Chương 89: “The Watchdogs of Summit”

"Hohohoho!"

"It is not the time to laugh, Valen!"

"Hohohoho!" He continued to laugh, stroking his flowing white beard with one hand. The other was braced against his knee as his shoulders shook. Archmage Elena Heart sighed and puffed her pipe. The smoke rose and thinned out above her head. Below the private balcony, the training grounds were still loud from the aftermath of Celestia's match. From up here, the crack in the stone wall where the second-year had landed was visible even at a distance.

The balcony itself had been enchanted by Archmage Marcus so the three principals could observe without being seen. At present, only two of them were here. Celestia von Reingarde. One of the few problem children Elena didn't even want to think about. It wasn't the first time a high-ranking noble house had sent letters seeking attendance at the academy, and the three principals never turned them away. After all, these families came bearing coi— ahem, gifts. Gifts that helped sustain the academy and its research.

The principals' various projects burned through funding at an extreme rate capable of bankrupting their previous projects before Summit, so those gifts were always accepted with open hands. These nobles, for the most part, wouldn't dare enter the Tower. And even if they did, they only bothered with the tutorial floors before calling it quits and never stepping foot inside again.

In fact, most of them either dropped out during the second semester or simply continued attending for the sake of academy life: the social events, the connections, the prestige of enrollment without any of the actual danger. Thankfully, they made up the minority of the student population. Low-ranking noble houses were another matter, especially the newer ones whose family names had been earned through actual achievement rather than bloodline.

Those students threw themselves into the Tower the moment they were allowed, since their name was only as good as what they did with it. Then there were the scholarship students, those focused on manufacturing, development, and the arts. They made up less than two percent of the entire student body. Elena took another pull from her pipe and looked down at the grounds. The students were shuffling into position for the next round of matches.

What bothered her was Professor Cassia Flamesy's decision when the second-year had already been unconscious after being blasted towards the wall. Any competent referee would have called it over there, and yet Cassia simply stood still while Celestia walked over, kicked the boy in the stomach, and insulted him in front of the entire student body. The result itself, Elena could accept. A decisive win was a decisive win.

But letting a student brutalize an unconscious opponent without stepping in was a failure of oversight.

"Now, now. Has your youth escaped you, Elena?" Valen said, his voice croaking with age. Despite the white beard and the hunched posture, the old man's eyes were still sharp.

"Despite your looks, it truly shows that I am still younger than you! Hohoho— huck!" He coughed halfway through the laugh. The coughing turned into wheezing, and the wheezing carried on long enough that Elena glanced over. Valen raised one hand, took a few slow breaths, and collected himself.

"Professor Flamesy understands these students better than the two of us," he continued, as if the coughing fit had not happened.

"Are these children not roughly within two or three years of each other in age?" Elena continued smoking her pipe and looked at him. The old man's face was still red from the coughing, but he was smiling.

"Ah, remember when we were their age?" Valen leaned back in his chair and let out a slow breath.

"Did we not often pick fights because we wanted to show the world who we were? Excessive pride is a privilege of the youth, I say!" He stroked his beard, the motion slow.

"And even Professor Cassia understands that the second-years have grown too quickly. Far too arrogant for their peers who have not had the chance to enter the Tower. This would do well to show them that there are still talents who can match them, young and barely having the same advantage of age. Only the youth are allowed to take away each other's arrogance." He paused, and his gaze moved toward the grounds below.

"Strength breeds complacency. And have we not received reports regarding Miss Reingarde?" Elena did not respond immediately. She understood what the old codger beside her was saying. Decades ago, she and Valen and the rest of their generation had believed they were heading toward the top of the world. They had spent years training, becoming stronger faster than anyone who came before them. And when the war happened, they fully believed that they were going to defeat the Demon King. Then the hero came along.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. In just a single fight, the hero had shown them where they actually stood: that if they had kept going, they would have died a meaningless death against an opponent they never stood a chance against. The sky above the sky. That was what the veterans of that era called it. That no matter what heights you achieved, there was always someone above you. So then, did that mean the Reingarde girl was one of this generation's heroes?

Elena shook her head.

'Impossible.' Heroes were the pinnacle of humanity. A genuine soul, a personality filled with compassion, and the strength to overcome all adversities. As far as Elena could tell, the Reingarde girl was far too different from two of those conditions. Strength, she clearly had. But the rest? She puffed her pipe and continued watching the rest of the fights between the first and second-years. Other than the Reingarde girl, there wasn't anyone else particularly noteworthy.

Elena watched the remaining matches between inhales from her pipe. First-years getting knocked around, and second-years winning without much effort. In fact, the second-years were getting a bit more hostile now, considering what had just happened. A handful of the first-years showed decent performances, but nothing that made her sit up in her chair. Though, now that she thought about it, if she recalled correctly, wasn't there a student her own apprentice had talked about?

During their idle conversations last semester, Liana had brought him up more than a few times. The blonde boy. Arthur, she believed his name was. He was the one who had been beaten up by one of the second-years just now. Elena frowned around the stem of her pipe. Considering that the same boy had managed to defeat a low-ranking centurion-level demon during the academy tour, and had played a key part in resolving that dreadful kidnapping case... his performance today had been quite lackluster.

Those earlier achievements had suggested someone with sharp instincts and the ability to perform under real pressure. Yet today, against a second-year who hadn't even been trying particularly hard, the boy had been knocked down repeatedly without showing much of anything. She exhaled a thin line of smoke and watched the next match begin below. He had decent prospects, she supposed. But nothing too amazing.

Elena only hoped that Liana, who had shown tremendous talent in both healing and barrier magic, wouldn't get too hung up in the romances of youth. Her apprentice had a real future ahead of her. It would be a waste to see that future wasted because of a boy. Elena tapped the bowl of her pipe with her thumb. The hero... who was it, this generation? She lowered the pipe from her lips.

"What was the crown thinking, not publicizing the prophecy of the demons?" Valen looked at her. The smile had left his face.

"This political decision will be the death of the Empire, Elena." His voice was no longer the playful croak from before.

"Rather than pursuing the defense of the nation, the court is too busy filling their own pockets with their own greed. They would rather secure their positions and consolidate what they already have, rather than spend a single coin preparing for what is coming." He shook his head.

"Is that not one of the reasons we founded this academy?" It was. The academy had not started as an act of charity or academic ambition. It had started because the three archmages no longer trusted the Empire. When the current emperor was crowned, the three of them eventually understood what that meant for the nation's future. So they had built a stronghold of their own, one that they hoped would no longer answer to the crown in the future.

If not for the Tower appearing in this city five years ago, they would have found someplace else. Above all, they were still mages first and politicians third.

"How could the current emperor not see what the prophecy means?" Elena said. She held the pipe loosely in one hand, her eyes still on the grounds below.

"The demons have started riling up again, and they do not care a single bit."

"The current emperor was not born when the Great Demon War happened," Valen said as he shifted in his chair, and his joints popped audibly.

"He did not live through it. To him, the Demon King is a story in a history book, not a threat he has personally faced." He paused.

"Are we not lucky to have started building this academy when the prophecy came?" That was truly lucky. The three of them had already broken ground on the academy before the prophecy reached them. They had come to Summit drawn by the Tower and the potential research it offered. They had been enamored by its mysteries, fascinated by the floors and the creatures within, and the academy had started as a place to study it. If they had waited…

if they had started building after the prophecy was made known to the higher nobility… the Empire would have had every reason to intervene. A so-called institution founded after the prophecy of the Demon King's revival could easily be framed as a pretext. The crown could have accused them of using the institution to find and rally the next generation's hero, someone who could inspire the masses and challenge imperial authority. They would have found reasons to shut it down immediately.

In the end, it was all a matter of distance. Summit was far from the capital. And the Empire, for all its authority, could not easily project power this far out without raising a few eyes from the nations investing in this city. The three archmages counted themselves fortunate. Elena wished the new hero would show signs soon. They had less than ten years.

And just as the second-year students had grown complacent with their strength, climbing floors and believing themselves untouchable, so had the rest of the world; having grown complacent with the threat of the end of the world. The people who remembered the Great Demon War were old now, or dead. And the ones who hadn't lived through it saw no reason to prepare for a threat they had never experienced. Elena tapped her pipe against the railing, knocking the spent ash loose.

Below, another pair of students stepped onto the dueling platform. Valen stroked his beard and watched them.