Chapter 1349: 107. Thoughts

Forget it.

That sense of familiarity had to be his imagination.

He was an outstanding magic master, a man destined to lead the Enhancement School back to greatness. How could the things he said possibly sound exactly like some damned old loli?

"In short, that's the general route we're taking. There's no time to lose, so right now we should..."

"Right now?"

Ariel suddenly interrupted Muen: "Isn't that a little too rushed?"

"Rushed? Is it?"

"Isn't it? The sky isn't even light yet."

"But an entire night already passed last night. No, if we're counting by the date, we've already lost an entire day. We only have two days left to work with, so shouldn't we hurry?"

Muen calculated the time and instead felt that he was already moving a little too slowly.

He had still wasted far too much time on Habakaya last night. In truth, although his Great Memory Restoration Technique really was effective, precisely because of that, the information he'd obtained had been far too detailed. Much of it consisted of useless, scattered fragments.

As for the useful things... such as matters concerning that cheap senior brother of his, as well as what actions the Origin Tower was currently taking in response to the Evil Gods... Habakaya's status and authority simply weren't high enough to come into contact with them.

"Even if three days is short, it isn't so short that we need to be this desperate."

Ariel completely ignored him, grabbed Muen in one motion, and directly dragged him toward somewhere: "Come with me."

"Huh?"

This rare display of spoiled unreasonableness left Muen confused. He instinctively wanted to struggle, only to be glared back into obedience by Ariel.

"Behave yourself!"

"All right. I just hope this doesn't waste too much time."

Muen raised both hands in surrender.

There was nothing he could do. Who told him to be such a good teacher who doted on his student?

Every now and then, he had to indulge his mischievous student's little moods.

And so, with Ariel in front and Muen behind, the two walked hand in hand through the overgrown woodland, crossing the rather frighteningly vast indoor space occupied by the Enhancement School.

Seeing this, Habakaya hurriedly let out a long breath, tears streaming down his face as he savored this hard-earned moment of happiness.

As for Old Ide, no one knew where he'd gone. His mental state had always been difficult to understand.

And thus, the originally quiet school became quiet once again.

Before long, Ariel and Muen arrived at a classroom.

The instant he saw it, Muen couldn't help sucking in a breath:

"The level of devastation here is even worse than I imagined."

What entered his sight was not the kind of ordinary classroom Muen was most familiar with.

Instead, it was an extremely spacious circular lecture hall with tiered seating.

At the very center stood a circular platform. Muen could easily imagine some magic master standing there, teaching and demonstrating magic to the students below.

The tiers rose upward layer by layer, and every seat was separated by a considerable distance, probably so students could imitate and practice magic without affecting anyone else when casting.

But even with such a layout, by a rough estimate, the place could still accommodate more than a hundred people.

It was enough to show just how glorious the Enhancement School had once been.

Unfortunately, by the time Muen arrived in the present day, aside from these symbols of former glory, all that remained of the dilapidated classroom were moss-covered walls, huge piles of abandoned desks and chairs, and the night wind pouring in through some unknown opening.

If he didn't know where he was, Muen might have thought he'd accidentally transmigrated into some post-apocalyptic setting and was about to embark on some quiet and sorrowful end-of-the-world journey, or perhaps fight zombies while bringing happiness to beautiful girls along the way.

"When I first came here, I was shocked too. I even wondered whether, just like that Habakaya said, there really was some incredible treasure hidden here... But now it seems that the most valuable thing here is probably this."

Ariel suddenly pulled out a battered booklet.

"What's that?"

"A handbook left behind by an Enhancement School master from more than a hundred years ago. It records several obscure Enhancement Magic spells. I benefited quite a lot after reading it and feel like I've gotten a little stronger again."

"As expected of you..."

The corner of Muen's mouth twitched.

In this run-down place where even rats probably wouldn't want to stay, she had somehow "accidentally" picked up some master's handbook and immediately learned something useful from it. It was practically tailor-made for her... This kind of outrageous luck could only make one say that she truly deserved to be a child of destiny favored by heaven.

Sorry, but having protagonist privilege really did mean you could do whatever you wanted.

"Other than that, I only found six hundred and eighty-three Aimiers in loose change. It should've been Old Ide's last reserve. He even specifically set up concealment magic around it. It was honestly heartbreaking to look at."

"You took even that tiny amount of money?" Muen was shocked.

"Do I look like that kind of person?"

Ariel rolled her beautiful eyes, "I put it back and rounded it up for him. Next time he eats, he should be able to add a chicken leg."

"You rounded it up to a thousand?"

"No, eight hundred." Another eye roll: "I'm so poor that I have to eat black bread myself. Although I haven't eaten much of it recently... but that's only because I've been mooching off other people. Where would I get that much money to hand out to others? I already said he can add a chicken leg. Isn't that enough?"

"......"

Fine.

Same old saying.

As expected of you.

"Sigh, originally I thought the Origin Tower was being a little inhuman by abolishing the Enhancement School, but looking at things now, the fact that the higher-ups only decided to get rid of this place after things reached this point is already extremely generous."

Muen looked around and suddenly sighed.

A school occupying such an enormous space, yet containing only one person and one corpse.

A school that possessed such an imposing classroom, yet could only scrape together seven hundred and eighty-three Aimiers, making it even poorer than Ariel.

Anywhere else, it would've been kicked aside long ago... and yet here they had actually still been given three final days to prepare.

Seriously, I'm crying.

"Hey, can this place really become prosperous again?"

"Hm?"

At the similarly sudden question, Muen tilted his head and looked at Ariel beside him.

Only then did he realize that this girl... hadn't she been acting a little strange lately?

"Why are you asking that? Does whether this place prospers or not matter to you?"

Muen was somewhat puzzled.

He had only come here because of a certain shameless old loli, and that was how he'd become entangled with the Origin Tower and the Enhancement School in all kinds of ways.

But Ariel?

She genuinely had nothing whatsoever to do with the Origin Tower.

She had been born in Belrand, learned magic from the "old grandpa" inside her ring, and grown stronger while wandering around all kinds of ancient ruins... If she really had any connection to the Origin Tower, then perhaps it was that the expensive magical materials produced by the Origin Tower had once caused the younger, frequently swindled Ariel so much financial pain that she'd cursed them furiously.

"It doesn't matter. It shouldn't matter."

Ariel sat on a desk that was still relatively intact, her little feet swinging back and forth as one finger twirled a lock of hair. A trace of confusion appeared in her beautiful eyes:

"Whether this school exists or not has no effect on me whatsoever. In fact, if it weren't for you this time, Muen, I never would've come to this place filled with the black-hearted magical-material merchants I hate most."

"But... for some reason, I really don't seem to like seeing this school come to an end. Just like earlier—you saw it too. I got angry because of those things that guy Habakaya said."

"Maybe it's because Enhancement Magic is what I'm best at, so I've grown attached to everything connected to it and don't want all of this to disappear?"

Ariel tilted her head and tried hard to think.

In truth, aside from the reasons she'd just mentioned, there was another inexplicable reason.

But that reason was too vague, like some uncertain conjecture that merely wandered through her heart, impossible to confirm.

And because of that, the girl's thoughts were troubled.