Soul of Negary

When morning came, the atmosphere of the Academic City as a whole became extremely stifled.

An extremely long time ago, the Great Magus Stim Allenz managed to capture an Evil God, one without any rationality. Her consciousness was then permanently erased, and the Evil God who still hadn’t died was then modified into a mana generator and incubator, called the Mana Fetus.

Normally, the Mana Fetus remain sealed inside the Grand Library to accumulate mana. Only to be released during the Mana Banquet that was hosted once every ten years, which would then cause a mana tide to form in the Academic City.

Under normal circumstances, the manifestation of this mana tide would be an aurora that appeared in the sky. Normal people would then be able to enjoy a beautiful sight in the night sky without anything else happening to them.

On the other hand, an entity with even a little bit of mana in their bodies would face a completely different situation in the mana tide.

For those without enough mana, if they couldn’t resist the mana within the mana tide, every last bit of mana in their bodies would be washed away by the tide and become a part of it.

The closer one was to the center of the tide, the greater this effect would become, so during the night of the Mana Banquet, mages who didn’t have enough mana inside their body would take the initiative to temporarily flee the Academic City.

On the other hand, if one could resist the mana tide’s flow, they would be able to accumulate more mana from the tide, as well as anything that had been washed away by it.

Naturally, these benefits would be nothing but the very tip of the iceberg, as the true harvest lay at the center of the Mana Banquet, where the Mana Fetus was. She was called the Mana Fetus not because she could accumulate and release mana, but also because she could incubate certain other things.

…

The death of an auditing student in the Mobis Institute caused a considerably big commotion.

Some students believed that this was the action of certain radical students; after all, there had been no shortage of discussions within the institute about whether or not the presence of auditing students would pollute the purity of the institute and lower its standings.

Normally, there would always be a portion of Uppers within the Academic City who scorned the Sediments that obtained status through the benefits they provided.

Not all Uppers were actually wealthy. Either because of bad business sense or other factors, many so-called nobles were actually dirt-poor, but for the pride of the Uppers, they could not spare the expenses to stay well-dressed.

This caused a certain misguided view to surface: that the benefits of the Uppers were stolen by the dirty lowborn Sediments.

The conflict had always existed, and sometimes this conflict would even result in unfortunate incidents. Some Uppers from the radical faction believed that killing the Sediments would allow them to take back their wealth, and such radical people existed even on campus. They would use every opportunity they had to scorn and humiliate the descendants of Sediments who had obtained status, sometimes even resorting to murder.

Of course, such radical people did exist within a radical organization, but the majority of them were only at the level of animal rights activists and feminist organizations, whose main focus lay in how much benefit could be obtained for the masterminds behind these organizations.

Just like how the organizers of some feminist organizations didn’t really care about equal rights for women, or how some hosts of animal rights activists rallies didn’t really care about whether or not the animals were protected; these radical organizations didn’t actually care whether or not the Sediments were sinful. What they cared about was how much benefits they would be able to scrape away from this conflict.

For example, when the five auditing student quotas were announced, it caused some of the students in the institute to gather and protest. After the radical organizations within the institute took advantage of this and managed to obtain donations from clueless students, they only superficially handed in a petition to the institute’s office, then completely ignored whether or not the auditing students would enrol.

In fact, they only wished that those auditing students enrolled, because only then would they be able to create more conflicts and benefit more from them.

For that reason, the bald young man’s death was believed to be the act of the institute’s radical organizations.

While in reality, even the radical faction of the institute was in panic.

“Which moron couldn’t contain their desires!?” a blond young man with curly hair was fuming in their circle’s meeting room: “How many times have I told you, we need some idiots, but we can’t just let those idiots run around as they wish!”

Clearly, the ‘idiots’ he was referring to were the true radical students.

“How’s the negotiation with the Mud Water organization?” after calming himself down, the young man asked.

“They said they wanted to split the benefits this time 6 to 4” a woman wearing golden frame glasses standing next to him replied: “6 for their side”

“Greedy Sediments!” the blond young man cursed, then slammed the table: “Accept the offer, but only this once. Furthermore, we need to find that murdering idiot”

Very quickly, in the afternoon of that very same day, another protest happened in the courtyard, but the organizers were the first and second-generation Sediments who had obtained status. They were the Mud Water organization, which had formed in order to protect the rights of people like them, those who were being discriminated against.

“Donate for the unfortunate dead person, donate to resolve his blight”

Various mottos echoed; some people were even taking advantage of the protest to simply take things as they pleased. ‘Strength in numbers’ sometimes manifested in very unorthodox ways.

When more people stood on your side, the braver you would feel, and inversely, your opposition would feel less brave.

This so-called fund-raiser of theirs was half-mandatory. When they were right in front of you, not donating to their cause meant you were discriminating against them, and there was no stopping a crowd of emotional people beating up someone discriminating against them, right?

…

‘Negary’ observed everything happening in the campus courtyard from his office. This was actually the miniature version of the Academic City, two contradictory opposing sides holding each other in one piece.

〖 There’s some substance behind both organizations, so there was Mystics manipulation involved, huh? 〗

As long as one took the time to investigate any organization in the Academic City, one would find that they were more or less involved with one or many Mystics. After all, Mystics also needed finances in order to pay for their various magical researches.

〖 It seems Landier, or rather, Michael will be in for quite a bit of trouble 〗’Negary’ tapped his desk while watching the protest gradually coming to a stop, leaving carnage in its wake.

Not too long later, a blond young man knocked on ‘Negary’s’ office. Standing in front of ‘Negary’s’ desk, he displayed the appropriate level of respect for someone of lower standings.

“My apologies, you may call me Kalanci, Kalanci Miti. Sir ‘Negary’, our sincerest apologies for causing your institute to be in such chaos, please trust me when I say that all of this is only temporary. This is to show our sincerity” he then put a small box on ‘Negary’s’ table.

“Let me apologize once more, I hope that you will forgive our shortcomings” Kalanci smiled sincerely, then continued: “On the other hand, Sir Marche has told me to deliver his regards”

〖 Marche 〗’Negary’ nodded as he swiftly recalled this name. This was a Mystic who had once had some contacts with Michael, it seems they were the backer for both the institute’s radical faction and the Mud Water organization.

〖 I do not like this 〗’Negary’ then told the young man.

“I understand, we shall pay closer attention from now on” Kalanci’s expression displayed seriousness before he excused himself from ‘Negary’s’ office.

〖 I do not like this, it is… too sturdy 〗’Negary’ didn’t bother to observe as Kalanci left and simply continued: 〖 Being sturdy is good, but when something becomes too sturdy, it is inconvenient for progress and advancement 〗

〖 They need new motivation, or rather, a new whip, don’t you say? 〗

Wryyyyy!!!

The golden sphere excitedly called out.