I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 768 - Side Story 41: Former Students (2)

Aidan charged at Rudger like an enraged bull. His head drove into Rudger's abdomen, and Rudger fell backward.

Who would have expected him to suddenly launch a body tackle when they thought the fight was over and had let their guard down?

Even Rudger hadn't anticipated that Aidan would make such an unexpected move.

But what was more surprising than that was Aidan's astonishing physical ability. Originally, even during his student days, he was a child with remarkably excellent physical abilities for a mage. This was unavoidable due to the characteristics of the anti-magic Aidan had learned.

The kid who was already outstanding had grown even more during the three years they hadn't seen each other.

"Teacher! You really are alive! And you've come back!" 

"I get it, so move aside for now."

Rudger grabbed Aidan by the scruff of his neck with a shadow hand and lifted him up. He stood up and used magic to create wind, thoroughly brushing off all the dust that had gotten on his clothes.

During this time, Aidan hung quietly in the air like a cat grabbed by the scruff, watching the scene.

"Phew."

Having finished tidying up, Rudger looked at Aidan with a sigh.

"Have you calmed down a bit now?" 

"Yes!"

Seeing the unhesitating response, it was clear that far from calming down, he was still in high spirits. Right. Aidan was originally this kind of guy.

"Your shamelessness has only increased since we last met." 

"Ahaha. Has it?"

Aidan scratched his head with an embarrassed laugh. Rudger set Aidan down on the ground with his shadow hand.

Seeing Aidan standing firmly on both feet, he could finally feel the change in his student's appearance.

"You've grown a lot."

Before, Rudger had to look down at him, but now their eye levels were almost the same.

"I guess I did grow quite a bit in height. Maybe because I ate well and slept well?"

Aidan looked over his own body and spoke casually. He himself wouldn't be impressed by his daily changing appearance, but from Rudger's perspective meeting him after three years, it was completely different.

Rudger's memory of Aidan's appearance was from three years ago as the last time. Looking at how Aidan had changed in the three-year gap, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a complete transformation. He had completely shed the boyishness that had remained.

His shoulders had broadened, his height had increased, and well, his physical abilities went without saying. Just looking at his movements when subduing the beast-warrior warriors earlier, this guy possessed physical abilities on par with a knight while being a mage.

"But Teacher, you're still the same as ever!" 

"At least there are parts that haven't changed."

Whether to call it obliviousness or being too much at his own pace. Seeing the guy just smile warmly at his retort, there were things that hadn't changed. Take that smile he was wearing right now, for instance.

"Ahaha. Thank you for the compliment." 

"Don't smile. I'm getting attached."

No, perhaps he had already become attached.

"So what brings you here? And more than that, what's with that outfit? Wandering around the southern region dressed in that kind of coat."

Aidan pointed out Rudger's attire. It wasn't exactly suitable clothing for wandering around such rugged wilderness.

"That's something only ordinary people worry about, it doesn't matter to me. Don't worry, I'd be fine even if I were dropped in the middle of the desert in this state." 

"That's so like you, Teacher!"

Normally when hearing such words, the normal response would be to question whether that's possible, but Aidan accepted it too readily.

Being without prejudice is one thing, but at this point it was an attitude so clear it seemed foolish.

From Aidan's perspective, it made perfect sense. As simple as he seemed, he too was a mage who graduated from Theon. Moreover, unlike other mages, he had very rich practical experience.

A knight's physical abilities and excellent magical skills, plus experience and sense surpassing war mages.

Being such an Aidan, he couldn't help but have better discernment than others. Aidan knew that since Rudger already possessed superhuman abilities, everything he said was not lies but truth.

It was a conclusion reached in a form closer to instinct rather than conscious recognition.

"More importantly, how long are you going to keep calling me teacher? I'm not even a Theon instructor anymore." 

"But a teacher is still a teacher. Calling you by another name feels somehow awkward." 

"Huh. Fine, call me whatever you want." 

"Yes, Teacher! So what brings you here?"

Aidan seemed more curious about Rudger appearing in the southern continent than about the fact that he was alive and well.

"It hasn't been long since I returned. I was wandering the world to refresh myself." 

"Like a soul-searching journey?" 

"......You're unexpectedly perceptive. Yes, that's right. I'm going around here and there looking for old connections. And the reason I came to the south is." 

"You came to see me!"

This guy. Setting aside interrupting, it's all correct so it's strangely more annoying. Come to think of it, he was like this even as a student. All the other students were afraid of Rudger and watched his mood, but Aidan alone didn't do that.

Perhaps because of that aspect, Rudger recalled memories from his time working as a teacher at Theon.

"I came looking for places where you might be, but I didn't expect to meet you this quickly. Well, you seem to be doing well, so I'll be going now." 

"Oh come on. We met after such a long time, why are you leaving already! You know Iona lives near here too, right? Since you're here, you should see her before you go! Don't worry. I'll guide you properly!"

Aidan grabbed Rudger as he was about to leave. He was so strong that Rudger's body was gradually dragged along from that spot.

Of course, there was also the reason that Rudger didn't forcibly shake off Aidan.

"More importantly, what about these beastmen?" 

"Ah. Right, these people were here."

Aidan belatedly remembered the beastmen and nodded.

"They're scavengers who plunder people in the area. They're a tribe that hates humans, so they're troublemakers causing all sorts of big and small problems." 

"Plunder? Don't beastman tribes that hate humans usually avoid even their weapons?" 

"Hmm. That was the case in the past, but the trend has changed recently. Whether scavengers or regular beastfolk, the atmosphere is pervasive about accepting civilization's goods. They hate people but use their things because they're useful."

Aidan added an explanation. The reason for this change was largely thanks to Iona, who had been designated as the next chieftain.

"Iona, you say." 

"Yes. Iona solved a problem the beastman tribe was facing three and a half years ago. If things had gone wrong, it could have escalated to war with nearby people."

Three and a half years. Rudger remembered the past incident too.

'Was it during vacation? Victor, the First Order of the Black Dawn, tried to cause some incident.'

At that time, Victor was staying in a secret laboratory in the southern continent. He conducted biological experiments by kidnapping them to study the unique power beastmen possessed, Spirit.

When tribe members went missing, the beastmen thought it was the doing of nearby humans. Conversely, there were victims on the human side too, so the rift between the two groups only deepened.

But those who stepped up were none other than Aidan and his friends Tracy, Leo, and Iona.

Rudger had also sent executives from Owens just in case. Thus Victor's plan failed spectacularly, and war didn't break out between the two groups.

Most importantly, Iona gained the qualifications to ascend to the position of next chieftain, and her actions led the closed-off beastman tribe toward a better future.

'Well. Right away, Iona learned the magic of humans that the beastfolk despised.'

In that sense, there were quite a few who disliked Iona and should have prevented her from becoming chieftain.

"Just hearing about it, it must have been a difficult process. But looking at how things are going now, still, most of them - how did Iona unite them?" 

"She won by fighting." 

"......"

That's right. The method Iona chose was so simple, yet it was the key to piercing the core of the beastfolk.

The beastfolk who couldn't accept human ways were overflowing with pride in their tribe. They hoped to become strong warriors by not suppressing the beastfolk's overflowing wildness but using it.

Born fighters and warriors from birth, that was what beastmen were.

Therefore, they revered the strong. Iona focused on that aspect and is said to have challenged all the beastmen who opposed her will to duels and defeated them all.

"It must not have been easy, but she managed well." 

"That's true. It would have been difficult for Iona alone. But Iona wasn't alone." 

"Not alone?" 

"Yes. Because she had a reliable friend with her. Ah, maybe not friend anymore?"

Rudger felt something off about Aidan's words. Come to think of it, there were friends who usually hung around together.

"You mean Leo? Did something happen between Leo and Iona?" 

"Rather than a problem arising, it's more like a joyous occasion. Didn't you know? Leo, that guy is marrying Iona." 

"......What?"

No. Originally they were close, so it wouldn't be strange for the two to become that kind of relationship. In fact, even during their student days, the two were quite a good match. Especially after the vacation, though they didn't show it, the way they looked at each other contained quite a bit of affection.

But even if three years had passed, wasn't it too fast? They would have just graduated from Theon.

"Iona says among the beastfolk, it's still not without the feeling of being late. Originally beastfolk mature quickly, so they all get married around age 16."

Since Iona did it after passing 20, it was relatively quite late.

"Anyway, Leo too, well, though he grumbles on the outside, he doesn't dislike it. So he became the chieftain's son-in-law." 

"......That's quite surprising." 

"Actually, the wedding is coming up soon. So I came at just the right time, but I heard scavengers were running wild nearby, so I came to resolve it." 

"What have you been doing since graduation?" 

"I'm going around the world as an adventurer. I wanted to see a wider world and gain experience. Going around here and there, taking pictures, writing journals and such. Soon I'll also go to the new continent beyond the Giant's Spine."

After graduating from Theon, doing something as an adventurer with an uncertain future. Aidan, who uses anti-magic, would have been a very outstanding talent even among graduates.

He could have received sufficient treatment entering any organization.

'Especially the imperial family would have had their eye on him.'

From his reaction, it seemed Aidan had received all sorts of lavish offers. Nevertheless, the reason he was being an adventurer was probably because he had kicked all of that away with his own will.

"Why did you refuse all those other good conditions?" 

"I still lacked confidence, but after the fight that day, I wanted to learn more about the world."

Aidan recalled that day at the Holy War. Everyone saw the cage oppressing the world shatter. When most were overwhelmed by that spectacle, only Aidan thought differently.

That something that had been itching from before was finally resolved. Right. It was a yearning for freedom that had been writhing beneath that instinct.

Aidan properly felt the potential for human development that Lumensis had been suppressing and what humans would normally never realize in their lifetime.

Freedom. To do anything, to choose anything without constraint.

At that moment Aidan thought. That there was so much of the world he hadn't yet seen.

So he became an adventurer. Even if those around him said it was crazy, even if they tried to stop him, it didn't matter. If that's what he wanted, he would move forward without hesitation. That was the path Aidan pursued.

"You have quite the stubbornness too." 

"Haha. Maybe so. But listen, Teacher. Even Lexer, one of the great mages, was originally an adventurer, right?"

Lexer. Now called the epitome of the rank referring to 6th-tier mages, but to ordinary people excluding mages, his better-known epithet was [Adventurer King].

He wandered the world as a wandering mage and experienced various things. The Adventurer King's journal was one of the famous bestsellers that was on people's lips at the time.

Lexer wasn't the first 6th-tier mage. Originally, the epithet attached to a mage's tier wasn't given to the one who first achieved it.

Rather, it was a title given to the one who first systematically established the magic of that tier.

Lexer was the Adventurer King and also the man who set the tone for organizing the system of 6th-tier magic.

His end was said to be that contact was lost after he departed seeking an ideal land beyond the northern sea.

"There's no reason I couldn't become like that too."

Aidan mentioned that Lexer again. Saying he wanted to become like that too.

"That's such a you thing to say."

Rudger chuckled at Aidan's still childlike innocent appearance and Aidan thought Rudger's nagging would come flying after this.

Because the Teacher Rudger he remembered was thoroughly realistic regarding students' futures.

"But, that's certainly a wonderful dream."

At that unexpected answer, Aidan's eyes widened.