When Duanmu Huai opened his eyes again, what appeared before him was a huge, circular castle-like building, situated on a small island. A long bridge connected it to the outside world, and Duanmu Huai was standing at the end of that bridge.
So this is the Manaria Magic Academy?
Looking at the castle ahead, Duanmu Huai sighed with emotion, then reached out his hand and quickly summoned Olgis and Lorena. The reason for summoning Olgis was simple—she was his companion. Lorena's status was more complicated; apart from being Duanmu Huai's companion, she was also considered a representative of the Holy City. After all, when they had investigated news about Manaria in the Holy City earlier, the Archbishop had entrusted Duanmu Huai and Lorena to represent the Holy City in dealings with Manaria. Duanmu Huai had no objection to this.
After all, if this world fragment also fell into his hands, Duanmu Huai would definitely merge it with the Holy City. At that point, the two sides would naturally have dealings.
"Master."
"Sir Knight, have you found it?"
"Yes."
Hearing Lorena's question, Duanmu Huai nodded.
"This should be the Manaria Magic Academy."
"So this is it… it looks so beautiful…"
Lorena also gazed at the castle ahead, unable to help her sigh.
"Let's go in and have a look."
Duanmu Huai adjusted himself, then strode across the bridge toward the main gate, with Olgis and Lorena following behind him.
Originally, Duanmu Huai thought someone would come out to stop them, but to his surprise, there were no guards at the gate, no doorkeeper, and not even one of those magic barriers often seen in novels to keep strangers out. They simply entered the academy without difficulty.
The whole school was quiet. From the occasional distant sounds, he could tell it must be class time. Only… this situation was somewhat unexpected for Duanmu Huai.
"Sir Knight, what should we do now?"
"Hmm… find a student, ask about the situation, and then explain our identity."
Duanmu Huai still carried a letter from the Archbishop of the Holy City, so he wasn't worried about their identity being doubted. The group walked toward the castle ahead. As he walked, Duanmu Huai also pondered the image he had seen earlier. Although it had lasted less than a minute, it clearly depicted the legendary scene of the Princess of Manaria leading an army against the dragons.
Yet… the ending seemed quite different from the fairy tale.
And that voice…
Duanmu Huai raised his head, staring at the system in front of him, where the task appeared clearly.
[Activate Fragment Mission "Save Manaria"]
[Mission Objective: Save Manaria]
[This world is shrouded in the shadow of darkness, trapped in endless torment of pain and despair. End it all and open a new future.]
"Wow! Amazing!!"
While Duanmu Huai was thinking, a lively and energetic voice suddenly sounded, interrupting his thoughts. Looking down, he saw a brown-haired girl in academy uniform standing excitedly in front of him, curiously examining him, even patting his armor with her hands.
"What an incredible steel golem! So big! So majestic!! Who designed it?!"
As she spoke, the brown-haired girl excitedly sized Duanmu Huai up.
"Hmm… this armor is well-made, not like ordinary alchemy work, and that—"
"Young lady, I'm not a golem."
Seeing that she was about to start feeling him all over, Duanmu Huai had to cough to interrupt her.
"Eh?"
Hearing this, the girl froze, then stuck out her tongue in embarrassment, clasped her hands behind her back, and stepped back.
"Ah, hahaha, I didn't expect there'd be a person inside, really scared me… hahahaha…"
Even as she spoke, she continued to curiously look Duanmu Huai over.
"But is there really a person inside? You're not tricking me, right? I want to see your face."
"Of course."
Duanmu Huai sighed helplessly, then removed his helmet.
"Is this good enough?"
"Wow…"
However, to Duanmu Huai's surprise, the girl before him neither fainted in fright nor screamed and ran away. Instead, she widened her eyes in amazement, staring at him.
"You're really… amazing!"
"???"
What kind of description is that?
"Well then… young lady…"
In any case, this girl seemed approachable, so Duanmu Huai prepared to explain the situation to her. But just then, a figure suddenly dashed over toward them.
"Villain! Step away from Her Highness!"
Duanmu Huai looked up to see a flash of sword light slashing toward him. He immediately raised his warhammer and swung it hard against the blade!
"Clang!!"
With the sound of metal striking, the sword light was knocked aside, and a man rolled to the ground, landing in front of the girl.
"Your Highness, please step back! This man is dangerous!"
Well, this is the kind of development I'm familiar with.
"What are you talking about, Owen?"
The brown-haired girl seemed displeased with the man's warning.
"He was only talking to me, he didn't do anything wrong!"
"But…"
Seeing the two arguing, Duanmu Huai coughed to interrupt.
"Sorry to interrupt, we are envoys from the Holy City, here to establish friendly relations with the Manaria Magic Academy… if possible, could you introduce us to the person in charge of the academy?"
"Eh? Envoys from the Holy City?"
Both the girl and the man, who looked like her guard, were shocked.
"That's right."
Duanmu Huai nodded, then signaled Lorena to step forward. She cautiously emerged from behind him and gave a respectful bow.
"Greetings, it's an honor to meet you. I am Lorena, a missionary priestess of the Holy Church…"
Compared to the intimidating armor-clad Duanmu Huai, Lorena's white priest's robes gave her a far more approachable appearance. Seeing her, the two were clearly surprised.
"Ah, honestly, Owen, I told you not to act rashly. Now look what happened."
"Ugh… my apologies…"
Chastised by the brown-haired girl, the man named Owen dejectedly sheathed his sword. The girl stepped forward, lifted her skirt slightly, and bowed to Duanmu Huai and his companions.
"It's an honor to meet you, envoys from the Holy City. I am Anne, Princess of Manaria. I apologize for the earlier offense and hope you will not take it to heart."
"Eh? Her Highness the Princess?"
It had to be said, both Duanmu Huai and Lorena were startled at her self-introduction. They hadn't expected that by randomly approaching someone, they'd end up meeting the princess of the country.
In any case, with the princess leading the way, the group's progress became much smoother. Soon, under Anne's guidance, they arrived at the headmaster's office of the Manaria Magic Academy and met with the principal. At first, the elderly man had been startled by Duanmu Huai's fearsome armor, but they still warmly welcomed the envoys from the Holy City for academic exchange.
Duanmu Huai also hoped to learn some magical knowledge at the academy—not that the knowledge itself was the main point, but because once he learned it, he could convert it into Soul Cards for use. For someone like him, who lacked magical combat methods, this was quite necessary.
Of course, Duanmu Huai did not come empty-handed. To show sincerity, he brought some [Mechanical Soldiers] and [Constructs] from Sky City as gifts for the Manaria Magic Academy.
Duanmu Huai had realized that of the world fragments he held, [Haunted Mansion] was likely a product of this era, while [Dollhouse], [Holy City], and [Manaria Magic Academy] belonged to the previous era. [Sky City] was older still, from a prehistoric civilization.
In other words, on this planet alone, recorded civilization history—counting this time—had gone through at least three cycles.
The Manaria Academy was thrilled with Duanmu Huai's gifts. Though they had the technology to create golems, theirs were magically controlled clay statues, not products of puppet technology, nor part of magitek civilization. Therefore, the magitek constructs Duanmu Huai brought fascinated both students and teachers.
Duanmu Huai didn't mind—if his mission succeeded, the Manaria world fragment would be his. Giving them a head start in research could only benefit him in the end.
In fact, he even hoped the academy could reverse-engineer something from the magitek constructs, because [Sky City]'s technology was too advanced. The dollmakers of the Holy City were like Sengoku-era carpenters trying to study modern industrial machinery—they were fumbling in the dark. While Bardi and other technicians were working hard to dismantle and study the internal structure and principles of these devices, they were still just technicians.
Like factory workers, they might figure out how to manufacture and assemble the machines, but the underlying principles—such as the density ratios of metal alloys or energy efficiency—were not their expertise.
Therefore, Duanmu Huai decided to leave this research to the Manaria Magic Academy. If he succeeded in completing his mission and absorbing Manaria into his world fragments, combining the academy's knowledge with the dollmakers' craftsmanship would make industrial-academic integration easy to achieve.
Of course, all this was based on one condition… that Duanmu Huai succeeded in saving this world.
(End of Chapter)