Chapter 23
The area with the Martial Arts Department building had a completely different atmosphere from where the Magical Engineering Department buildings were located.
No, it wasn’t just a difference in atmosphere—it felt like an entirely different world.
And for good reason.
"Eastern-style?"
["If you call it Eastern-style, I guess it is, but it feels like a chaotic mix of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese influences."]
That was true. To put it nicely, it was a well-balanced blend; to put it bluntly, it was a hodgepodge.
"Hmm, it's nothing new, but Eastern-style buildings always look unique."
El examined the buildings carefully, nodding as if he already knew about them.
"It's not just the exterior! You have to take off your shoes before going inside, and it's such a hassle!"
Linia whined, sounding incredibly familiar with the process.
The Empire’s architecture was fundamentally Western-style, similar to Earth’s, so people generally kept their shoes on indoors.
At least they took them off when getting onto a bed, though.
Either way, this kind of architecture felt very familiar to me.
I placed my shoes into the provided shoe rack and locked them in place.
"This reminds me of a jjimjilbang."
["But there are communal baths in this world too, right?"]
"Yeah, but no jjimjilbangs."
"After taking off your socks, put them into that bamboo container over there. Then, soak your feet in the water for about ten minutes before going inside."
Apparently, just taking off our shoes wasn’t the end of it.
At the entrance, besides the shoe racks, there was a small stream of running water and a bamboo container.
Following Linia’s instructions, I took off my socks and placed them inside the bamboo container.
After all three of us put our socks in, Linia clumsily closed the lid.
Visually, it looked like a steaming pot.
Then, we dipped our feet into the flowing water right in front of us.
The warmth was just right—it felt pretty nice.
"Ahh, nice and warm."
El closed his eyes and let out a satisfied sigh, sounding like an old man.
Fittingly enough, he seemed to enjoy things like this.
["It's a foot bath! A foot bath!"]
It definitely was. The water was comfortably warm—maybe they channeled hot spring water?
If so, it might even have some beneficial effects.
"Is there a specific reason for soaking our feet?"
"It gets rid of foot odor!"
Nothing fancy, then.
Still, if you had to take your shoes off before entering, it was a necessary effect.
Wearing comfortable sneakers might not be a problem, but if you had long boots on, your feet would get really sweaty.
Well, regardless of its purpose, the foot bath itself felt good.
Since the water was flowing, it didn’t feel dirty either.
After enjoying a relaxing soak, I opened the steaming bamboo container to find our socks completely dry and fresh.
Oh, so it deodorized and dried them?
It looked simple, but it functioned like a clothing care device.
"Pretty nice, right? A senior from the Magical Engineering Department donated it."
"I see. Mind if I take it apart and look inside?"
"Are you crazy?!"
Linia freaked out, so I had to abandon the idea.
Still, I had already scanned the structure with my eyes, so I could try making one later.
After putting our socks back on, we finally entered the Martial Arts Department building.
The interior was just as expected—it matched the exterior perfectly.
The floor was made of wood, and the doors had paper screens attached to them, giving the place the atmosphere of a traditional Eastern dojo.
"Quite nature-friendly."
"Nice, right? Ordinary buildings are fine, but places like this have their charm too—except for the part where you have to take off your shoes."
Nature-friendly, huh?
But if you think about it, a building made by cutting down and refining parts of nature—
Is it really eco-friendly?
[Because it causes less pollution, right?]
“No, I feel like true eco-friendliness would be doing nothing at all and just returning to the earth as is.”
[Isn’t that just telling us to do nothing and die?]
“That’s why I’m giving up on being eco-friendly!”
“What kind of nonsense is that all of a sudden?”
“Raniel says incomprehensible nonsense sometimes, so don’t mind it.”
“Is it the agony of a genius?”
“More like a lunatic than a genius.”
You ignorant fools who don’t care about nature—do you even understand my deep contemplation about the environment?!
[Of course not. Even with my computational abilities, I don’t get it.]
To think there’s no one who understands me… Indeed, humans are lonely creatures, born alone and dying alone.
“Meow.”
Whether the mackerel cat understood my anguish or not, it let out a sorrowful cry, jumped off my head, and—
“Meoooow!”
Dashed straight toward the pond next to the building.
“Ah! Mackerel! You can’t eat the koi in the pond!!”
Hmm, I was mistaken. So it was actually after the koi in the pond.
[When it comes to cats, of course, it’s fish!]
‘Actually, cats prefer meat.’
[That may be true, but there’s an image to uphold, you know.]
That’s true. Stereotypes are powerful.
The image of cats liking fish supposedly originated during World War II when food was extremely scarce, and meat was in even shorter supply. Pet food companies aggressively marketed fish, which was more readily available, leading to the common belief that cats love fish.
Likewise, the idea that wood is eco-friendly is also just image-making.
[Wait, wasn’t that discussion already over?!]
‘Shut up and look! It was already hard enough adjusting to a medieval fantasy world that has modern Earth-level technology, but now there are Eastern-style buildings?! Are they kidding me?! Even a fantasy novel would get criticized for world-building like this!!’
[So you just don’t like the building style?]
…Summing it up, I guess that’s the case?
“Meow! Meooooow!!”
“There, there, stay still. Big sis will give you something tastier than koi.”
From afar, Linia held onto the struggling mackerel cat as it stared longingly at the pond, crying mournfully.
Even though the mackerel could easily slip away from both El and me when we lunged at it, it seemed powerless against Linia.
‘But still, the building structure…’
Eastern-style architecture, by the lake, with a pavilion—it looked less like an academy building and more like something out of a martial arts novel, like a noble martial arts family’s estate or a sect’s headquarters.
“Come on, let’s explore together. Oh my, our little mackerel is so well-behaved.”
“Meow! Meooow!!”
Well-behaved?
I turned my gaze to the mackerel in Linia’s arms.
The cat was struggling with all its might to escape, but Linia held it down with sheer strength, preventing it from breaking free.
Eventually, the mackerel seemed to give up and became still.
“Meooow…”
That was a sigh, wasn’t it?
[It was just a meow.]
Was it? Just a normal meow?
Then my eyes met the mackerel’s.
It looked at me as if pleading for help.
Maybe I was imagining it, but I couldn’t ignore it.
“See? This is the strength of humans.”
I declared proudly.
“Meooow…”
The mackerel turned its head away from me with another sigh-like meow.
“Alright! How long are we going to stand at the entrance? Let’s go!”
Linia grabbed the mackerel’s front paw, held it forward, and started walking. El and I followed behind her.
“Hup! Hup! Ha!”
As we walked, a strange yet familiar-sounding shout caught my attention, and I turned my head.
Another area came into view.
Structurally, it wasn’t much different from where we had been before, but—
The only difference was that the room was filled with all sorts of exercise equipment and packed with muscular people using them.
For me, it was a sight I wouldn’t want to see even in hell.
A bunch of martial artists was already chaotic enough, but now it was full of muscleheads too?
The muscle-bound individuals there weren’t just working out.
"Slurp! F** yeah!!"*
They were downing drinks from containers as big as my head in one go before continuing their workouts.
At a glance, those containers looked like muscle growth supplements—protein, to be precise.
"What’s that?"
"That?"
"That thing they’re chugging like water."
"Oh, protein? Or aura growth supplements, maybe?"
The name was the same as muscle growth supplements, but aura growth supplements?
"And what’s that?"
"It helps with aura growth when you drink it, but I heard it makes you lose muscle. That’s why they drink it while working out."
I see. I don’t quite understand the mechanism, but I get the idea.
"Oh! Isn’t that Linia? Want a protein shake?"
At that moment, a muscular man approached Linia, acting as if he knew her.
"Ah, no! I’m just touring the building with my friends! Well then, I’ll be off!!"
Linia quickly pulled us away from the area.
Who was that guy, and why was she in such a hurry?
Could he be hitting on Linia?
That didn’t seem likely, but as her family, I had a duty to be cautious just in case.
"Who was that?"
"A senior from my department! He keeps trying to make me drink protein shakes all the time!!"
I see. So he wasn’t hitting on her—he was just offering protein.
I sincerely apologize for doubting a wholesome gym bro.
"Isn’t that good for martial artists?"
"It is good. But if you drink it, you have to work out to maximize the effects, and eventually, you’ll end up looking like those people!"
I carefully recalled the group of gym freaks from earlier.
Ah, I can see why Linia would be horrified.
"You don’t want to be a muscle-bound hulk?"
"Not at all!"
"But not everyone there was overly muscular."
"That’s just because the supplement didn’t work well on them! But for someone like me, it would be super effective!"
As Linia spoke, an image of her growing into a two-meter-tall muscle giant flashed through my mind.
She’d look really strong.
Not only strong—downright terrifying.
Regardless of Linia’s preferences, for my own safety, I needed to prevent that future.
"Is the entire martial arts department like this?"
"No way! Those guys are the unorthodox faction, who will do anything to get stronger! Then there’s the orthodox faction, who believe in training naturally!"
Wait, orthodox and unorthodox factions?
I felt like I’d just been smacked in the head.
Wasn’t this a fantasy world with knights?
I knew that knights were considered government employees under the broad category of martial artists, but still…
I never expected terms like "orthodox" and "unorthodox" to exist here.
"Just how much of a mess is this world's lore?"
Half-jokingly, I decided to ask something absurd.
"Is there a Demon Sect too?"
"Demon Sect? I don’t know about that, but there’s a Demon… Cuisine Sect."
…What? That sounds like a spicy tofu dish.
"Okay, and what do these ‘tofu-like’ guys even do?"
"Demon Cuisine Sect? They’re just weird people."
I see.
So, the ones chugging protein like water and lifting weights like maniacs aren’t the weird ones, but the tofu guys are?
Just how bizarre are they?
"Ahem. Did you just call the Demon Cuisine Sect weird?"
A sudden voice interrupted my thoughts, and I quickly turned my head.
There stood the top student of the Martial Arts Faculty, whom I had seen during the entrance ceremony.
What was his name again?
“Was it… Cake Ice Cream?”
Cough. “Everything after the first letter is wrong. The overall top student, Raniel Leventhesia.”
He replied to my words matter-of-factly.
Not even a change in expression—what a formidable opponent.
Cough!
Or maybe it’s not that he isn’t changing his expression, but that his sickly complexion simply doesn’t allow for any change?
“Hah… Well, names don’t matter anymore.”
The top student of the Martial Arts Faculty clenched his fist and looked up at the sky with a solemn expression.
“Because I will become the Heavenly Demon (天魔).”
And then, he said something I felt like I had heard somewhere before.
“And so, Linia, second-ranked student, would you join me in Produce 1080: Heavenly Demon Survival?”
…What? What’s with that ridiculously grandiose title that sounds like an idol survival show?
I had plenty of things I wanted to nitpick, but I stayed silent, not wanting to get involved.
“No. I won’t. I’m not interested. I refuse.”
Linia seemed to share my thoughts, as she promptly dragged us away from the scene.
At this point, only one thought ran through my mind.
“Raniel.”
“What?”
“I think it’s about time we got out of here.”
“…Hey, you too?”
It seemed El was thinking the same thing.
El and I quietly turned to look at Linia.
Linia avoided our gaze and cautiously asked,
“So… what do you think of the Martial Arts Faculty?”
“It’s weird.”
“Right?! It’s weird, isn’t it?! At first, I thought I was the weird one for thinking so!!”
It seemed Linia had built up quite a lot of frustration in just a single day, as she immediately poured out her pent-up grievances the moment we agreed with her.
Yeah… There really are no normal people among martial artists.
“In that case, why don’t we ditch the Martial Arts Faculty tour and visit the Magic Faculty instead?”
“Agreed!”
The two of them answered in perfect unison, as if they had been waiting for my suggestion.
And so, we left the Martial Arts Faculty behind, boarded the tram, and arrived at the Magic Faculty building.
But then—
“Only mages are allowed entry!”
The moment we stepped off the tram, we were turned away at the door.
