Island of Wisdom (2)
“Want to try it? My personal specialty—Muscle-Boost Elixir.”
“No, I’m fine—”
“Come on, drink it. If a guy stays scrawny like Aaron, he’ll grow old without even holding a lady’s hand once.”
What is this, a self-introduction?
Lukna glanced sideways at Bolton—the same guy who had once begged her to introduce him to women—then took the bottle and cautiously tasted a sip.
Oh, this flavor!
Scenes from the gym she used to attend in her previous life flashed before her eyes like a montage.
It tasted exactly like the protein supplement her trainer had recommended.
“It really does taste like muscles will grow.”
Lukna raised her thumb in approval and handed the bottle back to the self-proclaimed great alchemist.
At that moment, Matian’s voice rang out announcing that they would start moving again.
While walking toward where the horses were tied, Bolton stared shyly at the mouth of the bottle where Lukna’s lips had touched.
Just then Chad appeared, rubbing his sleepy eyes, and suddenly kicked the bottle Bolton was holding.
The bottle flew and crashed into the dirt.
Bolton glared angrily at Chad.
“What’s your problem all of a sudden?”
“Yawn… You were making an annoying face while staring at that bottle.”
Chad continued complaining that even after lying down the whole break, his fatigue hadn’t gone away.
“When traveling long distances we should just fly on tamed animals. That stubborn idiot Matian… My back is killing me.”
Grumbling, Chad staggered toward the group of horses.
His hand brushed past each horse belonging to the cadet group.
He was casting speed-enhancement and stamina-boosting magic on them.
But when he tried to casually skip Matian’s horse, Matian—who was standing beside it—grabbed Chad’s wrist and pressed it firmly against the horse’s side.
A silent order to cast the spell.
“Horses have sensitive hearing. If they hear a mermaid’s voice, they quickly recognize it and run away. They won’t stand there listening and get enchanted like other animals.”
“Oh yes, of course, President Matian. I guess I’m the only one who has to sacrifice myself.”
In the end, Chad had to cast the spell on every horse with an exhausted expression.
Afterward, he staggered toward Lukna, who still hadn’t mounted her horse.
“Ugh, using magic twenty times drained me. Let me ride behind you, Luka.”
Lukna wasn’t the only one surprised to hear that.
Matian raised one eyebrow and silently exchanged a glance with Bolton.
Ah.
Bolton’s eyes sparkled as he shook the dirt-covered Muscle-Boost Elixir bottle.
“Hey, Chad! Don’t do that. Come here instead—I’ll give you an energy elixir.”
“Sorry, but an intellectual like me doesn’t eat things that fell on the ground.”
Save me, Luka.
“That muscle idiot is trying to feed me something dirty!”
Wailing dramatically, Chad bent his long body and wrapped himself around Lukna’s neck.
From the open collar of his shirt drifted the heavy scent of burned cedar.
Unlike Matian’s cool and calm fragrance, this scent felt dangerous—almost hypnotic.
Chad buried his face into Lukna’s shoulder and rubbed his head against her.
“Get off me, Chad! That tickles—ahaha!”
Lukna tried pushing him away while laughing, shoulders trembling.
Watching this, Matian’s eyes narrowed.
Bolton’s expression also darkened slightly.
He shook the bottle in his hand hard before yanking out the cork as if he were about to pour the remaining elixir out.
“Stop messing with the idiot and come here, exhausted Vice-Rank.”
“Ugh! I told you I don’t want to drink that!”
Damn it, he called me Vice-Rank.
Chad wanted to mock Bolton in return, but he only remembered the rankings of people who had beaten him—so he had no idea where Bolton stood.
“If you won’t drink it with your mouth, I’ll make you drink it through your ass!”
Bolton easily peeled Chad off Lukna and shoved the bottle into his mouth.
A magic circle briefly appeared beneath Bolton’s feet—Chad must have tried to cast a spell—but it vanished instantly.
“I came wearing anti-magic resistance gear today. Don’t bother.”
“Mmph! Crazy—gulp—ugh, that’s disgusting!”
Chad struggled wildly but couldn’t escape Bolton’s thick arm wrapped around his neck.
In the end, defeated, Chad drank the entire Muscle-Boost Elixir before trudging back to his own horse.
* * *
Thanks to Chad’s magic, the horses ran along the Balt River as swiftly as if they were flying.
It didn’t take long for them to reach their destination.
The lower reaches of the Balt River, where it met the Tulan Strait, were as vast as the sea.
In the distance, a small island floated in the middle of the water.
So that’s the Island of Wisdom.
At the center of the island stood a cone-shaped tower.
Surrounding it were buildings whose roofs resembled spiral seashells.
It looks like someone took an underwater mermaid village and placed it on land.
But how would they reach the island? By boat?
Following the other cadets, Lukna dismounted and tied her horse inside an abandoned shed near the pier.
One cadet with some magical talent cast a theft-prevention spell on the shed.
While watching all this, Lukna suddenly scratched her ear at a strange sound.
“This way… welcome…”
A peculiar singing voice had been drifting in and out of her ears for a while now.
Is this tinnitus?
The faint voice became clearer the closer she got to the riverside.
“Come to the lab… let’s research together…”
…Visbi, is that you?
Lukna looked around while calling the Holy Sword.
“Be careful, Master.”
The necklace vibrated as Visbi warned her.
Oh, it even has a vibration function.
Lukna shuddered and snapped back to her senses.
Without realizing it, she had already stepped into the river—as if she had been about to swim across to the Island of Wisdom.
What just happened?
“The song you heard is sung by mermaid alchemists who grow tired of researching alone. They use it to lure disciples.”
The situation sounded strangely similar to a professor unable to recruit graduate students.
“Mermaid songs contain the power to enchant humans. Shall I block the sound?”
Yes, please.
Looking around, Lukna noticed that only the cadets known for their diligence had been enchanted by the song.
Like sleepwalkers, they were trying to swim across the river.
The other cadets were busy dragging them back.
Among the serious types, the only one who wasn’t enchanted is Matian.
Matian didn’t bother stepping into the river and getting his shoes wet.
Instead, when the other cadets pulled their enchanted comrades back onto shore, he checked their condition and handled the situation.
But one cadet named Randol, who had been dragged out of the water, was especially out of it—flailing his arms in the air.
Isn’t that the guy who always idolizes Matian?
He was the type who quietly studied while copying Matian’s hairstyle and even his writing tools.
Sometimes he even wore blue-tinted contact lenses to imitate Matian’s blue eyes.
But today he had come wearing thick glasses instead.
Now those glasses were crooked and about to fall off as he flailed.
“Let go… I… have… to go…”
“Snap out of it, Randol. We don’t have time.”
Matian cupped Randol’s jaw and cheek with one hand while speaking in a low voice.
It looked gentle at first glance.
But Lukna noticed the bulging veins on the back of Matian’s hand and the faint blue aura surrounding it.
If he’s not careful, that slap is going to leave a mark.
“I have… to go… to the lab… across the river…”
“I told you we don’t have time to waste.”
Matian raised his other hand and straightened Randol’s glasses.
For a moment it looked like the frame cracked—but maybe that was just her imagination.
“Hah! M-Matian?”
Randol suddenly opened his eyes wide and stared at him.
For some reason his face turned even paler than before.
“Th-th-thank you.”
After checking that his glasses were intact, he hurried back to his position.
Matian briefly turned his head to look at his reflection in the river, then faced forward again with the same gentle smile.
And at that moment—
His eyes met Lukna’s.
He slowly raised one eyebrow, as if asking how long have you been watching me?
“……”
Their gazes clashed silently in the air.
Lukna was the first to look away.
Yet the side of her face still tingled, meaning Matian was probably still staring.
The tense atmosphere finally broke when Bolton suddenly appeared behind her.
“You okay, idiot? You were getting enchanted too.”
Bolton reminisced about how he himself had once been lured like that as a child and ended up becoming an alchemist.
Apparently he had swum all the way to the island before realizing what he was doing.
“Haha, I see. I kept hearing someone inviting me to a lab to research together.”
“A lab means a personal research room for alchemists. Some selfish alchemist probably did this—someone who’d rather hide in their lab and work on research even during a confrontation with the Red Eagle.”
Bolton clicked his tongue about how many selfish alchemists there were.
“Didn’t you say earlier that lots of humans challenge alchemy every year? Why bother enchanting people like that?”
“They probably want humble, diligent disciples—not idiots who chase the Golden Elixir and run away after a few months.”
Bolton walked along the empty pier and finally stopped at its end.
In front of him stood a transparent crystal pillar as tall as he was.
Bolton placed his palm over the magic circle carved on its side.
The crystal pillar suddenly turned fluid like water and swallowed his hand.
Soon the same magic circle appeared in Bolton’s right iris.
The water column began shining in five colors.
Then it shot upward and curved into a giant arch.
At the same time, the river water split apart with a loud splash, forming a tunnel-like path ahead.
Bolton had opened the road leading to the Island of Wisdom.
“Alright, everyone—snap out of it and let’s move in!”
Bolton flicked his left eyepatch and gestured for the cadets to follow.
Among everything Lukna had seen of him so far, this was the coolest Bolton had ever looked.
