The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 42

I was able to return to school around Sunday evening. As soon as I got back, I headed to the dorm bathroom.

After nearly three days of travel, my coat and shoes were covered in dirt and dust, but it was nothing compared to Pipi’s appearance.

As I poured warm water on her with the washing magic tool, Pipi flapped her wings and wiggled her butt, making a fuss.

“Oh, look at all that dirt. Pipi, how long haven’t you washed? 200 years?”

“Don’t know, don’t know, don’t know.”

Friede said that sun parrots, who have flames within them, have a body temperature about 5 degrees higher than humans, so they like to wash in hot water.

While waiting for me, this must have been a luxury she never enjoyed. At best, she would have only gotten wet in the occasional rain.

Not just for a month, not just for a year, not just for 10 years, but for hundreds of years… I felt a pang of sympathy again.

“I’ll make sure you only have good things from now on. You know, I’m the heir to a famous family in the Empire. I have money to burn.”

“Corn, corn, corn.”

“Corn? Hey! I can even buy you a whole field. Heh.”

“Heh, heh, heh.”

“Hehehe.”

“Hehehe, hehehe.”

“Hehehehehehe.”

“Hehehehehehehehe, hehehehehehehe.”

After laughing wickedly like that for a while while splashing water, I felt a presence outside, so I wrapped Pipi in a towel and returned to my room.

As soon as I wiped off the moisture, she flew around the room, exploring every corner, and then landed on the bookshelf, shaking off the moisture as if satisfied.

“Sorry, it’s a bit small, right? Just bear with it for about 3 years. When I go back to the mansion, I’ll just build you a private greenhouse.”

“Greenhouse, greenhouse, greenhouse.”

“How about that, sounds good, right?”

What good is high status?

Isn’t it for times like this, to spend generously? I changed into light clothes, put Pipi on my head, and left the dormitory.

“Soon the curfew will pass and I won’t be able to go outside… Let’s buy a cage next weekend.”

“Now? Now? Now?”

“I have to register you.”

The place I headed to was the academic affairs department of the university’s main building. There was a procedure to follow to legally keep Pipi at the school.

“You’re going to register it as… a messenger bird?”

In [this world], a messenger bird refers to a bird used by wizards for communication.

Unlike ordinary people who use pigeons or crows, wizards generally used owls with high magical sensitivity.

Therefore, it was not surprising that the academic affairs staff reacted with surprise when looking at Pipi.

“Even though this little one looks like this, her intelligence is incredibly high. Pipi, imitate what this person just said.”

Just in case, I decided to change Pipi’s name to Peach. I also told them that my name was Rain, not Lin.

Pipi, who landed on the academic affairs desk, shook her head back and forth, keeping rhythm.

“Oh, how cute.”

The academic affairs staff covered her mouth with both hands and exclaimed. Rain shook his head.

“Not dancing, imitation.”

“Corn, corn, corn.”

“Are you going to be like this?”

“Co-orn.”

“No, why is this little one like this… She’s doing this on purpose, you know? She speaks really well.”

Then the academic affairs staff looked at Rain pitifully. His face turned red with unexpected embarrassment.

‘This Pipi, is she deliberately making me look like a foolish, doting idiot owner…?’

The staff smiled contentedly but spoke in a worried tone.

“Registration is, of course, free, but… isn’t it too dangerous?”

“Why?”

“If it’s just a parrot, it might get eaten by the owls. Owls are birds of prey, after all. And parrots don’t have magical sensitivity, so you won’t be able to use it properly.”

Just then, an owl flew into the academic affairs building. It wasn’t a student’s owl, but one officially used by the school.

As the owl landed on the desk, another academic affairs staff member began to take a letter out of the bamboo tube tied to its ankle.

In the meantime, the owl glared at Pipi with its large eyes, as if threatening her.

As expected of a bird of prey, it was at least three times bigger than Pipi. The sun parrot was also a fairly small species among parrots.

Pipi met that arrogant gaze head-on and spread one wing as if it were ridiculous.

Whoosh───!

Then, a beautiful arc of flame bloomed and took shape at the end of her wing.

The owl was startled by the eerie heat and fluttered its wings and flew away, and the academic affairs staff opened their mouths one by one.

“A, a parrot using magic?”

“No, is that perhaps… a sun parrot?”

“A sun parrot… that makes even less sense.”

It was truly nonsense. Wasn’t the sun parrot a phantom species that was said to have less than a hundred individuals even if you searched both continents?

There was a family in the Empire that systematically raised sun parrots and gave them to their descendants as companion birds. The Duren Archduke family, a frontier lord in the north, who used the phoenix as their family crest.

But Duren had been raising sun parrots since the beginning of the Tersian calendar [the Empire’s calendar], so it was possible…

“It’s a sun parrot.”

“Th, that can’t be! Where did you get it?”

As Rain smiled, the staff members’ eyes lit up and they wiggled their fingers, trying to touch Pipi somehow.

“I just… happened to pick it up in the Red Mountains.”

I didn’t lie, I didn’t lie.

The staff didn’t ask any further. They knew that with the wealth of the Ludwig family, a powerful family in Richiland, they could get a sun parrot, even if they didn’t know which smuggling route they used.

Of course, that was only possible if the item was available…

“Is this okay then?”

“Y, yes, of course! But could I possibly touch it for a moment?!”

“Me, too!”

While Rain was filling out the messenger bird registration form, Pipi, who was incomparably cuter than the owl, received a lot of love from the staff.

“Is this all done?”

“Yes, you’ve filled out everything you need to.”

“Come here, Pipi… no, Peach. Let’s go.”

With truly overwhelming intelligence, Pipi immediately flew and sat on Rain’s shoulder. When he glanced at her, she tilted her head adorably.

‘Pipi is next to me.’

Just that fact made him smile all the way back to the dorm.

His stamina had increased, but the three-day journey must have been tough. As soon as he returned to the dorm, the tension was released, and he was overcome with fatigue.

He sat at his desk and tried to solve a few math problems, but then collapsed on the bed.

“Pipi, turn off the light.”

Just as his consciousness was about to be sucked into the darkness, the room darkened, and a warm object landed next to his face and fell sideways like a person.

Pipi.

He rubbed his face against Pipi’s head, cherishing the warmth, and fell asleep.

“Good night, Pipi.”

“Good night, good night, good night, Lin.”

That night was the first night since waking up from a long sleep that he didn’t fall asleep in the loneliness of being alone.

* * *

Monday morning, I got up with a sluggish movement and put on my school uniform. The school uniforms are managed by the dormitory staff.

From the time I woke up until I finished getting ready, Pipi was fast asleep on the bed.

It was actually the first time I saw Pipi sleeping longer than me.

‘She must be tired…’

She must have never been able to rest comfortably for even a single day, guarding against intruders. For over 200 years. I quietly closed the door without making a sound.

I left the dormitory and headed to Yongryungwan [the university’s main lecture hall]. The exam results were to be announced in the auditorium.

As I yawned and moved my feet, I encountered an unexpected person in the cherry blossom-filled campus.

“Good morning, Rain.”

With a handsome appearance and a kind smile, it was Associate Professor Kyle. He was heading to the main building, and after instructing his assistant, he approached Rain.

“You still have the fatigue of the exam on your face, are you okay?”

I was a little puzzled, but I bowed as a student to show respect. Professor Kyle smiled gently, and the wind blew, causing the cherry trees on campus to sway refreshingly.

“If things go well, it might start today. Well, I’m very excited.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What else? Student council life.”

Student council?

Is the student council starting its activities?

I didn’t know what that had to do with me, so I nodded awkwardly. Kyle laughed.

“You probably know better than anyone that there’s no one among your peers who can compare to you, Rain, right?”

“…….”

“Fortunately, there’s a senior in the student council president’s position who might stimulate you.”

“Student council president?”

“Yes. I hope you can be good stimuli for each other. I think it will be. I’m pretty good at judging people.”

Kyle smiled and patted Rain’s shoulder encouragingly before turning around.

‘I’m looking forward to it.’

If the master hadn’t had health problems the year before last, and had supervised the exam himself, he would have given that child extra points too.

‘Such a meeting of two talents, I’m really looking forward to it.’

Rain, who was looking at Kyle’s back with a puzzled expression, tilted his head once and then moved his steps towards Yongryungwan.

As I entered the auditorium, Logan waved his hand from the back right seat. Another Chaihark [a student organization] student sitting next to him bit his lip in shock.

As I sat next to him, Logan said in an excited voice.

“Getting an S grade in every exam in the midterm is amazing, Young Master.”

“I heard there are three more people besides me.”

“The important thing is that you got an S grade from that Lillian! Anyway, with this, Young Master might become a student council member in the first grade.”

“Student council? Come to think of it, Professor Kyle said that earlier, but what does that have to do with me?”

Then Logan tilted his head as if telling him not to joke around, and then began to explain.

“The reason why the first midterm exam in the first grade is important is because only the top student gets the qualification to be an executive from the first grade… Most student council presidents follow this route.”

Consisting only of the most promising students, that was the student council. Only those who ranked in the top could become its executives.

The opportunity is only twice. It is only given to the top student in the midterm and final exams of the first semester of the first grade.

If the top student is already an executive, the opportunity goes to the second-place student. That’s how the student council has been run with two members per grade, for a total of six members.

“Is that similar to a club? Do I have to do it?”

“……You don’t want to do it?”

“Sigh, I don’t want to increase my workload.”

“It’s absurd to say you’re not going to join! How many students are struggling to get into the student council. You’ll incur public outrage if you say that!”

It was the first time Rain had seen Logan so excited since the Magic War, so he blinked with a slightly embarrassed expression.

“Really? Sorry, it was really important.”

Not long after that, all the students were seated, and University President Madelia Page stood on the podium.

After that, five assistants came in with a huge poster and began to stick it on the wall. Even though magic tools have developed tremendously, [the university] always stuck to the traditional method when announcing grades.

Soon, the grades were released to the world in order of score, and sighs leaked out from all over the auditorium. But strangely, only the top 5 were listed on the poster.

“What’s this? My name isn’t there.”

Gertrude was ranked 8th, Logan was 7th, Wiber was 6th, and Lillian Karain was 5th. But there was nothing above that. No names were there.

I also turned my eyes to the lower ranks. As many as 33 people were expelled, so the ranking only went up to 200th place.

At that time, Madelia Page, who was on the platform, solemnly opened her mouth.

“Silence, from now on, I will call out the top 4 students from this midterm exam, from the top student to the 4th student.”

Nora Reden.

Christa Warden.

Kayden.

Rain Ludwig.

“The students whose names have just been called, please come up to the stage.”

Amidst the students’ exclamations, three students stood up with their own individual movements.

Christa was aristocratically dignified, Nora was playful, and Kayden was elegant, as if melodies flowed from every movement for some reason.

As Rain followed the three competitors to the stage, Logan gave him a thumbs up as if cheering him on.

‘It’s amazing…’

I thought there was no particular tension because it was an exam evaluated at the basic level anyway, but when I came to this situation, my heart was pounding powerfully.

Is this a feeling of enjoyment?

When I stood next to a guy named Nora on the stage, strangely, only the sound of my heartbeat was pounding in my ears.

“I will read the evaluations of the professors who were in charge of evaluating your bonus points.”

Madelia Page unfolded the scroll.

“The above four students are students who received S grades in all exams in the midterm exam, and proved their excellence in magical skills, understanding, and knowledge that is unmatched by others.”

“……!”

“However, we gave the highest score to the student who went further even in this excellence, that is, the student who has the potential to pioneer the future of magic.”

Rain tilted his head.

The future of magic? What does that mean? Madelia Page rolled up the scroll.

“What is required of the top student of [this university] is not excellence or superiority, but uniqueness. It is the uniqueness as a jewel that shines uniquely among many rough stones!”

“……!”

“The student who has the qualifications to lead other students with that light, the student who has the qualifications as the so-called top student──!”

Professor Kyle, who was waiting behind the stage with his arms crossed, smiled gently.

“You seem to be in a good mood, Professor Elin.”

Then Elin, who was grinning, erased her smile for a moment and gritted her teeth.

“Not good? I’m in a really bad mood right now? I already feel nauseous when I imagine how much more that guy will crawl up?”

You’re still not honest. Your mouth is twitching, Elin.

The two were rivals who fought for the top and second place positions during their [university] school days. Even their masters were Scald and Marchena, who formed a two-way structure in the magical world at the time.

Elin was naturally a disciple of Scald, and Kyle was a disciple of Marchena. Kyle ultimately won and graduated at the top…

“Is that so? I’m different from you.”

“Why?”

“I’m very happy. I feel like I’m witnessing a scene that might be written about in the future in real time.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That day, right here, for the first time, a new future of magic was revealed to the world. Would the title of the article be something like this?”

Madelia Page, who was scanning the four students with her eyes in a tense atmosphere, pointed to one student at that moment.

The boy had shiny black hair.

The boy had eyes redder than blood.

The boy was once called the Calamity Young Master amidst national contempt. The boy’s name was.

“──Top student of the 1388th midterm exam, Rain Ludwig!”