Chương 20: Book 2 Chapter 1: A Fresh Start

Jim read with an intensity and focus that he'd never experienced before in his life. The Hrust mountain chain serves as the source for the special black iron ore that is extremely compatible with enchantments; it is the main economic resource of today's Kingdom Rotto. But the sacrifice required to acquire the ore is great, and thus serves as both an incentive and deterrent for the powerful forces the kingdom is surrounded by to keep a friendly but distant relationship.

The calamity is an ever-present part of the kingdom's history, occurring rarely, but almost always causing absolutely devastating damage to human life and infrastructure. A tide of monsters surges from the depths of the mountain. They make their own way when previous exits have been sealed then descend on human civilization. The loss of life is always frighteningly high.

One would think that as human ingenuity progressed and our magical potential sharpened, the calamity would become manageable, but as humanity has grown, so too has the danger presented by this special event. Thousands of years ago, at the start of recorded history, the calamity almost wiped out the nation which had discovered the value of the ore hidden within the mountains. Well, I speak of a nation, but it was more a loose alliance of separate ethnic groups further subdivided into tribes.

That alliance was shattered by the calamity, which at the time was composed of merely a thousand or so monsters, said to have been some sort of beasts of darkness that swallowed light. The hands controlling the territory changed often in the following years. By the time the next calamity came, the tribes had been replaced by a rudimentary centralised kingdom called Mitelos.

Its increased population of what sources claim could have been anywhere between 50, 000 and 100, 000, was completely eradicated by the outpouring of what is said to have been several thousand monsters, this time taking the form of human skeletons. The cycle continued. The ore only gaining more value as magical engineering became a field that stabilised civilisation and continental wars became an affair of millions rather than hundreds of soldiers.

The value of the ore always attracted a new force to inhabit the cursed basin, but due to the long time between cycles the force always became entrenched, connected to the area and unwilling to leave it when disaster struck.

In this book we will discuss the geography of the Hrust Mountain chain, the many types of creatures that previous calamities have been composed of, the political structure of resource extraction, how it has always seemed to somewhat be based around on conscriptive rather than free market principles-"What are you doing!?" a female voice suddenly exclaimed from behind Jim, causing him to turn around and glare at the blue-haired intruder. He didn't have time for Dew's nonsense so he simply told her off.

"Some of us are literate, thank you, goodbye," he said, turning back to his book and trying to find the spot on the page where he'd left off.

"I never thought you had it in you, Savant," Dew continued, seeming happy.

"I'm glad you finally decided to stop embarrassing our class in front of the whole academy staff."

"This is a library, go away!" Jim cursed with frayed nerves, still feeling the phantom pain of having his head smashed open like a watermelon under those fanged jaws in the tunnels beneath the city.

"I work here, don't shout," Dew said with a disdainful sniff. Jim groaned, put down the book and palmed his face. The calamity was real. There was no other explanation for what he'd seen. Upon waking up on the ship to Sredina he'd immediately rushed to the library to start reading up on it. The more he read the more he was sure. His parents… were stupid.

They'd been telling him his entire life that the calamity had been defeated once and for all in the age of fire and that boundless prosperity (for them) was inevitable and close. Now he knew that it had all been wishful thinking. Manifestation, basically. Unfortunately, merely believing something didn't make it true, he'd experienced that unfortunate reality on his own skin. He narrowed his eyes. Did that mean- did that mean that the brown dragon that had served him his first vision was also part of the calamity?

Everything started clicking in place. The reason he and Lebowski had been sent to that village. It had been to halt the advance of the monsters. The reason why Alice, or rather, that creature masquerading as her, had opened that gate. It likely had something to gain from the chaos He'd been getting pushed around like a chess piece. Like a peasant. He saw through his aristocratically pale fingers as Dew stepped to his table and picked up the book he'd been reading to check the cover.

"The Calamity and its Iterations Throughout History: A Work of Fact and Interpretation?" she muttered as she turned towards him with a quizzical look.

"This isn't exam material," she accused.

"Some of us have more to worry about than just exams," Jim said tiredly, not even having the energy to argue with the annoying teacher's pet.

"Couldn't you just read this in two days?" Dew complained.

"After the exams we only have Combat Magic 1 and the electives. Your grades were so bad last semester my cousin cried, you know."

"The assistant?" Jim asked, vaguely remembering a blue-haired figure following around professor Waters during Internal Mana Awareness Class and the other professor he didn't remember the name of during Magical Theory.

"Not anymore," Dew said through gritted teeth.

"She chose to pursue a career in pottery because of you and the fat one." Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Stop bothering me already. It's none of your business what I want to read," Jim said, returning to the core of the topic, namely that the annoying girl was bothering him.

"Well, I guess not," Dew muttered resignedly.

"You are something of a lost cause. Regardless, the library is closing, so I suggest you collect all the material you want to take with you and come check it out." Jim fell silent, looked at the many books he'd excitedly gathered and at the one prologue he'd actually managed to read. He picked up the book and left the others on the table.

"Could you act like a human for once and put the other books back in their place?" Dew complained as he started walking away.

"I wouldn't want to put you out of work," Jim retorted, not looking back. He heard a few quick steps follow behind him before Dew was suddenly walking next to him.

"What's got you so interested in the calamity anyway? I never took you for a historian." Jim sighed, looked around the countless shelves surrounding them and at the still far-away checkout desk at the exit of the large space. Why was the history section all the way in the back?

"It's about time, isn't it," he reluctantly answered.

"Time for what?"

"Time for another calamity," he replied and satisfiedly noted that Dew's steps had stopped.

"Don't joke about that," the girl said so quietly that it could only be heard because of the emptiness of the academy. After all, the boat had just docked a few hours ago and few students set the library as their first destination.

"Don't joke about it?" Jim asked angrily as he turned around and glared at her.

"Your whole family has set themselves up to profit from the fear. The artificial lake around the city, your focus on water magic. Your whole existence revolves around the calamity," he said with as much venom in his voice as he could inflect. Dew looked at him with a sad look instead of getting angry as she should have.

"Why do you think we're so afraid?" she asked while shaking her head.

"It's because we lost everyone the last time after the great betrayal. Our entire clan, reduced to a single woman." Jim stared at her, not feeling any sympathy. Everyone's ancestors died, that was the whole point.

"If you're so scared," he started.

"Then run away next time," he said and started walking again.

"Running away won't solve the problem!" Dew shouted at his back angrily. Jim flipped her the bird over his shoulder.

"Watch me!" he shouted.

"You're an asshole Savant, an irredeemable asshole!" Never having cared much about anyone's negative perception of him, Jim exited the library into the clear night with a clear conscience and a skip in his step. It always cheered him up to transfer his bad mood to someone else. He started making his way towards the dormitories where he would continue reading by the open window so as to use the fire sigils hanging in the sky of the city instead of having to cast his own light.

Unfortunately a calm night reading by the window wasn't to be and Jim stopped in his tracks on the empty gravel pathway in front of the library as he saw the unmistakable purple-robed figure of the headmaster exiting the staff tower. The man quickly made his way through the neighbouring small forested area of the academy towards a barely visible blank stretch of the wall that surrounded the academy.

Jim blinked, barely keeping track of the old man through the trees, but still managed to realise that the headmaster had disappeared suddenly upon reaching the blank wall, instead of merely walking off. Having gotten somewhat used to not suffering any consequences from death, relying on the fact that his past self would receive a vision, Jim spontaneously decided to follow. It should be admitted that Jim had had relatively bad experiences with the headmaster.

In fact, out of all the people, and monsters, that had killed him in his visions, Headmaster Leigh was the only one who had done so more than once. The grass crunched beneath his feet as Jim walked off the standard gravel path leading between the different academy buildings. He walked through the trees and approached the tall stone wall slowly, cautiously, with the proper respect of someone who'd been killed more times than he had fingers on one hand.

However, if he was expecting anything dramatic to happen upon reaching the spot where the headmaster had disappeared, then he found himself sorely disappointed. The wall was a wall. The hand that he put on one of the stones the headmaster had disappeared through remained a hand. There was no ward, no immediate reaction and no death. Only the cold feel of the ground transmitted to his fingers through the rock. Jim's grip on the book in his other hand tightened until his fingers turned white and started hurting.

"Keep your fucking secrets," he hissed angrily at the wall, looking for all the world to see, like a bog-standard schizophrenic.

"It will all come out one day. All the rot in this kingdom. I'll drag it kicking and screaming into the light for all to see, and for me to profit from." He turned around and started making his way to the dormitory, feet stamping. He had one more day until the start of the year exams. Divination. He needed it.

"Just you wait," he swore under his breath as he exited the academy grounds, drawing some confused looks from the few students idling around and chatting under the bright night sky.

"Just you fucking wait," he repeated as he disappeared down the street towards the bed that was beckoning him. What he had to do had never been so clear. Something told him that it was the sort of clarity that could never disappear now that it had been attained.