Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 52 (Part 2)
When they sent Cory off, it was bittersweet. They were happy that Cory had found freedom, but sad because they wouldn’t see him again.
But now, there was almost no joy, only sadness.
Was it because they hadn’t fully gained their freedom yet? Because it was two people? It was a complicated feeling that was hard to explain.
“Yeah, let’s smile.”
“The instructor’s coming. Pretend to sleep.”
“Okay. Rodin, thank you.”
“Me too. Rodin, thank you.”
As they lay down for a moment, the instructor soon entered. He was in such a hurry that he didn’t even knock.
“Number 57! Number 58! You’re called.”
“Mm…”
“Number 57! Number 58! You’re called! Pack all your equipment and head to the consultation room!”
The anxious instructor shook Hedler and Lant awake. Through the open door, they could hear other instructors calling out similar commands.
“Called…?”
“Yes! You’re called! Hurry and head to the consultation room! Pack all your equipment so you can leave immediately!”
“Understood…”
Hedler pretended to be still half-asleep, putting on a convincing act.
The instructor, after ensuring several times that Hedler and Lant were fully awake, left the room.
“Rodin, we’re going.”
“Take the potions with you. There are nine left. I have some set aside, so you take them all.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Hedler and Lant, who had dressed and packed their equipment, left the dormitory.
* * *
After all the necessary trainees were taken, the instructors also disappeared.
At that point, Drok began waking up the other trainees, moving busily despite his limp.
‘Should I get moving too?’
He packed his clothes first. One uniform, all his gym clothes, and other essentials like underwear and shoes went into his backpack. He also neatly folded Cory’s backpack and placed it inside his bag.
“Hmm, Undine. Clean all my belongings.”
Bowing slightly, Undine cleaned his blankets, pillows, and bed thoroughly. This erased all traces of Rodin from the 301 dormitory.
“Invisibility.”
In an invisible state, he headed to the library. There was no one guarding the library entrance, which was usually watched over by at least one person.
‘They’ve all left.’
The committee members wouldn’t take the instructors with them. They wouldn’t bear the cost of feeding and sheltering hundreds of people.
Still, they would tell them to run. Not for the instructors’ sake, but to cover their own tracks.
CREAK!
Rodin forcefully pushed the door blocking the entrance. The hinges shook violently, losing their balance.
“Pretty sturdy. Wind Cutter.”
Using magic, he cut the hinges. The door, losing its support, finally fell over.
“Not good. Magic Hand.”
Using magic, he caught the door and propped it up. After entering, he placed the door roughly back in its place.
Upon closer inspection, one could tell the door had been removed, but who would come here to inspect the door today? Everyone would be too busy trying to survive.
Passing by the general section, he reached the advanced library section.
To the right was the Advanced 2 Library, where you needed a blue identification badge to enter. He had spent a lot of time there.
Looking at the door filled him with nostalgia. He felt more emotional than when sending off Hedler and Lant.
‘Sentimental, huh.’
Today’s destination was the Advanced 1 Library across from it. It was a place he couldn’t enter because it contained books related to aura. He quietly stared at the door.
“Finally, I get to open this.”
He inserted the golden key from Hedler into the door. With a clicking sound, the door opened.
“No time to waste.”
He rushed in, quickly scanning the shelves.
“About 500 books?”
The quantity of books was much less compared to the Advanced 2 Library. There were only three bookshelves.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to check the contents. He quickly scanned the titles in front of the bookshelves. If a title caught his eye, he pulled it out and set it aside.
“Ten books. At most, twenty.”
They were all books he had never seen before. He desperately wanted to take them all.
But since he might have to live on the run, he couldn’t increase his luggage indefinitely. He mentally set a maximum number of books and quickly read through the titles.
THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!
The books set aside exceeded ten. Just when he thought ‘I can’t take any more,’ he reached the last row of the bookshelf.
“A book titled ‘Runes that Move Aura’? If it’s runes, it must be talking about rune language?”
It was a three-volume book. It was a manuscript, and it looked new, as if it hadn’t been long since it was made.
“This too.”
He selected 14 books in total. He placed the set-aside books into Cory’s backpack.
He was lucky. The committee had not yet sorted out Cory’s belongings, who had left earlier.
“What should I take now?”
He slung the two backpacks over each shoulder. The one with clothes was light, and the one with books was heavy.
Leaving the library, he went to the deep storage at the lakeside. There were no instructors guarding this place either.
Inside, he gathered his things.
Lower mana stones left from artifact production, 90% completed potions, and remaining herbs were packed into the bag with clothes. Finally, the two bags were roughly the same weight.
“Packing’s done. I wonder if everyone’s escaped.”
In an invisible state, he leisurely moved towards the training ground. He saw instructors and trainers urgently leaving the Special Forces training camp.
‘Even Instructor Serion is here.’
The instructors were mostly escaping on horses. They brought their horses, so they took them.
In contrast, the trainers were all running on foot. Being commoner soldiers, they rarely had their horses.
‘Am I too late?’
The two carriages in front of the main building were both gone. This indicated that Kser and Elrov had already left.
‘Seems I wasted too much time. Could Habinon have left too?’
He ran quickly to the stables. There wasn’t a single horse in the stable.
But Habinon’s carriage remained. The coachman guarded the carriage, all set to leave.
Not long after, Habinon appeared, shaking his thick belly. The coachman opened the carriage door, and Habinon, carrying a large bag, got into the carriage.
‘I don’t see the trainees. Who took them?’
Rodin thought each committee member would take the slaves assigned to them, but that wasn’t the case.
While he was briefly away, the 45 trainees had already disappeared.
Habinon had no trainees beside him.
‘It seems one committee member took all the trainees.’
Rodin, hiding his presence at a distance, watched Habinon’s carriage.