Chapter 223 – If an Explanation is Necessary (1)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Mage Tower.

The flowing atmosphere was unusual.

“I’m actually already worried…”

“I wonder how many people will wipe their tears this time.”

“I think I’ll just give up on this academic conference. I have no confidence.”

Is it because of the heavy pressure of the approaching Regular Academic Conference?

It wasn’t a wrong statement, but.

To be precise, it was a little different.

What the Skilled Mages feared was not the Regular Academic Conference.

It was the Topaz Hall preliminary verification they had to undergo before the conference.

Swish-

Going up and down the stairs of the Mage Tower.

Their gazes naturally headed towards the Topaz Hall.

The Skilled Mages could not forget the sounds that had been heard from there.

“I feel like my stomach is still churning…”

And word travels fast, often accumulating exaggerations.

“Did you guys hear about that?”

“Hear about what?”

“No, I mean the Mage Tower ghost story…!”

“A ghost story? Is this a school? What weird nonsense are you trying to say again.”

“No, it’s not weird nonsense, I definitely heard it, you know? Why, the words the Skilled Mages say! They say whenever the Regular Academic Conference gets closer, pitiful crying sounds don’t cease from that Topaz Hall.”

It was too much for fledglings.

Everything in the Mage Tower was unfamiliar to players. Furthermore, Adept Mages had no significant relation to the Regular Academic Conference. It was natural they didn’t even know preliminary verifications took place in the Topaz Hall.

Thanks to that, the ghost story quickly spread among the players.

However, making the rumors pale in comparison.

The authenticity of the ghost story could not be confirmed.

Floating Garden.

“…Wait, is that true?”

“Pant, pant, of course it is!”

The Skilled Mage catching his breath, Rinne.

Similarly a Skilled Mage, Jibril, grabbed his shoulders and shook them.

“Chief Lee Ho-yeol is absent from the preliminary verification? Is that true? Is it an unmistakable fact?”

“Excuse me. Miss Jibril, let me catch my breath for a moment…”

“This is a crucial matter, Rinne!”

“I-It’s true! I’m on my way back after just confirming it!”

There was a separate reason why Jibril was interrogating Rinne.

Because Jibril didn’t have a personality to easily be frightened by the preliminary verification process.

Yes, it was because of Ho-yeol.

“It’s an impossible matter according to my common sense!”

The weight of the Chief Mage.

It was Chief Lee Ho-yeol who fully bore that weight. It was something one could know just by seeing him personally sign numerous Tower Exit Applications even in the midst of a busy schedule where crucial matters never ceased.

For such Chief Lee Ho-yeol to be absent from the preliminary verification?

“It definitively means there is a reason.”

Jibril muttered meaningfully.

“…Just what kind of circumstances does he have.”

To make him absent from the preliminary verification?

Separate from such Jibril, the faces of several Skilled Mages flushed with joy. It was Chief Lee Ho-yeol who had brought a wind of tears to the Mage Tower. But to be absent from this preliminary verification?

“Isn’t this an opportunity for us…?”

“…I changed my mind. I’m going to apply for the verification right now.”

“Wow damn, it’s a good thing I applied for the preliminary verification prepared to be crushed.”

However, it was a huge miscalculation.

The fact that Ho-yeol had vacated his seat meant.

He had prepared arrangements to fill his empty seat.

In Topaz Hall, it wasn’t a wind of tears but a chilly wind blowing.

A gloomy voice echoing in the Mage Tower’s corridor.

“Next, Skilled Mage Andante Lus.”

That was right.

Black Magic Studies Senior Mage.

Matis Dean Karl.

Even his fellow Senior Mages (actually, Banshee is the only one) feared him.

He was the one replacing Ho-yeol’s empty seat.

“Please do not disappoint me, Andante.”

For the Skilled Mages, it was truly mountains beyond mountains…

*

Contradiction.

There is no better word to express my feelings right now.

“Hmm.”

Green tea flavored cookies I bought because they were on a half-price discount.

While the taste of those cookies seemed fine.

It wasn’t because I was dissatisfied.

One of the Chief Mage’s duties.

It was because I was liberated from the Topaz Hall preliminary verification.

Thanks to the quest the Tower Master handed me, of course.

“A deep shame.”

…Rather than that, get the subject right, Granfel.

To anyone watching, wouldn’t they think I’m someone feeling regret over green tea cookies?

Naturally, this emotion was regret directed towards the preliminary verification.

This damned sense of responsibility.

Anyway, it’s such a heavy duty of the Chief Mage.

Naturally, I didn’t push it onto just anyone.

“If it is you, I believe you will manage it well.”

I entrusted my empty seat to Matis.

Because Marcelo already had more than one or two duties he was in charge of even now.

If it was Matis, who was a strong candidate for Chief Mage prior to Marcelo.

He would more than fill my vacancy.

-“I shall repay your trust, Sir.”

Matis was someone who Originally didn’t have external activities often, yet.

At my request, it ended up with him taking on preliminary verification for the first time in his life.

In that sense, I should treat Matis to a cup of tea.

I chanted quietly.

“There are still many unnecessary procedures in the Mage Tower.”

No matter how much it was tied to a quest.

Granfel wasn’t the type of person to push his burden onto others without a rational reason. Even so, the reason I asked Matis to do the preliminary verification wasn’t for any other reason.

It was because of the Mage Tower’s rules.

“I shall comply just this once.”

Yes. You have to comply, what other choice do you have, Granfel.

Even when you think about it, it’s strange.

For a participant in the Regular Academic Conference to also handle preliminary verifications.

‘That’s beyond the level of being meddlesome.’

Anyway, participating in the Regular Academic Conference.

Seriously, what a fate I have.

I checked my quest window.

[Quest: Founding a School]

You who have achieved a noble magical accomplishment.

Prove your accomplishment at the Regular Academic Conference.

And announce the founding of a new magic.

-Present ‘Reversal Magic’ at the Regular Academic Conference. (Ongoing)

I knew it since he suddenly turned into a cat?!

The Tower Master was truly sly.

Should I say he utilizes making fools out of people very well.

Founding a school is quite a reluctant task as well, but.

‘No matter what, it’s probably better than being the next Tower Master…’

Without realizing it.

Because I was harboring such weak thoughts.

By the way, what kind of academic conference presentation is it for my fate.

‘It would be another story if it was really a great accomplishment, but.’

Reversal Magic.

That is literally.

It just happened by doing it backwards.

‘What do you mean found a school and even give a presentation…’

However, not only the Tower Master.

Marcelo was also boundlessly serious.

Marcelo’s extremely flushed voice suddenly comes to mind.

-“According to the rules, in order to ascend to the Tower Master’s seat, you must prove your accomplishments and contribute to the Mage Tower. If it’s your Reversal Magic, Sir, it should more than fill the contribution points. Because it is a magic on a level incomparably superior to the theoretical magic I founded.”

No, I’m telling you I have zero desire for a promotion, Marcelo?

If it were up to my heart, I’d want to just give up on a quest like this.

But after hearing Marcelo’s words, I ended up being tempted without realizing it.

‘…Contribution points, huh.’

It must be referring to [Relationship] and [Influence], right?

The human heart is truly cunning.

The desire to hit maximum values if possible.

Combined with the soaring greed of me, Lee Ho-yeol.

‘If I reach the maximum value and activate the [Authority] function…’

Does it mean I can literally knead the Mage Tower as I please?

Suddenly, I recalled my resolution when I first set foot in the Mage Tower.

If such a day truly comes.

I shall use the magic tools piled up in the Mage Tower to my heart’s content.

I probably resolved myself like that.

Of course, there’s no way this damned pride would tolerate uprooting the Mage Tower out of personal self-interest though… In Yusra and in Muon, I’ve experienced it so I know, right?

That there’s no harm in having high relationships and influence.

‘Good, let’s do it.’

Actually, deciding positively was a long time ago.

The problem is it isn’t resolved just by deciding.

Because of that, how am I supposed to present it?

‘When Marcelo and even the Tower Master didn’t understand it.’

No matter how kindly I explain it.

Would the mages attending the Regular Academic Conference be able to understand it.

The problem didn’t end there.

If it was the Granfel I knew, it was certain he’d go one step further.

“Although there is no more intuitive magic than this.”

I was worried he would rather shame the audience if they didn’t understand.

That’s why I’m already worried.

Because of that, I was doing my best.

It meant I was genuinely preparing for the presentation.

“However, I shall understand.”

Furthermore, the Mage Tower is not the closed-off Mage Tower of the past.

More players than before would participate in the Regular Academic Conference as mages. Thanks to that, every single move I make would spread to the world through the fingers of the players.

‘…Please let’s just not do anything embarrassing.’

Anyway, life is unknowable.

The reality of Reversal Magic is nothing much.

To think I would end up founding a school in the Mage Tower with it.

Wouldn’t it not be strange to call its name the Bubble School.

Even now, it’s to the point of becoming awkward.

Scribble-

From now on, I had to pack that bubble as plausibly as possible.

In front of the audience in the vast Crystal Hall.

It meant I had to heavily gild my bubbles.

I swallowed a groan while scribbling with the quill pen.

…The green tea cookies are unusually bitter.

*

The day of the Regular Academic Conference.

The mages who checked the conference schedule were astonished.

“T-The last order is…?”

“Chief Lee Ho-yeol’s presentation?!”

“So this was why he was absent from the preliminary verification!”

“What? Chief Lee Ho-yeol is giving a presentation?!”

The Skilled Mages, including Jibril and Klet, could not hide their surprise. Apart from being the Mage Tower’s Chief Mage, wasn’t Chief Lee Ho-yeol someone with many titles he was in charge of?

Klet was genuinely amazed.

“He’s truly amazing. It’s to the point of feeling respect.”

The cultivation method of the spiritual herb.

Klet was someone who had experienced that heavy pressure while preparing for a Regular Academic Conference presentation. Not to mention the preliminary verification, until the moment she stood on the podium in the Crystal Hall, her mind was boundlessly complicated.

“Even when I was eating or sleeping. Thoughts about research never left my head… But Chief Lee Ho-yeol prepared a conference presentation while carrying out other schedules, didn’t he?”

Rinne, who had been staying fully quiet, picked a flaw.

“No. Strictly speaking, that is not true, Miss Klet.”

“…Yes?”

“Why, Chief Lee Ho-yeol did not participate in this preliminary verification, right?! M-Miss Jibril?! W-Why are you suddenly pinching my arm?”

Jibril poured a gaze full of contempt at Rinne.

“If you’re at the level of a Skilled Mage, it would be best to familiarize yourself with the Mage Tower’s rules, Rinne. By common sense, do you think a conference presenter can conduct a preliminary verification of someone else’s research?”

“…Ah.”

“Your statement just now was a bit hasty, Mr. Rinne.”

Just how much of a ruined foolish remark was it for even Klet to.

Add a word to Rinne.

As Rinne shut his mouth, Jibril’s complexion became serious again.

“He will definitely give an incredible presentation, if it’s the Chief Mage!”

Adept Mages.

The thoughts of the players were not much different.

The Regular Academic Conference hadn’t even opened yet.

The player community was full of posts related to the academic conference.

──────
The schedule is officially out lololololol

Is this real life? It’s Chief Lee Ho-yeol’s presentation ㄷㄷ

Is something big coming at the end???

He’s probably gonna decorate the finale properly real talk lol

Just Ho-men
──────

Their mouths were itching, but no one could casually open them.

As I said, there was still time before the opening.

For some reason, all the Senior Mages were seated in the Crystal Hall.

Someone whispered.

“…It really seems like it’s no ordinary presentation.”

Even the Elder Mage, Yugweed.

Thanks to that, the Regular Academic Conference.

Began amidst expectations that were heavily inflated like bubbles.

.

.

.

To state the results first.

The ripple effect of this Regular Academic Conference was arguably the best in history.

Not only in magical accomplishments.

Beyond the Mage Tower, even publicly.

Because to everyone around the world.

It distinctly imprinted what 『Reversal Magic』 was.

That was right.

The beginning of it was from a small commotion.

The last order.

The moment Ho-yeol stood on the podium.

Someone quietly muttered.

“…Claudi?”