Shut-in Magician - Chapter 20
Chapter 020: Royal Loire Academy
According to Aquila, it inevitable that the students at the Academy were conceited. “They’re conceited because they were born nobles and royalty,” she snorted.
“But the kids of wealthy merchants and the intelligent commoner kids werent born into nobility, they shouldnt be so arrogant!!”
“Were they arrogant towards you?”
“Yeah Even nobles kids were too.”
She took out her study tools from her satchel and suddenly scowled at her writing plates. She stroked her writing plate sadly.
“They also laughed at me cause I had no paper to study with.”
“Is that so?
She would certainly take that in a certain way. Shiu gently stroked Aquila’s head.
“You know those kids, were just born lucky by chance. They’re arrogant because they grew up in an environment where they could study without hardships. They don’t have the brains necessary for life.”
” Shiu-kun.”
Aquila said nothing and had a blank expression, Shiu was upset that he might have said something weird again. However, Aquila laughed, fufu, and said in a small voice, “Thanks.”
Shiu smiled wryly and stroked Aquila’s head once again.
“The pitiful ones are those kids. They don’t realise how vulgar that kind of behaviour is.” He said to comfort her and Emina entered the room while laughing, “Shiu-kun, you said something surprisingly stern!”
By the way, the writing plates were like a portable version of the so called ‘blackboard’.
On Earth, ‘wax tablets’ were used a long time ago with a stylus. The wax needed to be melted if you ran out of space to write so it was a bit troublesome. But, it was convenient here because people could melt them with fire attribute magic.
On the other hand, the kids probably felt inferior because they couldn’t use precious paper.
Shiu thought that writing plates were the best tool for a child’s study because of its usability.
“They also came when I attended the school. I came to school showing off my normal clothes.”
“Showing off?” Shiu asked. Emina brewed tea while looking back to answer him, “The Academy is . Ah, well all three Academies have uniforms. But, commoners can’t afford to buy the uniform, so they just wear their usual clothes.”
I see, he agreed. Emina placed the brewed tea onto the table with a thud and sat down onto the chair with a thump.
“With uniforms it’s like I feel sorry for the commoners who can’t afford uniforms, so I came in my normal clothes!”
That’s true, what can I say? Shiu smiled wryly while drinking his tea.
“I wonder if that kind of exchange is needed. I feel like they just do it to make fools of us.”
“You think so?”
“They curiously ask what’s this and what’s that. It’s not like we’re rare animals, you know!”
“Calm down, Eminoneesan.”
Aquila had been angry earlier but had since calmed down. Now Emina had gotten angry and she was trying to calm her down.
“They just do whatever they want. But you know, there are also level-headed kids amongst the nobles.”
“If there wasn’t, then this kingdom’s administration would be done for. A bad person stands out because they’re bad. I’m sure more of them are level-headed than you think.” Shiu smiled and said. Emina was left with shocked expression, her mouth agape.
” Shiu-kun, I’ve thought this before but, are you an elf or something?”
“Huh, what?”
“Well, you say mature things. I thought that I might have gotten your age wrong. Right, Aqi?”
“Yup. You’re act like the school teachers or high-rank adventurers that come to the restaurant.”
He was about to answer, “I’m just a human,” but Emina said to Aquila, “No way, Aqi. Don’t tell me you’re helping out at night as well. You can’t. They serve alcohol at night.” She began warning Aquila. Shiu remained quiet and watched their exchange.
“I don’t. Mother also said I can’t help out until I become an adult.”
“Then, that’s fine. Don’t do bar work until you get married. Men usually quarrel when you give them alcohol. If they’re gonna complain about not wanting to drink alcohol, then they should drink it in the first place!”
“Eminoneesan Mm, uh, let’s study. Ok?”
Thus, Aquilas complaints were interrupted half-way..
At night, Shiu put Feles to sleep and then read a book from his record storage. He was having fun recently. He was trying to look for something today.
He wanted to look up a good way to camouflage chantless magic. Should I try simplifying the chantorthrow my voice? Shiu thought and laughed because it was like ventriloquism.
Should I try to make a magic tool? That’s something that’s too expensive for a kid to have though. People would get suspicious of me instead.
I’m troubled, Shiu had a smile on his face even though he had thought this. He enjoyed having thoughts like this. He thought it was freedom.
Let’s thank the Goddess. He had been hesitant at first, but he was glad that he had been reincarnated.
The Goddess appeared in his dream after a long absence that night. She only said a single thing before disappearing, “You’re welcome.” That’s not very Goddess-like, he thought and woke up. He didn’t feel like he’d slept at all, but it was morning.
Shiu consulted old man Stan about chantless magic and he readily answered, “You should just tell them that you have a magic formula tattooed on your body using the ancient language.”
What is that?
Shiu was surprised, he quickly searched through his record storage and then looked at old man Stan.
“The ancient language is more simplified. If you have that tattooed on your body, then the chant would be shortened.”
“I didn’t know that! Ah, it’s written in a book.”
“What the heck? Is this another convenient magic of yours? How nice. I wanted something like that too. Not that I need it now since I don’t work.” Old man Stan laughed at his own joke.
“But wouldn’t something like a tattoo in the ancient language be weird?”
“There’s a person in the Royal Capital who casts chantless magic. But just like you, they didn’t want to say it all so they made it simple, that’s all.”
“Oh okay. Ah, tattoos work directly with the mana in your body. Wow.”
He was reading the book in his mind while talking so it must have seemed strange, but old man Stan was used to it.
“Soldiers and the like get magicians to write it for them, so that they can activate their magic right away.” He said disgustingly. Old man Stan hated war. He had spoken a little about how he encountered something tragic a long time ago. Shiu had memories of his previous life, so he was also averse to war.. In the first place, it was rare for people who weren’t soldiers to like war.
” So, the knights also have do that to their bodies?”
“No, appearances are important to knights, so tattoos are forbidden.”
It seemed that the knights were a gathering of handsome people.
“I heard that they used bracelets as substitutions.”
“Bracelets Ah, like a magic tool.”
Either way it was expensive. Or at least I thought it was expensive. Well then, I might as well get a tattoo. He thought up to there and ,
“You’re not supposed to use rare magic in front of people anyways.” Was what he meant.
Shiu received a rank 10 quest from the next day onwards.
There was no time limit and the requester would sometimes give him lunch before he started work, so he stopped bringing his lunch box.
There were also times where would find new lunch stalls to try for lunch. The stalls were mostly popular. [The shop’s opening now!] It was probably because they were that enthusiastic. They weren’t prideful.
On that day, he was eating a late lunch at a skewer stall.
He was watching the stall owner clean up while feeding Feles a portion of the soft meat when a young boy called out, “Ah, it stinks! What’s this smell?”
“It’s probably the smell of commoners. The smell will stick Olstoi-sama’s clothes. I wouldn’t recommend going over there.”
Shiu turned around and saw boys and girls in uniform. Judging from their clothes, they were probably the Academykids that Emina and Aquila were talking about.
“But I will govern these people one day, so I must study the way they live.”
“Oh my, as expected of Olstoi-sama.”
A school event? Shiu muttered unintentionally.
He wondered which one of them would be more embarrassed if he casted chantless magic. He shook his head, probably neither.
The boys and girls approached Shiu, maybe because they noticed his strange behaviour. Then they declared, “To eat something this tasteless How hungry must you be? It’s such a shame.”
Translator: Blushy
Bonus chapter ~