Chapter 784: Back to Work
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After a few days, news had gotten out from the Kingdom of Helius and, through the mouths of various spies and undercover agents, spread throughout the land.
The cultists had attacked Havenwright, and put a curse on the king of the Kingdom of Helius, causing the king to be bedridden with illness. It was difficult for him to handle the affairs of the Kingdom. Therefore matters had been temporarily passed on to the Queen.
This was the information announced by the royalty, through the inspiration of the Church.
After hearing this, Benjamin was naturally able to guess what the real situation was. The worshippers across the sea had suddenly attacked, bringing to the Church a huge problem. After this, the nobles were going to have an excuse to be a thorn in their side again. In addition, there were the losses suffered by the expedition this time. At the very least, the Church would temporarily yet definitely not be up to anything.
Icor had reclaimed their lost territories and had started to be rebuilt. As for the timely help of the Academy of Magic, they were extremely grateful; not only did they bear the responsibility of paying all the consolation money, but had also given a large sum of remuneration to Benjamin.
Benjamin unceremoniously accepted it, and took out two thirds to distribute to all Academy members who had been involved in the aid this time. No matter a teacher, or a student... Everyone had contributed towards this battle, and Benjamin was not interested in taking the money all for himself.
After that, he thought that the aftermath of the battle should, more or less, come to an end here. However, what he had not expected was that the actions of the Academy of Magic had drawn up a huge consequence in the world of mages— especially in the community of mages in Icor.
At that time, Icor had a huge group of free mages who volunteered to join the army, and after the battles were over, they originally could have returned to their carefree lives. However, from amongst them, many had begun to visit, expressing their respect and admiration.
"Honorable director, although the time we have fought side by side have not been more than a few weeks, but I have learned a lot from you guys. Magic, runes, conviction... You have shared all that you know generously. This attitude has astonished us. After some discussion, we feel that the Academy of Magic represents the future of the mages. Can we join you?"
"Director Benjamin, the moment you flew to the skies alone to face with tens of cannonballs of Holy Light, the blood of many mages on the scene boiled. You have alerted us to the fact that our way of studying, closed up behind doors, ignorant of external circumstances, is not real magic. Please allow us to be your followers."
"The Runic Defense Technique, I’ve studied magic for so many years, but I’ve never come across anything like it. Your academy definitely has something, I don’t know if there are any requirements to join in?"
"Honorable director..."
The explosive number of visitors almost broke the doorsill of the academy, and Benjamin was messed up quite a bit, causing his head to spin.
They had continuously faced off directly with the Church, lifting up the status of the Academy of Magic by multiple times. This was true especially the free mages who had joined the army to fight in the battle; after they had seen everything about the academy with their own eyes, not only had they been deeply shocked, but they had gone back to tell their fellow mages what had happened. The news travelled fast, and once again, the Academy of Magic became a hot topic.
Although it looked as though it had been Icor who had driven off the Kingdom of Helius, the mages in all the countries slowly realized, in their hearts, that the one dominating the battle this time had been the Academy of Magic.
Because of that, this organization, established barely a year, had unconsciously and slowly become the strongest and greatest organization in the hearts of all mages. Even the mages hiding out deep in the mountains, isolated, could not help but walk out to hear the stories, with the idea of wanting to widen their knowledge for once.
And the direct result of all this, Benjamin’s holiday was completely done for.
"Regarding the hiring of staff for the Academy of Magic, we have very strict filters. We are very grateful for your support, we will consider the matter of exceptions for recruitment. Right now, we definitely cannot put you in immediately..."
Within the short span of only a few days, Benjamin had spoken such words so many times that the skin of his lips would soon be rubbed dry.
The people that came to visit every day were of a variety of capabilities, and he did not have the skills to tell them apart one by one, so he could only put such work off for later. This was an opportunity of a lifetime, he absolutely could not slam the door in their faces, but he also must be careful of those who had ulterior motives.
Because of that, he could only summon Varys, who only had barely a few days of holiday, and a team of administrators, to begin discussing the issue of absorbing outsider mages.
They finally decided to send these people to branch campuses.
The business of establishing branch campuses had been temporarily shelved due to the battles, but right now they were slowly being restored. Outsider mages were beginning to register freely, becoming supernumerary staff of the Academy of Magic. The branch campuses might not have strict requirements for teachers, but as they grew, the working members would definitely increase in number.
"There are so many people. It’s impossible to check them one by one, so just put them all into the branch campus and be done with it. Through the assessment of the work done in branch campuses, after at least half a year’s work, if they show good performance, they would then have the opportunity to be promoted to the main campus."
To ease everyone’s workload, finally, Benjamin could only hit the hammer and make such a decision.
Such a process was also reasonable, so no one objected and everyone was dismissed, leaving to begin busying themselves with the arrangement of those defected mages into the branch campus.
As for Benjamin, he was also considered to have been awakened from his state of rest, and could not but return to the typical hustle and bustle of a director’s life. With such a huge academy to take care of, even if the students had gone home for the holidays, he still had a lot of business to attend to.
For instance...
Outside the small town of Academy.
In the cold, remote forest, the special forces established not long ago by the academy were still, as always, hidden away, training in full swing. They did not reveal themselves before the eyes of the crowd due to the battle, and during the battle, Benjamin had kept his cool, hiding this team with a limitless potential very diligently.
Because they were separated from the world, they did not know even about the battle of Icor. It was only until the war was over, and Benjamin had returned to his work and came here once more, that the people inside knew what had happened.
"... I don’t think you should have kept this a secret from us."
After hearing what had happened roughly, Lance furrowed his eyebrows, as though he was unsatisfied that he was unable to join the battle this time, showing a disgruntled look.
"It was not on purpose," Benjamin shrugged, saying, "Only Varys and I know about your existence, but there was too much urgency in the situation at that time, and all of us had rushed to Icor, so obviously no one was able to inform you."
"..."
Lance had nothing to say to that.
"You do not have to rush, wait until the training of this team is done, and one day you will have the chance to shine," Benjamin consoled him, "However... I come this time because I have something new to provide you."
Lance was stunned, and immediately said, "Is it attack-based magical instruments from the latest research?"
Benjamin nodded, and took out a simple, plain looking wooden handgun from his pocket.
This troop made up purely of commoners was probably the biggest trump card of the academy now. The defense instruments strengthened by the runes, flying tools... Everything that they should have, they already had, and only attack based tools had not been created. And, using only the two former types of items, this team was still not equipped with the ability to stifle spellcasters.
While Morris had been researching this, Benjamin had reminded him to first look into magical instruments for long range attacks. Finally, three days after the end of the cattle, he had come up with a sample and passed it into Benjamin’s hands.
"There are some strange rumors outside about how the director of the Academy of Magic is a sharpshooter. I thought that it was quite amusing, so I created this based on the model of a gun."
At that time, hearing Morris explain the source of his inspiration, Benjamin could only nod and smile, not sure what he should say.
However, Benjamin could not but admit that this "elemental gun", created out of research on runic techniques, was really suited to his tastes.
And, after having no problems with it during tests, and the beginning of production of elemental guns by the academy, Benjamin took this gun to the special forces hidden in the thick forest, to fit in the last piece of the puzzle.
"It’s very easy to use this. You don’t have to activate it, just pull the trigger, and the muzzle of the gun will shoot out a powerful, flying elemental bullet, the power of which is equal to low-level magic," He remembered the explanation by Morris, and spoke slowly, "There is no limit to this thing, it will automatically draw the free elements in the surrounding to recharge its power, condensing them into ammunition. The only thing to take note of is that it can only shoot thirty bullets in an hour, and after that, the rune on the gun will be damaged. It will need to be passed back to the academy to undergo reparation before it can be used again."
Lance nodded, and took the gun.
"Thirty bullets... Along with the flight tools and the magic swords, for us elite soldiers, it is enough to kill thirty shamans."
Hearing this, Benjamin raised his eyebrows, "For real? Have you trained up to such a standard?"
"No... I’m just looking into the future. Don’t you guys love saying such things at various academy ceremonies?" Lance scratched the back of his head, embarrassed, and answered this.
"...I got excited for nothing."
Benjamin shook his head helplessly.
However, although it was only an exaggeration, he actually believed it in his heart that maybe one day, this group of commoners, equipped with runic tools, would really possess such powerful capabilities.
After observing in the camp for some time, Benjamin nodded satisfactorily, turned around, and left.