Glan Natural Science Academy

Auen got down from the carriage and sat near the bonfire together with Ryger.

The sky was already completely dark.

“Ryger, is Agate Lake the little town down this road, near the Jungle?” Auen was writing something on his notebook with his head lowered all the while talking to Ryger. It seemed like this was Auen’s first time leaving his hometown too. He was full of curiosity towards the outside world and left everything to the knights. It was clear that the knights were very strong.

Ryger was a bit self-conscious as this was his first time speaking to a noble in such a distance. “Yes. A lot of hunters from Agate Lake head inside the Accipit Jungle every year to hunt every year. A lot of them never leave.” His words were loaded with awe towards the Jungle.

But Auen didn’t feel the same wayas Ryger. “I’ve long heard that this Jungle that spreads across Glan and Sealand 1has an inexhaustible amount of high-class specimens and that its one of the most important biospecimen collection site for the Glan Natural Sciences Academy. I’ve always wanted to come and look at it, and now my desire has been sated. Speaking of which, this Forest is really big, huh? Even though we’re only passing through the outskirts, we’ll still need 2 days to reach St Glan Castle.”

Seeing how Auen was fearless, Ryger hurriedly reminded Auen. “The Accipit Jungle is very dangerous. There’s a lot of powerful monsters and dangerous plants in it. And I’ve even heard that there’s some evil sorcerers hiding in it.”

Yet Auen didn’t look like he took it seriously. 

Seemingly stumped by exercises in his notebook, Auen frowned and contemplated in silence.

After a moment of silence, Ryger tilted his head towards Auen and said carefully, “What are you doing?”

“Learning mathematical foundations. I’m a scholar that researches natural law. If I want to get the position of natural scholar from the Academy three years later, I’ll need to use these foundations to derive the laws of nature and obtain a sufficiently strong skill2 through research. It’s a knowledge field that I can spend my whole life on studying!”

It was quite obvious Auen was very proud of his identity as a scholar. Ryger couldn’t help but become more curious towards scholars. He looked at the crooked symbols and equations in the notebook and curiously asked, “Does every scholar need to study these mathematical foundations?”

As if he’d expected this, Auen smiled even more happily.

“No. There are scholars who research biological specimens, human body profundities, alchemy and other academic fields. But one thing is the one for all of them. In the field of scholars, knowledge is power!”

After he finished talking, Auen lifted his right hand. Waves of heat rippled from his right hand and a fireball the size of an infant’s fist rose slowly. The fireball floated in mid-air and even made a ‘whoosh’ sound of burning.

Ryger felt the scorching heat of the fireball. From nothing to something, the appearance of the fireball, with how it was so real and not at all illusory, dumbfounded Ryger. Instinctively, he shouted, “magic!”

As he extinguished the flame with the wave of his hand, Auen corrected Ryger, “Only the ignorants call it magic and think it’s unfathomable supernatural power. This is only the lowliest of natural law manifestations, one of the lowest-level foundational academic skills – a fireball that I deduced based on mathematical foundations.”

Ryger’s heart was racing. He had finally witnessed the legendary magic. Seeing is believing; Not only does god exist but also true magic!

“Young master, the tent is ready.” The 4 knights had cleared out a piece in that period of time and finished setting up tents. Seeing how Ryger and Auen had a pleasant conversation, the middle-aged head knight took out some exquisite butter bread and passed it to Ryger, which caused Ryger to have a good impression towards the middle-aged knight.

It seems that knights aren’t all that haughty and unapproachable.

Ryger tasted the butter bread. The fragrant3 cream melted in his mouth and flowed through his tongue down his throat. It was a tastiness that Ryger had never experienced before and all his taste buds were quivering.

The female archer sat beside Auen, looked at Ryger and said smilingly: “What you just saw was a true-blue fireball and our young master here mastered it all on his own. Once he gets some good teaching from the Academy and graduates, he’ll have some powerful magic. All he needs to do then is just wave his hand and even a fortress will just go ‘poof’. You get how awesome he is?”

The female talked with a lot of embellishment but was evidently the same as Ryger – they both knew nothing about magic or the so-called academic skill.

“Mmhm mhm!” Ryger replied in a muffled way because he was chewing the butter bread.

Auen didn’t correct the female archer’s choice of words. To a scholar, it was meaningless anyway. He passed some bread to Ryger.

Ryger ate until he was full and expressed his contentment. Only then did he realise his gaffes. Ashamed, he expressed his gratitude, “thank you!”

“Hahahaha!” The knight’s hearty laugh made any reservations that Ryger had before dissipate.

The awe towards a knight was like second nature to any commoner. Now that he got the chance to interact with them close-up, he couldn’t resist asking some questions. “My father always said that knights can cultivate fighting spirit. But what is fighting spirit?”

The few knights that were laughing gradually stopped and all of them, Auen included, looked towards the head knight. The head knight chewed some meat, looked at the boy in front of him who knew nothing and calmly explained. “A knight is also known as a fighter. Just like how scholars are separated into different levels, the cultivation of knights are also separated into different levels. Only after reaching the level of an assault knight can one cultivate true fighting spirit. For low-level knights, the most reliable strength that they can have is a strong body and a sturdy armour.”

To the side, Auen supplemented what the head knight said. “Trainee, official, assault, ground and aerial. These are the 5 levels for knights and corresponds to the 5 levels for scholars – initiate, natural, arcane, mystic and royal fellow. An assault knight is more or less equal to a scholar at the arcane level.”

“No,” the head knight shook his head. “Generally speaking, in a fight with equivalent level, a fighter will have a hard time against a magician.”

“Ah,” Ryger recognized his own ignorance.

“If only I could become an assault knight. Tsk tsk tsk!” A 20 odd years old knight looked at the roasted meat above the bonfire. He was grinning and daydreaming in his own world.

“Hahaha, an assault knight that was rejected by Lina 3 times!” The other knight, in his early twenties, seemed to have brought up the first knight’s embarrassing story. The two scuffled.

The female knight and the head knight seemed to be used to this and only smiled faintly. Auen took out his notebook and continued learning his mathematical foundations, which made Ryger admire him for his diligence.

Even though he had such a good living condition, he still worked that hard. Not all nobles are like the baron of Agate Lake, stingy and greedy.

Though, it was no wonder that the number of the legendary magicians were pitifully low. After all, the number of nobles who didn’t know how to enjoy life was always in the minority.

In this way, Ryger spent an unforgettable night with the noble knights in the Accipit Jungle.

Footnotes

Sealand Principality or 西兰公国 The word used in the raw means academic discipline/field but can also mean spells/skills. Which makes me make to KMS because the term is used a LOT in future chapters and I need to figure out which definition is used for each part.The raw uses crispy to describe it and I’m not sure what to make of that. So have a cliché alternative. I’m also not sure where the cream comes from. I checked the recipes and they all looked like plain normal bread.