Chapter 41 - A Magic Instructor’s Retirement

The adventurer party 『Black Silver』 belonged to the adventurer’s guild of the kingdom of Abalonia.

The party consisted of the swordsman Aldred, who boasted fearsome attacking power, a jack of all trades warrior named Kiel, who was familiar with all kinds of weapons and possessed vast knowledge as the party’s support, a knight in heavy armor named Elliot, who tanked their enemies with his faithful shield.

And lastly, a beautiful wizard who is a master of all types of magic, and the only female of the party- that is me, Kurune.

The four of us took down vicious monsters while sometimes finding treasure in ruins, at times coming across delicious food ingredients, escorted famous nobles, and cleared many other quests. Thus, we became the kingdom’s leading A-ranked adventurer party.

To normal people, that would be a big enough accomplishment. We made enough money to live our lives without doing anything else, but our A-ranked party did not stop there.

After an intense battle, we slayed a dragon, which was known as the strongest monster that threatened the existence of the kingdom and we obtained the title of dragonslayers for ourselves.

The subjugation of the strongest living creature, a dragon.

It was like an accomplishment out of heroes in a bard’s tale that would be passed down to many generations after.

When I was a kid, I read a story about a knight who rescued a kidnapped princess after defeating a dragon. Ah, it was so cool. Back then, I thought that I also wanted to be born a princess and marry a strong and gentle knight like in that story. Or maybe, I would also have an exciting and heart throbbing adventure like that.

But I did not think that I would end up on the knight’s side of a dragon slaying tale.

After we slayed the dragon and obtained that title, I was dumbfounded at how fast the name of our A-ranked party, “Black silver”, spread through the kingdom from the parades and speeches that royalty and the nobles hosted.

We were no longer simple adventurers as we became influential people.

Although we could have moved on to being something other than adventurers, I never thought that everyone would be retiring as adventures just like that.

Aldo and Kiel were twenty-seven years old, five years older than I am.

I heard that the condition of the body starts to decline when one approaches around the age of thirty, but I would have never thought that Aldred, who would never let his sword leave his side, and Kiel, who was as agile as a monkey and always looked for fun adventurers as his way of life would use that as their reason to retire.

If things stayed the way they were, we would have kept on questing until our late thirties as we nurtured the younger, next generation adventurers.

And when their bodies finally start to have trouble keeping up, they could switch to jobs related to the adventurer’s guild.

Even though I don’t think that would work out for the irresponsible Kiel, since he’s already made more than enough money to be tied down to those type of jobs.

The serious Elliot could then join a knight’s order that he said he had wanted to join before he became an adventurer, and he might have become a captain or an instructor of the order.

And I could become an instructor at a magic academy that I had dreamed about for a long time.

Surrounded by lovely children, I could study and research magic with everyone, living a fulfilling life.

Then finally, I might achieve my second dream of finding a wonderful and gentle husband…

Even after we retire or take on different jobs, we could still meet up with each other as friends.

I was thinking that I could have enjoyed having fun with them for like ten more years.

However, that sweet idea that I had was soon shattered.

Our party’s leader, Aldred, who sought strength more greedily than anyone else, had lost sight of himself after we defeated the dragon.

That Aldred who was once full of motivation and ambition had become weak.

It was like his body lost all its strength at once, and he did not train or quest anymore.

I thought that he was just tired from slaying the dragon and he would pick up his sword again after a little time. That’s what everyone thought at the time, but we did not understand how he truly felt.

He basically shut himself in the inn all day without doing anything and spacing out. I tried to take him outside and find some new goal for him, but all he did was look up in the sky. Of course, he would not accompany us on any monster subjugation quests either.

…He did not look like someone who took down a dragon at all.

Kiel, Elliot and I encouraged him many times, sometimes we even yelled at him, but his expression did not change.

We thought that there might be nothing we could do for him unless he found a new goal for himself.

With that thought in our minds, he suddenly told me to meet up one day.

He told me with a lively expression on his face that I had not seen from him in a while, even though it was missing the sharp aura that he carried before, it was still a relatively lively look he had.

He might have found a new goal in his life.

And so, I went to the inn where we were meeting at as I anticipated the news with excitement.

Then, he broke it to us when all of us party members gathered.

The disbanding of our party.

I could not believe what I was hearing, but somewhere in my mind I had a feeling that it was bound to happen at some point, so I calmly accepted it.

Truthfully, I wanted to cry out that I wanted to keep going on adventures with everyone, but I knew that they all had their own path in life that they wanted to take.

Elliot will marry into nobility and join a knight’s order.

Kiel will retire with his age as his excuse and travel the world looking for fun things to do. But I thought that he just didn’t want to be in a party without the four of us together.

And like Kiel, I used the excuse of wanting to be a teacher in the magic academy that I mentioned before as my reason of acceptance, but it was because I didn’t want to see Aldred being so dead inside like before.

Aldred looked so strong and reliable next to me, so maybe he has a new strong ambition in mind going forward.

With that appearance of his, he told us that he found a new meaning in life in the neighbouring kingdom of Vespania, a small country far away.

It seems that he wanted to live peacefully in a village called Nordende, located in the west of the kingdom, “Slypheed”.

The Aldred who had done nothing but fighting up until this point talked about the village’s flowers and what he wanted to do there and various other things with such a lively look on his face.

It was as if the Aldred I knew, who had a sharp aura around him the whole time, was a fake persona, and maybe that was what “Aldo” was really like.

After we saw that new side of him, we happily decided that we would agree on disbanding the party and we gave him our blessing since he found a new path.

After that, I entered the magic academy that I dreamed of entering and got a teaching position there through the connection that I got from the fame of being a dragon slayer. It happened quite a bit sooner in my life than I had planned for.

◆

Since we were past spring and it was now summer, the air was getting hotter.

I finished giving a lesson and I slowly sat down in a chair inside the staffroom of the magic academy.

Truthfully, I want to sigh with a loud “Ah—” and fall flat on my desk, but I couldn’t do that in this place where only nobles gathered.

As an instructor who teaches the students such noble magic, I have to keep up an appearance and attitude that was to be respected at all times.

My superior had always taught me that.

Why do I have to worry about so many things even when I’m teaching magic to others?

It’s true that teachers are adults, and I don’t mind acting like one. But, I really can’t stand all the etiquette that I have to follow as if I were in the royal castle. Why do I have to act like a noble all the time? I just want to relax in the staffroom.

In order to not be seen by the other staff members in the staffroom, I snuck out to take a breather.

At that moment, I heard the voice of my superior as if she was hunting me down,

「Kurune-san 」

「Y-yes! 」

After four months, I answered reflexively from being used to getting scolded by my superior.

「…It’s okay if you don’t use such a loud voice when you respond 」

「M-my apologies」

Then, please don’t suddenly creep up on me like that!

I gave my humble apology while I concealed these thoughts.

「It seems that the kingdom has sent people here today as well」

When I took a look at where my superior was looking, I saw the figure of the kingdom knight who had been visiting here many times over the past few months. The man with even features, blonde hair and blue eyes called Earl Clark Raymond.

When his eyes met with mine, his expression loosened and he slightly lowered his head.

…Ah, here we go again.

While I held my unpleasant feelings inside, I nodded to him as well.

「Thanks for letting me know. Now then, please excuse me」

For the time being, I thanked my superior as I nodded to Clark.

「Kurune-san」

「Y-yes?」

Then, my superior stopped me for some reason. Why? I want to quickly finish with this Clark person and continue to have my break time.

「Isn’t it about time you told Clark-san where Aldred is? Don’t you know about that? At this rate, you’ll be causing more trouble for Clark-san, you know? You can’t be that spoiled even if he’s your fiance」

Ah. This again.

I wonder how many times I’ve heard this in the workplace.

「…*sigh. I don’t really know where Aldred is. And on top of that, Clark-san isn’t my fiance」

I answered my superior once and for all and turned around as I started walking.

In the noble society, it’s important to let the others know about your intentions clearly. If you don’t outright deny it, the rumor will become true in the blink of an eye.

The reason why Clark is here is to find out where Aldred is.

And, he was also trying to deepen his relationship with me and get an engagement. He was probably trying to use the fame I have as a dragon slayer to aid him in joining a powerful noble party.

I can see right through him. His sweet words and refreshing smiles are all lies.

There’s no way I’m marrying him.

As I thought about how to get him to stop coming here, I walked up to him.

◆

「…Ahhh, I’m fried…」

I sighed and moaned at my table inside the staffroom with no one else around at night.

In the end, due to all the useless conversations I had with Clark, I had lost most of my break time.

When I finally came back from that, my superior who was waiting here had a few words with me, further reducing my energy and time. Then, I went to teach my lessons again without enough of a break.

When my classes start, the noble students would make fun of me because I came up from a commoner’s background.

Some of them do listen to me with respect, but there was only quite a few of them. And when the noble kids see that, they would gang up and harass them.

What happened to the idea that everyone is allowed learn magic regardless of their birth class? Magic has nothing to do with bloodline.

I was amazed at how the students cared more about socializing than learning magic.

The little boys and girls in the villages we passed by back when we were adventurers were more interested in magic than these kids.

Then, I was invited to parties and gatherings in the evening, left with no free time for myself.

Was this what I dreamed of? To become a magic instructor for these people?

What I wished for was to teach people who would be more serious and more interested about magic than I am.

By being in a magic research facility, developing magic for battle, magic for everyday use, and let people live fulfilling lives by making use of magic.

If it’s going to be like this, wouldn’t it have been better if I just taught magic to the villagers when I was an adventurer?

There was also a way to enter the magic unit of the royal army, but I don’t think I can trust anyone here other than the three of my companions.

There was no loyalty in the kingdom; it’s out of the question to fight for them.

「…*sigh*, Aldo. I hate you…」

Those words casually leaked out of my mouth.

Kiel disappeared as soon as he reported to the guild of our party’s disbandment. Elliot was married into a count’s family, so with them backing him up, he was safe from the kingdom’s pursuit of Aldo. So, it was only natural that I became the target since I am just a commoner without anyone backing me up.

My heart is severely worn out from either Clark or my superior coming at me every day.

I told all the royalty and nobles that I didn’t know where Aldo was, but they really doubt me.

…Well, the truth is I do know though.

Right now, he should be in a village called Nordende, west of the kingdom, Sypheed.

However, I don’t want to bring him back here since he finally found something he wanted to do in his life.

I could still vividly remember his face when told me that he found a new goal for himself.

「If I remember right, the village he’s living in should be a small village in the countryside…」

I feel like it wouldn’t be so bad if I were to teach magic to the people there while I took it easy.

There are many children even amongst commoners who have the potential to use magic. It’s just that they don’t have the opportunity or means to get into a magic academy because of things like money.

Kurune already has more money than one can possibly use, so there would be no need for her to charge people for lessons.

Common citizens would not be bound by trivial networking relationships, so they would greedily learn all the magic they can to make their lives easier.

Those people would be the ideal people Kurune would want to teach magic to.

Curious and innocent youngsters would go to her to learn seriously for their own future…

It made her happy just from imagining that.

She can teach whomever she wants on their free time so that she would not be a burden to their lives.

「…That might be fun」

She sat back up from her desk.

Right now, going there sounded way more attractive to her than her current lifestyle.

No, it would definitely be better than staying here!

Am I just being crazy ‘cause I’m tired right now? I thought about it again and I didn’t think so.

It was similar to the time when I first saw Aldo in the adventurer’s guild and decided to quest together with him. My intuition told me that it was a good idea.

I wonder if he’s doing okay there, since he doesn’t know anything else other than the sword.

No, he’s surely struggling since he’s a clumsy person.

He can hunt, but it’d be impossible for him to farm or grow any vegetables to eat.

He’s already twenty-seven years old and he still didn’t have a wife.

Unlike Kiel, Aldo was uninterested in courting girls, so I don’t think he could get himself a girlfriend anytime soon.

He would live in loneliness by himself… I wonder if I should become his bride if he really wanted me to no matter what…

That’s why I’ll quickly finish the remaining work I have at hand and start to prepare for the journey to Nordende.