༺ Summer and With It, Trouble (1) ༻
Zollin’s day started off with a noisy alarm.
-BEEP~ BABBABBO! BBIBBIBBABA BBIBIBO!
The deafening noise of that megaphoned instrument, which must be taking them for a fool, woke him up as always. Covering his ears and waking up from the bed, he found his bedroom that was jam-packed with his roommates.
Looking at the 8 people lying down on the 8-story bed less than 4 meters tall on the bunk bed next to him reminded Zollin of the fish storage of a fishing boat. Who would believe that this tiny and dark room, less than 20 square meters wide, had 24 people inside? He didn’t think it was possible until he went into one.
“Ugh…”
“Is it morning already?”
Even the occupants of the 8th floor, which was the roomiest of all the floors, couldn’t get up without hitting the ceiling, so they had to roll themselves down to the ladder and get down.
Most of the prisoners were still on their beds because there was no room for them to get up.
Lining up behind the densely packed iron bars, the prisoners waited for the officers. It was so packed that they couldn’t even stand properly, and while looking around with their eyes that were hazy from a lack of sleep, they found the room of female prisoners on the other side of the corridor.
“I’m so jealous…”
That room only had 15 prisoners, because they couldn’t fill up the room. Thanks to that, the prisoners of Room 109 were in possession of the luxurious one-square-foot of private space for themselves.
“Prisoners. We will now begin your morning roll call!”
The officers opened the iron bars after the sonorous shout of the head officer. Hundreds of prisoners walked out in perfect order as they unhesitatingly headed to one side of the corridor.
-Trod! Trod! Trod! Trod!
Despite hundreds of them moving at once, the prisoners moved in alignment like a well-trained army. They soon arrived at the training ground that was connected to the prison cells. That was where they were allowed to spend 1 hour of free time after dinner every day.
“We will now begin the morning roll call!”
Of course, there was no such thing as free time in the morning.
“Dunareff Morning Exercise! Ready~ Begin!”
One! Two! One! Two!
One! Two! One! Two!
488 prisoners remained in ranks as they repeated the exercise in unison.
None of them made a single mistake because they were all exceptionally trained at it. It didn’t matter even if some of them made mistakes – by tomorrow, those mistakes would be gone.
“To the Flag of Golden Potato Flower~ Bow!”
Finishing off with a bow to the Dunareff family’s flag, they headed to the public cafeteria. That was when someone called out to Zollin from behind – he was a prisoner who came a tad bit earlier than he did.
“Oi Zollin. What’s for breakfast today?”
“Hmm… I heard it’s boiled potatoes, baked potatoes, and dried potatoes.”
“Potatoes again? Fucking hell. They are freaking obsessed with potatoes.”
The moment he grumbled a complaint, an officer who was guiding the prisoners from the front suddenly turned around with a burning flicker in his eyes.
“What was that?!”
“U, umm, O, Officer, what I meant to say is…!”
Before he could even finish giving his excuse, an enormous wooden club struck him on the head. The prisoner fell from that single strike, but the officer did not let him go and continued kicking and bashing him without any hesitation.
“You pieces of trash are eating the potatoes! The potatoes! That the farmers! Shed buckets of sweat for! To harvest! They’re! Precious! Taxes! Of our citizens!”
-Kaduk!
In the end, the club broke before the person. It was a common sight in this prison.
“You damn garbage of society have no idea how merciful Duke Marde and Duchess Elencia are being to you!”
‘…Crazy. This place is crazy.’
Zollin inwardly complained with a gulp but even that earned a burning gaze from the officer.
“Oi, 4886. You got any complaints?”
“N, no sir!”
“You better not.”
After the feeble breakfast, they headed straight away to the workplace.
The prison Zollin was in was connected to a notorious salt pond, that was among one of the most infamous places in the South. It was an inhumanely arduous task where they stored up seawater and dried it out under the sun to acquire salt.
Of course, there were more than enough salt mines in the South. Actually, most places in the Kingdom used rock salt – those were of higher quality and were much cheaper.
The reason these salt ponds existed was not to earn profit but to fuck the prisoners up.
Only the horrendous criminals who received a life sentence were sent to these salt ponds. They required a lot of incredibly difficult labor and the life here was so harsh that the prisoners didn’t usually last long. In a way, it was a more cruel punishment than death.
“Haak… Haak…!”
Zollin repeated the difficult labor under the burning sun. He used to be an elite mage of the Tower of Mages back in the day, but he was now just a prisoner who was referred to by the number 4886.
He was supposed to be a successor of the elder of the cult, Chunsik… or rather Admelech, so how the hell did he end up like this?
It was all because of that woman who was crazy for potatoes and that gold digger!
His future was going to be ever-so bright without those bastards!
“Just you watch… Once I pass through these dark times, trust me, I will fly back into the skies. This Professor Zollin will not fall like this…”
The Tower of Mages was strong.
There was no way that they would leave them like this the whole time! He was sure that a team would be dispatched before long to save them from this hell!
Spero spera.
There is hope as long as you don’t give up.
Zollin was hoping for a better tomorrow when a group started making their way over to the wide salt pond. Were they new recruits? Looking at the prisoners that slipped and died on repeat every day, he had indeed been thinking about how it was time for new ones to be sent in.
“Huh?”
Seeing the one at the lead of the group, Zollin couldn’t help but doubt his eyes.
“P, Professor Ronald?”
“Professor Zollin…”
Professor Ronald, one of his peers who was considered to be the future elder of the Green Cult was here! Looking behind, Zollin also recognized the faces of the ones behind him! All of them were powerful high-ranked mages!
“Professor Ronald! You’re finally here to save us all!”
“…No, we were also captured just like you.”
“…”
Hope was despair in disguise.
***
A month went by in a flash after the Saintess Kidnapping Incident and the War against the Tower of Mages.
On a bright summer’s day under the warm sunlight of mid-July, more than a thousand students were gathered in one place listening to the closing words of Chairman Erin, which came to an end before long.
“Fuu~. Finally summer holidays, huh.”
It was my third holiday after coming back in time. A lot of things had happened in the meantime.
I saved Marie, defeated the King of Iron Mountain and Fermack Daman, and was also enlightened about Marie’s fearsome background.
Even aside from that, the hotel that I invested all my wealth into almost got ruined by a random bat, which I somehow managed to save after a stressful job; put a stop to Hua Ran’s ascension to ‘Hou’ during the festival and had a fake engagement with the Arden Household of the East.
Many things had happened and those things had affected the continental state as well.
‘The fall of the Tower of Mages. Time for the Old Faith now.’
There were a lot of things to do including the weeding out of the Hail Hydra bastards who were hiding inside the New Faith. I was able to befriend Estelle through this incident, so all that had to be done now was slowly persuade her into dealing with the internal traitors.
“Korin! Are you done packing up?”
“I don’t even need that much.”
One bag and two spears – that was all I had to carry with me. Unlike me, however, Marie was carrying a bag that was bigger than herself.
“Why don’t you make Doggo carry it?”
“Nn~. It’s fine. I’m going to put it down on the Hresvelgr anyway.”
My plan for the holiday was to head to the royal capital. It wasn’t for anything serious; it was to meet my parents after so long and get rewarded by the palace. We also told other members of the guild like Yuel and Kranel to come to the capital for the awarding ceremony.
“Are you okay though?”
“Nn? What do you mean?”
“I was wondering if you didn’t have to go down to your place this holiday.”
“It’s okay! There’s going to be an award from the royal court! That’s an honorable event! I also have to inspect the stores in the capital! Most importantly…”
Marie glanced around and after noticing that no one was looking at us, she continued after carefully grabbing my finger.
“You are going to the capital… so I’m coming as well.”
“K, kuhum…!”
“Hehe…”
How adorable was a girl in love for the first time? Just thinking how the target of that love was me made my face burn.
“Then… shall we go?”
“Korin, pass me your bag. I will tell Doggo to carry it.”
“Ah, I’m okay. This much is fine…”
Even though Doggo was playing around way too much these days, I still didn’t want to become a father that troubled their child because of something so trivial.
“By the way, Korin. That thing in your bag…”
Marie hesitated with her eyes on my bag. There certainly was something that was incredibly eye-catching along with the red and silver spears.
“You mean Undry?”
“Isn’t that… the Holy Grail? Is it okay for you to carry it around like that?”
“It’s just a big cauldron though, right?”
“Nnn… I guess no one would find out without carefully inspecting it.”
Magic Cauldron, Undry. It was one of the four great treasures of the Danann that I acquired after defeating Dun Scaith and was the treasure symbolizing the King of Gods Dagda’s Divinity of the Earth.
It was undeniable that Undry was a tremendous treasure that was at the level of Claiomh Solais but I had no use for it right now because Undry didn’t choose me as its master.
“What a shame… It’s a powerful item and we can’t even use it.”
“There’s no one that can, so it can’t be helped.”
Unlike other artifacts, the 4 treasures were picky in the sense that they chose their owners. Even in the case of Dun Scaith, it was more like he was living off of Undry like a parasite instead of making actual use of it.
This was going exactly like the previous iteration, where we couldn’t make use of Undry despite acquiring it.
“Let me tell you a secret.”
“Nn? What is it?”
“If you boil potatoes here… they become extremely delicious.”
“Haht! Really?”
“Every dish you create using this cauldron becomes the best delicacy in the world. This is the best item you could hope for when camping.”
“I, is that okay though? Treating a sacred item like that…”
“Well, even the myths label it as a cauldron that infinitely spawned food, so this must be how you are supposed to use it, right?”
“R, right?”
“Let’s get going. Hua Ran and Alicia are waiting.”
“Nn! I know a hotel in the capital. I’m sure we’ll be able to find a room there for everyone.”
“A hotel you know? It’s not like it’s yours again, right?”
“…The hotel franchise is under my sister’s name.”
How far-reaching was the financial empire of the Dunareff family? I became genuinely curious.
***
The residents of the 21st street of the capital of the El Rath Kingdom, Rudene Lork and Suel Lork started yet another busy morning.
The couple ran a small restaurant, and their morning started off early where they peeled potatoes to prepare for the morning session.
Although they were a normal and common pair of civilians who were living a peaceful and modest life, these days, there was a slight concern in their minds.
“Dear, did you see the letter that came this morning?”
“From who, the unfilial man of our family? No, I haven’t.”
“How can you call him unfilial? He’s been sending letters all the time.”
“So what if he sends letters!? He is an undutiful child who doesn’t even show his face once!”
It was because their oldest son, Korin Lork, had never shown his face even once after entering the Academy in March last year.
“We raised him wrong! We really did! That little kid doesn’t even remember about his parents anymore now that he’s breathing the Academy air!”
“Ehew, don’t say that. He must have been busy.”
“Busy? Sure! You mean he was busy playing in the South last summer and strolling in the East last winter?”
He had been greatly concerned already that his son was entering a guardian academy that was full of risk and hazards, so it was natural for him to feel like rotting away on the inside because his son was refusing to show his face even once.
Suel did not console her husband, who had a visibly sullen look on his face, because she knew it wouldn’t last long. If he was that worried, why didn’t he write a letter to him?
Seriously, the guys of this family were rather bad when it came to expressing their feelings. The same was true for her son as well as her husband.
“But Korin seems to be doing very well these days. He got promoted into something, and ‘Guardians’ was it? He seems to have a club with his friends.”
“Are there clubs and societies in the Guardian Academy?”
“Why not? It’s for young kids so of course there will be. Sia is also the head of a club in the Royal Academy, right? They’re both leaders wherever they go. I wonder who they took after.”
“It must be me.”
Where did all the complaints about the ‘undutiful child’ go?
“Anyway, he said he’s coming to the capital this holiday.”
“Really?”
Rudene suddenly turned with a flick with a bright smile on his face. Seeing that, Suel grinned while handing over the letter that they received in the morning.
“Look here. He’s coming to the capital with his friends.”
“Hmm… Hnn? Royal banquet? Is he going to the banquet?”
“The Saintess got kidnapped recently, right? I heard he did something important there.”
“Hoho. That little boy must be really brave just like me.”
“I hope he’s not putting himself at risk.”
“Of course, a man ought to put themselves at risk for a greater future! Haha!”
Seemingly proud of his son, Rudene couldn’t hide the smile on his face as he read through the letter several times.
Although Korin was an unfilial child who didn’t show his face for one and a half years ever since he entered the Academy, he appeared to be pioneering his own path very well from what Rudene could see through the letter.
“That boy. I wonder if he has a girlfriend now.”
“Well, he doesn’t look bad, but probably not because he’s coming with his friends. Someone his age wouldn’t be going around with their friends when they have a girlfriend, right?”
“But what if… he’s coming with his girlfriend to introduce her to us?”
“He said ‘friends’ though.”
“Hmm… That’s true.”
However, Rudene was still hopeful. Just like him and his wife, his son was tall and had a decent appearance. It was about time that he got himself ‘a’ girlfriend.
“Hoho. We have to prepare an enormous feast.”
“Don’t be silly.”
The Lork couple started the day off with excitement as they waited for their son to return.
