I Broke Off My Engagement and Got a Job at the Academy

26 – The Black Sea

Vanessa gazed intently at the wizard. She still wasn’t sure why she had come here. As she continued to accompany him, the only thing she did seemed to be collecting, collecting, and collecting Maseok.

Of course, seeing him in action seemed to somewhat lessen her wariness, but she couldn’t just discard her caution based on that alone.

Vanessa cautiously asked the wizard, “What are you here for?”

“…What on earth are you planning to do with this amount of magic stones?”

In response, the wizard turned to her and spoke.

“Research. Magical research. I’ve completed the theory, but my skills are lacking, so I intend to use the magic stones to supplement.”

Upon hearing the wizard’s words, Vanessa tilted her head. So, you need this amount of magic stones for that?

“It seems to require a considerable amount of magical power.”

As soon as the wizard heard her words, he made a sound, nodded, and lowered his head.

“Magical power doesn’t seem to matter much. What’s important is that what I’ve inscribed works the way I want it to. Why do I need magical power for creating a single spell?”

…It didn’t seem like he was saying anything wrong. Vanessa nodded in agreement, but at the same time, she followed him with a certain degree of wariness.

The man crouched in front of the corpse and pulled out a magic stone. She had already seen him do this kind of work several times a day. The man cursed.

“Damn, it’s really hard.”

After retrieving the last magic stone, the wizard looked at Vanessa and said.

“Well then, let’s call it a day with this much. I don’t need any more help.”

Anyway, the number of monsters had decreased significantly, and he had almost collected all the magic stones. It wasn’t necessary anymore—that’s what the man said.

Upon hearing those words, Vanessa felt a subtle emotion. When she thought about it, being in a situation where she owed someone, working to repay something, seemed like a first.

Nevertheless, it all ended in a few days. With a truly strange feeling, Vanessa looked up at the sky.

The red sunset filled the sky.

Suddenly, the wizard turned around to face her.

“…It still feels like a shitty surveillance, but, well, anyway. You did well.”

Vanessa heard those words and added a brief comment.

She had never heard anyone say “well done” to her after finishing a task.

As the heir to the northern duke, she carried a lot of attention and pressure.

Even for simple tasks, she had to endure the praise of many, or the jealousy of those who did not like her.

But, “well done.”

For the first time hearing those words, she stared blankly at the wizard’s back.

…It was a relationship that started very strangely.

The village had not revealed its mysterious reasons, but before entering the academy, Vanessa had accumulated some decent experiences, she thought.

…

I finally gathered all the magic stones that needed collecting and was enjoying the evening meal with a relaxed mind.

I still didn’t like the inspector who had been watching me, but if it stemmed from a sense of responsibility, it wasn’t entirely unbearable.

Well, thanks to her starting to help in the middle, I was able to collect all the magic stones in about half the time I originally thought, so it wasn’t too bad in its own way.

Thinking that, I looked at the pure white woman sitting next to me.

She was eating her meal slowly, seemingly lost in thought.

Looking at her, I spoke.

“What are we going to do now?”

Upon hearing that, the woman in pure white made a thoughtful sound before saying,

“…Well, I’m not going to see anything more here for now, so I guess I’ll go home and… start preparing to go to the academy.”

I stared at her after hearing that.

What?

Going to the academy? I felt my mind go blank at her words.

First, let’s think. Among the professors in the swordsmanship department, there was no woman with that appearance. And among the current academy students, there was no one with that hair color who had reached the level of an expert.

In other words, the idea of going to the academy…

I stared at the woman in front of me, thinking it couldn’t be.

… An academy student who had reached the level of an expert.

The pure white woman seemed to realize that she had misspoken, and her eyes were shaking.

…There’s no way that could happen, but just in case, really… If it’s Vanessa Delphias.

Even when Kainus heard the sound of the Empire’s five nobles in the past, I had never met anyone from the Delphias family.

Because of that, all I knew was that genetically they had white hair and ruled the vast territory of the northern part of the Empire.

… And the woman in front of me also had white hair.

I began to break into a cold sweat.

No, wait a moment. Did I hear it right? In exchange for being caught spying on me, I ended up owing it to Vanessa Delphiers…?

Beyond the fear of repercussions, the fact that, as an academy assistant professor, I was indebted to a student about to enter was… quite unsettling.

Whether she knew about my feelings or not, Vanessa Delphiers chewed her meal leisurely.

I discreetly glanced around, chewing and swallowing my food.

…Well, it’s fine. I covered my face with a mask, and my body with a robe. I even used voice distortion magic, so there’s no way I’d be exposed-

I looked at the staff placed beside me.

The gift from Ariel was radiating light to the point of resentment.

Damn it.

This won’t do. I’ll be exposed like this. 100% exposed. Wanting to carry around this staff and hoping not to get caught was simply greedy.

I bit my lip. It might not seem like much now, but who could tell what anger Vanessa hid within that mask.

The Delphiers family might not have exerted influence on central politics, but it wasn’t due to incompetence. If the owner of the fallen family, driven solely by determination, me, were to be exposed, I’d quickly be buried.

Thinking about how to salvage this situation, suddenly the atmosphere changed.

Blink. Blink.

The fire in the fireplace dimmed. Not just that, all light, every single one, was losing its strength and fading away.

“…?”

I looked around.

The others around me seemed equally perplexed. And then, all the lights went out.

After using a glow spell, I went outside.

The sky was pitch black.

That immeasurably deep black sky… showed no sign of any starlight.

Instinctively, I realized that something was wrong.

And I saw it clearly. The black fog was moving, engulfing people outside the inn.

“What is this…?”

My head went blank. My whole body began to tremble. Instinctively, I sensed that something was terribly wrong.

And then, the one swallowed by the black fog, upon escaping from it, began to rush towards me.

… Just an ordinary person. However, for some reason, I deployed a defensive barrier.

Thunk, the man collided with the barrier. In order to break through the barrier, the man started to go berserk.

No, to be precise, he was no longer a man. It was…

‘Zombie?’

The man who was alive just a moment ago had turned into a zombie.

It was clear. Not only did he charge with flipped eyes, but the dark magic of the undead could be felt throughout his body.

I sent the man flying with a wind spell.

However, I couldn’t relax.

‘Help me!’

Far away in the darkness, a voice echoed.

…It was Ariel’s voice.

And those who were in the inn got up from their seats and said,

“Damn! I heard my wife’s voice!”

“What’s going on!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, they heard their family’s voices and left the inn.

And they never came back.

No, to be precise, only their bodies came back – it would be more accurate to express it that way.

They all turned into zombies and returned to me.

I clicked my tongue, shook my head, and then dealt with the zombies all at once.

…I’ve heard of something like this somewhere.

A monster of the black fog that swallows villages, cities, creates a hell gate, and then disappears gracefully when there are no more humans left… I have encountered such a thing before.

A tentacle approached me. I fired a third-circle fireball, and it exploded.

However, in an instant, it regenerated and came back to me.

“This is…”

The white woman spoke, and I bit my lip.

Why would someone like this suddenly pop up?

The reason for my reaction was simple. The identity of the black mist engulfing the village right now was… a monster that even dragons couldn’t escape.

The Black Ocean.

For over thousands of years, it had always been considered the monster among monsters, pointing fingers at calamities on the continent.

That monster was reaching its tentacles towards us.