98. Magical Academy City

From the capital, Haynzbarg, to the capital of the Magical Academy City, Cambria, the road stretches over a thousand kilometers—two weeks' journey by carriage.

Following the southern shore of Lake Haynzbarg, then south along the Shannon River after leaving the lake, continuing another two hundred kilometers downstream past the confluence with the Whitephilly River, and then turning east for about six hundred kilometers along a route that winds through mountains and grasslands, straight ahead with no deviation.

The road is reasonably maintained, with numerous towns along the way, making the journey fundamentally safe if one isn’t overly concerned with time. Of course, it’s impossible to travel without guards.

The traveling party is the Black Ice Wind Party. Miradia and her three personal knights—Nadia, Alexei, and Alan. The Saintess Emilia and her daughter Anna, along with the female knight Anne. Ten knights from the kingdom, and twelve from the Holy Nation—quite a large entourage.

Sophia and Sherina, and Altia, have already returned to Sotohaim. In their place, Aria’s older brother, Steven, has joined the journey from Sotohaim.

He is the deputy commander of Sotohaim’s knight corps, though in truth he’s been rotating through various departments, gaining experience as a future lord. He truly wanted to see Shiro’s actions firsthand after reading his report.

His combat ability posed no issue, so everyone accepted him without hesitation.

Miradia from the kingdom and Nadia, and Emilia from the Holy Nation and Anna, share the same carriage.

The Black Ice Wind Party rides in the canopy carriage Shiro purchased for them.

Three more wagons for luggage. Steven and the knights ride on horseback.

Incidentally, Shiro’s carriage has been magically modified. Suspension has been added, and the canopy is covered with a vinyl sheet generated by Shiro from a Slime, providing wind and water resistance. The cherry on top, though, is that the horse pulling the carriage is a spirit familiar created through Mitoka’s same magic manifestation.

Ever since he’d had to leave his horse behind during the rescue mission to Miradia, Shiro had been pondering what to do with horses. Making an immediate replacement with a motorized vehicle would draw too much attention, so he thought: why not just create a horse using the same manifestation technique as Mitoka? And with the added ability to use spirit magic, he’d crafted a spirit familiar in the form of a horse.

It looks exactly like a real horse—no one would guess it’s a fake.

◇

Shiro’s party arrived safely in Cambria.

Cambria, the magical academy city. The capital of the Magical Academy Kingdom of Oxtonia.

As its name suggests, the entire nation runs on magical academies. Schools are established in every major city across the country. Of course, not all residents are students. Most people live ordinary lives. Students make up about thirty percent of the population.

Shiro’s group was assigned to stay at a guesthouse adjacent to the Cambria castle.

Audience with the Hero is scheduled for the next day. In its place, today’s agenda includes meetings with key figures of the nation.

The country does have a castle, though it’s more like a fortress—designed to shelter residents in case of emergency. There’s a reception hall within, and that’s where the meeting with the nation’s important figures will take place.

The attendees were: Headmaster Enrico Lagrange, the king himself; the homeroom teacher in charge of the Hero, Ida Lagrange; the Head of the Academy Knights, Patrick; the Head of the Academy Magicians, Scott; and the Student Council President, Stephanie.

Louise, the Master of the Cambria Adventurer Guild, was also present.

On Shiro’s side, the usual crew, plus the Royal faction members, and the Saintess faction members.

First, the Academy side presented their status update.

“Abnormal monster emergence and miasma outbreaks remain unchanged from before. We’ve confirmed the abnormal mushroom proliferation that Shiro was warned about. But it doesn’t seem to be at that scale,” Louise reported.

“Next, sightings of the Monster King. About five days ago, a dragon accompanied by multiple monsters was reported in the northern region of the Academy City Kingdom. However, only one sighting has been recorded. No verification has been done, so it’s not confirmed yet,” Louise added.

“That’s… so the dragon is there, or not? Or is it unclear whether it’s even the Monster King?” Shiro asked, eyeing the ambiguous report with a skeptical frown.

“The dragon’s presence seems certain. Even if it’s just one report, multiple witnesses—this time, students, not adventurers—confirmed it. Given their age and restrictions, lying seems unlikely,” Louise replied.

The real issue, Ida interjected.

"The issue, though, is the part about commanding multiple monsters. We have no idea what basis there is for claiming they were commanded, or even what kind of monsters they were. So it's entirely possible this is just a hasty assumption by a student. …Actually, there is a lecture on Monster Kings in class, but we still don’t know whether the stories about them are true. So they’re basically just legends," Aida explained.

"Ah, I see… Well, dragon sightings happen in both Sotohaim and the capital, so their existence is clearly established. But their motives—those remain rather unclear," Shiro said.

“And, I’m not sure if it’s related, but about a week after the Hero Summoning was executed, reports came in of a sudden surge in cases of mana depletion syndrome. The cause remains unknown,” Stephanie reported.

"Ah... about that, I appreciate the report. Thank you. Now, a warning from the goddess: the mana across the Cambria region has begun to deplete due to the incomplete Hero Summoning ritual being activated by human hands. As a result, some individuals with low magical reserves may begin showing symptoms of mana exhaustion. Furthermore, given the widespread scale of this mana depletion, we anticipate the emergence of a phenomenon known as a mana tsunami."

Shiro explained.

"Mana tsunami? Never heard that term before," Enrico said.

An extremely rare phenomenon—when mana recovery attempts to reverse widespread mana depletion, the amount of restored mana exceeds capacity, causing overflow. As a result, the labyrinth consumes this excess mana, triggering an overabundance of monsters. And that could lead to them spilling out beyond the labyrinth’s bounds.

And, Shiro said.

“Wait, so about the monster stampede—” Enrico started, then faltered.

“Yes, the stampede too, but in reality, the issue of monsters wasn’t all that urgent here. The real problem, though, is that summoning the Hero has caused the labyrinth to overflow. That’s become the serious issue,” Shiro explained.

The group in the meeting hall fell silent. It was as if they’d choked themselves with their own hands.

Sensing the atmosphere—no one wanting to take responsibility—Shiro spoke up.

“Anyway, what’s done is done. We just have to deal with it. No point dwelling on it. Let’s stay calm and come up with a quick response.”

With that, Shiro declared it clearly.

They all snapped to attention. Yeah, that’s right. We should do that. And so, they agreed to follow Shiro’s lead.

“First, recheck the status of the surrounding area and the labyrinth. If it looks bad, stay back—secure the area. I’ll figure out the next steps.”

And with that, Shiro ended the meeting.

Thus, Shiro decided to work out a plan while the Adventurer Guild and the Knight Order conducted another survey—just to get things moving.

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