ad-fusion Chapter 119 : Chapter 119
Chapter 119 : Chapter 119
Chapter 119. Returning to the Academy
Winter City Station.
This was probably the liveliest place in the entire city.
A massive magitech steam train crouched on the tracks, white steam billowing from the engine like a steel beast preparing to charge.
The platform was packed with people.
Today, Cicero was not wearing his usual stern judge’s robe, but a casual wool coat instead.
He was carrying two large suitcases in his hands and a pink little backpack on his back, looking thoroughly undignified.
Beside him stood a little girl with twin ponytails.
Emily.
The little girl had clearly inherited her father’s intelligence.
At that moment, she was staring around with wide, curious eyes, and when she spotted Logaris, her eyes lit up like two little lamps.
“Uncle Logaris!”
The little girl was not shy at all.
She called out crisply, ran over, and gave him a proper little lady’s curtsey.
“Daddy says you’re the greatest magician on the whole continent. Is that true?”
“Uh… more or less.”
“At any rate, I’m better than your father,” Logaris said casually.
Cicero rolled his eyes from the side, handed the boxes to the accompanying Shadow Guards, then crouched down and began his long-winded farewell ceremony.
“My good daughter, when you get to school, listen to Uncle Logaris and don’t run around.”
“When it gets cold, put on more clothes.”
“If you want to eat anything, just buy it.”
“If you run out of money, write to me and I’ll send you some…”
This was not sending his daughter off to school.
It looked more like he was sending her to the front lines of a war.
“All right, all right.”
Logaris truly could not bear to watch anymore.
If Cicero kept talking, the train would leave before he finished.
He grabbed Emily by the collar and lifted her onto the train like a chick.
“It’s not like this is a final farewell.”
“The royal capital is only a day away by magitech train.”
Woooo—!
The whistle let out a long cry, the kind of sound that made a person’s chest go numb as it echoed across the platform.
The enormous wheels began to turn slowly.
Steel scraped against rail, producing a harsh, grating sound.
White steam rose into the air, blurring the faces of those seeing them off.
Logaris walked into the compartment and threw himself onto the fairly soft sofa.
The scenery outside the window began to retreat.
The low houses, the black chimneys, and the crowds still busy in the wind and snow all gradually shrank in his field of vision.
He removed his glasses and rubbed the space between his brows.
“The royal capital…”
Logaris watched the snowy wilderness streak past outside the window, and a trace of nostalgia flashed through his eyes.
Quite a few “old friends” were waiting for him there.
“Professor, would you like some tea?”
Emily sat obediently across from him, holding a copy of Foundations of Magitech that Logaris had written in the past.
Looking at the little girl’s serious expression, some of the irritation in his heart faded.
“No tea.”
“Get me a sheet of paper.”
“We’ll be idle all the way there, and since you’re going to school anyway, I might as well test your fundamentals first.”
Emily’s little face instantly fell.
The train rumbled southward.
…
Saint Arcadia Academy, Department of Magitech Engineering, Third Integrated Laboratory.
Its current state could only be described as a disaster zone.
Blueprints covered the floor as if a tornado had swept through.
Several test benches were releasing strangely colored smoke, and the air was filled with the scorched stench of burnt materials mixed with alchemical potions.
“It’s going to blow! It’s going to blow!”
“Who shut off the cooling valve?!”
A young man with hair like a bird’s nest and dark circles so heavy they looked like he had been punched twice was darting frantically all over the lab.
He hurriedly cast a fire-extinguishing spell on Test Bench One while cursing under his breath.
“Damn that Logaris!”
“That bloodsucker!”
“He said he’d be gone for half a month, and now it’s been almost two months!”
“He dumped this whole mess on me without even sending a message!”
“No pay, no funding approval—this is no way to live!”
Ryan Ashford, the only teaching assistant in the Department of Magitech Engineering, was currently on the verge of collapse.
He kicked aside a discarded part blocking his way, grabbed the record board on the desk, and nearly lost the will to live when he saw the string of red error data on it.
Two months ago, his mentor had dumped a pile of unfinished projects onto his head and run off to that frozen wasteland in the Northern Territory with Her Highness Sylvia.
“When that guy comes back, I’m resigning for sure!”
Ryan slammed the record board onto the desk viciously, then pulled out a hidden stash of snacks from a drawer to soothe his wounded spirit.
“Even if I have to sweep the streets or scrub dwarves in the bathhouse, I absolutely will not—”
Bzzzz—
The several Fifth-Tier defensive spell formations responsible for security on the lab doors suddenly let out a docile hum, like watchdogs greeting their master.
The mithril doors, which had originally been locked tight, slid open to either side with perfect smoothness.
Ryan froze halfway through stuffing a snack into his mouth.
That feeling was far too familiar.
That pressure.
That cold, precise fluctuation of mana.
It was like a surgical knife gliding across his scalp.
Almost by reflex, he threw the snack in his hand behind him, snapped his legs together, and straightened his back perfectly.
“P-Professor?”
At the doorway stood Logaris.
He was wearing a well-tailored black long coat, his signature gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, and he was carrying two massive leather suitcases.
Behind him stood Aaron, wearing a professional fake smile, and a little girl who was staring wide-eyed at the chaotic mess all over the floor.
Logaris said nothing.
He merely swept his gaze indifferently across the laboratory, which was in worse shape than a pigsty, and finally fixed his eyes on the half bag of snacks behind Ryan that was still shedding crumbs.
“Looks like you’ve been living quite comfortably.”
Logaris’s voice was not loud, and there was no obvious anger or joy in it.
But Ryan’s legs had already begun to shake.
“N-no!”
“Professor, please listen to my explanation!”
“This is all because the experimental pressure has been too much, I—”
Bang.
One of the leather suitcases in Logaris’s hand flew straight at him, landing squarely in Ryan’s arms and knocking him back two steps.
“Clean this place up.”
“It’s such a mess in here that I thought I’d walked into a goblin nest.”
Logaris strode forward on his long legs, stepping over the scattered blueprints as he headed straight for the inner office.
“And let me introduce someone.”
He pointed at the little girl with twin ponytails beside him.
“Emily, the daughter of a colleague.”
“You can consider her our department’s new junior apprentice.”
“You’ll probably need to look after her a bit from now on.”
Emily hugged her pink little backpack and gave Ryan a sweet smile.
“Hello, Senior Brother!”
“Your hairstyle is so avant-garde!”
Ryan stood there clutching the suitcase, staring at the big one, the little one, and Aaron behind them making faces at him.
His head was buzzing.
What had just happened?
“Why are you still standing there?”
Logaris stopped at the doorway and, without turning around, merely pushed up his glasses.
“If you don’t finish organizing the data, don’t even think about leaving work.”
Ryan jolted all over.
The fear of being dominated instantly awakened his muscle memory.
“Yes, sir!”
“Right away!”
“Ten minutes… no, five minutes and I’ll have it cleaned up!”
Watching Ryan spin through the laboratory like a top, Aaron leaned closer to Logaris and lowered his voice with a grin.
“Professor, your intimidation hasn’t diminished at all over the years.”
“Look how terrified the poor kid is.”
“This is called the art of management.”
Logaris pushed open the office door, and a trace of weariness appeared on his normally cold face.
“Let’s go.”
“We still need to make a trip to the Dean’s Tower.”
“If we don’t settle that old man first, this recruitment plan won’t move forward.”