Our Order supports the Chairman’s recent actions. I believe everyone should be given the same opportunity.』BvMFZ
QGMpn2There were many believers who escaped the stiff and corrupt state of the Old Faith through the religious revolution and founded the New Faith. They, who now became the mainstream religion of the world, announced that they would walk a different path to that of the Old Faith.faaNSY
uIDOne of their representative ideologies was their friendly attitude towards demi-humans. Thanks to that, the Academy was able to borrow the power of religion to settle the crowd for now but…9qmb
SuL“Clara.”HPKum
57mW58M“Chairman.”vz4
jauWGThe youth wearing a clean suit while carrying a walking stick – the Chairman – came to bid farewell while placing a top hat over his head.57R
hQZkKP“I will have to leave for a while,” he said.KqSy
YY3“Would you like me to go instead?”nQT
DfccKAThe Chairman was now going to visit various organizations with documents about Marie that had been prepared by the professors of the Magic Department.7HKwdp
dlOSeveral professors like Professor Ronan were going to follow Chairman Eriu and use the supporting documents to prove that Marie could control her bloodsucking impulse.sKi
E1wcex“For other places it might be okay, but you wouldn’t want to go to the Old Faith, would you?”eGw
SN97lo“…”IbIVjnz
Tr1nClosing her eyes, Josephine reflected on the rampant witch hunt that happened a hundred years ago. That brutal scenery during her youth was still vivid in her memories.NmlBEj
lAP8r“Please take care of this place while I’m away.”fN6G
eUJNbl2Josephine went to the entrance of the city to send the Chairman off. It took less than 10 seconds with her dimensional spell.X6k
7BbNAsp“Use the emergency contact if something happens.”Nfe
pRdixm“I will. I wish you a safe journey.”O4FOy
J80HVPAfter sending him off, Josephine took his role and continued working.MNNmqLb
iSLIOne of the agendas was a new demonic beast experiment of Professor Deina and a collaboration with Professor Fermack. Because it was an experiment of a sealed Unique Grade demonic beast, it was hard to permit professors with less than 10 years of service.hCyF5
ljfN6‘This will be the 10th year of Professor Fermack. It should be fine to allow it.’FQgUYN
Dn9JctFNext up on the agenda was from Old Man Haman, who had been working at the Academy for 30 years, where he included his plans for a joint training session during the summer holiday. It was an annual event so Josephine permitted it without much hesitation.WchIrOV
ej8j“An experiment of a vampire’s regeneration? Professor Jack? Does he think he’s still at the Tower of Mages?”kvv0n
0do0BnRRejected.1mgZA3
38s“Construction of the 3rd dormitory? Hmm…”95hPvD
Vt2Enc9Debatable.mUds
mxre“Permission for a new restaurant? This…”NGc
qjNcYFrom the look of things, it was an eastern fish restaurant. It seemed to be a restaurant that served raw fish on rice which was a trend these days among the young ones.uE71
Y0iJosephine could give off a whole speech about how barbaric it was to eat raw fish, but thinking that this was probably a culture of the young ones that she couldn’t understand, she postponed the judgment for the time being.qL7Q
fKrv9‘Wasn’t Hua Ran very interested in this barbaric food?’pBJc
lF4She even went to the city recently after applying for an official exit permit. Considering how she used to be reluctant about getting an official permit because of how she had to hang a tracking artifact all the time, it was a surprise how obedient she was.XaAfa
W6X‘Korin Lork…’mYF
dZwYKIt was evident that the child’s recent change was because of that one knight boy.UYt
Mxn4HAn early stop to Marie’s incident at the start of the semester and an even fight against Sword Master Lunia Arden, as well as assisting with the subjugation of the infamous killer, John Doe – there were so many things he had done and recently, it seemed that there had been several heated debates among the professors of the Knight Department about Korin Lork.7PCYEd
Vb4lIt was on whether they could leave a student at that level at ‘Grade 5’ or not.GPkRdG
7dHOJosephine was also interested in this proficient student for a slightly different reason.Dvrc
s9wA Grade 5 Knight who stopped Marie as if he had predicted it, who then had a surprisingly even fight against Lunia Arden. After that, he even helped with defeating the infamous John Doe.1tdaBw
q3r“…A request for a location to harvest a Mandrake?”oeR
bPno1dvSpotting the name of a person whom she had been just thinking of, Josephine carefully observed the application.yqxAAl3
fqVVQMandrake.uYtC6L
iT9TdNuThe seed that could be exchanged for 100 points during the prac lesson at the hunting grounds was the Seed of a Mandrake.1WhZQeB
1BVxZAlthough Professor Lulara of Alchemy should have taught the students about how to raise Mandrakes already, harvesting was a different issue.1wB
ofoIt was because Mandrakes tended to let out a ridiculous scream as soon as they were plucked out of the ground.CIDte
MGRt0This scream even had a magic damage to it so no matter how tough a knight was, their eardrums could still erupt and might even die in the worst case scenario.jBO8atM
vXUQThat was why applications had to be submitted when it was time to harvest them.dt2DY
4R5ovOO“…There’s nothing wrong but…”2lP0m
rNZnConsidering the potential risk of harvesting a Mandrake, it was nothing strange for an application to be submitted. Besides, Korin had also attached a plan of how he would boil it into a stew after the harvest.cZO
SoxSThere was nothing wrong with the application but there was something that weighed on her mind and that was the location.QniHZiU
B7nOr“…That can’t be.”ZkV
9S9TDid he know where this was? Josephine immediately shook her head while telling herself that it was impossible.cES
J0OoEBecause the only ones that knew of that secret were herself, the Chairman, and… the traitor from 80 years ago.PHODt
zBjm****8FL74tG
yl6OOn the western side of the Academy past the Merkarva Great Library was a large laboratory that was loved by the Magic Department.8gBHfR0
BzckxxThe labs were close to the dormitory of the Magic Department students and after going deeper into the premises towards the labs of the professors, one could smell a very deep fragrance of herbs.t8hhuE1
qEjDw6“Are we going to harvest the Mandrakes at a place like this?”QFk
ARWAlicia asked in doubt while being wary of the surrounding empty plot of land which had nothing but dry leaves. This place did give off a very ominous aura.60W
z4CNys2“How much do you know about Mandrakes?”sYZk
kKdI“Umm… I know they scream a lot when they are uprooted.”CKD84
xHxBf0K“Right. So when you’re harvesting Mandrakes, you need to make sure your eardrums don’t explode. A high-quality earplug is a must and it’s better if you’re in an empty plot of land.”LrjSv
IY4“Wouldn’t it be better to do it indoors if you want to reduce the risk of having other people get caught up?”Mzn
YdI3EHer question was very reasonable but there was a scientific reason behind why we couldn’t do it indoors.pJTn2Q
z6vh“You see… sound gets reflected.”Gm0H
1eFMh“…Reflected?”HrlLeX
PC37NoOThere was a time when I was super into speakers. After buying the best 8-inch speakers and 12-inch subwoofers, I fine-tuned the room by attaching sound absorbing panels all around.ObnF
CJoWhat I learned during that process was that ‘sound’ was reflected after hitting a wall.i4Q
tbjBRBNow, what would happen if the scream of a Mandrake, which was as loud as the full volume of a concert speaker, was to echo inside a sealed room? And what if that high note had additional magic damage on it?eObRi
cbpjnq“It’ll be infinite splash damage…”g2Q4D
jaL5“Splash damage?”oQPE
oyVE“It’s a thing. Anyway, harvesting a Mandrake indoors is the same as killing yourself.”ADsNaR
AdjOoMIt only required a few clicks of a button during the game so I wasn’t aware of it until Professor Lulara, who experimented with Mandrakes, told me about it in the last iteration.R2wSq0
okuShe talked about a fearsome experiment that killed a demonic beast in 10 seconds. That was when I first realized that monsters could be killed due to exploded eardrums.FTQBG
bFBvJt“Did you check if there was anyone nearby?”wJQ22
XjfyDwj“Yes. I put down the warning signs as well. By the way, why did you choose the back of the laboratory?”trl
owAa“Because no-one comes here.”8fI5ppk
P4zwYZCThe place I chose for the Mandrake harvest was behind the western laboratory of the Academy. The land here used to be maintained to grow various magic organisms but a mistake with a prototype ended up polluting the entire plot of land which thus resulted in its abandonment.FwOt
XUSpLG…Or at least that was the public excuse behind why this place was sealed off.frXbU
ZD75‘There’s actually a secret passage connecting to the underground laboratory here.’nDZj
0jFWcThe special underground laboratory which only a few of the professors of the Academy were allowed into had all sorts of demonic beasts and spirits sealed inside, and this place had a passage connecting to the laboratory.hST
6SqThere were only about 4 people aside from me in this world who knew about this secret passage.iumhGY
cokErMZNow, some explanation was required to justify why such a vicious place was here inside the Academy campus.HFgT3iw
CcCHThere were quite a few Unique Grade demonic beasts and spirits that couldn’t be physically killed. An example was the King of Iron Mountain which was unkillable without a special skill.r6f4CXy
TOFsThese monsters had to be sealed somewhere, and because they would be immediately stolen when sealed in a random place, they had to be placed under the direct supervision of strong people and stuff but…gwiw3x
PcXN“Don’t these get busted every time anyway? Is this even meaningful?”YQ4wPo
8M3r“Sorry?”Vk4hPUa
bSoR“Nothing.”NGdYJ
LElBoth back when I was playing the game and in the last iteration, I became way too used to seeing strong and sealed monsters being unsealed. In fact, the final boss of the 2nd Arc, ‘King of Iron Mountain’ was a prime example of an incident breaking out during an experiment, right?fW0G
PYw“We’re going to begin.”nUCaDu
HSZ“Gulp!”XUK
CN8“Please don’t say something like that from the side.”1h5HmAi
T1VBK“It’s to… make sure we stay vigilant.”esKYMv7
cH716I placed down the flowerpots where the Mandrakes were planted. Each of the pots had gold, silver and normal Mandrakes planted inside. Well, a Mandrake was already far from being normal though.SYumCs
c8dDIn any case, I took out an earplug – a special one that was crafted with the skin of a Northern Silver Fox. Both Alicia and I wore it in our ears and prepared ourselves.Azn
m9JNT3Q“Ranger Alicia! Are you ready?”k4P1Mk
iNhu“I am ready, Captain!”wq6Jocm
02NKcSMandrakes couldn’t be harvested alone. You needed one person to grab the flower and pull it out, as well as a helper to immediately cut the roots from the stem. As long as the roots stayed intact with the stem, the Mandrake would continue its ridiculous scream.X9okZr
9VU4Xk“Huu… Am I shivering?”dBs
Xqnm3l“I, I’m also getting very nervous.”lHd
PLfThis was my fourth time harvesting a Mandrake. In the last iteration, it required the collaboration of me and Mr. Park.Z9f
UUVQFdII pulled it out while he sliced it apart with magic.xCW7hx
G1oZGAS“Huu…! Let’s go!”lR7
TjMhyl“Let’s go!”gRv8NO
KS9uWI grabbed onto the stem of the planted Mandrake and…kUrzxCA
WnVz3“Here we go!”wvFZk6s
mrtzu0– Swish!awVTxG
9leI1dGI pulled it out in one go.GLmQjW
NKgDa“Kiee?”FGXPnF
15VThe bare face of the Mandrake was revealed on the roots as soon as I uprooted it. It was a horrid face that appeared like a newborn baby that was 200 years older.WlDQlL
755o“Hello, friend?”gqJE
ScxW“Kieee…”kYg9c
gEDiThe guy seemed slightly startled by the sudden sunlight but nonetheless, it immediately opened its mouth.VuCR
kRbox“KIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE——!!”snpcqU
11WdXa“Kuahht?!”ncMu
Dt56PIts scream echoed like crazy all across. If this was my child screaming, I would have been very glad from how loud it was, and would have thought he was the second coming of Alexander the Great or something.KPP6
nek9DO1“Do it now. Alicia! Aliciaa?!”qoN0
4ViNow’s your time to shine, True Alicia! Show us your swordsmanship that can even reach the Domai…!wiHX
5qn– Ueekk.UDA5H
hd6CMgT“Alicia?”ZTz2YyT
CilJrpI had no idea when it happened but Alicia was lying down with her face on the ground and was foaming from her mouth. Looking at how one of her ear plugs was loose, I realized that her ears hadn’t been under protection the whole time.aKBla
T9tlgERThis idiot wasn’t wearing the earplugs properly!xatQfi
tFy1“KIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE——-!!”RbbPbl2
luEmBI was the only person here with earplugs and at this point, there was no other choice but for me to cut off the stems of the Mandrake myself!wKLy
j2YTaking out a knife from my pocket, I ran it back and forth on the stem like a saw as it then started raising its voice.4xMx
s7S9“KIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE——-!!”Ugqi
Akjk2sF“Kuhuk…!”NnYH
wdVCould I last until I was done cutting it off? The Mandrake’s voice was getting increasingly louder.bBuV
IAKHBT“Dude, you think you’re good at high notes or something?”fCmBISs
JVNzrZEye for an eye, tooth for a tooth! I will offset your sound with my sound – I am from Korea, a country that possesses IU! I will show you what the 3 high notes are like[mfn][TLN: Good Day by IU (Korean singer) is famous for having 3 consecutive high notes near the end of the song.][/mfn]!!SWUZVL
ceAcXzD“KIEEEEEEEEEEE! I’M LOSING BRAIN CEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLS!!”x6jMcw9
yq2yig“KIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE——?!”NgY
FfpmHXF– Slit slit!FPhOTHw
VH2UC“KIEEEEEEEEEEEEE———–!!”ogScV
DrZpDZ“KIEEEEEEEEEEEEE———–!!”Qn59iOt
DdN– Slit slit! Chop!5wiE4
8G5VWhile canceling the Mandrake’s scream with my own, I finally managed to cut off its stem.qjtqF
i37Uc1h“Kieeeee…”8Tr
kh2GixLThe scream slowly subsided and I then threw its ugly face down and similarly collapsed onto the ground.E0Ze
07eDpkB“Haak… Haak…!”UYb
UAoIt felt like my ears were filled with blood. Did my eardrums pop a little?QrcZjvr
yDFUhh, if I remember correctly, I think the Yellow Gold and the White Silver Mandrakes were a lot noisier than the normal ones though…jQPdX
De9p“Oi. Get up.”re6tpw1
9jp77LGTap! I tapped on the fallen Alicia who then immediately stood up from the ground.Ikc
bQjRzad“Hauhk…! I, I wasn’t sleeping!”pqcg
nySRxi“As if you weren’t… Wipe your drool before saying that.”9dcKE
E18eSj“Hugek…”Bry
bPGVDbAlicia lowered her head in embarrassment while wiping the foamy drools from her mouth.LUUdm
qYWNMv“S, sorry…”aXSlSN
FmYq“Don’t worry. I was going to harvest up to Silver today but…”HvYz
gk4yZFCould I trust Alicia? Seeing how she wobbled immediately after standing up and crumbled back down, I just couldn’t help but doubt her.dcW
JwgFo– Flop!03HHuCc
w6vaThat was when I heard the sound of something dropping from a high place and turned my eyes to the side. There should have been signs about restricted entry so why was someone walking towards us?4FcQOB
bo5f“Hello, Korin. What are you two doing here?”TbsVk
EgW1I8The trespasser was in fact a completely unexpected person. Rather than a trespasser, it would be more correct to say that she was an uninvited guest.KkuSkOn
K0C“Senior Marie? Didn’t you say you had an experiment at the laboratory today?”XqoK
06FygGd“Nn. It was noisy so I jumped down.”VEzV9C
D3DDLJumped down? From where?DnY
mD2I unconsciously lifted my gaze and found out that one of the windows of the tall laboratory building was open at a strange angle.zbZvXrg
ayLQ5tIt’s around the 12th floor. Did she jump from there?9XQWNDs
TLHMBRa“…Senior. You seriously should try becoming a knight.”NnR
aNyHLL“Mhmm… Maybe if you teach me, Korin. I saw you going around with Junior Alicia the whole time at the training rooms.”j62
tSzKVK“Well, that’s because we’re both knights.”13s4
7mC0q66“So, what were you two doing here?”zr7f
bYlWhZShe sounded quite obstinate with that question though. Was I thinking too much? In any case, I showed her the dead Mandrake by pulling it up from the ground.esQeC
c7r6K“I told you last time, right? That it was about time to harvest Mandrakes.”HOD1a1g
eCAw“Ahah~ I see!”jyEbi7
sMYgLF4Only then did Marie relax her expression and hop towards us.BCgmc
EDIQ“Are you going to pull the rest out as well?”eCl
W2jnjU“We took some damage today so I was thinking of doing it later.”EI5
4pe7wEp“With Junior Alicia?”SXWm
vK6“Hmm… We need two people for this so it is easier for me to pair up with Alicia.”9FL
LLE“Let me just do it for you!”um8j0
ThU“Uhh, wait. It’ll be hard to cut that if you’re not a knigh…”GvTw
Cl80ZcB– Pluck!bOVCWMf
RLE“Kiee?”wWLYG
DdkG“Hmm~? Silver? That’s interesting.”iTDY
ou9t5It was over! She pulled it out too early! The White Silver Mandrake was getting ready to let out a sonorous shriek!rrK8w42
qEzqC5I“KIEEEEE—–”xDy
gdQN“Quiet.”6aXKMPz
DcZ“Hicc!”rzE6y
3zX3“…”7Ns
zqe5“???”bXI9uf
I7zrk6W, wut the heck? Did the Mandrake just hiccup?3B0pXnZ
qsFWRV“We have a Mandrake farm at home, you see~. Even though we produce less than 30 a year, I’ve been harvesting them a lot back when I was young!”Wno
IlE“Uhh… How is that related to them not screaming…?”eGJvp
smMB“Hmm…”Y1Xh
LZyNGMarie brought a finger to her lips and tilted her head, before blurting out as if she wasn’t sure about it herself.mPlU
dLB“After harvesting them for about 5 years, they simply stopped screaming whenever I pulled them out!”sCK
jvlIuO“Hicc!”IrTL7t
bZ2cT7P“Hugikk!”Ouh
SvfVWUmm, was this similar to how dogs became docile when seeing a vet?Ott65xz
LIwThe Mandrake couldn’t even dare scream anymore and was hiccuping with a gloomy look on its face.XyCIJH
Ylbo6“Look, Korin. For Mandrakes, you grab onto the stem like this.”Y4pnDj
AZxoGGMarie used her tiny hands that were half the size of my arms to skilfully hold onto the stem and the roots, and twisted it in one go to separate the stem in an instant.6bzQ
pvU0RS“Kii…!”jt2oy
5f8g1AThe Mandrake died with a single suppressed scream. Its corpse hung loose after a gruesome death.eTB3S
y1PCBIv“Korin. Are you going to boil it into a stew? Or are you going to eat it raw?”2tvTLn
FAv“Umm… the sparkling ones will be eaten raw and the normal one will be used for a stew.”xds
0YiVY7“Really? That will take some time then. Junior Alicia?”ufmCbD
G2RESs“Ah y, yes! Yes! Senior!”HW8r
I3u“I will prepare the stew so while we’re waiting for that, can you bring something else to eat? Hmm… Some rabbit meat and potatoes will do.”BQh
Bcz3Tn“Sorry? Uhh… D, do we have to?”4hQT
hJ2q“Yes. I will make a rabbit stew for you!”HV9V
5y0Rz“A rabbit stew! Roger that, Captain!”j9M
S8vGGAlicia quickly ran off after a salute. Why did I suddenly lose my captain position?Olgx3L
p4gFa“Umm… Senior Marie? What should I do?”HjTW0
S5sVy5U“You don’t have to do anything Korin.”JAi1bk
H1d“…Sorry?”JZdI8
ThV4“You don’t have to do anything. I will do everything for you.”Ryy
eL6m6TsHer words… had a strange charm that made it difficult for me to turn them down.09T
GwuHMama.QJXS
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