Glan Natural Science Academy

Although the Glan Natural Sciences Academy was in St Glan Castle, Ryger and his entourage still had to walk for nearly half a day before finally arriving.

This was a desolate, deserted part of the Castle.

The academy’s scholars had no faith and were unwilling to bask in the grace of the Light God.
 
In front of the Academy’s main entrance, Ryger and Auen got off the carriage. The middle-aged head knight looked at Auen and bid farewell, “Auen, be sure to come back after you’re done with your exams 3 years later! The Lord charged me a lot before leaving!”

“Young master ……” The female knight’s eye was red but she couldn’t say out the words in her heart.

Their separation was imminent and Ryger couldn’t help but feel slightly sad inwardly. Auen, however, could hardly wait. He looked at the carriages that stopped in front of the main entrance. Those who came down from it were scholars from all over the Principality. Auen was excited and yearnful. “Relax!”

Auen then looked at the elven girl in the carriage, made a smile and blessed her, “May you return home soon, Krelina.”

Ryger translated for her; His Elvish had improved tremendously in the past few days.

The elven maiden understood only parts of Ryger’s bizarre Elvish but still got what he meant. Reluctantly, she responded back . Ryger managed to understand what she meant – something about repaying in the future.

“Goodbye!”

Under Ryger and Auen’s gaze, the four knights escorted the carriage. As they slowly moved away, Ryger waved his hand to send them off.

“Hahahaha! Finally! The Glan Natural Sciences Academy!”

Auen didn’t have any lingering longing for the knights and Krellina, and was currently looking at the buildings inside the Academy. With arms wide open, he exclaimed, “I’ve long had enough of my family. It’s either money or titles all day long! Now, I can finally study here, alone and freely without anybody bothering me anymore!”

Most of the scholars who came to the Natural Sciences Academy for further studies were nobles with good upbringing and inherited knowledge.

Even though the scholars who came for registrations had never met each other before, they still made gentlemanly gestures of etiquette, full of modesty and harmony. All of these provided Ryger with a new understanding regarding the nobles. It was a sort of moral character upbringing and was far from anything that Sir Bob from Agate Lake can compare to.

“Let’s go register!” Said Auen impatiently: “I’ve completed initial mastery of energy fields1 and derived an elementary academic skill through mathematical foundations. I just need to finish the test later and I’ll be fine. You have a contribution badge so the Academy should provide you with an initiate tutor who will teach you some basic knowledge. Afterwards, it depends on the academic field that you want to study.”

Ryger followed behind Auen. Sunlight showered on his body and made him feel warm.

Other than the scholars who wore broad “magician robes” there were many mercenaries in leather clothes or armour that would walk around freely. But what set the enrolling new students apart was that most them would stop briefly in front of the main entrance and look at the granite monument in front of the main entrance.

“Respect the teachers; pass on the torch2.”

Ryger muttered the inscriptions on the stone monument.

Auen also stopped for a moment. He looked at the other seekers of knowledge who had stopped around him, and after nodding calmly as a salute, continued leading Ryger.

“Look, that’s the Royal Research Institute of Glan!”

Auen pointed at the spire of a towering, grey stone tower while walking and gushed out, “Do you see that vortex at the top of the tower? That is a proper manifestation of further mathematics! It’s capable of influencing nature’s use energy and represents the pinnacle of human knowledge!”

Ryger’s eyes moved from the myriads of shops on either side of the main entrance to where Auen was pointing.

High up the tall, imposing, grey stone tower was a vortex of cloud that continuously rotated around the spire of the tower, as if drawing energy from nature. The vortex faintly emitted a terrifying, oppressive force and bred destructive energy.

Ryger did not understand the peculiarities of that and was instead shocked by a scene in the bustling streets of the Academy.

With sweaty palms, Ryger clutched the redbud badge and pointed at a fire-eyed, one-person-tall, black beast in the distance and said in a low voice, “Proteus!”

Auen looked at Ryger pointed at and nodded, “It looks like an adult bristleback, a level 1 proteus. The eyes seem to be a bit mutated. It probably is the medium partner of a high-level scholar.”

“Ah!”

Ryger made a surprised expression and ask, “What’s a medium partner? Does every scholar have a proteus as a partner?” Ryger’s fear of magical beasts was entirely due to his father.

Auen explained: “A medium partner is an intermediate for scholars to study the True Law more deeply and change their energy field. Normally, people look for pets that are highly intelligent. That way, their speed when training their energy field later on can be faster. Of course, there are scholars who will look for proteuses with awe-inspiring innate abilities or some mutant creatures as their medium partner. Although they’re stronger, they have lower intelligence and their training speed will be slower. It depends on each scholar’s preference.”

Extremely intelligent medium beings? Ryger thought of the parrot back in Agate Lake.

Auen continued guiding Ryger onwards. Everything at the academy overwhelmed the two. As they went on, there were more and more people around. The two followed the signposts and looked for the new student registration site.

“Speaking of which, we humans are really strange, huh? We appear to be incongruent with this world. Not only are our biological clocks in disorder and we’re always in heat, but our energy field also can’t adapt to the world’s natural law, as if the whole world is rejecting humans. It’s because of that that we need a medium partner to help us integrate into the world. You’ll understand later on, ” muttered Auen while walking.

This was a huge square paved with limestones. The square was surrounded by flower beds, and even further away was a pine forest. Some of the Academy’s old, tall buildings could be seen faintly.

New students walked over to the square incessantly, and there were already over a hundred people at the registration square.  The young men and women – most of them dressed showily while some donned wide magician robes – socialized and sized each other up from time to time.

“I’ll go buy some scholar clothes later. I’ve had enough of this formal wear for a long time – it takes forever to both wear it and take it off”

While grumbling, Auen led Ryger to continue walking forward.

“Come on, let’s get in line!”

They joined a long queue. Someone else got in line behind the two.

In front of Aoun was a tall, lanky boy. Most of the scholars who came to the Academy for further studies were between fifteen and twenty years old. This boy seemed to be a little younger than Auen and Ryger, at about only fifteen or so years old, and had a very immature face.

“Hello, these are my private blend of medicines which remove dead skins and scars. Interested?” The boy promoted his medicines with a prideful look.

Auen curiously took the glass test tube and after looking at it, shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry, I definitely won’t need this potion. I have always disliked how I don’t look manly enough and thought of getting some scars…”

On the other side.

The person who queued behind Ryger was a girl with charming looks and an oval face. She was much older than Ryger and was already in her early twenties.

The girl was about the same height as Ryger and dark flowing hair. She was holding in her hand a black cat that was lazily sunbathing and licking its paws.

Noticing Ryger’s stare, the girl queried, “What’s wrong?”

The black cat also opened its eyes and looked at Ryge. “What, you want to ask your senior sister out?”

Ryger’s eyes widened and his cheeks turned red after hearing what the cat said. He blurted, “No, no!”

Ah, so she was a senior sister.

The black cat stood up, stared Ryger in the eye and said with a mysterious expression, “Are you saying that your senior sister is no longer attractive and that she is an old hag that no one wants?”

“Hah!?”

Ryger couldn’t keep up with the cat and was temporarily at a loss about what to say.

The girl, on the contrary, was amused and rolled her eyes. She grabbed the cat’s neck with one hand and flicked its head with the other hand while smiling playfully.

The black cat mewed out of pain. “Meow!”

“Hehe, Cayleigh, it looks like you want to have a beating4?”

The girl smiled sweetly and held the cat back in her arms after dealing with it. She then turned towards Ryger and grinned. “I am here to look for someone. And also to look at the new students entering this year. This cat is very mischievous. Quite the rascal. Hehehe.”

“Nice to meet you, senior sister!”

Ryger scratched his head embarrassedly and turned his head amidst her laughter to continue queuing. He found Auen looking at him with raised eyebrows and a smirk.

……..

You really won’t understand just how hard something is until you try it your own self, huh? Translating these really takes up time.

Footnotes

The full term is magnetic energy field or some variation of that. But because it sounds clunky, I’ll use energy field. Keep that in mind as you read