An Old Man from the Countryside Becomes a Swords Saint: I Was Just a Rural Sword Teacher, But My Successful Students Won’t Leave Me Alone! - CH 129

“De-Deputy Headmaster Brown…?!” I cried.

It was a strange sight.

Deep underground in the Magician’s Academy, an old man had collapsed on his knees and continued laughing with a hoarse voice.

“Hi, hihihi, hi…?”

As if just noticing the existence of me and Thyssel, Deputy Headmaster Brown cut himself off and stared at me.

What. What the hell is going on here?

From the look in his eyes and the expression on his face, Brown was clearly on the verge of losing his mind.

I met Deputy Headmaster Brown only for a short time after finishing my first lecture with the Sword Magic Department, but even so, I got the impression that he was resolute and didn’t show his age. The first impression and the situation now are too far apart.

“Deputy, Headmaster……?” Thyssel said, at a loss for words at the sight.

No wonder. If someone who could be called a great veteran of the Academy bared such a strange sight, I would be surprised and speechless, too.

He held something that looked like a dagger in his hand, but it was also missing chips here and there and seemed to be worn out.

Perhaps this dagger was used to repel the attacking shadow wolves. Otherwise, there is no reason why he is still alive here.

The question comes up, however, as to why the Deputy Headmaster, a mage, has a dagger.

The whole room also looked in pretty rough shape, with books and equipment scattered about. It may have been neat and tidy in the beginning, but the Deputy Headmaster himself may have messed it up.

To the extent that one could make such a prediction, as I looked at him now, I could not see any of the intelligence that should have been there.

“Wh-What happened…!?” I said.

I call out and try to run over, but the reaction isn’t very good. It feels like he’s aware of our existence, but our words don’t seem to get through to him.

Better to keep him protected for now. The situation is still unknown, but he should probably be unable to use magic. It looks strange, but that doesn’t mean we can just abandon him.

“Hihi, hi… nothing, it’s all for nothing,” Brown said.

“…?”

Even if I try to talk to him, the answer that comes back is cryptic.

What does he mean, it’s all for nothing? I don’t understand.

“I don’t understand anything… hihi… the secret of the Headmaster’s immortality… the ultimate secret spell… I was convinced that it was here… hii-hihi…! That’s it, that’s just it! When I opened this place, it was nowhere to be found… hihi, hihi…!”

“…”

He cackled in a hoarse voice, his eyes unfocused and hollow.

The secret of immortality, the ultimate secret spell. If you just listen to those words, it’s a big deal. And I have guesses about what he’s trying to say.

It’s probably about the secret of the Academy’s Headmaster, namely, Lucy.

When we first met, she said she was older than me. And even older than I imagined.

If I remember correctly, it was Alexia who said that magic had changed her appearance to what it is now. Until now, there is such a thing, it was just amazing, but if this is not just a change in appearance but a technique for immortality, the story changes a little.

Lucy has declared in the past that there is no such thing as a spell to revive the dead.

But what if you cast immortality magic on yourself? Although the contents of resurrection and immortality are very different, they are the same in that they go against the laws of life.

Lucy called Deputy Headmaster Brown a child. In other words, she thought that he was much younger than her, or he looks like a child from her perspective.

No matter how you look at it, she meant Deputy Headmaster Brown, and he looks older than my Old Man.

The mystery about her only deepens.

However, even if I questioned him about the fact now, the situation would not progress or improve. Now I have other things to do and things to check. That thing and this thing about Lucy will come later.

“Deputy Headmaster Brown,” I said. “Do you know anything about your being unable to use magic in the building right now?”

I need to ask the Deputy Headmaster about his actions and about what happened leading up to this incident. We don’t yet know the direct cause-and-effect relationship, but it’s still highly likely that something about him is involved. Leaving aside whether or not he will tell me honestly, this is the question that I have to ask. Whether or not he will be honest is another story.

“Aah… I offset it…” Brown said, “hihi, there’s a magic seal in this basement… ten-odd years… it took a long time… it took a long time to create the magical equipment……… hihihi, I’m sure the Headmaster must have sealed it away… the time was right…because the Headmaster would be away for a long time…hihi, hi…!”

Contrary to my expectations, he told me everything with a blank expression.

“Is that so……?”

In other words, is he the main culprit in this series of disturbances?

Although I had a vague premonition that a complete outsider wouldn’t go out of their way to cause an incident like this at the Magician’s Academy, I never thought that a person with a position like Deputy Headmaster Brown would actually do something like this.

“Thyssel, what was that about an underground seal?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Thyssel said. “I didn’t even know the door here could be opened…”

If Deputy Headmaster Brown is right, this basement was sealed all the time so that no one could enter. Could it be that he spent many years developing magic equipment that unlocked it?

I’m so ignorant about magic, that I have no idea how hard it is. From the time it must have taken, I can imagine that it would not be easy.

“Then, what about the shadow monsters that are appearing?” I asked.

“Hihi… I don’t know. As soon as I broke the seal, they came out from here…I don’t understand anything…hihihi…!”

Apparently, the shadows that suddenly appeared were created from the Magician’s Academy’s basement.

Two thoughts come and go at the same time: the impression that something outrageous was sealed here, and then why was such a seal needed in a place like this?

Most likely, the wolf-shaped shadows weren’t sealed underground from the beginning.

Because, this may be a strange story, but it can’t be some tool to purposefully keep that seal in the basement of the Magician’s Academy. If you suddenly come across one, you may be taken aback, but the difficulty of defeating it is not high at all. If you have some knowledge of martial arts, you can defeat the shadows relatively easily.

It would make more sense to think that the boss who created that shadow was sealed here.

Then another question arises from that, as to why such a thing is here to begin with.

“Lastly, where is the magical equipment?” I asked.

“Aah… I have it installed in the classroom on the first floor… no matter how I tried, I can’t break the seal, so I’ve been working on breaking down the magic itself for a long time… hihihi…!”

Assuming what he said was true, this pretty much puts the whole picture in the open.

That no one can use magic is from the magic equipment Deputy Headmaster Brown installed. It’s probably something like dispersing magical power or something like that. I don’t know the details.

Then, why were the wolf-shaped shadows appearing in the basement of the Magician’s Academy? I still don’t know what kind of guy the Master is, but I thought that if I fought it, for the time being, the situation would settle down.

Judging from the Deputy Headmaster’s tone, he must have thought that Lucy made this seal. That’s why he suspected that the secret technique of immortality that made Lucy, Lucy, was hidden in this basement.

Well, her appearance is generally difficult to explain. It’s almost certain that some kind of magical element is involved, but even so, I wonder if there could have been some other way to do it.

However, it is unknown how much Lucy is involved in this underground area. There is still a possibility that the Deputy Headmaster was at fault for all of this.

It doesn’t seem unrelated, but maybe Lucy herself inherited this problem from someone else.

“It’s over for me…hihi, everything was in vain…hi, hihi…!”

Deputy Headmaster Brown answered my questions, but it’s hard to say he’s insane. He may have been broken when he learned that the secret art of immortality that he had been coveting was not here.

However, what he did was probably unforgivable, but his feelings were not incomprehensible.

I’m already 45. It’s hard to think that my physical ability will grow further from here, and it will only go downhill after that.

In the next few years and decades, I will grow old and weaken. Even if I were to live a long life, I would reach the end of my life much earlier than my disciples.

What if there was someone close to me who could bounce back from both old age and decline when that happened to them?

I might fall for that possibility. I couldn’t get the confidence that my future self would never do that.

“Master,” Thyssel said.

“… Aah, understood,” I said.

However, it is still too early to be immersed in sentimentality. I’m still active, my head works and my body moves.

For the time being, I’ve lived my life with good intentions, so I’d like to lead the way to a solution to the problem I’ve already jumped into, as far as I can take it.

“Thyssel, take the Deputy Headmaster and evacuate him,” I said. “After that, I want you to find the magical equipment in the classroom and shut it down, and if it that’s too difficult, destroy it.”

“… Understood,” Thyssel said.

For the time being, if we can do something about the magic equipment somewhere on the first floor, the problem of not being able to use magic will be solved. I’m curious about what’s sealed in this basement, but the priority should be the magic equipment.

So, I’ll have Thyssel protect the Deputy Headmaster and deal with the magic equipment. It doesn’t matter if I rescue him, but I don’t know anything about magic equipment, so it’s definitely better to leave this to the experts.

In the meantime, I would like to say hello to the Master, who will be in the depths of the basement. Well, if it seems impossible at first glance, I can pull out, and once everyone can use magic, the teachers at the Magician’s Academy should be able to move in my place. In the worst case, I can buy some time, and that’s all that matters.

“Master, be careful,” Thyssel said.

“Yeah, you too, Thyssel,” I said.

Thyssel held her sword with one hand and carried Brown on her shoulder with the other before the two exited the basement.

Now then, what’s left is the Master in the back. What kind of guy are they?

When I looked around again, it seemed that this was a small private room. There are already furnished tables and chairs, bookshelves that would have been used to store academic books, and things that look like laboratory instruments whose uses are completely unknown.

The person who managed this room was definitely aware of the presence in the back. And I wonder if this facility was created to do something about it. This scenery was a little bizarre enough to make such an outlandish guess.

Is that administrator really Lucy or someone else? I don’t know the answer to that right now, and it might be something I can’t help thinking about.

“… Over there,” I said.

Opposite the entrance to the room, at the back. Another door was sitting there, and that door was also half-open.

As it was with all the doors from entering the basement, none of them were destroyed or damaged. You can tell that it wasn’t forced open, but that it was opened by some kind of beast or someone had artificially opened them.

I don’t know if it was because Deputy Headmaster Brown opened it by hand, or because of the seal breaking due to the influence of Brown’s magic equipment.

“… Woops!”

Just when I was about to peek through the back door. I feel the disturbance in the air and jump back one step.

This kind of premonition is relatively correct, and after a moment’s delay, those wolf shadows jumped out of the back door.

“Oh no, oh no…” I muttered.

When it jumped at me, I slashed down with an immediate reaction. Extermination of an incomprehensible existence at this age. I really didn’t know what was going on in this world.

In the end, there is no doubt that there is an existence that creates those shadows, deep in the depths of this place.

And shadows don’t seem to be born chaotically and without limit. When I first heard the commotion, I jumped into the school building and reached the basement, I feel these shadows had been attacking me at a fairly constant pace.

“Now, then,” I said.

I regain my spirit, open the door and proceed inside.

The half-open door itself wasn’t that heavy. It wasn’t so tough that I thought it’d break me, but even someone like me could open it easily if I put my weight against it.

After all, rather than being a physical lock, this place was probably closed by something magical.

“… It’s huge,” I said.

At the end of the door, there was a space that you wouldn’t believe was underground.

However, rather than saying that someone built it, I feel that it would be more convincing to say that there this existed before the basement. The surrounding walls, except for the door, were not artificial and had an atmosphere similar to natural bedrock.

“…”

I threw my gaze ahead. From the deepest part of this room, I feel a strong presence.

No doubt. Here lies the Master of the Shadows.

“……This is……!”

About 10 steps away.

There was a huge void of a wolf, bound by chains that layered over and over themselves.