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Chapter 246: Found You

‘Night of the Demons’ was a phrase that everyone implicitly understood in the Saint Freya Academy. It was the first gift given to all freshmen after their enrollment, signifying challenge and opportunity. Achieving a good result at the Night of the Demons was one of the goals of the freshmen.

Despite its terrifying name, the Night of the Demons was actually just another night in the academy, just that it was made slightly different by the spirit guides.

The spirit guides, also known as little fairies, were intelligent lifeforms whose origin could be traced back to the ancient era. They didn’t have any particular appearance or gender differentiation, such that it wouldn’t be wrong to call them a bundle of self-conscious mana.

There were a lot of speculations about the birth of these spirit guides. Some believed that they were the creation of some noble being whereas some thought that they were natural products of nature. So far, no one had been able to come to a conclusion about its origin, though it was not as if most people were concerned about it anyway.

What was important to the students was whether they worked or not.

The spirit guides would have probably been thought of as harmless fireflies anywhere else in the world, but here in the Country of Scholars, they played the vital role of guiding individuals into dungeons.

The dungeons were mysterious entities unique to Brolne. No one knew where they were located, and they were only accessible through a spirit guide. Anyone under the lead of the spirit guide would mysteriously vanish into thin air as they were being ‘spirited away’ into the dungeons.

Each spirit guide could only be paired with an individual, so it could only bring a single person into a dungeon. They were sensitive to the pulsations of mana as they were beings made out of mana too, so it was impossible for them to mistakenly ‘spirit away’ two individuals at once. This meant that it would be futile to attempt to tail an individual paired with a spirit guide in hopes that one could enter the dungeon too.

It could be said that the founding of the Country of Scholars was based on the huge number of dungeons and ancient ruins in the vicinity, and the most famous dungeon in the Saint Freya Academy was known as ‘Night of the Demons’.

Each person could only access ‘Night of the Demons’ once in a lifetime, and it could only be entered at night. It was one of the few safe dungeons that were like a dreamscape blurring the distinctions of reality and illusion. Any damage one sustained inside the dungeon would disappear upon returning to reality, as if awakening from a dream. This unique nature made it well-liked by the teaching staff.

For one, it allowed the young masters and young misses who had just left the warm comfort of their nests to experience the brutality of a real battle without coming to real harm, and the process didn’t require any manpower or resources at all. They would be letting themselves down if they didn’t make full use of this amazing dungeon!

...

In the bustling self-service canteen, Roel settled down on a chair by the corner as he fiddled with the spherical ball in his hand. He could feel vibrations coming from the spirit guide within, and he continuously released a slight trail of mana to interact with it. There were also plenty of students who were doing the same around him as well.

There was no questioning the ability of spirit guides to lead them into the dungeons, but whether they wished to do so or not was a whole new story. It was impossible to force the spirit guides into doing something they didn’t want to, so the students could only try to coax them with their mana. This was also the reason why the teachers had given them the magic tools ahead of time.

For those who failed to build up a relationship with their spirit guides... well, they would simply be left to loiter around the academy for the entire night.

As the spirit guide inside the magic tool gradually grew closer to him under the stimulation of his mana, Roel couldn’t help but feel that there was something really weird about this.

Lock up, stimulation, gradual submission, this...

“Cough cough...”

Roel coughed softly and quickly shrugged off those weird thoughts from his mind. He continued looking at the magic tool for a while longer before stowing it away in his pocket. Then, he looked at the food before him and breathed a sigh of relief.

Food was the primary source of happiness for gluttons like him. When he learned that becoming a transcendent allowed him to gorge all he wanted without caring worrying about obesity, his insatiable appetite for good food was finally fully unleashed. Given so, it was understandable why he was worried about coming to the academy.

School canteens had been a nightmare for Roel in his previous life. Even to this day, those dark culinary he had suffered through continued to send shivers down his spine.

Fried mooncakes, stir-fried strawberry celery, broiled meat with watermelons...

“Uweh...”

The feeling of nauseation prompted Roel to quickly cut off his memories and look at the food presented before him to cleanse his mind.

It seemed like the Saint Freya Academy had invested quite a bit in their food, which was probably necessary in order to serve food that would be acceptable to distinguished nobles coming from all over the Sia Continent. In fact, they had an on-campus gourmet street consisting of restaurants opened by famous chefs, boasting a diverse range of food choices coming from countries all around the world. It was almost like a cluster of Michelin 3-star restaurants.

Of course, considering the different financial backgrounds of the students, it wouldn’t make sense to only provide expensive, high-class food. There was also a more affordable student canteen coming in the form of a self-serve buffet. The taste wasn’t as exquisite as fine-dining, but it was definitely decent.

As for why a high noble like Roel was eating in the more affordable canteen instead of pigging himself out in the high-class restaurants, this had to be traced back to two young ladies.

After having to experience the unnerving ‘center seat’ at the entrance ceremony, the exhausted Roel swore to himself that he would never allow himself to be placed in such a situation ever again. So, as soon as the entrance ceremony was over, he quickly found a reason to excuse himself. Given the trouble he had gone through to escape from their grasp, it went without saying that he wouldn’t head to high-class restaurants and risk meeting the two of them there.

The affordable canteen was a place where Nora and Charlotte would never come to. It wasn’t because they were choosy—Nora had lived off military rations back at the eastern border, and those stuff were the very antithesis of delicious whereas Charlotte was perfectly fine with the ordinary food she had back at the Golden Fleet—but their positions simply disallowed them to do so.

If Nora and Charlotte were to eat at the affordable canteen, would their subordinates possibly dare to enjoy themselves at the high-class restaurants? Any nobles with the slightest knowledge of social etiquette wouldn’t do so.

However, this meant that hundreds of people from the Theocracy and Rosa would squeeze out the affordable canteen, depriving those who really needed the cheaper alternative here. There was no way Nora and Charlotte would be so insensitive as to allow that to happen.

Back to the food, Roel took a bite off the tender broiled chicken and nodded slightly in approval. At the same time, he took out the amber pendant hung around his neck and examined it contemplatively.

He hadn’t forgotten his other goal while busying himself with plucking out his death flags. Based on Kayde’s account, the Twilight Sages Assembly’s ‘Academic’ should be residing in the Saint Freya Academy. If he was still alive, he would likely make a move upon seeing the amber pendant.

“What a beautiful pendant that is.”

“Hm?”

The sudden compliment made Roel raise his head in surprise, and he saw a crimson-haired woman holding onto a plate of food taking a seat opposite to him. Her light blue eyes curled into a deep smile.

“Good afternoon. You’re Roel Ascart, right?”