Chapter 37

RATH 37

TL: Eevee

TN: I see now. I’ve gone back to some of my earlier chapters, I suspect a large chunk of my grammatical errors lie in the fact that I tried to retain the emphasis of the specific parts that the original Korean emphasised, and I’m not skilled enough to fully convert it. The second being that when I edit, usually in terms of wording, sometimes I go full dyslexia and accidentally leave in what I really should have taken out during the editing process. Derp.

Welcome to the summoner’s school. (7)

#4 Their story: A certain student council president’s story.

Now, if I were to explain.

I like practical experience.

Although I am in the top ranks of the academy in my theory marks, I am someone on the boundary of the middle and higher-tier grades overall.

Of course, I do my best to study in my own way, but should I say I’m not the type to get theory all that well?

To be honest I couldn’t understand a single thing in the handouts Professor Nicerwin gave us.

…was all just an excuse! My soul is crying out! To run away from this damn so-called self-directed night study!

And wasn’t this the day I promised to meet up with my lover?

Because of that I chose to run.

But the moment I began my escape, I was stopped by a wall.

First, pretend to be going to the bathroom, then the moment I tried to run.

The so-called wall in the corridor that barely came up to my ankles suddenly shot up to the ceiling.

“Wha, what?”

Anyone would be surprised if a wall shot up all of a sudden.

And at that moment, all the teachers in the classrooms poked their heads out.

“Nerkia is running away!”

“Get him!”

“If we lose him our salary vanishes!”

The teachers ran out instantly.

I suspected the situations of the teachers on the other side of the wall weren’t going to be too different either.

-Just get caught here, and study, Nerkia. You’re the stuco pres, aren’t you? You should set an example as the president.

The angel in my mind said.

-No, run. Just run. You want to run. And this is what Professor Nicerwin officially said. This is practical training. As the stuco pres what you’re doing now is the showing the other students an example of it.

And the devil in my mind said that.

-So it is?

-See?

And the angel agreed with the devil. Alright then. First off.

“Run.”

The moment I made my mind up I started chanting. The target was the wall.

The summoned spirit was a mid-class earth elemental.

“Break it!”

The wall broke easily under the attack of the earth elemental.

But, the remains of the broken wall disappeared into the ground with the magic circle.

Perhaps in return for being weak, it was set up to be easily repaired.

Meaning that that wall will be soon be repaired.

I started to hurry.

Raise movement speed with the blessings of the wind elemental on my shoes.

And use the walls from the earth elemental to widen a gap with the teachers.

Well, that was the plan but…

“Why, are there arrows flying around in the academy?”

In an instant, the low-rank wind elemental was hit by an arrow and was desummoned. Not from someone’s snipe, but from the lights in the corridor!

It seemed that the walls weren’t the only traps in the academy.

“We’ve got you, Nerkia!”

“The student council president of all people!”

The moment I hesitated, the teachers rounded the corner. Having summoned their summoned beasts too, no less!

“Wait, using your summons against a student, are you serious?!”

“Every time you run away, all the teachers’ salaries vanish by a number you could never imagine! If you resist, we can only get rough with you!”

Ah, they’re serious.

Those eyes are dead serious!

I didn’t know that the teachers that I went to school with for three years were this desperate for money!

But those, are the teachers’ problems! I have my own problems to deal with!

“I, will leave to meet my lover!”

“Is that so. I respect your will. But… we have our own families to protect!”

And, the fight between people who each had their own things to protect began and ended, and I was beaten down and dragged to the remedial room in four minutes.

And there, I could meet the cause of this incident, Professor Nicerwin.

“Why did you make these things!”

At my sincere outburst, he just laughed and said.

“I wish for your skills to improve. And for that, between theory and practical experience, either one of them needs to get better. Now, president, between theory and practicals, which do you think I prefer?”

“Practical?”

At my answer he nodded as if satisfied, and said.

“Indeed. And so, it’s okay if you run away. No, to be honest, I wish for you to run away. And you as the student council president, provided a splendid first-hand example of what I wanted.”

Ahh, this man was a devil.

He just needed an excuse.

The thing called the self-directed night study, was simply an excuse for us to run away, and if we ran away the teachers could legally suppress us by force.

But, just because I knew his purpose, would I be able to give up escaping!

The next day, and the next day.

I kept attempting to run away, but I kept getting caught without even being able to escape the classroom’s floor.

And just as I was about to give up out of despair.

“I have seen your resolve!”

“President, let’s fight together!”

“Together, we can beat the teachers as well!”

The student council that had simply been watching on took a stand!

Each and every one of them were aces of Yugrasia’s summoners! With this much fighting power we could push through!

And so, we memories the patterns of the traps, found out the weaknesses of the instructors.

Preparing for everything we’d seen thus far, just as we thought we’d beaten the teachers!

“Alright then, so is the 8th floor down?”

“But, we are still here.”

We realised.

The floor we were on was the highest floor, the 8th floor!

Meaning, we needed to go down seven more times to leave the academy!

“Now, come, student council!”

All that time, people that had gathered to defeat the 8th floor were defeated by the 7th floor’s fresh teachers and their summonjs.

And a week of this later.

We realised.

“This is a fight of numbers.”

“We need more students.”

“It’s not enough with just the student council.”

To begin with, there were 20 members of the student council.

But the number of teachers number over 200.

Of course, the number of specialist teachers are lower than this.

But even with the specialist teachers alone, there are still more of them than us.

And since we need to get through the traps in the academy, we fall short in stamina as well.

After some top-secret number crunching, we calculated that we needed at least twice as many students than teachers for us to all be able to escape the academy without any left behind, and began gathering members.

And what began from that, was the third and fourth years’ school escape movement.

And perhaps there were those who were enlightened to something at seeing our desperate resistance, one by one, the second years, and even some of the first years began to run away from the night study as well.

And moreover.

“Student Liberation Army?”

“Yes, it is.”

Short red hair and a tidy appearance.

The girl standing in front of me, whose red eyes seemed like they could burst into flames at any moment, was the new first year, the new student that was the center of attention of the entire academy.

The Letia Marquisate’s Lady Aris.

Because of the person I was listening to, even as I listened to this absurd nonsense I chose not to get angry but asked her again.

“The Student Liberation Army… Are you serious?”

“Yes, it’s true.”

As Miss Aris nodded while saying that, even as her cheeks turned slightly red as if she was somewhat embarrassed, I turned speechless.

Of all the bullshit in the world there could be no bigger bullshit than this!

What kind of club name is the Student Liberation Army? Worse, the club focus was ‘escaping self-directed night study!’

Alright, even if I understand that much, the teacher that oversees the club is none other than the person that started this all, Professor Nicerwin? And he was the one who suggested the name as well! Just how far is he going to torment us, this human!

“A club with the purpose of escaping night study, and that Professor Nicerwin, the person who’s essentially the leader of all the teachers, that Professor Nicerwin actually made this club for your?”

“Yes. Saying that this was exactly what he wanted as well, he said that the school would even support the club’s activities as well.”

If you entered this club, THAT Professor Nicerwin would help you contract a summon personally.

Even though we were just accepting one hundred new students, why would a high-ranking noble like Lady Aris come to the failing academy Yugrasia?

Isn’t it because of Professor Nicerwin? And he’s helping you to contract a summon personally?

Naturally, the Student Liberation Army expanded day by day. 345 registered members.

As a club with all of the first years, and all of the second and third years not already affiliated with another club, it was Yugrasia’s largest student club.

There were even cases where people began to leave the clubs they were already in, to the extent that even the academy created a special exception to be allowed to join the Student Liberation Army while already in a club!

And the club activities of the Student Liberation Army were simple. Escaping night study.

Meaning.

“Fifth floor, suppression complete! I repeat, fifth floor, suppression complete!”

“Seventh floor suppression complete!”

“We can manage the eighth floor on our own! We’re going to start heading out as well, so fifth and seventh floor members, head to the 6th floor and secure a midway point!

Meaning that the entire school began attempting to run away from night study!

As the strategists, we gave directions to the others from the 8th floor, and once an escape route was established we would meet up with the rest and head down in a giant group.

“The fifth to eighth floors are all clear?”

“Yep. The third floor led by Lady Aris is nearly done as well. They’re having some trouble on the fourth floor, but if our numbers swarm the fourth floor then that should handle itself quickly enough.”

On the second and first floors were probably not the established teachers, but the new special lecturers.

And Professor Nicerwin, too.

All of the enemy are giants among giants of the summoning world.

None of them are pushovers.

But we can’t give up!

How many months have gone by since night study began!

Every time I meet my lover on the weekends it starts with me getting an earful from her.

It’s gotten to the point that she’s having misunderstandings that I’m seeing other girls.

I’d rather avoid any more misunderstandings, so now is the time to end the night study!

“President!”

“Is the third floor is complete as well, Lady Aris?”

“Yes, we cleared it successfully.”

As you’d expect from the military family that was the Letia House, she was holding onto a beautiful spear as she caught her breath, then she turned to me and smiled.

Considering how the first years were all soaked with sweat and leaning against the walls, it seemed that the fights were quite a struggle, but now they could see victory at hand.

As I returned her smile of victory with one of my own, I looked at the crowd of people on the second floor, no, that stretched all the way back to the third floor, that I couldn’t see, and shouted.

“How long has it been since the night study began! How much freedom have we lost since then! But now, we have freedom right in front of our eyes. My comrades, do you want freedom!”

-Freedom!

In that moment, in those shouts that seemed like they would shake the buildings, and in that roar-like shout I felt a thrill as I continued.

“Then, follow me!”

-Uwoooooo!

“Let’s go, for freedom!”

With myself, the student council, Lady Aris and the other heavy hitters taking the lead, the entire student body charged towards the second floor.

And what was waiting there for us was.

“Splendid, splendid. For a second there I thought we had Her Imperial Highness’s legendary general, or some Imperial general here on the premises.”

“Hahaha, what other school could have the student council guide the students this well. As I thought, the future of Yugrasia is bright.”

“Professor Maroon, Professor Aruhan…”

As we expected, there were two professors smiling as they saw us coming.

Maroon Harcen.

And Aruhan Ekhed.

Both of them learned summoning as commoners, and were both extremely skilled meritocrats that had risen to become officers of the empire’s summoning corps.

They were veterans among veterans that had even experienced the great war.

And following them were 30 army summoners.

32 total.

But when they were together, their fighting power was almost certainly not just 32 people.

Compared to them we numbered 1300, but the numbers that could actually fight were limited.

“Since it’s the whole school is there roughly 1300 of them?”

“It’ll be alright if we just get 40 per person.”

“Eyy, that’s a bit hard even for us. If we get around half of them or so Professor Muam or Professor Harian can get them for us.”

“Haha, but still. Since we came on the request of Professor Nicerwin, it might be a tiny bit pathetic if we fall too soon.”

“Hm, that’s true.”

Speaking so casually while outnumbered forty to one, was it because they simply didn’t think of their defeat, or was it that they could afford to be relaxed on the backs of their countless experiences?

“Ah, that reminds me, we had another win condition.”

“What’s that?”

“Hahaha, since it’s currently 2000 hours right now, we just need to hold on another two hours.”

“That’s true. Then the night study’s over anyway so it’s our win. We won’t have to get our salary cut either. The military is way better than this.”

“Cutting the salaries of fellow teachers, really, Professor Nicerwin is a devil, you know?”

As the two lecturers smirked and took positions in response to our preparations to charge, they looked as us and smiled maliciously.

“Now, students. This is the defensive formation that the empire’s summoning corps is so proud of.”

“It’s going be a bit difficult.”

And as they smiled, we failed to break through that day.