「President Mel Rose, these are this week's reports from the Global Guild.」

The President of the Magic University, Mel Rose, receives several reports from her subordinates on her Office of the President in a certain branch nearby the Pioneer City.

「Ara, thank you. Please leave them on the table.」

Mel's long hair rocks back and forth as she lightly nods her head to her subordinate.

「Oh, right… A while ago, a person arrived claiming to be President Mel's guest… It's a suspicious tall person who's hiding their face with a magic mask…」[1]

「Yes, I've been contacted before. Please let him in.」

「Certainly.」

A few minutes later, her subordinate excused herself from the room and came in turn a tall and well dressed person with a mask covering his face. Mel greeted the man with a smile as he walked towards her.

「I was surprised when you suddenly contacted me since it's quite rare for you to leave the capital, Duke-otoutodes.h.i.+.」[2]

In response to her words, the person who came in removes his mask and unveiled a middle-aged visage of a man⸻Duke faced her with a rueful smile.

「I just got here and decided to drop by to your work place, President Mel, you still looked so young even though you're quite older than me.」

The masked man certainly have the face of King Duke. Duke was younger than Mel, she was already 30 years older than him and Mel was already an apprentice to the prophet before him.[3]

「The King hasn't change at all, so you're still working even on those business outside?」

「Of course, since it's not such a difficult task and I have escorts accompanying me. Isn't it you the one that's been moving around back and forth from the capital's laboratory to the other places?」

After a moment of bickering with each other, the two bursts into a laughing fit.

「As expected of a man taught by the same master. It's natural that the two of us would be so close.」

「Yeah, there's no doubt about that.」

It's the usual conversation.

After their master left, the apprentices became active in different parts of the Human World, and sometimes by chance, one of them would drop by on other apprentices places.

This kind of relations.h.i.+p the apprentices have to each other is all thanks to their master. And as usual, their talk would take a while when they meet each other and they would exchange some informations.

That would be the case by now, those were Mel's thoughts.

「Oh, right. I have something to tell you about Eisen-s.h.i.+shou. The other day while doing the usual fortune-telling, I have a prediction that soon a powerful prophet is coming to this world.」[4]

Mel immediately rose up from her seat after hearing Duke's words.

「A prophet⸺does that mean master is coming back?!」

Duke shook his head with a calm disposition in response to Mel's excitement.

「No. The fortune-tellers accuracy in their prediction is too vague to mention whether this Prophet is indeed is our master⸺it doesn't say when or where or who this prophet might be.」

Hearing his explanations, Mel's head began to cool down.

「T-That's right… If they had such accuracy in predicting then they must be at Eisen-s.h.i.+shou's level…」

Mel muttered under her breath while changing the thoughts she have earlier. Keep those matters that you can't understand to yourself and speak only of things you know.

「It doesn't matter who this prophet that's coming. It's fine as long as they have the job cla.s.s of a Prophet. Of course, it would be better if it's Eisen-sensei.」

「Yeah. That's why I've prepared things beforehand, I gave instructions to the Global Guild if any new members joined with the job cla.s.s Prophet. I have place a system that welcomes them… but there are still some fakes that comes out.」

Mel is fully aware of it.

There were various people who voiced out their complaints about how favourable the treatment for those with Prophet's job cla.s.s. People who were revealed to have obtained a fake job cla.s.s were punished appropriately.

「As for me, I'm only doing what I can do for now. In order to welcome master with all my might, I must finish my work. Then all together, the Magic University will welcome master!」

「Oh, you're right! I also want to welcome Eisen-s.h.i.+shou like that!」

To the master that watched them as they grow, to the man who gave them a lot of power. Mel believes that a greeting to such extent wouldn't be too showy and Duke agrees, too… or rather, most of the apprentices are in favor of such events.

「Right… Speaking of your work, I heard that in these pa.s.sing years, the Master of the Global Guild in the Pioneer City is under your care.」

「Yes, that's because I work at a branch school in that city. I was quite much involved in the management of the Pioneer City and the Global Guild, it was pretty hard… but I had fun. I found some children that I've been teaching, those with interesting ideas that I couldn't find in the capital.」

Mel mused as her line of sight fell once again on the doc.u.ments she was looking through. It was a rough lists of ranks and job cla.s.s of the people who have registered in the guild for this week.

Global Guild sends Mel these reports once a week so she would be informed of the guild's state of affairs, in which she can investigate immediately the situation like the increase of the job cla.s.s, and the right allocation of the ranks. Among those who do so are magicians that she has taught.

But because these doc.u.ments are only to give confirmation on the allocations of ranks and the state of affairs, the list was simply composed of the ranks and job cla.s.s without the names. However, if one were to compare the ranks and the job cla.s.s here to the student's card, one can instantly find them.

「So this is it… This is the part where I have to make a better system that successfully picks up a person with talents.」

「Though the one you have now is still working great.」

Ever since the measuring tool for magic powers was invented, a system was established that supports excellent people both from the capital and those at the remote areas.

「Those who ranked B and above are reported immediately to the capital and the Royal Castle. In here, I've received weekly reports about the increase of job cla.s.s, the corresponding ranks and those who registered in the guild. We have a good harvest this year. Naturally we have Rank D and those who Rank C's are increasing, too.」

The last time she looked at the list, there were only 2 people who reached Rank C and they're from a town located far from the capital. Despite of that town's small population, it was a wonderful thing that they were able to produce a Rank C.

「Hoh, isn't that good? I'm interested to see how much of these kind of people would increase.」

「You're right. But it's just that… I foresee some kind of trouble in the future.」

Duke tilt's his head at her words.

「For several months, there has been some increase of magic beasts roaming around the vicinity of Pioneer City. Moreover, these magic beasts have defensive skills that reduces Physical Damage and so, we're running out of magicians that can deal with them.」

「Hmm, so that occured.」

Duke said lowly with a frown. So far, there's been an increase of magic beasts around the Pioneer City that happens for a few days and some last to weeks. Naturally, it's such a rare case for those magic beasts to increase and lasts for several months.

「Yes, that happened⸺and despite being quite excellent, those children in the Magic University still have ways to go.」

「Hmm… This increase of magic beasts might worsen the the public order of the city. Well then, once I return to the capital, I'll gather some information and consider dispatching some magicians here.」

「I'm counting on you, Duke-otoutodes.h.i.+. I'll send you letter of reports.」

「Just leave it to me, President Mel. Also speaking about letters, please send some of those letters to Eisen-s.h.i.+shou too.」

「You're right⸺Honestly though, it would be best if master would only come here…」

Mel couldn't help but say her wish outloud. With those in her mind, Mel continued exchanging information with Duke until his departure date back to the capital.

1. The gender was written ambiguously, using his/her looked a bit stretched so I used ‘their' (this would be not so useful as this mysterious man will later be revealed)

2.【弟弟子, Otoutodes.h.i.+】- Junior apprentice. Seniors would be called【兄弟子, Anides.h.i.+】. This terms are commonly used in sports such as Sumo. In short, Mel Rose is Duke's senior in apprentices.h.i.+p. We'll see more of these terms in the story.

3.【王デューク, Ou Deyuku】King here is t.i.tle and Duke is his name. Just adding this here in case some of you may wonder (ask the author why'd they name the poor apprentice as Duke)

4. 【アイゼン師匠, Eisen-s.h.i.+shou】s.h.i.+shou here means master or teacher.