Black Iron's Glory

Eriksson yelled and blocked the way of two academic stream students. One of them snapped with dissatisfaction and talked back, causing Eriksson to roar with rage and get right into a fight. He gave the student a few punches to the head before the latter just turned and ran. Eriksson didn’t take long to chase the student down and push him back on the ground again. Seeing the poor kid balling up to block the punches, Eriksson rebuked twice more before returning to his seat proudly.

That was but a common sight among the three boys’ classes of the second year in the middle school of Whitestag Town. Nobody dared to mess with Welikro, Claude, Borkal and Eriksson, even the third years. Even if the instructors of the school wanted to do something about the students’ complaints of bullying, they had to consider the standing of the four’s fathers and couldn’t go too far.

Claude looked at Eriksson beating someone else up and felt the urge to laugh. Before Claude transmigrated, he had also involved himself in some bullying during his youth. However, after he found his way into his new body, he behaved far less rowdy than before. Normally, he wouldn’t mess with his fellow schoolmates for no good reason. Even if someone else messed with him first, he wouldn’t have to lift a finger as his other three friends would teach those fools a lesson on his behalf.

He recalled the diary he read last night. The magus described the time when he was bullied in the tower a lot. Even though he didn’t directly describe them as him being bullied, Claude could feel the hatred and discontent the magus felt. He could remember the details of the events so clearly that he even wrote the names of those involved.

For instance, the magus called Krimondo had intentionally tripped Landes once during his youth and laughed after seeing Landes fall. There was another apprentice called Aliya who took the seat beside the young Landes in class. Whenever he asked her something he didn’t catch the teacher say clearly, she would intentionally say loudly, ‘What were you spacing out about just now? You didn’t hear what the teacher said?’ That caused Landes to be punished to stand during the whole afternoon class session by his rune magus teacher.

There were also many such events. Claude sometimes found himself admiring Landes. Even after he became a third-rank rune magus during the time he wrote the diary, he still couldn’t forget the bullying he suffered during the days he was an apprentice magus and even bothered to write it down in his diary. It could be seen how deep-rooted his hatred was.

Perhaps he was really ostracized because the other apprentice magi were jealous about Landes’s innate talent. Nobody was willing to become his friend and many even joined up together to bully him. They put scorpions or lizards into his blanket and glue onto his stools. Sometimes, they would put a whole dustbin on top of the door before he entered, or even steal his clothes and socks while he bathed. His notes would also be occasionally torn up by other students.

Claude felt that it was a small miracle that Landes was able to survive all that maltreatment that took up 20 whole pages of the diary. It was heart-wrenching to read.

Claude looked at the student that was just beaten up by Eriksson and noticed that he was glaring at his friend with a look of hate. He wondered whether that student would write in his diary like Landes did. Perhaps he would and make an oath to take revenge against Eriksson in the future…

He went back home after school to have dinner. After that, he went straight up back to his attic and opened Landes’s diary impatiently.

Landes wrote that every time before he slept or went to class, he had to triple check everything to prevent falling into the trap set by the other apprentice magi. He didn’t have to worry too much about his life, however, as the other apprentices knew their limits. While hurting him a little to humor the rest was no big deal to them, if Landes’s life was really endangered, then all of them would have hell to pay. None of them could afford to sustain the wrath of the tower’s master, Archmagus Loenk.

And so Landes fell into a cycle of battles of wit and courage with the other apprentices. He did admit that he loss more battles than he won. But whenever he suffered some kind of ill, he would go to the cliff and watch the view of the sea. That allowed him to calm down and reflect upon the lessons he learned from falling prey to another one of their tricks.

But one day, Landes fell for their schemes again and some apprentices gave him a harsh beating with a ‘just’ reason. The whole thing played out rather simply. Landes saw a silver ring on the ground and picked it up. However, he didn’t expect it to be laced with glue and he was unable to get it off his hand. It didn’t take long for the other apprentice waiting in ambush to show up. They claimed that they were trying to dry the ring with glue to form a protective layer around it, but their grand experiment was ruined by Landes. With the players and props in place, there was no explaining his way out of it and he could only take a beating.

Landes went to his cliff once more to enjoy the view. He resolved himself to avoid any kind of gold or silver coin on the ground, regardless of whether someone actually dropped it or whether it was a trap. If he didn’t act on it, he wouldn’t fall for anything. It was at that moment when he felt a pull from behind and was reprimanded harshly. The person asked whether he was trying to commit suicide by jumping off the cliff because of something he couldn’t let go.

I wasn’t trying to die or jump off the cliff, thought Landes as he realized that the one who pulled him back was the grim-looking magus who brought him there. The magus also noticed the bruises on his face, so he gently consoled him and asked him whether anything happened to drive him to try to jump off the cliff.

Perhaps it was because it was the first time someone treated him nicely, and because the magus was the one who brought him away from his home, the young Landes felt that he could trust the magus. So, he told him about everything he was enduring and learned the magus’s name: Tawari.

Landes addressed Tawari as a teacher. In the tower, all apprentice magi had to refer as rune magi as teachers. What surprised Landes was that Tawari refused to be called as such, saying that among all the magi in the tower, only the tower master, Loenk, deserved to be a teacher to other magi. He said that even though Landes was just an apprentice magus, when he advanced to become a first-ranked magus, he could call Loenk ‘teacher’ like other magi instead of ‘master’.

“Call me ‘senior’ instead,” Tawari said, “I’m not accustomed to being called a teacher, and I won’t accept any disciples either. I’m not qualified to take one.”

That was when Landes started addressing Tawari as his senior. Landes wrote in his diary that he never addressed any other magus the same way as the title of senior only belonged to Tawari alone.

Tawari had just returned to the tower. After hearing about Landes’s experiences, he didn’t disappoint him. The next day, all the apprentice magi were harshly punished. As the chief battlemagus of the tower, Tawari had the authority to do such a thing. Since the apprentice magi were going too far with their little charade, he wanted to let them know who really was in charge in the tower.

The punished apprentices finally stopped the bullying after knowing that Landes had such a powerful figure watching his back. Even though the isolation was still there, at least they didn’t actively plot against him any longer, finally allowing him to continue his studies in peace.

But soon, he realized that even though the other students stopped bullying him, the rune magi that came to teach them had attitude problems. He didn’t notice it in the past because he had to be constantly on guard, even during class, to watch out for his hostile classmates’ antics.

Now that he could finally pay attention, he found that the rune magi that came to teach them only briefly coursed through their syllabus, often leaving out crucial parts and not providing detailed explanations about the material they were trying to teach.

As such, the pupil with the most questions, Landes became one of the most hated students among the rune magi that were tasked to teach them and was often punished to stand in class for a long time because of the most trivial of mistakes. Confused, he asked Tawari what was going on.

Tawari didn’t answer his question immediately. Instead, he smiled bitterly and said that Landes would come to understand why if he paid attention. As for the questions he had during class, Tawari said that he could note them down and ask him about them later.

So, Landes started to quiet down during class and noted down anything he didn’t understand to ask Tawari about them. At the same time, he paid attention to the actions of the rune magi and the apprentices and soon realized that many of them also noted down any questions they had like he did before turning to ask their instructors privately during their free time.

And during each of those visits, the students would bring a gifts, pouches of money, or even magical supplies for those magi. There was even a female apprentice who would go to the quarters of a five-ring rune magus every night and only emerge the next day.

“All knowledge has value. Knowledge in magic is also the same.”

That was the answer Tawari gave Landes when he told him about his observations.

“But…” Landes wanted to say that the illiterate children were taught ancient Hez for three months for free by the beautiful female rune magus who hadn’t showed up in the tower for a long time.

“They taught you nothing but basic language and some common knowledge in magic. Those aren’t valuable information,” Tawari calmly said, “Those magi don’t really have any status in the magic tower. They have no choice but to follow the orders of Archmagus Loenk no matter how unwilling they are, and that applies to their teaching assignments as well.

“After they teach you how to practice meditation, they can have nothing else to do with you apprentices. Whether you are able to become a first-ranked rune magus will have to depend on your own understanding and effort. That’s why these magi would often leave out some key concepts or points during their class and will only teach you if you are willing to pay them a small fee or do them some sort of favor.

“Some apprentice magi you know come from richer families, so their families are able to afford the extra fee to help their children along in their studies. Even though it may look like a lot to pay for these extra tips, if their children are able to become first-ranked rune magi, then their investment would be repaid ten to hundred fold. Students who aren’t that well off will have to use some other thing to gain their teachers’ favor. The female student you mentioned is doing exactly that.

“This is very common on the path of learning magic. Nobody is willing to impart their insight in magic to others for free, unless they are their own children or relatives. Landes, you must understand this fact and do the same. Don’t give away what you hold to others for free.”

Moved, the young Landes said, “I’m poor and penniless. I don’t have any magical supplies either, yet you’re so willing to help me and answer my questions even though you know I have nothing to offer…”

Tawari smiled. “I’m investing in you. Even though you have nothing now, you still have a future. I believe that you will become a first-ranked rune magus much faster than the other apprentices. When the time comes, I will start to reap the fruits of my efforts from you.”

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