“Assume I’ll be gone for two days at the longest,” he said. “If you enjoy the restaurants, we can go to them together in the future.”
“Yes, I’ll make sure to savor all their best dishes. On your necca, that is.”
The next day, Kunon packed a small bag with enough supplies for two days and left the house.
The weather was dreary. It looked like it could start raining at any moment. That wouldn’t matter, as they would be underground, where the rain wouldn’t reach them. That said, as a water sorcerer, Kunon would have welcomed the added moisture. It would only benefit him.
Kunon greeted the neighbors and local dogs as he walked to school.
That day, he was headed not to his classroom, but to the Rationality Faction’s base.
His business would be fine—he’d put up a sign the day before saying he would be gone for a few days. It wasn’t uncommon for sorcerers to disappear suddenly. His customers would likely just think, “Oh, something must have come up,” and move on.
When Kunon arrived, he found Lulomet standing at the base’s entrance.
“You’re early, Kunon.”
“So are you.”
They had both arrived much earlier than the designated time. They’d been so excited they simply couldn’t wait.
“What’s the dungeon like?” asked Kunon.
“It’s nothing special. There are no traps or creatures. It’s just a maze.”
The two continued to speak as they waited, and soon the three professors leading the search arrived.
First was Professor Keevan, an earth sorcerer with a large build. “You’re both early. Have you been waiting long?”
Next was Soff Cricket, a wind sorcerer who helped Kunon out last year. “Good morning, you two. It’s been a while, Lulomet.”
And lastly—
“I’m Clavis. I’m familiar with Kunon, but I don’t believe we’ve met, Lulomet.”
—was a silver-haired light user of unparalleled beauty wearing a hood low over his eyes.
“…Are you a light sorcerer?” asked Lulomet.
The faction representative had been attending this school for years, but he had never seen this teacher before. The strange magic power emanating from the man felt like light magic. It was fearsomely powerful.
“Bingo,” Clavis replied. “I normally spend all my time on experiments, so I rarely go out in public.”
Lulomet was surprised to learn such a teacher existed. Kunon felt similarly. The team’s lineup had thrown him for a loop. Though to be honest, he felt more dread than surprise.
“All right, I wonder who’s arriving next! Miss Reyes said she wanted to go!” he said, acting unusually restless.
He refused to believe this was everyone. So who was late? Could it be the Saint?
She’d said emphatically she wanted to go and even boasted she would be able to convince her guards to let her.
“Oh, Reyes isn’t coming,” Keevan said. “She told me a little while ago she couldn’t convince her guards, so she would have to reluctantly withdraw. It hasn’t been long since she went missing, after all. She said there was no chance of her being able to join us.”
Kunon couldn’t believe his ears.
“That means it’ll be just the five of us,” Soff said. “We chose a small team and made sure each member had a different element so we’d be able to deal with any situation that might arise. We chose not to bring fire, though. That would be too dangerous underground.”
Keevan was earth.
Soff was wind.
Clavis was light.
Lulomet was darkness.
And Kunon was water.
As Soff said, they didn’t have any fire users. The team also lacked anyone with foul magic… But that was a rare attribute, so the professors probably couldn’t find anyone on such short notice.
There were also three teachers. Kunon didn’t want to admit it, but he couldn’t have asked for a more reliable team.
“I haven’t worked with kids in forever,” said Clavis. “This’ll be a short mission, but let’s do our best together.”
He looked young enough to be in his twenties or thirties, though he might have been much older.
“…You can’t be serious…” Kunon was shocked, flabbergasted, and above all, disappointed. “There’s not a single girl on the team…!”
What a sham. Did this even count as a “team”?
Had he ever been part of such a depressing group? He didn’t think so.
If there had been at least one girl—one was all he needed—he would have been able to work so much harder. Age was irrelevant. He just needed someone female to help boost his motivation.
“Professor Soff.”
“Hmm?”
“Would you mind swapping yourself out for Miss Shilto?”
“Ha-ha-ha. It’s too early in the morning for jokes, Kunon.”
“He’s a funny one, isn’t he, Keevan?”
“He sure is. In more ways than one.”
The older teachers laughed off Kunon’s rude question, and the capable yet disappointingly male team departed.
Ignoring the crestfallen Kunon, the guys moved out.
They started by entering the Rationality Faction’s base and heading for the basement.
This team of five would have drawn quite a lot of attention among the Advanced class students, but it was still early, and no one was around. They made their way through the base unseen.
“Did you say Kira Vera?” Lulomet asked dubiously as they walked. “Like from the myth?”
The sausage-fest team had an immediate problem: How much information should be shared? (Incidentally, no matter what Kunon thought, his desire to switch Soff for Shilto was too idiotic to consider an issue.)
“I probably wouldn’t have told you about it if you hadn’t noticed my attribute,” admitted Clavis, “but you realized right away.”
Among the three teachers and two students, Lulomet was the only one who wasn’t informed about the trouble surrounding the forest.
That said, students would eventually be allowed to take samples of the Kira Vera to use for research, so it would one day become common knowledge. Lulomet was just learning about it a little earlier than everyone else. That was all.
“Faction leaders sure are a step above. I don’t think telling you will be a problem,” Clavis said. He didn’t intend to tell him very much, though.
Clavis had a high opinion of Lulomet’s decision not to try to capture the shining plant himself. He’d shown great maturity by not chasing it too far and by being careful about whom he shared his information with. The same was true of his decision to bring what he’d seen to the professors and relinquish control of the search.
Either Lulomet had assumed the plant was truly valuable, or he’d simply wanted to tread carefully around such an unusual phenomenon. Either way, it was a commendable decision, and uncommonly thoughtful for a sorcerer still in his teens. Most kids his age were eager to achieve personal glory as quickly as possible.
Clavis was convinced after meeting Lulomet that it would be fine to fill him in.
“The Saint grew it? No way… I can’t believe Kira Vera are real…”
Lulomet caught on quickly. What Clavis told him was hard to believe, but considering the teachers were taking action themselves, he easily accepted it as the truth.
As they spoke, the exploration team made their way down a staircase, heading farther underground.
“We only use the two top floors of the dungeon, though the lower one is basically just a storage area.”
The first floor of the base—where the entrance was—and the top floor of the dungeon were intended to be used for living quarters and laboratories and thus had simple layouts.
Starting with the next floor down, however, the base became a maze—a true dungeon. But when Rationality students didn’t know where to put something, they dumped it underground, as if the place were a storage facility. They had been doing so for many years, and generations of junk had piled up down below, cluttering the corridors. It was a deplorable sight.
“Why aren’t you a woman, Professor Soff?”
“I’m afraid I’m underqualified to answer that question, Kunon.”
There were obstacles of all sizes on the floor, making navigation difficult for Kunon, so Soff had to lead him by the hand. As if joining an all-male team wasn’t bad enough, Kunon now had a man escorting him, too. His despair knew no bounds.
At first, he’d considered flying, but he didn’t know how long this search would take, so he figured it would be best to preserve his magic. That was why he decided to behave himself and let Soff lead.
“A divine flower, huh…?” said Lulomet. “That plant is even more precious than I expected.” Once Clavis had filled him in, he’d started to sweat nervously.