"Grand Stein closed its doors after we left because they ran out of ingredients."
"Seems they didn't keep a large stock of ingredients."
Luca and Ottbo were heading to their dorm room after finishing their al.
At Luca's casual remark, Ottbo chuckled softly.
"I always thought we ate a lot, but today you really surprised with how much you ate. Had you been holding back until now?"
"That's not it. My usual portions are enough to fill decently. But today, I had to make 'that guy' fear defeat, so I ate more than usual."
"Make him fear defeat?"
At Luca's words, Ottbo tilted his head in confusion.
"He seems to take our bets too lightly when going up against . I don't want that."
"Ah... so you did it on purpose?"
"That too, and the inner Luca Traverse wouldn't stand idly by after such a provocation, you know."
"The... inner Luca Traverse?"
"Sothing like that."
Luca clicked his tongue in amusent.
'There were plenty of reasons, but that was the most important one.'
No matter how much it was him, even Luca couldn't eat that much food normally. That's why he had activated the power of space within his body.
'For starters, the fact that nobody noticed using the power of space and that I could activate it inside my body—this shows the past two weeks' effort wasn't in vain.'
During the past two weeks, Luca had trained to activate celestial wings by harnessing the power of space.
He had gotten sowhat used to it, but he wanted to test how skilled he'd beco.
That's why, as a test, he also decided to ss with Archiond.
'And honestly, seeing him smirk even after losing the bet was pretty annoying.'
That was actually a big part of it.
"Ti sure is flying. After the next career experience, it's already break ti!"
"Career experience, huh..."
For underclassn, career experience wasn't much.
If desired, you could attend sessions with visiting lecturers within the academy, and even if you left campus, you couldn't go beyond central areas.
'It basically served to hint at the wider world-building of this setting.'
On the other hand, starting from the lower upper grades, especially the fourth year, students had to start getting serious about choosing their paths, so they had to participate in career experience sincerely.
Unlike the practicals led by teachers, which focused on skills assessnt, this was more like an early job hunting activity.
'Still a long way off for , though.'
For Luca, there were still three years left.
'I'll have to spend the ti training and thinking about how to spend the break.'
Because they'd recently had an unscheduled break, the sumr break was now only about a month, but even so, it was a useful chunk of ti.
'Even if it won't be as profitable as eting Albino during the last unscheduled break, I should still make the most of it.'
Effectively managing his break would help him get stronger faster.
Especially since, with the Demonz's influence now gone from the academy, gathering demon power was only possible during holidays.
'Searching for the locations of the devil idols ntioned in the original isn't a bad idea... or maybe I could just contact Eltima instead.'
Eltima also seed eager to hunt devil idols with him, so it didn't seem like a bad collaboration.
"Luca, what will you do for your career experience?"
"Hmm..."
In the original story, the protagonist went to various places for career experience, but Luca honestly wasn't interested.
'It's more about the protagonist enjoying himself and revealing the world, so there isn't much to gain.'
Even before coming to this world, Luca was well-versed in its lore.
There was no need to bother with sothing like career experience.
"I've got nothing in particular planned. Ottbo, do you have sothing you want to do?"
"?"
At Luca's question, Ottbo scratched his cheek.
"I heard an expert on armored soldiers is giving a lecture, so I thought it'd be nice to attend that."
"Then let's go to that one."
"Really?!"
Ottbo's eyes widened in surprise. Luca replied in a matter-of-fact, uninterested tone.
"I don't have anywhere else I want to go, and if the lecture's being held in the academy, we won't need to ride any auto-carriages. In that case, it's not bad."
"R-Really?"
"I already know what I want to do after graduation, so career experience is aningless to . I'll just do what you want to do."
Ottbo simply stared at Luca, then broke into a faint smile.
"Okay!"
If the likability max wasn't capped at 10, a ssage about likability rising would have popped up just now.
***
"So, you two are staying in the academy?"
"I don't feel the need to leave. To begin with, I don't want to do sothing like career experience."
"True. For you two, it doesn't really matter whether you do it or not."
Milia and Isella apparently planned to go outside. When asked where, Milia grinned slyly.
"Partigel trading company."
"Ohh."
It seed their plan with Robentus was making progress. Luca nodded in quiet admiration.
"Good luck out there."
"You could still join us, you know."
"You're taking the auto-carriage, right?"
"That's right?"
"Then that's that."
Ottbo looked puzzled at Luca's response.
"Luca, do you dislike riding auto-carriages?"
"......"
Luca stayed silent, and Milia shrugged her shoulders.
"Luca says he doesn't want to ride in any auto-carriage unless you're driving, Ottbo."
"Why... why not...?"
Ottbo looked uncomfortable. Luca clicked his tongue.
"Too slow."
"Ah."
"Ottbo, just how fast do you drive that Luca talks like this? You are following speed regulations, right?"
Milia asked, sounding suspicious. Ottbo bead.
"Not at all."
"......"
"Regulation speed is way too slow."
Milia was left speechless at his brazen answer. Ottbo folded his arms, pondering.
"Now that you ntion it, I get it. It's hard to go back to ordinary auto-carriages after riding mine for nearly a month."
"After getting used to your carriage for almost a month, riding a normal auto-carriage feels like crawling, and it would drive mad."
"Agreed. They're unbearably slow."
The two nodded at each other's words. Milia sighed as she watched them.
"Do you have any idea why speed limits exist?"
"As long as I don't crash, it's fine, ha ha."
"Tsk tsk. You're going to get pulled over by traffic enforcent at this rate."
Milia clicked her tongue, then turned away.
"Well, we'll be off. See you later."
"See you."
After sending off Milia and Isella, Luca and Ottbo headed toward the auditorium where the lecture was being held.
Either the lecture Ottbo had chosen wasn't very popular, or for another reason, but the hall was fairly empty.
"Let's sit up front!"
"A seat where nobody would notice if I dozed off would be nice."
"Huh...?"
Luca didn't seem all that interested in the lecture.
"Nice to et you. I am Izel Kardmo, a magical tool developnt researcher with the Eastern Front Defense Corps. Pleased to be here!"
After a brief self-introduction from Izel Kardmo, who took the stage soon after, he began explaining what he did.
Luca paid scant attention—more focused on his phone—but gathered that Izel developed magical tools and taught soldiers how to use them.
"That's enough boring explanation! From now, we'll introduce the magical tools we've developed and give a demonstration by armored soldiers!"
With that, Izel Kardmo called up two armored soldiers to demonstrate the magical tools.
The targets for the demonstration were magically reinforced wooden dummies—familiar to all academy students.
Bang! Bang!
"Ohh."
The dummies shattered in an instant from the spells fired by the magical tools.
Luca, who knew how tough those dummies were, couldn't help but be impressed.
'Ordinary people can wield that kind of power... It's truly incredible.'
He thought it was superior even to modern firearms.
There was no need to reload, no need to import guns, and breakdowns would be rare.
'Seeing it this way, being an armored soldier is definitely dangerous.'
The defensive magical tools perford better than modern body armor, attack tools outclassed modern firearms, and there were even auxiliary magical tools to boost physical abilities.
'No wonder wars in this world end in massacres.'
Luca recalled descriptions of the Aldnoa War and clicked his tongue.
He knew well the horrors that unfolded when power fell into the wrong hands.
'In the original, Luca Traverse t a terrible end, too...'
Rembering that grueso fate, Luca shuddered.
He felt he had managed to dodge such a fate so far, but it was still a frightening thought.
'Isella almost alone wiped out all the third prince's armored soldiers—along with a similar number of real armored soldiers.'
He'd heard that during Milia's rescue operation, Isella—using only half of Moonlight's power—destroyed the third prince's soldiers, nearly all equipped with magical tools.
That included armored soldiers, too.
'She's truly a monster.'
She was worthy of being called part of the imperial secret weapon, 'Night'.
Isella had played a big part in Milia's survival so far.
'On the other hand, that ans I'd have to fight against princes with such power at their disposal.'
He knew that among the Night mbers, there were considerable differences in power and that Isella was said to be the second strongest.
In the original, she'd admitted there was one even stronger than her.
'But since that guy guards the emperor, there's no way we'll clash—unless soone else becos emperor.'
Naturally, the strongest one is the emperor's guardian.
He wouldn't end up fighting that person.
'If Milia becos empress... does that an she gets to have that power?'
It was tempting. It wouldn't be easy, but helping her ascend the throne was sothing to consider.
'Not a simple matter, though.'
As Luca was deep in thought, the lecture ended.
"That concludes the lecture. Thank you for being with us today!"
Clap, clap, clap, clap.
With so perfunctory applause, the speaker left the podium.
Ottbo spoke with an excited look.
"Luca! Did you see that? Isn't it amazing?"
"Yeah, it's impressive."
"Ha... Becoming a magical tool developer... it might not be a bad dream..."
As Ottbo's eyes sparkled with ambition, Luca chuckled softly.
"Go for it. There are so amazing alchemists in Starry, after all."
"Right? Ha... Starry and magical tools..."
Ottbo's face was alive with dreaming thoughts.
It felt like his dream might soon be realized.
"By the way, is the career experience only a single day?"
"No, just this lecture ends today. There are plenty of other lectures, but if you've heard one, you can skip the rest and rest up too."
"Hmm..."
Luca pondered for a mont, then glanced sideways at Ottbo.
"?
At Ottbo's questioning look, Luca grinned slyly.
"Fancy a little training?"
"Eh."
Ottbo was taken aback for a mont, but, thinking it over, he scratched his cheek.
"Sure, why not."
"Oh? You're getting pretty bold these days."
At Luca's comnt, Ottbo smiled bashfully.
"I want to get stronger quickly, after all!"
He wanted to be a Starry founding mber that he could be proud of.
***
With the career experience all wrapped up, a slow period followed.
Of course, Luca and Ottbo were kept busy with training.
By the ti Luca was fairly used to swordsmanship, sumr break was already just around the corner.
"Luca, any plans for sumr?"
"I have several, but planning on tagging along?"
"Of course! With Rivik, I'll be able to contribute this ti too!"
Once again, the pair was preparing for a trip. But then, an unexpected event occurred.
Knock, knock!
"Who's—oh my."
The day before break, a visitor arrived in Luca's dorm room. Bella looked surprised when she saw who was at the door.
"Big master?"
It was a visit from Wylde Traverse.
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