Under the Oak Tree

Chapter 262

T/N – LF: In the previous chapter, I have translated Miriam’s pet as “PEORI.” I thought that it’s the pet’s name but after reviewing the first chapter and read that it’s a fly-like creature, I had an AHA moment (shame for how stupid I was), I have realized that “PEORI” (PE-YEO-RI) is a Konglish (Korean-English) pronunciation for “FAIRY”. We will now refer to Miriam’s pet as a fairy, I apologize for any confusion this have caused.

Max’s whole body stiffened at the sudden out of the blue question. As she hesitated to answer, flustered and not knowing what to say, Dean suddenly interrupted their conversation.

“By Lord of Anatol…do you mean the dragon slayer? What about him?”

“I heard a story recently about him. They say that the Lord of Anatol has a sword made of Adamant and treasure plates of Orihalcon metal.” Alex exclaimed as if just imagining the sight of those made him excited. “Do you believe it’s true? They say he has stockpiled jewels and treasures amounting to that of a god’s! My lifelong dream is to forge an Orihalcon. If I become the dragon slayer’s wizard, I might have a chance to at least touch it.”

“Forget it. Don’t you remember that there is a traitor by the dragon slayer’s side?”

At Annette’s serious tone, Max hunched her shoulders. Annette, who was quietly observing upon her desk a wyvern steel model that was flapping its wings, shot them a stern look. “If you don’t want to be disliked by the senior high-ranking wizards, you shouldn’t go off saying such things. To this day, if you score the south to north, the story of a traitor always comes up when it’s about the Serbel clan.”

As the story about the clan that ruled the Urd tower was discussed, Alec’s face darkened for a moment. Max swallowed dryly. Ruth Serbel’s notorious reputation was more widespread in the World Tower than she had expected.

When they discovered that Max was from Anatol, the senior wizard of Urd seized every opportunity to slander Ruth and even the Serbel clan would relentlessly preach sermons about how shameless the traitor Ruth is whenever they had the chance. Fortunately, the trainee wizards were not aware that she was from Anatol, what they only knew was that she was from the southern region of Whedon. If they found out that she had learned magic from Ruth Serbel, they would have roasted her as much as the high-ranking wizards did. Most of the trainee wizards who discovered that the World Tower’s rules became more restricted because of Ruth who had escaped from Nornui without permission, harbored a deep grudge against him. Max then hurriedly changed the topic, wanting to avoid any spark.

“E-enough with the chitchat! We have a lot to prepare… for the afternoon classes.”

“We haven’t gone over the magic spell you made just yet. The Gnome Hall’s honor is at stake in this competition!”

“Right! And what’s more is that your competitor is Miriam of Kabalah! That woman is said to bite at every loophole of her opponent. If you’re only half-prepared, you will be humiliated in front of everyone.”

Max narrowed her eyes and glared at them. “Before you worry about my own business… why don’t you start worrying about your own assignments? If both of you fail to finish translating the ancient language assignment within the deadline, you will be disqualified from the promotion exams.” The Godrick twins’ faces turned blue at once. Max snatched her magic formula from Alec’s hand, rolled it up, and shoved it into her bag. “And for your information, my magic spell will be reviewed by Professor Landon. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“Professor Landon?”

Annette, who was looking down at her own work delightfully, immediately raised her head. Landon was the headmaster of the Gnome Hall, a wizard from the Umli tribe famous for his meticulous and eccentric attitude. Annette raised an eyebrow; she was well aware that that man treated the apprentice wizards like a nuisance.

“That’s new of that twisted old geezer to do.”

“Professor Landon… seems like he’s paying a lot of attention to the competition.”

Max exhaled heavily in an attempt to shake off all the pressure. However, she felt considerably burdened deep inside. It wasn’t only because of the fact that she would be representing the apprentice wizards of Gnome Hall, depending on the result of her presentation it would be decided whether she would be included in the ceremony of receiving an official magic attribute the following year. Usually, apprentice wizards were to undergo four years of training before being awarded their official magic attribute. In rare cases, those who were recognized for their talents and qualifications were awarded after only three years. Because of that, she studied day and night to complete the necessary theoretical courses to become a high-ranking wizard and she had been conscious of making her grades on the higher side. If she got a good evaluation on her presentation for the competition, she would be able to leave Nornui by next spring.

‘If it pans out well… I will be able to return home.’

Max felt her heart beating loudly against her chest. Whenever she thought of Anatol, longing and sadness would feed inside her like tidal waves and she struggled not to be swept away by those emotions. Right now, all her focus had to be on the presentation. Max took a deep breath and pulled the chair in front of her desk to sit on.

“Anyways, I have to prepare for the class. Please, everyone, back to your seats.”

“…don’t push yourself too hard.”

Annette stared intently at Max’s darkened eye bags, then gave her a pat on the shoulder and went to her own desk, while the Godrick brothers scattered to their own. Max placed her hand under the desk to scratch Roy’s chin and then opened her book. Fortunately, Annette helped set up a fairy trap in the window, so Max was able to leave Roy alone in her room the next day. After petting her cat, who was lying down by the windowsill, Max grabbed her bag and went out. She headed downstairs and she had pulled out the material for today’s class discussion, when she heard a cheerful voice call out from behind her.

“Max!”

As Max turned her head, she saw a girl with wavy brown hair gathered in a long braid running towards her with a bright smile across her lips.

“Good morning, Sidina”

“Good morning. Are you prepared for today’s discussion?”

“Just for today.”

The girl groaned painfully at her answer. “How can you do that to me! You have promised not to study in advance!”

“I don’t remember making that kind of promise.”

Max responded in a coy manner and averted her gaze to the parchment in her hand. Then, Sidina began to try distracting her with loud howls. Max rolled her eyes at her. Sidina was so exceptionally eloquent that even without much preparation, she would stand out in class discussions. On the other hand, Max was prone to embarrassing herself in class if she did not thoroughly prepare at least three days in advance. After desperately making an effort for the past two and a half years, she was finally able to speak almost without stuttering, but her tongue still felt paralyzed whenever she was nervous or embarrassed.

Max was preoccupied with practicing for the discussion, muttering words that were difficult to pronounce to herself for practice, despite Sidina’s attempts to distract her. The girl, who was loudly squealing an Osyrian folk song, screamed in annoyance.

“Ugh, this bookworm!”

“If I…don’t study this hard, I won’t be able to keep with the class.”

“You’re doing more than just to keep up! Please ease it up a little. It’s my turn after Maximillian’s. Compared to you, Max, my presentation would look worse. Won’t you feel sorry for me?”

Max snorted at her. “Don’t try to humble yourself. Your presentation speech will be smooth like it has been greased…”

“There’s a limit to what I can speak impromptu. Professor Lauren has scolded me a number of times before…”

“Then you should have prepared for the discussion in advance.”

Sidina’s bottom lip protruded. Max flicked through the parchment as she blew grunts to one of her ears. They then proceeded to enter the large garden that connected to Urd. Before entering the classroom, Max remembered that she had to return the books that she had borrowed some day before, so she headed for the library and asked Sidina to reserve her a seat in class. The girl complained, but nodded gently in response.

Max ran straight up the stairs located left of the huge arch-shaped entrance two steps at a time. It was an unladylike action, but there she didn’t have to worry about that image. She passed through a long corridor with warm sunlight of early autumn streaming down and went through a door that’s 7 kvet high (210 cm). Countless amounts of books, easily tens of thousands of them, filled her sight. Max hurriedly crossed between the tight but evenly spaced bookshelves and headed towards an old desk where the librarian sat.

Then, an old woman with a dwarf-like stature and hawked nose, looked at her. “What is it?”

“I’m here to return some books.” Max pulled out a couple of books from her bags and whispered in a small voice.

The librarian checked the books she was handing over and frowned. “These are past its due.”

“I forgot to return them ye-yesterday…”

She said apologetically and made a guilty expression, but the librarian didn’t seem to budge. She then recorded the dates when the books were returned in the log book and spoke in a calm voice. “For the following 2 weeks you won’t be able to borrow books outside of the library. If there’s any reading material you absolutely need, you are only allowed to read them inside the library.”

“B-but… there’s a competition coming up soon and I will need a lot of reference reading materials. Please let it slide just this once, I promise I won’t ever miss the due date next time…”

“Rules are rules.”

The librarian spat sharply like a knife, then returned to the book she was reading as if she had no intentions of hearing another word from Max. Although she wanted to plead a little more, she was well-aware of the librarian’s stubbornness and helplessly turned around. At that moment, a loud voice called after her.

“Maximillian!”

She was startled at the noise and turned her head towards the owner of the voice.